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Nick Cohen at The Guardian wonders
Democrats had only to maintain their composure and the White House would be theirs.
But instead of protecting their precious advantage, they succumbed to a spasm of hatred and threw the vase, the crockery, the cutlery and the kitchen sink at an obscure politician from Alaska.
He accurately describes what they did
But instead of following a measured strategy, they went berserk. On the one hand, the media treated her as a sex object. The New York Times led the way in painting Palin as a glamour-puss in go-go boots you were more likely to find in an Anchorage lap-dancing club than the Alaska governor’s office.
On the other, liberal journalists turned her family into an object of sexual disgust: inbred rednecks who had stumbled out of Deliverance.
He does misjudge Obama’s role:
Barack Obama knows it. All last week, he was warning American liberals to stay away from the Palin family. He understands better than his supporters that it is not a politician’s enemies who lose elections, but his friends.
I agree with the premise that the fix seemed to be in for Obama. I agree that the media exacerbated Obama’s problems. But let’s face it: he never even won the primary.
And while the media and the DNC made it apparent that he was a “clincher” and later a nominee, he still lost the popular vote – and most states that count.
Assuming however tht he was the apparent winner until last week, he blew it one morning at 3 AM, when he announced Joe Biden as VP.
Had he named Hillary, Mccain would have made a more conventional choice. The democratic ticket would have been unbeatable.
Mind you, I am happy he blew it. But I want it clear – Obama blew it – out of his frat boy spite. The media just made things worse. But they acted as his surrogates – just like the bloggers and the rest of the Oborg
Update
Adding another UK article from Daily Mail
Some great lines:
What they are doing is what they usually do when confronted with something which offends their world view – character assassination. Every ‘liberal’ newspaper and TV network has sent hatchet men north to Alaska to dig for the dirt beneath the tundra.
The mantra from the Obama camp is that she lacks the experience to be VP. In truth, she has more executive experience than either Obama or his Neil Kinnock-impersonator sidekick mate Joe Biden, neither of whom has ever run anything.
Who is Putin more likely to be wary of – Barack ‘we must negotiate with dictators’ Obama, or Looby Loo packing heat?
To paraphrase the Duke of Wellington, I don’t know what she does to the enemy, but she scares the life out of me.
“I hope you guys are up for a fight. I hope you guys are game because I haven’t been putting up with 19 months of airplanes and hotel food and missing my babies and my wife – I didn’t put up for that stuff just to come in second,” he said. “I don’t believe in coming in second. The American people can’t afford for us to come in second.”
Oh, the humanity!
I had sensed the sacrifice after his prior statement
I’ve been through this for 19 months. She’s been through it, what four days?”
Oh, you win, Barack! hands down! Running fir preznit, like community organizer – toughest job on earth! if you can ran a campaign (OKl let’s pretend you do), you are Queen for a Day!
However, it helps if you’re deluded that you’re already the President
“People ask me, they say what are your impressions of America. What have you learned since being President? Er, since being a candidate for President?”
McCain supporters, claiming they rescued 12,000 miniature American flags from the site of Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech last Thursday, redistributed the orphan flags to audience members ahead of a McCain campaign rally in Colorado Springs Saturday.
They say the flags were recovered from Invesco Field in Denver after the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention. A vendor supposedly discovered trash bags full of flags in and nearby dumpsters, and turned them over to the McCain campaign.
and I have the beginning of it:
Just in case anyone denies they were thrown away:
And as expected, they are trying to contest it.……- 2 statements:
UPDATE: DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney issues a statement: “American flags were proudly waved by the 75,000 people who joined Barack Obama at the Democratic Convention. John McCain should applaud that, but instead his supporters wrongfully took leftover bundles of our flags from the stadium to play a cheap political stunt calling into question our patriotism. On the same day he agrees to join Barack Obama at Ground Zero on September 11, John McCain attacks the patriotism of Obama supporters who so proudly waved the American flag at our historic event in Denver just days ago.”
UPDATE II: Another statement from the Democratic National Convention Committee: “Stories circulating about flags at the Democratic National Convention are false. We distributed more than 125,000 American made flags at the Convention - the flags removed from Invesco field were intended for other events and taken without permission. It’s disappointing that someone would take American flags without authorization and then falsely describe how they were being used. We have the utmost respect for the American flag, and it’s sad to see them being used for a cheap political stunt.”
So, am I to believe the DNC, or my lying eyes?
I realized today I was dealing with a new brand kind of anger at Obama.
It started as anger at disrespect for voters, then disrespect for me as a woman was added.
The treatment of Sarah Palin only confirmed the fact that I was right – there is an intense hatred of powerful women in that man.
Only now, with the “parenthood” accusations, he just touched a deeper nerve.
Or this disappointment from Whoopi Goldberg
she’s OK if everybody lives a certain way, that is to say, the way God ordained men and women to be. Well, already she’s breaking that because she’s the daddy.
He messed with mothers now.
More powerful karma.
The crowd booed. “No, it’s an interesting story.” More boos. “No, no, it is. I mean that sincerely. Mother, governor, moose shooter.”
The crowd broke out in laughter. “
The second day of convention bounce Rasmussen finds:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows Barack Obama attracting 46% of the vote while McCain earns 45%. When “leaners” are included, it’s Obama 49%, McCain 46%
More significantly:
As McCain has begun to chip away as Obama’s convention bounce, most of his gains have come among women voters. Obama still leads 51% to 44% among women, but that seven-point edge is just half the fourteen point lead he enjoyed last Tuesday. McCain leads by three among men, little changed in recent days.
I trust that the rest of attacking sara as one of the guys will take care of the rest of the 7
It seems Obama’s rumor spreading machine is now in full force trying to spread the Eagleton meme
In memos, e-mails and phone calls this week, Obama campaign officials have urged surrogates and allies to mention Republicans who are “nervous” about the Palin pick and to link those worries to George McGovern’s aborted vice presidential pick of Thomas Eagleton in 1972, according to three Democratic surrogates.
That year, McGovern rescinded the pick after learning that Eagleton had been treated for depression
Someone seems to be really pissy at being overtaken in popularity by Palin
On Wednesday, the campaign’s chief surrogate wranglers distributed a three page compilation of quotes from Republicans concerned about the Palin pick.
Oh, fuzzy memories about the “Clintons are racist” memo. The defense there was “we didn’t give it to the media”. Riiight. Like this one won’t be either.
Good times, good times!
Again, McGovern was a Democrat. Who lost epically. Is this a good analogy?
Of course the best response here is:
So, how long since Biden has been depressed then?
Update
So guess who was the surrogate taking this on? Andrew Sullivan!
How long can Obama continue to keep Biden in the VP slot as it becomes more and more apparent that the Palin selection has fundamentally altered the race, and he’s now headed for a 3-5 point defeat rather than the coronation that everyone on the left (and many on the right) had expected?
Since Obama said Palin wants to be treated as the other guys, his people got it…And to make things more surreal, that occurred on Laura Ingram show
Jack Tapper reports that
On the Laura Ingraham Radio show, Friday, attorney Howard Gutman — an original member of the national finance committee for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. — very directly criticized the parenting of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
And when Ingram – gasp – called sexism, Gutman pretended parenting is genderless. You see, as long as they replace “bad mother to bad parent” it’s not sexist
“Think of how many politicians have said it’s not the right time in my family’s life for me to run.”
Gutman cited approvingly Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., in 2004 and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner in 2008, both of whom said they weren’t going to pursue the presidency because it wasn’t the right time for their families.
Right! because whenever some politician says “spending time with the family” it’s about parenting…
And when I say “the check is in the mail” it’s about the US Postal Services. Gotcha.
When they said it’s not against women, only against that woman, and oh, that other one too…
So, I have to believe one of two things now: that attacking the “parenting” of a woman candidate is not sexist, or that member of the Obama campaign is a right winger (Biden said…)
It seemed yesterday that the campaign realized the blowback potential of sexist attacks. They were backpedaling. But I think that even since the Alice Palmer days, it’s personal to Obama to attack women. He just can’t help it.
One must wonder what happened to “family off limits”
Barack Obama has forbidden his campaign from referencing Gov. Sarah Palin’s family and has said he’d fire any staffer who violates the rule. But plenty, it seems, its fair game.
Will Gutman be fired now?
Maybe a few too many lawyers on that campaign, underestimating the effect of parsing words
The farce of “literal theatre” is going to do wonders for Obama. And the karmic rewards: priceless
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