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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
fair play for cuba committee
Published Letters: 15
i'm afraid the mccain campaign is now officially dripping with flop sweat. the moment: when john mccain walked out on stage tonight. did you feel it? it was like dragging a needle across a vinyl record. the dancing stopped. drinks were spilled. i felt myself gasp -it was like a bob hope walk-on. when mccain said his remarks, then just stood there with the mic and let the moment pass i honestly felt sorry for the guy. tomorrow night, he'll get folksy and quiet and make americans believe he's a rational, kind-hearted hero. (and it will work) but the shark has been jumped. the election will be a referendum on the top of both tickets, and it's no contest. it's not even close.
did mitt romney talk about the sun rising in the west? or was i dozing off and heard it wrong?
they cut the palin video intro. it must have been terrible! much harder to hide the truth in photos. (all they had work with were beauty pageant photos and moose hunting pix.) i was hoping the GOP had photoshopped her into important world events, like peace negotiations and G-8 summit photos. just for laughs. they'd try that.
her speech was sneering and self-satisfying. it will be a huge hit with the gop base -and i expect mccain/palin to be up by 8-10 points in most polls by early next week. but drip, drip, drip - the flop sweat is there. look for it. be patient.
remember how marlon brando became more and more bizarre as his career waned and he got older? -the strange public appearances, the outlandish movie roles (dr. moreau), the silky wardrobes, the obesity, the nonsense that would pour out of his mouth during interviews, his pasty complexion, kissing larry king! i'm seeing some of that in john mccain now. it's eerie. like brando, mccain used to be a stud: he was loved and admired, an honest-to-goodness hero to many -yet somehow he turned into this: a twisted old contrarian, stumble-bumming around living off his legend -"i used to be somebody, kid"- and people can only talk in whispers when he's close, "i think he's bonkers." please, close the coffin.
i can't help but feeling like this "bailout", or whatever you want to call it, is already happening whether we like it or not. the fed, along with seemingly every cental bank in the world, has been pumping billions into the financial markets for the past months -proping up money-market funds, trying to keep the credit markets liquid/fighting the busting of the buck. so it is being done -and there's little that can be done to stop it. i am more than a little curious why bush and the fed felt the need to ask for the money at all in the first place. usually, they'd just take it, or give it, depending on your perspective - under the radar. what's $50 billion a month between friends? (my guess is they requested the $700 billion because what they really need is a couple trillion.) yes, it's frustrating to see how this mess is framed in stock market terms: arrows are easy to read. winners vs. losers. everybody gets that. but, as has been stated by many here, this is fundamentally a credit/commercial paper issue. there just isn't enough capital to go around. because it's a sad reality to modern life: most so-called "healthy" companies, even those with a great bottom-line, need credit and short-term debt to survive day-to-day. take that away, and you've got an economy with a dead circulatory system. rigor mortis sets in, and then what?? do we toss the game board over and let the pieces fall everywhere and start over from scratch? or do we figure out some new moves-and keep playing? part of me hopes this mess gets strung out until next january in some fashiion-when we can get some better minds working on a solution (read: not phil gramm) until then, diversify: -put some of your money in your mattress and some in the sofa.
i want to get this on the record: palin will hand biden his head thursday night. what else can she do? she can't take part in a legitimate discussion of the issues. oh, she can skim the surface on a few topics, and regurgitate some talking point lines, but then what? she's got 90 minutes of airtime to fill (well, ok, her half is just 45 minutes.) that's a lot of dead air. so there's only one option left: attack, attack, attack! don't stop attacking!!! she's going to get out the wood chipper. (remember the end of "fargo"??? -maybe that accent ain't a coincidence.) sarah will walk out in a pink suit jacket (it has to be pink) and vamp a bit, then go right for joe's throat. the night ends with her clutching his still beating heart as gwen ifill signs off. (if anybody can tell me what her other options are, i'm all ears.)
but how it plays out is the better question. deeply red conservatives will eat it up and call her a hero - and say they've recaptured the momentum. will the rest of the country see it for what it is: a sad, pathetic display by an adrift campaign that needs to be put down? (i hope so, but fear not: mccain up by 4 by next week.)
but i will hedge my bet: there's a 30% chance she faints 15 minutes in. the back of her head audibly "clunking" on the stage. later, biden is criticized by hannity for freezing up and not offering her his water. (obama up by 18)
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Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
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