“Most people know me as a football player, but I was also in social studies class.”
Introducing Brock Olivo, former University of Missouri football star, and newly minted Republican candidate for Missouri’s 9th Congressional District. Really.
During the last campaign cycle, local Republicans took to criticizing their opponents’ support from Progressive Majority as evidence of some sinister, out of district plot, but really, their most important contribution to any campaign is the kind of hands on candidate training that helps you avoid coming off as a total blathering doofus… like you know, Brock Olivo. (I think Camp Wellstone just found themselves a new training video on how not to conduct an interview.)
Speaking of which, Progressive Majority is bringing Wellstone Action’s Advanced Candidate and Campaign Management School to Federal Way, April 25-27, and a few spots are still available. Click here for more info.
I think Olivo went to Camp Esser.
What’s with his upper lip? It keeps wiggling around like there’s no tomorrow.
What an idiot.
wow. thats pretty spectacular. too bad the title for the previous blog entry had just been used. looks like this fella fell under the short bus on his way to the primary, and the dog ate his list of talking points too.
He has the look of “this wasn’t my idea” all over his face.
Just another member of the Snopes clan more commonly called republicans.
Makes Darcy Burner seem pretty impressive, doesn’t it?
Geov @ 6
Hell, he even makes Dave Reichert seem pretty impressive. He doesn’t even look like he really wants to be running for Congress! I am sure Brock Olivo is a nice guy and everything, but maybe he should try selling insurance or automobiles or real estate.
Hey Richard, this could be a race for you to enter ? What say
:-)
Clinton Rove and Plagiarism
This is disgusting. The first dip into mud by Bill Clinton maybe could be excused as inadvertent misuse of Dr, King. This has all the finesse and appeal of Karl Rove.
I am disgusted with Hillary and tempted to sit this one out or vote for McCain iof she is the candidate.
This guy saw Silver City and obviously thought it was a candidate training film.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376890/
Who knows it might work for him. We got Dumbya didn’t we?
Seattle Obama Office Closed
I was sorry to see this. My wife and I went down to volunteer only to find it vacant. Dispiriting. Not even a phone number or web address.
I am concerned that the campaign needs to strength its grass roots for the long run. A lot of the strength of the Radical Republicans came (I like THAT tense!) from the huge strength of their grass roots. Even now, the Rad Repub grass roots survive and are likely to make a play to take over the GOP if McCain loses.
Obama 08, if it works, will only be the first step in a long process of creating a new movement united behind Obama’s idealism.
For Goldy and other skeptics, imagine that BHO is for mreal .. that his leadership leads to the soet of movement that FDR led, that Bobby might have led, and that Reagan and his coterie DID lead. The effects on progressive or just plain rational politics could be profound.
The importance of a sustainable movement ties on directly to the caucus discussion. Will and others here are very happy about the boost to party identification and party involvement that comes from the caucuses. I am less enthusiastic because I doubt any lasting good will occur. In contrast, the Reagan team undermined the GOP by creating a series of Rad Republican organizations that still lead the party.
Bill Clinton tried something of this sort with his DLC. BUT, the DLC is top down. Move-on is one answer but their appeal os too small.
Obama for Prexy AND lets create a grassroots organization at the same time.
http://www.seattlejew.blogspot.com
goldy, pope, et al. you guys should delve into the bellevue city council and its current efforts to undermine democracy by appointing another republican to take the last 2 years of the now resigned republican (oops non-partisan) connie marshall. the bcc decided that it has the legal power to become the politburo and appoint one of its cronies rather than have an election that allows the citizens of bellevue to vote. 21 people applied for this opening and last week, after executive (i.e. secret) session, the bcc whacked 14 from the list including recent progressive candidate for bcc, keri andrews. tomorrow 2-19 is a bcc meeting where the council will talk about the interviews for its appointee so maybe a lawsuit will be required to force a special election. a post on ha about this might be a good idea?
I’ve heard Obama explain time-and-again that he does not admire Reagan’s policies, just his ability to motivate and energize people.
I’d like to hear at least something from Obama on what Reagan policies he disagrees with and why. I don’t expect that he will, though, because he would once again alienate the Reagan Democrats he is pandering to.
Why did these Democrats vote for Reagan, anyway? My opinion is that it was a backlash against the ‘excessive’ voting rights and perceived favoritism of minorities. Reagan never directly criticized blacks, but he did posit the existence of a Cadillac driving welfare queen. When you imagine the race of that Cadillac driver, is it ever white?
He believes in values!
Now ‘ain’t that nice. :-)
I think he’s a great guy. He looks sincere. I’ll vote for him!
Is this another Republican who played football without a helmet?
If he wins, will he ask his campaign manager, “What do we do now?” He seems like that type.
@13 “what Reagan policies he disagrees with and why”
How about if we start with “secretly giving arms to El Salvadoran death squads who use them to murder American nuns” and “for obvious reasons”?
@18 Oops! I shouldn’t have mentioned that!! I forgot Saint Ronnie can do no wrong!!!
re 19: …and if he ever did, he felt like it was right.
Sweet! I took Phys-Ed, so I guess I’m ready for my Seahawks tryout.
Co-posted at http://www.seattlejew.blogspot.com.
As some of you know, I am a scientist at UW. One of my reasons for supporting Obama or Clinton in the incredible harm this luddite, short term vision, reprican party has done to the advantages of the US as the world’s scientific powerhouse.
Among my beliefs:
1.we need to STOP the circus-like use of NASA. The Bush voyage to Mars has very little scientific justification and will cility to do real science.
2. we need a Dept of Science to set objective, national priotities.
3. We need to mandate quantum theory, genetics, evolution, math, in our schools.
4. we need to separate defense research from everything else.
anyhow .. here is summary of the “debate” from SJ:
Sheril R. Kirshenbaum of the Intersection reported on the sad state of the science positions of the two dems:
She relates a “debate” set up in Boston between the candidates by the Association of American Universities and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges as part of the annual AAAS meeting.
“From Clinton’s camp came Thomas Kalil, Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Science and Technology at UC California Berkeley. He’s also former Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Technology and Economic Policy and former Deputy Director of the White House National Economic Council. Obama sent Alec Ross, a social entrepreneur for One Economy Corporation which is a non-profit working to bring new technology to poor communities. I immediately noticed although Ross is the younger, more charismatic speaker, it’s obvious he lacks experience and familiarization with science policy.”
That pretty much sums up the superficiality of the presentations from her POV. Kalil had a preprepared slide show that emphasized bureaucratic issues such as restoring the the role of the president’s science adviser and bringing back the Office of Technology Assessment. This is seemingly ignorant of the need for scientific input into the high levels of government. The idea that one science adviser can vet quantum physics, genetics, viral epidemics, pollution .. is absurd. To make this w0rse, she said Hillary would double research spending over the next decade to benefit NSF, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Department of Energy, and the Pentagon. This looks like Bush!! Spending $$ on defence research, industrial research??? Notably missing form this pre-packaged presentation: NIH, center for disease control, environmental science, The Obama presentation was less psecific, endorsing the !50 billion increase over five yearinstead of ten but NOT showing any sense of strategy. Apparently he also emphasized engineering over science .. issues like biofuels, hybrid cars, and the national power grid. This is NT science, it is engineering. Engineering IS important but the engine that drives productivity over the long term (e.g. recombinant DNA, supercooling, transistors, quantum computing, etc.) and that creates solutions ot the unsolveable problems.
” Claudia asked each representative whether their candidate will be at ScienceDebate2008 on April 18th in Philidelphia. ‘Time will tell,’ replied Kalil… to which Obama’s rep reported it’s being very seriously considered, followed with an enthusiastic, ‘I endorse it!‘ So contact the campaigns and tell them you want the presidential candidates to attend ScienceDebate2008! After all, this is our planet. Our home. Our health. Our families. Our economy. And it’s imperative we make our voices heard–now more than ever–for the sake of our future.”
Unfuckingbelievable. How can a guy of such limited intellectual ability believe he is qualified for national office? He’s qualified because he grew up in the district? On the other hand, the GOP probably sees him as a rising star. He’s probably on the short list of potential presidential candidates for 2016. The GOP likes candidates who are easily kept on a short leash but think they have free will.
http://blogs.columbiatribune.c.....nto_n.html
Read the comments and laugh. (Laughter is good for the body AND soul, even for trolls.)
s/
The Pianist
Unfuckingbelievable. How can a guy of such limited intellectual ability believe he is qualified for national office?
Ford, Gerald
Largent, Steve
Watts, J.C.
Shuler, Heath
Kemp, Jack
Ryun, Jim
etc., etc.
re 23: Have you ever heard the story of the ten-inch pianist?
I certainly wouldn’t call Gerald Ford, Steve Largent, Jack Kemp or Jim Ryun stupid, especially compared to Smirk and some of the other drooling knuckle-draggers we have in “conservative” politics nowadays. Wrong, you betcha. Dumb, no. Ill-intentioned? Not likely.
I have to admit I really don’t know enough about Watts and Shuler to comment on either.
I sometimes wonder what a Jack Kemp presidency would have been like. I’m pretty sure his chances of getting elected evaporated along with his party leadership’s support when he started saying things like, “We don’t need affirmative action based on race–we need affirmative action based on need.“
13 What the heck did Reagan drive? Oh, yeah…probably a Hudson.
er, speaking of fake — the fainting woman schtick is starting to catch up to barak. its on youtube now and is getting linked from all the winger blogs. we’ll see if it causes him any trouble.
Hey, I’m sorry, but he is obviously qualified. Didn’t you hear him tell us he took Social Studies.
@28- The whole tempest about Obama fainting says more about the media and his detractors than anything. At any large event there are faintings. The media has a script (figuratively speaking, at least) with Obama sweeping people off their feet. They pick up tha fainting and run with it.
No story here.
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.....132054.asp
#30 k says:
True, there are faintings at large events. What makes the obama faintings suspicious are it’s always in the front row. Why not in the middle of the crowd? Want to try explaining why it’s only those in the front row that faints?
With apologies to SJ, oy vey. That kid looks like a chicken caught in a hurricane. Seems nice enough, but he doesn’t sound quite sincere enough to make me think that he actually means it. In other words, there’ll be a Democrat representing MO-9 next year, and Olivo will probably be trying out for the CFL by the time camps open up in the Great White North, around early June IIRC.
It’s almost like somebody tried to make Nick Lachey enter politics. Pretty…..vacant.
the planted fainting deal? oh man, that one was old back in the time of shakespeare! im just dismayed that barak would use it. he says the same thing every time, and a woman in the audience hollers something like “what a good man” every time too. cheesy.
HOLLY CRAP! So he doesn’t have any thoughts on issues or platform…but he just knows he wants to “represent the people”…that and the fact he took a social studies class. Jesus. I have nothing against someone making a verbal slip (lord knows I’ve done it) but this total package comes across as one of these folks that come in for a job interview not knowing anything about a company or their business, not knowing why he wants the job other than the money, and has no idea what he wants or how to accomplish it. This is perhaps the dumbest man I’ve seen in politics in 30 years. Un-f’ing believable. That is embarrassing.
I hate to insult everyone in the Washington State and this Blog, but judging from this video and the Darcy Burner Videos, there doesn’t seem to be any people with intelligence in Washington.
My mistake – I see now that Brock is from Missouri….maybe he is the illegitimate son of GW.