2008 USP(G)ET pt. II: counting the days to 2012 primary thread 1

I can't get over the blatancy of this:

"We're going to get a little tougher," a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of television ads is coming. "We've got to question this guy's associations. Very soon. There's no question that we have to change the subject here," said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

I mean I'm surprised there's not already an Obama ad quoting that. "While most Americans think the economy is the most important issue in the election, John McCain's campaign said that they 'have to change the subject.'"

The Republicans are not getting as much traction out of this as they used to. Is it because after 8 years of Rovian tactics, people are less receptive or is it just coming across as desperate?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/10/06/afghan.saudi.talks/index.html

What impact do you think this will have on the election, if any?

i think people are a little sick of it and noticing that mccain and palin don't have a thing to say beyond negative attacks. i hope the trend continues on for the next month.

KEATING 5 KEATING 5 KEATING 5 KEATING 5

I mean I'm surprised there's not already an Obama ad quoting that

there pretty much is, that one that's like, "John McCain .... erratic in a crisis .... no wonder they want to change the subject"

So what is wrong with early voting? Even leaving aside the large matter of increased potential for fraud in voting by absentee ballots, there are two costs to early voting.

First, for tens of millions of early voters, the campaign process of informing and persuading is effectively truncated. Now, there is evidence that early voters are more partisan and informed than other voters and hence are less likely than the rest of the electorate to be swayed by events late in an election season. Nevertheless, early voting increasingly affects the rhythms of campaigns, forcing the front-loading of arguments [...]

The second problem with early voting is that one of its supposed benefits is actually a subtraction from civic health. The benefit is that it makes voting easier-indeed, essentially effortless. But surely the quality of the electoral turnout declines when the quantity is increased by "convenience voting."

lol what

we must fight this "convenience voting"!! bring back the poll tax!

I kind of think that, instead of voting for people, you should select policy positions and rank them according to your personal priority. Those then get tallied and the candidate whose overall profile gets the largest number of votes wins.

Yes, I know this would never work.

that was george will btw

the QUALITY of the electoral turnout!!

"efforts to put up state patrol roadblocks on voting day are diminished, making the practice patently unfair to republicans"

george will from the "it's not the size of your tool, it's the motion of the ocean" school of politics

i can't wait for his article calling for hip-hop to abandon 80-minute 20 track albums and return to the days of illmatic style half hour classics

excellent snl skit here

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/george-f-wills-sports-machine/3005458430

ahh yes, ballparks. in humanity there exists a vestigal memory of an enclosed greenspace, as a place, or freedom or play.

ahahaha id never seen that A+++

Anybody know if Joan Didion's written any essays about this election?

"have you ever played baseball?" "if by play you mean drink deep the aura of the field..."

piffle or not piffle

Anybody know if Joan Didion's written any essays about this election?

I don't. Another voice I miss, for comment on this election: Mailer. Nothing to be done about that one, alas.

There were some great Doonesbury strips about Will in the early 80s with a similar spin...

Didion spoke on a panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival about the election:
http://ephemerist.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/joan-didion-discourses-at-the-brooklyn-book-festival/

George Will's Sports Machine is probably my fav SNL sketch of all time

xp Oh, and the audio is here:
http://media.nybooks.com/092408-didion.mp3

Didion will publish an essay in a collection of essays devoted to discussing life after Bush.

CONVENIENCE VOTING FTW

g*d damn that's amazing. amazing george will.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/3519/saturday-night-live-george-f-wills-sports-machine

?

"Well, I was reading my copy of today's New York Times and I was interested to read about Barack's friends from Chicago," Ms. Palin said at the fund-raiser in Englewood, Colo. "Turns out one of Barack's earliest supporters is a man who, according to The New York Times, and they are hardly ever wrong, was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.' Wow."

lolololol

You need to hear that speech with the hoots and laugh track.

bitch knows she totally borrowed her copy of the NYT and should fess up

As someone who has written critically of John McCain on a host of issues, including the Keating Five, none of it compares to the life that Barack Obama has led and his belief system. Obama is not merely associated with domestic terrorists, Palestinian radicals, Marxists, and black liberation ideologues — he was their favorite candidate. They groomed him. They befriended him. He befriended them. He socialized with them. In other words, these people saw Obama as representing their views and aspirations and he saw them the same way. I am not among those who raise Obama's associations but add "of course, it doesn't mean Obama shares their views." Oh really? These miscreants include Obama's former pastor, political mentors and allies, and friends. Obama attempts to downplay and distance himself from his own circle of allies now that he is running for president. But he is one of them. Obama is getting a pass that no other candidate in my memory has ever received.

who is that??

The Venerable Mark Levin

hes thought this the entire time, and just brings it up now that making this point if the current mccain strategy by sheer coincidence

making this point IS the current mccain strategy

They groomed him. They befriended him. He befriended them. He socialized with them. In other words, these people saw Obama as representing their views and aspirations and he saw them the same way.

amazing.

I HAVE IN MY HAND A LIST...

Who are all these people who never disagree with friends/acquaintances?

They groomed him.
http://jewagainstobama.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/obama-barber.jpg

also lol at http://jewagainstobama.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/birds-of-a-feather-flock-togther/

Check out the sign in the back of the photo, which I am told, says “Allah.”

OHHHH NOOOOOO

all those corner folks have the hardest time hewing to anything approaching reality when writing about obama OR palin.

xp haha nice url on that shit

WAIT WAIT WAIT

http://jews4huckabee.blogspot.com/

it's like, mccain and biden have established political characters and so are loved or hated accordingly, but lookee here it's a black dude and a woman, let's believe whatever we feel like believing gree hee hee!!

xp is that like jews for jesus?

all those corner folks have the hardest time hewing to anything approaching reality when writing about obama OR palin.

actually no: i think the right wing drew a bead on john mccain pretty accurately and early: he's erratic and unreliable as a conservative, vain, willing to compromise on anything at a moment's notice if it catches his fancy to do so, only to switch back later...

i do think there is some kind of cognitive problem those dudes have, and inability to sort out the facts surrounding a public figure who isn't a white dude, and so resort to bizarre flights of fancy (announced as though it were distilled truth, of course)