Indignant Desert Birds

By Ara Rubyan (cross posted at E Pluribus Unum)

I like Chuck Todd (and his posse of deputies Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro) but I think they’re off in the tall grass on this:

[...[D]oes this entire episode remind anyone else of John Kerry’s botched joke before the 2006 midterms — when Kerry’s mangled swipe at President Bush got twisted into a slap at US troops?

That’s a misreading of what’s happening here because Clark’s point was made with far more intelligence and articulation than Kerry’s (despite Obama calling it “inartful” but that’s another story).

Here’s how I see it:

McCain, trailing badly by most meaningful metrics, wants the Obama camp to hit him hard. Why? Three reasons:

1. So that he can get as much free media as possible, but more importantly…
2. So he can play the aggrieved victim, which leads to…
3. Drawing the Republican base closer to him (McCain) in his defense.

That’s it. So how’s he doing? Not so good.

Obama is not the candidate that will lash out at his opponents. McCain should know this by now — Obama is preternaturally cool (for a national politician) — it is McCain who is the hothead. Instead of lashing out, Obama has repeatedly stated how much he honors McCain’s sacrifice, but…that isn’t enough to qualify McCain to be president. The longer McCain strikes back, the weaker and more petty he looks.

I think I know what McCain is trying to do: he (consciously or otherwise) is trying to take a page out of Richard Nixon’s campaign playbook circa 1967. Back then, Nixon was perceived as a has-been, a loser that no one in their right mind would listen to. But Nixon figured out that if he could goad LBJ into lashing out at him personally, he could elevate his stature to that of the sitting president. And (more importantly) he could paint himself as a victim/outsider being picked on by the bully/insider. Nixon understood the simmering resentment against Johnson and knew that as soon as Johnson struck back it would draw the Republican base closer to him. It worked for Nixon back then.

But it won’t work for McCain today because Obama isn’t a bully and McCain isn’t an outsider. Oh, he’ll draw the Republican base closer to him because these are the same people that give Bush a 60% approval rating and they’ll believe just about anything. But as far as getting the independents and disaffected Democrats…not so much.

Furthermore, the free media thing isn’t working out so well either. For one thing, Wesley Clark has made his point with clarity … and humility: Clark honors McCain’s sacrifice, but will not concede that it automatically makes McCain the superior candidate for president. In my book, this makes him a decent candidate for Secretary of Defense or Chariman of the Armed Services Committee … but not Chief Executive of the United States. Of course, McCain’s camp simply won’t accept that and continues to play the “sacrifice card” and the “military experience” card. But that misses the point and gives Clark yet another chance to repeat his point.

And you know what? Every day that this story stays alive cuts against McCain by allowing Clark’s argument to be discussed in greater detail. It gives Sen. Webb a chance to weigh in. It gives McCain another opportunity to screw up by bringing in the bad actors from the Swiftboats for Slime — the guys who trashed Kerry by trashing his military career.

Bad move Senator McCain: now YOU look like the bully. Can’t you see? No one is trashing your military career. Not Clark, not Webb, not Obama. They are simply making a simple case: Being a hero yesterday does not punch your ticket to the Presidency…tomorrow.

Everyday that this issue is discussed AGAIN is another day where we get to consider whether we elect a president based on his judgment instead of his sacrifice. Hillary tried to frame her fight with Obama in a similar way — experience versus judgment. She lost. If McCain wants to fight that battle again, he’s going to lose just like Hillary did.

Elections are about the future, not the past. If McCain doesn’t know that by now, he’s doomed.

Tags: Election 08, liberal, politics by arubyan
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By Ara Rubyan
Cross posted at E Pluribus Unum

“Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.”

— Karl Rove, describing Barack Obama

When I first read about this comment, my immediate reaction was that I couldn’t think of a single country club that would admit a black man named Barack Hussein Obama. Then I thought Rove was doing his usual shtick, i.e., take his greatest weakness and ascribe it to his opponent. In other words, I felt that he was describing George W. Bush at the club, not Obama. Makes much more sense that way, given Bush’s history with alcohol — and his smart mouth. It was much the same technique Rove used to destroy John Kerry’s Vietnam war record in 2004, all but accusing the nominee of being a liar and a coward. All this while Bush was hiding his “war record” in plain sight.

But a commenter at Talking Points Memo unpacked Rove’s comments differently than me and I think he nails it:

The key to the statement is that (in the image) he is with “a beautiful date.” Not Michelle Obama or, in the abstract, his wife, i.e. a wife like Michelle Obama. When you think of a “beautiful date” specifically at a country club, do you picture an African-American woman? Would Rove’s target audience?

Or do you picture him there, a black man, smoking a cigarette indoors at a country club, with a white woman on his arm?

When I thought of this, I got a chill. When you think of Obama’s vulnerability, I think the primaries showed that race remains a real and very serious obstacle, particularly with white Americans over 50. When you think of where we are with racism in this country, I think its a pretty safe bet that the final freak-out factor to overcome may be black men dating white women, in particular, one’s daughter.

If I were a completely amoral Republican operative, I’d try to find some white women that Obama dated before Michelle and get them into the public’s stream of consciousness anyway I could. Its a tactic so vile I don’t even like speculating about it, but if you want to be ready for the worst, I think Rove just tipped his hand at where they plan to go.

In all fairness, I have to ask if there is (or isn’t) the analogous scenario that an “amoral Democratic operative” could spring on McCain? Remember, in order for it to work, it has to resonate at the emotional level and be absolutely radioactive in the extreme. It has to address a fundamental fear that the electorate has about McCain.

Tags: conservative, Election 08, Games, human rights, politics by arubyan
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McCain’s campaign is encouraging trolls. They’re literally giving trolls “points” for leaving pro-McCain talking points in the comments section of various blogs. Their view of the blogworld is fairly skewed, they list Glen Reynolds (Instapundit) as neither right, nor left, nor moderate, but “other” (he’s a fairly doctrinaire conservative).

This isn’t the worst idea in the world– many large companies employ trolls to get their own word out. Its just so transparent and icky that I can’t think it will do much good. Yes, this blog is a bit annoyed not to be included on the hit list.

Tags: conservative, Election 08 by Punning Pundit
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I don’t know which emotion is stronger: Happiness that it’s back, or anger that it was ever gone.

Before today, the President reserved to himself the right to declare an individual an “Enemy Combatant”, and for those classes of people, he opined that they could be held– forever– without charges being filed.

The court today held that a plain reading of “The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.” means that Congress must find that either a state is seceding, or has been invaded, or else Habeas Corpus cannot be suspended.

Let’s be clear: if we think someone is a terrorist, we can still hold them long enough to put them on trial, and if they are convicted we can treat them– fairly harshly under military law. If they’re innocent, however, we’ll let them go.

It’s only just.

Tags: death, human rights, politics by Punning Pundit
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I was listening to this song by the floblots, and had never heard of Anne Braden. Naturally wikipedia was able to help…

If this is accurate, an American was thrown in jail for selling his house to another American. Power was used to maintain injustice. I am always and forever terrified of being on the wrong side of power– and so for that reason I’ve always been _very_ supportive of free speech.

The problem comes when people who have no interest in discussion seek to drown out the voices of those who do. Speech is then used against itself to the edification of no one. For a free-speech fetishist like myself, this presents a problem: how do I keep a conversation moving when the trolls show up– without destroying the right of a troll to speak. After all: the person may not be a troll, but merely have (true) ideas I find repugnant. What if I am on the wrong side of history?

One solution which presents itself is disemvoweling. “Offending” comments are still there, and if there is truth, it will shine through. But no one will struggle to read asshole comments. I think it’s a good compromise. If there is a better idea, please let me know in the comments…

(updated within 30min. of posting. For clarity)

Tags: free speech, human rights, politics by Punning Pundit
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The overwhelming majority of Americans are not Communists. In general, we believe that a free-ish market is a better way to organize the production and distribution of goods and services than government departments. But an awful lot of Americans seem to want government-run health care. Why? What makes health care so different from the rest of the economy that many of us want to turn it over to the people who brought us the Postal Service and the Department of Motor Vehicles?

Is it because health care is a necessity? Food is a necessity, but no mainstream politicians are pushing plans for tax-funded universal distribution of cheezburgers.

Is it because health care is expensive? Housing is expensive, and it’s a necessity, so why is nobody promising me socialized apartments?

Is it because we’re not happy with the health care the market is providing us with? I doubt that, too. I work for Microsoft, and everybody’s got tons of complaints about our products, but nobody wants to replace us with Federal Windows and Federal Internet Explorer.

Is it because other first-world countries have socialized medicine? If Canada jumped off a bridge, would you jump off, too? Besides which, other first-world countries really don’t have socialized medicine. Britain and Canada may have true socialized medicine, but Switzerland and the Netherlands only have mandatory private insurance programs, and France and Germany have health care systems which are more market-oriented than America’s current health care system (which includes Medicare, Medicaid, and a tax system which heavily subsidizes full-service employer-provided health insurance).

Tags: communism, pestilence, politics by Maniakes
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She had a tough job with this speech. On the one wrist, she had to acknowledge that her supporters had done a magnificent job. Then she had to explain why Obama will make a fantastic president.

“The way to continue our fight now – to accomplish the goals for which we stand – is to take our energy, our passion, our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama the next President of the United States. ”

The way she said it, with such obvious passion and sincerity in her voice, she means it.

“I understand that we all know this has been a tough fight. The Democratic Party is a family, and it’s now time to restore the ties that bind us together and to come together around the ideals we share, the values we cherish, and the country we love. ”
Absolutely, 100% the right thing to say. The Party isn’t the “Hillary Clinton Show”, it is about a certain set of ideals– ideals which both Hillary and Barack share. Obama has the standard, let’s line up behind his charge.

And, as a final swing, she reminds all voters how good they had it when we last had a Democratic president:

“We made tremendous progress during the 90s under a Democratic President, with a flourishing economy, and our leadership for peace and security respected around the world. Just think how much more progress we could have made over the past 40 years if we had a Democratic president. Think about the lost opportunities of these past seven years – on the environment and the economy, on health care and civil rights, on education, foreign policy and the Supreme Court. Imagine how far we could’ve come, how much we could’ve achieved if we had just had a Democrat in the White House.”

I’ll leave it off there. Hillary: you did good. And if– gods forbid!– things don’t work out for Barack, I’ll gleefully pull the lever for you in 2012…

Transcript

Tags: Election 08, Feminism by Punning Pundit
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When the California primary came around, I had this idea: I would vote for Barack Obama– who would lose the nomination– and then I would vote for Hillary Clinton in the general. This way, I though, I would have the pleasure of voting for them both. That seems to have been an error.

Hillary ran a fantastic campaign. Not a perfect one. But a fantastic one that– had she run against anyone else– would have resulted in victory. Her mistakes were worth learning from, but– for now– not dwelling on. The problem for her, it seems, is that Hillary fell victim to Zeno’s Achilles and the tortoise paradox. She could see herself making up ground, but never quite making up _enough_ ground, never _quite_ pulling ahead. It could never be enough ground– the math was working against her from February. Then the finish line came…
click here for a nifty chart.

Hillary gave it her best shot. I would guess that she is unused to trying as hard as she can and still losing. The qualities that would have made her such a fantastic president are combining to make her into a liability for the party. She’s a smart woman– I’m sure she will recognize it soon. As a party, we owe her the space to come to terms with her loss. Our country is stronger for her having run.

Tags: politics by Punning Pundit
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I do kind of wish it went without saying that the War in Iraq is an unmitigated disaster. Even if the country turns into the Eden which the Christian Bible hints might once has been there, the cost in lives and money will have been too high. Where America was once seen as a fearsome, slumbering colossus; our blundering about the middle east has caused actual fear among the nations of the world. Where once we were the good guys, the fact that we employ torture, indefinite detention, secret tribunals, and are moving toward permanent occupation of a nation that wants us gone.

Perhaps most damning, we stand in violation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Our country is being run by criminals who are demonstrably guilty of the same crime for which we tried, convicted, and hung many of the people who stood at Nuremberg.

But there will never be a trial.

This post started out light-hearted. Have a funny chart:

more graph humor and song chart memes

Tags: politics, war by Punning Pundit
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As I understand it, conservatives think that it is silly to talk with Iran until Iran A) stops supporting Hammas B) gives up it’s nuclear ambition C) stops repressing its own people. Doing anything about point C) would violate the priciples of the treaty of Westphalia, so I assume this is mere saber rattling.

As for the rest: my understanding is that these are the points to be negotiated. Which means setting them as preconditions indicates that certain parts of our governing class really do not wish to meet at all– outside the field of honor. This, of course, makes them wildly out of touch with most Americans:

.

Seems like talking with people we don’t like in an attempt to settle our differences is a political winner. Who knew?

Tags: conservative, liberal, politics by Punning Pundit
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