With that performance in mind, it comes as no surprise that the two heroes/mavericks below where McCain’s original second and third choice for his Vice Presidential runningmate:

Back about the time she dropped out of the race (er, I mean “suspsended her campaign”), this would have seemed unthinkable. But with some time passing, and her name seemingly vanishing from people’s VP short lists, this pick would certainly get people talking the way that a Biden or Bayh pick would not.

H/T: Matt R.

“Wait a minute.  What did you just say?  You’re predicting four dollar a gallon gasoline?  I hadn’t heard that.”

Look at him.  He’s incredulous.  He looks like he’s about the accuse the reporter of fear mongering.  Gas prices were close to $4 at the time of this press conference, and today it’s well over $4.50 (at least where I live).

Later on in the press conference when asked a completely different question, Bush dodged it, saying he couldn’t answer because he’s been too focused on other things, like high gas prices.  The same ones he learned about for the first time in that same press conference.

I argued that the Democratic Party nominee would pick Barack Obama as the VP candidate in 2008.  My dinner companions were unanimous in declaring how naive I was.  “Obama as the VP nominee?”  They laughed.  “Impossible.”  We actually made an informal bet, agreeing that the loser would give money to charity of the winner’s choice (5:1 odds against).

It’s now official: I lost the bet.

Not long after that, I wrote this less-than-accurate post explaining why I thought Obama would end up as the VP nominee.  Among my other statements, I said “he won’t run for president, so he won’t get bloodied in the primary.”

Genius.

This was a little less than two years ago, long before Obama had declared his candidacy for presidency.  Even a year ago, how many of us just assumed, as a matter of accepted truth, that we would never see an African American at the top of a major party ticket in our lifetimes?  We just assumed we hadn’t yet made it that far as a country.

It turns out Obama had more confidence in us than we had in him. 

Go Barack!

Message to my millions (?) of readers: sorry for taking so long between posts recently… I just started a new job and am a bit distracted.

With his wife by his side and holding back tears, Mayor Sanders reveals that his daughter Lisa is a lesbian. Speaking of her, and of the gay and lesbian members of his staff, he says:

“In the end, I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships — their very lives — were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife, Rana.”

“If you support the war, why aren’t you serving in the military?”

The results are hilarious.

Blumenthal doesn’t just cover the war in his visit with the Chickenhawk College Republicans. When he interviews some Republicans about their feelings about gays, at first there’s some old fashioned GOP anti-gay garbage. But it gets really interesting when a member of the College Republicans lets us know that he’s been dealing with some suppressed feelings:

Republican Guy: “Everybody at one time in their life has had the inclination towards the other — uh — towards the same sex. . . . But just because you have the inclination does not mean you’re gay because if you have the inclination because you’re curious and stuff like that. . . . But if you accept it, and then suppress your feelings and you pray about it to god, and know that you’re not — are are so much stronger than some other people.”

Max Blumenthal: “Have you accepted it?”

Republican Guy: “Yes, I have accepted it, I have prayed about it to God, and I know for a fact that I am not gay.”

Not quite convincing… but funny to watch.

Anyway, here’s the video: