2008 Primaries Thread

wtf @ ny now shit

like damn

I am at this point more worried about the prospect of a Romney nomination than McCain, I know you all will think I'm crazy

U R crazy.

Romney is a creepy robot but seems like he knows how to run an organization given CEO status. I'm not saying trends are on the GOP's side but he seems like the least bad option especially when most voters don't watch all the daily news BS showing him being robotic. McCain is nuts.

americans are more likely to elect a woman or a black man than a mormon. people are scared of them!

Mitt Romney is an anagram for Mormon Titty

Yeah the evangelicals will stay home rather than go to the polls and vote for Mitt. And with the economy in the state it is in, I think his CEO credentials will end up backfiring on him.

I think if it comes down to a convention the compromise will be that MI's delegates won't be seated since not everyone was on the ballot, but FL's will. Or MI's uncomitted delegates will go to Obama. But they probably won't want to piss off Florida for the GE. I really hope it doesn't come down to a convention though.

Also, I don't know if anyone mentioned it above, but Teddy gave a great fucking speech.

A Surge of Applause

Howie Kurtz:

The answer is that journalists are not accustomed to covering a candidate who moves crowds the way Obama does, who uses speech cadences and rhythm like Martin Luther King Jr. without making his talk explicitly about race.

Sure they are! Remember when Al Gore visited a black church and "talked black"?

all respect due the man, but those oratorial cadences are no more MLK's than they are Cicero's -- some people just have an ear for rhythm and timing and know how to work a room.

Hmm to H. Kurtz. Well, a related question. Assume Bill Clinton's South Carolina comments were designed as a "dog whistle" (terrible term) over race. Which constituency is he calling to HRC's side with the whistle?

Maybe it's obvious, but I'm not so sure.

And I know, Daria and others reject the question's premise. That's why I phrased it the way I did.

lol

http://i29.tinypic.com/3498kn7.png

lol2

http://i25.tinypic.com/2use5a1.jpg

Assume Bill Clinton's South Carolina comments were designed as a "dog whistle" (terrible term) over race. Which constituency is he calling to HRC's side with the whistle?

I think it's pretty obvious: Obama is trying to position himself as someone whose appeal is not racially defined. Clinton is trying to pigeon-hole him as the black candidate, with limited appeal to non-African Americans.

True, to some extent, but I have a different theory about the main target audience.

local Spanish language paper endorsed Obama as the candidate with the best record on immigration fwiw

xpost, sorry -
Those oratorical cadences are probably not Cicero's.. :) But I will say, Obama's style sounds very 60's to me, the repetition, to me a lot of times it seems more about cadence and sound and the way the phrases are structured. I prefer a different style for political speeches, the one he uses sounds dated to me. Kerry did that too, reaching to be another JFK. To me it sounds like the past.

of course, no commentator has yet said on-air, "Who the fuck WANTS to be JFK?"

I mean, there's a bunch of liberals out there as bored and depressed by the Democratic Party's devotion to the bullshit memory of JFK as it is to its obeisance to the Clintons.

Good. I think that's become the key constituency. The concern, as I understand it, is that an Obama candidacy may blow apart the Democratic coalition by sending Hispanics to the GOP, especially if McCain is the nominee (he's to the left of the other GOP contenders on immigration).

(xp to Shakey)

yeah JFK was kinda a shitty president - people give him too much credit for the things he *might* have done

as opposed to hillary clinton, who is the past

xxxp

Hispanic vote is not gonna go to the GOP when all their candidates are being racist demogogues a la "OMG WE MUST TURN BACK THE TIDE OF BROWN PEOPLE"

McCain isn't.

The fear is about a GE versus McCain.

Apparently Obama is campaigning in California on the issue of supporting driver's licenses for illegal immigrants? Now, I think I agree with that actually, but.. it's an issue that I think well over 2/3 of the public is against and potentially a killer in the general election. Not getting why he's doing that. Far as dog whistles go, again I'm sure you are not surprised at all about me saying this, but Hillary has had very, very overwhelmingly high support among Latino voters well before any of the recent media controversies in South Carolina. I do not think there would be any point when she already has their votes.

Well, if Hillary's the past of the 90's, Kennedy and Kerry are the past of the 60's! Which one is more past, now? :)

i know what you're trying to say, but i think this decade has a lot more in common with the 60s than the 90s!

which sixties? These?

http://www.delawarenationalguard.com/history/images/civilwar.jpg

i realize that what you're getting at but unfortunately about half of america wants kennedy reincarnated from a president. its better than reagan 2.0 (so not gonna happen). 'sounds like the past' is a pretty weird charge to level against obama when you're supporting the political dynasty candidate who wont shut up about 35 years of experience

someone needs to meld photos of JFK and Reagan.

I mean, there's a bunch of liberals out there as bored and depressed by the Democratic Party's devotion to the bullshit memory of JFK as it is to its obeisance to the Clintons.

Yeah, I am. I wasn't even born until well over a decade after JFK was killed. And what bigger political dynasty do the Dems have than the Kennedys? The Clintons are two people of the same age. There are how many Kennedys and have been big players at the national level in the party for how long, now?

really anyone seriously saying obama's campaign is too '60s' i would begin to doubt if they're even a liberal

xp so because obama is endorsed by the kennedys he's a political dynasty candidate instead of the candidate with the same last name as the guy who was president for all of the 90s? thats a pretty neat trick

im not jfk ball-licker either but whining about comparisons to him as some kinda regressive thing is this close to weird coded right wing limousine liberal stuff

'obama's just so... berkley'

I think it's fairly universally agreed that Obama is an amazing public speaker. Maybe you're a cadence snob?

http://www.jewishinseattle.org/JF/images/Safire.jpg

'i hate that san francisco sound'

i wonder if richardson's gonna come out with an endorsement:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/01/29/richardsons_choice.html

Maybe I am a cadence snob! I never cared for his speeches. If you don't want America divided rich against poor than try and level the economic playing field more, give people health care, that's the problem, it's not a deficit of inspiring rhetoric.

xpost to myself - it said by the end of the week it would come, if he does decide to go through with one.

i guess you have a right to be suspicious of obama's stated plan to end the economic divide by giving speeches

oh wait

Politics is at least 50% rhetoric though...

f Richardson is to endorse either Clinton or Obama -- "I might, I might not, how's that for an answer?" -- he said he'll do so by the end of the week.

xpost Richardson still wants an appointment in the next adminstration, probably. If he does it, he's gonna hold his nose and guess on a front-runner, but it seems like a dumb thing to do.