Shecky Obama and Henny McCain

Both candidates did a fine job at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner.

Obama: It's Possible That I'm a Little Too Awesome

Part 1


Part 2

McCain: Messiah Is Above My Paygrade

Part 1


Part 2

McCain: "I Screwed Up."

Letterman never rolls over for his guests but he has learned to be respectful and ask fair questions. He wasn't always like that. And every once in a while, when necessary, he can snap. Remember O'Reilly's appearance?

McCain's appearance was a fair encounter. He tried the stump speech lines. Healthy smatterings of applause. He made a few jokes. Some laughs. He explained his last cancellation as a clear mistake. I screwed up he said. Was he admitting that it was a campaign stunt? Or was he just patronizing Dave? Either way it was a little uncomfortable there for about a minute. The line got its laugh and applause. But it was probably more from agreement than amusement.

The meat of the interview came towards the end when Letterman decided to question McCain's ingenuousness in choosing the push the Ayers connection.

A two-fold challenge:
Is serving on a board the same as palling around? It's a thin connection and Letterman called McCain on it. Are they double-dating? Are they going to dinner? What are they doing? Are they driving cross-country? He made the point that Obama's connection to Bill Ayers should be no more damning that McCain's connection to G. Gordon Liddy. Letterman pressed, You will also admit that we cannot really control who we interact with in our lives a hundred percent.

He pushed another challenge that I hadn't heard yet. Palin said terrorists but they only named one. When asked why she made the accusation in the plural McCain had to resort to a There's millions of words said in the campaign. C'mon now. C'mon, there's millions of words. There's millions of words. So… we shouldn't listen?

It came through pretty clearly that Letterman wasn't buying McCain's lines. Especially on the preparedness of Sarah Palin. He probably could have moved in on some of those issues with specific challenges like he had on the Ayers lines. Because that's really an issue. I don't judge McCain if he really is afraid of Ayers. But if he isn't afraid of Palin being president I can only imagine it's because he knows that could only mean that he no longer has to worry about anything. And that's really selfish.

McCain Backs Ups Slowly

Woman: I gotta ask you a question. I do not…um…believe in…I can't trust Obama.

McCain: I gotcha—

Woman: —I have read about him and he's not…he's not…he's a…um He's an Arab. He's not...

McCain: No ma'am. No ma'am.

Woman: No?

You see how easy that was? All McCain had to do was give a simple denial and she's right there able to keep up. McCain tells her it's not true and she does the quick u-turn away from ignorance.

Sure, she's probably still pretty confused on a whole bunch of facts. But she doesn't even try to hold on to this one simple claim. Now I'm guessing someone else she trusts will repeat the lie to her. And she may shriek out McCain's an Ay-rab too!

But McCain will rest easy knowing that the work he started will continue with or without him.

Push against it.

McCain Loses Control of His Pitbulls

You thought those curs were going to protect you against all intruders but when you're an inept trainer they eventually start to attack you too. It's what happens when you don't know the difference between a protective dog and a rabid dog.

From the AP:

'If you want a fight, we will fight,' McCain said. 'But we will be respectful. I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments.' When people booed, he cut them off.

'I don't mean that has to reduce your ferocity,' he said. 'I just mean to say you have to be respectful.'

Also

He had drawn boos with his comment: 'I have to tell you, he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States.'

The anti-Obama taunts and jeers are noticeably louder when McCain appears with Palin, a big draw for GOP social conservatives.

John McCain is now less important than his mob. And it's his own damn fault. He got caught up in the addictive murmur of determined ignorance. He's still trying to get away with the tactic of hate but he's stumbling while trying to keep them on his side by encouraging their ferocity and calling it respectful at the same time. He's a poor deluded man who is lying to someone. I'm just not sure who.

His mob's ferocity is exactly what will take him down. Because their ferocity feeds on bigotry. He created this fear by telling them not to trust Obama. He told them that their mistrust had to be based on their lack of knowledge. The spine of his message has been If you don't have proof that he's trustworthy you assume the worst because of every instinct of insularity and every tradition of exclusion that has fertilized this soil.

Now he's trying to turn their fear into judgment. It doesn't work that way. He has created the enemy. He has asked for their bloodlust and he is now dripping blood from the fingertips that fed them.

Meanwhile Palin continues to reveal the frightening tenor of her lonely ideas: it's not negative and it's not mean-spirited.

Such ideas find company in the masses. Such arid intellects must seek each other in order to survive. When examined on their own they wither and fail in the face of reason.

Releasing the Hounds

From Dana Milbank's column at Washingtonpost.com:

"If you turn on the news tonight when you get home, you're gonna see that, yah, this is another woeful day in the market, and the other side just doesn't understand -- no!" she said at an afternoon fundraiser at the home of mutual fund giant Jack Donahue. "Especially in a time like this, you don't propose to increase taxes. The phoniest claim in a campaign that's full of them is that Barack Obama is going to cut your taxes."

Of course, Obama never promised to cut taxes for people at $10,000-a-plate lunches in air-conditioned tents on waterfront compounds. And the crowd -- among them New York Jets owner Woody Johnson -- reacted without applause to Palin's Joe Six-Pack lines. After they didn't strike up the usual "Drill, baby, drill" or "USA" chants, Palin, rattled, read hurriedly through the rest of her speech.

The reception had been better in Clearwater, where Palin, speaking to a sea of "Palin Power" and "Sarahcuda" T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. "One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," she said. ("Boooo!" said the crowd.) "And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,' " she continued. ("Boooo!" the crowd repeated.)

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

McCain has forced his supporters to confront something about their candidate. His legislative pedigree and his choice of VP have drawn clear lines around the causes he's counting on for election:

The cause of the coddled billionaires who are praying for continued free rein and a laissez-faire government because they've been allowed to put their money where the economy can't take it from them.

That's his pedigree.

The cause of fear and bigotry that is looking for people to hate and fear in order to insulate and protect just one set of values and through intimidation and exclusion.

Milbank writes that at the Clearwater Florida rally One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy.

That's the rabid energy that his choice of VP has unleashed.

via The Greenbelt

Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin

I have to hope that the undecided voters aren't waiting to see who's more likable or who's prettier. They're weighing issues and competence. And when PALIN/mccain are weighed and measured they lose the vote. Taking an average of each side I'd go so far as to say that the Obama/Biden ticket is prettier too. And more likable. Wait. Remind me: why is anybody supporting McPalin?

The VP debate was not the bloodbath that many were hoping it would be. Sarah Palin had all her lines memorized like a good automaton. Biden wisely softened his smile and he tempered the edge on his gaze. He focused on McCain and let Palin remain empty even while letting her seem half confident. Seem. Half. Where she fell apart was in the issues that reveal her backward views. This isn't about a stupid person serving next to the president; it's about dangerous philosophies that would poison the Potomac.

Palin believes the role of the vice president is ambiguously suspended between the legislative and executive branches. This is the philosophy that allowed Dick Cheney to deflect accountability and oversight while breaking knees and biting ears for the President.

Palin wants to deny rights to same-sex marriages if it goes closer and closer towards redefining the traditional definition of marriage between one man and one woman. She promised that she is and would be nothing less than tolerant. But don't believe it. It's not tolerance that fights against changing a bigoted tradition saying unfortunately, that's sometimes where those steps lead. It is only intolerance that is unwilling because of tradition to take the step of granting every couple the right to choose marriage.

Palin told Katie Couric that she would find some examples of McCain pushing for more regulation. Joe Biden gave her an opportunity to show the fruits of her research. And her response?

Palin: I'm still on the tax thing because I want to correct you on that again. And I want to let you know what I did as a mayor and as a governor. And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also.

I'm hoping the undecided voters have been waiting for an answer. I'm hoping they're demanding one. Because she gave none. Last night was an opportunity to go beyond mere personality. But from Palin we saw no policy revelation or delineation of steps for change. And if that camp can't come up with evidence that McCain will likely push for regulation then why the hell don't they come up with an argument that he shouldn't. That's his stance. That's the pedigree of his economic philosophy. And there are many many people out there who are still on board with that philosophy. The refusal to argue the point is both stubborn and weak. And it reveals not just their lack of resolve on an issue, but also the inability to formulate any argument that effectively contradicts Barack Obama's stated goals and the history he has of pushing for them. This is evidence enough that a vote for McCain is based not on any faith in his ability to manage the economy.

Vote for McCain -- Because you don't care about the middle class either.

So it's a foreign-policy/defense thing? McCain supported the surge. But what next? What standard to leave Iraq? His plan doesn't say how; it says when. So when? According to McCain it doesn't matter. He believes in the dignity of waiting.

Biden called for some specifics of a plan for Iraq, and all McCain has put in the chamber is a call for victory. He expects the voters to trust him when he says that waiting is necessary.

Well it's not. It's not necessary because we should not stay in Iraq just to prove that we can. Palin had nothing to add to this. She had nothing because They have nothing. And the most disturbing thing is that it seems to be a bragging point for her. No wait. The most disturbing thing is that these answers worked for some viewers.

I can understand that some voters have made up their minds and they're not listening for arguments. We're all guilty of that at times. And some voters argue on a platform of values that I don't share. If you believe homosexuality is a sin and you believe the constitution should define it as an aberration because of your reading of the bible, then I'll assume that you don't care much for distestablishmentarianism. You might take issue with my conjecture but at that point the argument changes and it's no longer about the candidates.

So getting back to them--

We don't know what the undecided voters are waiting to hear. It might be that they're not sure what the economy needs. They might be unclear on Iraq. Perhaps they have not yet resolved the competing stories. If they haven't seen the numbers they don't know how to judge the tax plans. If they haven't read the bill they don't know what to think of Obama's support of kindergarten sex-education. They might not know if the arguments are misleading or incomplete.

Ignorance is accepted. And it's easy to remedy. In the debate Palin showed some rhetorical dexterity. But she did so by encouraging ignorance by flaunting her necessary incuriosity. I hope that undecided voters are still monitoring the balance because of their refusal to settle on that same ignorance.

Is McCain Nuts, or Just a little Testy?

Speaking with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register John McCain was asked about his health care coverage. The board asked if it is true that for his entire adult life McCain has been covered at the expense of the taxpayers. McCain's response:

Uh—I was out of the military for a while before I—I went to Congress. But—uh—you know that's an interesting statement isn't it? Um—so—and I have never—um—been an astronaut, but I think I know the challenges of space, And I've never uh done a lot of things in my life that I think I am familiar with.

So because he knows the challenges of space his health care philosophy is solid? That's a bigger reach than across the Bering Strait. Wait—no. I get it. It's that he understands stuff. Even as an outsider. Yeah. Yeah. We feel ya John. You's like familia.

And lest McCain forget to push for the you-all-owe-me vote he ended his response with a track from his first album:

I did go a period of time where the health care wasn't very good.

Then he winked. 'Cause he's good people.

Maybe If He Had Won Miss Congeniality...

Maverick. Free thinker. Sheriff. Straight talker.

All of John McCain's bragging points are liabilities. The Maverick label now means reckless -- after his VP choice, his suspension of the campaign, his snubbing of Letterman...

The Free thinker won't listen. Even to reason. He isn't gonna get bullied into committing to such risky ideas as an aggressive approach to terrorism in Pakistan. He wouldn't dare commit to a meeting with a rogue state like Spain. Those are Your ideas and not His. He's free. Why do you want to chain him down? Please let him run free!

The Sheriff -- well he's more like Deputy Fife. Maybe all those years of being hated in Washington just aren't going to serve him as well as he'd like us to think. A good sheriff may not be your buddy but he is respected and he has at least some influence.

The Straight talker -- Like anyone believes that anymore.

Oldies but... well just oldies

Poor McCain -- he thinks everyone's memory is as bad as his. Surely he must realize that every time he complains about $3 million for the papa bear study, someone mentions Palin's $3.2 million humping harbor seal project -- right? And he has used that paternal/criminal line so many times that he's even forgotten it's supposed to be funny. This one has to be one of the worst deliveries of a joke I've ever seen. He's scolding us even before he's done with the punchline.

They're probably taking bets in Obama's camp -- how far will McCain and Obama get into their next debate before the old guy shakes his finger and screeches out 'Why yoooou little whippersnapper!'

What happens in a pizza place...

Forget about the opposed stances on a single ticket. Forget about the reason for McCain's surprising policy of tactful and delicate diplomacy. Those aren't new issues.

But this is a whole new scary:

Couric: Are you sorry you said it governor?

McCain: Wait a minute. Before you say is she sorry she said it: This was a gotcha soundbite that well >>she was in a conversation … no she was in-

Couric: >>It wasn't a gotcha. She was talking to a voter.<<

McCain: -a conversation with a group of people and talking back and forth and I … I … I'll let governor >>Palin speak for herself.<<

Palin: >>Well and in fact<< you're absolutely right on in the context. This was a … a voter … constituents hollering out a question from across an area asking 'What are you gonna do about Pakistan? You better have an answer to Pakistan' I said 'We're gonna do what we have to do to protect the United States of America.'

So it was a gotcha soundbite because it was at a pizza place? Because she was in a conversation? Because a voter dared to ask her a question when she didn't have a teleprompter? Because we can't expect a vice presidential candidate to be able to effectively deal with the horrors of being pressed for an answer? So we shouldn't pay any attention to anything she says when she's asked a question?

In this interview they go through three defenses that cancel each other out:
1) We don't believe in saying these things out loud.
2) She said it because she was tricked by being asked a question.
3) All she said was the truth -- that we'll do what's necessary.

Palin adds:

Never would our administration get out there and show our cards to terrorists in this case to enemy and let them know what the game plan was.

Well of course you don't. Not with such a weak pair.

The McCain Mutiny

We can argue about John McCain's motivation for bailing on his campaign and trying to wriggle out of the debate. But no matter what his reasons, there's an implication he's making: neither the debate nor his attempts to elucidate his philosophy are important. They can easily be put aside so that he can take part in a discussion with his fellow congressmen.

If McCain doesn't have the energy to add a debate to his duties as a campaigning senator what sort of energy is he going to have when that phone rings at 2am? (Yeah--Sometimes they call an hour early.)

McCain apparently believes that debating the opposition and clarifying his position is only worth doing to get votes. He doesn't get it. The debate and the campaign are how we keep him accountable. He owes it to the voters to give them the information that this representative government requires as part of its process.

If McCain believes that a debate is only a distraction then I'm not sure his view of democracy is the same as mine.