Maybe a Chic-Fil-A?
Posted on September 15th, 2008 in Uncategorized | 24 Comments »
[By choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate,] “McCain has rendered himself unfit to run a branch of Starbucks, let alone the White House.”
[By choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate,] “McCain has rendered himself unfit to run a branch of Starbucks, let alone the White House.”
24 Responses
9/15/2008 11:55 am
Exactly the sort of Democratic hyperbole that will do infinitely more harm than good to Obama.
If the Dems blow this one, someone will have to finally do an indepth analysis of the Dems’ self-destructive tendencies.
If this was an after school special, I’d want to check your arm for cut marks, Rich.
9/15/2008 1:19 pm
Well, at least Rich isn’t so far gone that he’s resorted to accusations of racism for those who don’t support Obama. Oh, never mind.
9/15/2008 2:18 pm
You know, Egret, I think Andrew’s charge that McCain is unfit to run a Starbucks is obviously hyperbolic and probably unhelpful.
Unhelpful mostly because it obscures what I think it is fair to say: That McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his number two—someone who’d be probably the vice-president most likely to become president since Harry Truman—is a disqualifying factor. For two reasons: The irresponsible and risky nature of the vetting process, or lack thereof, and the lack of judgment it shows; and the willingness to put politics above respect for the office of the presidency and indeed for the good of the country.
And puh-lease, I didn’t say everyone who doesn’t support Obama-I said five to ten percent of those who oppose him. And I stand by that.
9/15/2008 2:18 pm
Whoops, let me amend that: 5-10 percent of the total electorate, not just those who oppose Obama.
9/15/2008 2:58 pm
Hey, I’m just a Republican who is perfectly willing to let the Dems have a go at it. I haven’t changed my mind about the principles involved, I just freely admit that we’ve bungled more than we haven’t in the last eight years.
And I think the opinion you’ve articulated is a perfectly reasonable one, Richard. Pity that’s the supporting argument you generally make, though, not the leading one.
Hyperbole is only effective when used sparingly.
9/15/2008 3:09 pm
But Egret, just because I quoted Andrew doesn’t mean that I endorsed his argument. (My headline was a joke, although I could see that it wasn’t obvious.) Just showing a range of opinion. I’m actually sort of astonished that Andrew, whom I’ve known for 20 years, has staked out such a dramatic position on McCain and Palin.
9/15/2008 3:16 pm
Fair enough, Richard. My criticisms here are borne of a strange feeling. While, again, I’m a moderate Republican, I will not defend Palin’s thin record, not yet anyway. I haven’t had time to sort through the exaggerations on both sides (e.g. the e-bay thing is a storm in tea kettle if ever there was one).
But if I end up deciding that Palin is unfit for command, and McCain still wins, I will look back and blame this tone struck by the Dems.
9/15/2008 3:27 pm
Who are you kidding, Puh-lease. Pu-lease, and Egret, you know as well as I do that there is a percentage, hopefully smaller than it used to be, that will not vote for Obama because he’s black. You can celebrate MLK Day all you want and show the world how big you are and a percentage of you haven’t changed at all. Or as Barack might say “you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig”. Then there’s the rich guys who will want McCain’s tax breaks. I watched Joe Biden stumping this morning, he was at his best…must admit I was impressed. I also watched Palin stumping and flashing her smile and she just talked about how they are going to reform Washington just like she reformed Alaska and by the way, this is my husband who is just like you, a hard worker, and on top of that he won four snowmobile championships. And the crowd loved it. Fell all over themselves. And I watched John McCain who is going to put an end to the abuse in Washington when he’s been sitting there for 26 years…doing Bush things and now spouting that the war in Iraq is won because of the surge he recommended. General Petraus said just today as he exited…that there is no victory yet. My estimate is that a little more than half of Americans are gullible and dumb. You proved it in 2004. You could easily do it again. Someone should finally do an indepth analysis of that. Not that my country doesn’t have its share of the gullible and dumb…but we have the option of tossing the PM out after a year if we decide we don’t like him. You don’t have that option.
9/15/2008 3:29 pm
Numbers to remember: 90 and 130
Per a guest on Charlie Rose the other night (Begala?) - Mccain has voted with Bush over 90% of the time and has hired over 130 lobbyists on his campaign - yet he is “The Maverick”!?
9/15/2008 4:52 pm
Rich,
What percent of the electorate do you think is voting for Obama because he is black?
Do you think that Obama’s political career up to this point has been helped or hindered by the color of his skin?
Impaulsen,
No one is arguing that racism in America has been eliminated. That doesn’t mean that “community organizer” is a code word for black man in the inner city, however much Rich and NY’s governor would lead you to believe.
9/15/2008 5:07 pm
Impaulsen,
In many respects I’m an unabashed Anglophile. Those books! That music! That culture! Well, *some* of that culture. Then I remember what it’s like to be around more than one UK football/soccer fan at a time. Or I remember footage I saw, from just a few years ago, of parents in North Ireland walking their kids to school through the rock-throwing protests of their unaligned neighbors. And I try to remember the last time any Americans threw rocks at children. Or killed anyone over a sports match. Been a while. A long, long while.
Cheers, love.
9/15/2008 5:32 pm
Cheers, Egret…I agree with you entirely. I’m Canadian, not British.
9/15/2008 5:36 pm
puh-lease: if you think that being black makes it easier for Obama to be elected president of this country, your head is already too far up your own ass for you to be able to hear my response.
9/15/2008 5:49 pm
Anon 5:36,
I didn’t say that being black makes it easier for Obama to be elected president. But why actually read what I wrote, or answer my questions, when you can add so much to the conversation with your condescending brilliance?
9/15/2008 7:25 pm
Let me ask you this puh-lease: how many voters won’t pull the lever for Obama in November because he is black?
9/15/2008 8:32 pm
It has nothing to do with his being black. It has everything to do with him not being angry.
So, do you think that all the rednecks have a problem with his “uppitiness”? Nope. They won’t vote for him because they are afraid he may get back at all the wrong-doing black people have suffered at the hands of rednecks and the rednecks will have no one to turn to if Obama seeks retribution.
That is it in a nutshell. Nothing more nothing less.
9/15/2008 9:41 pm
Puh-lease is not entirely off base. Obama has many positive qualities, but the single biggest attraction is his “journey of self discovery” (even if that’s Palin’s phrase).
If he was white, he would be great speaker with a thin record - an Ivy League, Democrat version of Palin, actually. And he would most certainly have a religion problem that he largely dodges now.
9/15/2008 10:19 pm
Sorry about that, Impaulsen. Canada totally slips my mind sometimes, you know?
Perhaps I will put it on a post-it: “Oh, yeah! Canada!”
9/15/2008 11:17 pm
That’s okay, Egret, friends who don’t cause you any grief are often taken for granted. We’re used to it. The only thing that would perk up your ears is if we had a terrorist attack, or Vancouver Island fell into the ocean because of an earthquake which is the rumour. Or if we cut off the almost 19% of your oil supply (Palin is a little mixed up…it’s Canada that supplies almost 20% of your oil and not Alaska as she, the energy expert said). We were bums when we didn’t support the Iraq war…got some attention then. And although we have only 3,000 troops in Afghanistan…some of them come home in boxes quite frequently, especially lately since the surge is “winning” the war in Iraq and forcing Al Queda into Afghanistan and Pakistan where they were in the first place. By all means, put us on a post-it. Then when I spell “humour” funny, you will remember where I’m from.
9/16/2008 12:06 am
Anon 9:41pm - I like the idea that Obama would have a religion problem if was white. Do you think that’s the case because everyone would suspect a white guy of being Muslim? Or because a white guy would have obviously joined a black church?
I think you’ve done a great job showing exactly how useless that counterfactual is.
9/16/2008 12:27 am
Okay, here’s the deal: failing to pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate was the death blow for Obama. That’s the hard truth, and Palin is the proof.
9/16/2008 1:01 am
Anon 12:27 - I wonder if you’ll still think that’s true when Obama is up by 2-3 points by the middle of next week.
9/16/2008 1:04 am
Counterfactual fan,
“Or because a white guy would have obviously joined a black church?”
Maybe you can try again with that one, and I’d be happy to speak to it.
As for the general point, if you know of any black politicians scrutinized for embracing religion in public life, please name a few. Just curious why we’re only in danger of religion affecting the judgment of white politicians.
9/16/2008 1:35 am
Anon 1:04am - maybe it’s because evangelical fundamentalists represent a huge and powerful reactionary force in this country and black churches represent a smaller and much less powerful minority that has been historically enslaved and oppressed? And so the church plays very different roles in those respective communities and also in national politics?
Note that this is a thought experiment that has no counterfactual component, but merely requires recognizing obvious facts about our national politics. If you are in fact concerned about black people forcing their religious views upon you, I suggest you get out more.