10/8/08

McCain hates Obama

We've seen it before.  Hillary (and Bill) Clinton's rage and disbelief over Barack Obama's candidacy did them no favors in the primaries.  Rule Number 1 is "don't underestimate your opponent," and the Clintons were a textbook example.  You need to hate your opponent in any contest (e.g., sports) in order to get motivated to beat them, but it has to be that right mixture of hatred, fear, and contempt.  If one of those elements is out of whack, then there's trouble.

McCain seems to be falling into the trap of too much contempt.  "How can this young'un be on the same stage with me?  With me?" McCain seems almost to be asking himself.  And it comes out in various ways.  Byron York has the rundown on it today.  McCain was trying to be funny in his "that one" comment in the debate.  McCain really doesn't have that good of a sense of humor.  His contempt for Obama seeped out a little there.  After the debate he *looked* like he didn't want to shake Obama's hand.  So what if he had already?  He looked like he didn't on TV.  A Freudian slip, in view of all the voters.  

This really was the only interesting thing in a boring debate.  Obama's line in these debates has been "He's misrepresenting my positions."  McCain's contempt seems to validate this to people.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was one of the great undecided. I was seriously considering voting for McCain. However, the recent weeks of ranting about Ayers when the economy is melting down and adding that ignorant, useless, clueless idiot Palin to the ticket cemented my choice. I am voting "NO ON McCAIN" as much as I am voting yes on Obama. Hear that John? I don't care about your nastiness and hyperbole, I want to know who is going to lead this country out of the Bush morass!

Anonymous said...

The End of American Capitalism?
Sounds pretty dramatic but that is the headline of a story on the front page of the Washington Post today. Maybe a bit exaggerated, but that the subject even comes up is amazing. None of the candidates are passing out the collected works of Marx and Lenin yet, but the next President is in for what candidates love to call (but hate to make) "tough decisions." It is far more likely that the scary phone call will come at 3 P.M. rather than 3 A.M. and will have to do with which other industries have to be nationalized to save them from going belly up.

For example, General Motors stock was off 31% to $4.76 a share yesterday. The Bush administration has turned the budget surpluses inherited from Bill Clinton into massive deficits financed by borrowing money from foreigners, especially in Asia. This means that Asian countries, especially China, own hundreds of billions of dollars worth of treasury bills. Now suppose the Chinese government decides it wants to get into the car manufacturing business so it makes a deal with Toyota, now the world's largest car manufacturer, to buy GM outright for a song and move its factories to China to be operated by Toyota but employing Chinese workers. All they keep is the U.S. dealer network and millions of American jobs are lost. If the next President nixes the purchase of GM, the Chinese sell their treasury bills and the dollar collapses. This is not science fiction any more. Which candidate is better prepared to deal with stuff like this could determine the election.

(From the Poll Nerd at electoral-vote.com)

Anonymous said...

Here is an interesting idea for an Obama campaign ad I wrote:

http://www.newfunny.com/archive/?sid=209

The Schedule

  • Aug. 11, 2007 Iowa Straw Poll
  • Jan. 3, Iowa Caucuses
  • Jan. 5, Wyoming (R)
  • Jan. 8, New Hampshire
  • Jan. 15, Michigan
  • Jan. 19, Nevada, South Carolina (R)
  • Jan. 26, South Carolina (D)
  • Jan. 29, Florida
  • Feb. 1, Maine (R)
  • Feb. 5, SUPER DUPER TUESDAY, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado (D), Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho (D), Illinois, Kansas (D), Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico (D), New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia (R)
  • Feb. 9, Kansas (R), Louisiana, Washington, Nebraska (D)
  • Feb. 10, Maine (D)
  • Feb. 12, DC (R), Maryland and Virginia
  • Feb. 19, Hawaii (D), Washington (R), Wisconsin
  • Mar. 4, Massachusetts, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont
  • Mar. 8, Wyoming (D)
  • Mar. 11, Mississippi
  • Mar. 18, Colorado (R)
  • Apr. 22, Pennsylvania
  • May 6, Indiana, North Carolina
  • May 13, Nebraska (R), West Virginia (D)
  • May 20, Kentucky, Oregon
  • May 27, Idaho (R)
  • Jun. 3, Montana, New Mexico (R), South Dakota
  • Aug. 25-28, Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO
  • Sept. 1-4, Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
  • Sep. 26, First debate at the University of Mississippi
  • Oct. 2, VP Debate at Washington University in St. Louis
  • Oct. 7, Second Debate at Belmont University in Nashville
  • Oct. 15, Third Debate at Hofstra University in NY

Election Day Countdown:

Polls