Tuesday, November 25, 2008

i'll tell you, it's tough

i'll tell you who's having a rough week:

1) the PSUV, led by Hugo Chavez. Venezuela had their equivalent of what we call "off-year" elections this Sunday, and while it's true that Chavistas retained a 60%/40% majority in government, they lost regional elections in the two most affluent regions and also lost the mayoral race in Caracas.

2) Republicans: tough rocks, ladies and guys! Ben Smith quotes this hilarious missive from Mike Murphy, the 2000-era McCain loyalist (and Cassandra-like purveyor of a certain well-documented msnbc blooper):
I'm sailing by container ship to Shanghai. The Hanjin Miami, see below. Good way to get away from politics under the new overlords and finish a script I owe. And I've always wanted to cross the Pacific ocean by ship.

With luck... maybe a pirate attack. I'm doing a TIME piece on the trip, so please, tell any pirates you might know to attack. I need something to happen.

In case of emergency, or a winning lottery ticket you may want to share, my trusty assistant ... will be holding down the fort. .... Capt. Chang says I can radio in to check with [her] once in a while if I give him half my daily rice allotment.

And then there's Conservative crisis desperation, Krugman's ur-ethnographic glimpse into the absolute alchemy coming out conservative econo-wonks' pieholes these days.

All in all, what can you say? Not everybody gets to be Barack Obama. Or Robert Rubin. Or Citigroup.

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