1:23 pm | New York City

Dark days this week. Yankee fans jeered the vice president, U.S. Marines in Iraq are dying like clockwork in a variety of medieval fashions, and our website was shut down for two days because of "router fires". On top of that, it has been a grim week in politics, a long and joyless trip, with no relief in sight from the bad air. We had all but given up hope of the dawn.

The people running the country continue to slide downward into madness and treachery. Last week the president melted down and hollered wrong-headed gibberish at an Irish RTE reporter, and Cheney spent several days cursing on the Senate floor and withdrawing further into paranoia and violent thoughts. These are really the worst people on the world, and we put them in charge.

We are of the opinion, lately, that Ronald Reagan's death failed to highlight any of what Bush' people consider his good quallities. Whatever his failings, at least the Gipper seemed to believe in something good and true. However much nonsense he bought about villainy and rampant deficit spending and space lasers, at least he was certain that the task of the United States was to serve as a beacon to the world, instead of being merely an exporter of fear. We await the raising of his 1000-foot granite obelisk with a glad heart.

2:59 pm | New York City

It has been a long and arduous week, here at the BWA Campaign Blog. So busy were we with high-level editorial staff meetings and secret political consulting for prominent national political figures that we were unable to post any updates.

No, that isn't true. We cannot lie to you, alert readers. It was not the powerful spirit-bear of responsibility that kept us away, but the minor ghosts of malaise and carelessness. We would beg your forgiveness, but we suspect you are not paying attention.

The 'Man Without A Plan', Ralph Nader, is back in the news today, making bad political judgements, as is his wont. Mind you, we have accepted the fact that, fueled by cheap gin and a maddened, quixotic sense of justice, Nader intends to prosecute his ill-advised candidacy upon the electorate yet again. However, if you're going to do something, do it right. We abhor many things, here at the BWA Campaign Blog, but unprofessionalism most of all. It is, like consistency, the hobgoblin of little minds.

Today Nader announced both his running-mate (the hitherto-unknown-to-us Peter Camejo, who ran on the Green platform for the governship of California) and his intention to seek the endorsement of the Green Party, whose mantle he inexplicably declined to wear as a candidate. Political news being what it is as we enter the summer doldrums, Nader was guaranteed coverage of his VP pick (even if it was coverage on A17). So why would he waste his only other piece of legitimate political news? Instead of getting one confusing story out of the deal, he could have turned the news cycle to his advantage on a slow week like this one, creating a mini-Nader revival in the media by spacing those two announcements out. You can bet your now-worthless collection of Howard Dean memorabilia that Karl Rove wouldn't have made that error.

Never bring a knife to a gunfight, Mr. Nader, because you will get shot in the guts.

In more significant news, a Washinton Post/ABC News poll shows that the country is now evenly split on Bush's much-vaunted "war on terrorism" (the components of which, alert readers will have noted, are subject to sudden and incoherent change):

Exactly half the country now approves of the way Bush is managing the U.S. war on terrorism, down 13 percentage points since April, according to the poll. Barely two months ago, Bush comfortably led Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, by 21 points when voters were asked which man they trusted to deal with the terrorist threat. Today the country is evenly divided, with 48 percent preferring Kerry and 47 percent favoring Bush.

Kerry issued a triumphant statement, and then returned to his scheduled series of poorly-attended speeches in Ohio, where he continued to portend doom and rainstorms in a hollow, tomblike voice.

Speaking of Kerry's failings as a candidate, David Brooks, who is technically a conservative, has an excellent column today explaining why Kerry had better take a lesson from the Clinton playbook, and start loving on Jesus.

The Democratic veepstakes continue to drag on, remorselessly, with neither an end nor an interesting angle in sight. With Peter Camejo suddenly out of the running, various members of the respectable media report that the choice is down to the aging and hapless Dick Gephardt and Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, who this website has endorsed, primarily because we are the least tired of him. The former rising star John Edwards seems to be out of consideration, although he has the backing of Democratic bagman and establishment gatekeeper Terry McAuliffe. As God is our witness, please let us never have McAuliffe's support, should we ever decided to run for vice-president. One of our chief goals in life, as a political blog, aside from staying one step of Rove's murderous, coked-up thugs, is getting on McAuliffe's black list.

It is a rainy and wind-swept day, here in America, and there is nothing ahead but heat and treachery. We will try to stay in the saddle this time.

2:38 pm | New York City

'Day After Flag Day' Edition

The Gipper is gone, God speed him to his splendid rest, and the political machinery has returned to the usual cheap treachery and badly-concealed disdain.

Except, that is, for the relatively good-natured encounter between the Bushes and Clintons in yesterday's official Clinton presidential portrait unveiling, which the Washington Post reports as something of a buddy movie:

"As you might know, my father and I have decided to call each other by numbers," Bush said, to laughter. "He's 41, I'm 43. It's a great honor to -- it's a great pleasure to honor Number 42. We're glad you're here, 42."

In fact, Bush and 42 -- a Democrat named Bill Clinton -- entered the East Room together to the strains of "Hail to the Chief" and for 45 minutes transformed the White House into an island of bipartisan humor and graciousness in a roiling election-year sea.

Also, is it just us, or does Chelsea look pretty foxy these days? Never mind.

The veepstakes has reached a fever pitch, with the media scurrying to out-scoop one another on rumor sof which of the four millionaires rumored to be under concideration will make the cut. Given that Max Cleland and Jerry Springer appear to be out of the running, the BWA Campaign Blog today formally endorses Iowa governor Tom Vilsack for the job. While we are somewhat indifferent to Vilsack, we prefer him to the the aging and hapless Dick Gephardt and John Edwards, boy wonder, who, for some reason, rubs us the wrong way.

The real story here, is, of course, the endless John McCain speculation. Rumor has it that Kerry all but officially asked McCain if he was interested in the spot last week, only to be met with silence and arched brows. The Washington Post reports:

But the conversations have gone nowhere because McCain believes such a bipartisan ticket would not work and could weaken the presidency, they said

Once again, a canny non-denial by McCain. Four hundred news stories to follow...

4:01 pm | New York City

Four days have passed, and Ronald Reagan remains dead, passed beyond the veil into the land of wind and ghosts. Efforts are afoot even as we speak to put his image on all the money, and keep traffic in the nation's capitol hopelessly snarled all week.

More to the point, the machinery of political discontent has ground to a respectful halt while the earthly vessel that once housed the Gipper's ancient and mellow soul tours the land, leaving little or no grist for the hateful, pointless mill of the blogosphere. The Democrats have kicked up a fuss or two over the Bush campaign plastering Reagan's image across every button, website and fund-raising letter, but we can hardly rouse ourself to care about this, as we would have done much the same.

Well, Al Gore seems to have gone completely off his meds. Maybe he'll say something terribly inappropriate at the ceremony on Friday. Assuming he's invited. Do you suppose he's invited? What about the Clintons? It seems strange to think of one of the remaining four ex-presidents being excluded, but we also can't imagine Nancy cottoning to that idea.

We have gone a little off the stupid end, today. Our apologies.

2:55 pm | New York City

"Win One for the Gipper" Edition

The Gipper has gone to his rest, alert readers, and the BWA Campaign Blog dedicates today's post to an old man who once led this country cheerfully down a number of paths, many of them wrong-headed. Some turned out to be the best ways to go, in the end, however, so we wish him well. Besides, a huge number of our fellow Americans think the world of Ronald Reagan, and we have no wish to dispute their feelings when they are feeling sad. We hope they will do the same for us when Bubba shuffles off this mortal coil.

David Broder, typically our favorite columnist, remembered the Great Communicator fondly, if not uncritically, today:

But Reagan was disarming. He once told Charlie McDowell, the Washington correspondent for the Richmond Times-Dispatch that he should not be embarrassed by the discovery that an anecdote McDowell had told all over the country about a visit by Reagan to Lexington, Va., for the filming of "Brother Rat," could not be true, because Reagan had done all his scenes for that movie in Hollywood. McDowell was chagrined to have created a myth about seeing Reagan at a local drugstore. But Reagan patted his shoulder and said, "You believed it because you wanted to believe it. There's nothing wrong with that. I do it all the time."

We would also express our fervent hope that the theocratic jarheads who so often wind up in positions of power in Washington these days do not take it into their heads to rename the entire city, or build a pyramid on the Mall, or God only knows what.

Kerry has knocked off campaigning for the week, ostensibly to pay his respect, although it cannot have escaped the notice of his campaign managers that any Kerry events this week would have resulted in zero news coverage. Campaign money saved is campaign money earned.

U.S. News reported this week that the Kerry campaign is down to their top three final picks for the VP nod. Max Cleland, the personal favorite choice of the BWA Campaign Blog was not mentioned, but there does appear to be a wild card slot, along with Tom Vilsack (the governor of Iowa), and former boy-wonder John Edwards. Really, we wish he would just pick someone and be done with it. With the exception of all the unhinged ranting about John McCain, there is almost nothing remotely interesting about the whole mess. If we thought there was a chance Kerry would so something clever or suprising, we would think differently, but the man has a depressingly-bad sense of dramatic narrative.

Speaking of drama, Al Gore increased his secret campaign to replace Howard Dean as the Democrat-Most-Likely-to-be-Thought-of-With-Sudden-Alarm. Last week, alert readers may recall, Gore unleashed a king-hell hammer-rain on the administration's policies in Iraq, and this weekend he came out with another corker, referring to Alex Penelas, the mayor of Miami (who failed to be of much assistance in the edge-of-the-seat 2000 Florida recount) as "the single most treacherous and dishonest person I dealt with during the campaign anywhere in America."

This was no minor attack, considering that Penelas is currently running for the Democratic Senate nomination in Florida. We applaud this remark, considering that it is both inflammatory and ornate, which we like to see in our public discourse.

That's all for today. We encourage our readers to keep en eye on the zealots this week, as the four-day American tour of Reagan's body may angry up the blood in the heartland.

11:48 am | New York City

There is blood in the water this morning in the federal city, and the scent of it is like iron and fear. CIA Director George Tenet resigned last night, for what he described as personal reasons. Personally, we suspect that Tenet, as the only Clinton-era holdover in the administration, has been tapped to take the hit for 9/11-related intelligence failures. We would mourn his ignoble fall, were he less of a spineless turtle.

We also meant to share this Charles Krauthammer piece on the new WWII Memorial in DC, which we liked quite a bit. Normally we do not care for Krauthammer, as, while we respect his writing and analytical prowess, we find him increasingly crabby and xenophobic. Of course, we are not getting any younger ourselves.

3:20 pm | New York City

"I'm Just Going to Close My Eyes for a Second" Edition

We have returned from Washington, as well as from an extra-long weekend of debauchery and mayhem. But we can share no tales, as we are modest and retiring sorts, here at the BWA Campaign Blog.

Well, we will not waste your time with reminiscing and claptrap, alert readers. We are certain your Memorial Days, like our own, were filled with rain and darkness and ruin, and crippling thoughts of how one best celebrates the proud military legacy of one's country when the ones currently wearing those uniforms are operating under what appears to be an endless, near-random plan of bad politics, torture, injustice and blood money. Same old same old. Now back to the chase.

In the latest installment of "The Story that Would Not Die, Despite Being Entirely Manufactured from the Delicate Air", Congressional Quarterly offers a new twist on the vast, unstoppable, hydra-headed McCain for VP movement:

But, even if he is to be taken at his word in knocking down that precedent-busting prospect, there is still some hope for those determined to see McCain move into the turreted white mansion on Embassy Row next January: A strong case could be made that President Bush should dump Dick Cheney and pick McCain as his own running mate.

Craig Crawford goes on to list the Top 10 reasons McCain should be Bush's vice-presidential nominee, including "Democrats Love Him" (true). Nader and McCain should go trolling for those Reform Party matching funds, assuming they still exist, and forge an unstoppable political juggernaut with no ideological consistency whatsoever. Sort of like the Democrats in 1968, except more effective.

As for our fearless leader, the president spent his holiday comparing his murderous and mean-spirited little war in Iraq to WWII, which, our alert readers will recall, was predicated on ending torturous practices and foreign occupation, rather than spreading them. The Washington Post reported Bush's stirring words to recent Air Force graduates in Colorado:

"Our goal, the goal of this generation, is the same" as it was in World War II, Bush said. "We will secure our nation and defend the peace through the forward march of freedom."

We would have found such gibberish merely irksome, were it not for the president sharing the stage with Attorney General John Ashcroft at the time, whose presence raises the bar to "profoundly offensive." Ashcroft is the hands-down winner for the BWA Campaign Blog's Black Star Award for the Man Who Most Hates His Country, and we find him to be both ridiculous and repulsive, not to mention so crookedly wrong-headed that we suspect his may have to have his hat screwed on when the weather is warm. Fortunately, even if the Bush administration should prevail in the upcoming election, scuttlebutt has it that Ashcroft may not be around for the second act. Letting that fascist go would be the most patriotic thing a Bush has done since the first President Bush toured all those flag factories.

There. Now get back to work. There's a war on.