9/3/2004
Rush Dating CNN Anchor
Now this is some wild news. From The Washington Post (near the bottom).
Conservative radio kingpin Rush Limbaugh, 53, who announced his separation from his third wife, Marta, in early June, is dating CNN anchor Daryn Kagan, 41, a spokesman for Limbaugh has confirmed to us. The two were spotted at a party Limbaugh co-hosted at a New York restaurant, where guests included Vice President Cheney, New York Gov. George Pataki and Sen. Bill Frist. The coupling came as a surprise to some friends who consider the Atlanta-based Kagan part of the liberal media axis and a feminist – but, then again, opposites attract. Kagan, who has been with CNN for 10 years, hosts “CNN Live Today,” which airs from 10 a.m. to noon, ending just in time to catch her sweetie’s three-hour radio show.Not a bad catch for Rush.
Help For Bush In MI
Some good news for President Bush’s efforts in Michigan. From the Detroit Free Press.
The re-election campaign of President George W. Bush got two pieces of good news Friday from the Michigan Court of Appeals: the state’s Nov. 2 presidential ballot will carry the name of Ralph Nader as an independent candidate for president and a proposal for a constitutional ban on gay marriage.I still don’t think Nader will have much effect anywhere in the country, but the addition of the gay marriage amendment will without a doubt help bring out conservatives to the polls. Obviously, the more conservatives that show up, the better for President Bush. This little noticed news item of the gay marriage amendment on state ballots has been happening in battleground states all over the country.Republicans and Nader supporters had circulated petitions to put Nader on the ballot as an independent. Republicans believe Nader will draw votes from Democratic nominee John Kerry.
Thanks to Polipundit for the link.
Job Growth In August, Unemployment Rate Drops
Probably not what John Kerry was hoping for. From Fox News.
U.S. employers added 144,000 workers to their payrolls in August and hiring totals for the two prior months were revised up as the job market brightened, the Labor Department reported on Friday.This was what Bush needed the day after his convention. If we had an anemic month of job growth, there would have been plenty of negative headlines trumpeting this fact. Instead, the “mainstream” media are forced to ignore the figures all together since they don’t want to end up helping out the Bush campaign.The unemployment rate dipped to 5.4 percent last month from 5.5 percent in July. But the drop in the jobless rate in August came as people left the work force for any number of reasons, the Labor Department said. Economists were predicting the jobless rate to hold steady in August.
Bush Even Leads In Zogby Poll
I am slowly updating the polls with everything from the past week that I missed. I won’t bother to list them all here as they are now old news to most of you. But here is the latest Zogby poll released last night, a poll that has been one of the most favorable to John Kerry all year, now showing President Bush in the lead.
Bush 46%Kerry lead by 5% in the last poll, a 7% turn gain for Bush.This poll was done August 30-September 2, right in the middle of the RNC. The fact that even Democrat John Zogby is showing Kerry behind has to worry the Democrats and may help explain Kerry’s borderline sober speech last night.
Kerry 44%
Seoul Is Bush Country
I almost forgot. While it was not as dramatic as my Bush/Cheney experience in Warsaw two weeks ago, I did manage to have a Bush/Cheney moment in Seoul. The last night, since we were tired of Korean food and actually wanted to fill ourselves up for once on this trip, we went to Bennigan’s in downtown Seoul. The place had an “American” theme inside with all sorts of “American” items on the walls. License plates, sprots memoribilia, etc. But in one corner I noticed this particular item on the wall. Luckily I had my camera with me this time. In case you are wondering, that is a clarinet in front of the license plate. Don’t ask me what they have to do with each other, it must be a Korean thing.
Now when I took a picture of the Bush/Cheney license plate, I had to take it over about eight tables filled with Koreans. I lined up the plate, but they all thought I was taking their picture so some turned their heads away while others started waving and smiling at the camera. Of course I was just trying to get a picture of the Bush plate on the wall, but I didn’t tell them that. I took a few shots the best I could, so that is why the picture is a little small.
Longest Thursday Of My Life
I have finally made it back into the good ol’ USA. My thursday started by waking up at about 7:00am South Korea time in order to go down and get some breakfast. This way I could get back to my room and catch some of the Republican Natinal Convention live, which began at 9:00am local time. I was ableto stick around long enough to catch all of Zell Miller’s speech (and a great speech it was) before we had to catch a shuttle at 11:30 to get to the airport. Our flight left at 3:00pm Thursday and after 10 hours of flying, we landed in Los Angeles at 9:30am on Thursday. Now if you want to nitpick, technically we may have dipped back into Wednesday for an hour or two while we were over the Pacific Ocean.
Of course being in Los Angleles means we were not home yet. Our flight from LA to DC left at 12:25pm and I was finally back at Dulles airport at 8:30pm. Since it was a domestic flight, I was hoping it would take less than the usual hour and a half it normally takes for international flights to get through Dulles airport (get to main terminal, claim bags, find shuttle). This was not the case. After an hour drive from Dulles back to Columbia by the time I got through my front door, President Bush was telling everyone “May God Bless America.” Needless to say I did not see any of Bush’s speech. With minimal sleep for the past 24 hours, I essentially feel asleepm shortly thereafter listening to John Kerry ramble on in some midnight “rally". On a side note, did Kerry seem drunk to anyone else?
I need to run around and get back on track, so expect more stuff later on today.
9/2/2004
George Bush Accepts Nomination
Ed Gillespie is breathing a sigh of relief. What would have happened if Bush said “If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve”
On a side note, Ed Gillespie and Terry Macauliff are both graduates of The Catholic University of America.
9/1/2004
Protestors in MSG
While watching the convention, it appeared that a protestor interrupted Cheney’s speech. This type of event has happened a few times so far. My question is how are these protestors getting into Madison Square Garden? The president will be there tomorrow. Does it concern anyone else that these people are getting that close to the speakers? Whose fault is this?