McCain Wins Debate

[urstwile]

Oopsy (http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/09/26/mccain-to-attend-debate-web-ad-claims-victory-already/) :D

[Red Kittie Kat]

aaaahahahaaa... I love leaks :D

[CkretAjint]

I always knew he was a bit pompous... :rolleyes:

;)

[garricks]

And in other news...

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a249/garricks/GDF/dewey_defeats_truman.jpg

[tuliptree]

Wow, that's just nuts.

(by the way time machine they were using=want! I'll go back to the cavemen time so I can speak cave all the time.)

[doubting_thomas]

Um... 19-0?

[Pointyhat]

Garricks, that's immediately the picture I googled.
Tom, what's 19-0?

[Randomhero]

Wow, that's just nuts.

(by the way time machine they were using=want! I'll go back to the cavemen time so I can speak cave all the time.)

I wonder how one goes about speaking cave.... I would learn fast tho so you don't get clubbed.

[PrintDriver]

Well at least one commenter on that blog had it right. They both should be in the Senate doing their jobs, not out debating, especially if there is going to be economic hell to pay. Of course, it's probably already too late... :rolleyes:

[urstwile]

But neither of them are on the committees deciding the bailout issue, so what would they contribute, PD?

John McCain tried to paint himself as "the one who was willing to put aside politics for larger issues". Guess what, they told him "Thanks, but no thanks". :D

[garricks]

IMHO, tonight's debate was a draw. Obama did better than I expected, McCain not as well as I thought. I remain undecided.

[urstwile]

I agree, I think it was definitely a draw. As to my vote, I haven't been undecided for months.

[garricks]

I think the Biden/Palin debate will help me decide. I was disappointed to find out that it wasn't Michael Palin. ;)

http://www.michaelpalinforpresident.com/

[urstwile]

LOL, garricks, on the Michael Palin.

I think, if anything, you'll get even less from the VP debate than appears to be the case from tonight's debates. For one thing, the McCain campaign was able to negotiate an entirely different format for Palin. There will be NO five minute free-for-all between the debaters. Two minute answers each, and then next question. Can you say "soundbite"?

[tuliptree]

Politics really depress me. There's just so much exteraneous fluff and crud that gets in the way. It makes me want to look away, but I don't like feeling that way about it either. Sigh.

I want one of those Michael Palin Vote Silly pins really bad now, too. I love Michael Palin. He makes me happy.

[garricks]

urstwile, I'm hoping I can see it live. Working on it. I also want to see how Palin does in the 2-minute format. I'm guessing she can't even handle that, and that's a shame.

tulip, I agree about the depressing. The spin is amazingly crazy.

[hewligan]

Obviously they've been taking media advice from Xinhua (http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200839/2137/China-fakes-successful-Shenzhou-VII-report-ahead-of-launch).

[PrintDriver]

Shows how much I'm following the money thing. :p
That news is just about as irritating as the election politics.

[BJMRGTIVR6]

Seems like both candidates side-stepped the questions asked. rather than answer a question they would reiterate great 'sound bites' that was close to an answer but made them sound good to the ignorant listener.
If you don't listen to the questions, you may have missed the non-answers. THe first question or two was not answered by either candidate. The third was touched in a 5-second bit at the end of his speech and the other candidate answered the question...unfortunately Lehrer missed the answers on both accounts.

there were a few funny moments....(L)Barack, tell McCain that not ,me....(O)oh ok, well, ..... (M)did you think i couldn't hear him?

[reuber1]

I nearly barfed at all the anecdotal BS. So, you got a bracelet, huh? Who gives a flying f**k?

I caught some of MSNBC's 'who won' "coverage", and they were saying that McCain did, more or less because he was grumpier.

[garricks]

McCain was certainly more condescending!

[morea]

Politics really depress me.
Amen.

What we need is a candidate who tells it like it is (http://www.zod2008.com/)! ;)

[reuber1]

Amen.

What we need is a candidate who tells it like it is (http://www.zod2008.com/)! ;)
ROFL. I have knelt.

[John G]

what did McCain just say? it sounded good to me, yea, that is what i meant to say
Obama tried to copy the movies, but did it wrong.

[tuliptree]

Zod and Michael Palin 2008!

I just came across this quick post by Sean Penn, thought I'd share it here. I heart Sean Penn's brain.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-penn/tonights-debate-loser-you_b_129811.html

[adamblan]

My favorite part of the debate was when McCain explained that "Iran's economy is bad because they've got a lousy government."

I laughed loud out loud...:)

[Pointyhat]

Vote for McCain if your looking for a White Republican Male worth 150 million US dollars, has no clue how many houses he owns, and his cabinet is complete with lobbyists. Oh, and his VP isn't allowed to speak to the media.

[urstwile]

Pointy, ya know, I agree with most of the above, but I don't understand the continual racial infusion. Clearly we still have racial issues, since we keep referring to them.

Quite honestly, I don't care if the next president is white or black, green or purple, yellow or blue, I just want them to be better than Bush.

I'll vote for Obama, and bitch slap him in a heartbeat if he pulls a Clinton. That's all I'm sayin'. :D

[garricks]

I agree with you urst, although I think pointy was just using race as an additional identifier for "The Status Quo." Which is what I'm over and done with.

I think we all need to work against the status quo at the state and local level. There's too much "business as usual" going on in this country.

[urstwile]

Oh, absolutely, garricks. It's just hard for me to remain silent. ;)

Race has been the loudest euphemistic silent factor in this race, IMO. Claims that Obama is elitist, while McCain is married to a beer distributor heiress back that up, he's dripping in money, and comes from a family of privilege. A really insidious way of calling someone an "uppity n...", just in an entirely different way. The rich guy calls the not as rich guy who's got more campaign funds an elitist because he went to Harvard? Ludicrous. Even got a "Lady" to call Obama elitist as well. So what are we defining as elitists now? Educated people?

Grrrr. Pisses me off.

[garricks]

If you haven't seen them, catch last night's MadTV and Saturday Night Live...they both had excellent parodies.

[urstwile]

I will most definitely check those out. :)

[Pointyhat]

Vote for McCain if your looking for a White Republican Male worth 150 million US dollars, has no clue how many houses he owns, and his cabinet is complete with lobbyists. Oh, and his VP isn't allowed to speak to the media.
Sorry urst, I guess that may have been construed as racist. Let me edit.

Vote for McCain if your looking for an Ahole Republican Male worth 150 million US dollars, has no clue how many houses he owns, and his cabinet is complete with lobbyists. Oh, and his VP isn't allowed to speak to the media.

;)

[John G]

I think I'll decide my vote on campaign stances instead of smears.

But maybe I'll vote for Obama, since this bailout isn't going to fix anything except to encourage more lending (what got us into this in the first place?) so in 2-3 years an even bigger economic collapse can be the Democrat's fault.

[Pointyhat]

Well, Sarah Palin was pretty articulate when Katie Couric asked her a few questions about the bailout.

Huh? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npUMUASwaec)

And the saddest scariest part is, she was reading from notes.

[urstwile]

OMG, I was waiting for her to say OMG in that interview. :D

[a_muse]

That's so funny, I saw the Saturday night Live sketch last night, I had no idea how close to reality it was.

[garricks]

"Truth is Stranger than fiction".

"Truthiness is Stranger than Truth."

Caveat Emptor. ;)

[urstwile]

Sorry urst, I guess that may have been construed as racist. Let me edit.

Vote for McCain if your looking for an Ahole Republican Male worth 150 million US dollars, has no clue how many houses he owns, and his cabinet is complete with lobbyists. Oh, and his VP isn't allowed to speak to the media.

;)
You weren't being racist, I sometimes react a little more strongly to stuff like that, being married to a black man.

I think to blame problems on people using white as an epithet is an old and tired paradigm.

Then again, I have a lot of murky viewpoints on the subject, so I can't say I'm being reasonable at all.

I'm not sure Obama is our great black hope either.

[John G]

Well, Sarah Palin was pretty articulate when Katie Couric asked her a few questions about the bailout.

Huh? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npUMUASwaec)

And the saddest scariest part is, she was reading from notes.
would you like to get started on Joe Bidden's blunders then? Pot meet Kettle.

But we'll see what happens come Thursday.

[Pointyhat]

Oh come on John, she can't put one coherent sentence together and she's USING notes!

[John G]

That didn't stop Bush from winning twice ^.^

[garricks]

And that's what I'm afraid of. ^.^

[Tea]

Me too.

Urst..sadly, color racism is very much alive here. Along with religious bias, homophobic fears and people with open minds. Tolerance is a word that is reserved for fairy tales apparently.

[Pointyhat]

That didn't stop Bush from winning twice ^.^

Oh god, don't get me started. Afraid? I'm freaking terrified.

[garricks]

http://punditkitchen.com/2008/09/28/political-pictures-john-mccain-mortgage-crisis-gas-prisoner-vietnam/

Well, carp, I can't get the pic itself to load.

[John G]

that's ok, read the comments that way we won't have to type it out here.

[garricks]

Yep, I read them John ;) I'm a big fan of political humor and skewering.

I just thought the caption was apropos the debate last Friday. Believe me, if I had seen one on Obama I would have posted it too.

[Pointyhat]

Sickeningly that's pretty much the gist of his campaign.

[Broacher]

One of the things I feel that you Americans miss in your leadership debates that is a source of mirth for so many Canadians in OUR style of campaigning is the bi-lingual format. It's one thing to sit there and listen to your own language be processed into meaningless promises, platitudes and slogans-- quite another to see the candidate go through what looks like a cat dealing with a hairball as they try to represent themselves to the other half of our Canadian linguisphere. Overall, I'd say that those from Quebec do a better job at English than the reverse: non-Quebecers trying out there newly acquired French tutoring lessons.

But it does give the voter an indication of the amount of commitment a person is willing to go through for a political victory. And the fun part is (and here's where I wish that I was truly bilingual) when a person with sophisticated language skills is forced to do what they can with what amounts to 'street grunts'. It's a separate type of skill-- not unlike graphic design where we are often asked to go from a 'high res/high colour' format down to something low-rez and black and white. It's like a logo test: does it work in black and white?

And yet, in a sense, there is something of a economic class-bilingualism you see in almost all modern democratic elections now. Now that electioneering is totally dependent on media-buying (what does that say?), it's not a surprise that the wealthy class comprise the vast majority of presidential candidacies. And that's why you have the rolled-up sleeves of the Bush baby, or the McCain idea that middle class ends at the $200k a year income line. Wealthy people desperately looking for ways to come across as middleclass. Sarah P. proves that the voter market laps authentic middle-class personas right up. Reality TV meets reality politics.

But how do you generate trust when you're a multi-millionaire trying to come across as someone who understands the daily struggle of the masses? I bet there's a lot of days when some of these candidates long for the days of monarchy... when the only challenge to the entitlement of wealth and power would be a DNA test.

[urstwile]

would you like to get started on Joe Bidden's blunders then? Pot meet Kettle.

But we'll see what happens come Thursday.
Biden's blunders are, IMO, nothing compared to Palin's obvious inability to even construct an intelligent answer. Biden deserves his title as gaffe-master, and Obama's choice of him for running mate, frankly, surprised me, but she clearly seems to think that because she can see Russia on a clear day from where she lives, that qualifies her as a foreign policy expert. Her little 30-seconds-a-leader run through last week doesn't do anything to change my opinion about her abilities, either, and the fact that the campaign has her on a tight press-muzzle, as well as the fact that the VP debates were restructured so that there will be no back and forth between her and Biden as there was between McCain and Obama only further underscores the fact that they don't trust her either.

[urstwile]

One of the things I feel that you Americans miss in your leadership debates that is a source of mirth for so many Canadians in OUR style of campaigning is the bi-lingual format. It's one thing to sit there and listen to your own language be processed into meaningless promises, platitudes and slogans-- quite another to see the candidate go through what looks like a cat dealing with a hairball as they try to represent themselves to the other half of our Canadian linguisphere. Overall, I'd say that those from Quebec do a better job at English than the reverse: non-Quebecers trying out there newly acquired French tutoring lessons.

But it does give the voter an indication of the amount of commitment a person is willing to go through for a political victory. And the fun part is (and here's where I wish that I was truly bilingual) when a person with sophisticated language skills is forced to do what they can with what amounts to 'street grunts'. It's a separate type of skill-- not unlike graphic design where we are often asked to go from a 'high res/high colour' format down to something low-rez and black and white. It's like a logo test: does it work in black and white?

And yet, in a sense, there is something of a economic class-bilingualism you see in almost all modern democratic elections now. Now that electioneering is totally dependent on media-buying (what does that say?), it's not a surprise that the wealthy class comprise the vast majority of presidential candidacies. And that's why you have the rolled-up sleeves of the Bush baby, or the McCain idea that middle class ends at the $200k a year income line. Wealthy people desperately looking for ways to come across as middleclass. Sarah P. proves that the voter market laps authentic middle-class personas right up. Reality TV meets reality politics.

Fascinating, and right on, IMO.


But how do you generate trust when you're a multi-millionaire trying to come across as someone who understands the daily struggle of the masses? I bet there's a lot of days when some of these candidates long for the days of monarchy... when the only challenge to the entitlement of wealth and power would be a DNA test.
You paint the guy who's got less houses than you as an elitist, a euphemism for words we're all much too politically correct to say nowadays.

[NTLemon]

To comment on Biden and gaffes: he certainly has made his fair share of blunders but because he obviously has many years of experience and is extremely qualified in foreign policy, his primary contribution to the ticket, in addition to his perceived value as an everyman and off the cuff sort of individual it protects him, the same way a lot of McCain's previous errors have rolled off of him coining the term "teflon john." The difference is that Palin is making gaffe's and blunders when she can't afford to be making this many errors, especially as she is already seen as being dangerously inexperienced by a large percentage of the population. McCain is also running into this problem now with the economy, because it is not seen as his area of strength a gaffe related to the economy will get more play then one related to foreign policy.
You can be certain that if Obama makes any gaffe's of significance that bring into question his abilities in his areas of perceived weaknesses it will also get a lot of air.

[urstwile]

Those are all excellent points, NTLemon.

[reuber1]

ROFLMAO at the New Yorker cover.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/29/new-yorker-cover-mocks-pa_n_130423.html

[garricks]

ROFLMAO! reuber! Great find.

[Pointyhat]

LOL, that's funny!

[Red Kittie Kat]

hehe :D

[Virgo Nightingale]

Thought this was funny.

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/30/you-can-see-russia-from-here/

[garricks]

Good find, Virgo! I like the mayor's comments at the end.

I have to wonder how the campaign staff on The West Wing would have handled her?

[urstwile]

Good share, Virgo, and also interesting to read some of the comments.