Stories like this befuddle me:
Modern presidential conventions are mostly political circus, but for Senator Barack Obama, the question is whether the theatrics and drama of this one are overwhelming one of his most important tasks here: connecting with the economic anxiety gripping voters and convincing them that he has concrete and achievable solutions.
Democrats here are talking about the ailing economy, selling Mr. Obama’s policy prescriptions, offering biting indictments of Republican policies and trying to tie Senator John McCain irrevocably to President Bush.
Obama has done nothing but give specifics, and I will just direct you to his website and to Hilzoy (just scroll) who has gone through numerous issues point by point. Now, granted, he has not given “specifics” like McCain’s idiotic response at Saddleback regarding evil, in which he responded that you “defeat it.” Now there are specifics you can believe in!
On the other hand, there is a campaign that really is struggling with specifics, but it is not Obama’s:
CHETRY: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi also talked last night. And she took the stage saying that a vote for John McCain is basically a vote for a third Bush term. How would John McCain do things differently, specifically on the economy, than what’s going on in the current administration?
WALLACE: Well, you know, this is their favorite line of attack and I call it one of their bottom drawer attacks that when things don’t look good they open up the bottom drawer, and they pull out these falsehoods. They launch some personal attacks. And it was an interesting way to start their convention, I must say.John McCain has a record that the American people are quite familiar with. He has been a maverick. He has stood up against his president. He has stood up against Republicans in Congress.
He talks all the time about how he has never won many popularity contests in Congress. But he stood up against the Bush White House on campaign finance reform, trying to get some of the money out of our politics. Stood up against the Bush White House and climate change and still does. Stood up against the Bush White House often and loudly on the failed strategy in Iraq. He advocated the surge that Barack Obama still opposes long –
I have not seen that much concentrated bullshit since Hugh Hewitt and George Bush tried to convince a wary nation that Harriet Meiers would make the most awesomest Supreme Court Justice EVAH. The only thing missing from that non-response was a POW reference, and that is pretty standard fare from the McCain camp.
Compare Obama’s energy plan (.pdf) to McCain’s. McCain’s is, quite literally nothing but nonsense and pablum. Obama has short and long-term proposals covering the gamut of things that need to be done (alternative energy, efficiency, etc.), McCain says we need to drill more and gives us bullshit boilerplate:
John McCain Believes That The U.S. Must Become A Leader In A New International Green Economy. Green jobs and green technology will be vital to our economic future. There is no reason that the U.S. should not be a leader in developing and deploying these new technologies.
And that is just the energy policy. One candidate is running on theatrics, attack ads, and vague generalities and insults. It is not Obama.
cleek
IOKIYWAPOW
Alan
I’d wager McCain will brainstorm awesome solutions for problems that plague our country while hopped up on Ambien. And no doubt, he’ll be the one making the phone calls at 3:00am.
Ripley
See, the thing is that John McCain’s a maverick. That means his energy plan will be so fucking mavericky and out there, that we can’t even wrap our heads around it.
This theory – call it the Unified Maverick Theory – applies equally and just as effectively to his plans for all the other challenges that America faces today. There’s really no reason to even question his potential effectiveness.
I an tell you this, though: John McCain knows how to win wars. John McCain has a plan for victory in Iraq (that only a President can implement). John McCain was a POW.
(I’ll take the door mat and um… the keychain. Thanks!)
Incertus
See, if you stand up the two candidates side by side–hell, if you stand McCain up against either Obama or Clinton–and actually compare what the two sides want to do, then McCain loses in a Goldwater style rout. But that doesn’t sell, so the press has to act like there’s something else at play.
Ive been mad at the corporate media for a long time, but this election cycle has really done it in for me. TV news is pretty much dead to me now.
Alan
If McCain had an actual plan for energy independence then why 100 years in Iraq?
Mike
John McCain Believes That Words Like ‘The’ And ‘And’ And ‘A’ Should Be Capitalized In Titles, And If You Think It Makes His Website Look Like It Is Edited By Sixth Graders, Well, John McCain Spent Quite A Number Of Years In A Capital City, And He’s Not Talking About Phoenix Or Washington D.C.
Incertus
I’ll make a prediction–since Hillary didn’t give the press the tepid speech they wanted so they could talk about division all day, they’ll all start asking if Bill will really be on board with Obama for his speech today. Any takers?
Throwin Stones
OT – Hillary’s speech was great, specifically toward the myIQ’s of the world, but Kucinich rocks.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Too late, they already started doing that last night. David Gregory on MSNBC was interviewing Bill Richardson about 15 minutes after Hillary’s speech, and IIRC it was just about the first thing that he asked about: “so Hillary is behind Obama but I don’t think Bill is ready to heal yet – what do you think about that?” or something along those lines.
When will somebody come up with an energy plan to harness media gasbaggery? We are the Saudia Arabia of gasbags.
The Moar You Know
That exact headline was up on Yahoo about a half-hour ago. Seems to be gone now, although Fournier’s concern trolling is still present.
My hometown paper is running this gem:
McCain campaigns against Republican corruption
Keating Five ring a bell, anyone? I’m gobsmacked. The media just eats his shit up and comes running back for more.
phobos
The alpha-wingnuts never wanted him there in the first place–and the old creep knows it. Three years ago, a place like Redstate would have banned you for calling McCain anything but a scurrilous traitor.
Making the campaign a referendum on Obama was the only way to unite the GOP clans, as it were.
Once he makes his VP choice though, they’re likely going back to the vicious internal squabbling they displayed during the primaries.
The Grand Panjandrum
Heh.
If you do get a taker let me know so I can sell them a bridge I own. (We’ve been on the road and are now in New York checking up on it. Looks like Bloomberg has kept in good shape for us.)
I do not have cable or satellite TV because it seems like a waste of money. Now that we’ve been staying in hotel rooms with cable almost every night for the last few weeks I can confirm that I was correct. Most cable pundits are almost too stupid to breath without proper supervision. Jesus Babbling Christ!
John you are correct about the lack of specifics. That is my biggest complaint about McCain. (That–and his Strong Foreign Policy Credentials scare the shit out of me.) He really is Bush III in the sense that what we are watching is a Three Card Monte flim-flam. Nothing is what it seems and what he IS saying is what he means.
joe from Lowell
John McCain wasn’t able to formulate any specific economic policy positions for five and a half years – in a prisoner of war camp!
PC
When John McCain was a POW he was forced to go into specifics.
Zach
In McCain’s defense, when he does run on specific contrasts with Obama on policy, he generally has to resort to lying to be persuasive. This is certainly the case with taxes.
That’s a tool I made to figure out your own Obama Tax Cut (when McCain’s managed to convince most American’s that Obama will raise your taxes). You can compare your McCain cut to your Obama cut here.
So, on balance, I’ll take hollow generalities over false specifics.
jake
John McCrank also believes that his supporters’ reading comp level ranges from 3rd grade to really dumb. Sheesh.
Does anyone know how McCrank voted on the extension of the federal green energy initiative program? Anyone care to lay a small wager?
The Moar You Know
Ahhh, here we go, with some PUMA nonsense as a bonus.
Fuck these people. Fuck them with sharp, pointy sticks.
Cain
No doubt! That was a brillaint rabble rousing. Kinda reminded me of some the old speeches back in the 80s and 90s. We need more stuff like that. I’m glad that Kucinich got a chance to speak. The only man who speaks truth to power. He was my boy till he dropped out.
cain
JGabriel
CNN (as quoted above by John Cole):
I really wish reporters would call Republicans on this response, e.g.:
“George Bush is the leader of the Republican party still, right? Are you saying it’s an attack to associate John McCain with the President of the United States and the leader of his own party?”
I wanna see the bastards squirm.
.
Cain
I noticed that as my income increased McCain’s plan became more attractive. At 75K Obama’s plan was better than McCain but as I increased I had to pay tax while in McCain’s plan I was paying less and less taxes. So basically the rich were paying less taxes and the middle class was making more taxes. (well upper middle class is paying more taxes)
Sucks. (well it doesn’t suck for me, but I don’t mind paying more taxes if I have some control over how my money is spent)
cain
cleek
woohoo! go Obama!
PC
That needs to be turned into a widget and pimped far and wide. Good job.
The Moar You Know
John, it’s time to move your server:
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Jon H
You try raising specifics when you can’t raise your arms, you stupid jerk.
BC
This is really OT, but I just wanted to share since I am kind of narcissistic and it’s all about me – but NPR Morning Edition had a retrospective on 1948 Democratic convention (Harry Truman was nominee) and Hubert Humphrey’s speech on civil rights – and it reminded me why I am a Democrat. His minority report – to desegregate schools, pass anti-lynching law, and end job discrimination because of race – passed in the convention and led to South walk out and candidacy of Strom Thurmond. It also cemented the African-American vote for Democrats since they were the ones in Chicago and Cleveland that won election for HST. I don’t remember that speech at all, I was waaaay too young, but Hubert Humphrey gave the Democrats a great legacy in civil rights. So when Republicans try to claim MLK, Jr., just remember that HHH brought the African Americans into the Democratic big tent in 1948. Don’t have a link, but you can hear it at NPR.org.
Cris
I’m exhausted with the “Obama has no specifics” line. The media has no excuse for it, and their deliberate ignorance trickles down to the low-info voter.
This guy in my office keeps on saying it: “I just don’t know anything about Obama.” My response, the first three times, was “His website is full of info — go check it out. bah-rock-oh-bah-ma-dot-com.” But I’ve given up.
Apparently when someone — regular dude or NYT columnist — says “we just don’t know enough about Obama” they mean “we just can’t be bothered to educate ourselves about Obama.”
mark
Important post. The MSM “knows” Obama is short on specifics because they heard the MSM say so. What? Look at what Obama say? Is that allowed?
mark
Writing above 3rd grade level is elitist.
patroclus
Imagine, say, that the networks actually showed Governor Schweitzer’s speech last night. Then, John wouldn’t have had to write this post because everyone would have heard a very good description of the difference between Obama’s and McCain’s respective plans and people would be discussing and debating those differences. Why did McCain vote against all those alternative initiatives? Why is he so focused on drilling only and gas tax holidays?
But that didn’t happen – only C-SPAN (and PBS and CNN at the very end) showed the showcase Democratic speech on energy policy. Hence, we get the dumbed-down debate and no one is held accountable. American democracy – 2008 style. Jefferson, Adams and Franklin would be appalled.
Xenos
“Obama has no specifics” is probably just code for “we don’t trust the guy, and you should not, either”.
Just like in court, if your attorney says to the judge “My client says he did not hit that child” (instead of saying “Mr. Jones did not hit that child”), the judge is being told that the attorney knows you are guilty as hell.
It is a bit subtle, but it is damning.
Tlaloc
Please.
Have you actually read his website? The issues are mostly boilerplate and pablum. The actual specifics are thin and far between.
I disected his “civil rights” portion here:
swordscrossed.org/node/2036
Notice that under civil rights he doesn’t mention ONE WORD about Guantanamo, the torture of prisoners, Padilla, Military tribunals with forgone conclusions, or anything else that has been rather important the last 8 years.
here’s what he thinks are the Civil Rights challenges for the next president:
(taken from his website)
That’s ^%$#ing embarrasing for a democrat after 8 years of the Bush constitutional shredding machine. How can you not read that and feel ashamed? Obama’s vote on telcoms comes into stark focus when it becomes obvious he doesn’ give a shit about civil rights and privacy except for old safe issues of pay inequality and racial profiling.
And on top of that he doesn’t offer much of any specifics at all about the few issues he does bother to care about. It’s bullshit.
It is in fact a very good koolaid test.
Cris
The quintessential moment of that for me was on NBC: Peggy Noonan was on screen, talking about… whatever (probably Hillary Clinton). The crowd begins erupting in response to Schweitzer’s prodding. What does Noonan say? “I’m sorry, the crowd is getting a little raucous.” Oh, gee, forgive the crowd for getting excited and interrupting your precious analysis.
John Cole
Have you?
You might want to check the .pdf at the bottom of the page, rather than “debating” the bullet points. But then again, that would not give you the outcome you desire.
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
They tried to claim Harry Truman repeatedly at the 2004 convention. Don’t you remember Ahhhnuld’s speech? A wingtard former boss of mine had the McCullough Truman biography prominently displayed on her bookshelf, and was once gushing about how great Truman was and how he’d be a Republican today. Apparently she didn’t actually read the book.
Cain
I don’t understand why we can’t just start an email frenzy sending this kind of stuff over the tubes? What we need is a virus that will infect machines and not allow reboots until they’ve downloaded these pdfs and acknowledged that they have read them and then make them upload a text file that says “I will not say that Obama has no specifics anymore”. A bunch of times.
Word.
cain
KRK
Humphrey = hero
As for the post topic, John, I think you glossed over McCain’s specifics in the quote from his website:
Get that? No reason. NO. REASON. I don’t see how anyone could get more specific.
Tlaloc
I did in fact. Read the link I sent you. I start with his website and drill down to the policy paper. The paper is certainly better than the website but it is still vapid. In fact the supposed policy paper would have been a pretty decent website, if followed up by actual plans and details.
And again- aren’t you the least bit embarrassed by the complete lack of mention of the top civil rights issues of our day?
Cris
Your argument along this line is very important. I too would like to see a more direct attack on the Bush Administration’s gross violations of Constitutional and international precedent.
But saying “he doesn’t address the issues I think are important” is very different from saying “he doesn’t address issues in detail.”
Tlaloc
True, but looking through his paper he doesn’t offer much in the way of detail for those issues he does call out. Like I said I dissect the whole thing in the link above. There are some areas where he gives details (example- he wants a specific change to crack cocaine sentencing) but in most cases all wwe get, *even in the policy paper* is platitutdes.
Fledermaus
No the real reason why is because he is new to washington. McCain been around forever, he goes to all the cool parties where they all hang out with the “press” and joke and laugh and gossip.
Obama hasn’t spent 2 decades flattering them and nibbling on cocktail weenies, hence “no specifics!”
Koz
What a joke. Somewhere over this big blue marble, there’s probably eight people who care what’s in Obama’s website. The “specifics” on his website are farther away from the public debate than a $5 dollar mail-in rebate when you buy a new printer.
People will pay some attention to the words out of a candidate’s mouth, or preferably, anything where he stakes real credibility. We’ve got some big problems in America, inflation, energy, and credit. Obama’s taken a pass on all of them, and has spent six months on trivia and theatrics. The window for him show some real substance is closing quickly.
Get ready for President McCain.
croatoan
Well, you know, this is their favorite line of attack
Wait, now they’re complaining about not comparing McCain to Bush?
Obama: McCain = Bush’s third term. McCain: Nuh-uh! Media: How are you different? McCain: Stop attacking me! I was a POW!
Phoebe
don’t say literally unless you really mean literally, not figuratively. thanks. it may be nonsense but it’s not literally pabulum.
Calouste
Remind me again what kind of substance McCain has shown? Even Jindal and Romney couldn’t mention any achievements of McCain.