European Tribune

ObamaClintonMcCain last night

by US expat Ukraine
Wed Jun 4th, 2008 at 07:19:16 PM EST

Subject: ObamaClintonMcCain notes

Context: From last night watching BBC World.  Or more accurately, listening with a glance to the tube from time to time.  Jotting down notes to myself about what I was hearing.  (random thoughts in parentheses.)




Hillary appears.  Tone of resignation.

  1. McAuliffe fantasizes about Hillary's pop vote victory and masturbates on her shoes

  2. Clinton appears, immediately strikes appeasement with her new friend Obama

   - 2b.  (Was McA immediately garroted?  No thanks for intro, or indication he was there.)

  1. Congrats for being a US worker now sucking wind, and thanks to them for their support

  2. Fair shot at the American dream -- Edwards redux

  3. Chart a new course for this century.  Proud we stayed the course together so far.

  4. 35 million people voted in this primary, including purple people

  5. H/t to workers enduring jobs shipped overseas (though her hubby arranged the shipping)

  6. More John Edwards redux

  7. Ibid.

  8. What does Hillary want?  End war in Iraq, fix economy, health care, child potential, 18 million who voted for her to be heard, respected and no longer invisible.  (That leaves 282 mil.) (Also leaves 17 million who voted for O., so she beat him by a million pop votes according to her.)

  9. Univ. health care, dammit

  10. Recites primaries she won, where to go from here?

  11. No decisions tonight (campaign debts fall on her head if she can't make a deal with Obama to cover them, my read.)

  12. Go to hillaryclinton.com to message and support any way possible (condolences?)

  13. Thanks, in a "maybe we'll see each other again for some reason" tone of voice.

  14. Thanks to McA, so maybe he wasn't garroted yet.

  15. Nothing we can't do if we just start acting like Americans again.  ("Which Americans?" sprang to mind.  Some alarm, unsettled tummy.  Excuse me.)




Obama appears.  Upbeat.

  1. Thank you, and thanks to his family.  (Tone sounds like a concession speech.  WTF?)

  2. Thanks to his campaign manager, so definitely not garroted.

  3. Tonight is for his grandmother.

  4. Congrats for listening not to fear, but to hope.  Clinton 1992 redux

  5. Announces he will be the Dem. nominee for President of United States of America

  6. More thanks to supporters, a bit more deliniation about them

  7. Big h/t to Hillary (upbeat condolences)

  8. Had their differences over the past 16 months

  9. Reveals he knows what got Hillary out of bed these past months (!)

  10. Puts Hillary on point for healthcare

  11. Energy policy will heal due to Hillary

  12. Privilege to work with her

  13. Need to change policy and need to change Washington (change it to Prague, my preference.  Or The Hague, for near-term convenience.)

  14. We owe country and children a better future

  15. Unite to chart a better course for America.  Clinton 1992 redux.

  16. Republicans ahead!  Red alert!

  17. Thrashes McCain

  18. Leave Iraq, carefully, but we must

  19. Give vets care when they come home.  (And don't send them in the first place, I think.)

  20. Change: Outlines soft power instead of hard power without using those words

  21. Help workers, who made the economy.

  22. McC. is jerking off about Iraq.

  23. Back to healthcare, universal

    - 23b. (Hillary will be his Healthcare Czar at minimum)

  1. Energy policy, Carter 1976 redux (Reagan 1980 wiped all that out.)

  2. Change that makes jobs and can't be outsourced

  3. Better no child left behind deal -- more money in education, etc.  (Every election redux)

  4. Look Out! for divisive/wedge issues in upcoming campaign, and he won't use them

  5. 2004 DNC speech redux -- Dems, Repubs, all the same, Americans

  6. Make sure American people know how their tax dollars are being spent (never happened so far)

  7. United by common challenges, common hopes, alludes to American Revolution and Civil War - Gettysburg

  8. This is our time to change policies of past, bring new energies, new direction, journey will be difficult, road will be long (Clinton '92 redux, except the road already sounds a lot longer than it did then.)

  9. LBJ and FDR redux -- Great Society and New Deal, without mentioning either




McCain appears.  Sense of doom, immediately.

Facial tics or can't keep a straight face.  Whatever.  Makes no diff anyway.  McC is headed to be whipped like a red-headed stray mule.  BBC notes 32K overflowing crowd at O speech, McC's cavern isn't completely empty.  Talking Head says McC has his work cut out for him.  (Trying to keep a straight face, for starters, I presume.  If he shows up to a debate looking like that with O, O needs only gaze at him with pity and sympathy to prevail.  Jebus.  This is going to be worse than Kennedy v. Nixon.  Much worse.  I shall watch it like a train wreck.  Not good taste, but I can't miss this.)


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Can someone please explain to me how McCain can still be within a couple of percentage points of Obama (in Real Clear Politics averages) despite their relative performances in recent weeks and the almost exclusive media focus on Obama/Clinton?

What is it in McCain that so many Americans seem to identify with and want to lead them forward?  He seems an almost entirely backward looking leader and whilst he might make a fine Grandpa, do half of America really see him as the man to lead them forward?

Or is it a case of anybody but Obama, a desperate fending off of change  - intergenerational, racial, political?  Hell - McCain doesn't even represent most of the older, establishment, neo-con, religious, and business interests very well, so why is he even within shouting distance of Obama?

Is it racism, fear of change, xenophobia, or a collective Stockholm syndrome where America identifies with the militaristic ideologues who brought them every disaster from Vietnam to Iraq?  Why does the US want to lose so badly?

"It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot dotty communists) on Thu Jun 5th, 2008 at 05:50:58 AM EST
Americans are window shopping so far.  They haven't seen Obama and McCain side by side in the same store, yet.


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The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
W. Churchill
by US expat Ukraine on Thu Jun 5th, 2008 at 11:32:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]
They voted for Bush twice. C'mon, they can't help themselves (and diebold is willing to make their minds up for them).

Truth is that change can be risky; fear, uncertainty, doubt. McCain is the devil they know. Yea, it's shit but we know how to cope with it.

He's a war hero. That he's a dunderhead who will destroy women's right to choose and a whole lot worse is something most american's don't know cos the tradmed refuse to tell them. And that's the point. Murdoch might talk the talk about Obama (hedging his bets) but the corporate media will do everything they can to trash Obama. Every smear on Obama they can Drudge up will be breathlessly reported, every truth about McCain will be buried.

So, that's how it goes all the way to November.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Jun 6th, 2008 at 09:24:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]
13. No decisions tonight (campaign debts fall on her head if she can't make a deal with Obama to cover them, my read.)

Here we go:

Barack Obama's campaign is open to paying off some of the more than $20 million in debt accrued by defeated rival Hillary Clinton, a top adviser said.

"Certainly that is something that would be on the table," the adviser, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, told Bloomberg News reporters and editors yesterday. "Obviously we want to help each other."

Money for Clinton to retire her campaign debt -- $11.4 million of which is owed to herself -- may help smooth relations between the two camps following a 16-month primary campaign where the candidates at times exchanged personal attacks. The urgency for Clinton, 60, is she has until the Aug. 25-28 Democratic convention to pay off her $11.4 million personal loan. Otherwise, by law she can recoup no more than $250,000.



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The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
W. Churchill
by US expat Ukraine on Thu Jun 5th, 2008 at 08:42:12 PM EST


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