no (0.00 / 0)

Can we stop giving Obama advice to be more negative already? With his commanding lead in the polls, high favoribility rating among the voters, and decisive wins in the debates it's pretty clear his campaign is making the right judgments about what tone the electorate wants to hear. McCain is trying to run a harshly negative campaign and the result is he is losing the debates and the election badly. This is not 2004 or 2000 where more combative campaigns might have swung the state or two needed to win. Get over it already.

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by: redwards95 @ Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 11:25:34 AM CDT

Even More Issues (0.00 / 0)

1.  McCain, for the first half of the debate was very tight and mustering up some self confidence.  His voice had a nervous vibrato.  Together, it betrayed someone who knows he is really doing badly and would like out of the Faustian bargain he made with the Republican party.

2.  He fumbled and fumfered more than usual.  The copious use of, "My friends" was a way for him to collect his thoughts.

3.  "That one" was a throwback to Perot's iconic, "You people" which turned Perot into the joke that he is.  The line appears scripted, who's going to be thrown under the bus this time.  BTW hasn't McCain's ads been referring to Obama as "The one?"

4.  After spending 5 days attacking Obama there was nary a reference to them which points out how shallow the shameless attacks are.  I wonder if Obama would have parried with the Ayers Annenberg connection?  Again it exposes who McCain really is.

5.  The dial/focus lines on CNN told everything you need to know.  Response to McCain was mostly flatline, like his campaign.

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by: steve katz @ Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 11:41:57 AM CDT

Frustrating. (4.00 / 3)

It would be much more satisfying to people like me and most who hang around here if Obama was more aggressive -- in fact if he went into all-out slash and burn. I want him to breathe fire and make McCain and Bush and the whole gang of crooks, liars, and incompetents shrivel into lumps of jelly under the power of his wrath.

Too bad that't not the way it would go.

The reality is that Obama is consistently coming off as the trustworthy grownup in contrast to McCain as the childish old pol who oversells at every turn and only ends up looking shifty and desperate. Obama is dealing with the GOP's most aggressive attempts to smear him with subtle racial innuendo -- that he's an unknown quantity, a rock-throwing radical, a mysterious stranger -- by behaving consistently in a manner that makes such charges patently ridiculous. Which is vastly more effective than talking about them. Obama has taken a difficult initial condition and brilliantly turned it into a plus. He doesn't need lessons from us (and I've offered many).

If there is a weakness, it is the failure of the rest of the party as well as the left, to go where Obama can't. But at this point, as far as election results go, it probably doesn't much matter.

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by: DaveW @ Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 11:45:00 AM CDT

great point: (0.00 / 0)

"If there is a weakness, it is the failure of the rest of the party as well as the left, to go where Obama can't. But at this point, as far as election results go, it probably doesn't much matter."

I don't know how much it matters either, but that would really make me happy to see the rest of the party (especially the Clintons, but all the leadership, big Governors, etc) get vicious while Obama steers the ship in.

But hasn't that always been the problem with Democrats: lack of discipline, lack of coordinated movement for the greater (Dem) good?

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by: James C @ Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 11:50:35 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

".....but I'm sure McCain is up to the challenge." (0.00 / 0)

Great sentence, really made me laugh. Thank you.

Indeed, my optimism of a few months back appears to have been well-founded. I just kept thinking that as soon as the two of them stood together on stage, it would be over.

Obviously, there's always been the chance that Obama would choke....but look at the primaries: he only got stronger as the debates progressed. Was there really a chance he'd choke in the debates? Not so much.

That leaves the possibility that McCain would just rock. But, as it turns out, he's a crotchety old guy running on a bankrupt and discredited platform, and he's lettin' it all hang out, for everyone to see. And McCain is simply incapable of hiding his sense of entitlement, his belief that it's his fkn right to be president (he's put his time in, he's waited out Bush, he's sacrificed, it's his last chance, etc...), and that just does not look very attractive if you're already prone temper tantrums and you look like you're a 72 yr old multiple bouts of cancer and torture survivor. He's seething as Obama strengthens his lead, and it doesn't make him look competitive, decisive, in control, or like a leader....he looks unhinged.

Anyhow....phew. Both sides have lived up to their expectations, and I couldn't be happier. I would like to see Obama driving the debate a bit more, but I actually think he's done a good job of keeping the attack on McCain and the economy and being erratic. He's forcing McCain to try the character trashing tactic, and after 8 years of the Bush disaster and the current economic turmoil, that's simply a losing strategy. I mean, who's talking about Corsi? Who's talking about swiftboating. There just doesn't seem to be public appetite for this, and the more Obama sticks to the economy the better.

Barring a serious racism bounce and widespread voter fraud (both of which I take to be real threats), I just don't see how Obama can lose this (but, given those two things, I'm still knocking on wood). There is no misstep big enough or smear effective enough to stop him.

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by: James C @ Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 11:45:14 AM CDT

Magical Max (Billy Crystal) from The Princess Bride (0.00 / 0)

That was the analogy that came to mind. The resemblance between him and McCain is uncanny.

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by: ChrisKromm @ Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 11:57:07 AM CDT

A Step Behind (0.00 / 0)

The funny thing about watching McCain flail away is that his tactics aren't worthless in and of themselves, but the timing is way off.  Ayers and Wright might have worked during the "celebrity" attacks, but not now.

More importantly, if McCain had introduced mortgage relief for homeowners while rejecting the Paulson plan outright when it was introduced, we might be looking at a different race right now.  

For someone whose built his reputation as a tough guy with an unerring sense of moral rectitude, McCain looks squeamish, petulant, and insecure.  The jelly his campaign is trying to pin to the wall is in fact the candidate himself.  

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by: wobbly @ Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 12:09:27 PM CDT

Obama's passivity (0.00 / 0)

Will Obama's lack of aggression cost him the election?  Of course not.  Barring the unexpected emergence of an Obama love child, McCain will lose this election badly.

But that doesn't mean that Obama's passivity isn't irritating as hell and doesn't detract from the enthusiasm of his supporters.

Like many politicians, Obama appears to lack a real understanding of what it means to be a political "representative".  It is more than just being the guy that we designate to make decisions and develop policies. It means that you literally represent us...me!

When McCain or Palin or their supporters attack Obama they are attacking me.  And guess what?  I don't take kindly to being attacked.  I want my representatives to stand up for themselves...and, by extension, stand up for me.  The failure to do so pisses me off...even if you cruise to electoral victory.

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by: space @ Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 12:32:05 PM CDT

out-of-touch: it's sinking in (0.00 / 0)

In good times, everyone can yearn for a "hero" president who will make them feel big, or a "nice guy" president who will make them feel like they'd be welcome at the White House.

But right now, I think the economic shock is focusing the public's attention on the need for a "real" president who actually understands the problems and is ready to do something about them.

Today three people have forwarded me this video which I already forwarded myself -- and I think it's spreading because it captures a mood that is growing fast.  

Why this works: it's funny, it's angry, it reminds everyone that John McCain (and the whole class of wealthy investors that he protects and answers to) are completely out of touch with the rest of us.  This should be one of the memes that seals the deal on this election.

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by: maxpenny @ Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 13:39:11 PM CDT

Gurumpy Old Men meets Weekend at Bernie's (0.00 / 0)

The only problem is that Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau are dead

But we know where they're buried, right? I'd already been thinking of McCain's campaign as a political "Weekend at Bernie's," but the problem was it was too formulaic. Casting dead Lemmon and dead Mathau alongside comatose McCain would make it a dead guy buddy film! Box office GOLD, baby!!!

We could cast Reese Witherspoon as Sarah Palin to rope in the "Legally Blonde" franchise, too. Call my agent!!

!!!!!!!

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by: FearItself @ Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 17:00:02 PM CDT

Other Cast Members (0.00 / 0)

McCain can get Fred Thompson and John Ashcroft to join him in the cast. Both have experience as performers and the personality clashes would be both heartwarming and profound. The story could be a road trip, driving through the wasteland left by the Bush presidency and scaring the crap out of average Americans with their terrifying opinions about the way the world should be. Thompson can get really drunk, Ashcroft can anoit everyone with oil, and McCain can be the straight laced veteran whose vague unease with the situation is only redeemed by ofsetting jokes and spells of dementia. Maybe the premise would be that all their wives threw them out and they are going to stay at McCain's place on the west coast.

You know, while it's a sad story, that actually sounds like a good movie.

M

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by: techsoldaten @ Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 22:32:17 PM CDT

Vice presidential coda (0.00 / 0)

The right can take at least take solace in Sarah's improvement over Twiggy Coulter in the hotness metrics. (Oh crap, this was supposed to be a Wonkette post...)

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by: redstatepinko @ Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 23:18:47 PM CDT