Democratic Convention Comment Thread

[TC Pilot]

My God, someone elect this man president!

[Metatwaddle]

Apparently, they couldn't sustain the 'GREEK COLUMNS! HE THINKS HE'S A GOD!' nonsense.

I don't think those in the media realize how big their power of suggestion is: if they repeat "People might be worried Obama's setting is too celebrity-esque and impersonal" enough times, that's exactly what people are going to think. And there's absolutely no evidence that they'd think it was too impersonal if it wasn't suggested to them, and the people who suggested that were Republican dittoheads - I think the idea was actually spawned by the Republican reaction brigade/spin machine. So basically, Brokaw and Todd were letting themselves be pawns of the Republican Party just by repeating that idiotic meme.

In McCain's rebuttal, I'm noticing something that's been popping up a lot recently: Obama always chooses to put events, issues and people into a historical context, whereas McCain always makes his claims in a vacuum (even on the uncommon occasion that his claims are true). He states "Obama is not ready to lead" as if it is established fact, and his three pieces of evidence are given completely without context. Even if Obama did oppose all offshore drilling, which he doesn't, offshore drilling isn't an energy policy. It is, in fact, even less of an energy policy than tire inflation. I'm guessing the budget that would increase taxes for people making $42,000 would more than make up those tax increases in beneficial social programs like SCHIP (which McCain voted against IIRC). And the vote against funding for the troops can (and hopefully will) be thrown back into McCain's face on things like the GI Bill and funding for better armor for the troops, both of which I think McCain voted against. Obama's no-vote on war funding was intended to get the troops out of harm's way. Voting against GI benefits and armor doesn't help the troops' safety in any way.

So yes. Completely devoid of context.

[SirNitram]

Apparently, they couldn't sustain the 'GREEK COLUMNS! HE THINKS HE'S A GOD!' nonsense.

I don't think those in the media realize how big their power of suggestion is: if they repeat "People might be worried Obama's setting is too celebrity-esque and impersonal" enough times, that's exactly what people are going to think. And there's absolutely no evidence that they'd think it was too impersonal if it wasn't suggested to them, and the people who suggested that were Republican dittoheads - I think the idea was actually spawned by the Republican reaction brigade/spin machine. So basically, Brokaw and Todd were letting themselves be pawns of the Republican Party just by repeating that idiotic meme.

I think they realize exactly how much power they have, and I think that's part of why they do it.

I simply note something very fundamental to how these folks act:

Link

1. THIS IS THEIR HOME. This is where they spend their lives, raise their families, participate in community activities, take pride in their surroundings. They feel Washington has been brought into disrepute by the actions of the president.

"It's much more personal here," says pollster Geoff Garin. "This is an affront to their world. It affects the dignity of the place where they live and work. . . . Clinton's behavior is unacceptable. If they did this at the local Elks Club hall in some other community it would be a big cause for concern."

"He came in here and he trashed the place," says Washington Post columnist David Broder, "and it's not his place."

"We have our own set of village rules," says David Gergen, editor at large at U.S. News & World Report, who worked for both the Reagan and Clinton White House. "Sex did not violate those rules. The deep and searing violation took place when he not only lied to the country, but co-opted his friends and lied to them. That is one on which people choke.

"We all live together, we have a sense of community, there's a small-town quality here. We all understand we do certain things, we make certain compromises. But when you have gone over the line, you won't bring others into it. That is a cardinal rule of the village. You don't foul the nest."

Note the total lack out outrage from these pillars of moral righteousness over silly lies about Iraq that cost lives.

Let's think about that. They can't be unaware. They simply don't care. Democrats must be hated. The entire thing is about worshipping 'Middle America'. How do I know? One of the biggest names in D.C. a while back told them to.

"In these circumstances, it seems to me that those of us in the media need to make a special effort to understand Middle America. Equally it seems wise to exercise a certain caution, a prudent restraint, in pressing a claim for a plenary indulgence to be in all places at all times the agent of the sovereign public."

As the GOP took over 'Middle America', it became natural. They must defend the bastions of Tradition. The Democrats seek to change everything. They will 'trash this place'. They think it's their town.

It's not. It's the Political Media's town. And they play by their own rules, which say, Heads We Win, Tails You Lose.

[atg]

BBC has the speech

[Patrick Degan]

The only, ONLY thing I wish Barack had done, that he didn't do, was when he was pounding away at Iraq and Al Qaeda. He should have finished that section of his speech off by looking right into the camera and saying:

"Osama Bin Laden, I have a special message just for you. Get your affairs in order, because come January 21st we're coming for you, and there's nowhere in the world you can hide this time."

Yeah, well, let's leave that sort of mindless Republitard dickwaving to the Gimp and his fellow stooges. Obama will make his point when he goes on TV one night to announce that the Air Force just shoved a couple of JDAMs up BinLaden's ass.

[Aeolus]

Obama's speech may have beenthe best I have ever heard. Amazing.

[Invictus ChiKen]

That speech made me cry... Damn it was awesome.

[Ender]

Decent enough speech, but I didn't like the clearly orchestrated parts of it. His speech on race back in March was much better.

[Edi]

BBC link to US media reactions

A wonderful cross section on just how spineless the US media is and how hard on the right they all are.

[DarkSilver]

wonderful speach.

If I woudln't have been a supporter of Obama, last night would have done it for me.

[Anguirus]

Damn. Finally saw it thanks to the BBC.

He was cooking.

[Executor32]

I'm surprised no one has linked to the DNCC for the speech, though it does require Silverlight and the Move Media Player plugin (which the site will link to if you don't have them). It's nice, however, to be able to watch the speech in full-screen HD quality without having to download the whole thing first.

Senator Obama has had my vote ever since he first began his campaign, but his magnificent speech last night has given me the resolve and the inspiration to ensure that he has not only my vote, but the votes of every single person I know. Even my grandmother, who out of distrust and disappointment hasn't voted in any election since before I was born, and who still refers to people of African descent as "colored", will be voting for Obama by the time the polls open if I have anything to say about it.

[Big Phil]

The only, ONLY thing I wish Barack had done, that he didn't do, was when he was pounding away at Iraq and Al Qaeda. He should have finished that section of his speech off by looking right into the camera and saying:

"Osama Bin Laden, I have a special message just for you. Get your affairs in order, because come January 21st we're coming for you, and there's nowhere in the world you can hide this time."

Yeah, well, let's leave that sort of mindless Republitard dickwaving to the Gimp and his fellow stooges. Obama will make his point when he goes on TV one night to announce that the Air Force just shoved a couple of JDAMs up BinLaden's ass.

Could you imagine the consternation such a comment would have caused. Republicans, Evangelicals, gun nuts, military veterans, and anti-arab racists would have been thrown into confusion. "Obama wants to kill bin Laden, which I like, but McCain is a war hero, which I like. What do I do?" He could sealed the election last night with something like that.

But you're right, it would have been completely out of character for Obama.

[irishmick79]

Goddamnit you assholes, don't fucking jinx this thing by declaring him the winner!!!!

Obama was standing at the center of a powerful, historical moment in the American story last night and he beautifully captured it with his powerful appeal to our common dreams. We are witnessing the most brilliant and most talented American politician in decades at work.

[Big Phil]

BBC link to US media reactions

A wonderful cross section on just how spineless the US media is and how hard on the right they all are.

That's hardly a cross-section; that's five or six conservative, two or three "mainstream," and two or three "liberal" editorialists, all from the east coast. Jim Geraghy of the National Review, for example, wrote an anti-Kerry blog in 2004 and Voting to Kill: How 9/11 Launched the Era of Republican Leadership in 2006.

If you really want a cross section, look a papers across the country. The Houston Chronicle is focusing on the "elitist" angle, while the Seattle PI is focusing on "fixing Washington." The LA Times has an article titled "Barack Obama comes out firing" while the Idaho Statesman doesn't even report on it on the front page! It's much more of a mixed bag outside the east coast politico rags.

[Azazal]

I know I'm going against the grain, but I hope that when Obama wins,we don't get a repeat of Carter's Administration.
Here we have a very intelligent man with some very high ideals and desires to change the country for the better, but he's going to get dropped into the deep end of the shit pool. He's going to have to clean up the stagflation, energy crunch, domestic and foreign relations after a now very unpopular war, and other left over fuck ups from Skippy the Wonder Chimp. Shit Obama had nothing to do with, but since he's stuck cleaning up the mess, he'll get the short term blame from the uneducated masses. Plus, while he has great experience out side of DC, some from the old boys network in DC may see him as a beltway outsider, will he get the same push back and in some cases out right opposition from a Democrat run Congress that Carter did? Like I said though, I hope I'm wrong, and we get 8 years of Obama and can counter Skippy

The parallels, while not the exact same to Cater, are similar.. which means, does Pelosi have tiger tattoo on her tush...?

[Mr Bean]

For those who want a link to see the full Obama Speech

Here you go
I was looking for a link as well and though, HEY! I wonder of Obama's own Youtube channel might have it. and Lo and behold there you go, the full speech.

[Broomstick]

I know I'm going against the grain, but I hope that when Obama wins,we don't get a repeat of Carter's Administration.
Here we have a very intelligent man with some very high ideals and desires to change the country for the better, but he's going to get dropped into the deep end of the shit pool.

That's a valid concern.

Let me speak as someone who lives in Northwest Indiana, next to the south side of Chicago - the very places he spoke about in his speech last night as the places where he got his start.

Politics here is very rough. There is a lot of bigotry towards blacks in this area among the poor and uneducated. There is the Democratic machine, which is old school politics and must be dealt with. This is the land of Jesse Jackson, another wheeler/dealer frequently in opposition to the machine (and, as we have seen, not always happy with Mr. Obama, either).

Obama is from outside this area, yet he came here and did such a good job that many regard him as "our man". I live alongside people who are, quite frankly, racial bigots, but because of the work he has done here they are eager to shake his hand and see past his skin (although, to be honest, there are some who will never do so, the point is, those able to bend he has convinced to bend).

He is not naive. The republicans talk about his lack of experience, but he is experienced in coming in as an outsider and becoming someone able to work on the inside - not only have we seen that in his work here, there is no way he, as a black man, could have secured the nomination of a major party without that skill. He has had to work with a political machine almost as old as DC's and just as thoroughly entrenched, and has done so successfully. If he has at times dealt with some unsavory people that is because he is a pragmatist and realizes that sometimes you have to do that in order to get things done. He doesn't have to like or agree with someone to work with them. Nor am I going to claim he is a saint, he's a man with flaws who makes mistakes and I don't agree with everything he says or does. Politics get slimy on occasion, it's the nature of the beast.

But for all that he is an idealist he is also a successful Chicago politician. He has already swum in shit (Illinois is a state where all but one of the last 7 or 8 former governors has served prison time after leaving office), yet it seems he has not lost his vision of a better world. He has never been a person of privilege - he is a product of an interracial marriage from a time when such were illegal in many parts of the US, he grew up without his father in his life, he saw hard times and has known poverty. As a black man in the US he has had to work harder than his white counterparts to get to any given level of success, yet he has a real shot at the highest political office in the nation. If, as a black man, he has had to work twice as hard to achieve a goal it seems that he is also twice as capable. THAT is why he speaks so eloquently on the need for equal opportunity and fairness, he understands that it does not yet exist and that justice requires that we work towards it.

The situation here in "Obamaland" has been bad for many years. The south side of Chicago has long been minorities and poverty. The steel mill closures turned the once-prosperous town of Gary, Indiana into a near-ghost town with a rapidly deteriorating infrastructure that is nearly as bad as Detroit, Michigan. Despair and grinding struggle have been the situation for decades but one of the reasons that Obama rose rapidly from local politics to the state legislature to the US Senate was because he gives people HOPE. Not pie-in-the-sky unrealistic dreams but real hope that next year will be better and that children can have better lives than their parents, that hard work can still be rewarded. And while he didn't get everyone a mansion or a stock portfolio he has delivered the "goods" - since he took office things have gotten better. Not wildly better, but many people have seen actual progress, the sort that eases their daily burdens. There have been results. That's why he keeps getting voted back in, and voted into higher and higher office.

He is a professional politician, by which I mean he acts as an adult, not a spoiled brat. He is no amateur but a skilled craftsman at the art of politics. He uses words and negotiation and diplomacy not as bludgeons but as tools. He is not Jimmy Carter. He is more in the mold of a Kennedy or a Roosevelt, which is exactly what this country needs right now.

I listen to him and I hear a man who is not afraid to discuss the real problems we face, not to fearmonger to but actually confront and deal with the problems at hand. I hear a man who is not afraid to speak the truth plainly to other men, even men who hold high office and great power. I hear a man who can admit we have not done our best but we are capable of doing better, that we can be great again. When I marched into the voting booth for the primary I realized that, for the first time I could remember I was voting for someone instead of settling for the lesser of two evils. On November 4, I will be again voting FOR someone.

I hope he gets into office

I hope he delivers the goods

But most of all... I hope again, and I haven't had much of that for the better part of of a decade.

[ray245]

Looking at the other boards and juding at their view for the US elections...I am REALLY afriad that McCain can win...

If McCain win, he will just drag the rest of the world down with him.

[Broomstick]

Yes, but what does McCain care? He'll be dead from old age soon and will never have to worry about the mess he leaves behind.

Time for a new face in Washington.

[Azazal]

Thanks Broomstick, that's the type of info I needed to hear.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Looking at the other boards and juding at their view for the US elections...I am REALLY afriad that McCain can win...

I am too... At this very moment, I am positive millions of women across america are going "I was going to vote for Obama... But now Im going to vote for McCain! HEhas a women on HIS ticket!"

Because, you can NOT underestimate Americnas stupidity.

[Aratech]

Looking at the other boards and juding at their view for the US elections...I am REALLY afriad that McCain can win...

I am too... At this very moment, I am positive millions of women across america are going "I was going to vote for Obama... But now Im going to vote for McCain! HEhas a women on HIS ticket!"

Because, you can NOT underestimate Americnas stupidity.

It would seem as though many a woman can be just as bullheaded and shortsighted as the men here.

Yes, ladies, let's have four more years of a crashing economy, quagmire in Iraq, and the world snubbing us. But it'll be okay, cause we'll have a woman!1!* next to the oval office.


*Apologies made to the intelligent members of the female community who choose to look beyond gender and ethnic group and vote for a candidate based upon the candidates issues and stances.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I am too... At this very moment, I am positive millions of women across america are going "I was going to vote for Obama... But now Im going to vote for McCain! HEhas a women on HIS ticket!"

Because, you can NOT underestimate Americnas stupidity.

Oh man, that's some delicious irony. I'm sorry, couldn't pass it up.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Looking at the other boards and juding at their view for the US elections...I am REALLY afriad that McCain can win...

If McCain win, he will just drag the rest of the world down with him.

If you think the average Singaporean knows anything about what goes on outside their small little pond, you are sadly, nay, stupidly mistaken.