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Screechy Wheels Undermining Barack Obama
The squeaky, even screechy wheels that have been attacking Sarah Palin for her decisions about where to bear her youngest child and John McCain for his age are undermining Barack Obama's call to issue-centered campaigning.
Everyone knows the unresolved issues. Making issues of persons or personal traits is a distraction from finding out what specific solutions they offer and thereby having a choice of solutions. By their solutions and record of solving problems in the past ye shall judge their qualifications.
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Comments (8)
What most Democrats know based on Kerry's and Gore's is that issue do not win elections. Lies and manipulating the masses emotions no matter how misleading does.
September 1, 2008 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is that why lies and malice reign supreme at TPM these days? You are about to get your asses kicked, and I'm beginning to think it's a good thing. I hope Obama is doing a better job of keeping a respectable face on his other constituencies. This one stinks. Just take a look at the most recommended reader posts around here. Make you proud?
September 1, 2008 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know, I've been impressed with John Kerry when he speaks on Sen. Obama's behalf. He's strong, forceful, to the point, and generally on-target. I kept thinking "Why didn't we elect him??"
Then Jon Stewart showed a clip of John Kerry in a debate with George W. Bush.
And then I remembered. John Kerry was an awful candidate. He wasn't the best of the Democratic primaries-- he was the guy left standing after the smoke cleared.
Al Gore speaks eloquently and passionately on the subject of global warming. His speech at the 2008 DNC may have been his best political speech. In 2000, he lacked warmth, and exuded I'm Smarter Than You.
Our collective memories have been more than kind to Al Gore-- in 2000, he was not the respected elder statesman he is today, any more than Jimmy Carter was well regarded by the Democratic Party in 1980.
Nostalgia, as they say, isn't what it used to be, and we remember politicians more and more favorably as time goes by.
Finally, this year, the small issues aren't working. There are too many large issues, and to a large degree, Sen. Obama's DNC speech was grabbing traditional Republican issues and making them HIS issues, before McCain could.
It's not over, and we have a long fight between now and November 4th. We genuinely cannot afford to lose. Not this time.
Most people know that, and in frustration lash out, sometimes sounding ridiculous. After months of stupid, puerile accusations levelled at "our" candidate, the temptation is strong to lash out in the same manner at an easy target, in this case, Gov. Palin.
It's not needed. Her selection, and the MSM's dissection of her, are coming at a time when the entire nation is watching, and Sen. McCain claims he has superior judgment because of experience. Sen. Obama claims superior judgement because of, well, being right far more often than being wrong.
John McCain's haphazard vetting and selection process will not help him with anything other than the far, far right-wing base, and will cost him dearly among independents.
September 2, 2008 12:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm with Billy on this one.
September 1, 2008 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
“Whoever has his foe at his mercy, and does not kill him, is his own enemy”
Muslih-uddin Sadi
September 1, 2008 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought that was the epitaph on the headstones of those who killed the family of the Outlaw Josey Wales.
September 3, 2008 12:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Now we see that there are allegations of threats of violence against the Palin family by the trooper involved in the divorce.
There was a similar case in LA in which an LAPD officer shot his estranged wife to death after having threatened her on a separate occasion. The threat incident received a weak response from the LAPD. Subsequently the officer shot his wife, another person and then took his own life.
The Anchorage newspaper indicates that Palin's Chief of Staff was concerned that the trooper could do something irreversible, hence, it appears, the effort to get him fired.
There is certainly more to this than political partisans will allow.
September 2, 2008 12:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
I really love the continuous attempts to link Obama to some nuts on the blogosphere. If these attacks undermine Obama, then all the "Muslim," "terrorist fist pump," "celebrity" allegations against him must certainly make McCain look less than a post-partisan maverick, right? Especially after hearing that McCain has hired the guy who smeared his wife and then 8-year old daughter in 2000.
Of course, this is a non issue. McCain has as much ties to the "Muslim" gang as Obama to the "babygate" gang (except, of course, for the fact that McCain did indeed hire the guy who smeared his 8 year old daughter back in 2000, and that, unlike McCain, Obama has indeed denounced the nuts in the blogosphere).
Fact is, there are serious allegations about Palin's background, no matter how much you try to bring it back to "babygate."
If her brother in law was indeed dangerous, he should be in jail, not fired (as he would still be dangerous then). And she should not have pressured a public official, and then lied about it publicly.
This, of course, not to mention that she has been caught lying about the bridge to nowhere, lying about how she "stood up" to Ted Stephens, and being a part of a secessionist party.
September 2, 2008 3:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
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