Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Everybody saw this coming.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Let me file that under fuck it.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

“Alexa, change the president.”

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Will there be a moment of magic?

Will there be a moment of magic?

by | 66 Comments

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<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/59124558@N06/8048744369/” title=”McCain-follows-Obama-in-3rd-debate by dengre.bj, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8039/8048744369_1fe3cb77a0.jpg” width=”460″ height=”349″ alt=”McCain-follows-Obama-in-3rd-debate”></a>

Debates are pretty scripted, rehearsed and over-hyped. More than that, they do not really matter all that much when you look into their impact over the years. Still, it is early October and space must be filled.

The above photo is real. It was taken by Reuters at the end of the 3rd debate in 2008. For me, it captured the 2008 campaign perfectly. It was a moment of magic.

Is it possible that the debate this week might also produce a rare moment of debate magic? Could there be a fresh image like the one above? Could Mittens craft a new anvil for his campaign with a catchphrase or zinger to aide his fall. Or perhaps he’ll go for the full wingnut and have a Ni-CLANG moment.

What do think…

If nothing else, a thousand drinking games will bloom (and we needed a new open thread to plan them).

Cheers

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  7. 7.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Any bets on how long it will be until Romney slips up and asks Obama to fetch him and the moderators some more refreshment?

  10. 10.

    JPL

    I just want to find Mr. Puddles. Also, too.. two chugs for a comment about losing our freedoms. I’m still looking for Mr. Puddles and haven’t had time to look for my freedoms.

  11. 11.

    Joel

    I’m tired of the constant discussion of “NI-clang” moments. Not going to happen. And if it did, it would have been preceded by many more significant moments. Let’s face the opponents we have, who are plenty bad enough.

    That said, Sam Wang makes a persuasive argument that the debates matter; more for the brand, not the candidates.

  12. 12.

    beltane

    Ugh, there is a photoshopped picture of Romney & Ryan tongue kissing that’s making the rounds on FB. Brain bleach please.

  13. 13.

    Ripley

    What exactly is a Ni-CLANG moment? I’m too lazy and drunk to Google it.

    It’s a reference to a self-censored “n!gger” utterance in Blazing Saddles.

  16. 16.

    third of two

    This had me giggling all day.

    Of course every bit of available evidence tells us that the debates are essentially meaningless, with low ratings, low comprehension, and an audience that has largely made up its mind already. Barring a spectacular foul-up by one of the candidates – Obama waving a Koran around while beheading Michael Phelps, for example, or Mitt Romney opening his mouth and talking – they simply aren’t going to change anything.

    I am easily amused.

  18. 18.

    Arclite

    You know, this was just McCain getting confused about which way to go around the table. As much as I despise McCain, I think this is used completely out of context. Not that the Repubs don’t use Dem stuff out of context all the time, but still.

  21. 21.

    zzyzx

    @Joel:
    Agreed. It would be nice to have an easy win but we’re going to have to assume that our opponents aren’t going to be that dumb.

  22. 22.

    Violet

    @Bruce S:

    Has anyone ever figured out what this was about?

    If you look at the video, McCain wasn’t sure which was to go to exit the stage after the debate. He did that thing we’ve all done at some point–move one way, move the other, then realize you are doing it and mimic your back and forth movements while making a face. Unfortunately for him, it’s this face.

    I felt so bad for McCain and yet it’s one of the most hilarious things to come out of the whole campaign.

  26. 26.

    MazeDancer

    Sen McCain looks ridiculous, but Sen Obama looks 23. He looks so vastly younger than he does now. The President is a young, fit, happy, healthy guy with a loving family. But the stress of that office has aged him enormously.

    How would McCain have ever withstood it? Thanks to all the Dieties of Freedom McCain and that insane Hearbeat away Veep candidate were not elected.

  31. 31.

    S. cerevisiae

    So has anyone seen anything about Drudges big scoop? Is it the Whitey tape? Has Chief Editor Korir been notified?

  33. 33.

    Lawrence

    hostesscakes.com/products/zingers

    Zingers come in 3 flavors. Raspberry (red) zingers that appeal broadly to the White Working Class Males. Vanilla zingers for Mitt’s friends in the 1%. And chocolate zingers for the Ni-Clang crowd. I would donate tonight if the DNC parked a Hostess truck in front of the debate venue.

  34. 34.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Geoduck:

    If we’re dredging up old photos, here’s a classic Romney moment from 2008. Even the Freepers couldn’t put a good spin on that one.

    In one swift move, the alien stripped off it’s protective blue-green skin and revealed the body of a perfectly manicured Republican politician. It began immediately to shake hands with onlookers.

  37. 37.

    jibeaux

    @S. cerevisiae: I started the video, noticed that it was a speech from 2007 at Hampton University attended by many many people, clearly quite public and not surreptitiously recorded by a bartender, and also noticed that it was apparently talked about it in 2008 without much fanfare.
    Bombshell fail, in other words.

  39. 39.

    Violet

    @Bruce S: No, really, I did at the time. I could totally see myself doing the same thing and then the camera snaps at the completely worst time and there’s that picture for posterity. I could see what he was doing and the human part of me felt for him.

    Didn’t stop me from laughing at the photochops, nor did it stop me from being glad it happened to McCain and not Obama. But yeah, I did feel bad for him.

  42. 42.

    Violet

    @burnspbesq: I think Mitt’s going to try some really dumb line like “I’m for The 100% of America” and expect people to respond positively and instead there’s going to be this feeling of “Huh? WTF?” in the audience.

  44. 44.

    RaflW

    Well, if the Hannity-Carlson ni*clang meltdown tonight is any indication, Mittens has the worst back-up team ever. Way worse that Gramps McCain.

    @AntDeRosa Willie Horton territory. Hannity just did a faux black voice. Jesus.

  45. 45.

    Splitting Image

    @Southern Beale:

    My favourite version of that picture was this one:

    Evolution

    There are probably other Republicans more worthy of being photoshopped into that picture, but McCain made his bed (and brought Sarah Palin to national prominence) so screw him.

  46. 46.

    evap

    Nothing will ever top Mr. Puddles. Even now, four years later, I am giggling when I think about it. Jon Stewart’s finest moment.

  47. 47.

    low-tech cyclist

    I know what Romney’s big zinger is!

    He’s gonna ask the audience, “Are you better off now than my horse was four years ago?”

    His second big zinger is…well, as you know, there’s been a buildup that he’s going to show empathy at tomorrow’s debate. So his second zinger is:

    “See, I’m being empathetic! Look at me being empathetic!”

    It would be more accurate without the ’em’, of course.

  48. 48.

    artem1s

    the Mittster was having some faux outrage about something Joe Biden said referring to the Bush tax cuts ‘burying the middle class’. It was pretty tame considering it was Joe. So my bet is the ‘moment’ is going to come during the VP debate. Quite possibly something along the lines of Joe doing a spit take every 5 seconds as a reaction to Ryan’s gob-stopping stream of never ending lies.

  49. 49.

    James E. Powell

    @artem1s:

    I expect Biden to spend most of the debate smiling at Ryan like a combat veteran listening to a recent ROTC graduate describe his plans.

    I’d be inclined to just call him a liar, but Biden is a much better man than I am.

  50. 50.

    Violet

    @James E. Powell: I agree. I think Biden is going to go for affable and try to paint Ryan as an adorable puppy who is going to chew up everyone’s shoes if he’s let out of the kitchen.

  52. 52.

    wasabi gasp

    There probably isn’t a hippie on Earth who would like to see Obama crush Romney more than does McCain.

  53. 53.

    Nell

    My kid just saw this photo and asked: ” What’s he saying? ‘I didn’t like that hotdog’?”

  55. 55.

    stinger

    I look for one of the zingers to be along the lines of “Mr. President, are you ready to go? ‘Cause you’re fired! (I like being able to fire people.)”

  56. 56.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    I love that pic. McCain actually displaying a sense of humor. If he’d managed to throttle back his raging inner asshole, he might have done much better in that matchup.

    Better than Romney, who shows no sign whatsoever of possessing a sense of humor. Or human decency, for that matter.

  57. 57.

    Soonergrunt

    @maya:

    Will there be a moment of magic?

    Only if Romney drops trou.

    I see what you did there.
    EDIT–Violet (and probably others) beat me to it.

  59. 59.

    Djur

    @Lojasmo: Check out George Fuckin’ Will over here. Before you know it, presidential candidates will be wearing bluejeans and drinking beer instead of tailored suits and peasant blood.

  60. 60.

    Jamie

    Sure, John McC just fucked up. It is still really funny.

    I don’t like the guy, but I can cut him that much slack. However, he needs to have a sense of humor, too.

  62. 62.

    John Revolta

    I still think “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” was pretty funny. Too bad he probably meant it.

  63. 63.

    Arclite

    @Lojasmo:

    At the very least, it was unpresidential, and undecorous.

    I’m calling bullshit here. It was a human moment, we all get confused, and McCain was saying, “I screwed up going around the table, and see what an idiot I was there.” Is he an idiot in general? Sure, but this event has nothing to do with that. It’s much better when his idiot moments are deep character flaws like “I don’t know how many houses I own” or Mitt’s 47% comment.

  64. 64.

    xian

    @Bruce S: saw it live. McCain turned the wrong way, turned back, and was making a silly sort of “look I’m confused” face, saying “bleagh”

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