So, sue me. I’m fascinated with Sarah Palin. The idea of her intrigues me in a jaw-dropping, can’t-believe-what-I’m-hearing, stun-me-again way.
As the Vanity Fair article and the resignation announcement played out and the critics weighed in, I let it all wash over me (OK, OK, I sought it out). Commentary on her debate prep was the stuff my imagination is made of. I can picture the grueling sessions now, with the aid of Todd Purdum’s nice descriptive gifts. Then up pops Mark McKinnon on the tube. He supported Obama, so he coached Palin on style points but not on policy.
So I construct this even more vivid picture of desperate, futile coaching and it feels like something I’ve seen before but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Then, finally, just now it hit me. She’s Lina Lamont, in Singin’ in the Rain, who will not achieve round tones in this lifetime, or at least not within a reasonable enough period of time to endure further coaching.
As Purdum describes in the article, the campaign team members “worked their tails off to try to elect as vice president of the United States someone who, by mid-October, they believed for certain was nowhere near ready for the job, and might never be.”
The “might never be” part is what spooked Lina’s handlers in the movie. Having little time to bring out the Dancing Cavalier as a talkie with Lina’s annoying voice, they bailed on the voice, dubbing in the competent speaking and singing voice of the Debbie Reynolds character.
I was struck by a remark on Chris Matthews’s syndicated show yesterday. Katty Kay, a Brit reporting on U.S. politics for the BBC, talked about the positive world opinion of Barack Obama and how his background and understanding of other cultures is viewed as such a welcome break from recent history. It made me feel warm and proud of what we did in electing this guy.
Then I tried to put myself in the shoes and mindset of a typical Fox News watcher listening to the comment and realized that this big-picture way of operating and thinking breeds suspicion and fear among that set. I imagine they’ve been conditioned to reason that if foreigners think it’s a good thing, Americans need to be wary. Isn’t that a rotten shame? God forbid we should look at things from anybody else’s point of view.
The good news is that reason defeated the narrowminded crowd this time; about time. Can the factions get closer on this score? I’m not sure. I mean, it’s not a thing you can compromise about—either you operate in a spirit of being open to possibilities or you don’t. Would we wish for this smart cool new president to meet the closedminded halfway? Maybe the best we can wish for is that, in a new political climate, rigid neo-con views gradually will be viewed by moderates as out of touch and old-fashioned.
I think that’s already happening. When you hear GOP leadership hopefuls talk in generalities about the future, it’s all about opening up, not about closing ranks. What I hear between the lines is “Not what Sarah Palin represents—if your only solid base is the white south, that’s not enough to be a national party.”
As you might know, I’ve been obsessed with widgetmaking. The inauguration countdown widget that I put in the wild back in December 2007—when the idea of tomorrow’s transfer of power to Obama was wishful thinking—has been converted to a countup widget celebrating a new day. I love seeing it displayed with pride on African-American social networks and on blogs like Sicily Scene written by a woman from Wales living in Sicily.
Hey world, we’ve returned to the international community. It feels good to be back. Want to grab a cup of coffee?
I can’t wait to dig into Newsweek’s special, deliciously long election project, Secrets of the 2008 Campaign. Three of the seven chapters have been posted to the Newsweek website so far.
They’ve saved up all the gossipy behind-the-scenes stories they had promised not to reveal until after the election. NewsGang Live junkies should savor this tidbit about discussions around choosing Hillary as VP. @stevegillmor was always convinced that Obama’s staff bore a grudge, that it colored their advice, but that Obama himself might not have been so set against the pick. I always agreed.
Obama was never inclined to choose Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate, not so much because she had been his sometime bitter rival on the campaign trail, but because of her husband. Still, as Hillary’s name came up in veep discussions, and Obama’s advisers gave all the reasons why she should be kept off the ticket, Obama would stop and ask, “Are we sure?” He needed to be convinced one more time that the Clintons would do more harm than good. McCain, on the other hand, was relieved to face Sen. Joe Biden as the veep choice, and not Hillary Clinton, whom the McCain camp had truly feared.
This is one of those once-every-several-weeks occasions when I’m moved to print out a long article so I can cuddle up with it and relish it. I keep thinking I should play around with an alternate CSS stylesheet that makes the presentation of things like this more book-like.
Separately from the Newsweek roundup, it comes out that Sarah Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent. She thought it was a country. I don’t know about you, but I’m not done with her. I say pile on the ridicule if it helps keep that horrid woman off the national stage. I’m totally in Steve’s camp on that score, too.
Newsweek’s piece is supposed to cover the uptick in threats against Obama in September and early October when she was busiest “energizing” her base with the associations game. That person, for all her Christian professions, has an ugly ugly soul. I’ve never seen any other politician bask in boos the way others soak up cheers.
You can make your own predictions on the NPR site. It would have been nice if you could save your map, and if they somehow could have integrated the predictions with the reality.
After thinking about heading downtown, I’ve decided to stay in for the evening and watch TV and the swarm—trading being there for knowing what’s happening, and watching the finale in the same way I’ve watched the whole process.
All day I kept trying to remind myself that I might regret not going, that being in Grant Park might give me a memory like being at the band shell in Central Park in December 1980 for John Lennon’s memorial. I’ve always been glad I didn’t give into the urge to blow off attending it because the crowd would be a hassle. I suppose it might boil down to getting old.
Howard Fineman of Newsweek tells about participating in both campaigns’ conference calls today. He said his head was spinning by the end of the second one. I’ve been there, in business. It’s exhausting to take it all in on the phone when you’re missing key sensory input, hard to think quickly for hours on end, trying to be smart and persuasive and spontaneous, but all the while keeping your guard up.
This observation reminded me of business marketing, too:
By contrast, the McCainanites are talking less about the Electoral College map or voter groups than they are about the total number of calls and contacts they have made, and the historical trends that would suggest that they are not as out of the ballgame as it might seem.
Isn’t that funny? It’s exactly the kind of thing business unit managers or sales managers say when they’re not making their numbers, so to compensate in review meetings they very! enthusiastically! relate how many great! meetings they’re having and how much interest! they’re seeing out there in the marketplace.
Doesn’t it look suspenseful? Just like the rest of this crazy election season. It’s going to make a great movie some day.
It’s the image in the Obama campaign’s e-mail urging previous donors to make another contribution before Sunday. Five contributors will be flown to Chicago for election night in Chicago, complete with front row seats, backstage pass, and hotel.
Hey, Senator McCain: I’ve given less than $200. There’s nothing sinister about me. Honest, officer. I’m one of your shadowy ”secret donors” but I don’t think you need to be afraid of me.
Waited about 50 minutes at my early polling place, the Naperville Municipal Center.
It’s one of 15 early polling sites in my county, Dupage in Illinois, a part of suburban Chicago. County population is about 900,000. A poll worker said they’ve seen about 10,000 early voters at just that location since Oct. 13.
The county is using Diebold machines. Each operates independently—not hooked up to any server. Storage cards will be removed on Nov. 4 at poll closing time for the state, and added to the election day totals. (I asked a lot of questions.)
I was worried about minor identity mismatches. I filled out an “application to vote,” a half sheet of paper required so there was something to sign since they don’t have the big rolls available during early voting. Not sure if my voter registration included my middle name, I asterisked the space where I printed my name and mentioned in a footnote that sometimes I omit the middle initial. Turns out I had registered to vote without including the initial, and it didn’t matter; they allowed me to scribble it out on the form, since the signature, photo and birthdate all checked out.
I don’t remember having to show ID when I’ve voted before. It must be something new. Also don’t recall ever seeing a “No cell phones” sign before.
I saw a lot of happy faces in line. It seemed odd for a public place full of strangers. I don’t think I’m projecting but their mood seemed to reflect my own—kind of an excited anticipatory feeling, the way you feel when you’re keeping a birthday surprise. Of course, there were some resentful faces in the crowd, and they were attached to bodies that tended to be older, sleeker and better-dressed. Draw your own conclusions.
The economy’s meltdown has been a ghastly godsend for Barack Obama’s campaign, and it doesn’t seem like a very good idea to change a subject that seems to be working. In the final days of the campaign, though, sometimes I wish we would hear a few more reminders about our occupation of Iraq, and about the kind of shoot-first commander-in-chief that John McCain would become.
Think Progress points to a Der Spiegel interview with Robert Kagan, the neocon McCain advisor who was a signatory to the 1998 letter (.pdf file) to Bill Clinton urging regime change in Iraq.
Matt Duss, the Think Progress writer, picks out the astonishing part of the interview with the German newspaper. In response to a question about the Bush administration’s dishonest rationalization for invading Iraq, Kagan says characterizing it in that way is “a silly conversation” and “absurd conspiracy theories.”
SPIEGEL: Isn’t it true that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld took advantage of the outrage over the 9/11 terrorist attacks to strike Iraq? Is it even possible anymore to deny that the war was based on manipulation, exaggeration and flat-out lies?
Kagan: That’s absurd.
SPIEGEL: It’s a commonly held view…
Kagan: The Bush administration’s intelligence on Iraq was the same as the Clinton administration’s, the German government’s and the French government’s before the war. We now know that Saddam wanted the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction—and the world did.
SPIEGEL: But, unlike Washington, both Paris and Berlin did not want to go to war without UN approval. And the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna asked the United States—unsuccessfully—for a few more months to complete its investigation in Iraq. But the US wanted this war for strategic reasons.
Kagan: In retrospect, we have to admit that Washington could have waited a while longer. That’s a different question. But I think it’s about time we moved beyond this silly conversation and these absurd conspiracy theories. There is a real debate as to whether we should have gone to war in Iraq. And now we should have an intelligent discussion about the new challenges we face in Iraq and elsewhere.
It’s so crazy and disrespectful to hear these guys continuing to pretend they didn’t have a clear aim in mind from day one and concocted a case to fit the aim. Most Americans and most of the world know that much of the justification for invasion was a fiction, and still they try to con us. They must think we’re idiots. When I see the word “neocon” it’s the con part that rankles.
Also check out ThinkProgress’s McCain war cabinet. You want more neocon foreign policy? McCain’s your guy.
Obama talks mostly about more of the same George Bush economic policy. I can’t think I’m alone in being even more frightened by more of the same George Bush foreign policy.
“I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle class Americans who most need tax relief.”
— John McCain‘s May 26, 2001 statement on the Senate floor.
The St. Petersburg Times/Congressional Quarterly’s Politifact.com site gives the position modification a “full flop.” I wonder if he regrets selling out. I think he must by this time.
If you’re arguing with undecided voters about the socialism charge leveled by the McCain campaign against Barack Obama’s tax proposal, give them a little historical perspective and explain it’s a tiny tweak—not the huge deal McCain seeks to make of it.
Obama proposes to raise the top marginal rate to 39%—up from 35%. Note that the top rate hovered around the 90% mark all during the 1960s and stayed up in the 70% range throughout the 1970s.
The McCain campaign can try to make spreading the wealth into a mountain of an issue, but it’s not. It’s a small change. It won’t threaten the fabric of democracy.
Ask your disputants to enter their income into Obama’s tax calculator. See how they’ll be affected.
The Obama campaign should have made the calculator into an embeddable widget. I’ll take a look at it tonight and see if I can pluck it out.
My inauguration countdown widget continues to be a relative hit by my modest standards, getting 300,000 views so far this month. It seems like a very long time since I made it over the Christmas holidays last year. It has been fun to see it show up on other people’s blogs. Since the widget is available as a Google gadget, it’s been especially well patronized by Blogger bloggers.
Whatever will we talk about and think about when this is all over next week? Maybe some of us will stay involved and channel our interest into making things better and more just.
