2008 Primaries Thread 2: THE QUICKENING

Btw, I wanted to ask a question about that Will.i.am Obama ad... Don't you think it's a bit scary, all those background voices constantly chanting "Obama", and the people in the ad joining them? To me it feels like there's a touch of something akin to religious fanaticism in it. Maybe it's just a matter of diffence in political cultures though? In here political ads tend to be more dry and matter-of-fact, and overt emotionalism is not usually seen as a good thing. Is that a typical American political ad?

It is a bit over-the-top even for American politics, Tuomas. And that's also been one of the Clinton campaign's favorite points of attack on the Obama campaign, with Clinton presenting herself as the more *rational* politician, although it doesn't seem to have worked that well.

Admittedly, I'm a bit put off by the Obama campaign style, but I like Obama and I just see his campaign as a necessary evil that's not really all that evil.

Although, to be fair, the Will.I.Am video is not an official campaign ad.

I just finished watching the last part of Century of the Self, which goes a lot into the transformation of American and British political campaigning from Reagan and Thatcher on, where political campaigns come to look much more like other forms of modern marketing, as opposed to the old model of trying to make what at least seems like rational argument for particular policy choices. Interestingly, Obama seems to have followed more in the footsteps of Bill Clinton in embracing that new style than Hillary Clinton has.

omg @ that pajamas thing

yeah. The first thing that comes to my mind when I see "N-I-C" is "Nice"

aw

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/8781.html

oooh, substantive

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/an-american-president-my-friend-barack-obama-790330.html

Falling Hillary

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/hillary.htm

That's weird.

will.i.am needs to go the fuck away from that campaign, he is unaware of how bad these things come off (to me). I mean, I'm willing to believe that not all of the US are haughty music snobs who find his work tedious and smug, but I'm not willing to belive that the rest of the US, taste aside, agree with that assessment

See also: Falling Hillary in a Bikini!

no thanks

er, disagree, I meant

will.i.am vid is a Gap advert set to music.

At least Hillary's folks stayed away from the opening monologue of The Departed.

Current site graphic:

[img src="http://www.barackobama.com/images/sitedown_traffic.jpg";]

dammit

http://www.barackobama.com/images/sitedown_traffic.jpg

See also: Falling Hillary in a Bikini!

Ha! She's still wearing sensible shoes.

But in recent days, Clinton campaign officials have suggested that if Obama doesn't win all four Tuesday contests — which also include races in Rhode Island and Vermont — it would signal "buyers remorse" and be reason to continue the campaign to the next major primary, Pennsylvania on April 22.

Don't you think it's a bit scary, all those background voices constantly chanting "Obama", and the people in the ad joining them? To me it feels like there's a touch of something akin to religious fanaticism in it.

to be fair, i think we can partly attribute this level/variety of fervor to 8 years of pretty rough going (for almost everyone but especially Democratic adherents). But no, I don't think I've ever seen what could be called a rationally presented campaign for federal office.

and of course he's not rare in trying to bottle and nurture this type of following, just rare in succeeding, and with such disparate constituencies.
This type of stuff is usually confined to such a narrow bandwidth that a Nader 2K or a Ron Paul scenario is about the ceiling of it.

oh lol, senator clinton: "As far as I know" Obama is not a Muslim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFREDHB-nQ

oh my fucking god

WORST SURROGATES EVER

http://www.observer.com/2008/stumping-clinton-steinem-says-mccains-p-o-w-cred-overrated

http://pwconservative.blogspot.com/2008/02/exclusive-pornstars-for-obama.html

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2008
-
"Actor " in Obama ad, Appears in Softcore Porno
-
In the "Yes We can" Video for Obama, One of the "Celebrities" (Eric Balfour) pictured here:

Has appeared in several extremely explicit films, A quick imdb.com search shows up one particular NC17 movie "Lie With Me", One of the only modern films to contain unsimulated sexual material.

http://imdb.com/name/nm0050156/

This is a slap in the face to all decent Americans, The type of content in these so called "Films" is degrading the entire moral fabric of this nation,

After all of the evangelical outreach Obama has attempted, I Find it astounding that he would want to risk it all.

Now while I understand that Sen. Obama cannot account for all endorsements, I Would appreciate if his campaign would apologize for this Ad, Given it's disrespect for Christian Values
(Thanks for the tip jocie)

Posted by PWConservative at 8:49 PM
-

[for extra lolz, count the number of comment he deleted in response to this post]

Hee:

More Supporters Barack Obama Needs To Denounce and Reject

[...]

Incidentally, the "Yes We Can" video is directed by Jesse Dylan, whose father Bob Dylan wrote "Subterranean Homesick Blues," which included the lyric "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," which is where the violent, radical, left-wing group the Weather Underground got its name. And this is not Obama's only association with the 1960s terrorist organization. Obama once went to a party at the home of Bill Ayers, who was once a member of the Weather Underground and is now a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Does Obama endorse the Weather Underground's plot to foment a violent overthrow of the U.S. government? And how does Obama feel about Dylan's betraying thousands of very sincere fans of folk music by going electric? Why didn't Tim Russert ask him about that?[...]

xpost:
Brendan said...

I have another question: How did you recognize this guy in the first place?
February 28, 2008 11:40 PM

PWConservative said...

It came from an anonymous source, probably chelsea clinton

Eric Balfour, also a former cast member of 24...a show the right loves to love. So, um...yeah, that's pretty much what some actors do. Work where they can find jobs.

"As far as I know" Obama is not a Muslim. <- sue her for defamation

FFS, these two are supposed to be on the same side! McCain must be enjoying this battle

One of the only modern films to contain unsimulated sexual material.

Yes, the mere existence of NC-17 movies is a slap in the face to all decent Americans, The type of content in these so called "Films" is degrading the entire moral fabric of this nation, and it's all Obama's fault.

http://www.towleroad.com/2008/02/barack-obama-te.html

"An interesting moment came when he was asked a question about LGBT rights and delivered an answer that seemed to suit the questioner, listing the various attributes — race, gender, etc. — that shouldn't trigger discrimination, to successive cheers. When he came to saying that gays and lesbians deserve equality, though, the crowd fell silent. So he took a different tack: 'Now I’m a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday,' he said, to a sudden wave of noisy applause and cheers. 'I hear people saying things that I don’t think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian,' he said, and the crowd seemed to come along with him this time."

the KKK does NOT endorse Obama: http:// www . kkk . bz (remove spaces, I'm not going to link there directly)

Are they going for Hillary then?

oh lol, senator clinton: "As far as I know" Obama is not a Muslim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFREDHB-nQ

-- Clay, Sunday, March 2, 2008 6:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Okay, fuck Hillary Clinton. If she wants to spout the rhetoric of the right-wing attack machine, she can go to hell for all I care.

She kinda is a neocon though, isn't she?

Err... I thought I was exaggerating, but

http://www.counterpunch.org/frank07252007.html
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_pt0cIudJ0

jesus christ have you people lost your minds?? she begins by saying "absolutely not" and says she understands the kind of smears that are tried against national figures.

before you actually wish the fires of eternal damnation on people can you realize that you are engaging in the kind of bullsh*t meta-parsing scrutiny that NO ONE could EVER stand up to?

don't be surprised, if obama gets the nom, when cable pundits, blogs, etc start turning their context-free laserbeam on HIS words. i suspect you won't like it so much then. which is why you should resist this crap, beginning now. live by the drudge, die by the drudge. or tucker, whichever.

i agree that holbrooke suxx tho

Just having a bit of fun, it doesn't matter who wins, they're all politicians :-)

If Hillary wins in Ohio and loses in Texas (which seems quite possible), can she still win the nom?

a bit of fun

sorry, i'll go now

"Just a bit of fun"

Have these words ever ever been used to describe anything remotely good?

(Spin off from rear-of-the-year musings)

-- Tom, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (6 years ago) Bookmark Link

jesus christ have you people lost your minds?? she begins by saying "absolutely not" and says she understands the kind of smears that are tried against national figures.

before you actually wish the fires of eternal damnation on people can you realize that you are engaging in the kind of bullsh*t meta-parsing scrutiny that NO ONE could EVER stand up to?

yea, i agree with tracer hand here. she was pretty much unequivocal about the whole thing, very adamant that this is completely unsubstantiated.

i admit, the "as far as i know" line was kind of weird, but i think part of the awkwardness that some people might be reading into probably resulted from the fucking stupidity of the question. come on -- there's these underground internet rumors that obama's a crypto-muslim, and then you ask the other main candidate if she buys into those bullshit rumors? have you guys ever been asked something so ridiculous that it's hard to answer without looking partially like a fool because the question, well, was so ridiculous? that's kind of what seemed to me to be the case with this.

oh and apparently some other memo came out about the obama-canadian-NAFTA story, which isn't good for the obama campaign: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/The_Canadian_memo.html

this story seemed to get some traction on the web in the past week, but according to some polls, most ohioans 1.) don't apparently seem much difference between the candidates opinions on NAFTA, 2.)aren't even really sure what those opinions are, and 3.) if anything, see clinton as the more NAFTA-friendly candidate. so i'm not sure how important this obama-canada story is.

don't apparently seem much difference

*see* much difference, obv.

Print the rest of the memo, Ben, where Goolsbee says Obama wants to tighten labo(u)r and environmental standards. Also, as Goolsbee notes, this is was someone's own thoughts--not a quote of Goolsbee himself.

Posted By: David | March 03, 2008 at 09:23 AM

A senior foreign policy adviser to leading Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has told The Nation that if elected Obama will not "rule out" using private security companies like Blackwater Worldwide in Iraq. The adviser also said that Obama does not plan to sign on to legislation that seeks to ban the use of these forces in US war zones by January 2009, when a new President will be sworn in.

...The irony is that it was Senator Obama who sponsored a bill in February 2007 defining a legal structure to prosecute State Department contractor crimes in US courts. Obama staffers say they will "fight like hell to get it passed." But it may not pass before the next President takes power. Even if it does and Bush signs it, serious questions will remain unresolved about how contractor crimes can be monitored effectively. The senior adviser acknowledged that Obama could find himself in a situation where, as President, he continues using forces he himself has identified as "unaccountable." The Obama campaign, in other words, may have painted itself into a corner.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080317/scahill