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Saturday, August 30, 2008
Well, what do you know...
By VictorM:Earlier this morning I posted my humble suggestion for how Obama should deal with Sarah Parlin's selection for vice president. Basically, I said they should ignore her and focus on McCain. And lo and behold, the first Obama ad since the Palin announcement does exactly that. I'm a happy camper.
Six things
By VictorM:What does John McCain's selection of Sarah Parlin for vice president mean? Opinions abound, but I like the ones the Politico put forward. Here's part of the first reason (click here to read the others):
1. He’s desperate. Let’s stop pretending this race is as close as national polling suggests. The truth is McCain is essentially tied or trailing in every swing state that matters — and too close for comfort in several states like Indiana and Montana... McCain could easily lose in an electoral landslide. That is the private view of Democrats and Republicans alike.He is desperate. No question about it.
McCain’s pick shows he is not pretending. Politicians, even “mavericks” like McCain, play it safe when they think they are winning — or see an easy path to winning. They roll the dice only when they know that the risks of conventionality are greater than the risks of boldness.
Attacking Palin
By VictorM:Many lefty bloggers and pundits are giving their opinion on how best to deal with Sarah Palin. Many are concerned that if Obama attacks her inexperience, he opens himself up to the same attacks. If he attacks her on scandals, he can be attacked on the same (as if the Republicans needed a reason to do just that). What the heck, I'm putting my two cents on this issue.
I think the Obama/Biden team should totally ignore Sarah Palin (except to answer attacks coming from her). Treat her as if she doesn't even exist. The media seems to be having a field day with her record anyway, so her inexperience and corruption ties will surface. And the vast majority of people who vote for McCain are too out of the loop to even know what a VP does -- Sarah Palin included -- so they should continue to hammer away at John McCain. Period.
Friday, August 29, 2008
What a joker
By VictorM:I continue to expect to see John McCain come out and say that the nomination of Sarah Palin for vice president of the United States was just a joke. After all, he has warned us that we need to have a sense of humor about these things.
Good job
By VictorM:I expected Barack Obama's speech to be motivational and well delivered. What I wasn't expecting was the craftiness of it's attack on conservatism, its defense of liberalism, and above all, the direct rebuttal to McCain's main point of attacks in the last several weeks.
My favorite part of Obama's speech was this:
what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.
Take that, Mister POW.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Censoring the best line
By VictorM:At the Democratic convention, Dennis Kucinich gave a rousing speech asking America to Wake up. He did so by listing a series of Bush Administration misdeeds. Then, he had planned what I thought was a great line, but the Obama folks nixed, so it never got delivered. Too bad. Here's the line:
“They’re asking for another four years — in a just world, they’d get 10 to 20.”
Damn Democrats... too fucking timid for their own good.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Goosebumps
By VictorM:Call me lame, call me corny, but this speech gave me goosebumps. In just a little over 8 minutes, Republican Jim Leach explains why he's voting for Barack Obama. And if you have any brains, why you should too. The clarity of thought, when compared to so many TV pundits, is startling:
Monday, August 25, 2008
Good questions
By VictorM:My concern with Barack Obama's Rodney King campaign style is that while successful in a Democratic primary, it is a recipe for disaster in a general election given the current political landscape in this country.
With large groups of people voting along party lines, it's up to the people who vote for a candidate they can have a beer with, to decide elections. The Obama team need to go after McCain in the worst possible way.
Frank Rich poses the questions that Barack (and more likely Biden) must ask all the time until election day:
Is a man who is just discovering the Internet qualified to lead a restoration of America’s economic and educational infrastructures? Is the leader of a virtually all-white political party America’s best salesman and moral avatar in the age of globalization? Does a bellicose Vietnam veteran who rushed to hitch his star to the self-immolating overreaches of Ahmad Chalabi, Pervez Musharraf and Mikheil Saakashvili have the judgment to keep America safe?
The time has come for Democrats to join the modern day political process and be in it to win.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Us versus them
By VictorM:Here are two ideas that I'd like to see the Obama campaign hammer away at in TV ads:
Obama's proposals would raise his own taxes by hundreds of thousands of dollars, in order to cut the taxes of people who are less fortunate than he is. McCain would cut his own taxes even further than they've already been reduced. And that's everything a voter needs to know about these two men.
I wish team Obama would drive the elitism point home by doing the math on how much of a tax break John and Cindy McCain would get from McCain's plan vs the avg American (at the US median household income). And then for good measure show what would happen with Obama's plan.I think it's safe to say that yapping away about policy and the specifics of plans is a snoozer for the large group of people who'll decide this election. It's an "us vs them" world, and the idea is to turn your opponent into one of "them."
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Obama / Biden
By VictorM:You want family values? Vote for Obama and Biden:
That's right: one spouse, one house. Good old American values. Great American stories.
Oh, and for you nervous ones... get over it. We have our ticket. Let's get them in the White House.
Friday, August 22, 2008
The real John McCain
By VictorM:The John McCain hit list below is not made up:
I'll add that he doesn't know what car he drives.>> He doesn’t remember how many houses he owns, and even the press can't figure out if it's 7, 8, 9, 10 or 12
>> He needs a 9-car motorcade to buy a Cappuccino at Starbucks
>> He needs to look at notecards to "remember" the price of milk
>> His household budget includes $273,000 for servants
>> He thinks $5 million is the line between the middle class and the rich
>> He thinks our economy is basically sound
>> He doesn’t think anyone would accept an offer to pick lettuce for $50 an hour
>> He plans to announce his running mate with balloons and cake on August 29 while the rest of the country is mourning the victims of hurricane Katrina on the third anniversary of its arrivalIs it possible the Republican party has found someone more clueless than George W. Bush? Now that's called finding a needle in a haystack.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Number of houses?
By VictorM:So John McCain doesn't know how many houses he owns. So? I mean, the guy is wealthy. Real estate is a good investment. He has enough money to invest in several houses. What exactly is the problem?
Should Democrats stop making an issue about this? I don't think so. There are enough idiots out there who get affected by stupid stuff like this.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Insanity
By VictorM:According to Albert Eisntein, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So consider this simple but accurate observation:
Everything the Republicans has touched in the last decade has turned to crap. From the micro (life saving stem cell research) to the macro (Climate Crisis) the Republicans have had full power to implement their vision, programs and policies....and have gotten it wrong every single time.Really, why would anyone but the insane vote Republican again? And in particular, for this guy:
Monday, August 18, 2008
Like a broken record
By VictorM:John McCain is very vulnerable on is so-called foreign affairs experience. He only gets away with it because in part the media is unwilling to challenge that notion, but more importantly because Barack Obama is not challenging it as much as he should. Here's a good example:
McCain's first reaction to the Georgia crises was to urge action that would commit the United States to war with Russia (by having Georgia immediately admitted to NATO). Obama needs to point out that, in this test for whether McCain is ready to be commander in chief, McCain grossly overreacted. Indeed, several days later, after McCain had time to cool down, he retracted his statements, saying that military intervention should not be considered. McCain fundamentally does not understand the purpose of NATO. Obama needs be repeating this series of events like a broken record.As I've heard often, "experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you." And McCain has not learned that much. Say it, Barack!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Who is that masked man?
By VictorM:Conventional wisdom says that Barack Obama isn't running away with the election because people don't know enough about him. Frank Rich begs to differ -- it's the real John McCain that people don't know enough about:
The most revealing poll this month by far is the Pew Research Center survey finding that 48 percent of Americans feel they’re “hearing too much” about Obama. Pew found that only 26 percent feel that way about McCain, and that nearly 4 in 10 Americans feel they hear too little about him. It’s past time for that pressing educational need to be met...With the exception of McCain’s imprisonment in Vietnam, every aspect of this profile in courage is inaccurate or defunct.
Frank Rich goes on to detail many of the falsehoods about the perceptions people have of John McCain. Read it.
Friday, August 15, 2008
So stupid it hurts
By VictorM:This lady from Arkansas is a 87 years old and a lifetime Democrat. And this is how she feels about Barack Obama:
Man, we do have our share of stupid people on our side, don't we?Ms. Burrow said she would not vote for Mr. Obama because she believed he was either a Muslim or would, if elected, rejoin Trinity United Church of Christ, the Chicago congregation that he left after a controversy over the former minister’s racial views.
Ms. Burrow’s son, Dennis, tried to convince her that Mr. Obama was not a Muslim.
“He’d have to come to my home and eat some of my purple-hull peas before I’d believe him,” Ms. Burrow said of Mr. Obama. “And my fried okra. Anyone that breaks bread with me, I’d have more confidence in him.”
No news
By VictorM:I'm on a leave of absence from work. Had to take care of quite a few personal things and traveled two days, hence the scarce updates.
I'm all settled in now and took time to take a peek at what's new. And nothing is new, really: John McCain is still behind, still in trouble, and still trying desperate moves (more stupids ads and visibly gloating at the Russia-Georgia conflict -- the man just loves war, doesn't he?); Obama is cruising smoothly, putting up some nice ads and leading in the polls; and the media continues to pull for McCain in the hopes of making this election a nail bitter -- they will fail.
(yawn)
Sunday, August 10, 2008
And the beat goes on...
By VictorM:I know the media would love a close presidential election and they seem to be bending backwards to make sure it happens, but I'm afraid they will be disappointed. Barack Obama continues to lead John McCain by a steady margin, a margin that will continue to increase as the election wears on. This, from yesterday's Gallup poll:
The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update finds Barack Obama with a 47% to 42% lead over John McCain, when registered voters are asked for whom they would vote if the presidential election were held today.This also means that McCain's recent dumb ads are having no impact on the race, or may even be having a negative impact on his numbers.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Turn off the lights
By VictorM:John McCain has been mocking Barack Obama's comment that people can improve their mileage by making sure their tires are properly inflated. The mocking is going on despite Obama's advice being a good one -- properly inflated tires does improve mileage. It's a fact.
But guess what John McCain has himself advised the nation to do for us to break our dependence on foreign oil? To be sure, it's not bad advice but it shows the hypocrisy of his campaign:
If you can't see the video, it shows McCain saying we can turn off the lights 5 minutes earlier and we don't have to drive the extra block (he doesn't say where we should park the car).
McCain also says the price of gas isn't going down anytime soon, but in fact, it did. Oops.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Like a broken clock
By VictorM:Conservative columnist Andrew Sullivan is like a broken clock -- he's right every once in a while. This time, I think he nails why American conservatism is bound to be booted aside:
But this is nothing new, Andrew. On policy, conservatives would always lose. Their success is in the mind games, the clever wording, the lies, etc. It has been this way every since conservatives started winning. Before that, they knew nothing but defeat.Instead of actually fighting on the core questions...we are debating people's cultural insecurities and food choices.
The slow collapse of conservatism as a coherent governing philosophy is not unrelated to this. If you never want to fight campaigns on policy, why bother crafting any?
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Tim Kaine
By VictorM:One of the names being mentioned as a possible vice president for Barack Obama is Virginia's governor Tim Kaine. I don't know much about him so I decided to watch this interview by Charlie Rose. If you are as curious about governor Kaine as I am, and you have 56 minutes to spare, take a look:
I need to dig deeper into where he stands on the issues, but I have to say he was impressive in this interview.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Answers to the Spears / Hilton ad
By VictorM:Here are some answers to the Britney Spears and Paris Hilton ad that I'd like the Obama team to use, but they probably won't:
"We don't think the Spears/Hilton ad is negative at all. After all, it's a well known fact that Senator McCain has a special affection for young, thin, rich, blond ladies. Whatever the intent of the ad, I'm sure he means well."
"The question we should all be asking is, which of the two -- Britney Spears or Paris Hilton -- would Senator McCain like to have an affair with. Based on is track record, I'm guessing it would be the one with the most money."
"Senator McCain's self-confessed ignorance of economic issues is so obvious that I'm sure he feels that easing the tax burden of those two young ladies is of paramount importance to the country, and is, therefore, the central focus of his tax plan."
Friday, August 01, 2008
Going negative
By VictorM:Contrary to earlier proclamations, John McCain has gone negative, a la Karl Rove, in a recent ad tying Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Whether that attack will have an impact remains to be seen, but let's get real! According to Pollster.com, and going state by state, here are the reasons for those attacks:
- Obama holds a 336 to 202 electoral vote lead over McCain
- if we count only states where each candidate holds a 10+ point lead over the other, 210 electoral votes are safe for Obama, but just 72 for McCain
- if we consider what Pollster.com considers tossup states, we have Obama 284, McCain 147, Tossup 107. It takes 270 electoral votes to win. Today, Obama is 14 EVs above that threshold, while McCain is 123 below it.
Of course, one could argue that the ad is not negative because after all, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton remind McCain of his own wife. :-p
Happiness
By VictorM:I suppose the findings of this study explain my perpetual grin, even if I'm not yet "older":
Less able to achieve their life goals, women end up unhappier than men later in life, even though they start out happier, a new survey of Americans suggests.Early in adult life, women are more likely than men to fulfill their family life and financial aspirations, leading to greater overall happiness.
Later in life, however, the tables turn and men report coming closer to reaching their goals for consumer goods and family life. Men are more satisfied with their financial situation and family life, and are happier than women in later life, the study shows.
In women's defense, living with a smelly, hairy old man can't be much fun.
