There’s a reason why Hunter S. Thompson thought fairly well of George McGovern (well, for a politician anyway…) - his idealism didn’t stand in the way of his reason. (Maybe. It’s been a while since I read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72. I kinda forget the details, except the part where Thompson talked football with Nixon). Now once-Democratic Presidnetial candidate George McGovern, a longtime Clinton supporter, has pulled his endorsement and is now backing Barack Obama.

From Times OnLine:

Senator McGovern had been a high profile Hillary Clinton supporter but today he insisted that she had virtually no chance of winning. The 1972 Democratic presidential nominee said he was endorsing Senator Barack Obama after studying the returns from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.

“I will hold them in affection and admiration all of my days,” he said of the Clintons, close friends from his early political career.
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“She has run a valiant campaign. Hillary, of course, will make the decision as to if and when she ends her campaign. But I hope that she reaches that decision soon so that we can concentrate on a unified party capable of winning the White House next November.”

Humor us with captions!

Click to enlarge Bill’s boredom.

According to Drudge, the Clintons paid over $33 million dollars in federal taxes on $109 million in income  for the tax years 2000 to 2007. They also gave over $10 million to charity. The sad part is, that’s really not even that impressive by today’s standards. And it’s really not any different from Republican candidate John McCain, except in McCain’s case, the money is pretty much all his wife’s:

As heiress to her father’s stake in Hensley & Co. of Phoenix, Cindy McCain is an executive whose worth may exceed $100 million. Her beer earnings have afforded the GOP presidential nominee a wealthy lifestyle with a private jet and vacation homes at his disposal, and her connections helped him start his political career - even if the millions remain in her name alone. Yet the arm’s-length distance between McCain and his wife’s assets also has helped shield him from conflict-of-interest problems.

Must be nice.

In the increasingly likely event that the Democratic nomination still isn’t decided by August’s Democratic Convention, one Florida Congressman, Rep. Mark Tomasik says that Al Gore could be the X-factor needed to sway the votes needed for the nomination:

“If (the nomination process) goes into the convention, don’t be surprised if someone different is at the top of the ticket,” Mahoney said.

A compromise candidate could be someone such as former vice president Al Gore, Mahoney said last week during a meeting with this news organization’s editorial board.If either Clinton or Obama suggested to a deadlocked convention a ticket of Gore-Clinton or Gore-Obama, the Democratic Party would accept it, Mahoney said.

Talk about a convenient truth for old Al, letting Clinton and Obama wear their asses out on the campaign trail, then coming in at the last second to pwn the nomination, and serve John McCain some green defeat. Shit would be epic.

Apparently Hillary Clinton’s memory of her Bosnia trip isn’t exactly accurate. CBS News was there 12 years ago when Clinton visited the country - the video shows a starkly different scenario than she described last week during a speech. So much for all that “experience”.

From the BBC:

“The Scotsman newspaper quoted Ms Power as saying: “She is a monster, too - that is off the record - she is stooping to anything.”

Obama Adviser Samantha Power Resigns, but it’s too early in the morning to process politics. Before my first cup of coffee, I thought in terms of spin:

Sam Power is a Pulitzer Prize winner - certainly she knows nothing is off the record — especially juicy quotes — and this episode of her resigning is a highly calculated move. It shows Obama taking the moral high ground and forcing anyone in his camp who slings mud to resign, showing him as the moral candidate and better choice as leader.
And me pointing this out as a strategic move not done for morals, but politics, would mean that I’m for Clinton. But since I’m actually for Obama, and that this whole post seems to actually vilify Obama for his duplicity, it’s real purpose is making more Obama fans rush to his aid and defend him. But really, I hope Obama is a little duplicitous because it’s a cut throat world and we need our leader to have some cunning.

See isn’t politics fun?

Now that I’m having my coffee and have had a moment to discuss this with one of the Synthesis office’s sages, I of course realize that I’m too dumb for politics, or maybe not dumb enough for politics, and that I should just drink my coffee and find out what cool bands from Norway will be playing SXSW in Austin next week.