# Obama/Biden 08' **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 23, 2008, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017 "2008-08-23T12:12:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/161 "2008-08-25T00:17:29Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] Senator McCain has been a policymaker for more than 25 years in the House and Senate. Pray tell, what are the legislative accomplishments of Barry? [/QUOTE] Why “Barry”? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/162 "2008-08-25T00:19:18Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] Ok, so 24 years then. What has Barry accomplished again? [/QUOTE] Carol, there’s absolutely no point answering your question, as there is absolutely nothing anyone could say to you to convince you to vote for Obama. And I think most Obama supporters here are okay with that. You go wit’ your bad McAss. Likewise, there is nothing you could say to me (and I wager to most Obama supporters in this forum) that could convince us to vote for McCain. And I’m pretty sure you aren’t looking for an answer anyway, are you? As I’m convinced you could answer your own question with a simple Google search. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/163 "2008-08-25T00:25:30Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] How long before McCain’s side talks about “A noun, a verb, and CHANGE”? [/QUOTE] Why - has Obama been using ‘change’ as an excuse to not talk about other things? Was McCain cheating at Saddleback? P.O.W.! Why can’t McCain remember how many places he lives? P.O.W.! P.O.W.! (Used it twice.) McCain shouldn’t have proposed entering Cindy in a topless ‘beauty pageant’ at a biker convention: P.O.W.! What does McCain think of Pittsburgh? P.O.W.! Why does McCain like ABBA? P.O.W. and miss! Why isn’t McCain’s health care proposal worth a damn? P.O.W.! Why is McCain against an earmark for a Woodstock museum? P.O.W.! [Links](http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_08/014373.php) [here](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/21/mccain-camp-plays-pow-car_n_120428.html). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/164 "2008-08-25T00:47:29Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] That’s about on the same level with “I know you are but what am I.” [/QUOTE] Or, in the solipsist version, “I know I am, but are you?” ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/165 "2008-08-25T00:59:22Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] That’s the problem with going by memory-- it isn’t very good. [/QUOTE] I wasn’t as far off as you think I am. > [@](#): > > Cheney, who as president of the Senate was present for the picture day, turned to Leahy and scolded the senator over his recent criticism of the vice president for Halliburton’s alleged war profiteering…In response to Cheney, Leahy reminded Cheney that the vice president had once accused him of being a bad Catholic, to which Cheney replied either “f— off” or “go f— yourself.” [cite](http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/24/cheney.leahy/) But this is obviously a hijack, so I won’t argue this point further. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/166 "2008-08-25T01:03:46Z")
[QUOTE=RTFirefly] Why is McCain against an earmark for a Woodstock museum? P.O.W.! [/QUOTE] I was about to ask who gives a fuck if he’s against an earmark for a Woodstock museum until I saw that ad you’re referring to. Wow, that was a horrible idea. ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/167 "2008-08-25T01:09:42Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] Why “Barry”? [/QUOTE] If you dare, google “Barry Soetoro”. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/168 "2008-08-25T01:10:31Z")
[QUOTE=stolichnaya] [Death Penalty Legislation](http://whoamikidding.com) [Nuclear Nonproliferation](http://itsnotlaikethatwasa/legitimate.question) [Spending Transparency](http://if.i.did/giveyoulinks-whichicoulddountilthecows.come/home) [Ethics Reform](http://idontthinkyoud/even.click-on-them) [Unicorn Protection](http://enjoy.your/bubble) [/QUOTE] OMG, that’s awesome! ^5s **stolichnaya**! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/169 "2008-08-25T01:50:51Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] Ok, so 24 years then. What has Barry accomplished again? [/QUOTE] [A lot, in his young life,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama) and he has a pretty impressive record for [just his first three years in the Senate,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_career_of_Barack_Obama) but in general successful nonincumbent presidential candidates don’t run on their accomplishments; they run on “the vision thing.” Which need not be more specific than a general direction – that’s all Nixon had to offer in '68, or Bush in 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/170 "2008-08-25T02:57:22Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] Why “Barry”? [/QUOTE] Why not? He’s got so many names to choose from. Barack Hussein Obama a/k/a Barry Soetoro a/k/a Barry Obama a/k/a Barack Dunham a/k/a Barry Dunham He wouldn’t be trying to hide anything, would he? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/171 "2008-08-25T03:10:10Z")
The man has written two autobiographies. If anyone’s life is an open book (or two), it would be his. The man’s name is Barack Hussein Obama, he was born of an American mother in 1961 in Hawaii, he’s a practising Christian. For Pete’s sake, if you want to criticize him on the issues, go to town. But this kind of thing is simply stupidity. Then again, I have to consider the source. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/172 "2008-08-25T03:10:57Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] Why not? He’s got so many names to choose from. Barack Hussein Obama a/k/a Barry Soetoro a/k/a Barry Obama a/k/a Barack Dunham a/k/a Barry Dunham He wouldn’t be trying to hide anything, would he? :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] You really are a pill, you know that? Dunham is his mother’s name. Obama is his father’s name. Soetoro is his stepfather’s name. Barry is the nickname for Barack. Now, I don’t know how many children of divorce and/or abandonment you know, but I can definitely understand him using the names Obama, Dunham, and Soetoro at various times, because those were the names of his mother, father, and stepfather. Did he start to use Obama around the time he rediscovered his father and his heritage? Ooh…scary! And frankly, if I were a teenager trying to fit in with my schoolmates, I’d use Barry instead of Barack, too. The right-wing is so freaking paranoid about Obama it’s really pathetic. The funny thing is (and this will draw howls of outrage, despite the obvious correctness) that if Obama were white, all of this paranoia wouldn’t exist. Period. Seriously…convince me that if Obama looked like Dan Quayle that anyone would be floating these paranoid fantasies about Muslim plants and non-citizenship and some sort of sleazy hucksterism. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/173 "2008-08-25T03:11:03Z")
What are these uber-secret “policies” of Senator Obama? Surely he’s never effected one, in the Illinois or US Senate. As I was walking down the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there… ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/174 "2008-08-25T03:12:36Z")
Yup. It’s so hard to keep those secret identities now that they’ve gotten rid of public phone booths to change in. Yeah, :rolleyes: is right. “Simple stupidity”, nah, this idiotic sort of faux attack is beyond that and well into the comic zone. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/175 "2008-08-25T03:17:53Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] Now, I don’t know how many children of divorce and/or abandonment you know, but I can definitely understand him using the names Obama, Dunham, and Soetoro at various times, because those were the names of his mother, father, and stepfather. Did he start to use Obama around the time he rediscovered his father and his heritage? Ooh…scary! And frankly, if I were a teenager trying to fit in with my schoolmates, I’d use Barry instead of Barack, too. [/QUOTE] Would you commit perjury in your application to the Illinois State Bar Association? ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/176 "2008-08-25T03:18:49Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Or, in the solipsist version, “I know I am, but are you?” [/QUOTE] Pardon me, but your’s was the most recent use of that word, is it pronounced sol-ip-cyst or so-lip-cyst? It’s one of those I’ve read, but never heard pronounced. Anyone know? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/177 "2008-08-25T03:18:58Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] Would you commit perjury in your application to the Illinois State Bar Association? [/QUOTE] You’re going to have to elaborate on that. I don’t speak Right-Wing Paranoid Nutcase. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/178 "2008-08-25T03:22:23Z")
[QUOTE=Sam Stone] If Biden goes too far, it’ll be Obama that the apology is demanded from, and Obama will be forced to reprimand his VP candidate. [/QUOTE] What the hell constitutes going too far? Accusing McCain of seditious treason by suggesting he’d waste American lives in a war he intends to lose just for the sake of personal political gain? Inciting racial bigotry by suggesting that McCain is getting too uppity when people turn out to hear him by the hundreds of thousands? Impugning the moral character of McCain’s wife by calling into question her love of country? Making up lies about McCain cancelling a trip to a wounded veterans’ hospital so he could shoot some hoops in the gym? Telling people who are losing their homes, and can’t find jobs, and can’t even afford gas to look for jobs to stop whining because their problems are all in their heads? Raking his hand over his face in mortified exasperation when a reporter asks him whether it is fair to cover viagra but not birth control? Recoiling in dumbfounded ignorance like a high school student who just read Hegel, and stammering about needing the help of his staff when asked how many fucking houses he owns? Trivializing his own service to his country by using it as a shield against almost every fucking criticism, like an insurgent hiding behing a child? Which of those would you consider to be crossing the line? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/179 "2008-08-25T03:22:41Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] Why not? He’s got so many names to choose from. Barack Hussein Obama a/k/a Barry Soetoro a/k/a Barry Obama a/k/a Barack Dunham a/k/a Barry Dunham He wouldn’t be trying to hide anything, would he? :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] Wait… Barry Obama’s a different name from Barack Obama? My first name, on my birth certificate, is Richard. Everyone calls me Rick. So am I going by an alias when I call myself Rick? Since I was “Ricky” when I was a child, is that three different names now? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017/180 "2008-08-25T03:25:37Z")
[QUOTE=Khampelf] Pardon me, but your’s was the most recent use of that word, is it pronounced sol-ip-cyst or so-lip-cyst? It’s one of those I’ve read, but never heard pronounced. Anyone know? [/QUOTE] SOL-ip-cyst. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-biden-08/461017.md?page=10)