Comments on: It DOES Have Legs

By: jpe

jpe — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:13:27 +0000

It’s weird Will would fuss so much about false consciousness, since those theories are equally popular on the right (see, eg, theories of liberal bias and liberal academy as explanatory theories). It’s just a popular way to explain why other people don’t agree. It can’t be that difference is reasonable, so it must be that they were brainwashed by something, be it the GOP for Thomas Frank or the liberal academy for David Horowitz.

By: Mason

Mason — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:17:49 +0000

Too many steves is right on the money. I think this incident, misstep, elitist rhetoric, liberal pandering, heartfelt spoken truth, (call it what you want to call it) won’t make it deep into next week’s news cycles. I spend almost every evening watching everything from Bill O’Reilly, to Hannity and Colmes to Keith Olbermann and back and one thing seems certain: Hillary’s missteps are actually far more damning to her campaign than anything that has struck Obama broadside yet. I mean, only pure desperation would have Hillary claiming that she was once under fire in Bosnia or that she fondly remembers her ol’ grandpappy teaching her to shoot a rifle, (God almighty, what a strange vision that is). She’s trying to fill the “void” that Obama’s remarks probably should have left with rural voters. Too little too late for her. My guess is that she’ll win Penn by seven to ten percentage points, keeping her head above water for a moment, then she’ll face her Waterloo in a close loss in Indiana. Just a guess.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:33:05 +0000

Hey, I don’t think he misspoke. I’ll even admit he’s wrong on the causality and agree with TMS: a lot of people vote poorly because they’re ignorant. And a whole hell of a lot of them are racists or xenophobes or homophobes or just general wankers to boot. I, of course, don’t have to win the votes of so-called Middle America so I’m free to call BS on their crap. Obama doesn’t have that luxury.

By: too many steves

too many steves — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:08:20 +0000

That’s a great line.

By: peter

peter — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:45:43 +0000

The lead editorial in the Times today — which castigated both Obama and Clinton — had it right: another week or two of this Punch and Judy show, and we’ll all tune out.

Jay Leno also had it right, in describing how the Presidential race is like American Idol: a black guy, a woman, and a cranky white guy.

By: too many steves

too many steves — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:03:01 +0000

That bow tie is a dead givaway, as is the fact that he will wax eloquent on the topic of baseball at the slightest invitation. Elitist creep.

Can we please dispense with the notion that Obama “misspoke”? He spoke candidly, in a room full of rich folks that agree with him. The “mis” part is inadvertently allowing a quasi-reporter into the room and allowing her to record his words. It’s not that Obama thinks gay people and brown people aren’t ruining the world, it’s all those bitter rubes in rural America that can’t be trusted to vote properly – even though we charitably understand why they think, and vote, the way they do (hint: REPUBLICANS!). Heck, I’m a conservative and agree with the notion that a great number of people can’t be trusted with voting. Not because they’re poor, or black, or gay, or what have you, but because they’re ignorant.

I agree this has legs enough to get it into this week from last, but the interest won’t last and there will be no long-lasting harm to candidate Obama, not even in the Fall.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:08:29 +0000

He hasn’t lost any ground in polls against Hillary yet, so I have to believe that this really doesn’t matter. It is fun to watch a bunch of political elites discuss how this played among the masses, though. As if George Will has ever even met a member of the working class.

It’s also fun to watch conservatives parse and analyze this after completely papering over their own candidate’s inability to understand the basics of Mideast politics. John McCain just misspoke (several times, consistently) – he’s not actually a crazy old warmonger who wants to blow up the world and bankrupt the United States, even though he has come right out and said both things. It’s really that Obama we can’t trust because he might think gay people and brown people aren’t ruining the world.

By: Chris J. Breisch

Chris J. Breisch — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:44:23 +0000

Here's an absolutely beautiful quote from this article:

But they have themselves to blame for letting him get this far largely unexamined. While Republicans tend to nominate their best-known candidate from previous nomination battles (Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and now John McCain), Democrats often fall in love during a first date. They are then surprised when all the relatives don't think he's splendid.

So true.

By: Chris J. Breisch

Chris J. Breisch — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:39:23 +0000

If he didn’t have such a huge money edge over both Hillary and McCain he’d be doomed, not only for the rest of the Dem primaries, but especially for the general. He’s currently trailing McCain in OH, MI, and FL, and just barely leads in PA. He has the money to fix that, but he’s going to have to spend like crazy. Because he absolutely has to have at least two of those states, and it’s hard to see him winning the Presidency without taking three.

His biggest Achilles heel is his youth and inexperience. This will not be the last moment like this in the campaign, unless he gets some far better handlers.

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:32:32 +0000

Remember, he’s a uniter, not a divider. Of course, what he means by a uniter, is that he will allow you to make him your leader, not that he’s at all interested in taking into account what you believe.