Sometimes, the person scented most by identity politics the most is the person deploying the manure spreader. To quote Frank Luntz:
…unless you speak the language of your intended audience, you won’t be heard by the people you want to reach.
The last few weeks, McCain/Palin have embodied "the base talking to the base." Oh, it’s been base, alright.
How pathetic. At this late stage, McCain’s still shoring up the "base?" McCain hasn’t been talking to regular America for over a month now — just the nutters, the mouth foamers, and the kool-aidy. If he has no game with GOP faithful….then he’s Bob Dole.
The RNC probably wouldn’t cut [McCain] adrift completely because of party morale, downticket voting etc, but it would transfer as much of its resources as it could to vulnerable Senators….we saw something similar happen to Dole in 1996 – and then, the Republicans didn’t face the near-universal electoral calamity that they’re facing into now.
Is McCain about to be Doled? Jonathan Singer argues yes. Or will he be Tinkered:
This kind of politics is a hustle, wherein politicians use their cultural currency to distract from issues of substance….which serves to obscure the candidates’ competence or fitness for office….The residents of the 9th District resoundingly rejected [Nikki Tinker]’s attempt to paint the other as a cultural outsider and went with the one that best represented their interests.
I think both. Why has McCain risked this instead of something more substantive and honest? That’s the big question, isn’t it? As the WaPo describes:
"The less you see Obama as American compared to McCain, the less likely you are to vote for him,"…"Suggesting Obama is foreign or unknown offers a cover for racism," she said. "You can’t say he is black and unfit to be president, but you can say that he is Muslim and therefore unfit to be president."
If a rabid, nasty junkyard dog shows up on your doorstep, foaming at the mouth and itching for a fight, can you honestly feign that you didn’t call one, even accidentally, when you purposely deployed all your dogwhistles?
UPDATE: Sullivan and Ruffini add to the "McCain will be Doled" argument.
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I do believe in Tinker Dole. I do. I do.
It has been a wacky last few weeks, hasn’t it?
And yet, the final three promise to be even wackier. I just can’t imagine what they will bring out next…
from te bottom of previous thread
Another Grayson-Keller
pissing contestdebate.http://www.orlandosentinel.com…..4985.story
Welcome back Christy.
Nothing really happened in your absence. McCain is trying yet another theme – which is sorta like the convention theme. Obama is still cool.
Its theme ‘o the day for them lately, isn’t it? It’s like that “throw the spaghetti against the wall and see if any of it sticks” method of pasta testing…
The Rethugs should be hiding in shame. The imperial ideology has come back to bite them in the butt and their economic theories have done the same. The only things they’ve got left is their fear of sex and brown people.
And this may just be the only time I’ve quoted Frank Luntz in any sort of approving way. Don’t get used to it. *g*
Thanks Christy.
digg
They really fear sex WITH brown people!
I don’t think they have any fear of sex – they can f**k up anything
O’ve been thinking this same thing for awhile. McCain = Dole. It came to me at the last debate. McCainwas going on “most liberal, most liberal, most liberal”; “tax increase, tax increase, tax increase” And I thought: “I think that old dog just won’t hunt this time.”
Hey, I hear once you have…um…never mind…
Definitely whacky! Thank you for linking to the NYTimes article. Does anyone know if this got covered on MSM? John Lewis was correct that McCain’s silence before last Friday, caused some of the uproar with the wingnuts. Oh and I would love for him to be doled but Sarah won’t let that happen.
The Republics should be living with the Bush legacy for a long time. It’s ironic that they thought that there would be no bad consequences for them for having installed the unqualified Bush as President.
BTW Hi Christy how is everyone there
Our imaginations are not wild enough to figure out what the final 3 weeks will bring out.
We’re doing well as can be expected. Mr. ReddHedd’s father will be coming to live with us by the end of the week, so I’m running around the house trying to get everything ready for his arrival, making his room comfy and trying to weed out some of the more hazardous toys from underfoot. *g* Thanks for asking…
Being polite today, are we? *g*
Candidates/campaign/rabid, base base throwing s–t at the wall is more like it. :-(
Hey, SD — mind if I post the kitty pic your friend sent you, and that you linked to in the last thread?
Here’s my theory. Mc/Palin inc.’s hoping to whip up that old base so much that they’ll forget about their own economic woes. And they desperately want the base to go viral as they did for G.W. with gay marriage and terra. We should ask David Frum if that’s polite discourse.
Pickle (Intl Sways & Derivatives Assn) is spinning & spinning on WJ.
You are just giving me an excuse to post my fave clip from Madagascar again, aren’t you? “If you have any poo, fling it now.” (YouTube)
Make that Swaps.
The Young Turks had a compilation of sound bites made by conservative commentators (Kristol, Hume, Fred Barnes, Chris Wallace, etc.) over the weekend where they were all cutting bait on McCain.
So the answer to your question is “Yes, it’s already happening!”
I still think the bell weather moment was the day that he “suspended his campaign”, didn’t show up on Letterman but then was shown on camera getting ready to interview with Katie Couric. It is when McCain lost any chance of getting the “moderates” [really, the low information voters] back. I am therefore looking forward to McCain’s appearance on Dave on Thursday, more so than the debate on Wednesday.
I have been picking away at a post about how the conservative coalition as described by Michael Lind back in 1997 was tied together with duck tape and chicken-wire and was bound to get split into pieces at some point. Ruy Texieria has also been predicting this for years.
I think we are truly seeing that moment now. McCain has never been trusted by the “base” in the first place, but needed said base to counter Obama’s GOTV efforts, which they still don’t truly fathom. Michael Barone compared it to Howard Dean’s 2004 efforts which is quite far from the truth.
The security conservatives are the only of the conservative tripod which McCain can count on, as the social conservatives still don’t trust him [my prediction is that they will stay home] and most of the economic conservatives are on board with Obama – hence the “economic plan” that he rolled out yesterday. That’s what this “reaching across the aisle business” is about – picking off enough of the monied class (the old town GOP) to create a mandate and/or a large enough majority that shenanigans at the voting booth and there will be a lot of that, unfortunately, will become meaningless.
Love Madagascar – is your little one looking forward to Madagascar 2 as well? Casa Baker can’t wait for mid-November…..
Okay explain that, I think I missed something hilarious. I caught the pickles part.
The consequences of blind faith in an ideology.
Oh yeah. We took her to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua a couple of weeks ago (stinky script, cute doggies which she loved), and we spent a good 5 minutes identifying all the characters in the Madagascar poster in the lobby while waiting in line for popcorn. She’s very excited…
signs here for Obama/Biden are overwhelming. Occasionally I spot a McPalin inc. sign. It’s always quite jarring. What’s more the Dem headquarters two towns and counting have extremely limited hours. (This is CT.)
somehow I don’t believe that. Have had way too many repug types hitting on me so they likey the coffee girls *g* I believe the saying is:
“The darker the berry, the sweeter the juice”
As opposed to Blind Faith… (YouTube — Can’t Find My Way Home)
or maybe it’s the exotic thing
Not at all. I thought it was kinda cute.
Morning, Christy — It hit me that McCain is now just along for the ride with Palin — the campaign let her off the leash and she’s dragging the campaign with her. McCain’s weak and unenthusiastic “Obama is an ok guy” message now is barely a croaking whisper. He’s an afterthought now.
I wasn’t going to say. But post-election I fear we need a double secret service if the screaming racists in exhibit G Spot are for real.
Wow, the Peanut gets a live-in Grandpa. I suspect they will be very good for each other right now.
[christy, peanut and Mr. Reddhead - and Mr. Reddhead Sr.] — this will be a new adventure for The Peanut, to have her grandpa living with her.
There’s a guy named Robert Pickel, head of the Intl Swaps & Derivatives Assn who sez that the vast majority of people who engaged in such activity were responsible. Major arguement seems to be that there were 2 partied involved in every transaction (as opposed to multiparty financial exchanges). The implication seems to be that fraud couldn’t be widespread with such a structure. What he fails to understand is that fraud is not the issue, but rather aggregate failure of the underlying assets to hold value once the housing bubble burst. (Not sure his assertion about fraud is accurate either.)
Thanks for asking for the clarification. Helped me work out more precisely what was wrong with what he’s saying.
He’ll be testifying before Ag Committee hearing to begin soon.
There are a lot of McCain/Palin signs here in town — not as many Obama signs, I have to say, but WV got their delivery of signs very late in the game from the campaign, so they are only now starting to trickle out. Up until the last week, if you wanted a yard sign, you had to order it online yourself and wait forever for it to show up.
But the response in terms of participation at Dem HQ has been good here. Am headed down there later today to sign up for GOTV calls….
We took her to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua Ughh, luckily it’s been Soccer Saturday and Sunday in our house = no time
Great song.
The big irony being that I suspect McCain picked her initially because he thought she’d easily be a backseat sorta person. He didn’t want a Dick Cheney at his side, because he likes the spotlight and feeling like the big man all to himself. Ooopsie…
I am pissed as ever at dem HQ (Two towns and counting). But this is CT, we sit on our hands. Now you know why Lieberliar passed the smell test.
If folks wouldn’t mind digging this, I’d appreciate it. I’d like to get the WaPo psych profile piece a little wider circulation on this — I think the GOP’s extensive lizard brain reliance explains a LOT of what we’ve all been seeing. The fact that any media outlet would print a scientific article quantifying it is amazing enough at this point, in my mind…
Thanks! I’ve credited you and your friend.
Heh – he misjudged Todd and the Missus – they are young, healthy, energetic and between them they have more p**s and vinegar than he ever had. He forgot he was getting ‘a twofer’ and one with an agenda at that. He really did think that being ‘Senator John McCain, POW” was going to put those two in awe of him…not on your life. They’ve got the bit in their teeth and they are running with it.
dugg
Now that’s far out.
Plus, they’ve now gotten a taste of the travel with the posh consultant set. You think they are giving that up without a tussle? *g* Not sure it’s going to play well when she gets back home, though…ooopsie, again.
That’s not the direction I was thinking.
Good Morning Christy and Firedogs,
. . .and he was in Iowa AGAIN over the week end – that would be Iowa where he trails by 13 pts and the downtickets don’t have a pea hen’s hope – wth ???
surely their lack of cash and ground game comes in to play .
and then there’s the fact they all got rich as lobbyists and not operatives – (apparently, Charlie Black wanted to buy entire battleground states a steak dinner :D)
BUT given the, um, pedigrees of the players involved, I can’t simply chalk it up to abject incompetence – can’t help but wonder if there isn’t some kind of financial incentive angle at play here for Schmidt, Black, and Davis -
Christy – I don’t know if we can get PW or AnninAZ to do this, but something that I am really curious about is this: What is McCain going to do if he loses? He has to run again in 2010. What are the AZ Democrats doing about THAT? The people of AZ have now had far more than they bargained for in terms of info on the great John (and Cindy) McCain — and a lot of it is not flattering in terms of “why the heck did you guys elect this guy over and over?” If the Dems are looking for an opportunity to get rid of McCain – their opportunity is between now and 2010. But, we really need some people with local resources to winkle that info out.
Started making calls last Sat. up till then I had been canvassing. Go again tonight and Thurs. Hopefully I’ll get tomorrow off for good behavior
No problem. Thanks for the clear explanation.
OT – anyone else watching teh senate Ag committee hearing?
Role of Financial Derivatives in Current Financial Crisis
To give you even more of an idea of how miuch they are still playing catch-up — Palin will be in Indiana this week while McCain is doing debate prep. Biden is doing Ohio, NH and PA. (He and Jill were in Scranton, PA over the weekend with Bill and Hillary Clinton. McCain’s having to hit formerly solid red states just to try and hold them.
My guess is that Mc won’t run in 10. Maybe that’s a wish expressed as a forecast, but I think he’d be mindful of wandering the halls of the senate office building in his PJs, like a famous senator from a neighboring state.
Bmaz for Senate!
(I hear the campaign hats will be great!)
You have to wonder if Cindy McCain is tired of footing the bill for his ego at this point, don’t you?
Simple. Because substance and honesty are not compatible with Republican policies. It’s like sunshine to vampires. Sleaze is the only way they can win.
Not one yard sign in my area for either candidate but lots of Obama bumper stickers. Haven’t seen one McC anything.
forgot to add … if one follows the thread of McCrazy’s political life, he has been led around by a coterie of retainers (notice none of them are fellow veterans) like GWB, he has simply done what they tell him, so why should this campaign be any different ?!?!?
Besides she has witch protection.
That woman is so ambitious and a deluded “True Believer” that I would not be shocked if they all packed up and moved to Wyoming or some place like that, especially if everything that’s coming out about Troopergate (KO had a feature about the Village Voice story that Palin used the same contractor as Ted Stevens to remodel their house) will make her radioactive at home.
She ran as a reformer when first running for Mayor only to employ the same tactics once in office.
Pastor Muthy has her believing that she is the chosen one – they’re enough right wing crazies in love with her such as Rich Lowry that she’s not even close to being done. I’ve seen Palin-Jindal 2012 posts on some of the lizard brain sights – now there’s a nice combo if ever there was one.
Hillary Clinton gave an invite to all former supporters to campaign for Obama in Pennsylvania last weekend. Unfortunately this is the time of the year when I get raging hay fever turned toxic.
I understood Cindy after their “houses” story came out. I concluded she was in it just to acquire another house.
Exactly. I have to think the whiff of Klan Rally on his (and especially Palin’s) public events doesn’t exactly help build coalitions either.
They thought John Q Public would buy into 4 more years of the same ol’, same ol’ and that they would be the power and influence in a McSFB administration, the ultimate reward being wealth beyond reason. Like I said earlier, their failed imperial and economic ideologies are done. Now we have to make sure those ideologies get buried and stay buried.
If you watch her on tv appearances, Cindy looks really disgruntled or something . . .
Agreed – Napolitano would kick his ass if she chose to run in 2010.
Contractor gate? Was there a hottube involved. Rethugs love hottubs for some strange reason.
The RNC is dumping an additional 5 million into ads directed at Obama. They certainly do not appear to be throwing in the towel quite yet.
ag hearing
“Casino Capitalism”
credit default swaps according to Harkin
They need to bust him up for 2012
Dial-up; can’t watchee……but the title sounds fun. *g*
harkin is cracking me up (gallows humor) – talking about the lack of regulation of CDSs.
wonder if he will mention that he was one of the senate managers for the Omnibus appropriations bill that included the “Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000″.
Sublimation?
Back in my days as a pool man in LA there was a certain VP of Sales at a record label who couldn’t get it up unless he had a hot tub or pool where the heater was on full bore. Walking into his backyard on Wednesday afternoons was an experience.
It is because of Palin’s anti witch protection
lugar up. senate sponsor of the “Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000″
On a macro level, a flood of retail bankruptcies next year will push up unemployment and that not good for the overall economy, Gruppo said.
“It’s going to be very ugly in 2009,” she said
Thank you Mr. Bush and your Cronys for a lousy Christmas and for putting million out of work. Wall street is fine Main Street is in the tank. Rich people first that is your motto!
well, now that Wachovia gave them a cash infusion, they can continue on throwing good money (maybe not) after bad
Think of how good McCain’s “health plan” sounds when explained by Joe Biden.
chuckling at the thought of some of these Lake boys having a front row center seat at Ipanema . . .and the ensuing whiplash
Cindy looks really disgruntled or something . .
I vote for – “or something”.
And “disgruntled”.
oh shit, now they’re gonna come after me for voter fraud…..
the warm waters of the womb
That certainly fills in the blanks in a way that I . . . *wretch*. Tom delay, Gov. Rowland . . . No more.
They are trying to save the down-ticket people. Think they have given up on McCain and just trying to save themselves.
lugar up.
I wish Obama would go ahead and announce NOW that Lugar will be his SecState. Or at least start dropping some large hints.
Stir things up a bit. Hurts the “dangerous leftist regime” scare-tactic, puts Indiana in his pocket…..
Bush has made his cronies very, very happy for the past 7+ years. In turn, they will make him happy for the rest of his delusional days.
Ew. Gives that whole Hot Tub Tom graphic even more icky meaning than I ever wanted it to have…pass the brain bleach…
Watching the Republics capitulate can be a beautiful thing.
No lugar please
I doubt that Lugar would agree until after the election.
If Lugar becomes SecState, what happens to his senate seat?
How can we be sure that’s not her happy face? Has that ever been seen in public?
So what is Cheney up to these days?
my idea of pulling in the Rs would be to put lugar in charge of global nuclear disarmament. not adopting reaganomics for his economic policy.
Any more prep school invites for Rove?
Or university invites for Abu?
*trying to sound enthused*
He might be busy burning out shredder after shredder.
How about Chuck Hagel for Defense?
Anyone seen the traveling herd of DC shredder trucks?
who?
pls tell me more. if my proposal @98 is especially stupid i should stop making it. thanks.
He was later murdered by an ex-girlfriend in his new digs in Malibu.
Does Liberty University have a prep school?
Swapping out hard drives at the vp offices
Jane’s up with
And It Just Gets Worse: An American Carol vs. Religulous
The guv would put in another R to fill his seat – but there isn’t any other R in this state who would be the stone-cold lock on the seat that Lugar is….
I read last winter that Cheney had trucks there for weeks. Way back then… And let’s not forget that fire in an office building where his office was!
I do observe a very gradual shift among the pols to the realization that the fundamentals of the economy are not strong. Wonder if the light bulb will go off soon enough to matter.
Off to swim in the great capitalist (bwahahahahahaha) cesspool. And I am sooooo late.
Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.
Namaste
Because there have been “demure first lady candidate” days.
This one’s for Christy.
Michelle Obama had a good line yesterday as reporter by The Star-TribuneThe closest she came in her half-hour speech was at its beginning, when she asked the crowd of more than 4,000, “are you tired of that subprime leadership in the White House?”
Or hard drive crushers?
Ding ding ding.
The choice of Lugar would certainly shore up Obama’s standing among progressives. /s
I keep hoping they are shredder truck fronts operated by dedicated DOJ people, legally collecting the records of the crimes against our nation for use in future trials.
This and next weeks earnings will certainly tone that rhetoric down.
The RNC spending $5 million is about the Senate and the Congress and making sure that “the base” doesn’t stay home. I’d like to see where they spend that $5 mil – if it’s in North Carolina and Minnesota, for example, it’s about the Senate, not about McCain.
Blanche Lincoln displays her fear and incomprehension for all to see.
Your proposal makes so much sense, Selise, it should be obvious to the Obama camp. But what are we going do?
Same song, second verse…
good example of why we need more and better Democrats
So long. Try not to focus to much on graphic details of hottub clients for the sake of humanity. Next thing you know we’ll all be having nightmares of Tom Delay, Gov Rowland, Ted Stevens and who knows who else. *wretch*
Blanche Lincoln or Mark Pryor truly do represent quite the odd pair, don’t they?
Selise, what Hugh says.
That’s one of the main reasons I’m here.
I don’t have the confidence that I had after Watergate that new brooms will sweep clean because the D leadership is so corrupt. Most disappointing was Donna Edwards’ vote for the bailout.
We shall see.
yeah, I acknowledge that it would be a bad choice to make an announcement about only one cabinet position, with that single announcement being about adding a repub.
It might work best if Obama were to start dropping names as possibilities for at least several, if not all, of his possible cabinet-level choices.
Am not certain the Republicans will be spending any of that money in NC although apparently Liddy Dole needs it. It was announced the other day that she will be using her own money to campaign (although the amount was not given).
Maybe she’s trying to shame them into giving her some?
Ooooh, selise. Did you hear that? Inallo just said Commodities Futures & Echange Modernization Act of 2000?
i thought lugar’s attempts to do something about USSR’s old nuclear program was not completely batshit crazy. so, why not get him to focus on that and take him away from the stuff where he is batshit crazy?
missed it. was it worth going back in the realplayer buffer?
I imagine that he knows right now who they will be. This is a man who plans ahead and he will want to get started the first day. Can’t wait to hear the cabinet choices.
You’re right! If they don’t go after the corruption on both sides, 2010 will be a learning experience for the dems.
Uh oh Bob Dole is going to have to go back to selling viagra
After everything that has transpired over the last couple of weeks, I am not so disappointed anymore about said “bail out.” votes.
I honestly think that Paulson, as well as Obama’s advisors, who are Chicago Boys after all, convinced Edwards, as well as Keith Ellison, for example, that banks would not provide credit to small business, leading to massive failures among small businesses. I would not be shocked if the assurances that she received from Obama were along the lines of “we’ll fix it once we’re in office.”
Maybe I’m wrong. I will remain watchful for sure, but I think that until we receive the entire story about this, we need to receive all the facts before passing complete judgment.
As an aside, would you rather have Al Wynn there?
Let’s get him elected first.
Compared it to the bucket shops of a decade ago.
Interesting explanation for why pols ignored the lessons of te past. “Ideology” and sense that we had outgrown the restrictions of the past. Makes as much sense as any other explanation I have thought of.
Have you no compassion for the rest of us, man?!?
Here’s my reply. From what I can see most republikans are apparatchniks voting bat shit crazy 95% of the time. Why do we want to put anyone in charge of anyone’s arsenel who’s only sane for 5% of the time? Bipartisanship?
I’m really sick of the lesser of evils arguement. If we keep focusing on that, we lose sight of the goal.
William Black (U Missouri) sez fraud is rampant in subprime & AltA.
Talk about needing compassion…poor Bob has been all over the state campaigning for Liddy.
He even had to hold court recently in our local Bojangles (and this in a red town of 10,000). Oh, how the mighty have fallen. (And no jokes here about helping him “get up”.) *g*
I don’t know either – but once we get an idea where said $5 million will get spent will give us more of an idea what’s going on internally with the GOP.
If 538 is to be believed (and I am a longtime Baseball Prospectus subscriber and have won Fantasy BB Leagues with Nate Silver’s help), the GOP is in huge trouble down ticket.
I think we’re saying the same thing – I am more of the patience/incremental change/baby step model.
We still need a sea change of thinking in regard to the media which will take a long time to change, longer than a lot of people have patience for.
The mental picture of Bob Dole hanging out in a Bojangles like one of the fellas is…well, I may not stop giggling. *g*
Gallows humor of the say. (selise, you’ll love it.) Just got it in an email. New stock market definitions:
only to keep them away from the 95% of the issues on which they are not sane.
the manager’s dilemma – what to do with the disruptive employee if you can’t fire them? try to find something useful they can do.
707!!!
that one ought to last me all day. many thanks.
The best part of Bob’s visit for me was a post coital question from “one of the fellas”. This bubba’s a close family friend and seems he was dispatched to query this former NYer about Bob’s experience with the plastic surgery scalpel.
The guys can kind of excuse it in Liddy but were appalled to see the Bobster closeup and personal.
Do not know how I kept a straight face (*g*) as I discussed Bob’s “work”.
black is great-
.
sorry – wrong thread.
Hi Christy. Good one!
Mclame and apallin’ never learned that simple, basic lesson. too bad. mebbe they be spending too much time spent flying high in thin air; not enough with feet on the ground.
I’ll try again:
NEVER NEVER NEVER TOSS COMPOST INTO THE WIND!
I guess common sense isn’t so common after all, at least in pugnikan circles.