And then there is this:
A prominent Washington lobbyist who has worked for every Republican President since Richard Nixon has been tapped by the McCain campaign to conduct a study in preparation for the presidential transition should John McCain win the election, according to sources familiar with the process.
The McCain campaign truly is a bizarre exercise in the suspension of reality. Everything they label as a priority, they go out and then do the exact opposite. Consider:
1.) Decide that lobbyists are the number one evil in politics, and then staff your entire campaign from top to bottom with… lobbyists.
2.) Spend months proclaiming you want to run a decent and honorable campaign, and then run the sleaziest general election campaign in years, so bad that folks who honestly love you (the media) are not only revulsed, but shocked into such a state that they are committing actual acts of journalism.
3.) Spend months discussing experience and how yours is superior, then decide change is the real message, and that in order to enact change, we should elect the guy who promises to keep doing things the same way they have been done the last eight years.
4.) Make earmarks the central focus of your reform agenda, then nominate an earmark queen and lie repeatedly about her involvement in the central notorious earmark in the past ten years (the Bridge to Nowhere).
And on an on and on. It really is crazy.
flitterbic
Oh, come on, John, cut him some slack. You did know he was a POW, right?
lane
Was McSame a POW?????
This iad is … interesting.
Mine cat eats lesser skum.
linda
and it’s working.
PK
No what is really crazy is that people fall for it and McCain is basically tied with Obama.
John S.
John Cole-
Speaking of “Say Anything”, you remember this from yesterday?
I don’t think anyone here picked up on it, but apparently Doughy Pantload is too fucking stupid to realize that McCain was shot down over North Vietnam — which means he was certainly NOT held captive by the VC in South Vietnam.
I’ll bet you’re surprised.
Lie baby, lie!
Could it be that your definition of what a lobbyist is and does is different than Granpa’s? Just asking.
John S.
What I find even crazier is that anybody puts stock in these shitty polls.
Do you think any of them take into account the millions of new voters the Obama campaign has registered this year?
Do you think they take into account the growing disparity in party ID between Democrats and Republicans?
Do you think they accurately sample a population that increasingly cannot be tracked via traditional models?
The answer to all these questions is “No.”
After the MOST favorable coverage he will ever receive, he hit his high water mark and pulled to just even with traditional voters. The fact that McCain is barely pulling parity with Obama given all the above factors indicates to me that McCain is fucked. Don’t believe the hype.
scarpy
What’s crazy is that it’s working.
Also, Dems better be very careful about having their pics up for four full seconds on their ads, now that they’re chasing after Coleman and Smith for violating that rule. I know this one’s cut off, but it still seems pretty close to me.
Davis X. Machina
Loud = True.
It’s either the New Acoustics, or the New Logic.
Or bullshit..
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
Its amazing how many people have no clue what a convention bounce is.
Its also amazing to see Straight Talk McMaverick run a campaign on the premise of ‘Fuck You, America, With An Extra Side Order Of Fuck You To The Dems’.
zoe from pittsburgh
It’s a pretty amazing strategy, actually, because it’s much harder to argue with someone who is just making shit up. It leaves your oppoenent bewildered and slackjawed and stuttering– “but, but, none of that is true!” It’s much harder to forumulate your own argument because you’re standing their in a sort of stunned righteous anger.
What the campaign is betting on is that McCain has the whole honorable POW thing so it makes convincing others that he is lying especially difficult– especially after 8 years of Bush we all expect some level of distortion and spin. He’s blatantly lying REPEATEDLY right out of the gate. He lies about his own record, Sarah Palin’s, and he lies about Obama’s.
I fully expect that McCain’s next stage of his strategy will be to spend a lot of time talking about the importance of truth and honesty in government– because that means he’s truthful and honest, right?
I’ve been driven crazy lately and I have to keep reminding myself that it WILL get worse.
The bottom line is this– we have never seen a campaign quite like this so a lot of people don’t seem to recognize what is going on. Here’s to hoping that they do catch on. My one hope is that at this rate of lying he has to make up a real doozy that could seriously catch up with him. Something so obvious that it doesn’t look like spin against him.
Rome Again
I agree. :)
Dennis - SGMM
For five and a half years, McCain had no lobbyists, John. He’s just making up for lost time.
Stuck in the Fun House
You don’t understand. The Mccain campaign is just practicing a vital part of Teh Bush Doctrine. They are creating Crazy, and while the rest of us are trying figure out what kind of crazy, their busy creating new crazy. It’s all elementary Dr. Watson. Elemeatary I say –Bwa hhahha bwa!
Rome Again
If people finally catch on, he will never have any honor to speak of again. He’s spent it all. He will become a total embarrassment to the entire nation. I guess his age is a blessing in that respect.
james
Been bouncing this one around…
‘Of course the Republicans are trying to steal ‘Change’… it’s the only thing I’ve got left in my pockets’
AmIDreaming
They’re Juan and Evita. The Maverick and The Milf. None of the rest of it means anything.
Blue Buddha
It’s sort of like that logic puzzle, where you ask three people a certain question, and one always tells the truth, another always lies, the third lies half the time, and you have to figure out which one is which by the answers they give. I think we figured out which of the three McCain is.
Blue Buddha
Speaking about “Say Anything”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_J-lxK8uCY
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
zoe nails it to the wall.
The other part is, I think, that McCain and Steve Schmidt know that the press wants more than anything else to have a neck-and-neck down the stretch run horse race to cover. But given all the other structural advantages favoring the Dem this year (Bush fatigue, the economy, etc.), if the press starts calling McCain a lying sleazebag then the election is effectively over. Which means that if they want to have anything left to cover, the one thing which the political press cannot and must not do is to call McCain a lying sleazebag.
And that means that he has a gift-wrapped free pass to act like a lying sleazebag and not get called on it.
Note that the people who are harshing on McCain right now are mostly non-political press people (like The View), because unlike the political folks they have no skin in the game if the election doesn’t turn out to be a cliffhanger.
slip
In the interview with Gibson, Palin excused the earmark to study the DNA of harbor seals by stating that it was obtained through an open process, in cooperation with researchers. So, how is the infamous Montana earmark to study the DNA of bears any different? What the hell am I missing?
Also, if transparency in the earmark process is her goal, why didn’t Gibson ask her if she had heard of the “Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act?” That Coburn/Obama bill was signed into law just before she was elected Governor.
Marshall
This is, IMHO, all a sign of desperation.
When you trash your central narratives (honesty, experience, independence, etc.) 60 days out, that is a desperate move.
When you start throwing shit at every wall in sight, hoping some of it sticks, this far from the close of the polls, that’s a desperate move.
When you start pissing of the press, this far from the close of the polls, that’s a desperate move.
Normally these things are done just before closing, so that you reap the rewards before the election, but the reaction comes afterwards, when it is too late.
I think that Obama and his crew should remain calm, and start using all of the gifts they have been handed.
By the way, who is actually running the McCain campaign ? I would be willing to bet it is not JSM. Is it just a bunch of lobbyists from the K Street Project ? Obama cannot push that theme, but the blogosphere can. Anyone want to start a 527 devoted to this theme ?
Charlemagne29
I like the ad and agree with everything that’s been said, but I can’t help but think that perhaps this isn’t the most effective line of attack. I think McCain profits more from his image as an experienced statesman and war veteran than he does from his image as a reformer. If I were Obama, I’d spend the bulk of my time trying to paint McCain as angry, reckless, and erratic. It hits him where he’s strongest, and there’s a lot of material to work with. (For instance, all the flip-flopping, the Palin pick, the Bomb Iran song, the Republicans who’ve said they’re afraid of his temper, McCain’s own admission that he makes reckless decisions in his books, etc.) This campaign needs its “Daisy” ad.
Nikolita
Nice one James. ;)
Dan
then nominate a VP candidate that couldn’t run a Denny’s during dinner hour.
gbear
5.) In the primary debates, passionately declare that mayors (of NYC) and governors (of MA) don’t have the experience necessary to run the country, then pick someone who’s been a backwoods mayor and governor to be your VP choice.
Rome Again
TLTIABQ:
You mean like: Dick Cavett, Charles Krauthammer, the AP, WAPO, the LA Times… (this is just today, there were more yesterday and Thursday also)
Granted, television isn’t following along, but there are journalists who are starting to figure it out.
I think McCain is losing the press. He hasn’t completely lost them, but the worm is starting to turn.
Incertus
McCain’s current campaign is the culmination of all the tactics the right has been putting to use since Nixon. Attack your opponent’s strength; lie without remorse and deny it when challenged; act aggrieved when called out on it; and attack the credibility of the press. And it has worked to some extent–but not enough yet, because McCain is only tied, and we’re still almost two months out. We are going to beat him.
bvac
The same exact thing was said about Kerry in 2004. Face it, the polls are pretty much within their margin of error. Voter mobilization on election day might add a few points to that, as it does here in NJ where they polls show an even race and it ends up being a 10 point victory.
I expect the GOP to have its massive disenfranchisement operation out in force, and I expect the media to be completely silent about it, and I expect Obama to not fight back.
AkaDad
McCain has lied more in this election, than he did as a POW.
john b
i was helping the obama campaign during the va and sc primaries and i know that in every precint the campaign had at least one lawyer whose entire job was to make sure no one was being disenfranchised. that and there were observers at every polling place who had the number of this lawyer to make sure that nothing fell through the cracks. i’m not saying this is foolproof, but the obama campaign seems well aware of potential voter disenfranchisement. and they did far more than nothing.
Rome Again
Correction: minus Krauthammer, but he did come out with something regarding Palin a few days ago.
There have been some Journalists taking notice that McCain’s lies are not palatable recently.
John S.
Oh please, there is NO comparison.
Kerry did not have Obama’s GOTV operation.
Kerry did not have Obama’s message or appeal.
Kerry did not register nearly as many new voters.
Kerry did not run a 50 state campaign.
You cannot draw a valid comparison between the conditions in 2004 and 2008 — or the candidates. Please, enough with the pearl clutching people. It is terribly unbecoming. Obama knows what the fuck he is doing, so let him do his thing. Instead of focusing on what Obama isn’t doing and what McCain is doing, why don’t we let McCain implode on his own and talk about what Obama IS doing and saying on the campaign trail.
bago
Let me show you a magic Family trick!
*McCain puts wife on table.
*McCain slams heiresses fortune and lawyers onto the wife.
TA-DAA! It’s gone. And let me tell you, this suit isn’t cheap.
PK
What I find even crazier is that anybody puts stock in these shitty polls.
All I know is that 8 yrs ago a smart intelligent democrat lost to a obviously incompetent republican. In 2004 the same thing again. The polls showed the race was tied both in 2000and 20004.
Again we have a smart democrat and a lying corrupt republican. The polls are still tied. To me the reality seems to be that no matter what, the country cannot seem to bring itself to vote for a democrat. I hope I am wrong and you are right, but polling is ultimately what gives some idea of what is going on.
cain
I think in Minnesota there has been a lawsuit that would potentially disenfranchise voters. The republicans will do it, expect Ohio and others to have some kind of crap being pushed on them to discard certain amounts of voters.
I really wish there was a backlash. It is like 2004 again, and I find it hard to believe that nobody is angry. We really are a lazy lot.
cain
lr
Stuck in the Fun House Says:
You don’t understand. The Mccain campaign is just practicing a vital part of Teh Bush Doctrine. They are creating Crazy, and while the rest of us are trying figure out what kind of crazy, their busy creating new crazy. It’s all elementary Dr. Watson. Elemeatary I say—Bwa hhahha bwa!
I agree! I think this ad is pretty good. Obama needs to pick one strong narrative, along the line of, do you really want 4 more years of Bush?, and repeat, repeat, repeat on television. Then the more day to day things like Palin’s constant lies can be dealt with through daily web ads.
He also needs to compile the highlights of the acceptance speech and televise it, esp. “enough” and “it’s about you.”
Gas prices have gone crazy in the south due to the hurricane. (Up 60 cents and more in one day, with some stations out of gas completely. Lots of long lines and a certain level of panic.) There is a strong opportunity here to remind people that gas was $4 and more a gallon just 6 weeks ago.
Obama’s strength is his communication ability and his calm intelligent demeanor. What better way to fight crazy? Show you will fight with FACTS, not lies. Let McCain’s lies mount up. Let McCain and Palin seem crazier and crazier.
The Other Steve
When are the fucking debates?
Rome Again
David Ignatius/WAPO – today:
Did he just say McCain sold his soul to the devil? :)
Rick Taylor
Campaign on experience attacking your opponent as not ready for the highest office in the land, and the select as VP someone with less than two years experience as governor of Alaska and hype her experience as a city council member and member of the PTA.
I agree with you, this is crazy. I thought 2000 was crazy, and 2004 was insane, but his election has them both beat already.
wasabi gasp
An honorable man may lie to his nation for the noble purpose of convincing the people that he is indeed honorable, meritoriously, so to be entrusted with the duty of leading the nation with honor. The exposure of the lie would jeopardize trust in all but the most honorable of men, therefore the truest man of honor will courageously commit himself to a multitude of asinine canards.
— George “Fuck Your Cherry Tree” Washington
John S.
You do realize a few htings have changed since 2000 and even 2004, right?
That a candidate can swear off public financing because he has had over 2 million individual donors contribute hundreds of millions of dollars is something that could not have happened in either 2000 or 2004. I’ve been a Web/Graphic designer since 1998 and I can assure you that a LOT has changed online over this period of time. And this is only one instance of a drastic shift in the political landscape as a result of technology.
Yesterday on NPR they were talking to the Charts Editor from Billboard magazine, who was explaining that the way they compile their Hot 100 has changed over the decades, and particulary in the last 10 years. They had to start taking into account the shift from singles released to record stores to tracking downloads on iTunes and listening habits on streaming radio.
Most political polling has not been so adept. Most outfits still rely too heavily on calling homes with land lines and only speaking to registered voters that have lived in the same home for a certain amount of time and show up on their radar in traditional ways.
They have no mechanism for tracking people that only have a cell phone or VoIP. Or people that rent and change their address frequently. Or people that just registered to vote this year. Or the shift in party affiliation from Republican to Democrat all over the country. This means they are showing you outdated numbers built on outdated models that reflect an increasingly poor sample of the population.
In 2000, technology had not yet impacted the political landscape in a way that caused pollsters to look foolish. By 2004, even modest gains in techonlogy caused enough of a shift in the landscape for a lot of polls to be flat wrong. This year, that could not be any clearer. Granted, polls only offer a snapshot of voter mood at that time and that is subject to change dramatically. But the way that information is distributed and processed online combined with the ability to organize and consolidate messaging efforts really throws a wrench into that equation.
I predict in 2012, most pollsters will have changed their models dramatically. They got caught a little flat-footed this year, leaving newer or more ‘unconventional’ outfits at the forefront (look at the ascendancy of 538). For the sake of their livelihood, I don’t think it’s a mistake they will make twice.
Brian J
I don’t think the polls tell us everything. One of the few things I took away from statistics in college is that the only way to get an accurate sample of how people are going to vote on election day is to find everyone and then poll them. Of course, that’s impossible, so they use the methods they have now. They aren’t perfect, but they aren’t complete garbage either. Some of the polls have me worried, particularly the very close generic congressional ballot polls. If the Republicans take back congress because of Sarah Palin, I will lose my goddamn mind.
As for all of your other points, I sent an e-mail to one of the guys on one of the big election sites asking him some questions similar to what you asked. He responded that by saying it was unlikely that the polls now don’t show increases in voter registration, since they are models of registered voters. That makes sense, I guess. I don’t think anybody knows the exact composition of the electorate, particularly now that Palin is on the ticket and nobody knows if her effect will last. Look at some of the North Carolina polls and how their differences in voter composition can produce huge differences.
But it’s important to realize that if you look at some of the huge gains in voter registration, not all of them are by the Democrats. Some of them are registered in states that don’t register voters by party, but even when they do show nice gains by Democrats, it doesn’t make sense to think they aren’t going to get every single one of those voters out to the polls. I don’t think we are close to knowing the final gains of their efforts, but I wouldn’t bank entirely on new voters.
That leaves the electorate that’s already registered and/or has voted in the past. I might be proven wrong, but unless things start to get really bad for Obama, I think that he’s doing enough mobilization and contact on the ground that if enough people in the population aren’t dead set against Obama, he’s got a fighting chance. The fundamentals don’t see to have changed a lot in the past few months, the Palin pick not withstanding.
I also have to wonder what Obama’s internal information tells him versus McCain’s internal information and public information. They say they are going full steam ahead in Indiana, Montana, and North Dakota, for instance, but there are numerous people in the press who are calling for them to cut back drastically.
Aside from the positive press coverage it’ll give him, I almost hope that he announces such a ludicrously high fund raising total, like something in the neighborhood of $100 million, that he can spend an extra $2 million on advertising in Georgia or even Texas without really losing much sleep. In other words, it’d be nice if he could waste some money.
bago
Why is he insulting ducks like that?
Eric
And will McPOW bring a glossy picture of Palin to wave at the audience when he gets stumped by a tough question?
Brian J
I agree. I always think of the time in high school one of my science teachers asked two friends who handed in the exact same lab report, word for word, and then claimed they each worked by themselves. As she said, “You mean to tell me that every single word on this 10/20 page report is your own and somehow matches every single word that your friend wrote, but that you didn’t cheat,” the kid looked her right in the face and said, “Yes.” She was flabbergasted for a moment. How exactly can you respond to someone who tries to pull off that bullshit, in politics or in real life?
The only way to make them look like the lying sacks of shit they are is to catch them. You can’t insist that they tell the truth about an issue that’s gone back and forth for a long time, because it might be too muddled for someone who hasn’t been following every step. Instead, you try to call them on a topic that they’ve been lying about by asking them a new question that there is no answer to. Take the claim that farms were lost due to the estate tax, for instance. Imagine if Gore or Kerry had looked Bush right in the eye and said, “Why not name me ten farms that have been lost to the estate tax?” After a few seconds of silence, one of them could have said, “Why not name me five?” After more silence, one of them could have said, “Why not name me one, just one, family farm that has been lost to the estate tax?” Unless there were a few farms that the people have spent millions of dollars trying to find but haven’t–which is exactly the case, because they don’t exist–he would have to either make one up, or admit defeat. And if he made one up, Kerry or Gore could have pressed him for some details, when he then could have been revealed to be full of shit.
John S.
I don’t wonder about it at all. Just look at their behavior.
Obama is still calm, collected and on message (for the most part).
McCain is going full-on culture war and lying so badly that even the press has noticed.
Which man do you think is more comfortable with the numbers they are looking at?
Brachiator
When the Big Lie is working, then what McCain says or does no longer matters.
The press, for now, has been neutralized. Voters simply don’t care what the media reports. And even though pundits and reporters here and there are changing their tune on McCain, the bulk of the media has decided that its infotainment uber alles.
Notice how ultimately, the Gibson/Palin interview collapsed into the kind of soft-sell human interest bullshit that you saw during the Olympics, and brand name marketing for the ABC programs 20/20 and Nightline. So the producers behind the Palin interview transformed Troopergate from a scandal into a heartwarming story in which America’s plucky hockey overcame the obstacle of a big bad trooper harassing her family and ultimately won the Gold Medal at the Caribou Shoot. She was even bold enough to laughingly declare that the trooper was still employed, totally evading the issue of why, then she fired the safety commissioner. And her best friend Charlie was too much a gentleman to press her on this. Score! for the Big Lie.
For now, many voters have decided that former POW and a Christian hockey mom will not do them harm even if their announced platform and policies are totally worthless.
In the World According to Palin, the solution to a collapsing economy is to cut taxes, strip regulatory agencies of all their power (which worked really well already with the sub-prime mess), and oh, yeah, go to war with Russia.
And as I noted in a comment in an earlier thread, some people are absolutely fine with this because neither experience nor qualifications nor competence nor truth nor honor matter anymore for the hero and the hockey mom. If you can get a significant portion of the public to love you, they will forgive anything (“She’s one of us”: Palin wins over Obama women):
Palin’s answers indicate a total lack of knowledge about national affairs? Wasn’t she cute? Wasn’t her house fabulous? And you can probably click on a link at the ABC news site and order the same eyeglass frames that she wears.
Brian J
That’s true, to an extent, but I’m talking more about specific behavior in visiting the states. Weren’t there a few days when McCain was forced to visit states like South Dakota, where he made those lovely comments about his wife, back in June or July? Has he visited a state like that since? I know a few weeks ago, he ramped up spending in North Carolina.
I just think of the times right before the Iowa caucuses in 2004, when John Kerry’s campaign kept telling the press, our internal information says something different than the public polling. Then he won the state. I don’t know how late in the game this was or if and when what they saw in internal polling showed up in public polling, but rightly or wrongly, it makes me think that even though we can look to public polls for some answers, we can’t look to them for everything.
The Dangerman
It’s far more than crazy; it’s placing 230 years of history at risk with an Incomprehensible Idiot and a Neanderthal Neophyte. I can’t comprehend how McCain doesn’t have more than the 29% of people that are the hardcore deadenders; most likely because the Right has been saying for years that the media is biased to the Left and 50% of the people have tuned out.
What in the fuck are people – especially John McCain, who has seemed at times like a decent man – thinking? Surely, there must be some grown ups in the Republican Party that see this is a train wreck (I’m a frequent Metrolink Rider; ridden that LA to Moorpark Route many times, but that’s the saying even though it hurts to type it) speeding down the tracks and can’t have a happy ending if McCain is elected (that is bad enough) and then dies (say it without screaming, I dare you … President Sarah Palin).
Barbar
In the last two weeks, McCain:
1) has decided to copy Obama’s message of “change”
2) has selected a very untested VP candidate with a 17-year-old unmarried pregnant daughter, who has some looming corruption issues over her head
3) has gone on a lying spree so bad that he got called on it by the hosts of “The View”
While it’s true that all this has coincided with very favorable poll movements, this still looks to me like a stock with bad fundamentals experiencing a short-term rise.
Time will tell, of course.
By the way, that Planned Parenthood ad on McCain is absolutely incredible. It’s like someone just came in and body-slammed the playground bully.
D. Mason
It takes a pretty callous person to ignore the distinction between lazy and overwhelmed. Electoral fraud is a large problem among many large and small problems that make up our total system of government. The rules of government and politics are gamed from top to bottom in a way that keeps the “common man” out. Out of the loop, out of power, and out of luck. It’s a sick system that allows ivy league carpetbaggers like Bush and slick manipulators like Palin to score millions of votes simply by pretending to be some working mans hero. They kick up such a swarm of confusion and controversy that no one can get a bead on who they really are so they become the main focus of the political dialogue. The other candidates on the ticket get drowned out.
Honestly, what can a person who only has a couple of hours downtime per day do?
Laura W
I worked at a Denny’s in Fresno, CA, for a few of the most hellish, and humiliating, months in my life.
ME for VP!
Rome Again
That woman is high.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Rome Again,
I have high, high hopes that this is the start of a trend, but I’m not ready to bank on it yet. Almost all of the criticism of McCain in the MSM thus far has been from print media rather than TV, and readership has been declining for years. I don’t expect many of the late breaking undecided voters to be heavy readers – probably the heaviest blow coming against the GOP ticket from the print media thus far with this group is the National Enquirer going after Gov. Palin.
That is why I brought up The View as a counterexample of the non-political press going after McCain. If he loses TV, then he will be in deep trouble.
Napoleon
I contributed to the Obama campaign and listed my line of work as attorney when I did an have gotten several e-mails, one letter and a call at work (which I didn’t take and they didn’t leave a message) from the Obama campaign asking me, as an attorney, to act as a poll observer or some other capacity on election day.
Off topic, did you see John Dickerson used Krista’s moon/astronaut quip in his piece on Slate yesterday.
Brian J
Has he officially OKed outside advertising by groups like PP and 527s, or are they just doing it in their own?
Rome Again
TLTIABQ,
I agree, BUT, I have a theory. Hear me out:
I think CFR sees a risky venture in Palin and THAT is why you’re seeing things happening in print media and eventually, I think it’s going to spillover into tv eventually. I truly think they are going to have a hard time keeping it under wraps. Remember the media are also members of CFR. I think this is a decision coming down from above that this insanity must be stopped.
I am thinking though that we need a “female re-education initiative” (and I say this as a female), the idea that “I don’t really have a clue what her views are but I know I like her” is absolutely an idiotic reason to put someone in the highest of executive offices (and yes, with McCain’s age, she could be president – God forbid!). I think if we lose this vote, it will be from women who were too stupid to see a ruse and voted because they wanted a bit of power*.
Sarah Palin is not power, she is unprepared for this level of responsibility and she is a dominionist, which means she is psychotic and putting her in office will bring nothing but destruction, both to women, and to the entire world.
*Cue people saying we should have picked Hillary – no, we shouldn’t have. Even though McCain is playing this game of division, I still wouldn’t vote for Hillary, even though I’m happy with the role she has recently decided to play in the Obama campaign.
LiberalTarian
Well, let’s take a current event example. People were warned to evacuate before Ike or “face certain death.” Some 90,000 stayed put. I would have evacuated, but they didn’t. Incomprehensible to me, but people will do incomprehensible things given a choice.
At least 40% of the voting public are going to vote for McCain. I think it’s bizarre, but it’s going to happen. We do want to win this thing, and it’ll take clear heads and tenacity to see this thing through to the end. Obama is trying to be very careful not to let the GOP get under his skin (never let them see you sweat). If you are really a poll junkie, well, try to balance it by doing what you can to get someone you know to register and vote Democratic ticket on November 4.
It is weird that frothing crazy seems to work for the GOP. It doesn’t work for us. Of course, that’s why I will never vote GOP, right?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
CFR? Not sure what that is. Council on Foreign Relations?
I think that the elite foreign policy establishment (including their MSM pundit proxies), and probably some of the big business fiscal conservatives have to be quietly shitting bricks in fear and loathing over the Palin nom. right now, and aren’t sure how to react or what to do about it.
If your point is that McCain is losing the Serious People in the media because of Gov. Palin’s obvious unfitness for POTUS (and McCain’s age/health making that likely) then I agree with you. But I don’t know if they have the guts to call McCain out for it in a way which will help swing the election to Obama.
Notorious P.A.T.
That’s the Karl Rove Technique, though. Deny reality, invent your own. “Our opponent is a war hero? Let’s pass out purple heart bandaids! “Our candidate is stupid? Let’s present him as an everyman!”
PeterJ
Unless I’m wrong (and I often am), he can’t officially say anything about 527s, that would be coordinating with them, and that’s a big no no. But it has been a lot of reporting lately that unofficially the Obama campaign has been reversing their previous stand on 527s.
Rome Again
Yes you are. ;)
Brachiator
But wait…there’s more. Another part of the Times UK column notes:
There it is. It doesn’t matter that Palin may be incompetent. It doesn’t matter that Obama and the Democrats may have better answers to America’s problems. It only matters who is “one of us,” and who is … “different.”
Meanwhile, having bashed the press for its lack of deference to Palin and bragging about how necessary it was to restrict press access to her, now the Big Lie Machine has shifted gears again:
To state the obvious: The McCain team is happy with their lies and smears, and with Palin’s interview answers. They are also betting that the press will be more interested in boosting their ratings with positive Palin coverage as opposed to anything resembling an investigation of her actual record.
And best of all, the Palin Celebrity Rollout will push almost all coverage of Obama and Biden onto the back pages.
Notorious P.A.T.
You sexist! We should ban this guy for callin Sarah Palin a “pig”!
LiberalTarian
If you can’t draw a crowd, do you really expect to win?
PeterJ
Obama will not appear on SNL due to Ike.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
If they’re betting on that, they must also be betting the house on the Bengals winning the Super Bowl. I think it says a lot that following the Gibson interview they’ve gone straight to Fox.
Brian J
You have to wonder if this is mostly genuine support or mostly people wondering who the hell she is. I’d bet considerable sums of money that she got such a large tune in for her speech at the convention, for instance, because nobody knew much about her. If her large crowds are mostly the result of curiosity, then perhaps she’s not going to have much of an effect on the race.
LiberalTarian
Did you see Obama’s “Change needs to be more than a slogan” ad?
Notorious P.A.T.
The word is, he had told the 527s to back off, but in the past week gave them his blessing to start firing. For what it’s worth, Olbermann said that 2 of the 3 biggest ones are liberal organizations.
It -would- work for us, but how the hell would we govern? How would the Clinton years have turned out if he never “blinked”, instead going with his gut? We would probably have nuked Somalia.
Rome Again
I think we’re beginning to see it happen in print. I think it will continue and grow. I’m willing to go out on a limb and say “I truly believe they are going to do what they can to stop this”.
One thing that is on our side, while I believe in democratic principles, I’m certainly glad we elect via an electoral college. Mixed into that group of electors are people that CFR can communicate with and get them to realize what they’re doing if they elect a Palin ticket (and let’s be honest here, we ARE talking about a Palin ticket, the people who support Palin are only supporting McCain because he picked her, they would be more than happy to see McCain drop dead soon after inauguration day).
While I would normally think this sort of influence is not a good thing, in this case, I think it might actually save us from insanity this time (and I’ll probably never second guess an electoral college ever again after this election). McCain has jumped the shark and we need the electoral college to set this sinking ship back to rights. We don’t have to win millions of Palin-addled crazies who have no clue what they’re doing, we need 270 smart electors.
Brian J
I wouldn’t be banking on that solution. There’s a reason the electors are who they are. If Palin is enough of a lightweight to cause people who are selected by the Republicans to vote for the Republicans in the EC to vote against her, then I doubt she’ll be elected with McCain.
Oracle
Do you really think Obama can make up an electoral college deficit with faithless electors?
Dennis - SGMM
Posted this on the thread below. I hope it bears repeating:
McCain’s ads widely flagged for distorting Obama stances
“If you and the Obama campaign…” In other words, anyone who questions McCain’s lies is just working for Obama.
AkaDad
It really does take a maverick to pick Palin, who requested more earmarks than any other Governor, then run a campaign on earmark reform.
Stuck in the Fun House
I’m beginning to wonder if we will survive this election. And I thought George Bush was full of shit. No one is telling the truth about any fucking thing. Everything is in code. Some of which I understand, but most not. The woman Quoted above has found her chickenshit excuse for not voting for the negro man who she would ordinarily vote for, if in the bone white edition. Others will find different excuses. Obama had better have one kick ass GOTV machine, if not, he’s likely not going to win. There I said it. I’ll be stuck here forever.
Rome Again
Yes, I do. The electors are faithless to the people (that’s why we have a popular election vote count and an electoral vote count), they are not faithless to those who run the power machine. CFR is a huge influence on this election.
I normally wouldn’t be trumpeting this consideration, but I think it may save us this time.
Eric
That ad needs to be everywhere, all the time.
bago
CFR? Communist Fucking Rebels! HOW DARE YOU SIR!
Martin
Once again, we don’t have a national election, therefore national polls are pointless. We have 50 statewide elections. Focus on those. 538.com is what matters.
Eric
Better, but too many big words for the moose-hunting crowd.
ThymeZone
In its first day of operation, the new Phoenix headquarters of Obama for President counted 3000 visitors, people streaming in to volunteer, donate, get materials, connect with other supporters.
That was Thursday. The new office is two miles from the Phoenix condo that is McCain’s main “residence” when he is not in Washington or Sedona. In McCain’s home territory, where McCain bumper stickers are rarely seen, and nobody but nobody talks up their enthusiasm for McCain’s candidacy.
Obama will win this election, for the simple reason that a huge number of people, invisible to the pollmeisters and the pundits, are organizing and working and making phone calls and registering voters in record numbers, and getting ready for a massive GOTV operation. If you don’t believe me, drop in to your local Obama headquarters and see for yourself.
Politics works on the street, not on the blogs. Get out on the street and do something. We will out-vote the idiots where it counts, at the polls, on Election Day.
Brachiator
You do realize, don’t you, that there are people for whom the Essence of Journalism is Limbaugh, Fox News and the Drudge Report?
McCain is counting on the fact that many voters don’t care about the Serious People in the Media. They are, after all, part of the elite (unless of course, they are in your back pocket).
This is a good point. And we can easily refer to recent history on this one. When Bush nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, Serious People in the media — and the Republican Party leadership — rebelled. Hugh Hewitt proved that he was a Republican lapdog by announcing that Bush’s choice would be hailed as the best ever, but Serious Person George Will was relentlessly dismissive of the idea that Bush would select an incompetent loyalist to be a Supreme Court Justice.
Most of the Serious People have either been silent or supportive on the issue of the Palin Selection. Some have even disavowed their own words when they are caught on an open microphone criticizing McCain’s decision to choose Palin to be his running mate.
What else do you need to know?
cain
D. Mason,
All I’m asking is that we spend 15 minutes to write a strongly worded letter (ha!) to the secretary of state saying that we’re not taking any kind of bullshit. A shit storm of letters will make that person very wary and send a strong signal to Republicans that we aren’t going to take this crap.
We’re talking about making sure that voters are not being de-franchised. If you’ve been de-franchised in 2004, it’s your duty to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Especially when your economic and social health is at possible risk.
To vote is most patriotic thing you can do for your country. Support the troops, support your president, whatever. But by the gods, make sure that you have the right to influence the direction in this country good or bad.
I might have been unfair to use the word ‘lazy’ but certainly needs to take voting to be serious and worth taking some extra time from their few hours of downtime to ensure they can.
cain
LiberalTarian
AmericaBlog is on fire today. And, through them, I saw this ad. “John McCain says he refuses to define honor, maybe that’s because honor no longer defines John McCain.”
I agree with TZ. The public is on fire to elect who they want this year, not who the fundies tell us we should want.
D. Mason
Shorter Stuck in the Fun House: Unless you vote for Obama you’re a member of the KKK.
photonaton
Just look at the first half of this Drezner thread (before the knee-jerk wingnuts show up). There seem to be a fair number of seemingly serious and intelligent folks arguing that Palin is OK. I think those in that thread arguing that Palin is OK are wrong and/or cynical, but they are making arguments whose rebuttal require at least some thought. She may be a dolt, but she is THEIR dolt, and she will make a great marionette.
The Republicans in the Wall Street/Think Tank/Foreign Policy establishment probably think she can be manipulated in their favor, with short-term downside risks no worse that W’s 8 years (that is to say, they made a lot of hay and are still alive to enjoy it). Long term? They may not care or think much about that. I doubt many of them experienced first-hand the last major seismically active period in this country (1929-1945). It may take another such lengthy “national bull market” before enough of them rediscover those lessons. Same goes for the average village numbnuts making up a large portion of the greater populace.
Rome Again
The Republicans are much more communist than Liberals are these days (notice I didn’t say the Conservatives are, because they’re not Conservative at all!).
This election could drive me to drink, I think:
1. we have liberals acting more conservative than those who call themselves conservatives
2. we have a soft spoken black senator who people are afraid of, but they’re happy to place their future in a small-town mayor/small-state governor who is untested, loudmouthed, evangelical and female
3. a man who has prided himself on being honorable and long time senator lying his ass off, suddenly changing all of his stances and using every trick he can figure to win apparently gaining votes of people who don’t even normally vote for his party’s platform
4. crossover votes on both sides with those for Obama saying “I’m done because I learned my lesson” while those for McCain say “I don’t know what they stand for but I like his VP”?
OMFG!
This really is the strangest election I’ve ever witnessed. Can anyone think of one that was anywhere near this crazy?
But, how many McCain/Palin signs and stickers are people seeing out there? Reports I’ve seen have said not many.
Now there is a report above that McCain isn’t bringing in the number of crowds…
I wouldn’t be surprised if most of this hype is still part of the GOP ratfucker operation and these people reporting always having voted Dem and voting for Palin this time aren’t true democrats at all.
Where are the visual signs the GOP has it in the bag? Polls? I’ve never been called for a poll. How many of you have?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I think the David Gergen/George Will branch of the GOP punditocracy have more fear and loathing going on behind the scenes that this. I’d guess that at this point they really don’t want McCain to win and produce a Palin administration, but they are hoping to thread the needle by expressing just enough muted outrage and hrrumpphing over McCain’s campaign to help Obama squeak out a very narrow win which will leave him no surplus political capital with which to start dismantling the DC establishment.
Basically they see both campaigns as mortal threats to their power and perks, and would prefer that they both lose. A tie would be the next best thing, which means either a crippled Obama administration, or a McCain/Palin administration held in gridlock by a Democratic Congress, but I think they are too wise to the ways of DC to count on the latter. They know that if pushed, the Dems in Congress will roll over. That means side with Obama, but not enough to make it a landslide.
I fear that they may cut this game too close and blow it, allowing McCain to pull off a close victory. If Obama’s GOTV network can save us from that outcome, we should all get down on our knees and kiss the ground they walk on.
Much better yet, get involved, as TZ points out above. Every vote is going to count in this one, and Palin has upped the ante from “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” (a country that has no nukes) to “bomb, bomb, bomb Russia” (which does).
Rome Again
Let’s go… when? By the way, I saw your bumper sticker yesterday, did you happen to get me one? ;)
Stuck in the Fun House
Do you think the people are sincere , by quoting Obama’s faith as a reason to not vote for him . Or any of the other bullshit excuses for not voting Democratic which they said they were planning to do anyway. Everyone in the country knows things are fucked up and they blame the GOP correctly, but now are going to vote for the same old shit because Obama might not be Christian enough, or GOP VP is a woman. There are a lot of right leaning folks who will vote for Mccain because of ideology, and that’s OK. But democrats who swallow the shit that”s floating around on Obama, not so nuch. And I didn’t call them racists, because they are likely coming more from racial anxiety than racism. There is a difference.
If you do believe that, you’re an idiot, the longer version.
ThymeZone
I had to beg for ten minutes and piss off a whole bunch of people just to get that one. I think they finally gave it to me to get me out of there. There is a nationwide shortage and they just don’t have very many. Anybody in Phoenix wants to beg a bumper sticker, the office is on the southwest corner of 6th street and Roosevelt.
Buena suerte!
AkaDad
Fun Fact: The middle class will pay more taxes under McCain’s tax policy.
Brian J
You say “earmark,” she says “link between communities.”
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I’m old enough to remember when teh Left had actual honest-to-god Communists. I used to get into arguments (from a Kennedy/Truman liberal viewpoint) with them when I was in high school and college. When I was in college some idiot actually plastered campus with posters celebrating the anniversary of Stalin’s birth (and this mind you was after The Gulag Archipelago had come out in paperback and was a best seller).
Those people are long gone except as an endangered species on the Democratic side, and yet since the fall of the Soviet Union a whole bunch of other folks who talk exactly the same way, using the same dry sociological abstractions and mystical appeals to the spirit of history, and with the same authoritarian and personality cult BS, have suddenly popped up on the Right.
The authoritarian nuts have all migrated over to the Right, and taken over the GOP in the process, since being a Communist isn’t any fun anymore. That’s my theory.
Two words: Susan Eisenhower
There is one party of care and prudence and competency in this country, and it ain’t the GOP.
There is one party which has been taken over by a bunch of would-be revolutionaries who sound like Trotskyites and couldn’t run a McDonald’s right if their lives depended on it, and it ain’t the Democratic Party.
My latest slogan:
Electing Republicans to run the government is like hiring a bunch of Vegans to run a steakhouse. They don’t believe in it, and the inevitable result is burnt meat, angry customers, and money missing from the cash register.
Brian J
I hope. I think this might be the one area where they will never catch up and surpass us, but I’m curious, does the selection of Palin mean that they were going to kick the old GOP GOTV machine into gear? Even if they want to, is enough of the infrastructure still in place to make up for all of the lost time that McCain wasted this summer?
Put it this way: I’m confident that even if Obama loses, it won’t be by a lot. A loss is still a loss, and that would suck worse than a number of things, but my gut tells me Obama’s machine is quite strong. I just don’t want to place too much emphasis on the campaign infrastructure and GOTV efforts while other things are going wrong. Remember that in 2004, Kerry’s information on election day told him he was breaking turnout records in every district, and he still lost, because the other side did it better. I don’t want to be burned like that again.
photonaton
At this point, I would take that result.
And to think, up until a few weeks ago I was expecting quite a bit more.
Richard Bottoms
Maybe this will make you feel better.
She flat out lied about visiting Iraq.
D. Mason
I don’t claim to be clairvoyant and therefore cannot know their motivations. The laws of probably pretty much guarantee that some people will change their stance on who to vote for based on factors other than race. It would be pretty arrogant of someone to assume otherwise and then to denigrate people based on that assumption. The screeds of a person who had made that erroneous and insulting assumption would also be off-putting to those still on the fence.
LiberalTarian
Time for some funny.
iluvsummr
Greenspan Says McCain Tax Plan Needs Corresponding Budget Cuts
Stuck in the Fun House
First off, it’s not a screed. It’s my opinion based on my living experience of growing up in a trailer park in Eastern Kentucky somewhere between poor and just getting by. These people are decent folks, but they are just afraid of people who are too different than them. This is not a secret. I watched a segment on CNN a week or so ago where it was talked about openly that some white people who where not racists, but were also not ready to put a black man in the White House. It’s just reality, and if there are those Democratic leaning people (that I was referring to) sitting on the fence in this election, in these times, then maybe should shit or get off the pot. And BTW, DO NOT put words in my mouth (ie KKK). Regards from the Funhouse.
ThymeZone
Accuracy counts. More per capita, not more total.
But even with the qualifier, it makes her a craven liar.
iluvsummr
As others have said repeatedly – Obama is not Kerry, and this is not 2004. Kerry did not have 2 million donors and could never have contemplated forgoing public financing. I think that there are enough people who realize what’s at stake this time and who are donating their time, in addition to their money. Yes, there are obstacles that Obama has to face but he’s known about them for a while and is good at planning. Take a minute to really think about how he beat Clinton in the primaries. It was no fluke. Take a minute to think about why McCain has changed his campaign strategy in such a cynical way (doesn’t strike me as a tactic of someone who’s confident he’ll win). The Republicans were never going to roll over without a fight. That’s okay, it will make winning in November all the sweeter (even if we sometimes feel like we’re going to have heart attacks along the way).
The Other Steve
It’s funny. I was terrified McCain was going to pick Pawlenty.
Thank you Sarah! you’re the gift that keeps on giving!
iluvsummr
Obama’s Fundraising Machine Still Rolling as Campaign Stays Coy
JD
It is shocking as to what level of absurdity McCain/Palin have taken this campaign to. Unfortunately it has become so ridiculous that no one, including the press, seems to know how to respond. Their lies are so blatant but they keep repeating them on the premise that the voters they are trying to bait are so incredibly uninformed that you could tell them the moon was made of blue cheese and they’d think that there must be at least SOME truth to it. I agree that while the print media has begun to express the complete absurdity and horror over the sleaziness and blatant lies of the McCain campaign, the TV media has yet to show the same journalistic integrity. It’s frightening but I think the McCain campaign will ultimately implode due to this unprecedented level of lying. There are too many serious people who love this country too much to let this continue. There are too many serious people who love this country too much to know what a devastating scenario having the uninformed, scandal-ridden, fringe radical Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency. Also, the Obama campaign has proven to be incredibly smart and adept at running a grassroots campaign of enormous size.
What I’d like to see is Obama do another large-scale speech like he’s done in the past about race and patriotism when those (ridiculously) became the campaign issues/noise. This time the theme would have to do with honesty/integrity and the need for the campaigns to be about issues. It should of course be uplifting and smart like his previous ones but it also needs to have a lot of bite with clear stabs at the McCain/Palin campaign strategy of lying and ignoring the real issues.
AkaDad
I was going to add that, but it seemed kind of long as it was, so I left it out.
I agree that accuracy matters.
D. Mason
Woops, it appears you’re not quite familiar with all internet traditions.
Stuck in the Fun House
Yes, I know what the shorter tradition means. But using KKK to disagree was not accurate. How’s this then, You can say anything you like and I can tell you to shove it, or vice versa. It’s my favorite Internet Tradition.
D. Mason
Yeah, that’s how it normally works.
AkaDad
I think we’re starting to see a trend here.
bago
In the words of Stephen Colbert.
RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I think we’re starting to see a trend here.
Did you click on the link at the top of the “most emailed” list at that same St. Petersburg Times site?
GOP: it’s just like high school
Granted, it’s Garrison Keillor, who is about as likely to help out McCain as anybody’s chances of putting actual lipstick on a real life pig without getting bitten or kicked, but still:
and regarding our favorite VP nominee:
Yikes, that’s gonna leave a mark.
gil mann
Damn, I thought I was good at concern-trolling, but that shames my entire output during Whostrigsrealmomgate.
More to the point, fence-sitters who make up their minds based on what strangers say on comment threads at rabidly partisan blogs are, if not outright cryptids, rare enough that we probably don’t have to worry overmuch about their impact.
jbarntt
Hi John Cole, you said this:
And then there is this:
(I’ll snip your rant and talking points)
What there is is a weak, inexperienced Democrat running at best even against his opponent in a year that should be a blowout for his party. That McCain is even in shouting range of winning this thing should tell you a lot about your party.
I guess the big question is whether Obama can beat Palin ;), he’s sure trying hard. We’ll see if can put lipstick on that pig.
jbarntt
The Other Steve Says:
When are the fucking debates?
Not sure, but with Palin in the mix the “fucking debates” are a hell of a lot more interesting than if McCain had chose Romney.
Feel free to disagree.
Laura W
I moved to a small town in western NC almost two years ago. Granted, it’s an hour from Asheville, Obama Country, but for all my expectations about how conservative this town might be (and hugely white), and how really conservative (AFFLUENT and MEGA WHITE) the two towns to my west are, the ONLY McCain bumper sticker I can recall seeing was literally the day the drilling shit began. “Drill Here! Drill Now! Drill Holes in your Head!” or whatever their slogan was. I saw it on Main St. and LOL’d. It was not only funny, but the news had all just broken. How did they do that so fast?
Not a day goes by when I’m in town that I don’t see at least one Obama or O/B bumper sticker. If I weren’t such a pathetic slacker, I’d get in the car right now and drive 35 minutes west to Cashiers, one of those very AFFLUENT towns, where there is a get-to-know-you Ofest about to begin.
t jasper parnel
It seems that John McCain owes more to Sarah Palin than meets the eye. It the days of yore, DC Insider McCain worried about experience and whatnot when thinking about running the free world. Now, like Sarah, he realizes that experience is overrated and insiderish. Consider:
This is great news for John McCain’s childhood pal Sydney B Whackenfoos whose long term love of lead soldiers bodes well for the Department of Defense.
jbarntt
This is great news for John McCain’s childhood pal Sydney B Whackenfoos whose long term love of lead soldiers bodes well for the Department of Defense.
Care to translate that into ordinary English ?
t jasper parnel
This, from the link above, bodes well for those who find Bush’s transparency and honesty refreshing:
t jasper parnel
No, I don’t care to, you uppity elitist you, casting aspersions on the ordinariness of an ordinary joe like me. What is it with you danged liberals with your hatred of the ordinary ordinaries like me who just want to live in the land of the Free where any POW or Hockey Mom regardless of intellectual or emotional fitness, judgment or experience can rise from the muck and mire of everyday ordinariness and become, through an ordinary disdain for the truth and common decency and become the first female president and the oldest man ever to be vice president. Particularly when there is even more to cheer about and for when Palin/McCain take power:
TenguPhule
One of the stupid religious bigots who accept their chains with joy.
jbarntt
But, how many McCain/Palin signs and stickers are people seeing out there? Reports I’ve seen have said not many.
Only one, and vastly outnumbered by the Obama ones. But I do live in the peeps republic of Portland.
AFFLUENT and MEGA WHITE
Gotta watch out for ’em, they’re the sort who’ll mug you or even worse. I hate going to their part of town, it’s so unsafe. I prefer the “IMPOVERISHED and MEGA BLACK” part of town. Good to know discrimination is still alive in the party of Th. Jefferson.
jbarntt
No, I don’t care to, you uppity elitist you, casting aspersions on the ordinariness of an ordinary joe like me.
(snip)
Particularly when there is even more to cheer about and for when Palin/McCain take power:
Nice snark of course, but I am not a liberal. I do understand that you are and that you regard being elected president/veep is to “take power”. I’m an American and view the presidency as a powerful office, but also a limited one, as defined in the constitution. Oh, I mean the one ratified in 1788, and as amended, not the living document one.
As to you being an ordinary joe, maybe, or maybe you’re just an ordinary Democrat collecting welfare. The least you could do is thank me for my forced contribution to your meal ticket.
t jasper parnel
I think you meant steeps of the Republic of Poland. Except it doesn’t have any steeps. Even and ordinary joe like me knows that. What is it with you liberals and geography? Plus and also you are probably a commie too given your that all your dachas or yurts are located in Eastern Europe, which as we all know Putin of Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, and formerly formerly the Russian Empire, has taken over ’cause the liberal punk George Bush didn’t take POW McCain’s advice and defend the Georgia from the cossacks and now the Georgians have to sack Atlanta.
t jasper parnel
Yeah? Then why do you live in Poland?
I am glad that myrmidons of the Palin/McCain campaign held you by your liberal heels and shook some change from your pockets. But I reject in the highest possible terms any suggestion that Palin giving me that job as the Alaska representative to the IPHC was a “meal ticket.” Not only have I gone fishing but I have the largest aquarium of all her high school friends. And I have eaten halibut in various restaurants.
Brachiator
It’s not that people are uninformed. They clearly don’t care. McCain is surrounded by the glow of the POW, Palin bathed in the shimmer of sexy Christian hockey mom.
Palin may have wacky religious views. Her supporters don’t care.
Palin may be associated with wild-eyed Alaska separatists. Her husband was a member of the club and Palin spoke to them in 2008. It’s even on video. Her supporters don’t care.
Palin knows less about foreign and national affairs than the average 5th grader. Her supporters don’t care.
Her own answers — the words out of her own mouth — failed to address the simple question, “How will you help people keep their homes and their jobs?” She only offered standard GOP platitudes: cut taxes and eliminate government regulations.
And the latest polls over on 538 show an electoral victory for McCain.
I don’t think that anyone gives a rat’s ass what David Gergen wants, nor do I see that the GOP punditocracy have the power to fine tune an Obama victory. This sounds as fantastical as the claims that Hillary Clinton is quietly working on her 2012 comeback (and the prospect of Sarah Palin becoming the first woman president is the definitive nail in the coffin of all Clinton Comeback theories).
This is absurd because it simply cannot happen. How could both McCain and Obama lose? What? You’re projecting a Ron Paul victory?
As an aside, McCain plays the Maverick in campaign ads, but is pulling in big bucks from the usual suspects, the GOP fat cats. He has always had the establishment locked up. And what circles do you think he and his heiress wife travel in? With Palin, McCain has picked up money from the evangelicals, but this is icing on the GOP Establishment camp.
In what alternate universe can an electoral tie occur? The Constitution spells out the means of resolving electoral deadlocks (and there’s always the Supreme Court).
In other words, someone is going to win.
Obama could win by the slimmest of margins, and there would still be a good chance that the way that Congress does business will change to some degree. And current polls show the Democrats gaining an advantage in Congress, which again works to Obama’s advantage.
On the other hand, if Obama does not win, Pelosi and the lame-ass Democratic leadership will fall back on their old ways and look for every opportunity to surrender to a McCain Administration.
A win is a win. Bush used the results of a stolen election and turned it into a mandate to practically suspend the Constitution.
TV media abandoned journalistic integrity a long time ago. Note how ABC’s 20/20 roundtable analysis of Palin’s interview was a slapdash piece of bullshit with George Stephanopolous (and 2 women to avoid charges of sexism) that lasted all of — what? — 5 minutes. But it sure was good infotainment.
There ain’t no such thing as too much lying if sufficient numbers of people are willing to buy into it.
For some, fear is stronger than love. Some believe that a POW will bring a victory over Al Queda. Just look at how tough he is! It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t really have a plan nor demonstrated any high level military expertise. He’s so tough, that apparently some people believe that McCain could start a war with Russia and magically shrug off a nuclear attack.
And apparently some believe that intelligence and competence no longer matter when you have the security blanket of a hockey mom’s bland assurances to keep them safe.
Some people don’t want smart or serious. They want a primitive, non-thinking, intuitive response. Hang tough and kick ass.
These people yearn for simple answers. And McCain/Palin is giving these people exactly what they want.
Obama has won many people over. He has to find a way to make his message a simple and direct appeal to the hearts of holdouts.
It may not be easy. But I don’t think it impossible. Which reminds me, I have to go and make a donation now.
jbarntt
Yeah? Then why do you live in Poland?
Poland is a fine country, they’re working with us on missile defense, (and by us I mean Americans), but I am not a Pole. Not sure where you got that idea.
Not only have I gone fishing but I have the largest aquarium of all her high school friends. And I have eaten halibut in various restaurants.
I’ve eaten halibut in various restaurants too. Some were better than others. A good recipe, and easy to make at home is halibut alyeska.
jbarntt
I think you meant steeps of the Republic of Poland. Except it doesn’t have any steeps. Even and ordinary joe like me knows that. What is it with you liberals and geography? Plus and also you are probably a commie too given your that all your dachas or yurts are located in Eastern Europe, which as we all know Putin of Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, and formerly formerly the Russian Empire, has taken over ‘cause the liberal punk George Bush didn’t take POW McCain’s advice and defend the Georgia from the cossacks and now the Georgians have to sack Atlanta.
Get back to me when the meth wears off.
t jasper parnell
Just like like a liberal. When confronted with an unassailable argument you ignore it. NOw; I; have; to ;go; ’cause; long; day; of; defending; the; HOckey; Mom/POW; ticket; has; broken ;my; keyboard,; hence; all; the; extra; and; unnecessary; ;s
jbarntt
Hi t jasper parnell,
Dude, you forgot about the halibut. Alyeska, it’s the way to go. Give it a try. Tasty and easy to cook.
Goes good with moose burgers !
Laura W
jbarntt Says:
Sigh.
I guess you’re “talking” at me, although your point is obtuse.
My point was…for all the yak about how conservative, white, rich, elitist, southern, non-diversified, non-progressive, racially “challenged” this area is supposed to be, the number of Obama stickers to McCain stickers is massive. And gratifying. Along with the enormous GOTV and grassroots community organizing and feel-good get togethers.
Now please leave me alone and go play with the people who like to fight in comment threads. I am fresh out of White Rock Diet Tonic with Splenda and am slumming with Diet 7-Up with Aspartame. I already have a major headache and am just +2. I know you don’t want to make it worse for me.
Cheers!
jbarntt
Obama has won many people over. He has to find a way to make his message a simple and direct appeal to the hearts of holdouts.
Obama has won over those who expect him to transfer the wealth of others to them. He needs to find a message that will appeal to idiots who wish to have their wealth taken by force.
It may not be easy. But I don’t think it impossible. Which reminds me, I have to go and make a donation now.
It is a tough argument to make, but not impossible. The key is to tell everyone that they will get someone else’s money, and won’t have their own taken away. It’s a P. T. Barnum argument.
Why make a donation ? When Obama is president your “donation” will be enforced by law. Oh, sorry, I forgot. That won’t apply to you.
Brachiator
OOOH. You just done brought a knife to a gun fight. I blog for fun, but I know a shitload about the tax system. It’s my freakin’ job.
The Bush Administration has engineered one of the biggest transfers of wealth in history from the poor and the middle class to segments of the wealthy. I’ll try to make this simple for you by just looking at the recent stimulus “rebates.”
The total cost of the rebates increase the deficits. Whose gonna pay for it? Workers.
The rebates are supposed to be an advance on your 2008 refund. But if you have no tax liability in 2008, and no refund, you get to keep the rebate. Whose gonna make up the difference? Other workers.
People on Social Security who do not have a tax liability and who do not even have to file a tax return get a rebate. Where does this money come from? Workers.
I mentioned before in another thread that a family of 4 who get $250,000 in income from capital gains pay $36,000 less in taxes than would that same family of 4 if their income all came from wages.
And in 2008 the tax on the first amounts of capital gains earned will be 0%. Zero. Zed. Nought. The same is not true for the ordinary guy just working for a living, or who even managed to sock away some savings in the bank.
Meanwhile the deficits increase and the Iraq war has to be paid somehow.
And don’t give me crap about how the rich create jobs. Never been true.
And all those bailouts to reimburse subprime CEOS for playing with other people’s money — uh, I mean, “stabilize financial markets.” By any definition, this is a transfer of wealth from the majority of taxpayers to a wealthy few.
Former New York Times reporter David Cay Johnson elaborates on the war on the middle class in two books very accessible to the lay person, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich–and Cheat Everybody Else and Free Lunch: How the wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves At Government Expense and Stick You With the Bill. In a past interview hosted by Forbes Magazine, Johnson noted:
But thanks for helping make my point. The Republicans rape the citizens and people like you crawl out from under rocks to try to convince them that it felt good.
Rome Again
What a great analogy. It would be hilarious if it weren’t also true.
Tax Analyst
So YOU were the one who screwed up my order.
snark.
Tax Analyst
Hey, that last part about missing money was uncalled for. They might burn your meat and piss off your customers (especially if Chrissie Hynde is one of the vegans running your restaurant), but there is no reason to assume they would steal money from the register…you must be thinking of Republican office holders.
Tax Analyst
Brachiator, isn’t it great when some fool throws a weak fastball right into your wheelhouse? (Disclaimer: I know Brachiator professionally. He’s top-notch)
Glad to find out it wasn’t your train in that horrible Metrolink mess yesterday, though I am still saddened at hearing so many people were killed or harmed in it.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Brachiator,
In case you haven’t noticed, these people spend a lot more time on TV telling anyone who is foolish enough to tune in what is going on with our politics than the likes of Rachel Maddow.
This probably doesn’t matter much, since nobody in this country makes serious decisions (such as how to vote in a major election) based on what the blathering idiots on the TV have to say. Especially not the so-called “low information” voters, aka people who remain undecided until 24-48 hours before they go to the polls. The reason it takes them so long to make up their minds is that they are busy downloading position papers from all the candidates and studying the fine print in all the legislation that’s been proposed by both sides. More broadband please, those .PDF files are taking too long!
/sarcasm
I’m curious – when you yourself are attempting to describe (and satirize) the thought processes of other people who are plainly irrational (like our media pundits for example), do you tidy up everthing so it all makes sense? Which sort of ruins the whole point.
Or do you not get the concept that what I was describing is not how I think, but my interpretation of how our foreign policy and fiscal policy elites see themselves as under siege from both the Democratic side (via Obama’s campaigning against the traditional entrenched Washington culture) and now also from the Republican side as well via Palin and the theo-cons (who in the past have been asked to show up to vote for the GOP but not to expect a seat at the table of power – see David Kuo for example)?
Your rants are very enjoyable to read, but sometimes you get so wound up you don’t seem to be capable of hearing any of the nuance, sarcasm, irony, or indirect references that other people put in their comments here. Try not to take everything so literally, eh?
jbarntt
I know you don’t want to make it worse for me.
I don’t, I wish you the best.
Cheers!
And Cheers to you Laura W
jbarntt
You just done brought a knife to a gun fight.
No, I brought an A4 Skyhawk to a gunfight.
The total cost of the rebates increase the deficits.
Funny thing is I oppose these rebates. Just another attempt by politicians to buy my vote.
I mentioned before in another thread that a family of 4 who get $250,000 in income from capital gains pay $36,000 less in taxes than would that same family of 4 if their income all came from wages.
Yes, the income tax is stupid, but if we have to have it then taking a risk should be rewarded. The family that made money because of a good investment might just as easily lost money through a bad one.
Meanwhile the deficits increase and the Iraq war has to be paid somehow.
You are correct, spending must be reduced. Large chunks of the Federal budget should be deep sixed
And don’t give me crap about how the rich create jobs. Never been true.
My evidence is only anecdotal, but I’ve never been hired by a welfare bum.
And all those bailouts to reimburse subprime CEOS for playing with other people’s money—uh, I mean, “stabilize financial markets.” By any definition, this is a transfer of wealth from the majority of taxpayers to a wealthy few.
I agree, they made bad investments, let ’em go broke. Same with home owners who rolled the dice on mortgages. I don’t want my money going to bail out someone else’s bad decisions.
The Republicans rape the citizens and people like you crawl out from under rocks to try to convince them that it felt good.
A thoughtful comment, and I will give it all the consideration it deserves.
Brachiator
I was clear on the concept. I just thought that you were weak on the execution.
That you oppose something that is a fait accompli is like saying that you don’t like the color of the sky. You also evade the point that the rebate was pushed by the Bush Administration. Republicans.
Wrong again. While it is OK to say that the free market should reward risk, it is irrational to say that the tax system should also do so. In my hypothetical example, the family with $250,000 could have made it all from holding rental property. And yet you want to say that the money earned from capital gains should be rewarded more highly than money earned investing in rental property?
You clearly have no clue how the tax system works or how it skews toward a narrow class.
Of course the inconvenient truth is that deficits increased under Reagan and both Bush Administrations. Republicans used to babble during the Reagan years that busting the budget was acceptable if it helped defeat the evil Soviet empire. More recently, Bush acolytes have simply whined that deficits don’t matter. Bush had seven years to reduce spending. He didn’t do it. So you appear to worship the Republicans simply because they promise to reduce spending, not because they actually follow through on their empty promises.
Fixed.
There may be an alternate universe in which the government doesn’t bail out bankers. But you and I don’t live in that world. More and more of your money is going to bail out somebody else’s bad decisions. The government is reportedly drawing up a list of second-tier banks that they may try to help.
So, pretty much everything you know about taxes and the economy is wrong. The rest is totally at variance to what the Bush Administration actually does.
I see how this makes you into the perfect Republican.
bvac
Someone said:
I said:
I can now amend my comment, since Obama has reportedly filed a lawsuit to prevent some voter caging. We’ll see how that goes.
Someone else said:
My unassailable point is that there was this same wishful thinking and talking points last time about Kerry that ultimately failed to live up to expectations, so yes, of course there is a comparison:
-In 2004, there were plenty of independent voter registration drives that were mobilized to defeat Bush, with P. Diddy even going as far as to threaten to murder people if they do not vote.
-Party affiliation was already shifting towards democrats and independents, though not to the extent it is today, and if I cared enough to I’d go find some diaries on dailykos from four years ago of them creaming their pants over the data shift.
-Those same diaries would probably complain about how they only have cell phones and thus the polls MUST be off by at least 5 points.
So while the answer to all those questions might very well be “No,” it is delusional to think that they are wildly off the mark. It has nothing to do with the candidates. If you want to blame it on something, look at the media talking heads who are screaming TIGHT RACE! TOO CLOSE TO CALL! on a daily basis, as they give McCain/Palin 70% more unopposed airtime to call Barack Obama a dirty negroe community organizer who wants to steal your money (whatever time is left over they use to show Biden calling McCain his friend.) All of this while the polls have both men in the mid-40s. That’s why they are able to get away with calling it a close race. If McCain has reached his peak and Obama gets that remaining 7-12 points, it will be the landslide everyone wants it to be.
And:
Heard that four years ago, too. It doesn’t change much, unless you are arguing that Obama is going to lose the popular vote but win the electoral vote by holding his 1% lead in Colorado and Pennsylvania until election day. Again, my point is that national polls are not as crazy as people think they are.
It’s great that Obama is running a sort-of 50 state strategy and putting money into states he won’t win, but look at today four years ago. Kerry was doing crappy, yet people were highly optimistic, dismissing polls, making arguments like Kerry was a strong closer, was registering millions of voters, had a phantom army of lawyers to make sure votes were counted et c. Before election day they were even more optimistic. And then, poof.
Bottom line, stop making excuses and start questioning McCain’s patriotism.
Personal Designation
There’s no comparison to the Dems now, is there? The way I first heard that joke was Dems leaving us nothing but change… in our pockets of course. Political bi partisan jokes remind me of Swedish/Norwegian jokes, and oddly enough "white" men dressed up as "Indians" boarding British ships and tossing tea overboard in a terrorist manner (not to mention the effect of toxicity this produced on marine life.) Talk about class warfare, why this makes me wanna cut the nuts out of the reign-bow coalition.
All this bad energy of promising to spend more and spend less has me thinking of when people were required to pay taxes in hemp back in the day. * It was LEGAL TO PAY TAXES WITH HEMP in America from 1631 until the early 1800s; LA Times, Aug. 12, 1981. Make growing hemp not a crime I say and We The People (the rule makers) and US citizens (the rule followers) can lead a more independent life free of artificial political suppression and harassment.