2008 Primaries Thread 3: The Rejecting and Denouncening

meanwhile their chosen candidate remains a blubbering old sack of nonsense who has absolutely nothing relevant and very little that's even comprendible to say on any of the issues whatsoever

see also ...

xpost: right right, but look, this is what's in the news in april. ok, april is still early. but it's not that early. there seems to be an assumption that at some point all this silliness will stop and we'll get to the real campaign where the democrats will have a massive edge. but this is the real campaign. just like al gore inventing the internet was the real campaign. we're in this weird meta-narrative where the actual campaign might never happen, or might be so marginalized by the campaign about the campaign (who's "shaping the storyline," who's elitist, who's doing the best job of courting the media) that the "issues" never really come into focus. obviously settling on a democratic candidate would help, but it's not like all this other stuff is going to suddenly disappear. in the most likely scenario at the moment, the mccain campaign just takes the baton from the clinton campaign and obama's still answering questions about his pastor in october.

ok maybe not "most likely," but at least a possible scenario. and then the analysis in november seamlessly becomes how the democrats never managed to "break through" all the "distractions," without anyone having to take responsibility for how those "distractions" became something that couldn't be "broken through." the media will say they were just reflecting the campaigns, the campaigns will say they were just reflecting the media, and pious columnists will write columns about how democrats just don't get the values of real americans.

yeah but I'm talking about voters, not the msm and definitely not bloggers

if the debates leading up to november never rise above the last one and the msm narrative remains as stagnant as you describe, if our electorate votes to that narrative, I wouldn't worry too much, because it just confirms that we have effectively absolved our franchise, and I'm too tired to tell america that's a bad idea

well there is part of me that wonders if a 70-yr-old white guy with no ideas is actually a more honest representation of america '08 than a pioneering first-black-guy or first-woman president with at least a few new ideas.

but yeah, i don't know. i wish i had the self-control to not pay attention to any of it for about 3 months and then see where things stand.

(or even the option to not pay attention to it, since i'm surrounded by it at work every day)

tipsy, shut up and watch those scintillating geniuses David Axelrod and whoever HRC's new campaign advisor is "debate" on Tim Russert's show.

i'm actually watching mccain on stephanopoulos. god help me.

That's just wrong under any circumstances.

argh. mccain's playing the weather underground thing. ok i'm done with this.

My mom, on Thursday, wanted to know precisely who was giving the orders to stitch up Obama on Wednesday. She thought he coped well enough regardless of this and that Wright is still worse, much worse, in her mind than Ayers. Obama the candidate will win our state easily *unless* McCain picks our governor for VP, at which point her GOP vote might matter because MN is the capital of voting for the local guy riding shotgun regardless of party.

My feeling is that Obama is actually the cleanest candidate on offer for some time so like a fresh new shirt, any 'stain' is exaggerated. I think his campaign might have to say that this isn't going to be about wives, preachers (notice how they are 'ministers' when they're white, like Hagee) or casual acquaintances, because Americans tell them over and over that they are sick of seeing elections played out at this level. There was already a high interest and attendant ratings when the coverage was genuinely more issues-based and when it hasn't been, the public have complained if it stretches past a news cycle.

One thing the regular media could do to save our collective sanity, however, is to vet their comments sections and not post any of the incoherent, misspelled variety, just to raise the bar a bit. It's not like they run this shit in Letters to the Editor - those communications have to adhere to standard written English, whatever is said. Why not in other places where the public contribute?

I... no words...

http://i26.tinypic.com/mjbmlt.gif

lock thread

that is one of the most perfected animated gifs I have ever seen

well there is part of me that wonders if a 70-yr-old white guy with no ideas is actually a more honest representation of america '08 than a pioneering first-black-guy or first-woman president with at least a few new ideas.

America: A 70-Year-Old White Guy With No Ideas

http://media.gallup.com/poll/graphs/042008DailyUpdateGraph1_rn3w9kl2as.gif

dont worry i have located the latest gallup poll

thank god

sweet relief

TS: margin of error vs. statistical insignificance :\

51:40 was a nicer pic.

xpost they're both great

too close to call. +/- 3 pts means we can't tell to closely what's been going on for the last coupla days.

The one thing we can point out as being consistantly redemonstrated w.r.t the matchup polls with mccain is that something is seriously fucked with his coverage. I.e. the dude who wants massively unpopular occupation forever and another four years of dubya everything is matching up stats-even with the two folks who _don't_ rep for the 26-percenter bullshit.

It reminds me of nothing so much as when Lakoff writes about talking to one of the main guys behind Reagan's first campaign; voters didn't support jack shit what the candidate was for, they just really wanted to vote for the dude who had been sold to them.

I mean, nothing new here; packaged candidates and simplistic narratives beat out everything every single time in the Modern Era, even with plenty of people completely cognizant of the process as it occurs each time round.

my opinion on this primary has taken a turn from wanting what i think is best for the country to wanting what i think is best to make gabbneb look like a flippant dick

FT endorses Obama; meanwhile shock and surprise that flippant dickery contained in hypocriticism.

Reagan's first presidential campaign, that is

It's been really clear from the start that McCain will invoke Reagan all the time; he wants to sign bills with some old Bic given to him by the Gipper. WHAT EV ER. Obama is doing a reverse-Reagan but he is running a judo campaign in lots of ways - it will become very boring to the electorate to see the admiral's grandson go on about elitism when so many are sick of family privilege allowing candidates to even run in the first place.

McCain's numbers are so strong right now because Dems are still in FITE! mode. That's all there is to it.

Whatever the polls say now I simply cannot see McCain winning. Basically, the economy will get worse and Iraq will get no better, and that is a fatal combination for McCain. No troop reduction is planned before November; McCain has made his open-ended commitment to Iraq plain and inescapable; and a deepening recession will turn the occupation into a huge economic issue, over and above all the other issues that surround it. McCain won't be able to survive that.

"Flippant dickery" = best phrase I've heard this year

ILX alum weighs in. http://imomus.livejournal.com/368458.html

Your turn, Darnie11e. ;-)

i'm stil O.O re: dusting shoulders off

he is such a mack

countdown to fake right-wing outrage over obama's "coded reference to a song by controversial gangster rapper and former drug dealer jay-z." followed by burst of blog posts and op-ed columns explaining the history and sociology of brushing your shoulders off, plus assorted defenses of jay-z the entrepreneur. chris matthews: "yeah but he's using this kind of, ok, you know, urban gesture, and how does that play to all those guys in the bowling alleys? lot of rap fans there?" rush limbaugh: "gangsta candidate barack obama..." clinton operative: "you can just imagine the republican attack ad, showing obama brushing his shoulders off combined with, you know, scary images from violent rap videos..." tim russert: "let's talk about shoulder-gate..."

lolololol pitch perfect manufactured mathews quote!

yep

If Jay-Z does get referenced by anyone on the right, this entire thing is over for them.

I have to admit I'm pleasantly surprised not to see any "omg he thinks he's a pimp what does that make HILARY HUH SENATOR???" spew from the other side.

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, April 21, 2008 3:01 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

clinton operative: "you can just imagine the republican attack ad, showing obama brushing his shoulders off combined with, you know, scary images from violent rap videos..."

hahaha

along with me, the guys in the bowling alleys have no fucking idea what dusting the shoulders off meant.

dumb america

doesn't listen to Jay-Z America

the old, weird, doesn't listen to jay-z, america

(not a morbs zing! hart u bro)

also nrq, that's not very nice, you asshole.

sorry boo

aw

the speech was in Raleigh, NC (28% black, home to or near numerous colleges), not Bowling Shirt, PA

yes, but Mouthbreather Matthews is hoping like hell to keep it alive and widen its audience to bowlers cuz it's on this thing called TV.

he is?

that's what I assume his asking bullshit questions above means