13 Comments

• 1. bjd  |  September 12th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

  What are the odds that he’ll get anywhere NEAR the obamessiah?

  Maybe Howie should do a remote and cover it live.

• 2. Celtic Frost  |  September 12th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

  Yawn.

  The right-wing nuts are at it again… seeing boogermen in the media. Funny, given how the media were in the satchel for McCain until the O Man came along. What goes around, comes around.

• 3. Cap'n Spackle  |  September 12th, 2008 at 3:29 pm

  C-Fraud, quit kidding yourself. The MSM only liked McCain when he was at odds with Bush.

• 4. Mr. Pragmatic  |  September 12th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

  And the real kicker is that there has been more talk about the mistreatment of Gov. Palin than there has been mistreatment of Gov. Palin. I’m a left of center moderate and for every one who looks for a reason to rip her, there’s another talking about how relatable and savvy she is.

  As I posted weeks ago, I believe the choice of Palin is one of politics over governance, but that reflects on McCain, not her. I don’t blame her one bit for taking the ball and running with it. She’s certainly shifted the paradigm of the election as McCain hoped she would. I disagree with her on most issues, which along with intellect, is what I base my choice on. I’m sorry that people’s attention have been taken off the real issues by pregnant daughters and troopergate, but that has been par for the course in American politics for some time and we have both parties to blame for that. If Obama had a pregnant daughter likely engaged at shotgun point to a man too young to buy himself a drink, and who likes to play hockey and kick a$$, the media would be eating that up voraciously and the Republican political machine would have buried him (they are so much better at campaigning than the Dems).

  While different MSM outlets have their biases, tabloids like Us Weekly are simply pro-scandal. Gov. Palin is far from the victim here and the journalists who bite on the red meat and go after her are playing into the Republican narrative. McCain and Palin are laughing their way to the White House.

  What should have been a clean democratic win on the issues will be a nail biter as the Republicans score again and again with misdirection and obfuscation. Obama is the smartest guy in the room, but he is not running the smartest campaign and he overestimates the electorate at his own peril.

• 5. NHradiofan  |  September 12th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

  Mr. Pragmatic,

  I agree with you that Obama is not running the smartest campaign. He has managed to take what once appeared to be an absolute slam-dunk Democrat victory and wrangled it into a tie.

  I think that Obama’s message of “Change We Can Believe In” has finally exhausted his supporters. If you think about it, he was granted almost God-like status as a new, post-racial candidate by his supporters. He caused them to swoon with vacuous statements about “change” but never forced them to connect with him below a superficial level. To borrow a tired cliche’, his support appears to be a mile wide but only an inch deep.

  Here is how I see the Obama Supporter mindset: “He is young. He is different. He speaks well. Supporting him makes us feel good about ourselves. Supporting him signals to the rest of the world that our country can’t be all THAT bad. Surely the rest of the world will like us better if we elect someone like him.”

  This “theme” has been Obama’s stock in trade since the beginning. Now he has found that empty platitudes are not enough to keep the campaign energized for the long haul. It gets the left-wing base and the college kids hyped up, but we all know that college kids NEVER turn out to vote in significant numbers. Ask Presidents George McGovern and Walter Mondale if you don’t believe me. The college support, in the long run, is fairly insignificant and the base of either party is not enough to win the election.

  Obama needed to connect, as all successful candidates have, with the great middle. Sarah Palin, for all of her youth and raw skills, has connected with the general population in a way Obama could only dream of. The reason is that Palin, unlike the Ivy League “smartest guy in the room” (to use your term), is living a life that most closely resembles that of the average American. Women see in her the embodiment of a successful working mom who is reaching for the very top and men see in her the kind of super-competent and family oriented partner they would want to be associated with in their own lives.

  Sarah Palin has beaten Obama at his own game. He seeks to inspire us to be a better nation via flimsy rhetoric while she lives out the ideal of the average American woman who has mastered both public and private life. The bottom line is, most Americans look in the mirror and see something resembling the Sarah Palin experience staring back at them.

  This is why I believe that not only will McCain-Palin win in November but their margin of victory will surprise everyone. Obama’s campaign will become a case study in how NOT to run for President. If that was not enough, now Joe Biden thinks Obama picked the wrong running mate. One thing is for sure: If McCain-Palin win in November, Obama becomes Mike Dukakis.

• 6. Chris  |  September 12th, 2008 at 6:17 pm

  If you put lipstick on a community street activist, he’s still a community street activist.

• 7. Leatherneck  |  September 12th, 2008 at 9:04 pm

  They’re in the corner, scared and trying to find a way out. Obama should enact his Iraq policy to his campaign. Admit defeat,tuck your tail between your legs, and hang your head in shame!!!

• 8. Sorenson  |  September 12th, 2008 at 9:34 pm

  As I told you:
  Is Americas princess Diana!
  Hop on the train folks
  or be left behind in the pathetic drone of archaic liberal drivel.

  How exciting for all of us!

• 9. JustAsking  |  September 12th, 2008 at 10:01 pm

  NH, Are those all the mirrors in your
  adobe’ hacienda that I will find some
  life experience akin to Annie Oakley in
  spikes?? NH, there is a lack of something
  within this “all American” family that I
  am missing. No. This is an insulting pol-
  political ploy, and I might add a dangerous
  one. This has not a thing to do with what
  believe politically but everything to do
  with my continuance of inhaling and ex-
  haling at the end of this political season.
  Other than this missive, I am bored.

• 10. Mr. Pragmatic  |  September 13th, 2008 at 11:31 am

  Good points NH, though I believe that Obama has a great deal of substance that is right there in black and white on BarackObama.com (once you get past the grab for $ of course), but we have an electorate that is similar to our current President in that they don’t read much.

  You said, “The reason is that Palin, unlike the Ivy League “smartest guy in the room” (to use your term), is living a life that most closely resembles that of the average American. Women see in her the embodiment of a successful working mom who is reaching for the very top and men see in her the kind of super-competent and family oriented partner they would want to be associated with in their own lives.”

  I think you are right to an extent, but I do not think that is what we should look for in a President. I want the worldly smart guy that I may not necessarily identify with. There are plenty of things to respect about all the candidates (especially McCain!), but I want the exceptional mind, and that IMHO, is Obama.

  I must admit however, that I question my conclusion when he allows himself, the guy raised by a single Mom, who built himself up and is among the least wealthy members of the Senate to be painted as the elitist by the man with nine houses who’s married to a beer heiress, or whatever Cindy is.

  The Washington Post has a great interactive map that you can click on and allocate the states to forecast the electoral college. I recommend it. When I play with it I come out fairly close every time. If Obama can win Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan he can actually win the electoral college while carrying only 19 or 20 states. This thing really does come down to just a few states and our votes, unfortunately are relatively meaningless.

• 11. bjd  |  September 13th, 2008 at 10:13 pm

  Anybody else besides me notice an increase in readership of this blog by DU or Daily Kos?

• 12. NHradiofan  |  September 14th, 2008 at 6:49 am

  Mr. Pragmatic,

  Excellent post. I enjoy reading your reasonable take on the issues. I agree that we could be looking at yet another close outcome in the Midwest and Pennsylvania but I also see the possibility for McCain-Palin to win with a surprisingly wide margin because I refuse to believe that the polls are able to accurately reflect how voters will cast their ballots in the privacy of the voting booth.

  I know this sounds very cynical, but I think we will be amazed at the number of people who have claimed to be Obama supporters but who will privately choose McCain. This could be due to simple racism, it could be due to the belief that Obama is not up to the job of Commander-in-Chief or it could be due to the desire to see a female VP. (Hillary voters are probably wrestling with that every day.) It could be that now, with the selection of Sarah Palin, McCain has given an out to those who are trying to “prove a point” with their vote. Instead of demonstrating how they aren’t racist by casting a vote for Obama, they now have the option of demonstrating that they aren’t sexist by casting a vote for Palin. I think many more will choose the latter point.

  As for your coment regarding Obama being painted as an elitist even though he comes from a decidedly “un-elitist” background, I believe that he, like most Democrat politicians, is an ideological elitist. His belief in the transformative power of government lies in his view that the average person is incapable of handling their own lives and needs the comforting hand of Uncle Sam just to get by.

  Also, anyone who has written 2 autobiographies before the age of 50 has to think he is pretty special. You could make the elitism argument on that basis alone.

• 13. BigBish  |  September 15th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

  Political commentary aside, I will now comment on the act itself. Funny how the mere mention of Palin results in multi paragraph diatribes moving off topic.

  Its refreshing to see a talk show host try to elicit a reaction from his listeners and act upon it. In the lackluster crop of hosts we have in Boston, none of them are able to elicit listener response- look how well the felon did selling his cruise for charity- .

  Not since Jerry Williams and the rage over Prop 2 1/2 have I even SEEN a talk show host come out from behind the mike and take an action. Most , including Howie Carr who has turned into little more than a self promoting headline reader, do little more than pander.

  So, good for you Michael Graham.