Month: August 2008

It would, in my view, be political suicide for McCain. A reader spells out why:

McCain’s first salvo out of the box on Biden was to use Biden’s quotes about Obama against them. Heaven knows there is far MORE ammunition for Obama when it comes to McCain and Romney. McCain called Romney a flip-flopper dozens of times on record, said he costs thousands of jobs as head of Bain and of course questioned his commitment on Iraq.  That doesn’t include all the things Romney said about McCain, like attacking McCain on taxes, attacking him for not having a clue on the economy and a host of other issues.  Obama’s folks would have a bevy of pre-made ads just using the ads that McCain and Romney ran against each other in the primary.

The other arguments are just as weak. Obama picked Biden to shore up his foreign affairs and national security credentials, so McCain, the argument goes, needs to pick Romney to do the same on the economy. But Romney’s supposed economic chops would be instantly deflated not only by what McCain said about Romney, but rest assured that the DNC has every single job Romney and Bain cost for every target, every offshore deal they did that shipped jobs overseas and every questionable investment they made.  Tim Pawlenty has none of that baggage.

Romney can deliver Michigan. Pure nonsense.

Romney winning the GOP primary there is a far cry from delivering the state.  Could he be helpful, sure, but not decisive.  The question is do the rest of his negatives erase or outweigh whatever help he can provide in Michigan? Many have said that McCain (with his 7 or 8 houses) needs to pick an “every Joe” who can appeal to blue collar workers.  That certainly isn’t Romney.  Romney may not have as many houses as McCain, but he certainly has more money.  Here again, Pawlenty is a far better choice.

As you know many of our conservative Christian friends (as underscored by Huckabee’s constant comments) do not like Romney – not only because of his flip-flopping, but also because he is a Mormon.  As you know, Pawlenty is one of them.

And lastly, how does Mr. Straight Talk choose a guy who he has repeatedly called a flip-flopper?  Doesn’t that undermine McCain’s brand and credibility?  It surely would undercut Romney on the campaign trail and in debates.

This post seems to have struck a nerve. And not to be elitist, of course, but he means "affects" not "effects". And the sentence,

"It is hardly as if it was [sic] a novel insight of mine that the Democrats have had a problem seeming like elitists"

requires a subjunctive. I think what Jonah means is that it’s ok to be part of a nepotistic, moneyed elite but not ok if you work your way up from food stamps to editor of the Harvard Law Review. Now that kind of effort is what today’s conservatives really feel contempt for.

Mark Murray:

While modern conventions have become known for their lack of news, these two could be noteworthy because of 1) the historical nature of Obama’s candidacy; 2) the fact that the Clintons will be playing second fiddle (and treated that way) for the first time since ’88, causing the potential for drama this week; 3) the very real threat McCain could name a pro-choice running mate, causing Republican delegates to attempt an actual floor flight in St. Paul; and 4) the uncomfortable nature of the GOP convo dealing with an unpopular president; not since ’68 and has there been a party so worried about the negative impact of an outgoing president. Ready. Set. Go.

In 2001 Ian Frazier explained his relationship to melancholy:

I sat in my motel room for several days, getting gloomier and gloomier. Rain fell constantly. The month was August, and the rainy twilight lasted from four in the morning until midnight. Outside my window Bering Sea waves the color of wet cement landed on the riprap shoreline with thuds. To say that Nome, Alaska, is mainly mud with pieces of rusted iron sticking out of it is to be unfair to that interesting place, but so it appeared to me at the time. On my motel-room bed I read obscure books to the sound of the rain and the waves, taking occasional breaks to stare at the ceiling. I saw almost no one, never cracked a smile, and was as sorry for myself as I could be. After three or four days, completely bummed out, I went to the airport and flew home. I arrived pale, monosyllabic, and wonderfully refreshed.

Joe Klein attends a focus group:

What do they want? Given a list of 31 personal attributes the next President might have and asked to pick the eight most important, "Accountability" finished highest with 13 votes, next was "Someone I can trust" with 12, "honest and ethical" was third with 11. "Agrees with me on the issues" got one vote. They didn’t care if the candidate was a Washington insider or outsider. "A dynamic and charismatic leader" got two votes…

Uh-oh.

Why Matt Welch is covering the conventions:

Jarvis and Shafer both claim that C-SPAN is more than enough to handle whatever news there is this week, but that assumes, wrongly, that the news at any given time is limited to whatever’s being said from the podium–a concept that’s even less accurate about conventions than it is for Congress (where the horse-trading that seals deals happens exclusively off-camera). More importantly, these things are well and truly conventions, huge gatherings of professional practitioners, fans, and journalists who are constantly combining and producing noteworthiness far away from the arena.

I feel a little remiss for missing the convention. My own view is that these are television shows, and the best way to judge the show is to watch it on television. There’s other stuff to do onsite – parties, hob-nobbing, schmoozing, back-stage reporting, gossip, absorbing the anthropology of the crowd, all of which can add something. But all that really matters is on C-SPAN. And watching that is a lot cheaper than schlepping all that way to meet other bloggers.

A reader writes:

I came out 6 months ago at 22. Because of the explosion of gay exposure over the past few decades, my generation seems to operate under the understanding that gay marriage is an inevitability. I chose a good time to come out – within months of my announcement, I could legally marry in two states and have the marriage recognized at home in New York.

Amy Wax doesn’t seem to notice the foolishness of her argument. She worries that gays will destroy marriage by bringing a lack of sexual monogamy to it. How can you accuse a group of not practicing monogamy while arguing against giving them the legal right to enter into life long, monogamous unions? Once marriage is on the table, monogamy becomes the goal.

Sure, we’ll enjoy sleeping around just as much as any other male in their twenties, but every gay male I know of my generation seems to be in a constant search for someone he can move to the suburbs and raise a family with.

 

 

I’m sure not all gay marriages would turn out to be sexually monogamous, but I’m also sure Wax wouldn’t want to hold straight marriages to that standard. She also might want to try imagining how monogamous straight people would be if marriage had always been banned for them as well.   
 

Meditations at Whole Foods by Dana: a poem on the election. And yes, it’s a parody.

If the Dems wanted to remind themselves why they want to win this year: