Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Nastiness
Even Joe Biden thought the anti-McCain technology ad was bad (here). One in-the-know friend of mine thinks Biden is the cat's meow and that this is an example of what a decent and clear-headed guy he is. Hope it doesn't get him into trouble with his "boss". Hope it isn't just the first pebbles of a foundation about how they can't be a team any longer - say it ain't so, Joe.

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Permalink | 4 comment(s) | posted by jau at 1:52 PM

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Say it ain't so. . .
I wanted to discount it as right-wing lunacy but now I've read in more than a few people who are hearing or at least predicting that the "October surprise" will be Obama dropping Biden and putting Hillary in as v.p. While it might originally (i.e., at the convention) have made sense to pick her - from a vote-getting and even a fairness standpoint - it remains hard to imagine how they could govern together. How does a president manage a vice president who's stronger than himself? and whose husband has already had the job to great acclaim? It seemed and continues to seem like a bad idea. One hopes that even an increasingly-nervous candidate can remember that the end result of all this is governing.

On the other hand, Obama may be as passionate about winning as the Clintons. And what made the Clintons go along with the nomination so quietly and relatively pleasantly?

On the other hand, Hillary does have huge and continuing negatives, so adding her to the ticket might not do the trick particularly in the so-called undecided states. (Don't forget that the election actually turns on electoral college votes not on the popular vote, not unlike the Republicans' winner-take-all primaries.)

More to the point, such a crassly and overtly manipulative gesture would reveal his need to win and pretty much erase any residual sense of him as a leader of change. Worse, it would generate voter disgust. Since October is dangerously close to Election Day there would be too little time for the negative feelings to fade and I'd bet many voters would commit themselves to vote for ABO (anyone but Obama). So in the end, my sense is that the end results away from him would far outweigh any benefits of the switch, were he to pull this stunt.

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Permalink | 3 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:41 AM

Friday, September 19, 2008
As if things aren't bad enough
In case you don't already know that racism is alive and well and living in the whole world, despite what we may hope and think. And in case you don't already know that the U.S. is deeply, profoundly divided into completely separate and contentious groups about the candidates in this election. Nevertheless, these headlines and the events the articles describe (click to read the article) sure as heck don't help.



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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 2:31 PM