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Amusing moment on CNN just now. Wolf Blitzer, coming out of a commercial:
"We've been getting some emails from views out there wondering why we spent some time interviewing Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee and not Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee. We would have loved to interview--we'd still love to interview Sarah Palin. Unfortunately we asked, we didn't get that interview...We're hoping that Sarah Palin will join us at some point down the road."
I'm told that Biden appeared on every major network tonight except ABC (which only turned him down because Palin wasn't available, on an equal-time sort of basis).
It's pretty strange when a candidate can't trust his own running mate to be out there spinning on his behalf.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/27/sara-p...
http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2008/09/26/i...
love to all, girls -- yes, all!
imagine how many pills poor cindy popped in the last two weeks as her money swirled around the bowl and down the drain!!!! turds on you, cindy - and love to all
Instant poll: Who won the debate?
# of votes % of votes
Sen. McCain 1896 42.7 percent
42.7 %
Sen. Obama 2162 48.7 percent
48.7 %
It was a tie 380 8.5 percent
http://www.startribune.com/polls/29836839.html?...
Did you notice how he and Cindy seemed uncomfortable relating to each other after the debate was over? Like they were barely acquaintances.
Visuals aside, what did come through loud and clear on the radio bits I heard was McCain's incredibly condescending attitude towards Obama. Not a mindreader, so I don't know what he really thinks/feels, but he sounded like he thought Obama was on par with dog shit.
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_09_21_archive....
Unfortunately for McCain, Repub base voters like that Pricky Bullshit, but independent voters don't.
Remember Buchanan's "culture war" speech to the 92 GOP convention?
He thinks everybody is as angry as he is.
Google" McCain's Letter to Obama". The contempt is on the written page.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/26/debate...
Except for a couple tools like Republico's Roger Simon, just about everybody gives it to Obama or a few call it a draw.
Heck, even wingnuts like George Will and Dick Morris gave it to Obama.
And, you know, the instant polls and focus groups were unanimous for Obama.
What a trooper!
I'm really hoping for a Bentsen-Quayle moment--and Biden is just the sort to pull it off.
Here’s what I have concluded: McCain’s debate prep team worked on getting John’s body language where they wanted it – contemptuous of his opponent. He didn’t look Obama in the face, called him by his last name, not Sen. Obama, and behaved in a condescending way when referring to Obama.
This body language came across, not as condescending per sec, but rather patronizing and angry. The image he left many with was from such movies in our collective psyche - “To Kill a Mockingbird” or “In the Heat of the Night”.
McCain’s body language was not overtly prejudice, but like our sense of smell harkening us back to another time, imagery can be little snapshots pushing our brains to recall “where have I seen that?”
It left many with thoughts of another time in history and of injustice.
That whole "talking down" style of his is very reminiscent of the 50's and 60's and to some extent the 70's... My father did the same thing to us and my mother... he wasn't aware that he was doing it, but it came across as "I'm the boss, I'm right, don't question me"... I think that's what most who watched last night came away with... McCain's distain for opinions other than his own.
Total number of African-American midshipmen in 1965: 9. (nine).
and I agree that McCain, like many of his contemporaries, has a huge streak of "racist" running through him. I'm not sure it overshadows his other streaks of misogyny, entitled-ness, and being a mean old dick, but it may.
The one aspect of these events that many seem to ignore is the racial and gender dynamics. Obama's style against McCain was much tougher and crisper and more forceful than with Clinton. The reason, I think, is that Obama was canny enough not to fall into the Lazio trap with Clinton - with his only slip-up being the "you're likable enough" quip. With McCain, he could be more alpha male, as he was. But Obama is also a black man against a white man. So he must also be very careful not to get angry and to stay cool and calm. He has to do that to avoid the "angry black man" trap. But then he cannot afford to seem weak either. You realize how hard a balance that is for ninety minutes?
Obama has to walk through a racial minefield all the time.
He was respectful to McCain but also more confident looking him in the eye. He was forceful without appearing angry. He was calm without seeming professorial. Because he makes it look relatively easy doesn't mean it isn't actually extremely hard.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily...
Without making a real effort to do a personal "thought experiment" it's very difficult to imagine the stealth with which a black person must move through white America. For Obama to have gotten this far and to be convincing a great many people to see him for what he is without setting off their racial baggage alarms is quite an accomplishment. He's accused of being professorial and too polished and cautious but I see him as having very long, sensitive mental feelers that have been necessary to test situations and reactions long before he physically arrives on the scene. I think that ability will serve him well as president and I think that it's an intelligent and analytical approach that will also be an example that this country is starving for. Whether "the country" knows it or not.
i always think about Obama being raised by his white mother and white grandparents. i think he feels more at ease among whites than a single race black person might...
so interesting.
Imagine if this had been Biden instead--the media would be all over him and Obama.
i swear i think McCain is scared shitless and it comes through in pure, vile, ugly meanness...like calling Cindy a c*nt because she pissed him off.
There is also a question of how Cindy became addicted to drugs... she started with a ruptured disk.... but the medical records, causes and timeframes and such are extremely inconsistent with her stories Remember that her back injury and drug use coincided with McCain's Keating 5 entanglement...
and she is prone to strange injuries.... her "sprained" wrist this summer from shaking hands... was wearing the wrist brace for months for that one... her injuries seem to come at very high stress times for Mr. McCain....
That guy is wound tighter than a drum. I don't doubt he'd go off on someone. He's also the child of priveledge who's Bushed his way....ditch 5 planes, finish last in your class but get in as fighter pilot...c'mon. He didn't VOLUNTEER to be a POW. He got caught...
His father was an admiral in a segregated Navy, so McCain would only have met African Americans engaged in occupations like busboy, janitor, gardener. No social contacts with blacks other than that, and certainly not as officers in the Navy.
He also would have carried those attitudes with him to the Navel Academy, where the few blacks admitted, even into the 1970's, were subjected to hazing well beyond what white midshipmen endured. And I would guess that there were no African Americans in his flight squadron.
Can this behavior be changed? I am a 55 year old white woman who grew up (and still live) in a working class world, and I have seen many of my relatives change their attitudes toward blacks significantly. So I do think it happens, but I don't think McCain has or will. I agree with you - it's just too ingrained in him.
The good news is that he was called on it almost immediately. The pundits didn't call it racism, but the message was clear. I wonder how many people, especially those 60+, saw themselves in his behavior, and how did they react?
himself?
after 26 years in, 12 years control and 8 years of 95% agreement ...
he is the failure.
Anyone want to bet on how the GOP will maneuver the VP debates?
I chuckled when I heard M. Bachmann(sp?) this morning. It was about the bailout. "Freedom" Free-Market" Protect the Tax Payers" my ass. She a joke like the rest of them. I mean they are everywhere, like they really care about the American public, total bull shit.
Also the GOP surrogates are also out in full force, and they are on the defense. Bipartisan my arse, these people want to take credit for everything, including winning the debate. The GOP Fu__ed up the economy in the first place. I don't trust them. Again they are playing the blame game. They never take responsibility.
So far as the debate last night, Mr. O - hands down. Even on CNN, David Gergen looked so depressed that his boy, McCain, did not quite hit it out of the ball park.
Folks, the election, and the economy is a game to these people, especially the GOP, who are still lying.
The GOP Moto - Party First, County Last.
Not sure the format of the VP debate, though if she shows up, I'll be surprised...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/27/1297/88...
Last night's lack of eye contact appeared to be an exception.
(And it had nothing to do with injuries, because he was standing at a 90 degree angle with Obama last night, which would have been much more confortable than some of the movement he had to do in the Repub debates.)
Maybe he was really worried he was going to lose it.
What a loon!
People reported that they got to know Obama more. They learned more about where he is on the issues. They liked how he looked directly at the camera, and directed his thinking towards the people at home. They were impressed with his knowledge of the issues, despite McCain saying he was naive. In other words, many undecided voters actually DID listen to what Obama had to say on the issues. They learned something. And the information they gleaned made a postitive impression.
One could say there is a formula: When people gain DIRECT INFORMATION ABOUT THE ISSUES STRAIGHT FROM OBAMA this makes a POSTIVE IMPRESSION and SWAYS voters to possibly voting for him.
Or: Obama looking straight at the camera and simply talking about the issues works.
I have been saying for a long time that Obama needs to have a new kind of ad campaign that is very simply composed: Obama in a room, essentially. Standing or sitting. Strongly limit music and logos and voiceovers and anything fancy. He looks directly at the camera, engaging the viewer in a friendly but serious manner and then he simply explains the problems we face as a country, how we got in this mess, and his plans for getting us out of it.
Keep the ads timely, focused (one or two issues per ad), lengthy (60 sec?), and refrain from RESPONDING to McCain attacks. Attack McCain on the issues BIG TIME, and use anger when it fits, but limit using the ads as a way of countering McCain's lies about him. Or, if that is necessary, do it in a simple and classy way -- without triggering the media into reporting only the "he said, he said" game.
Personally, I think this simple technique is very powerful and underused. It also addresses some weaknesses that Obama needs to address:
* it increases trust and comfort with the candidate
* voters learn about his positions that they didn't know (for example, his message about cutting taxes for middle class isn't getting through enough.... he simply needs to state it into the camera!)
* this technique makes him look like he is ALREADY president, not running for president. Set it up so it looks like he is the president addressing the public on an important issue.
* it isn't fake and doesn't seem like a pumped up ad that is trying to hit target audiences.
* it respects the voter and creates the feeling that "we are all in this together". Compose the ad to create "intimacy" with the voter.
* it allows for immediate and powerful fixing of whatever weakness Obama is facing at that moment (for example, during the debate he missed a chance to say that McCain is against the GI bill.... well, make an ad that covers that general issue (veterans) and point out clearly where McCain stands).
* ads do work, and allow complete control of the message. Why even try to work through the false and distorting lense of the media and pundits?
OH, I did see the other day a post on Huffingtonpost that said an ad in this style had been put out on the topic of the latest economic disaster. I was happy to see that! (I didn't see the actual ad, just read about it.)
Maybe I am way off here, but I worry that voters are just not getting enough direct "face-to-face" time with Obama. When they DO get it, they love it. He is inherently an impressive person. We just need to market him more to folks who do not go out of their way to learn about him. They are too busy making dinner and watching TV!!!
Let's get Obama "face to face" with the people, talking about what is important.
I am in Oregon, and -- sheepish grin - I don't have a TV!
I'd be interested to hear a foreign policy expert's take on McCain's bellicosity, like Rand Beers.
Obama trailing poll on wsj this am.....
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/26/who-wo...
VOTE
When McCain constantly, and partronizingly, and smugly in an old man way, said "what obama doesn't understand is..."
Obama should have cut him off at the knees. Didn't have to get nasty, Mc Cain already put them in the slop, so "What John McCain doesn't understand...is that I understand very well what he THINKS, but I believe he is wrong, and the past 8 years gives me support for that".
He also gave way too many times for McCain rambling through after "the bell"..etc.
At one point McCain clearly knows (and that evil little shit eating smile almost surfaced...I saw hints of it) he is overspeaking Obama, and he adds like a whole long sentance that is just word fill to impress the point.
That kinda junk doesn't mean squat to me, but I know my fellow americans (Mc Cains "my friends..." also strikes me as totally phony and arrogant) and many see Obama's deference to MCCain and the rules as "weakness".
One last thing, can someone tell the Obama camp that there is NO REASON IN THE WORLD to start any sentence with "I think John McCain is right about X..." or "What he said was true, but..." NO reason to give that away.
"If you're not with him, he belittles you, he makes fun of you, he disparages you. But that's not the mark of a leader..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRGdz41YfYc