About
A progressive online community for the Granite State. More...
Getting Started
Menu

Make a New Account

Username:

Password:



Forget your username or password?


The Masthead
Managing Editors

Contributing Writers
elwood
Mike Hoefer
ActBlue Hampshire

The Roll, Etc.
NH Progressive Blogs
Betsy Devine
Citizen Keene
Democracy for NH
Equality Press
The Political Climate
Granite State Progress
Chaz Proulx
Susan the Bruce

NH Political Links
Graniteprof
Granite Status
Kevin Landrigan
NH Political Capital
Political Chowder (TV)
Political Chowder (AM)
PolitickerNH
Pollster (NH-Sen)
Portside with Burt Cohen
Bill Siroty
Swing State 2008

Campaigns, Et Alia.
Carol Shea-Porter
Paul Hodes
Jeanne Shaheen
Barack Obama (NH)

ActBlue Hampshire
Stop Sununu
NHDP
DCCC
DSCC
DNC

National
Bob Geiger
DailyKos
Digby
Eschaton
FiveThirtyEight
MyDD
The Next Hurrah
Open Left
Senate Guru
Swing State Project
Talk Left
Talking Points Memo

50 State Blog Network
Alabama
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
RSS Feed

Blue Hampshire RSS

For 5 1/2 Years He Didn't Get an Open Thread!

by: elwood

Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 20:05:53 PM EDT
[Update: I want to apologize for suggesting in the diary title that John McCain would try to exploit his time as a POW. As we know, he doesn't like to mention it.]

I'm tired of this Surge-style scoring: wait til it's over then figure out what the goals were.

John McCain will talk about how he and Sarah are bad-ass Energy Wizards and Reformers. But here's where he needs to make points tonight:

  1. John McCain will not bring another four years of George Bush
  2. Our ticket has a vision for the future - we bring Change (not quite the same thing)
  3. I'm a regular guy who understands you, unlike Barack Hussein Obama (defuse 12 houses, $300K wardrobe)
  4. I'm healthier and younger than you think
  5. We're not just theocrats - we're Laffer-lovin' Libertarian Empire-Builders

His campaign may not think he needs to do any of that. He may just tell us he's More American than Obama. He could get a lot of cheers in St. Paul that way.

On his way to a landslide defeat.

This is an open thread.
elwood :: For 5 1/2 Years He Didn't Get an Open Thread!
Tags: (All Tags)
Print Friendly View Send As Email
For 5 1/2 Years He Didn't Get an Open Thread! | 90 comments
Sometimes, (4.00 / 1)
the Cliff Notes version is more powerful than the extended series:

The original Maverick asked Karl Rove if he could pick Joe Lieberman for vice president. Karl said no. The Maverick said okay.

Josh.

Wonder if Sununu's fired now.

There's a SUSA poll showing strong Palin impression (0.00 / 0)
among independents.

But it also shows that 75% of those called claimed to have watched the speech. That's much, much higher that the TV ratings suggest. So I think the poll mostly reflects the conventional wisdom people have heard from co-workers and pundits.

We'll see...

Apparently I just missed (4.00 / 1)
Republicans using video footage of the Twin Towers burning to score some cheap points.

What a classy bunch.

Who saw this? Is there video?

Wonder if Sununu's fired now.

Didn't see it but (4.00 / 1)
Someone at boston.com did.
[ Parent ]
I saw it (0.00 / 0)
I'm just coming back from driving the porcelain bus.  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign
[ Parent ]
Technicolor yawn n/t (0.00 / 0)


This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

   Dorothy Parker

[ Parent ]
the underlying message (0.00 / 0)
vote McCain or the terra-ists will kill you.  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign
[ Parent ]
Classy and subtle n/t (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
It spurred on my first donation to Obama... (4.00 / 5)
... after denying him one for quite some time after his capitulation on FISA.

Regards,
Corporate Dog

[ Parent ]
Oh the barracuda has (4.00 / 7)
pretty teeth dear
and she keeps them
pearly white

Just a jack knife
Is Sarah Heath* dear
and they keep her
out of sight

(* Maiden name)

I adore you. (0.00 / 0)


Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign
[ Parent ]
The Bridge to Nowhere (4.00 / 6)
Disappeared, dear
After drawing out
All its cash

And Now Sarah's
Spending like a sailor
Has our girl done
Something rash?

[ Parent ]
McCain in an alley (4.00 / 2)


This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

   Dorothy Parker

oh Cindy (4.00 / 2)
women have always chosen husbands by looking at what kind of father they would be?

bleeeeeeeaaaach.  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign

Cindy -- (4.00 / 2)
"John picked a hockey playin', basketball shootin', gun totin' mother of five" (or something like that)

For a split second, I thought "mother" would end up as a compound modifier.


[ Parent ]
The No Spin Zone Tonight (4.00 / 4)
Bill-o interviewed Obama. He played Part 1 tonight. (which I missed)

In the follow up chat, with two fair and balanced analysts, he said Barack is a "tough guy" and "not a wuss."

Bill-o looked into Barack Obama's soul and saw a "tough guy."

Is the sky falling?

The giant finds its gait.

the sky is still where it belongs (0.00 / 0)
O'Reilly puts on his serious journalist hat for these interviews, and pretends that we all take him seriously. He knows he can't get away with his usual bullying and bluster, so he becomes SERIOUS JOURNALIST.

HE'LL DO IT LIVE!  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign

[ Parent ]
Their own key points don't match mine (0.00 / 0)
It's Terra! Terra! Terra!

I thought that was already well established as their Unique Selling Proposition. But I guess you have to keep repeating the message.

Fred Thompson (0.00 / 0)
what an actor. Glad he doesn't want to make a big thing about being a POW.  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign
Film voiceover on the Forrestal incident (4.00 / 3)
"John McCain's life was somehow spared.  Perhaps he had something more to do."

So in a nutshell: vote for Obama, defy the will of God.

The English-speaking world beyond the US is watching this film with slack jaws, wondering how this could possibly not be clumsy satire.

The non-English-speaking world is watching, thinking, "Man, this translator sucks."

Mad Props to the Protester Dude (4.00 / 4)
When McCain started, a young brave man held up a sign.

On one side it read: You can't win an occupation

The other side read: McCain votes against vets

Proof

The giant finds its gait.

Some obsevations mid-speech: (4.00 / 1)
* McCain is a HORRIBLE speaker.

* He's a total egomaniac, and making it worse, he covers it up in this phony humility.

* I, I, I, I, I, I - not inclusive. Not good.

* He should NOT be allowed to lie repeatedly about Palin and earmarks.  



Wonder if Sununu's fired now.

The Low Road (4.00 / 4)
"To the me-first country-second crowd: change is coming."

This is the first time he's dared to actually say what his "Country First" bullshit has been implying for months: that the people opposing him do not put their country first.

I've felt insulted by the implication all along.

Now we can all be insulted by the flat-out statement.

This is the disgusting and divisive "every man's hand against his brother" rhetoric that his supporters in New Hampshire, especially in 2000, hated and thought they were speaking out against when they voted for him.

Apparently John McCain would rather lose his honor than lose an election.

The Low Road (0.00 / 0)
"To the me-first country-second crowd: change is coming."

This is the first time he's dared to actually say what his "Country First" bullshit has been implying for months: that the people opposing him do not put their country first.

I've felt insulted by the implication all along.

Now we can all be insulted by the flat-out statement.

This is the disgusting and divisive "every man's hand against his brother" rhetoric that his supporters in New Hampshire, especially in 2000, hated and thought they were speaking out against when they voted for him.

Apparently John McCain would rather lose his honor than lose an election.

I see everything twice! (4.00 / 2)
I really have to keep the kitten from walking on my keyboard.  Maybe I should just have an ancient laptop running off to the side with a birds and mice screensaver for her to walk and lie on.
[ Parent ]
Obama will put a bureaucrat between you and your doctor! (4.00 / 6)
said the man who wants the government to step in between a woman and her doctor.
has he ever dealt (4.00 / 1)
with an insurance company?

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign
[ Parent ]
McCain will keep the bureaucrats between you and whoever's at the other end of the call. (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
Your private physician, of course (4.00 / 1)
... who has a shingle in front of his office, makes house calls, and resembles Burt Lancaster in Field of Dreams.
[ Parent ]
Priceless shot (4.00 / 1)
of a young person yawning through McCain's speech as the camera rushes to pan away from him.

Wonder if Sununu's fired now.
CSPAN's director (0.00 / 0)
Loves Elaine Chao.
[ Parent ]
he's getting tired (4.00 / 1)
and having a hard time with the telepromptr. Also, it seems as though someone told him to stop saying "my friends" all the time.


Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign
Mr Rodgers' speech writer (4.00 / 1)
did the best he could, I guess.

McSame is wearing slippers tonight. They're $500 slippers, but slippers nonetheless.

The giant finds its gait.

McCain (4.00 / 1)
telling us we have to catch up to history?

guffaw guffaw guffaw

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign

5 my friends (4.00 / 1)
and 1 my fellow Americans.  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign
POW! (4.00 / 3)
 POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW

Wonder if Sununu's fired now.
McCain: the Born-Again Patriot. eom (4.00 / 1)


Wonder if Sununu's fired now.
[ Parent ]
It's like a comic book origin story (0.00 / 0)
In a jail in Hanoi, the heroic soldier was bitten by a radioactive spider and turned into His Country's Hero!
[ Parent ]
not in the comic book origin story (0.00 / 0)
Didn't McCain submit to the North Vietnemese torturers into confession of fighting a war of aggression against the Vietnemese people?  Does anyone know more about that?

"I'm not smart enough to run the economy."

- John McCain (r) Arizona

[ Parent ]
Heard the movie on the radio (0.00 / 0)
"Prisoner of war" was its opening phrase.

[ Parent ]
What a cynical slimeball (4.00 / 6)
"My friends, if you love your country, teach someone to read and write, volunteer..."

(But of course don't become a community organizer, snicker snicker snicker).

Did anyone else (4.00 / 2)
feel like there is this great gaping maw of need to be liked and adored coming out of McCain?

It was kinda creepy.

Wonder if Sununu's fired now.

Light bulb moment. (4.00 / 2)
I now know why McCain and Joementum get along so well.

Lieberman also comes off with that same creepy aura of desperately needing to be liked.

Did the two of them not get enough attention as kids or something?

Wonder if Sununu's fired now.

[ Parent ]
Absent or weak fathers (4.00 / 3)
Are near-universal at that level in US politics. Reagan, Clinton, Obama, McCain. When the father is there the mother is arguably stronger: Carter, GWB.
[ Parent ]
I am so hoping (4.00 / 2)
that the Wilson sisters sue them for using Barracuda.  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign
They're thinking about it (4.00 / 1)
http://www.rollingstone.com/ro...
[ Parent ]
By my metrics: (0.00 / 0)
  1. John McCain will not bring another four years of George Bush: not overtly addressed, but tonally different.
  2. Our ticket has a vision for the future - we bring Change (not quite the same thing). Big blurry energy program.
  3. I'm a regular guy who understands you, unlike Barack Hussein Obama (defuse 12 houses, $300K wardrobe). No attempt to make this case; instead he tried to sell himself as the Noble Superhero, our clear superior.
  4. I'm healthier and younger than you think. He showed his 96-year old mother - does that help?
  5. We're not just theocrats - we're Laffer-lovin' Libertarian Empire-Builders. Yes: he presented a laundry list.So he addressed 3 of the 5. I think the Not George Bush story was plausible, at least on stylistics. He was always more in the other 3 camps and untrusted by the theocrats, so he did well there. But the vision was weak; the "regular guy" thing nonexistent; his age remains a worry. My take anyhow.

My Thoughts (4.00 / 1)
Good points, Elwood. . . . I'd give McCain a C+ grade.  

What Worked
-----------

* McCain aggressively separated himself from President Shit-for-Brains.  Sounds like a slam dunk strategically, but still something of a tightrope walk at a Republican Convention.

* The POW section at the end of the speech was intensely powerful.  I don't like John McCain, but was captivated.

* McCain didn't get flustered by the counterproductive Code Pink morons who did absolutely nothing for our cause tonight.  He even managed to weave in an off-the-cuff line about getting people to "stop yelling."

* Cindy McCain looked great.  She can be my Mrs. Robinson any time.  (My apologies for the objectification.)

What Did Not Work
-----------------

* The man can't speak from a prepared script.  Ron Reagan said it well in this morning's Washington Post.  Obama (like Reagan's father) carefully considers his speeches beforehand and speaks the way he thinks.  McCain sounds contrived -- like someone else is writing the words of this plain-spoken man.  (His declarations at the end of the speech were, uh, more than a bit awkward.  Not his style.)

* His weaving back and forth -- from calls for a new politics to Obama potshots -- was transparent as hell.  (This is NOT the McCain we saw in New Hampshire eight years ago.)

* McCain's moving POW account would have been more powerful had it been integrated into his political persona.  His bio could have helped to make the case as to how his administration would differ from the past eight years -- e.g., support for veterans, rising above politics, etc. -- but the two were presented as separate animals, with no linkage between McCain's POW service and his conservatism.

* The POW account also came too late -- 40 minutes into a mediocre speech.  I'm guessing that most swing voters had already tuned out by then.

* The staging sucked in comparison to Obama's speech last week.  No energy.  And right after McCain started speaking, a picture of a big mansion went up behind him.

* Swing voters cast ballots for people they like, but we never got to see the "real" John McCain:  Who he is, what he's like, how he lives.  Both Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama used their conventions to showcase their values and personalities. . . . From my viewpoint, we saw very little about the man, other than the 40-year-old POW section late in his speech.

Case in point:  Compare the intro video to those of Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama.  The latter three all featured interviews with the candidates and their families, and went beyond politics; aside from discussion of his POW past, McCain's awkward video failed this test miserably.

[ Parent ]
The POW account wasn't tied into other stuff (4.00 / 1)
because it is completely separate from his view of public policy choices. He brings it up because he believes it means he is Entitled to your vote. Period.
[ Parent ]
The GOP Politized 9-11 at the convention from Boston.com (4.00 / 2)
 
Posted by Sasha Issenberg September 4, 2008 08:41 PM via Boston.com

"ST. PAUL -- One of the most enduring taboos in American politics, the airing of graphic images from the September 11 attacks in a partisan context, died today. It was nearly seven years old.

The informal prohibition, which had been occasionally threatened by political ads in recent years, was pronounced dead at approximately 7:40 CST, when a video aired before delegates at the Republican National Convention included slow-motion footage of a plane striking the World Trade Center, the towers' subsequent collapse, and smoke emerging from the Pentagon.

The September 11 precedent was one of the few surviving campaign-season taboos. It is survived by direct comparisons of one's opponents to Hitler."

My only response is that true fascists in this country are all at St. Paul thinking they have this election in the bag while getting wasted.

TJMCNH1


"I'm not smart enough to run the economy."

- John McCain (r) Arizona

What should Obama Do? (0.00 / 0)
Do you think he will try to do anything Friday to stomp on McCain's buzz as McCain did to Obama 1 week ago?

Not quite sure what, if anything could take the oxygen out of the room like McCain announcment last week.

Ideas?

Hope > Fear

We have so many warriors on (4.00 / 1)
our side.

Here's one of the strongest.

And she'll be in Florida campaigning for Obama w/ Sebelius and Napolitano.


Wonder if Sununu's fired now.

[ Parent ]
Hillary (0.00 / 0)
making a big speech about the glass ceiling.  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign
[ Parent ]
Get a good night's sleep and make a speech. (4.00 / 2)
With a big crowd and Hillary Clinton and/or Bill Clinton and/or Al Gore.

But more likely--announce some impressive fundraising totals--have you heard the Obama campaign expected to raise ten million dollars just between the Palin and McCain speeches?  How about now.

One thing is very clear.  It's time for some new TV ads to run nationally and with greater frequency than anything we've seen since January in New Hampshire in order to kill the news cycle like McCain did last week by picking a name out of a hat for VP.

[ Parent ]
an ad (4.00 / 1)
featuring community organizers talking about what kind of positive changes they helped bring about would be excellent - and something that everyone would relate to, regardless of party affiliation.  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign
[ Parent ]
Maybe too defensive. (4.00 / 1)
I'd like to see an ad that shows all the buildings and roads in Wasilla Alaska that were built with federal money under Palin - especially earmark money. Plus video of the projects that she spent the Bridge to Nowhere money on.

[ Parent ]
Nothing in Wasilla will help us. (4.00 / 1)
Because I think most people will just see it and think "I wish my Mayor would do that."  Earmarks are an activist issue.
[ Parent ]
not defensive (4.00 / 1)
if it's little old ladies organizing blood drives, or breast cancer walks, etc.  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign
[ Parent ]
I guess my concern (0.00 / 0)
isn't that we can win on that point - I agree we can.

It's that the point is a minor distraction - after we win the point we haven't advanced the campaign. We should instead campaign on issues that will damage them.

Douglas may be right, though. When we try to say "Sarah Palin used your money to build this rink in her town!" people may react with "smart lady" not "hypocrite."

[ Parent ]
Not in NH (4.00 / 2)
where we get, what, .67 for every $1.00 we send to DC?

I don't think folks around here will appreciate that.

[ Parent ]
not when they find out (0.00 / 0)
that she left Wasilla with a $20 million deficit because of the sports center - which is still in litigation.  

Netroots Outreach Director for the Carol Shea-Porter campaign
[ Parent ]
A $20 million deficit despite lobbying for and securing $27 million in federal money. (0.00 / 0)
Meanwhile, that plane she sold on ebay?  She did it because it was a major campaign promise, it wasn't on ebay (as she and McCain have claimed this week), it took her months to sell it, at a loss (just today McCain said it was a profit), and the guy who bought it was a contributor to her campaign.

The more I learn about Sarah Palin, the more she seems like a Disney character who only exists if you believe she exists.  Except more lying about her opponents.

[ Parent ]
With testimonials from Detroit. (0.00 / 0)
I've come to the conclusion over time that the word we need to stick to McCain is "irresponsible", and I don't need to explain to this group what I mean.
[ Parent ]
Be himself n/t (4.00 / 1)

[ Parent ]
This Decade's Bob Dole = John McCain (4.00 / 1)
That speech was so terrible in so many ways.  I was watching PBS and all except Mark Shields said it was a "great speech." I think they should have spoken to the several people who were yawning in the background as he spoke.  His personal story is compelling, but he does not have what it takes to win this election.  People are not going to vote for him on patriotism alone.  

He's Stronger than Bob Dole. Much Stronger. (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
Very good speech (4.00 / 2)
I agree obviously that John McCain struggled in his delivery at times, he DID indeed seem tired toward the end, and yes, I saw 3 shots of people in the crowd yawning, but I honestly think that was McCain's best speech in terms of storyline, selflessness and sincerity. Whatever we think of his backwards policies and old school tactics, John McCain sacrificed for our country and that will win him votes.

He's a warrior and he will battle Senator Obama to the very end.

In fact, I thought McCain's speech was so effective ... that I just made a donation to Senator Obama's campaign at www.barackobama.com

Now is not the time to underestimate John McCain. Fight for change with Senator Obama - NOW!


Support the campaign to elect NH's Young Democrats:

[ Parent ]
The Vietnam War (0.00 / 0)
McSame's fly boy image in The Vietnam War derives from Military service, but is killing civilians in Hanoi and Haiphong from 20,000 ft. sacrifice ? I don't remember them doing anything to us...

McCain suffered the results of his choices...many in my generation protested or refused to serve in that illegal and ultimately unsuccessful gambit. F him. he is an butt kissing brown nosed foul mouthed two faced hater. Don't be fooled into the "I respect him" meme. After having his daughter and his religion slimed by the Bushes in So. Carolina and Michiganin 2000 primary, he hugs the guy to prove what a murderous ass he is.

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

   Dorothy Parker

[ Parent ]
I think this was a stronger and more effective performance (0.00 / 0)
than Palin's. I know that's a minority view.

I say that because he got the hagiographic video biography first and she didn't, and because he didn't spend much time being nasty.

To us wonks it was repetitious and hackneyed. To a broader audience it wouldn't have been.

It still missed on several goals, but I think it was more effective than the blogosphere and pundits estimate.

I didn't watch. (0.00 / 0)
I boycott things for political reasons. (And I get too angry.)I didn't watch the olympics, either.

But am I dreaming or did I see the green screen behind him as I channel surfed by?

[ Parent ]
I heard mention of that n/t (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
Totally different (4.00 / 1)
Palin was a rookie pitcher, and she threw six or seven strong innings. McCain was Schilling, and he was supposed to come in and shut them (us) down. He didn't. But I agree that he was smart not to be overly nasty.

[ Parent ]
If his speech is compared to Obama's (4.00 / 1)
it gets very low grades, true.  
[ Parent ]
A Statement from Hillary (4.00 / 3)
Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
Thursday, Sep 4, 2008

The two party conventions showcased vastly different directions for our country. Senator Obama and Senator Biden offered the new ideas and positive change America needs and deserves after eight years of failed Republican leadership. Senator McCain and Governor Palin do not.

After listening to all the speeches this week, I heard nothing that suggests the Republicans are ready to fix the economy for middle class families, provide quality affordable health care for all Americans, guarantee equal pay for equal work for women, restore our nation's leadership in a complex world or tackle the myriad of challenges our country faces. So, to slightly amend my comments from Denver: NO WAY, NO HOW, NO McCAIN-PALIN.


"I'm not smart enough to run the economy."

- John McCain (r) Arizona

So now that Hate Week is over... (0.00 / 0)
and we still realize that Bush and McCain have delivered to us 8 years of failed policies and two wars, they want another 4.  Thanks but no thanks!  Sure John, let's just pretend the last eight years didn't happen.  But change is coming in the form of the sidekick of the guy who wouldn't even attend his own party's convention and which John E. Sununu apparently didn't feel was worthy of his presence.  Didn't he want to fight with 'ole Johnny Warbucks?

This convention was reminscent of Orwellian Hate Week against the voice of opposition to the Party.  No issues but just same of the recycled Bush egomaniac, economic crazy jargin.  

All I can say is that I feel sorry for anyone who has to organize for McSame/Palin (in comparison to Biden).  I guess you don't have any real... responsibilities.  You've haven't made executive decisions.

"This is a party that has divorced itself from itself to free itself to keep power." -Chris Matthews (4.00 / 3)
Anybody planning to donate money to the Obama campaign, now's a good time.
Grade: B (0.00 / 0)
He didn't really highlight his message, and he went too heavy on the POW stuff (aren't those tales more effective when they're told by someone else?).

As Doug notes, MSNBC was all over the implied turning away from the Bush years. I think McCain errs in doing that. Obama gave a speech that got us excited and spoke to the midddle. McCain spoke to the middle but didn't leave GOP loyalists feeling  good. This is their convention, after all. He should have found a way to talk about the Bush years that any surrogate -- Jeb Bush, say, or Jim Baker -- could echo on the campaign trail and still add whatever McCain spin the campaign wanted to put on it.

He's leading his party, but he seems to be leading a light brigade faction of it that loves him unconditionally. He needs all of them.

I feel like he gave his 2000 acceptance speech, with a few small updates. Did he say anything about Obama that wouldn't apply to Gore, other than the rhetoric reference?

Tangentially -- did the DNC audience boo, even once, during Obama's speech? The Republicans boo a lot.


And let me take just a moment to pay tribute to our brave (0.00 / 0)
middle schoolers.

You may have thought that McCain was running against public schools and teachers based on his words. But that was a public middle school on the screen in back of him.

It was the Walter Reed Middle School; it was probably supposed to be the Walter Reed Army Hospital.

The Maverick (4.00 / 2)
The Ford Maverick was offered from 1970 to 1977. It was just about the last gasp for an aging design and aging technology: a rear-wheel drive car that was basically new sheet metal wrapped around the old Ford Falcon platform from a decade earlier.

It was a dull and predictable car, with its new lines formed to fit the current fashion rather than its own heritage.

(John McCain wants us to catch up with history. I thought this might advance things just a little.)

And in order to catch up with history, (4.00 / 1)
He suggests we elect a ticket with a completely unknown VP nominee from Alaska and an admittedly technologically illiterate Presidential nominee who was old enough to vote before Alaska was a state.
[ Parent ]
And now for something completely different... (0.00 / 0)
I admit: I've been paying way too much attention to the national elections, and not nearly enough to the local.

It also occurred to me that we have a primary in a couple of days, and I know NOTHING about any of the candidates at the state and county levels.

So can anyone point me to a reasonably unbiased site that gives some history and background on them? Are there any candidates that appear to be more progressive than others? Who do YOU like in these races? I'm in Strafford country, for what it's worth.

Thanks,
Corporate Dog

Biden to visit N.H. on Sept. 10th (0.00 / 0)

Posted Politicker NH
U.S. Sen. Joe Biden will visit New Hampshire on September 10, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has announced.

The visit will be Biden's first visit to the Granite State since the primary and his first as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee. Details of the visit will be announced at a later date.

"After a week in which John McCain and Sarah Palin failed to offer solutions to the challenges Granite Staters struggle with, Senator Joe Biden will be coming to New Hampshire to talk about how he and Senator Obama plan to help working New Hampshire families with everything from home heating costs, to job loss, to rising health care costs, and gas prices," said Sandra Abrevaya, Obama's New Hampshire communications director, in a press release.  "Senator Biden knows New Hampshire well and understands that hard working residents here want to hear about how we move forward to put our country back on track."




The giant finds its gait.
Nice vetting. (0.00 / 0)
It is truly hilarious that McCain keeps joking in his stump about not being elected Miss Congeniality in Congress now that he's chosen a running mate who once actually was elected Miss Congeniality.
Sarah "Scooter" Palin (0.00 / 0)
Will she get pardoned by "dubya?"


Aides to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin improperly obtained her former brother-in-law's state police personnel files and cited information from those records to raise complaints about the officer, the head of Alaska's state police union said Thursday.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has put an aide on leave during a probe into the firing of the public safety commissioner.

"It's apparent to us that the governor or someone on her staff had direct access to his personnel file, as well as his workers' comp file, and those are protected," said John Cyr, executive director of the Alaska Public Safety Employees Association.

Palin, now the Republican nominee for vice president, is battling allegations that she sacked her public safety commissioner in July because he refused to fire Trooper Mike Wooten, her sister's ex-husband. But a spokesman for GOP presidential candidate John McCain's campaign released documents late Thursday indicating Wooten signed a waiver during his divorce that allowed his entire personnel file to be released.




The giant finds its gait.
Title (0.00 / 0)
I have to say, the title of this thread makes me laugh every time.

Though I am a little punchy, after two weeks of convention watching. And of course I have to watch a little bit of commentary afterward, so I can be informed when we call them idiots, then I usually watch the Daily Show and most of Colbert, and then of course log on here. I'm an idiot.


Today Diane Rehm (0.00 / 0)
actually admitted that Stewart and Colbert were the only ones allowed to do critical reporting.

They're comedy shows!

Our trad media is really nothing more than propaganda. Call it TASS, Radio Nowhere...It's rather scary.

[ Parent ]
I need more context (4.00 / 2)
What did she mean by "allowed" and "critical," and what do you mean by "admitted?" Was she expressing frustration that she couldn't express opinions, like Stewart and Colbert do? If so I can understand that.

I think I may have said this before, but there is one fundamental problem with American journalism that strives to be objective. It starts with the premise that both parties are the same. That is simply not true, and therefore impairs the goal of actual objectivity.

 

[ Parent ]
It requires people who are objective but capable of reporting that someone has said something that isn't true. (4.00 / 1)
Or has made an argument that is baseless.  We have a myth in this country that if one of the parties says it, it's a credible argument and a respectable point of view.  That's often not true.

For example, McCain and Palin have been saying this week that Obama has never reached across the aisle in the Senate.  Now, you can subjectively diminish the significance of what he did, but that is a question of objective fact, and the fact is, it's a lie.  We know of times he did.  And the fact that the media shows these statements without discrediting them is a problem.

[ Parent ]
Well (0.00 / 0)
There are fairly regular "truth squadding" stories when time is available, but in the rush of convention coverage, only so much can be said.

And they're as tired as we are, this week and last.

[ Parent ]
I don't remember exactly (4.00 / 1)
what was said verbatim. But what I mean by admitted is that she and her roundtable of journalists agreed that there was a lack of critical coverage of the Republicans. One example was how Stewart juxtaposed two different Karl Rove spoutings where he contradicts himself on the "experience meme". This blatant stuff should be called out.

Instead, Campbell Brown is called a meanie for pressing McCain's spokesman when he didn't have an answer to a simple question:What order did Sarah Palin give the Alaska National Guard, as in what did she order them to do? John McCain sticks out his lower lip and refuses to go on Larry King Live to "punish" CNN.

This seems like a Rovian fun house.

[ Parent ]
For 5 1/2 Years He Didn't Get an Open Thread! | 90 comments
Powered by: SoapBlox