Paul Lindemann
-Headline of the day-
"Republican official seen failing sobriety test in police video."
Raw Story tells us "A Republican councilman in Columbia, SC was arrested for drunken driving in July, the third DUI arrest for Paul Lindemann, who is currently running for reelection." A police video of Lindemann's sobriety test, obtained by the local Rock Hill Herald, shows him failing spectacularly.
According to the report, "In the video, Lindemann agrees to take a sobriety test but repeatedly fails to get through the alphabet, attempting instead to segue from 'W' back to 'H.' He has even more trouble counting backwards from 32 to 18, stammering, '32-31-32-30 -- 31-32-31-32-33-33 -- 31-32-30-29 -- 19-18-17-16-18 -- 20-21-22.'" Police report that he was "highly intoxicated" and "significantly impaired." He had also nearly hit two motorcyclists several times. He has since been spotted driving with a suspended license.
Does Lindemann think his multiple DUIs and flagrant lawbreaking will harm his chances at re-election? Of course not. Why? Because of Sarah Palin. No. Seriously.
Lindemann says that Palin's pick will help his chances because "people have started to recognize that everybody who's running for political office is as human as those sitting back home."
See, here's the thing Paul. I'm pretty sure that people aren't under the mistaken impression that you're some kind of car-driving monkey. I think they're pretty clear on the fact that you're human. The question is whether you're a particularly good human and I think all the evidence points to "no." (Raw Story, with video)
-The problem is that the world isn't a hypothetical-
The McCain campaign has been arguing that Sarah Palin has foreign policy experience because of Alaska's proximity to Russia. It's been one of the punchlines of this campaign, a statement so ridiculous that it's become a late night talk show joke.
But the McCain campaign is defending the argument. Contacted by CBS News, who asked for concrete examples of Palin's FP experience with Russia, an unnamed "senior campaign aide" gave them the skinny.
"It is very much being able to look off the tip of Alaska," the aide said. "Metaphorically, I’m talking about." Metaphorically? Why not throw in simile and symbolism and turn the UN into a big poetry slam? (Think Progress)
-Bonus HotD-
"McCain camp criticism rife with errors."
OK, now this is just sad. The McCain campaign is getting tired of the media pointing out that they're a bunch of lying sacks, so they arranged a conference call with media "to scrutinize specific elements of Sen. Barack Obama’s record."
"But the call was so rife with simple, often inexplicable misstatements of fact that it may have had the opposite effect: to deepen the perception, dangerous to McCain, that he and his aides have little regard for factual accuracy," the report reads. McCain strategist Steve Schmidt apparently exaggerated perceived problems with Obama when " -- in each case -- the truth would have been damaging enough."
"Any time the Obama campaign is criticized at any level, the critics are immediately derided as liars,” Schmidt told the reporters. But the stories he was listing off were so off the mark that "in almost every instance he got the details wrong."
If you're going to complain about being called a liar, it's probably a really good idea not to lie while you're doing it. Especially not so obviously. Sometimes I make up hyperbolic quotes to make a joke, but I swear this one is real. Seriously, go check.
"As soon as Gov. Palin was nominated, one of … Obama’s chief campaign surrogates, [Florida Rep.] Robert Wexler, went out and accused her of being a Nazi sympathizer,” Schmidt said. “Where is the outrage to that aspersion on the part of some of the biggest newspapers in the country?"
What, are newspaper editors supposed to preemptively repeat your lies now? Maybe you should put out a newsletter, so the press knows what bullshit you've made up to repeat. They can't read your mind. (Politico)
-Public service announcement-
Today is the first day of Autumn. Summer is over. Here in Wisconsin, we refer to this as "back to normal." (My Calendar)
