Oops, wrong link:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2055107/posts

I blog with the right on other blogs and they have a "different" type of sense of humor.

They love stuff like this.

Billy!! I actually liked this post!!!!!

Love,

One of Your Personal Trolls

Very interesting post.

I believe the target of the McCain campaign is to paint Barack as other. He's not like you. In this case he's not like you the same way Paris and Briney are not like you. It's a caricature for sure. The campaign is not going to go near race or religion, they will be happy that the internet and the not no whispered campaign has this taken care of. But reinforcing the "otherness" of him on any one characteristic lends support to all the other ways the voters want to believe he is too different. The other day McCain called him and extremist. When asked if he was a socialist, e said he didn't know. Rove's imagery of the aloof guy at the club with the pretty girl on is arm making fun of you. It's not only about race, but for some it will be.

ANy way what can you do about it? Billy makes some good suggestions. Humor, both self-deprecating and mocking McCain (although not cruelly) can be effective. It doesn't make sense to raise the fact that McCain seems to have an issue with gambling. Instead just say something about his $500 shoes. Make it a joke, though.

The other thing is Obama has to change the imagery. He doesn't need big rallies, anymore. He can pull that of whenever he wants. There is tons of film footage of him "looking presidential". I'd love to see him fly to Arizona, visit the Navajo reservation, talk to the folks there and then turn to the reporters and say, after 8 years this is George Bush and John McCain's America. ( or alternatively after 27 years in Congress this is John McCain's Arizona). Then fly down to the southern border of Texas where people actually live without running water. Talk to the folks. Just listen to them. No speeches. Except to turn to the camera and say this is George Bush's America. A union hall in Detroit. A crumbling high school in Milwaukee. A Budweiser factory in St. Louis. (OK take a page from the Clinton's. Hell, take Bill with him.)

The coda to this is that Obama can do the sunny optimism, the Reaganesque view of American promise in a way that McCain really can never pull off. This is where Obama gets to pivot on his differentness--his only in America is my story possible stuff--and to use his oratorical ability. First show America how far we have been moving in the wrong direction, then give them an image of it's possibilities.

Start with humor as Billy suggested then get deadly serious.

Billy,

This is a sincere message to say that I think you make some good points.

A more interesting question for Billy: Whom do you identify with more, Obama, Paris or Britney?

Barack does a number of things well. Humor is not one of them. McCain's ads are laughable, though not for the intended reasons. Just the kind of stupid shit that gets people elected in this country. Still, as an unrepentant Clinton supporter, I'd say McCain is making the same points she tried but more pointedly, and with a lighter touch.

The Chancellor of Germany is ANGELA Merkel.

While I'm hesitant to say Obama has an inflated ego, I will agree that probably the best course of action is to stay above it, not make it look like it affects you, basically just shrug it off, wipe the dirt from your shoulders and move on.

It's easy to get sucked into these types of games and hard to get out of them.

The fact is of the matter is that the Obama campaign wasted the last three days with this nonsense, and now it is what simmers during the quiet weekend. Surprising and disappointing display from a fairly tight campaign. I think the worldwide tour took the campaign off kilter. And Josh Marshall and the gang of outraged bloggers, respectfully, didn't help him this week (although folks like Josh like to tell us that helping Obama is not their function (yawn)).

My next step would be to choose the VP soon, probably pre-Olympics. Let us Clinton folks be pissed for a few days, have the Olympics, and come out ready for the convention and the election. There is not a single VP pick out there that is going to please the hardcore Clinton faction, and that, rightly or wrongly, will dominate the news for a couple of days when we should be talking about how great a pick it was for Obama.

And then Obama's got to be tough, real tough for the duration, because like it or not folks until this election is won he is NOT above it all.

My prediction is that Senator Obama will actually lose this thing if he begins to focus on silly campaign ads. His focus needs to be core economics; he's got to know the price of milk. Now at the same time his surrogates need to pound John McCain silly, with ridicule and with punch. They need to put McCain on his heels and they need to do it constantly. I do think they need to be careful about the age stuff, but I don't mind turning an angry McCain into a Dennis the Menace Mr. Wilson-type (as Chris Matthews put it).

Folks, this is the big leagues. Nobody , not even regular people, like to see anyone placed on a pedestal before their time and in the midst of a scrap. It's time for Senator Obama to prove that he has balls, really. Whining about negative campaign adds and suggestions of racism didn't take us very far this week. It was a dumb week of campaigning, and it cost.

Dude - it's a funny post, but -

does anyone seriously think that anyone who decides that he or she can actually be the Leader of the Free World does not have a huge ego?

How many politicians have you known?

This post is funny, Billy, but so very Obvious that it just isn't quite up to your usual standards of snark. The whole thing goes with out saying.

I'd love to see a lefty viral vid taking McClown at his word on for his 'just having some fun' bit.

Suggested text might include "Running for President or Class Clown?", with accompanying Krusty the Clown visuals.

If he wants to play the clown, then he should wear the whole costume, big red nose and all. See how he likes that. Would make for a good response line to anything he says from this point forward: "Is this another one of your silly jokes?"

If I had the editing capabilities, I'd go for it myself. Instead, I'll put it out there for someone who wants to run with it.

Call a clown a clown.

Best post in while Billy!

And after talking to some Republicans down in the South who are a little more on the Liberitarian side of things, I would concur that many of them have a problem with his apparent ego. They have a problem with Bush's ego too over the lat eight years, they liked Bush I a bunch better. That said McCain seems to show a bunch of ego as well, the difference is that his rhetoric sounds more simple and direct than Obama's which is more nuanced and vague at times. When people say why should I support Obama, I point them to his website, I point them to his life story, and then we start discussing issues.