2008 Primaries Thread 3: The Rejecting and Denouncening

too many of those pageloads are me, I'm part of the problem :(

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I think this "bomb bomb bomb Iran" line is melarkey uttered to placate the right wing

as with so much else on this thread (some of it from me), that overrates the candidate's wiles by a fair piece, he was just saying stupid shit without thinking -- in this case it's hard to avoid the conclusion that his joke (and i wonder where he heard it from) DOES reveal something about him, but what it reveals may just be that he's got the kind of doomed yet macho gallows humor that so many soldiers in vietnam developed -- what it also reveals though is that he's got a really bad radar for when to deploy it, and this sort of thing may be what undoes him in the end (on top of inheriting the most disastrous republican presidency in modern history; all his actual positions; "your choice: bush iii or obama" etc)

either way, it's melarkey.

Here we go:

http://media.gallup.com/poll/graphs/040308DailyUpdateGraph1Amsdprows.gif

its a fucking waltz

For all the font nerds out there:

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/to-the-letter-born/?em&ex=1207368000&en=5516695deb8e76df&ei=5087%0A

take it in kids...

http://www.luckypennyproductions.net/hillary/bitch.jpg

people don't understand, i mean it as a term of endearment

ok enough of that already

some real butthurtedness going on in the comments

Re: McCain's military background and its impact on his view on/willingness to conduct war:

There was a Newsweek article a couple of years ago (or maybe last year) about McCain's relationship with Hagel. It pointed out how their different experiences of the Vietnam War (Hagel on the ground, shooting people and getting shot at; McCain bombing from above) may have colored their attitudes toward the Iraq War. Taking McCain's POW experience into account, he was never in the position to kill someone up close or watch people being killed around him.

I'm sure that article is findable on the Web somewhere.

Style equals accuracy. Put the word “change” in Comic Sans and the idea feels lightweight and silly.

lol isn't Comic Sans like universally considered the worst font in the world? Not a great example.

Here it is

Key grafs ("Tom" is Hagel's brother):

The two men saw the war from sharply different angles. Chuck Hagel "walked point" with an infantry company near the Cambodian border in some of the worst fighting in 1967 and '68. His brother Tom often went on patrol with him (the brothers circumvented an Army rule that bars family members from serving in combat together). "I don't know how many times we would be assigned to go out for a search-and-destroy mission," Tom recalls, "and we'd pass South Vietnamese villages with South Vietnamese soldiers lying around sleeping in hammocks. They're doing easy duty while we were out doing the hard part." The lesson to the Hagel brothers was obvious: "You cannot win somebody else's independence," says Tom. "They have to do it for themselves."

Ground-pounder Tom says that while he respects McCain's service, the bomber pilot could not have known what reality was like down in the jungle: "He was up in the air at 10,000 feet. He never saw the consequences of those bombs." (Tom is a Democrat who's tussled with his brother on partisan politics.) McCain acknowledges that different perspectives can produce different outlooks on the war. He brings up one of Hagel and McCain's mutual friends, Gen. Colin Powell, whose Vietnam service bred a strong reluctance to intervene in a foreign conflict without overwhelming force and a clear exit strategy--the so-called Powell Doctrine. "One of the most impactful experiences of Colin's life was holding a dying soldier in his arms in the battlefield in Vietnam," says McCain. "I can see how that would have a very significant impression on him."

http://media.gallup.com/poll/graphs/040408DailyUpdateGraph1_mnbvert.gif

huzzah

when the right wing comment trolls call him juan or captain amnesty it's yet another window into GOP-base racism. a distant third in the nickname stakes is "McVain", and there i think they really have his number. the guy views every single policy issue through the lens of personal honor and heroism. it explains his lurching around the ideological landscape on this or that issue, while being totally clueless about important systemic things. it's not that he has conservative opinions on economics or education or health care, he doesn't have much of an opinion at all. nothing in those problems has much in the way of a 'noble struggle on to victory' narrative, so he doesn't really give a shit. and in terms of the war his attitude is even more mindless than the bush doctrine itself.

otm

so i guess today, mccain gives a speech apologizing for his initial opposition to an MLK holiday -- while a black guy holds his umbrella for him. unsurprisingly, mccain is booed.

that is totally right about mccain! thanks, gff, i've never seen it articulated so clearly.

omg elmo

http://bp1.blogger.com/_ndAyv4BjPbk/R_WNoVLpe_I/AAAAAAAAARU/6dalIDAqQCE/s1600-h/Picture+5.png

http://bp3.blogger.com/_ndAyv4BjPbk/R_WNX1Lpe-I/AAAAAAAAARM/Sq1_Jzw2gi0/s1600-h/Picture+6.png

(indirect source)

duh

just clicky then

i know dan! i mean, i know mccain wouldn't be able to hold up the umbrella himself, but i can so easily imagine mccain's advisers cornering their one black staffer and persuading him, "come on, it will be good for his image to be seen next to an african american when he gives this speech. oh, and hold this umbrella over his head and keep quiet. there you go. perfect."

lol marc penn talking to colombia about trade deals.

lol marc penn in general

the guy is the legal definition of 'conflict of interest' wrapped in fat-suit

when the right wing comment trolls call him juan or captain amnesty it's yet another window into GOP-base racism. a distant third in the nickname stakes is "McVain", and there i think they really have his number. the guy views every single policy issue through the lens of personal honor and heroism. it explains his lurching around the ideological landscape on this or that issue, while being totally clueless about important systemic things. it's not that he has conservative opinions on economics or education or health care, he doesn't have much of an opinion at all. nothing in those problems has much in the way of a 'noble struggle on to victory' narrative, so he doesn't really give a shit. and in terms of the war his attitude is even more mindless than the bush doctrine itself.

so OTM. thanks for nailing this down

I dunno, "hey subprime victims, tough shit" sounds pretty 'conservative' to me.

She thinks it's funny? Great.

http://www.time.com/time/quotes/0,26174,1727918,00.html

sociopathy

Do Bill C.'s tax returns mention consulting fees?

making jokes about something you lied about = Dubya tactic

God, she's a dorque.

self-deprecating humor from politicians on talk shows and during speeches is totally weak, i think that kind of shit helped wreck gore's '00 run.

Self-deprecating humor that is (a) funny and (b) doesn't come over as condescending or patronizing, is very effective but that line is abjectly lame and treats us all like we were idiot children.

but it show's that she's a good sport fnar fnar

yeah, most of it comes off like bad leno zings applied to self

bad leno zings = ratings gold, irl :/

It doesn't show that she's good sport. It shows that she will stoop to anything to play off the fact that she told bald-faced lies meant to impress us with how brave she is or whatever, though I have to say, I think it's noble of her to make light of sniper fire during a time of ethnic cleansing. Clearly she's risen farther above the bitterness than I have today.

So former GOP Bob Barr might be running for prez as a Libertarian soon? Has this already passed into the middle zone of this thread?

http://thepage.time.com/2008/04/05/colombia-sacks-penn/

bahahaha

A lot of what's happened in these primaries will be water under the bridge soon enough, and I hope all these people find new jobs and causes to fight for.

Except for Mark Penn...I hope that twerp never works again and has to live in the back of a U-Haul, begging towns to let him park there and rest for just one night.

This thread sure slowed down. Is politics over?

Everything got talked about until it was solved.

http://media.gallup.com/poll/graphs/040608DailyUpdateGraph1dude.gif

round round round we go

i do wonder wth these people are changing their minds about this shit everyday

I think it's more likely that they aren't asking the same people every week.

or they are asking the same people and all of them are drunks

or ppl are still making up their minds but giving a gut response anyway cuz hey it's just some pollster on the phone no big deal

Oh no!