Letters to the Editor
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@ Elephantman
I think McCain is being set up by the RNC to lose, by the RNC. Given all the negatives facing repubs this cycle, why should they go all out just to lose? Besides, I get the idea the RNC knows someone is going to have to take the blame for the consequences of the bush presidency and I get the feeling the RNC won't mind if that person is a democrat. A black democrat or a female democrat would just make it better.
Think about it. the repub field of main contenders were Giuliani and Mitt. I mean these two are practically dems. Huck is so religious as to be terminally alienating in the general election and Ron Paul, despite being the best candidate of the bunch is still a lunatic. So that leaves McCain, the horribly compromised old coot from 2000, who is old enough that losing wont be a big deal cause he probably won't be around long enough to bother anyone about it. The RNC did not offer up any leading lights of the Republican Conservative movement. (whatever that is)
Also think about how Limbaugh and Hannity are allowed to follow their own leads instead of taking their usual marching orders from the RNC.
McCain is the RNC's sacrifice.
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Filthy
I wouldn't go that far. Let's see how big race still is in America. The republicans will exploit it for sure. Not only is he black, he's not very hostile to all those damn Mexicans.
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@Phoenix Woman
Thanks for your information! I wonder, however, can just one man (Bill Simon) alone do so much? He must have had a great deal of help to swing our political discourse so drastically toward the cesspool we have had forced on us today.
There's no doubt that the very rich right-wing foundations threw a lot of money into this effort. Then a deep-pocketed misanthrope like Rupert Murdoch came along and further polluted our discourse with a "news" network devoted exclusively to pushing right-wing ideas.
And I wonder if the dumping of the fairness doctrine and the rise of media consolidation didn't also push us further along the path? Who was behind those outcomes anyway? I don't recall getting to vote on those insidious developments.
In any event, it just staggers me that the ideas of the right-wing John Birch Society, which was considered a lunatic fringe group in the 1950s, have come to be not just accepted as a reasonable perspective but the dominant ideas of our time.
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Thank You, Bill Owen
Thank you for pointing out the latest attempt to slime the Obama's...
Yes, like the nonsense that Obama doesn't salute the flag or sing the National Anthem, Michelle Obama said she is, "REALLY proud" not just "proud" -- editing out the word "really" makes a world of difference in meaning.
And of course, since the right wing can't find anything that she ACTUALLY said to attack, they have to edit her remarks...
And of course the edited version is all over the place to give the pundits something to mull over for awhile.
Expect the idiots like Mathews and Wolf and Russert to take this seriously and to give it air time and to gnash their teeth over how horrible it all is...
Do not be disheartened by this nonsense... it's just more proof that they have absolutely no arrows left in their quivers.
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Just That
Being black and not pandering to anti-immigrants, will get McCain a decent slice of the electoral college pie.
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@Cow Head Soup
A confused Salon Mizz DemocratDonkey Reader : "Then Explain Conservative to us Mr. Republican Elephantman"
*ahem* I'm not confused, Elephantman is confused. He uses these words as party affiliations with no semantic content. By every pre-Bush standard Republicans used, Bush is more "liberal" than Clinton was, and McCain is set to follow in Bush's footsteps.
What I want to know is how Elephantman can justify his characterizations of "liberals" and "conservatives", they don't make any sense to me.
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CORRECTION
No matter who the nominees are, the behavior of our media stars won't change, because it can't.
Nothing about our society is going to change--including the rate at which everything is deteriorating--until there is a public takeover of the mass media.
You might think of it as the end of our "peurile" phase, or the end of being told what to think by big brother.
Whatever you call it--the pundits have to go. They may be able to steal our publications and our airwaves, but they can't steal our freedom to think and speak as reasonable people.
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@ Wes
Oh yeah, I'm not expecting the Klan to come down with a case of Obamania (though they often have come down, quite regrettably with cases of jungle fever) But still its not totally unreasonable to picture some quiet small town conservatives who've never voted dem before secretly pulling the lever for Obama JUST because they really do feel bush & co. have screwed up the country, but also the right-wing vitriol against him may backfire against genuine conservatives who're probably nice people.
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Before It's Over
He's not only going to be black, he's going to be Stokely Carmichael.
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@ Wes
I don't doubt there will be some serious racial ugliness but I think it wont be as bad as all that coming from RNC or it's outlets. I think many low-level racists in America do NOT want it pointed out to them that they are racists. I think if the race-bating from the right goes past a certain point, it could help Obama. The right can't afford to offend the moderates too much on this issue.
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bi-partisan? Well, he does get Independents to vote for him.
There's something about Obama that makes Independent voters really like him. I agree he's pretty far to the left, but there's obviously something that all those moderates see in him that they like.
Moderates and Indepedents also like McCain, even though he's pretty to the right on policy.
The thing is, it's not all about policies. It's also about "do I trust this guy?" And apparently moderates to trust McCain and Obama.
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Bignose, I'd like you to meet Prunes...
Bipartisan? I hope not, Mr. Elephant.
I hope that whoever the Left ends up with, they have an even greater advantage in both houses, and they take the fear-mongering, war-mongering, race-baiting, environment-destroying, class-warfaring, privacy-invading (Did I miss anything?) agenda of the right, shove it up their ass and send them packing.
You're on the wrong side of history. Elephants are doomed to become extinct.
-- bignose
Right. This is my point, exactly. The Salon readership doesn't really want "bipartisan," and a true bipartisan would actually be anathema to most of the readership.
Salon wants a liberal. Salon likes Obama because he's a liberal.