<i>Under the Bus</i>, Starring Sarah Palin
It’s one of my favorite things to do after a good party, especially if you’ve got the following day off, like New Year’s Day. Bleary from the celebration, maybe even a little hungover, but with the evening’s highlights still dancing through my head, I have some coffee, make a little breakfast, get some snacks and [...]
Read More »GOP to Jews: A Vote for Obama is a Vote for Hitler
After the GOP’s latest effort to sway Jewish voters, it’s clear there’s nothing they won’t do for votes. Last week the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s “Victory 2008” committee began circulating an email in Pennsylvania that has gone largely unnoticed by the media, other than an article in The New York Times political blog, The Caucus [thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com]. [...]
Read More »Men and the Big P, Women and the Big O
When John McCain’s campaign picked Sarah Palin to be the veteran Senator’s running mate, they hoped this move would snatch up votes from women—primarily white, working class women—from Barack Obama. From the outset, the campaign has tried to brand Palin as the hockey mom next door. She’s a working mother of five. She began her [...]
Read More »Ad Age: “I’m Joe the Plumber”
McCain’s latest effort to separate itself from the arugula-eating, latte-sipping culture au Obama, indicates yet another factor that’s leading the campaign to collapse: it’s inability to brand itself. Rather than relying on his own message, he’s using Microsoft’s. McCain’s latest ad is a montage of (mostly white) people saying “I’m Joe the Plumber.” [www.youtube.com]. Which [...]
Read More »Reading Comprehension 104: The Constitution
I didn’t mean for it to get out of hand like this. It started as a joke, with Sarah Palin citing a New York Times article as proof of an Obama-Ayers connection when the article reached the opposite conclusion. Then, when she claimed to be a regular reader of The Economist, I thought it would [...]
Read More »People Who Live in Seven (or so) Houses Shouldn’t Throw Roses
so•cial•ism [www.merriam-webster.com] sÅ-shÉ™-li-zÉ™m, noun, 1837 1. any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods 2. a) a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b) a system or condition of society in which the [...]
Read More »McCain Campaign Puts Wright Back on the Table
The McCain campaign has officially run out of ideas. One week ago [www.politico.com]: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and several top campaign officials see a sharp attack on Wright as the best — and perhaps last — chance to rattle Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill. ) and force voters to rethink their support of him. But McCain [...]
Read More »Small Town, USA
“All villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values.” -Colin Powell, Meet the Press, 10/19/08 In a strategic shift from the past two presidential elections, Republicans have now given up on converting city-folk and are just trying their hardest to hold on to their small-town supporters. One of the tools [...]
Read More »Give Joe His Sixpack
You could make a strong argument that the presidential candidate with the greatest influence on the current tone of the election is the one who is no longer running. Hillary Clinton, despite her faults, courted the middle class more effectively than either ticket is currently doing. Don’t get me wrong—both the Republicans and the Democrats [...]
Read More »Fighting the Politics of Hatred
What’s the best way to fight a fire? Any fireman will tell you that the answer is not fire, it’s yelling “fire!” The same goes for hatred. The best way for those who oppose the smears by the McCain campaign to fight back is to expose it and call it what it is: hatred! Today [...]
Read More »The Vanishing Middle Class
The middle class is rapidly disappearing. Not literally, of course. It’s still here, although struggling to avoid being forcibly re-categorized into “lower class” status, but from listening to the McCain campaign, the middle class is being phased out like tailfins and chrome on a Caddy. Time was when John McCain wasn’t afraid to mention the [...]
Read More »Reading Comprehension 103: The Troopergate Report
Sarah Palin is destroying my brain. I know shouldn’t keep going back to this. I shouldn’t let her get to me. I should remain detached, safely viewing her Wile E. Coyote candidacy from a considerable emotional distance, lest the concentrated waves of radioactive stupid cause my IQ to drop just by thinking about her. But, [...]
Read More »McCain vs Clinton: Blogging from an Alternate Universe
Supported by a new round of polls showing her pulling away from her Republican rival, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton today expressed disappointment in the type of campaign John McCain was running. “After the extremely competitive primary fight I had with Barack Obama, I know the McCain campaign would be hoping I’d come out too [...]
Read More »Hatitics
At a rally in Ohio today, Barack Obama responded to the attacks recently launched by John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin, whose aggressive messages has been picked up by the crowds at their rallies. Today Obama commented on his opponent’s tactic: “It’s easy to rile up a crowd,” he said. “Nothing’s easier than riling [...]
Read More »A Question of Character
A-List conservative wingnut columnist Charles Krauthammer in today’s Washington Post [www.washingtonpost.com]: “Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream [...]
Read More »Scary Monsters, Super Creeps
The leaves are beginning to turn and fall, leaving claw-like silhouettes of bare trees against the autumn sky. The night air bites with the bitter chill of approaching death, and pumpkin patch scarecrows take on a new malevolence in the light of the full October moon. Halloween approaches. But more horrible than the ghosts, ghouls [...]
Read More »Reading Comprehension 101
Somewhere along the line of their misadventures over the last seven years, I was forced to conclude that the entire Bush administration – W, Cheney, Gonzo, Rummy, Condi, the whole lot of ‘em – were either lying or incompetent. There were no other logical options. The reasons for going to war in Iraq, Bush’s concern [...]
Read More »Death-By-Guilt-By-Association
It’s less than a month away from the election, and things are looking serious for the McCain campaign. Barack Obama has opened a lead nationally and among several key battleground states, and shows no sign of slowing down. McCain has all but conceded Michigan, pulling out his campaign staff to focus on merely holding the [...]
Read More »Clue(less): A Republican Murder Mystery
The cake is baked. We’re entering the finger-pointing and positioning-for-history part of the campaign. It’s every man for himself now. -former McCain strategist Suspects: Mr. Larson [www.huffingtonpost.com] in the ad space with the talking points. Bush in the White House with the checkbook [www.boston.com]. Capt. McCain at the podium with the purple heart [voices.washingtonpost.com]. Mr. [...]
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