Obama’s people should diagram that speech. Bill just gave them the perfect template for how to prosecute the case for Obama over McCain. Bill Clinton, for all his faults, is one of the most brilliant political tacticians of the last 50 years.
Yeah, right.
It is right. Just like I voted for Kerry in 2004. Just like I voted for Bob Casey for the Senate in 2006. I came out in favor of Obama months ago.
biden is having a good time.
Where was this Kerry 4 years ago? The comparing of Senator McCain to Candidate McCain was great. McCain is a flip-flopper who was for it before he was against it.
I’m feeling much better about Obama’s VP choice.
Perhaps I am mistaken. Aren’t you the the guy who sides with the police when they chase some guy home and shoot him forty five times when he tries to show them his wallet?
I knew people would grow to appreciate Joe Biden the more they got to see him. Joe was fine. He seemed a little nervous at first, and stumbled over some words, but he got it done. He’s got knowledge, intelligence, passion and authenticity.
I liked the “surprise” appearance frm Barack. I think the week has gone pretty well over all. Barack just needs to finish it off with a barn burner tomorrow?
Who’s warming up for Obama tomorrow? Is it Gore?
A few years ago a guy named Will Ferguson wrote a book about Canadian politicians called “Bastards and Boneheads.” His thesis was that you could loosely divide all politicians into two groups; bastards, and boneheads, and that the bastards were invariably more successful. The best Prime Ministers, like MacDonald and Trudeau, were absolutely monumental bastards. The ones who got into office by accident and then got run over, like Joe Clark or Paul Martin, were just lucky boneheads. You’ve got to be a bastard, he theorized, to make it in politics.
I believe this applies to any country.
Bill Clinton, in the Fergusonian sense, is a total bastard. You’ve got to be a right bastard to win elections and crush your opponents. If you don’t, you’re just a bonehead, and if you do luck into victory by facing an even bigger bonehead (e.g. Jimmy Carter in 1976) you’re simply biding time until a real bastard comes along and kicks your ass (e.g. Carter in 1980.)
The Democrats finally won in 1992 because they found themselves a really big bastard. Oh, he’s smart, and he’s slick, but he’s a real bastard when it came time to be one. As you say, he’s as great a politican tactician as anyone has seen in recent memory. Gore and Kerry were, and are, more of the bonehead variety - not stupid, but simply not bastardesque enough. Gore is well meaning and Kerry’s a passable politician but they didn’t have the killer instinct, the ability to rise to the occasion, and kick the other guy in the nuts.
The question is - is Obama enough of a bastard? McCain is certainly a mean old bastard, but he’s also kind of a bonehead. A fine young bastard could really wipe the floor with him. Does Obama have the killer instinct?
I was yelling at my tv for Beau or Joe Biden to mention that the reason he (Beau) wasn’t going to be around this fall for the campaign was because HE’S GOING TO IRAQ!
This needed to be screamed from the rafters.
“Beau Biden is being deployed to Iraq.”
“Beau Biden is being deployed to Iraq.”
“Beau Biden is being deployed to Iraq.”
“Beau Biden is being deployed to Iraq.”
“Beau Biden is being deployed to Iraq.”
“Beau Biden is being deployed to Iraq.”
“Beau Biden is being deployed to Iraq.”
“Beau Biden is being deployed to Iraq.”
Well, maybe I wouldn’t have said it that many times, but it needed to be said at least once. Other than that, Biden made me proud tonight.
I believe Gore is doing the warm-up tomorrow, yep.
Biden is a winner. He was impassioned, smart, and rock-solid tough. He’s not gonna lie down for the Republican smear machine, that’s for sure. I loved seeing his mom there. Can’t imagine having your parent alive at 65! What a gift that would be. I can’t say I agree with all of Biden’s votes, but en toto he’s a great Democrat and an excellent choice for VP. As many have said, Obama’s first executive decision is certainly an encouraging sign of what his administration would be like. I think they’re a great match, both intelligent, compassionate fighters for what they believe in.
Kerry’s was my favorite speech of this convention so far. I’m betting Gore’s gonna do things up brown though.
Yes. 40 year olds don’t take on the wife of a former President holding a Senate seat from New York and win. Unless, they’re Barack Obama.
Interesting analysis. I do think John McCain is a bonehead, but he’s now got a bunch of bastards running his campaign. How does that come into play? Can you be a bonehead with bastards in charge, or does the candidate himself need to be the bastard?
I think Barack has plenty of bastard to him–he just makes it look cool… 
Didn’t mean to pop off at you, Airman Doors, but I just get so goddamned tired of Bill Clinton being defined by an act of stupidity–and I don’t mean boning Monica. Shit, Bush is boning Condi–she slipped and almost called him her husband fer chrissake. Nixon boned the Chinese travel agent. Lyndon Johnson bragged about having boned five of his six secretaries–on the desk in the Oval Office no less. JFK–well, we all know. It’s just a plain fact that charismatic and powerful men will have pussy thrown at them and if they’re narcissistic enough to win elections they’ll probably catch some of it–that’s just human nature.
Bill’s only failing, in my estimation, was that he didn’t just be a bigger bastard and tell the Republicans to shove it up their asses. If he’d just come out and said “Screw you, my private life is private and you can go whistle up your asses 'cuz I won’t dignify your stupid little questions with an answer” they would have been able to do zip, nada, nothing. He just pussed out because he wanted to be liked and he kinda felt bad about dragging Hillary through the mud and he knew she’s take him out to the woodshed over it. So he lied, and that was all it took.
However, that one misstep did NOT invalidate the work he did and the good he did and the real and definite triumphs he had and the good he did for the country and just one fucking time it’d be nice to let the man speak without somebody chiming up that he got a blowjob. We got it, okay? We know. The fucking he gave an intern is nothing to the fucking Bush gives this country every goddamned day he’s in office and yet–we don’t hear it every fucking time the stupid little chimp shows his face, do we?
Forgiveness of error and support of your spouse’s ambitions are family values too, y’know.
Would you accept my voucher for him? Airman is a little more conservative than the bulk of the membership, but he’s not an asshole or a right-wing loon. I believe him when he says he’s voting for Obama, and that he voted for Kerry, because I actually remember when he finally said that enough was enough with the current Republican Party. He’s not a Democrat. But he’s not a loon, either.
And he’s a hell of a nice guy in real life, too.
What have any of your snide comments to and about Airman Doors got to do with the Democratic convention or the presidential election?
Go take to e-mail or the Pit or make it relevant to this thread.
(I suspect that this thread actually belongs in IMHO, but as soon as I move it someone will post a contrary political position that will get it thrown back here. Sniping at Doors is not that contrary position, however. Let it go.)
[ /Modding ]
I remember a post on these board where someone suggested that Hillary was angling for the VP spot just so she could have Obama assassinated. Bizarre. Even if Hillary is acting only in her best interests, she’d have to get in line behind Obama. She wouldn’t dare cross the Party; that’s political suicide.
I thought Bill’s speech was even better than Hillary’s or Michelle’s. I had forgotten what a great oarator he is. He covered every point he needed to cover.
John Kerry (or was it his twin brother John? No, no, they introduced him as Senator, so this must be John Kerry.) was remarkably good, and I really do wish he had spoken more like this four years ago. But tonight’s speech makes me wonder all the more just what happened in Ohio with Diebold.
Bill Richardson will also speak tomorrow evening, as something prevented him from speaking tonight as originally scheduled.
I’ve decided that Nancy Pelosi scares me. She’s so pretty and sweet-spoken, but you just know there’s an iron fist in that velvet glove. So why hasn’t she gotten moving with (at the very least) inherent contempt against Rove, let alone impeachment on Bush?
Indeed. While I don’t think it was a speech that’ll have a shelf life beyond November, it was pitch perfect for the moment and purpose.
It was excellent watching Fox’s analysis – Krauthammer actually echoed your phrase about “feigned sincerity”. ‘Cuz it seems that saying Bill was flat out lying was about the only response he had. Coupling that with Barnes’ inane meandering (even after clarification, I still don’t know what he was getting at) and Kristol’s grasping at “Clinton’s foreign policy in his first two years” as a counter, it really seems that Bill laid out a winning strategy.