The following piece was produced through OffTheBus, a citizen journalism project hosted at the Huffington Post and launched in partnership with NewAssignment.Net. Edited by Richard Riehl and Denise Wheeler. Reported by Kirsten Anderson, River Curtis-Stanley, Jodi Lampert, Julie Pierce, and Debbi Plummer.
"Huckabee declares today Vertical Day!": Blissfully unaware of his unfortunate acronym choice, the family values candidate explained the purpose behind "VD" in yesterday's email to supporters. It's his attempt, he claims, to bring more civility to a political discourse too often mired in partisan bickering. He says it's time to start practicing "Vertical Politics" in this country. "Vertical Day" (VD) is designed to "promote my positions on the issues through video and personal blogs." Apparently not all opinions are equally vertical. But, sensitive to the feelings of married couples and couch potatoes among his followers, he discretely avoids describing the dangers of talking politics while in a horizontal position.
"Ron Paul says highways are more dangerous than twin towers": Pleading for perspective in the debate over sacrificing civil liberties to fight terrorism, Paul left this roadkill behind in a speech in Chicago on Saturday: "A lot fewer lives died on 9/11 than they do in less than a month on our highways..." The GOP's anti-war candidate stopped short, however, of claiming our troops were safer dodging car bombs in Baghdad than dodging drunk drivers in Detroit.
"It's in New England, okay?": The Dodd campaign events page lists the following for 9/26: "Travel to the NBC Debate in New Hampshire...at Dartmouth College in Hartford, CT." Hmmm... Isn't Dartmouth in NH? Maybe there's another Dartmouth--(googling...googling...). Nope, Dartmouth is indeed in NH. Let's click on the Dodd Events "more details link." Look! There's a google map showing the location! Oh, that gives an address in Hartford, too. Here's a tip, Senator Dodd--head north and don't stop until you hit an auditorium full of Dem Debaters!
"A Call for Help": Please, Duncan Hunter, we are begging you--update your website. Sure, no news is good news, but have you really had no news since September 2nd? We're just worried.
"Grand Old Partiers": Too busy to pick up some party favors for your next big debate gathering? Don't worry! The McCain campaign is selling "exclusive McCain Party Kits" (and that's exclusive--make sure you don't get taken in by one of those cheap McCain knock-offs the Romney boys are selling out of the back of the Mitt Mobile). A $50 five person pack gets you bumper stickers (you know, for your furniture), lapel stickers, placards, coffee mugs and more! But spring for the $1000 pack and you get t-shirts and hats, too! Woo hoo!
"Put another fish in your mouth, Fred": In an interview on Laura Ingraham's radio show, Fred Thompson was asked about the New Hampshire debate he blew off to make a Jay Leno appearance. "I've been debating folks in court rooms and political forums since I was about 28 years old," he drawled, "and I'm sure that we'll have the opportunity to do a lot more of the ten little Indian stuff and I'll be there, and I'll be a good boy and stand in line and wait for them to throw me a fish just like everybody else." Well, there goes the Native American vote.
"Palooka Joe knows his football": At the AARP debate in Davenport last Thursday Palooka Joe Biden took off the gloves and told Bill Richardson that being a governor of a small state and saying you can do the same things as president is like saying you can play in the NFL because you played running back in high school. Which can only mean the 17 governors who were elected president must have been pretty good high school football players.
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