At it again:
Obama was asked if he, too, isn’t engaging in negative campaigning, and how is his negative talk different from McCain’s negative talk.
“This is the classic dilemma of politics,” Obama replied. “We get four or five shots in a row (assertions by McCain), that I would rather lose a war so that I can win a campaign, that I am not willing to visit the troops, that I somehow am full of myself, that I’m an empty-headed celebrity, whatever repeated attacks have been launched this week, so when I say, boy those are kind of silly arguments, the press says, isn’t that being negative. Well no, I’m describing what their strategy has been for the last week… I’m just stating the facts….
“Ultimately, what I think we’ve got to do is keep driving home the essential message of this campaign, that we’ve got to change business as usual… What we’ve seen this week ahs been politics as usual… This is the same thing that was done four years or eight years ago… You guys are all familiar with this. You’ve seen this before. We’ve seen this movie before.”
Sigh.
TR
Our
MediocreRetarded PressFixed.
jake
Your headlines for the next two weeks:
OBAMA CALLED THE MEDIA STOOPID!
IS OBAMA TOO
SKINNYARROGANT TO BE PRESIDENT?IS OBAMA TOO
SKINNYARROGANTSENSITIVE TO BE PRESIDENT?OBAMA PLAYS AGE CARD, CALLS MCCAIN SILLY.
Enjoy!
Lloyd Webber
Obama may be too good to be president of these divided states
freemark
Just wanted to let you know that there appears to be some conflict between IE 6&7 and the ads on Balloon-Juice, MYDD and many other progressive blogs that started last night. Getting “IE can’t load webpage” error. With IE 7 I can get MYDD to work if I stop the loading before the ads load.
It works fine with firefox.
Just wanted to make sure you knew.
nightjar
You know at some point the stupid has to reach critical mass, even for low info voters (lazy or impaired). Doesn’t it. Now I’ve spoofed myself.
Georgette Orwell
This man never can be elected. He’s too sensible and diplomatic.
Davis X. Machina
What he clearly means, and what every reporter in the room knows he means, is “This is the same thing t
hat was doneyou did four years or eight years ago… You guys are all familiar with this. You’veseenthis before.”And their reponse will be to carry McCain’s corpse over the finish line.
No one talks to them like that. It’s their country, and they’re going to elect for us whom they want. Because it’s all about them.
When it comes down to changing (or not changing) the government or changing The Narrative, they’ll just change (or not change) the government.
Luckily there isn’t anything like this level of coverage for down-ticket races, so President McCain, elected without a popular majority, without even the largest popular plurality, will wind up facing a Congress that’s 59-41 Dem in the Senate, and 250-185 in the House.
Maybe we’ll get some good legislation passed, overturn a few vetoes….
freemark
I guess the question is, what do we do about it? The press is worse than worthless, they encourage the stupidity. How should Obama respond? Does he need to go on the attack? I think he might need to do that. I think he needs to start airing an ad with his making fun of the McCain ads and then at the end deliver a kick to McCain’s balls.
TR
It’s like Yogi Berra is running the media.
It’s only a short hop from “nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded,” to “people won’t vote for him, he’s too popular.”
myiq2xu
Real ponies don’t oink.
Obama is a one-trick pony, and that trick won’t work on MCain like it did on Hillary.
The media doesn’t hate McCain, so playing the race card backfired.
Now Obama is fucked, because he will have to run on his record and on the issues.
John S.
We know, champ.
LiberalTarian
Yup, I’m going to have to ramp up from liberal to progressive, according to the definition that “liberals believe in good things, progressives go out and do them.”
Obama is not progressive enough for me, but by God, John McCain is the bottom of the barrel. Obama will be a good president, McCain will not. Simple as that. So, we better damn sure get everyone out who doesn’t want another activist conservative judge on the Supreme Court out there voting for Obama. And, we need better than a 10% margin, cuz that is how many votes the GOP have gerryrigged the system to steal.
VOTE OBAMA!!
bootlegger
When McCain’s Rovian lapdogs showed that image of chanting Germans in Berlin and then did the whole messianic thing, weren’t they guilty of playing the Nazi card?
Can someone from the media please use that phrase for once?
LiberalTarian
Yeah, wouldn’t want conservative activist judges voting for Obama. $smacks forehead$
I meant, of course, that if you don’t want more conservative judges on the Supreme Court screwing over the country, get Obama elected.
The Moar You Know
Myiq: man, I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’ll just say it:
The love is gone.
At first, it was exciting. You really put a lot of effort into it! Detailed minute-by-minute breakdowns of Hilary’s day, why what she ate for breakfast showed her fitness for command, why Barack’s choice in cigarettes made him manifestly unfit to be commander in chief.
Do you remember? The pages and pages of comments, a violent, exciting flow of passions that never stopped. I think we all fell a little bit in love with you back then. You cared. I know you did.
But now…well, you’re either taking me for granted or you’ve found somebody else, and I suspect it’s the latter. You rarely post – and when you do, it’s some pro-forma trolling that reads like it was copypasted from \b\. You’re not putting any effort into this relationship anymore. I have needs, too, dammit!
And not only do you put no thought into it; it’s wham-bam and then you’re gone! One post. You used to pound me all night long, myiq. Now, you won’t even stick around to read a reply.
You used to put so much effort into trolling me – you thought about it beforehand, sweated and tuned your posted and – BAM! – oh, it was so good. Now you just dribble out some words and leave.
Something’s gotta change, myiq. This can’t go on like this.
dan robinson
Last week, the exams that Professor Obama gave for his class on Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago were posted on line http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/politics/30law.html along with some of the answer memos.
Why are we talking about Britney Spears and the race card?
I don’t think that John McCain is smart enough to engage on the issues raised in those exams. Let’s face it, McCain has a mediocre intellect. He was a brave pilot (landing on an aircraft carrier takes a set of Herculean gonads, or whatever passes for gonads if you have two X chromosomes; Bush got grounded when he lost his nerve to land a fighter on an airstrip) but being a brave pilot doesn’t make you smart.
Why are we not talking about the level of intellect required to run the country?
Why are the talking heads talking about a couple of bleached blondes? Are they auditioning for Entertainment Tonight?
Davis X. Machina
But now…well, you’re either taking me for granted or you’ve found somebody else, and I suspect it’s the latter
Remember, it’s not myiq2xu talking, it’s the pie talking. I think we all need to be considerate in times like these.
demkat620
OMG but OT, FoxNews is covering the town of Lavonia, GA buying a local topless cafe and then burning it to the ground.
They spent one million dollars to do this.
Have things gotten this bad?
ThymeZone
When they dig up the ruins of this civilization, what do you suppose they will think was the purpose of a blog that runs this thread and provides a soapbox for the likes of myiq to post his useless shit here?
Plenty of time this weekend to visit your Obama For President local office, get some bumper stickers, make a donation, get set up to register some voters. The cynics want to wear you down and discourage the energy of democracy. Respond by doing something positive that counters their cynicism.
You can vote against McCain and myiq today, you don’t have to wait for November.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
Because McCain would’ve been a fine gentleman and debated the issues rationally with the white woman instead of a 24 hour BillaryVinceFosterRoseLawFirmTuzlaVaginaBitchapalooza. Uh-huh.
Joshua Norton
TDS had a hysterically funny take on a new fun game:
Rapper or Republican?
Notable quotable: You can’t tell them apart because every other word out of their mouth is n*****.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
As soon as Howard Hanna takes their signs back, I’m putting an Obama sign in the front yard.
bago
This is the problem.
Obviously your ad agency is retarded. I speak from experience working on this very subject. At a fortune 500 company. No pajamas.
Conservatively Liberal
Hey
myiq2xuGoatBoy, are you between goats now or did one escape? Nice to see you come up for air once in a while. Playing catcher to the goats pitching must be wearing your knees out.You McCain supporters are a laugh!
PeterJ
A reliable source has told me that myiq0.8xu is a masochist who gets his rocks off being abused by us.
mark
Sound bites for the next McCain video:
(Cue ominous music)
“I would rather lose a war so that I can win a campaign.”
“I am not willing to visit the troops.”
“I … am full of myself.”
“I’m an empty-headed celebrity.”
Barack Obama. Is he ready to lead?
mark
Oopsies. It’s missing something …
“I’m John McCain, and this is all I got.”
Notorious P.A.T.
We should all move there. That city has no problems, so they can afford to spend money on endeavours like that. There are no crumbling roads, children who can’t read, old people who can’t afford medicine, or anything like that. Otherwise, how could anyone who deserves to be called “sane” spend money like that?
Notorious P.A.T.
myiq, which party exactly do you want to win in November? ? ?
gil mann
Yeah, she sure was a weak candidate. Just like you always said.
I can’t believe people used to argue in good faith with this tool.
cleek
why would anyone argue about the goodness of pie ?
Robert Johnston
Oh, myiq2xu; poor, poor myiq2xu:
I too can’t stand Obama. From his blather about Social Security being in crisis, to his Harry and Louising of health care, to his even worse blather about bipartisanship at a time when it’s critical to put the boot to the Republican throat, to his monumentally pathetic cave-in and failure to lead on FISA, to his feeding speculation about having an anti-choice running mate, and now to his squishiness on offshore drilling, Obama sucks. His charisma far outstrips his grasp of policy. His economics are Chicago school barely-lite. His commitment to civil liberties is iffy at best. And his die hard followers, although a small percentage of his base, are far-and-away the scariest Democrats I’ve ever encountered, willing to read all their dreams into everything he says and sticking their noses into every pile of shit Obama leaves behind and telling everyone it smells like roses.
But Obama’s not going to start World War Three just because he woke up cranky. He is capable of diplomacy. He’s not going to appoint two or three more Scalias to the Supreme Court. He will meaningfully address global climate change. And while he is perfectly willing to suborn the Constitution in favor of the imperial presidency, it’s not the be-all and end-all of his existence as it would be for McCain. Of the two serious candidates still running, Obama is the bad president we can most likely live with; McCain is the bad president we’ll thank our lucky stars if we manage to live through.
jake
Duh. Cybermasochism is a long-standing internet tradition.
I think Darrell finally dropped off the face of the earth due to a crippling accident involving his mouse and his keyboard.
TR
Oh noes! Not the issues! How will Obama ever be able to run on the issues when polls show that the voters favor him over McCain on virtually every one?
TenguPhule
Yes. SATSQ.
And I have dibs on Paul L’s ribs when we’re down to cannibalism.
TenguPhule
The Fucking McCain Media at Work Folks
The Highlights:
So let’s get this straight, McCain’s people reject more debates and this somehow becomes Obama backing away?
Can we just shoot these stupid fuckers already?
TenguPhule
The Republican Media always falls asleep at the end and insists on watching it again from the beginning.
AnneLaurie
This is the hope I’m clinging to, DXM. Although the way McCain himself has been stumbling around recently, I can also imagine a scenario where Old John McLame “tragically” falls victim to A Lone DFH Gunman, and his younger more charismatic VP candidate sweeps into office on what the Media Village Idiots will present as a tide of sympathy. Of course that means the GOP will have to come up with someone telegenic enough to take the role and dumb enought to want it, but that’s our modern GOP for ya.
Litlebritdifrnt
freemark –
I had the same problem last night, couldn’t get on her or on the retort, the page would come up and then a big ole “cannot load webpage” banner would appear and then I got the error page. Seems okay today though.
Big E
re:
yeah well, I’ve seen that movie before too, and the guy who gets dumped on the most with the most outrageous amount of bullshit usually loses… so, Sen. Obama & staff need to wise up and if they don’t have the guts to get tough then someone else has to do it for them.
The American electorate will believe anything they see on TV..
What I’d like to see on some Obama TV ads:
• nice shorty on McCain opposing Martin L. King day
• some nice vids of McCain hugging and kissing Bush
• McCain being trailed by Lieberman & Graham correcting his mistakes
• a few moments about the Keating 5 scandal
• McCain ranting about Falwell’s intolerance, then kissing Falwell’s ass when he needs his support
• He graduated 5th from the bottom of his naval class
and, to put a fine point on it…..
• a slow rolling shot of Arlington Cemetery, explosions can be heard on the soundtrack in the background as the streets of Iraq fade into view then out again, ‘taps’ can now be heard and over that,….. the music and video changes to the smiling McCain singing “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”….fade to black with McCain still singing.. The words “is this what you really want from your next president?” appear.
Conservatively Liberal
From a diary at Kos by Jeff Lieber regarding something that Michael Goldfarb, McCain’s head of online communications said:
D&D?! WTF?! Is this guy fresh from a time capsule that was packed up in the 80’s? This guy is obviously not aware of all internet traditions (or online gaming).
These guys are in the stone age, and their candidate is from the stone age.
Jeff does a great job of skewering this stupid shit. As he says, ‘Oh, where to start…’
No shit. This has bullseye painted all over it.
geemoney
DXM-
If the worst should come to pass, it’s just not the case that there are 59 Democrats in the Senate. A sizable chunk of those nominal Democrats are Blue Dogs. On issues which are important to liberals, there just isn’t much difference between them and neocons.
As to the rest of the thread, I think that Obama is doing the right thing, and needs to keep dragging the narrative back to the issues. Every time that McCain wants to bring up some stupidity about not supporting the troops, or using them for a photo op, out can come the vote on the new GI Bill.
Dismiss the smears, then hit back with substance.
Tax Analyst
Jesus Christ, you’re an asshole. Please go fuck yourself.
Tax Analyst
Before we all jump off a bridge or have a coronary, let me point out that in the fairly pivotal area of ELECTORAL VOTES Obama seems to have about 264 of them stashed by fairly secure numbers at this point. He is quite likely to take another 9 in Colorado (recent polls show him up by about 3% there) . That would give him 273 – enough to win. This would be without winning Florida (27EV), Ohio (20EV) or VA (13EV)…states that rate as a toss-up at the moment. There are also several states that currently show McCain leading, but by less than 5%. I believe that Obama has a more than 5% lead in all of the states that I’ve included in that 264 number.
Nonetheless, this is not a moment for complacency. Time to step up if you live in any state with a less than 10% margin either way. If you can’t handle door-knocking and phone-calling (and count me as one who really just can’t), then at least try and make a contribution if you are at all able to financially(I’ve made several and will be making several more before this is all over).
Yes, it’s disgusting and sometimes discouraging to see the shit that McCain & company are tossing at Obama. He’s sure handling it with a helluva more grace than I could.