I’m glad one of the Presidential candidates has finally taken a stand on the all-important issue of whether or not to wear a flag lapel pin as a sign of one’s patriotism and pride in America. That’s exactly the kind of audacity we need in a Presidential candidate, so let’s all show our appreciation for Barack Obama by not wearing any of his campaign buttons or displaying any of his bumper stickers, yard signs, posters or placards — all of those items that have become a crude substitute for true political support.

An Open Letter to Mayor W.W. Herenton
Jonathan Lindberg
Publisher, Main Street Journal
www.mainstreetj.com

Mr. Mayor, like most of us, I am sure you watched the concession speech given by Herman Morris. Though his campaign seemed flawed from the start, this speech at least seemed a study in good politics. Mr. Morris called Memphis together and asked that wounds be healed and unified support be given. His campaign was over, fought in fits and spurts, and he had been soundly defeated. So went his speech.

Someone on the other hand had failed to tell Carol Chumney that her election was over. She not only began her concession speech by diving into another stump speech, using the vague campaign rhetoric (better schools, safer streets, better government) that plagued her campaign – but then also seemed to offer her assistance to this Mayor, as if not working with the Mayor over the last four years and losing an election to him should somehow be seen as a peace offering. It was a concession speech that was needlessly harsh and hardly a concession at all.

One has to wonder if Carol Chumney still thinks she is running for Mayor.

And so, Mr. Mayor, after two concession speeches that offered the formality of defeat, it was the hope of this writer, that in the words of former Mayor Hackett just moments before you took the stage, that we would be offered some introspection and reconciliation. That was the hope of this city was we watched your speech.

What we got was anything but. (more…)

So I’m watching the results come in and checking the Commercial Appeal website, and I’d have to say tonight’s biggest surprise isn’t King Willie’s unprecedented election to a fifth term as mayor.

Instead, I’d have to say the most amazing result is Shelby County Commissioner George Flinn’s victory over his son Shea in Memphis City Council District 9, Position 2 — a seat for which he wasn’t even campaigning:

A close runner-up is the shocking plastic surgery undergone by Councilman Scott McCormick, who apparently aspires to be more like his buddy Kemp Conrad (both CA endorsees):

Thank goodness the city elections will be over tomorrow. The mayoral candidates are doing their best to eliminate themselves at the last minute. Here’s a snapshot:

In an effort to diversify her base of support (over 80% white) Carol Chumney joins a parade through a majority-black neighborhood and decides to throw soap instead of candy. Surprise!

Mayor Willie Herenton stages a rally and invites as the guest of honor his nemesis Harold Ford Sr., who then fails to show up, staying in Memphis only long enough to cast an illegal vote. Surprise!

Herman Morris successfully positions himself as a “bridge,” the candidate drawing the most support from both ends of the ideological and racial spectrum, but ultimately fails to win a plurality of either group. Surprise!

John Willingham secures the official endorsement of his party with a divisive steering committee power play, registers so low in the polls that his name is essentially dropped from the news coverage, yet continues to stay in the race. Surprise!

Meanwhile, what seems like the majority of candidates for city council are found to have either criminal records, multiple bankruptcies or unpaid taxes. Surprise!

Who would have ever guessed?

Nashville’s Sean Braisted claims MoveOn.org’s “General Betray-Us” ad was largely condemned and dismissed:

Rewind: Moveon.org, a private political action organization puts out an ad in a NYC newspaper suggesting a General has somehow “betrayed” the American people by his glowing reports from the battlefield. Most Democrats either condemn the ad, or dismiss Moveon as the politically irrelevant group they are…few actually defend their actions.

I guess he missed where the Memphis Flyer called General Petraeus “Bush’s new poodle,” or where Bob accused the General of abandoning his post, or where PeskyFly suggested the alternative insult “General Shill,” or where The Christian Progressive Liberal embraced “ass-kissing, suck-up.”

So, yeah… other than that, MoveOn.org’s message was totally rejected.

Just an update on those Presidential candidate vote-match calculators I posted below… I said I get somebody different with each one. I wasn’t kidding. Here are my results:

WQAD: Select a Candidate 2008
Features:
- Ability to select the intensity of your preferences
- Brief, but includes a variety of issues
- Shows areas of agreement/disagreement with all candidates
My top pick: McCain

VAJOE: Candidate Calculator
Features:
- Quick “favor” or “oppose” options
- Covers 23 issues
- Ability to select importance of topic
- “Unsure” option
My top pick: Thompson

Politalk: Candi-date
Features:
- 30 questions
- Nice interface
My top pick: Giuliani

MyElectionChoices: 2008 Presidential Election Survey
Features:
- None (I keep getting a database error)

Speakout: VoteMatch Quiz
Features:
- Groups questions into broad categories
- Displays results for all candidates
My top pick: Tancredo

Pigeontech: Candidate Quiz
Features:
- Ridiculously biased questions with only two possible answers
- Poorly designed interface
- Ugly, unorganized results page
My top pick: Brownback

USA Today: Candidate Match Game
Features:
- Offers supporting evidence for candidate positions (hover over the bars)
- Cool interface
- Adjustable issue-importance sliders
- Only 11 questions on just six issues, but deep with lots of choices
My top pick: Hunter

I’ve narrowed the field to four or five candidates (not related to those listed above), but I’m not tied to any one of them yet. I guess I’m one of the few GOP voters who is actually optimistic about the field. I see lots of good things in each of the candidates, and in a perfect world I would want to mix and match. So I’m really not sure who I’m going to end up with yet.

UPDATE: Added two more:

Minnesota Public Radio: Select a Candidate
Features:
- Fourteen timely questions
- Rankings of all candidates listed
- A page featuring cumulative results from all quiz-takers
My top pick: (tie) Hunter or Thompson

SelectSmart: Presidential Candidate Selector
Features:
- Twenty-six questions
- Unique topics like legal immigration (for once) and slavery reparations
- Annoying ads
My top pick: Keyes

UPDATE II: Here’s another one:

GlassBooth.org: Quiz to help you choose best 2008 presidential candidate
Features:
- First step is to assign points to your top issues
- Gives you up to ten questions for each of the issues you select
- Provides good evidence of how the candidates are similar or different
- Let’s you compare you results to all of the candidates, in depth
My top pick: Romney

Bob and Autoegocrat have an amusing exchange:

AUTO: Let me tell you something about Mick. He says just enough sense mixed with nonsense to make himself seem like an inviting target, but once you actually engage him, you realize that the seemingly rational person you thought you were dealing with is actually a fully indoctrinated GOP stooge.

I wonder who it was that indoctrinated me, and if I had those little metal eyelid holder thingies strapped to my head at the time, like that guy in A Clockwork Orange. The fact that I can’t remember it happening must be proof that it actually did, though. My only regret is that they didn’t coat my bones with adamantium and give me wicked cool claws.

AUTO CONT.: You’re then left with a choice: either walk away, concluding that it’s not worth it, or just take a swipe at him before moving on to something else. If you take his bait, the very next thing he will do no matter what you said is attack you personally. If you get infuriated by his adolescent games and react emotionally, then he will jump up and down like a chimp and point at you, laughing, “Gotcha!”

The only way you’re going to get any satisfaction from him is if you thoroughly crush his ego, and that’s generally not worth the effort.

That parting shot you left in his comments was pretty nice.

I’m obviously not faultless and have occasionally taken the low road; that’s my mistake, and I feel bad about it.

But I have to laugh at how this whole comment is a personal attack on me.

Gotcha!

BOB: Yup. That’s pretty much what I’ve figured out by now. A one-man LGF/SBV operation holding down the fort for the GOP in Memphis, TN.

I guess it doesn’t matter that I don’t link to or even read LGF. The funny part is how I haven’t even attacked Bob personally in this exchange, while he’s accused me of lying and has coined my new favorite: “a troll who lives under his own blog.”

Thanks, Bob. That’ll show up at the year-end awards post for sure!

Here’s another love letter from a supporter of Hezbollah. This comes from “abdul,” cruising in from Amman, Jordan:

you are a bloody stupid wasteman. you have no idea who hizbollah is. they are a force thatis defending muslims from the jewish opresors. you in your lack of knowledge may call them ‘terrorists’ but in actual fact they are the saviours of islam. may god curse the soul that speaks and acts against them. in other words may you die a painful and diturbed death for acusing them of being terorists.

Previously: here.