electoral politics

Palin needs to be asked questions

Sep 092008

One thing I absolutely don’t like about the McCain/Palin campaign is that she isn’t taking questions from the press. Yes, they would be hostile, but it would be a way to showcase the fact that she is different from Obama, who mostly gets softball questions. The fact that she hasn’t held any press interviews so far doesn’t bother me. I’m sure she and McCain need a little time to coordinate their messages. But it doesn’t look like it’s going to change much. That ABC interview that’s coming up hardly counts. There should be live interviews, unedited, with hostile interviewers. She needs to answer questions about the trooper firings, which would have the added value of contrasting how the press handled the Clintons with kid gloves.

Maybe someone will tell me that what Palin is doing isn’t all that different from how other vice presidential candidates have been handled. If so, now would be a good time to do something different.

Furiously reading minds

Bash the Messenger, electoral politics No Responses »

Sep 052008

More mindreading from the nation’s press:

Headline: “Heart Duo Furious Over Republicans’ Use of ‘Barracuda’”

From the article: “But the Wilsons are furious their song has been linked in with the McCain campaign trail, and are demanding the track is scrapped from further promotional duties.”

How do the writers of that article know these Wilson people are “furious”? We can know that they sent a cease and desist letter. We can know that they criticized the McCain-Palin campaign for using their song. But we have no way of knowing that they are furious about it. They might be acting furious, I suppose, but we’d need to see some evidence even of that. As to whether they are actually furious, we have no way of knowing. They might be claiming to be furious, but if that’s the case, the headline should read: “Heart Duo Claim to be Furious over Republicans’ Use of ‘Barracuda’.”

BTW, I have no idea what that song is like.

As the focus turns

Bash the Messenger, electoral politics No Responses »

Sep 042008

Headline in today’s Rupert Murdoch newspaper: “Focus Turns to Palin Record“

Oh, yeah? And just how would our intrepid news reporters know about a thing like that? Do they have a direct quote from Mr. or Mrs. Focus? Do they have statistical data that reports on The Focus?

Or are they just telling us about the inner workings of their own minds.

FWIW, I did a google search on “Focus Turns to Palin Record” and got 608 hits. Substitute the word Obama for Palin, and I got no hits unless I remove the quotes. Same for McCain or Biden.

The Clinton-McCain strategy

Bash the Messenger, electoral politics 1 Response »

Aug 202008

The McCain campaign is reaching new lows. “Clinton strategy working for McCain,” CNN tells us. One wonders what Machiavellian strategy McCain has latched on to this time.

Here it is, according to a CNN senior analyst (whatever that is): “The McCain campaign believes that some of Hillary Clinton’s tactics, especially questioning whether Obama is ready to lead, can be a real winner.”

That IS a low blow. Where will it all end? Will he stop there, at calling attention to his opponent’s inexperience? What next? Kissing babies? Making campaign promises? Raising money from cronies?

Won’t Americans realize that McCain is being just like a Clinton when he does that?

The stench of fascism

Bash the Messenger, electoral politics 1 Response »

Aug 012008

I had almost forgotten about this. After Barry Goldwater won the Republican nomination in 1964 Pat Brown said, “The stench of fascism is in the air.” We conservatives used to put up with that kind of talk a lot, and learned to just let it roll off.

But now watch what happens when you point out that the leftwing fascists are acting like fascists. We get lectures about how we shouldn’t throw the fascist label around so casually.

Obama’s problems with the English language

electoral politics No Responses »

Jul 292008

According to Gary Kasparov, Barak Obama said this in Berlin:

“[W]e must reject the Cold War mindset of the past and resolve to work with Russia when we can, to stand up for our values when we must.”

Did he really say that? If so, which Cold War mindset does he mean? There were lots of mindsets during the Cold War, some of them vehemently opposed to each other. Were they all so wrong? Every last one of them?

And what kind of talk is that about standing up for our values when we must? When we must? Must? Why not do it when we can? Why not do it even when it’s difficult? I like the idea of working with Russia at every opportunity where we can, but Obama’s wording leads one to think he’d be willing to do it at the expense of our own values.

Without all the campaign money he has, shouldn’t he be able to hire a speechwriter who could check these things before he says them aloud?

The candidate for change

electoral politics No Responses »

Jul 182008

I hate it when somebody else makes these calls before I think of them, but this one I missed.

CNN some time back: “Sen. Barack Obama’s victory Thursday in critical Democratic Iowa caucuses indicate voters saw him as a candidate of change”

Richard H. Collins (whoever he is) at townhall.com: “Barack Obama is running on a platform of Hope and Change™ but the only clear change seems to be in his policy positions.”

The audacity of the man from Hope

electoral politics No Responses »

Jul 142008

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Former President Bill Clinton warned Saturday that the country is becoming increasingly polarized despite the historic nature of the Democratic primary.

URL here

This from the guy who has never missed a chance to bash his Republican opponents and question their motives. Example here

The summer of 1964-2008

electoral politics No Responses »

Jul 092008

I remember thinking, back during the 1964 presidential campaign, before I was of draft age, when Barry Goldwater was being portrayed as a warmonger who would blow up the world along with little girls and their daisies, that Lyndon Johnson would be getting us deep into war in Vietnam. I had no idea how bad it would be, but if peace comes through strength, I figured Johnson would be getting us into war. He would of necessity have to do the things he was accusing Goldwater of wanting to do.

I’m definitely having a sense of deja vu this summer, 44 years later. I’m no fan of George Bush’s warmongering, but Barak Obama seems to be following in the same rut that Lyndon Johnson made. From an article by Bret Stefens in the WSJ:

Now Mr. Obama tells us that the 16-month timeline is contingent on (1) “[making] sure that our troops are safe and that Iraq is stable” (my emphasis), and (2) the opinion of “the commanders on the ground.” Also in question is the size of the “residual force” that the Illinois senator envisions for Iraq after the bulk of U.S. forces is withdrawn. Will it be an embassy guard, plus some military advisers and special-ops forces? Or, as suggested in a March paper by Colin H. Kahl, who runs Mr. Obama’s working group on Iraq, an “overwatch force” of between 60,000 and 80,000 soldiers?

Swift bloggers

electoral politics, Free speech No Responses »

Jul 042008

This article inspired me to see if the domain name swiftbloggers.com is available. The old Swift Boaters have such piddling amounts of money to spend on their work, and I don’t have much to add. And I’m not interested in supporting the McCain campaign. I don’t think I’ll even vote for him. (I got in the habit of not voting for his type when I didn’t vote for Bush – twice.)

But I could come up with ten dollars for a domain name to honor the work of democracy as was undertaken by the Swift Boaters four years ago.

Unfortunately, the name is already taken.

SwiftBicyclers.com might be a good alternative, except that my riding is far from swift.

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