31 August 2008
Politics, End of August, 2008
(1) Our Dems had a great convention. Mrs. Obama's speech was great. Senator Clinton's speech was great. President Clinton's speech was great. Senator Biden's speech was pretty good. Al Gore's speech was great. Senator Obama's speech was excellent.
My gut feeling had been all along that Senator Obama was comfortable with his role as his own happy hatchet man, and he played it perfectly. It was Reagan vs. Carter with the parties swapped. (I know many of my Dem friends still hate Reagan, but I still believe we all ought to learn from his ability to capture the good will of a goodly-sized majority of the American people behind his agenda, whether we agreed with his agenda.)
Of course, as a gay man, I regret that Senator Obama choose not to speak more forcefully for the rights of LGBT folk, even as he affirmed what, for some, remains a revolutionary concept, that our relationships ought to be respected. But, I don't want him to lose the election because of support for us, either.
(2) Senator McCain's nomination of Governor Palin ought to point out what an arrogant nutcase the Senator is. Or "becomes" if that suits your narrative better. The man doesn't have the right constitution to be President of the United States of America. I'm nearly certain that if you rounded up all the other POWs from the Vietnam era, you could find somewhere between five and fifty who would be better suited to the job of POTUS than McCain. And he has the balls to keep reminding people that he was a POW. He wasn't alone in that situation, and I look forward to some number of former POWs of the North Vietnamese reminding us of McCain's innate lack of good judgment, and, even, character.
(3) If Governor Palin had the judgment and temperament to be President, which the Vice President ought to have, then she would have rejected Senator McCain's offer, telling him, "You've got to be kidding?" That she didn't is face-value evidence of her not being suited for the position. And one doesn't even have to raise the degree to which McCain's offering her the position in hopes of bringing Senator Clinton's supporters to his side is insulting.
(4) Experience?
None of the candidates for executive positions have Federal executive experience, and Governor Palin's experience as governor as Alaska is hardly evidence for her being able to manage the Federal bureaucracy. Being a Senator may expose one to the workings of the Federal government, but it doesn't give one experience in managing that beyond the broad scope of helping pass laws.
(5) As none of the candidates have experience in the Federal executive, I turn to judgment and temperment as a discriminator between the candidates for President. It wouldn't surprise me if you, the reader, did, too. In those dimensions, Senator Obama is, and I use this word with a great deal of caution and reluctance, obviously the better candidate, regardless of one's Party affiliation.
(6) The chicken-sans-head activity of the GOP with a major hurricane bearing down on the Louisiana coast is laughable. There's not one whit of evidence that the GOP has learned any lesson except "try better to get away with being totally clueless about what to do" when it comes to disaster management, than they did when Katrina struck. GWB can go avoid the GOP convention by being at FEMA headquarters for photo ops all he wants. but there's no real reason to believe that they GOP has developed any greater empathy or concern for poor folk in harm's way than they had in the fall of 2005.
(7) There remains no evidence that the candidate who manages the campaign best, who expresses opinions in the most bellicose manner, or who appears to be "toughest" will make a good President. Consider again GWB.
Now I don't want to take away from Obama's managing a superbly run campaign, but neither that nor his ability to bitch slap Senator McCain (which I expect he'll be surprisingly (to the GOP commentariat) good at), or vice-versa, is evidence that he—or Senator McCain, should it turn out that he's better at that game (something I don't expect)—would make a great President, including as Commander in Chief. Again, let's turn back to temperment and judgment.
(8) When the hell will the left and Dems get their own network? MSNBC doesn't count, since GE is unreliable as a source of funding for left-of-center politicking. Back in the day (much of the 19th century into the first half of the 20th), it was common procedure for the party—or the executive of that party—to have a house-organ publication. In this day and age that means cable news network. Where is the sustainable response to Fixed (Fox) News?
My gut feeling had been all along that Senator Obama was comfortable with his role as his own happy hatchet man, and he played it perfectly. It was Reagan vs. Carter with the parties swapped. (I know many of my Dem friends still hate Reagan, but I still believe we all ought to learn from his ability to capture the good will of a goodly-sized majority of the American people behind his agenda, whether we agreed with his agenda.)
Of course, as a gay man, I regret that Senator Obama choose not to speak more forcefully for the rights of LGBT folk, even as he affirmed what, for some, remains a revolutionary concept, that our relationships ought to be respected. But, I don't want him to lose the election because of support for us, either.
(2) Senator McCain's nomination of Governor Palin ought to point out what an arrogant nutcase the Senator is. Or "becomes" if that suits your narrative better. The man doesn't have the right constitution to be President of the United States of America. I'm nearly certain that if you rounded up all the other POWs from the Vietnam era, you could find somewhere between five and fifty who would be better suited to the job of POTUS than McCain. And he has the balls to keep reminding people that he was a POW. He wasn't alone in that situation, and I look forward to some number of former POWs of the North Vietnamese reminding us of McCain's innate lack of good judgment, and, even, character.
(3) If Governor Palin had the judgment and temperament to be President, which the Vice President ought to have, then she would have rejected Senator McCain's offer, telling him, "You've got to be kidding?" That she didn't is face-value evidence of her not being suited for the position. And one doesn't even have to raise the degree to which McCain's offering her the position in hopes of bringing Senator Clinton's supporters to his side is insulting.
(4) Experience?
None of the candidates for executive positions have Federal executive experience, and Governor Palin's experience as governor as Alaska is hardly evidence for her being able to manage the Federal bureaucracy. Being a Senator may expose one to the workings of the Federal government, but it doesn't give one experience in managing that beyond the broad scope of helping pass laws.
(5) As none of the candidates have experience in the Federal executive, I turn to judgment and temperment as a discriminator between the candidates for President. It wouldn't surprise me if you, the reader, did, too. In those dimensions, Senator Obama is, and I use this word with a great deal of caution and reluctance, obviously the better candidate, regardless of one's Party affiliation.
(6) The chicken-sans-head activity of the GOP with a major hurricane bearing down on the Louisiana coast is laughable. There's not one whit of evidence that the GOP has learned any lesson except "try better to get away with being totally clueless about what to do" when it comes to disaster management, than they did when Katrina struck. GWB can go avoid the GOP convention by being at FEMA headquarters for photo ops all he wants. but there's no real reason to believe that they GOP has developed any greater empathy or concern for poor folk in harm's way than they had in the fall of 2005.
(7) There remains no evidence that the candidate who manages the campaign best, who expresses opinions in the most bellicose manner, or who appears to be "toughest" will make a good President. Consider again GWB.
Now I don't want to take away from Obama's managing a superbly run campaign, but neither that nor his ability to bitch slap Senator McCain (which I expect he'll be surprisingly (to the GOP commentariat) good at), or vice-versa, is evidence that he—or Senator McCain, should it turn out that he's better at that game (something I don't expect)—would make a great President, including as Commander in Chief. Again, let's turn back to temperment and judgment.
(8) When the hell will the left and Dems get their own network? MSNBC doesn't count, since GE is unreliable as a source of funding for left-of-center politicking. Back in the day (much of the 19th century into the first half of the 20th), it was common procedure for the party—or the executive of that party—to have a house-organ publication. In this day and age that means cable news network. Where is the sustainable response to Fixed (Fox) News?
Labels: 2008, al, biden, clinton, election, fox, gore, mccain, network, obama, politics, president, senator, vice-president
18 August 2008
Veep, Veep!
Department of "If I were the nominee..."
Obama: First choice would be Jim Webb. I know he supposedly begged off, but that might be a great distraction for the press. Second: Mrs. Clinton. All the other choices seem rather uninspired to me.
McCain: Pawlenty. First and only choice.
Remember, the object of the game is to win, not to be proven insightful by history.
Obama: First choice would be Jim Webb. I know he supposedly begged off, but that might be a great distraction for the press. Second: Mrs. Clinton. All the other choices seem rather uninspired to me.
McCain: Pawlenty. First and only choice.
Remember, the object of the game is to win, not to be proven insightful by history.
Labels: clinton, mccain, obama, pawlenty, veep, vice-president, webb
23 May 2008
Faster Hillarycat. Kill! Kill!!
Mrs. Clinton makes it official. She's staying in with the expectation that someone will kill Obama. From the New York Post, here:
Questions remain: Are the Clinton's are sufficiently evil enough to get someone to do it or sufficiently competent to get away with it?
This might be the foot-in-mouth to nail-in-coffin moment for the Hillary campaign.
"We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said, dismissing calls to drop out.I hate to admit it that I thought it, but this is what came to me one day earlier this week as reason for her staying in: Waiting for someone to shoot Obama.
Questions remain: Are the Clinton's are sufficiently evil enough to get someone to do it or sufficiently competent to get away with it?
This might be the foot-in-mouth to nail-in-coffin moment for the Hillary campaign.
Labels: 2008, assassination, barack, clinton, election, hillary, kennedy, obama, presidential, rfk, robert
16 April 2008
Bwa Bwa. Bwa Bwa Bwa.
10 March 2008
I Can Only Wish I'd've Said It
"Saying that Hillary has Executive Branch experience is like saying Yoko Ono was a Beatle." Daily Kos commenter Jsn, via Andrew Sullivan.
Labels: clinton, hillary, ono, yoko
15 December 2007
Roll Them Bones
Mark Ambinder, here:
In a hard-changing interview with Charlie Rose tonight, Bill Clinton said Americans who are prepared to choose someone with less experience [i.e., Obama], are prepared to "roll the dice" about the future of America. "It's less predictable, isn't it? When is the last time we elected a president based on one year of service before he's running?"Well, if the nation had followed similar logic in 1860, Stephen Douglas would've likely been elected President of the US. I still doubt that would've been a wiser course.
Labels: clinton, obama, politics, presidential
21 June 2007
Tempo di Hillary
The New Republic's group blog, The Plank, has a better idea than Celine Dion (Hello? Mrs. Clinton. Besides consistenly sucking, she's not even American) for Hillary's campaign song. Click here for a video introduction to the song. Not going there? Here's a hint:
I was kind of hoping she'd go for a song that pretty much straightforwardly tells the Hillary story like it is.
Sez Mr. Christgau:
I was kind of hoping she'd go for a song that pretty much straightforwardly tells the Hillary story like it is.
Sez Mr. Christgau:
And while introducing the band members by cock size may protest their belated obsession with sex too much, I can't complain when the answer to the title question isKiraHillary, who plays bass so stalwartly she deserves all the credit she can get. A MINUS
Labels: black flag, clinton, hillary, who's got the 10-1/2, wonder woman
