Posted by Jed Lewison on Mon Aug 4, 2008 at 2:40 AM Pacific

Odds and ends

It's been nice being able to spend a few days up here in the Pacific Northwest. It's hard to get over the fact that I set the thermostat in my house in Vegas about 8 degrees warmer (81) than the average high here. I'll be taking off most of Tuesday and all of Wednesday, during which time debrazza will be returning to guest blog.

On the campaign front, here's a few items I thought were interesting:

  • Later today in Lansing, Michigan, Barack Obama will detail his energy plan. It will focus on his plans to lower gas prices, create five million new green jobs, and eliminate reliance on Middle Eastern oil within 10 years.
  • On MTP, Chuck Todd made a pair of observations that will be interesting to those of us who are eager to see more contrasts drawn between Barack Obama and John Bush McCain. First, he said that Obama campaign staffers are acutely aware of the need to draw these contrasts. Second, he said Obama would start aggressively emphasizing those difference very soon -- probably this week.
  • Meanwhile, John Harwood reports that McCain is following the Clinton strategy to beat Obama. This strikes me as just more evidence of McCain's lack of intellectual horsepower: he's basically decided to study the quivalent of Karl Malone's gameplan for beating Michael Jordan.
  • Andrew Sullivan thinks Barack Obama has already demonstrated the diplomatic skills and ability to exercise soft power that the next president will need -- and that he's done so more than McCain.
  • Ta-Nehisi Coates delivers a smackdown on the department of no matter what Obama does, it's wrong: some are saying he's too undisciplined.
  • And finally, for the second time I'll flag a funny note John McCain's strange new "Obama forgot Latinos" attack ad: when McCain went to Canada to talk about NAFTA, he didn't mention Mexico a single time.
Odds and ends

It's been nice being able to spend a few days up here in the Pacific Northwest. It's hard to get over the fact that I set the thermostat in my house in Vegas about 8 degrees warmer (81) than the average high here. I'll be taking off most of Tuesday and all of Wednesday, during which time debrazza will be returning to guest blog.

On the campaign front, here's a few items I thought were interesting:

  • Later today in Lansing, Michigan, Barack Obama will detail his energy plan. It will focus on his plans to lower gas prices, create five million new green jobs, and eliminate reliance on Middle Eastern oil within 10 years.
  • On MTP, Chuck Todd made a pair of observations that will be interesting to those of us who are eager to see more contrasts drawn between Barack Obama and John Bush McCain. First, he said that Obama campaign staffers are acutely aware of the need to draw these contrasts. Second, he said Obama would start aggressively emphasizing those difference very soon -- probably this week.
  • Meanwhile, John Harwood reports that McCain is following the Clinton strategy to beat Obama. This strikes me as just more evidence of McCain's lack of intellectual horsepower: he's basically decided to study the quivalent of Karl Malone's gameplan for beating Michael Jordan.
  • Andrew Sullivan thinks Barack Obama has already demonstrated the diplomatic skills and ability to exercise soft power that the next president will need -- and that he's done so more than McCain.
  • Ta-Nehisi Coates delivers a smackdown on the department of no matter what Obama does, it's wrong: some are saying he's too undisciplined.
  • And finally, for the second time I'll flag a funny note John McCain's strange new "Obama forgot Latinos" attack ad: when McCain went to Canada to talk about NAFTA, he didn't mention Mexico a single time.

The Jed Report Home Page

© Jed Lewison