Presidential Pyrotechnics

Ways to spend July Fourth: Go to the Esplanade in Boston to watch the Pops concert and subsequent fireworks. Or debate the actions of our presidential candidates, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain. Why not do both? That’s what Bob and Susannah, plus a neutral cat, do on their Independence Day in the latest episode of “Running Gags”!

Doc Rivers ‘endorses’ Obama

After guiding his team to an NBA championship over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers discussed the victory on WEEI-AM (850). Asked whether his team could repeat, Rivers invoked a motto associated with Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for president.
Rivers and Obama are two African-American leaders who have enjoyed success this year. The Celtics, during their history, showed progressive thinking on race relations. Thanks to the late team patriarch Red Auerbach, the Celtics became the first in the NBA to draft an African-American player (Chuck Cooper) and hire an African-American coach (Bill Russell). This commitment to equality will prove a more enduring testament to Celtic excellence than Tuesday night’s victory over the Lakers (though it was remarkable to watch the 131-92 romp).

Grassley, health insurance, and greenbacks

Call this month a split decision for Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. The Midwesterner struck a blow for transparency when his probe revealed that three Harvard researchers had taken millions of dollars from Big Pharma, raising conflict-of-interest concerns. “Under pressure,” the New York Times wrote, ”two of the researchers acknowledged receiving $1.6 million apiece in consulting fees from drug companies between 2000 and 2007 and the third reported earning more than $1 million.” (Merci, Muse, for first mentioning the New York Times editorial that addressed the subject.)

Alas, Grassley has shown he’s not immune to financial shenanigans. The American Spectator has revealed that he’s prone to directing public dollars toward the Hawkeye State through generous earmarks. “Due in large part to Grassley’s spending savvy,” the AmSpec noted, a report from the group Citizens Against Government Waste ”put Iowa, 30th in terms of population, 16th in overall earmark spending.” While this may delight Grassley’s constituents, it contributes to imbalance at national spending levels. The senator should heed the wise Latin words Medice, teipsum: Physician, heal thyself!

$3.59 a gallon?

Gas prices are going up, folks, and two presidential candidates, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain, have proposed a solution: a gas-tax holiday. But, Susannah wants to know, what about more environmentally-friendly alternatives? Read more — including Bob’s response and an homage to my own greater Boston MBTA — in the latest episode of “Running Gags”!

Hillary borrowing against time?

Sen. Hillary Clinton is lucky she has over $6 million to lend to her campaign. Clinton seems to think her campaign needs the cash after a double-digit primary loss to her rival, Sen. Barack Obama, in North Carolina on Tuesday and an underwhelming victory over Obama in Indiana the same day. Clinton, the New York Times reports, is fixated on her goal of winning the Democratic presidential nomination.

“[Advisers] to Mrs. Clinton early Wednesday portrayed her as still confident that she can win the nomination through a combination of victories in the handful of remaining primaries and persuading uncommitted superdelegates that she can perform better against Republicans than Mr. Obama,” the Times reported on Wednesday.

There are six primaries left, beginning with West Virginia next Tuesday. Prospects look dim at best and humiliating at worst, but maybe we should have expected that for a politician who’s weathered Whitewater, Monica Lewinsky and impeachment, mounting a struggling political campaign is a cinch.

Wal-Mart makes Obama ‘Scream’

Sen. Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate, has lost the Pennsylvania primary to his rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, after Obama called certain red-state voters “bitter” to a San Francisco audience. What can Obama do to mend relations with this demographic group? As he explains to Susannah, Bob has some ideas — which include visiting a certain blue-state nemesis — in the latest episode of “Running Gags”!

Hillary borrows from Lenin’s playbook

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is not quitting the presidential election, and has one more primary victory to add to her total: Pennsylvania, which she won on Tuesday.

Once the star of the almost 800 superdelegates, Clinton’s hold over them may be diminishing as she can’t win convincingly enough to erase the lead of her rival, Sen. Barack Obama (Note: She still leads Obama in superdelegates who have declared their support, 259 to 236). But as calls mount for her departure, she doesn’t seem to be listening.

It was once said of Vladimir Lenin that he won debates by refusing to stop speaking until everyone, exhausted, conceded the argument. “Lenin scarcely noticed his defeat,” Robert K. Massie wrote in Nicholas and Alexandra. “A brilliant dialectician, prepared to argue all night, he gained ascendancy over his Bolshevik colleagues by sheer force of intellect and physical stamina.” Will Clinton’s similar steadfastness outlast Obama’s audacity?

Hillary: Outsourced?

Sen. Hillary Clinton, increasingly desperate Democratic presidential candidate, is trying to tailor a redneck image to attract red-state members of her party upset by remarks from her rival, Sen. Barack Obama, that they like guns and religion and anti-illegal immigration stances because they may be bitter.

Clinton has been downing Crown Royal and talking about her hunting past to woo these voters. (Which is more shameless, denouncing rednecks or pandering to them?) I wonder, however, if this is continuing a losing strategy. As the US keeps hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs, outsourcing American factories to the Third World, the red-staters rhapsodized by Bruce Springsteen and Toby Keith may become a rare, if not extinct, species in this country.

Perhaps Obama is right by focusing on the future instead of a vanishing past. Clinton should pass up the Crown Royal and Smith & Wesson for a latte and a BlackBerry.

Obama’s courageous response

Sen. Barack Obama has addressed the controversial comments of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — who presided over Obama’s wedding and baptized the couple’s two children — with a thoughtful speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Bob and Susannah reflect on the speech in the latest “Running Gags”!

Nixonian side of Spitzer

Are we talking about Eliot Laurence Spitzer or Richard Milhous Nixon?

Nighttime wrongdoings in a Washington hotel, the resignation of a prominent public official, a pledge to withdraw from politics — the similarities are eerie between Spitzer and Nixon.

Spitzer is now the ex-governor of New York due to his involvement in a prostitution scandal. He resigned on Wednesday. “Mr. Spitzer ended his speech by saying he would leave politics, and then departed quickly without taking questions,” the New York Times reported. No mention of whether or not he said, “You won’t have Eliot Spitzer to kick around anymore.”

It probably hurt Spitzer that he had alienated so many people — from the Wall Street suits who cheered his downfall to state legislators in both Republican and Democratic ranks. It sounds like his “Enemies List” was as long as Nixon’s … and it also seems plenty of powerful Empire Staters put him on their own “Enemies Lists.”

The goal of anyone in law enforcement (like Spitzer, who gained prominence when he was New York attorney general) should be impartiality. Spitzer’s problem was that he was impartial in his indignation. This may have left him with little support in his attempts to avert Watergate: Part II.