Letters to the Editor
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Actual debate?
At the moment, Democratic and Republican campaign aides are quietly negotiating how to conduct a campaign that is more debate than destruction.
Is this true? I find it hard to believe from the McCain campaign.
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Journalsim Fluff.
While you are at it, what happened to the Easter Bunny and the Great Pumpkin?
La La Land.
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Land of Cockaigne
Big Rock Candy Mountain
Write more fluff please!
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In Response to the Question Posed in the Title
Who cares?
Why "should" he do anything? He's already made himself clear as mud on most issues, and in this case that's clear enough to dismiss him as a serious candidate for President.
With all due respect to Joe C., who fucking cares?
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the Big Rock Candy Mountain...
...is in Central Utah. There's all kinds of tourist jive around it to capitalize on it. I don't know about those other places. The article? Oh yes! To answer the question: McCain figures if ya can't beat 'em, join 'em. I'm very happy about that, because it will be his and his party's undoing. And make no mistake about it- the GOP needs to burn completely to the ground in order for to make it safe to vote for any Republican again, and for the body politic to completely clear the Bushevik virus.
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I disagree
With all due respect, what reforms has Obama created? McCain has been a leader in reform in the Senate for years. From CFR top immigration to judges, whenever anything gets done in the Senate it is McCain that is in the middle of it. It is Mccain that is always in the middle of actual reform, while Obama just talks about it.
Frankly, though, it is the issue of patriotism where there is the starkest difference.
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@Absolut Carnage
Absolutly. To the damn ground. Flat as a pancake. There is no other way. Fumigate the place with cyanide. Serious business. Thanks for this. It gives hope to those of us who hang on by our fingernails and maintain our rage by the thinnest of bonds.
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@mikevolpe
As an occasional admirer of your stream of consciousness, I have to say, in all sarcasm: You're serious, aren't you?
This is kind of like an inversion of the Stopped Clock theory. Oh well...
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absolutely
Calhoun,
Here are the two pieces. You can judge for yourself.
http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/2008/03/obamamccainrhetoric-vs-reality.html
and
http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-mccain-wright-and-my-favorite.html
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Perhaps they could debate which of them is more loyal to AIPAC
and more devoted to the state of Israel.
Which of them would more readily place Israel over the interests of the United States?
Which of them would jump higher for Israel? I'm going with Os^Hbama on this one.
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mikevolpe
You do realize McCain has already repudiated everything he's ever claimed to stand for, yes?
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McCain's "character"
Once upon a time, John McCain displayed admirable qualities of independence and integrity. The moment that that McCain died was captured in a memorable photo as he embraced -- literally and figuratively -- George W. Bush.
The John McCain we see today posesses only one discernable character trait: ambition. This McCain will say or do anything to become president.
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@ Lynx
The John McCain we've been the past few months is his cover. He's just saying those things to get elected, and then he'll go back to being ...
SUPER MAVERICK
... just like he's been in the Senate. Isn't impressive how much he's reformed that place in only ... um ... well, 22 years isn't all that long. I'm sure he'll be a much better reformerer when he's elected president.
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Trust McCain to know best
I trust McCain to know best how to run his campaign. If he, one of the last of the traditional Republicans, feels that to be the next Republican president now obliges him to nakedly abandon everything he's ever stood for and instead embrace foolishness, lunacy, and hypocrisy ...
... well, let's just say that I don't find that hard to believe.
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Just another casualty
John McCain the reformer is just amongst the many casualties of Bush's dismantling of the endangered species act. What else could it be that would have derailed the straight talk express?
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As with most subjects...
John McCain's position on
___government reform____
has never changed.
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bearpaw1
that doesn't make sense to me.
So because he had convictions for 25 years i should feel confidently that he will resume them once elected?
No for me its the EXACT OPPOSITE
It to me, indicates a serious lack of integrity. What DOES he believe in? And more importantly, if he was so ready to abandon strongly held beliefs (torture!!!??) in exchange for the presidency, what else would he relinquish in office with a few carrots waved in his face?
And worse, HOW DO I KNOW WHICH ISSUES HE'LL Be *MAVERIKING* ABOUT? If what you say is true, we cannot be sure WHICH of his old beliefs he'll reinstitute and which of teh new ones he'll stick with.
That woudl lead to utter chaos.
Let's say I was happily married for 20 years. All of a sudden I meet a nice new man and decide I want to be rid of my husband and be with *new boy*. I hire a git man. I get caught. On trial my lawyer argues that since i was sucha good wife for so long, i should be trusted to repair my marriage and not placed in prison.
No. It is very fact that after 20 years of strong conviction about my marriage, my mate, and life itself i so was so easily willing to TOSS IT, which would be reason for indictment and a reason to doubt my stability and ability to function properly as a human being.
And if i had succeeded, you YOU want to be the *New Boy*?
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@ MaddieP
Sorry, I was being sarcastic. Someone elsewhere actually seriously (I think) suggested that McCain would go back to being a (sort of) good guy if he was elected. It seemed like a bizarre argument to me, and I was just riffing on it.
Plus I was making fun of the idea that McCain has somehow been a reformer for his 22 years in the Senate -- if so, he's obviously been a spectacularly ineffective one.
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Whittaker and Baxter
It's interesting to go back to the roots of PR and spin in US politics. The firm of Whittaker and Baxter dominated this field from 1933 to 1951. In 1949 W&B offered their services to the American Medical Association to block Harry Truman's health insurance program. They won. In fact in sixty elections and referendums W&B won 55. The people usually lost but that was never a consideration for them; they operated in the moral universe of a skilled lawyer who goes all out to win a case. They had some guidelines for how to win an election:
1.They believed an attack campaign was always the best campaign.
2.An enemy had to be created against whom the voters needed to be warned.
3. Issues would be few but must be clearly stated and should confront the voter with an emotional decision. In other words, feel, don't think.
4. The independent vote is critical in a close election and once the party is captured by a nomination,the independent must be the target of all suasion and PR.
5. W&B also believed that a campaign must have an inner rhythm, a pace and a timing that would capture the attention of all news systems, both print and electronics.
For the right money W&B could craft a tailor made campaign for anyone and for any cause and they almost always won. The surface may have been clinical and professional but day to day the underbelly could be very ugly. In the 1964 campaign where Nelson Rockefeller ran against Barry Goldwater, Rockefeller described,'...rough stuff. I mean this, you know, I mean everything from having acid put in the punch at a reception, to having bomb threats almost every night, phone calls, (Democrat)workers, women workers in the party driven off the road in their cars at night and so forth. This is a rough business.' The Republicans used California's largest newspapers, all owned by Republicans, to reach the voters. All these newspapers were treated as if they were an arm of the party. Obviously that tendency has only grown with time until it's turned from improper influence into outright corruption. On balance the viciousness remains but is expressed in a more cunning way. I don't think anyone's put acid in the punch for quite some time. Clearly McCain stands on the shoulders of moral midgets.