2008 U.S. Presidential Election Political Discussion Thread

[skdadl]

Remember that funny line of Palin's, when Couric asked her about her claim that proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience: "... when Putin rears his head ..."?

Well, Putin has reared his head.   :mrgreen:

 

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Gazprom offered to help Alaska develop its natural resources, as Russia's largest energy producer seeks to expand into the U.S. amid the worst chill in relations since the Cold War.

State-run Gazprom sent eight senior executives to Anchorage for talks yesterday with Alaska's Department of Natural Resources and ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulva, state and company officials said.

Gazprom, which already supplies a quarter of Europe's natural gas, is seeking to increase its reach with projects around the world, including in North America. The courtship of Alaska comes three weeks before the U.S. presidential election, in which Russia's resurgence has become a campaign issue.

``The timing is as interesting as the visit itself,'' said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib Financial Corp. in Moscow.

[Debra]

[skdadl]

Slogan on Repub website: "Waterboard Obama."

[Debra]

:shock:

[skdadl]

Oh, I would like to stay up for the debate, but I am just too dozy. What people are watching for: Will either the moderator (Bob Schieffer) or McCain raise some of the cheap slander charges that have been levelled against Obama (the "palling around" with Bill Ayers, eg), and how will that be handled? But I can wait for tomorrow to find out.

[k'in]

Yep.  Just tuned in, but Obama named other members of the Board of Directors. pointing out that they were all Republicans.

McCain is devolving into snoozy wonk talk.  Obama is besting him.  I do like the format though.

[Berlynn]

Well, a dear friend called and I'd been trying to reach her so I opted for friendship over politics.  We see each other only 3 or 4 times a year as we live 4.5 hours apart.  

But I hafta know if I missed anything good in the debate...

[GDKitty]

But I hafta know if I missed anything good in the debate...

Tweet!

Not quite liveblogging. More like a play-by-play of moi, throwing crap at the teevee

& mattt, of course: Tweet! Tweet!

Overall? McCain looked pitiful most of the night, but got in a good dig, early on.  Obama was his usual calm & collected self, but that has its drawbacks, too. Placidity doesn't seem appropriate for this day'n'age, you know?  Plus, you must brace for usual 'merkin stuff about women consulting with their pastors before they have an abortion.  Both men are for "clean coal" and charter schools. Not exactly progressive stuff. IOW, same old shit.

[matttbastard]

But I hafta know if I missed anything good in the debate...

Tweet!

Not quite liveblogging. More like a play-by-play of moi, throwing crap at the teevee

& mattt, of course: Tweet! Tweet!

And NYU journo-prof Jay Rosen, although his tweet-stylez were a bit different:

My Twitter plan tonight: go offline during the debate, zone in on the screen. Turn off the pundits. Wait 20. Then Tweet ten composed points.

Rosen's post-debate points (will update once Rosen finishes tweeting):

- My debate reactions, point one. Schieffer is the John Madden of TV news. What he says always sounds like common sense, never sounds coastal.

-  Debate: point 2. McCain's "shadow" opponent was his own body. Not the age of it but the tells: the eye blinks, the smiles to keep rage down.

-  Point 3: After Gore and Kerry, it became an accepted maxim in politics that you must hit back hard or lose. But this maxim has itself lost. ... "Must hit back" is dying because Obama is winning by staying cool: Auto hit back lets your rival and the news cycle control you.

-  Point 5. [sic] McCain doesn't get that he has stylistic "ties" to Bush, accented by his performance. One is the cult of toughness. He pours it on.

-  When Stewart went on Crossfire and blew it up he knew that in a TV triangle--three people in chairs--the guy that viewers ID with can shift. ...  And so in my rolling debate reax, point 6 is that Obama had more moments where he knew what Stewart knew. http://is.gd/49Ub  

-  Point 7. Schieffer: best of four. But he had the best set-up, rules and three debates to study, so his turn should be best. Broke no ground.

-  No. 8 I bet many people can sense in McCain's performance an emotional intelligence that is missing, much magnified in side-by-sides on CNN.

- ETA  9. Some things can be faked-having "specifics," for example-but others cannot. Debate TV is an x-ray for them. Comfort with self is one.

- ETA  Third Debate, point 10. Obama said nothing about Palin when asked to compare running mates. He just cleared space for viewers to fill in.

[matttbastard]

Roger Simon:

The biggest impact of the three presidential debates for Obama was not anything said or not said. It was impressionistic: Obama simply did not appear to be the scary “other” that McCain needs him to be. “When people suggest that I pal around with terrorists, then we are not talking about issues,” Obama said smoothly.

For McCain, the biggest impact of the debates was visual: In the first debate he refused to look at Obama, in the second debate McCain appeared to careen around the stage and in this last debate McCain would scribble furiously with his Sharpie as Obama was talking or else smirk in response to what Obama was saying.

[GDKitty]

I forgot to mention the CanCon in McCain's remarks, tonight:

A. Canadian oil is ok!  (rel. to Venezuela, for e.g.) I'm paraphrasing, but basically McCain said that if Obama continues to talk shit about NAFTA, then Canada will sell its oil to America's competitors, like China.

B. Canada is teh suck!  Or at least our health-care system is.  Para: "If you like [single payer] you'll love Canada and England."  

Other weirdness: McCain blurted something about curing autism and, I swear to Gord, complained about 'Cadillac' health insurance plans that cover transplants. Those frivolous, frivolous transplants.

Obama annoyances: again with the 'parents need to turn off the teevee and put away the videogames.'  Also, I think some diet rootbeer went up my nose when he began his response to the abortion question with, 'we have to teach our kids that sexuality is sacred.'

[matttbastard]

Other weirdness: McCain blurted something about curing autism and, I swear to Gord, complained about 'Cadillac' health insurance plans that cover transplants. Those frivolous, frivolous transplants.

Gold-plated Cadillac health insurance plans that cover transplants (and cosmetic surgery).

Oh, teh frivolity!

[skdadl]

Thanks for the comments, guys, and for your tweets, which I'm catching up with.

The YouTube of the full catastrophe is here. I haven't watched the whole thing yet -- need breaks.

[skdadl]

For anyone who watched:

Breaking: McCain to dump Palin, name Joe the Plumber as VP

[brebis noire]

McCain looked very pained while trying to defend Palin. She's also a bresh of freth air. Trying not to think about his running mate having breasts, maybe? Anyhoo, she's very...somethingsomething -? - can't remember what adjective he used but when he said it he smiled like he was thinking about his 3-yr-old granddaughter; she's a reformer and her husband Todd is a tough guy too. wtf??

Also, he rolled his eyes and got that reflux look when Obama mentioned labourers in Columbia sitting around the table just trying to get a fair deal.

I could not follow most of McCain's scattershot attacks - he was pulling out the dogwhistles all the time. Mentioned something about T-shirts worn by Obama supporters, I have no idea what he was referring to.