Barack Obama roasts himself, John McCain, DC politicians, and, again, John McCain. Pretty awesome stuff.
Shorter David Brooks
MoDo and Gail “Lil’ MoDo” Collins told me about this thing called pop psychology in which columnists with no backing in psychoanalysis nor psychotherapy pretend to know what’s inside the minds of politicians. Turns out they’re onto something.
I Never Told You What I Do For A Living
Nancy Scola of techPresident writes about the SEIU New Media team that I’m a proud member of.
Labor Online: The SEIU HQ down in DC has been busy putting together something of a web all-star team. First the Dodd campaign’s Tim Tagaris donned the purple, and now Matt Browner-Hamlin (Dodd campaign, the Senate run of Ted Stevens’ opponent in Alaska), Michael Whitney (American Rights at Work, Generation Dean), and Joaquin Guerra (Bill Richardson’s campaign) joined up. Having such a strong web shop seems to be paying dividends, at least in the blogosphere. The team has just a new campaign called “Bush and McCain: Where’s The Difference?” and put more than a hundred thousand dollars behind it in ad buys through both BlogAds and Common Sense Media. You’ll find the ads popping up on blogs today; for example, I just spotted it as an in-line ad over on MyDD.
Left off from their list of new rock-star like additions to the SEIU New Media team is Michael Link, formerly of the DNC, and Erik Moe, who worked with Tagaris and I on the Dodd campaign. Stay tuned for more good things from our team.
What D-Day Said
D-Day, posting at Hullabaloo, writes about John McCain’s flailing answer in the debate on Ayers, ACORN, and hate speech at his campaign rallies:
John McCain is a terrible candidate and that is the perfect example. But even if he was a stellar, superior candidate, I just don’t think it would matter. People have rendered their verdict on conservatism.
“Health of the Mother”
I don’t have a lot to say about the final presidential debate, other than I’m glad we don’t have to sit through any more. Obama was great in all of his debates and while not every answer was what I wanted to hear as a progressive movementarian, he undoubtedly connected to voters by a far greater margin than did McCain.
What really stood out for me last night was the discussion of abortion. Both men and women were through the roof while Obama was speaking about abortion in CNN’s Ohio debate dial poll. It was remarkable. They ate it up. Then McCain rewound the tape 8-16 years and tried to culture war up some votes:
“Health of the mother” in air quotes? I hope that no woman in America will be able to look at John McCain today with anything other than the same disdain that he shows for you.
McCain was a disaster. His ideas are wrong. His policies are unpopular. He is a brash, angry, codger with an entitlement problem. And he’s about to suffer the biggest loss in Republican Party presidential history in nearly 50 years.
Sarah Palin Pony
| Is your opinion of Sarah Palin favorable, not favorable, undecided, or haven’t you heard enough about Sarah Palin yet to have an opinion? |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion | Favorable | Not Fav | Undecided |
| 10/3-5/08* CBS | 40 | 32 | 12 |
| 10/10-13/08* (PDF) | 32 | 41 | 16 |
An Obama Economy
Ian Welsh has a must-read post for anyone following the economic crisis and wondering how Barack Obama might respond as President. Welsh is concerned that Obama will deploy neo-liberal and not liberal policies on the economy. I think that while Obama may not be pushing for liberal policies now, the economy would be one area where an evolution to the left is most likely. If Ian’s pessimism bears out, then the economy will get worse, necessitating a shift in economic policy towards a liberal agenda. Obama might not be there right off the bat, but I find it hard to believe he’d be incapable of shifting in the face of the evidence.
Rearing Heads in Alaska
Apparently while Sarah Palin has been running around the country, Russian energy giant Gazprom has, um, reared its head in Alaska.
MOSCOW, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom said on Tuesday its top executives had visited U.S. state Alaska, where the gas company is seeking a share in a project to pipe gas via Canada to the United States market.
The world’s largest gas producer discussed gas production, transport and supply to Alaska — which shares a border to its east with Canada and a sea border with Russia to its west — with the region’s officials and the CEO of ConocoPhillips, Jim Mulva, Gazprom said in a statement.
On a substantive level, the TransCanada pipeline is Palin’s pet project. Her not being around to add the other Alaskan neighbor to the taxpayer funded pipeline construction is meaningful. I’ll be curious to see if Palin has authorized her subordinates in the executive branch of the State of Alaska to negotiate a place for Gazprom in the gas line deal. If she did, I can’t imagine Alaskans being too pleased about it. Nor can I see it helping with her whole head-rearing theories of foreign policy.
What surely would not be meaningful is any further Palin analysis of Russian foreign policy and how she keeps a watchful eye on her neighbors to the West…except when, you know, she’s not.
Strange Patriotism
Josh Schrei has a very thoughtful post up that aims to blow up the flawed perception that Republican views are normative for defining patriotism, while Democratic views are somehow unpatriotic. Based in large part on Josh’s time working on the NASCAR circuit and experiencing these memes first-hand in debates with people across the country, he identifies several of the central falsehoods that underly the “Republicans are more patriotic” narrative. It’s a long post worthy of repeated readings, but here are the bullet points that Schrei takes down:
1. Wanting smaller government = being more patriotic
2. Rekindling the rebelliousness of the confederacy = being more patriotic
3. Questioning your nation’s foreign policy = being less patriotic
4. Being an intellectual = being less patriotic
These are insidious, pervasive narratives that underlie the key to much of the contemporary Republican Party’s argument to voters. Needless to say, Schrei’s rebuttals are powerful and accurate. Rather than quote them here, I hope you will just go read the original post.
Backlash? We Haven’t Even Begun to Lash Yet
David Brooks has used today’s column to fast-forward through the coming re-regulation of the economy and much-needed growth of key domestic initiatives and social support systems that will drive us back to economic health, and ushered in what Brooks sees as a coming conservative political swing that will throw Obama and Democrats out of power.
It’s pretty remarkable that with weeks left in the presidential election and nearly 100 days left in the Bush presidency, Brooks is able to write a column, presumably with a straight face, predicting a conservative backlash to Democratic spending that hasn’t happened yet. It reminds me of the opening wedding scene in Spaceballs, where Bill Keller is the Minister, Princess Vespa is David Brooks, Barack Obama is King Roland, and I’m Dot.
MINISTER Dearly beloved, we are gathered here on this most joyous occasion, to witness Princess Vespa, daughter of King Roland….
VESPA starts running toward the door, while Dot is dragging behind.
MINISTER ….going right past the alter, heading down the ramp, and out the door.
ROLAND Stop her! Someone, stop her! Stop her!
EXT. CHAPEL – DAY VESPA and DOT come out of the chapel. They head for the getaway car.
DOT Hey wait! You forgot to get married. Will you stop?
My guess is Brooks won’t stop and we’re in line for 4-8 years of Brooks predicting an imminent backlash.
Hold Fast 