2008 Primaries Thread 2: THE QUICKENING

Also: could Obama really have gotten away with completely ditching his pastor of 20 years? It was brave of him to defend Wright but at the same time I think it was kind of his only option.

I'm not trying to be hard, deez. Just trying to add a little balance and/or tamp down undue optimism.

Morbs theme song: "Stop Thinking About Tomorrow"

yeah WTF with the Bill Cosby riff

you gotta be pretty deep in the weeds to see that speech as a real missed opportunity for a Sister Souljah moment

from another mess. board:

I listened to about 15 minutes of Rush Limbaugh today. One dittohead after another found the speech inspiring, and Rush sounded like he was about to have an aneurysm. He finally stopped taking calls and went solo to explain "what's really going on here", at which point the show descended into complete incoherence.

hahaha awesome

hahaha cognitive dissonance

oh the poor thing

Morbs, what happens if we all fall in love with Obama and we're generally not disappointed? Perhaps the difference between us is that, despite us both being old curmudgeons, it's really me the more 'old and bitter'; I don't have any great hopes about politicians changing the country since they're often behind the wave actually, and I certainly don't agree with all of Obama's points, but I think the way he's running and the better part of his priorities are sound.

alfred, i wouldve been 100% behind you before today (and i was 100% an obama supporter before today) - i understand where yr coming from but todays speech was without question not 'clever' or politics as usual in any way. it was a guy telling america what he believed & why he believed it.

I'm not against you, bro! Let's just say I wanted an update.

i'm going to forgive the fact that Obama got that Faulkner quote wrong

Yeah, ditching his pastor would have been the most cynical move.

It's fairly clear from my posts on this and the other threads where my sympathies lie. I'm trying to read my, er, coalition.

at least he's attributing now, akm

well Michael, I was pleasantly surprised to see a recent clip of him saying that the debate about the Palestinian situation is more wide-ranging in Israel than it is here; which is why I found today's "stalwart ally" quickie a bit of a regression. Maybe someone told him the previous remarks were too much like Hil's "kissing Mrs Arafat" photo.

me gotta go

yeah he got the quote wrong but hey he quoted faulkner

"I think he's a great motivational speaker, but what I hear from him I could go hear at my church on Sunday from my pastor, and to me he just seems all fluff," said 40-year-old Maria Aguirre on the morning of the Texas "primacaucus." "If Clinton doesn't manage to win the nomination, then I will vote for McCain, because he's got experience and if someone has to answer the phone at 3 o'clock in the morning and if it can't be her, I'd rather it be McCain."

who are these idiots

i like obama a lot more than how my post might read, btw, so much so that i can't imagine how weird and kind of awful it would feel to vote for hillary in a general election.

lol is that quote real or did you cut and paste that together from the various media narratives over the past few weeks.

if someone has to answer the phone at 3 o'clock in the morning and if it can't be her, I'd rather it be McCain.

tracy morgan otm

one of my least favorite things about watching news shows give the viewers' opinions is they basically just post a bunch of comments from viewers who have swallowed one narrative line - "obama too inexperienced!" "obama will bring change!" rather than people offering any kind of insight or unique perspective

lol is that quote real or did you cut and paste that together from the various media narratives over the past few weeks.

-- The Brainwasher, Tuesday, March 18, 2008 4:20 PM (3 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

very real

I rather think it was Maria Aguirre who has been mentally cutting and pasting from various media narratives.

i should just ignore the faulkner pedantry, but adding two words that merely amplify the import of the quote hardly constitutes "getting it wrong."

one of my least favorite things about watching news shows give the viewers' opinions is they basically just post a bunch of comments from viewers who have swallowed one narrative line - "obama too inexperienced!" "obama will bring change!" rather than people offering any kind of insight or unique perspective

You think they're going to give these people anywhere near as much time as a shrill talking head?

I am supporting Obama because his positions and record align more closely to my own beliefs than any other candidate running.

Now that Edwards is out, this is me too. ALSO: he's been in the game long enough to know how it's played, but can play the "washington outsider" when he needs to subvert the game and actually get shit done. Kobiyashi Maru, yknow? And I think he might be charismatic and inspiring enough to get most of the country to back him up when he does attempt some real changes.

xpost a quote is a quote is a quote is a quote is a quote

okay mister obama now make a speech like this every 2 weeks forever plz

And I think he might be charismatic and inspiring enough to get most of the country to back him up when he does attempt some real changes.

Rock is making a good point. Whether through fear (Bush) or hope (FDR), the bully pulpit can be very powerful at forming and changing public opinion and eventually politicians have to listen to it.

Alfred, fie! He is a Senator of the Republic!

A college administrator standing on the sidelines of a rally at Temple University last week complained that she hadn't been able to "connect" with Obama in part because his speeches lacked specifics. A young law student from Cotulla, Texas, suggested Obama fans were being had and said she'd have a hard time supporting him.

"If Barack Obama wins, I'll have to wait. I've told people, I have to do a lot of self-cleansing, meditation and yoga," said Vanessa Russell-Evans, 26. "As a woman and as somebody who's wanted Hillary to run since I was 10 when she became the first lady, it's almost like it's being taken away... (by) someone who is saying a lot of poetry, a lot of fluff, a lot of stuff that I feel that, you know... (George W.) Bush did that eight years ago. He ran on a campaign that was compassionate conservatism. It was this wave of coolness, and I feel that Obama's campaign is like that, too. It's this wave of coolness; everybody's sort of being sucked in. I mean, the rallies are sort of like revivals.... People are fainting."

As a woman and as somebody who's wanted Hillary to run since I was 10 when she became the first lady

what fucking twerp.

what A fucking twerp, sorry. i read that quote and the red mist descended.

I have to do a lot of self-cleansing, meditation and yoga

I have to do a lot of self-cleansing, meditation and yoga
I have to do a lot of self-cleansing, meditation and yoga
I have to do a lot of self-cleansing, meditation and yoga

Ha ha, I was just going to post that!

what the hell is she even saying there, gah

She may be unaware of it, by I read it as an admission that she's full of shit.

it reads like a total non-sequitir

that she has to do a lot of self-cleansing, meditation and yoga? (xxpost)

that quote made me angrier than the stream of racist, hate-mongering comments from m1chelle malk1n's site that my friend has been forwarding to me all day.

what's she going to "wait" for? weird.

a vision quest.

A president has very little time in which to use his political capital, and if Obama gets elected I suspect he'll be the most legislative strong-armer since the first six months of Reagan's term. This is where "charisma" and intelligence count. If he wins, a large portion of Washington will genuinely want him to suceed.

(that right-wing media will remain suspicious is a moot point)

xxpost:
http://thecia.com.au/reviews/c/images/close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-4.jpg

it's almost like it's being taken away...

Seems to be a common thread among outraged Clintonites.

You know what pisses me off? If HRC's campaign hadn't resorted to being so vicious, I wouldn't have any problem with much of her campaign. I think it very well could be inspirational to have a female president and it comes right back to the whole 'well behaved women rarely make history' bullshit wherein women give themselves an excuse for treating other people as means because the ends justify it. How is that feminist? I'm down with saying that Nixon was a son of a bitch, but not so down on imitating his way of doing business, and if certain feminists want to merely ape the worst behavior of the men who once had the monopoly on power here because they feel entitled to it a priori, they're not only going to alienate people like me but they're selling short the very real transformative possibilities of feminism.

yeah gf & her mom have been reiterating this since december.

fwiw, gf is taking down her clinton signs because she now thinks she's essentially out of the race.

xp

juan williams thinks he should have thrown wright under a bus

Williams, a FOX News analyst, questioned why Obama allowed himself to remain publicly associated with Wright. He said Obama did not address the “judgment and character” issues that he’s running on.

“I think he had to take responsibility … and that’s what he didn’t do,” Williams said.

of course that's what juan williams thinks