A Few Quick Hits (JM)

This morning is kind of harried, but I have a few links and stories worth taking a look at for the start:

The first is a post by Josh Marshall regarding the possible (see probable) racist nature of the upcoming GOP campaign against Barack Obama. He seems pretty convinced that, despite McCain's rhetoric the McCain camp is going to be largely in favor of most of these scurrilous attacks (like the one leveled by the Tennessee GOP yesterday). I agree with him that it is almost impossible to tell the legitimate truth of the situation given this dance of repudiation and potential backroom dealings. I also agree that this is McCain's best chance to win. However, I have trouble making the absolute jump to the idea that McCain himself favors this racist rhetoric privately, while denouncing (or should it be rejecting) it publicly. This is going to be a very difficult situation to parse and I think it is up to the media to search for real evidence before exclaiming the McCain campaign in favor of these slurs.

The second is a story from CTV. Barack Obama apparently called Michael Wilson, Canadian ambassador to the United States, to inform him that he would be using inflammatory rhetoric regarding NAFTA. He then noted that it is not anything to worry about, it is just campaign rhetoric. Ahh... change you can believe in.

Finally, just a couple of charming stories about people mistakingly taken to mental institutions. My favorite: A Zimbabwean bus driver who stopped at an illegal bar for a few drinks while transporting mental patients. The patients escaped, so the ever savvy driver pulled up to a bus stop and offered a bunch of people a free ride. He delivered them all to the mental institution and exclaimed that they were very delusional and prone to wild tales. It took the institution three days to realize the mistake.

That's all for now, talk to y'all later.

EDIT: TPM is reporting that the Canadian embassy denies ever having had any such conversation with Barack Obama.