It looks like John McCain's pulse is doing much better than assumed by Blog for Arizona back in April. After watching the CNN Youtube Republican Presidential debate last night one thing that I have to give kudos to John McCain for is his unequivocal and dogged defense in favor of decency (e.g. absolutely, positively no torture). Mitt Romney sadly was not able to 2nd the vote in favor of decency and instead repeatedly defended the pro-Bush position that the water cure AKA water torture AKA waterboarding is OK.

In the hustle and bustle of reading emails from Bob Lord crowing about how much money he is raising and how much he is not (repeat not) John Shadegg it is easy to overlook the fact that there are more than two announced candidates for AZ-3. Michael Shoen is running as a Libertarian Party candidate. I couldn't produce his web site and I won't attempt to summarize it. I encourage you to visit his campaign web site as well as the great news site that helped me remember that sometimes there *are* more than only two choices: freedomsphoenix.com

H/T to wikipedia for their article on 1984's Inner Party.

John Trasher, Democratic opponent to Trent Franks (AZ-2), says the US Army should leave Iraq... eventually. I wonder how many US soldiers and innocent civilians will die in the meantime. I predict that voters will fail to be inspired enough to put stamps on their absentee ballots for Mr. Thrasher unless he learns to turn up the VOLUME and the inspiration. Quiz for Mr. Thrasher: The US Army should be located and defend which country A) Iraq, B) Kuwait, C) South Korea, Japan and Germany or D) None of the Above?

As requested, I get a steady stream of email from Bob Lord, Democratic candidate for Arizona district 3. So far it appears that he is running a John Kerry for president 2004 campaign. Most of what I remember from the 2004 presidential campaign era is the meme "Anybody but Bush". Mr. Lord's meme of choice seems to be "I am not John Shadegg". I imagine for some positions, like Shadegg's opposing more government health care, this angle is sufficient. I am still hoping that Mr. Lord will add some positions and press releases that state what *he* believes in rather than casting himself as the anti-Shadegg. Hint, hint: there is the little matter of the ever-ongoing US occupation of the Iraq that you might want to mention sometime soon. Bringing American troops home to protect America is a rather popular position.

Just a reminder, "Anybody but Bush" didn't win. "I am not John Shadegg" is not a winning campaign slogan.