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Sep. 29th, 2008
Obama’s debate win
Sep. 29th, 2008 08:08 amThere is no need to recount the debate in full. It was a dull affair that amply exposed the mediocrity and conventional thinking that mars American politics and policy on both sides. It is enough to note the moment when things went decisively south for John McCain. That point came when Obama went on the offensive in what is, I believe, the key passage from the whole ninety-minute event. I’ve noted before that Barack Obama is one of the great rhetoricians of our era, even if he loses his eloquence when shaken and unscripted. Prodded and mocked over the better part of an hour by his opponent — through the whole debate, McCain derided his “understanding” seven times, and his “naivete” three times — he finally let loose with a brutal and effective exercise in rhetorical parallelism, made the more cruel by its basic truth:
“John,” said the Democratic nominee, “you like to pretend like the war started in 2007. You talk about the surge. The war started in 2003, and at the time when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong. You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong. You said that there was no history of violence between Shiite and Sunni. And you were wrong.”
In one swoop, the superiority of John McCain on foreign affairs was laid waste. An effective debater would have responded with a series of his foe’s own grievous errors in the same sphere — and despite his thin public record, Barack Obama has several. Instead, McCain lamely replied, “I’m afraid Senator Obama doesn’t understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy,” and segued into a non sequitur about General Petraeus. To paraphrase Tallyrand, this was worse than a crime — it was a mistake. Assaulted on the very pillar of his candidacy, John McCain yielded.
Stolen Shamelessly from Joshua Trevino
More Palin Creedenshuls
Sep. 29th, 2008 08:24 amWhile defending McCain, I also want to defend Palin for her, or her handlers having her, saying that she has "foreign policy experience" because one can see Russian from Alaska. Look, after all, she did live in Moscow for a while during her five-years-in-six- colleges days. Yes, you may say that was Moscow, Idaho. But hey, Moscow is Moscow and who cares whether it is in Idaho or Russia. Those of you who think there is a difference are sexists, and elitists. Ask any of us know-nothing-and-be-proud-of-it non elitists, we will tell you Moscow is Moscow and if you have been there, you've got "foreign policy experience".
Shamelessly Stolen from Steve Chan.
Another view of the debates
Sep. 29th, 2008 08:35 amObama Won the Debate By Showing Up Without Horns
Shamelessly Stolen from Levi
After Friday night's presidential debate, I was initially very disappointed. "Well, we blew that one," I muttered, disgusted, much the way my Grandpa used to when the Cubs would give up a three-run homer in the top of the ninth.
Shamelessly Stolen from Levi
More Shameless Stealing
Sep. 29th, 2008 08:50 amMcCain scares me too (but not as much as the thought of Palin becoming president: now that's a real nightmare). Considering that he's a four-term senator and former head of the Senate Commerce Committee, I find his ignorance of the most basic economic statistics astonishing. For example, he's constantly declaiming that American workers are the most productive in the world and that the United States is the world's largest exporter. We're not the largest exporter: Germany, a country with a fraction of our population, is, followed by China; we're third. And American workers are the most productive only in terms of total output, because we work far more hours a year than workers of other industrialized countries--which is nothing to crow about; we should be working less, not more. On an hour-for-hour basis, Norwegians are the most productive, Americans are second, and the French are third. Our economy is in serious trouble, but McCain, who's married to a rich woman, has had a government job for his entire life and has never had to pay for his own health care, doesn't have a clue.
— SA, Paris
