I KNEW you’d take the bait!
Mods, ere you chastise gigi, she is making a joke about a thread I opened earlier, not insulting me.
And I misspelled above. It’s “obscurantist.”
She has single-handedly caused a rift in this country that may well lead to violence. Her angry mobs were really not far from the torch-and-pitchfork stage and I fear for the safety of the White House and its next residents.
I’d like to pursue this point.
Did he have no choice in these influences? Did he have no choice whether to follow their (apparently) vile suggestions and advice? Did he have no judgment to see how vile it was? Is a decent and honorable man not responsible for his own decisions, regardless of the nature of his advisors?
Enough rhetorical questions. Someone upthread said that actions speak louder than words. McCain has a chance through future actions in the senate to redeem himself to some degree, but the bad things he did in this campaign are going to hang around his neck for a while.
FTR, I think it was an ok speech, and I agree that he seemed relieved it was over. He certainly seemed more relaxed that I have seen him in some time, no manic eye-blinking, etc.
Also FTR, I’m glad Obama won, but not because I think he is god re-born but because I did not, and do not, trust McCain to be able to competently operate the office of President. He seems to have too much to prove.
Roddy
agreed. I was impressed.
I wasn’t, not at all.
Too many. It was a “some of my best Presidents are black” speech.
And the choice of words and the tone behind them made his speech completely not worth listening to, dismissable, and entirely unbelievable.
I got the impression that he was trying to explain the vote, but NPR reported that not many more Black voters than usual turned out. Surely some of his staff would tell him that.
Are you speaking of the general tone of the speech, or the references to African American voters?
I’ll take that bet.
I personally hope she doesn’t, but I think she now has dreams of higher office. Giving herself the Senate seat will give her some of the experience she badly needs.
Then again why take a position where your voting record will be used against you.
Well, from over on this side of the pond it kind of looked like this:
[ul][li]The US system is set up to make it impossible for anyone to become President without either the Republican or Democratic party behind them[]McMcain didn’t really have much hope of getting the Democratic nomination, so Republican was the only choice if he wanted a shot at running the country[]Both sides have a bloc of hard-core supporters who are not really representative of the broader population, but who provide most of the time and money to get a campaign going. At the current time it is impossible for the Republicans to win anything without support from their loony fringes. [*]Therefore anyone not pandering to the baser element has no hope of getting elected.[/li][/ul]
So over here it did certainly look like he had no hope unless he got the evangelical/values vote on board. His campaign seemed to be going nowhere until he picked Palin and suddenly got lots of super-energised extremists on board, at which point he was level pegging (extraordinary given where the Republican party had taken the country). I suppose the best thing for him to do would have been to say ‘fuck it. I ain’t running and I endorse None Of The Above’ but when was the last time you saw a politician who didn’t think they were the best person to be in charge?
Personally I think it’s fantastic that Obama won, and won it in the way he did (a relatively positive campaign). But given the circumstances (eight years of a hated Republican president, two wars on the go and the economy melting down) he had a bit more room to manouevre since he was running to not throw away the election, rather than to win it. If he’d had to really fight for it in a more competetive environment, I doubt it would have been quite so hugs’n’cuddles - the US election setup doesn’t favour abandoning large blocks of reliable (but extreme) voters in favour of reaching for the middle. I suppose the dems are blessed in a way - the unions, moveon.org etc. all bring challenges along with their support, but they are not as tempting a bloc as the christian right, and pandering a bit to them does not necessarily push one as far away from the centre.
But I’ll bet you a biscuit the next Republican president will either coast into office on a tide of discontent with the dems, or will battle their way in with Palin-appreciating types providing a good proportion of their footsoldiers.
That’s a bit of an understatement: McCain has represented the Republican Party in the legislature for almost three decades.
He actually said that Obama was a decent man during the campaign:rolleyes:.
There is a wonderful video of his own supporters booing him when he said that Obama was decent man.
If you think so little of McCain, then what do you make of Joe Biden being very good friends with him?
Do you think he is a poor judge of character? Do you think that you know McCain better than someone who has worked beside him?
Stevens will not pick herself or anyone else as a replacement senator. In Alaska, it is done by special election.
When he wasn’[t saying that he was a socialist, which he knew to be untrue, or a terrorist, or anti-American. Look, there was a time that he could have quashed all of that–fired a few prominent staffers who were allowing such remarks to go out over the airwaves, or blasted a Michele Whatshername from Minnesota, and probably picked up a few votes (and lost a few more) for doing so. But it wold have gotten him what he kept saying he wanted: a clean campaign about the issues and the policy differences between him and Obama. Maybe this stratetgy would have cost him the elkection, but he lost it anyway, and lost the respect I had for him going in to the campaign. He can’t earn it back with a few nice words–far too little, far too late.
.
I have no doubt that McCain is a personable guy, one to one, and more direct than most political opponents, largely because he tends to piss off his own Pubbie colleagues from time to time. That has nothing to do with the despicable unprincipled mudslinging campaign he just ran.
Not only that–I think I know him better than someone who sleeps with him–there’s no one in the world whose view of John McCain I have less respect for than that trollop who trowels on the makeup standing next to him on the platform.
It was refreshing to see the losers, in this case McCain and Palin, exhibit some class and dignity.
Contrast their actions with the crybaby antics of the Gore & Kerry camps after the past two elections.
Okay, I just quit being magnanimous in victory.
Remember Florida, a stolen election?
And between Stevens’ removal and the special election, Gov. Palin appoints an acting senator.
Both of these reflect my feelings. I got the impression that he was basically saying that Obama won because of the African-American vote. Ignoring the fact that 53% of the country as a whole voted for Obama, which included members of all ethnic groups. IMO, it was his way of cheapening Obama’s victory.
He was a class act.
Love, Phil