Topic: Running-Mate Discussion (Read 39413 times)

Royal☭ · « **Reply #380 on:** October 11, 2008, 09:01:17 AM »

I was beginning to think that Sarah Palin's pick as running-mate wasn't about helping John McCain win. It was about helping Sarah Palin get more face time, to introduce her as a potential opponent down the line. It's amazing to see how swiftly this has backfired, as she's playing a big role in torpedoing McCain's campaign, and the vitriolic bile she's putting out in this leg of the race is going to make her radioactive for future politicians to touch.

She is alienating just anyone and everyone even a little bit left or hard right, is found guilty of ethics charges before getting anywhere near the White House, and has displayed a surprise amount of ignorance and hatred in her media outings. This woman is now political poison, and the GOP's attempts to groom her for future office have exposed how corrosive she is. It's somehow fitting that in this historically disastrous campaign, the Republican attempt to setup a future candidate has crashed and burned in a monumentally catastrophic way. Here's to two terms of Obama, folks!

Catloaf · « **Reply #381 on:** October 11, 2008, 10:07:10 AM »

Well, she may be political poison here in reality, but she's pure fucking political gold in Alaska.

Arc · « **Reply #382 on:** October 11, 2008, 10:20:13 AM »

Was political gold. Now she's been lowered down to bronze in her homestate, as it's become clear that both elected Democrats & Republicans aren't fans. I can't imagine the majority of Alaskans are thrilled about having the national spotlight thrown upon them either, as anonymity and seclusion are one of the prime factors for living in such an area.

A² · « **Reply #383 on:** October 11, 2008, 11:15:31 AM »

The small emote of Light laughing just doesn't seem to fully do this justice.

Kazz · « **Reply #384 on:** October 11, 2008, 11:44:49 AM »

Aren't the people behind this stuff supposed to be political masterminds? What's going on here?

Royal☭ · « **Reply #385 on:** October 11, 2008, 11:47:08 AM »

Bush happened.

Kazz · « **Reply #386 on:** October 11, 2008, 11:53:24 AM »

Yeah, but he won (or at least "won") despite being retarded. Do they just not know how that trick works anymore?

Royal☭ · « **Reply #387 on:** October 11, 2008, 11:54:20 AM »

Well, when Bush one, he was in the middle in the of a war, the economy was okay, and John Kerry was a pussy.

Only one of those things hasn't changed, and it's no longer considered a positive for the supporting candidate.

Catloaf · « **Reply #388 on:** October 11, 2008, 11:57:41 AM »

Quote

Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.

Damnit. Anyways...

Bush had the advantage of "ALL LIBERALS ARE SINNERS" leverage from Clinton's scandal, then a war. McCain has the weight of Bush's failures.

Brentai · « **Reply #389 on:** October 11, 2008, 02:54:43 PM »

Quote from: Constantine on October 11, 2008, 11:54:20 AM

Well, when Bush one, he was in the middle in the of a war, the economy was okay, and John Kerry was a pussy.

Actually, the economy was sliding even then, and John Kerry was a huge loudmouthed asshole (and a pussy on the issues, so basically the exact inverse of Obama. Of course he didn't win.)

Thad · « **Reply #390 on:** October 11, 2008, 04:37:38 PM »

Quote from: Cthulhu-chan on October 11, 2008, 02:10:32 AM

...did you mean to quote the same thing twice?

Nope! Fixed.

I blame NYT's fucktarded JavaScript that opens a popup when you double-click on text.

Quote from: Constantine on October 11, 2008, 09:01:17 AM

I was beginning to think that Sarah Palin's pick as running-mate wasn't about helping John McCain win. It was about helping Sarah Palin get more face time, to introduce her as a potential opponent down the line.

I don't think anyone but the most

ever considered her a viable contender on her own merits. She was chosen to turn out the base and help McCain win THIS election; I don't think they were thinking ahead to '12 except insofar as she'd be an incumbent veep (or President) by then.

Quote from: Kazz on October 11, 2008, 11:44:49 AM

Aren't the people behind this stuff supposed to be political masterminds? What's going on here?

Quote from: Kazz on October 11, 2008, 11:53:24 AM

Yeah, but he won (or at least "won") despite being retarded. Do they just not know how that trick works anymore?

The rules have changed and they're not keeping up. McCain's running this election like it's 2004. It's not. The war is unpopular, the economy is a goddamn mess, and they're running against somebody competent. The Rove strategy barely worked in '04, and only worked in '00 with help from the Supreme Court.

Rove's not a genius. He got lucky. My favorite summary of his undeserved reputation goes, "How smart do you really have to BE to be Bush's brain?"

Jesus, Kazz, I've been trying to explain this to you pretty much constantly since Iowa. IT IS NOT 2004. Things change; the stuff that works in one situation does not necessarily work in another. I'm sort of at a loss here, bro; I don't know how to get that point across to you if I haven't yet. Suggestions?

Quote from: Catloaf on October 11, 2008, 11:57:41 AM

Bush had the advantage of "ALL LIBERALS ARE SINNERS" leverage from Clinton's scandal, then a war. McCain has the weight of Bush's failures.

It also bears noting that Gore and Kerry ran utterly incompetent campaigns.

Brentai · « **Reply #391 on:** October 11, 2008, 04:47:19 PM »

The joke that the Democrats can lose at absolutely anything really does come from Gore and Kerry - it took a supreme concentrated effort for those two to fuck up, and they both only barely managed it. I would almost even go as far to say as we might have been worse off under either of those two complete incompetents, except of course that it's hard to imagine how they could have possibly let things get worse than this. It's not worth contemplating.

Plus Gore has actually proven to be rather effective now that he's not consciously trying to be the most inoffensive and boring person in the world. Kerry's still a total douche though.

Sharkey · « **Reply #392 on:** October 11, 2008, 11:07:15 PM »

Let's not get too backhanded on Kerry. I stood at minimum distance from a polling place, on a street corner holding a totem pole of campaign signs in the rain for the fucker (and had some fun exchanges. My favorite being "I'm voting for a first lady that speaks English!" "That's funny, I'm voting for a President that speaks English.") Got a nasty bug out of the deal, but northern Maine went for the guy, and I think that was to some good (Maine's one of two weird states with a split electoral vote, which is why I went to some lengths to maintain my registration there.)

Sure, he came off as kind of a limp dick, but if he'd been in there over the last four years I'd be impressed if you can imagine anything worse than what we've got.

But this time around we actually have someone who makes for a strong politician (even if it makes me wince when he does it apparently well) and if it doesn't turn out, well... fuck it. It's pretty much "we had our shot, and we just plain doesn't fucking deserve it anymore."

It still beats me what to do after that, should it happen.

Brentai · « **Reply #393 on:** October 11, 2008, 11:29:27 PM »

Just figure it's 4 years later and we're still mainly talking about the guy in terms of "at least he's not Bush."

Brentai · « **Reply #394 on:** October 12, 2008, 08:20:38 AM »

Oh hey, and also, there was a pretty big campaign platform - illegal immigration - that was heavily in favor of the Republicans last time, which is a non-issue now. Because in the end, Bush did find a pretty effective solution to that little problem: he made the U.S. a country that nobody wants to emigrate to.

Thad · « **Reply #395 on:** October 12, 2008, 10:38:54 AM »

Know you're just being glib, but it does bear noting that the reason the Republicans aren't talking about immigration anymore is that they've suddenly realized Latinos can vote.

Can't find it at the moment, but a few weeks back Obama was running an ad on Spanish-language TV stations highlighting insulting things that Republicans have said about Mexicans over the past several years, that included more than one Rush Limbaugh soundbite. Rush responded by posting an op/ed in the WSJ basically crying about how he'd been taken out of context and he was totally joking when he said all those things.

Essentially, the Republican Party was banking on the fact that Latinos are largely blue-collar, religious, and socially conservative, and thought those things would outweigh the whole "blaming them for everything that goes wrong in this country" thing. Latinos were one demographic -- like women -- that was supposed to go to McCain after Clinton lost the nomination, but didn't.

The Cuban population's still largely Republican, and obviously is important in Florida (when my friends asked rhetorically why Jeb Bush was so clearly flouting international law in the Elian Gonzales case back in '00, I shrugged and responded that it was an election year; they responded that it wasn't going to win anyone any elections -- looking back, it was almost certainly one of many factors that put Bush in office), but the Latino population as a whole is skewing heavily Democratic this year, and if the Republicans don't get their shit together it's likely to stay there in the future.

Brentai · « **Reply #396 on:** October 12, 2008, 11:11:04 AM »

I'm actually only half-joking. There've been reports that illegal immigration has slowed down considerably in the past months; I'd dig up the article but I think it was linked here in the first place.

Romosome · « **Reply #397 on:** October 12, 2008, 01:54:27 PM »

Quote from: Rock on October 11, 2008, 08:52:22 AM

I didn't believe any of that Mayan Calendar stuff until I saw this image. Now it all makes sense.

Mongrel · « **Reply #398 on:** October 12, 2008, 05:14:28 PM »

Defenestration · « **Reply #399 on:** October 13, 2008, 12:52:03 PM »

http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=213&sid=1476582
Palin mistakes supporters for protesters at her rally, proceeds to heckle them.

This is just getting stupid.

News:

Author Topic: Running-Mate Discussion (Read 39413 times)