THE DAILY BLADE: Which 2008 Candidate Would You Vote Off The Island?
Taking a break from its thorough, in-depth analyses of the candidates’ positions on the pressing issues of the day, The Associated Press is asking the presidential hopefuls "questions about their personal tastes, habits and backgrounds." Here’s what the candidates from both parties named as "your desert island necessity":
† A good book: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama. Rudy Giuliani also wants music and John McCain also wants SPF 45 sunscreen.
† Coffee with cream and sugar: Chris Dodd.
† A tarp: Sam Brownback.
† Laptop with satellite reception: Mike Huckabee.
† A boat: Tom Tancredo.
† BlackBerry and a Davidoff cigar: Bill Richardson.
Based on these answers, one can easily winnow the presidential field down to just one credible candidate: Tancredo.
While the others passively accept the proposition that they are stuck on the island forever and need to make themselves at home, Tancredo is the only candidate who foregoes creature comforts and proactively provisions himself with the means to get off the island and back to campaigning – as well as back to his wife, his books, his laptop, his coffee and his cigars. [Hat Tip: Best Of The Web Today, "Richardson For President"]
Katie Couric Kills
When The Stiletto spotted this headline in The Billings (MT) Gazette, "Anchor Failure Blamed For Deaths," she thought, "Wow. Katie Couric’s ratings must have finally pushed some executives at CBS News to hurl themselves off the roof of Black Rock.
Yes, it really is that bad – and worse: A Gallup Poll finds that 29 percent of Americans "just don’t like" Couric. Negative ratings for NBC’s Brian Williams and ABC’s Charles Gibson were significantly smaller (18 percent and 16 percent, respectively). Couric’s positive ratings (51 percent) also lag, as compared to Williams (59 percent) and Gibson (62 percent). The Associated Press notes that the statistical difference between the two men in popularity is within the poll’s 4-point margin of error and "mirrors the competition between the anchors in the television ratings."
Update
Sarkozy Wins
Socialist Ségolène Royal will not be the first female president of France, having lost to her conserviative rival Nicolas Sarkozy. It remains to be seen whether "violence and brutality that will be spawned in the country," as Royal predicted in a radio interview on Friday, will be widespread and sustained.
In his victory speech at Place de la Concorde the law and order candidate also spoke of upholding the rights of women - particularly Muslim immigrants living in France - deprived of their rights under sharia law. Sarkozy is clearly throwing down a gauntlet: Multiculturalism does not trump French law and custom.
Sarkozy won 53 percent of the vote to Royal’s 47 percent. An estimated 85 percent of France’s 44.5 million registered voters cast ballots – the highest voter turnout in more than four decades. The staggering size of the vote gives him a clear mandate to pursue his social, economic and foreign policy initiatives.
In the second round of voting, Sarkozy and Royal each got 40 percent of centrist François Bayrou’s first round votes – the rest abstained; 63 percent of hard-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen’s vote went to Sarkozy.
The son of a Hungarian immigrant who fled communism and the grandson of a Greek Jew, Sarkozy will France’s first president from an immigrant family. He begins his five-year term on May 16.
The Stiletto was rooting for Sarko, not only because he wants closer relations with the US, but also because he wants to keep Turkey out of the European Union: "Turkey is not meant to join the E.U., because Turkey is not a European country" (The New York Times, March 1, 2007; archived article). No new members may join the bloc without unanimous agreement.
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