As well as he did, Obama blew a big chance

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Wednesday October 08, 2008 · 6:11 AM PDT

2008/10/08 · 06:11

The second presidential debate -- its format, Brokaw's tone, the whole thing -- was at odds with the American gestalt right now. People are really worried about the economy -- not just in a "polls indicate it's the top concern" type of way, but in a "I'm actually hoarding gold under my mattress and stocking up on ammo" type of way.

The format was weird anyway -- neither debate nor town hall -- and Brokaw's non-moderation spectacular in its dullness. But I think Obama, apparently a winner in most polls, would have been much better served if he had done the following at least once, if not several times:

"Look, I could take time now to debunk Senator McCain's bent statistics and half-truths, but that's not what we're here for. An increasing proportion of you have made your decision about Nov. 4, and a couple of quarrelsome senators are not going to change your mind. Instead, I'm going to answer your question about jobs/social security/etc....."

Poll

84 votes Show Results

Obama has the capital right now to tell it like it is, and should

84 votes Vote Now!

Obama has the capital right now to tell it like it is, and should

True. Country before politics -- people will respect that.

49 votes

False. Play it safe and win in November, even if you lose some undecideds.

28 votes

Not sure.

7 votes

Palin's Ten Commandments (The Lost Couric Tape)

Verbalobe

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Monday October 06, 2008 · 6:23 AM PDT

2008/10/06 · 06:23

The Ten Commandments, by Sarah Palin

Verbalobe

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Sunday October 05, 2008 · 6:58 AM PDT

2008/10/05 · 06:58

Let me get right to the money quote:

The U.S. military "is not a Swiss Army knife," ready to fight the Taliban one week, respond to a hurricane the next and put down a major political protest the third week, Healy said.

Since when is it national policy to "put down" political protests, major or otherwise??

Verbalobe

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Saturday October 04, 2008 · 10:12 AM PDT

2008/10/04 · 10:12

A key problem for McCain's campaign as Obama gains traction in swing and tipping-point states is the conservatives that never liked him, and might otherwise have voted with the Libertarian Party or the Constitution Party, figuring that their vote wasn't needed to stop Obama.

Detail about college-age conservatives from Virginia's GMU below the fold...

Poll

48 votes Show Results

Will GOP factional dissenters cover McCain's backside in Virginia and elsewhere?

48 votes Vote Now!

Will GOP factional dissenters cover McCain's backside in Virginia and elsewhere?

Yes, they have to stop Obama

8 votes

Yes, McCain will successfully court them

0 votes

No, they will still vote their conscience

6 votes

No, they will stay away in droves

10 votes

Damned if I know

20 votes

Who cares?

4 votes

Palin's shout out to the church family

Verbalobe

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Friday October 03, 2008 · 7:17 AM PDT

2008/10/03 · 07:17

I'm not an expert at reading these particular tea leaves but my wife used to be in a fundamentalist Christian sect and she has me well-trained enough that some of the dog-whistle terms here stood out to me:

But even more important is that world view that I share with John McCain. That world view that says that America is a nation of exceptionalism. And we are to be that shining city on a hill, as President Reagan so beautifully said, that we are a beacon of hope and that we are unapologetic here. We are not perfect as a nation. But together, we represent a perfect ideal. And that is democracy and tolerance and freedom and equal rights. Those things that we stand for that can be put to good use as a force for good in this world.

Poll

120 votes Show Results

Was Palin deliberately sending a secret handshake to the Fundies?

120 votes Vote Now!

Was Palin deliberately sending a secret handshake to the Fundies?

Hell, yes

69 votes

Looks like it

24 votes

Maybe

7 votes

You're making too much of this

14 votes

What? She has strong religious beliefs that would affect her policy decisions?

6 votes

The 'meta' lesson of Biden's conundrum

Verbalobe

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Thursday October 02, 2008 · 4:56 PM PDT

2008/10/02 · 16:56

I think it ought to be a lesson to the nation that the meta-discussion consuming the blogoshpere is "how should Biden conduct the debate given his opponent is utterly ill-equipped to be a national chief executive?"

The more everyone remarks on what a curve-ball the "maverick" has thrown here -- the more extreme the perception that the selection of Palin was daring, surprising, or a "game changer" -- the better the argument is made that she is an unfit candidate.

McCain's campaign has to skate the thin line here between brilliance and foolishness, and since the convention "bump" it seems to have skidded past foolishness into uncharted territory.

Verbalobe

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Wednesday October 01, 2008 · 10:30 AM PDT

2008/10/01 · 10:30

The shortest distance between two points is when there's just one point.

In his approach to the financial crisis, and with the pretended "suspension" of his campaign, John McCain makes a great to-do about politicians who put personal or partisan interests first, instead of "rushing to the aid of their country."

The problem here is that rushing somewhere implies that you were somewhere else at the time. I believe Barack Obama is actively and continuously engaged in aid of the country already -- all the time. Sure puts Obama at a disadvantage when the order of the day is to showboat one's sudden commitment to country.

Verbalobe

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Sunday September 28, 2008 · 8:35 AM PDT

2008/09/28 · 08:35

I'm more convinced than ever that a McCain presidency (Palin aside -- she's a complete nightmare) would take this country from Very Bad to Poof! before you could say "Damn, the shotgun went off just as you put your face in front of it."

My first reaction was that McCain had the edge, but I think that was driven by the absurdly low expectations he'd managed to set during the previous two weeks with his bizarre waffling on the economy and the "suspension" of his campaign (which turns out to look exactly like an "active" campaign: ads running, surrogates speaking, McCain sulking in his Washington office). That he spoke, on the whole, in rational, energetic, complete sentences, and had a ready grasp of a pretty wide range of dates, statistics, and names, frankly, surprised me. I half-expected a walking corpse.

Then comes the afterburn.

Verbalobe

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Wednesday September 24, 2008 · 3:49 PM PDT

2008/09/24 · 15:49

McCain's decision to 'suspend the campaign' is based on well-meaning but outdated thinking.

The rationale goes something like this: convince voters that you are very, very serious-minded about something that is a really overwhelming crisis. This probably will work even better if the crisis is one that the voters themselves are obsessing over, not just the candidates. Would a scheduled debate one week after 9/11 have been postponed (had it been an election year)? Probably so. Or it would have been turned into a bipartisan memorial service. Or something.

In scenarios like that, the campaign has to tread a fine line -- call for a suspension too late, when voters are already accusing you of sticking to politicking when you should be pitching in, and you risk alienation the other way.

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As well as he did, Obama blew a big chance

Palin's Ten Commandments (The Lost Couric Tape)

Reassurances about domestic Army unit not all that reassuring

The divided conservative base

Palin's shout out to the church family

The 'meta' lesson of Biden's conundrum

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points

Debate Afterburn (Pres. Debate #1)

McCain's Time-Out Gambit: Loses in Internet-Time