posted by perkiset on Sep 11

People drown when swimming in the ocean just yards from the shore. Often, the reason is that they do not understand the rhythm of the ocean or how to work with it. The ocean pulses in waves. Therefore, it’s most important to swim hard when the pulse is going your way, rather than against it. And therein lies the problem; people most often swim when they feel that they are being taken away, then relax when the pressure is off and they wind up way offshore and in real trouble.

It is with this metaphor in mind that I suggest that anyone worried about Sara Palin take a breath and slow down a bit. And that means me as well.

We’re still less than a week out from the Republican convention. Ms. Palin has been thrust into the limelight from nowhere and the press (and the country at large) are hungry for more information about her. So it makes no sense at all that we’d see Barack hitting back hard at the moment. The ocean is currently pulling against him.

Today on some of the political threads that I follow I saw two important things: First off is the thought that Obama must get back to campaigning against McCain, not Palin. And the way to do that is to force a question about McCain’s positions and how they coincide with Bush’s - and have him agree – preferably in real time – that they’re on the same page. This will not be too terribly difficult given that McCain’s positions ARE either identical or very parallel to Bush’s. The second was the biggie for me: [an Obama aide quotes] “we’ll be saving our biggest counterpunches for after 9/11. “

Where John McCain has run a slipshod and temperamental campaign that’s been supernaturally blessed by fortune since the beginning, Obama has run perhaps the most tight and disciplined campaigns we’ve seen in recent memory. And if we pause to reflect, we’ll remember that Obama has been hit with plenty of his own “show stoppers” that he’s not only overcome, but in some cases, used quite skillfully to his advantage.

Obama knows how to swim in the ocean. He is waiting for the slight lull that signals the time to move, and attack. Attacking during the convention would be a silly waste of money. Attacking now, during Palin’s coming out party, is a waste as well because the press is completely enthralled with her. Then there’s the 7th anniversary of 9/11 – perhaps the worst possible time for a “Grand Uniter” type candidate to use a horrible memory for political gain.

He is biding his time.

There’s not a huge amount to bide, but there’s enough left yet for him to play smart rather than hard. I am actually rather exhilarated imagining what advertisements and tactics will be deployed because I think we underestimate Obama’s capability to get muddy if the situation calls for it. And since the mean spirited, lying reprobates that call themselves “Republicans” have thrown down the gauntlet (admission that they will start employing Swift Boat like tactics) then it’s time for us to hit back with both barrels. The only way they win is if America is not exposed to what their words really mean and what they really stand for. Well, those things that aren’t lies anyway.

And here’s another thing; if little old Sara the Barracuda is enough to throw Obama off his game so severely then perhaps he doesn’t deserve to be president (not saying this IN ANY WAY qualifies McCain or Palin) – much like McCain’s cowardice about answering Campbell Brown and the McCain team sequestering Palin until they can inject her with the right sound bites, if Obama recedes in the face of a little tussel with the likes of the Miss Congeniality then he needs to rethink negotiations with the rest of the world’s bad guys.

I don’t think we have to worry about it. I think Obama knows exactly that this is what the presidential job is all about, and in fact, I appreciate (in a peculiar sort of way) John McCain and Sara Palin helping to make Barack Obama a better president via this trial by fire.

I’m not saying that I think this is a slam dunk or that we have nothing to worry about – far from it. But I think we must also remember what kind of campaigner Obama has been so far - and what kind of rookie to the national stage Palin is - and what kind of temperamental, compulsive and irrational old-schooler John McCain is.

And in all of those words lie my sudden rush of faith for the day. Remembering how I was in the ocean as a boy learning the rhythm of the surf, I understand the lull in Obama’s strategy. I hope this helps you out as well. Despair not. If Obama is everything that we’d imagine him to be, this is but another hurdle in a long line that he will need to tackle on his way to the biggest load of shit (the current U.S. situation) that any human on this planet will ever have to face.

If you’re like me, then you’re for Obama because you believe he is equal to the task.

posted by perkiset on Mar 7

Strike One: Refuses to denounce Rush Limbaugh and the conservative cabal that essentially handed her the win in Texas - for their own purposes, including the complete sublimation of our Democratic process. Clearly she is comfortable winning by any means necessary and is willing to be the bunnie-opponent in the fall.

Strike Two: “I’ve passed the Commander in Chief test, John McCain has certainly passed the Commander in Chief test. As for Senator Obama, well, you’ll have to ask him.” What – she was in charge when there were crises during the Clinton administration? She’s been an executive at some point and has not shared with us? When the HELL could she EVER have passed a Commander in Chief test – and more specifically, any more so than Senator Obama? Or at least enough to even make a comparison?

Strike Three: “I have said, that I bring a lifetime of experience to the table, John McCain brings a lifetime of experience. Senator Obama brings a speech he gave in 2002.”

OK now that is just horsepoop. To reduce a man’s work to a speech, regardless of if you support him or not, is just wrong. No one is reducing her to “An occasional semen receptacle for Bill Clinton” (when he couldn’t get anything else) or a hag wannabe that is unjustly and incorrectly dragging her husband’s experience and credibility unto herself. If sleeping with the president gives you credibility and experience, then perhaps Monica Lewinsky should get a cabinet post, eh? Perhaps Jennifer Flowers should be in charge of the FBI – or better, become the AG because she was somewhat adept at lying.

She is a Senator, just like Obama. She was not in cabinet meetings when the work of the president needed to be done. She did not make the decisions. She did not control ANYTHING. She failed to understand politics well enough to even get her health care initiative through. Where her husband was adored even on the day of his impeachment, she was reviled during the time she was trying to build a health care system that would take care of everyone. This would have been an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that she was of the Bill Clinton cut, rather than simply trading on the Clinton brand.

Instead she has become as shrill and horrible as her opponents claimed. Which is a real dissapointment for a long-time Clinton supporter like me.

posted by perkiset on Mar 6

That’s what the headlines will say if Hillary actually takes the nomination now.Just a little more data from yesterday (Fair notice: These are representative and incomplete. They are also scoffed from Air America directly and not researched personally)

• One of the counties in Ohio has +/- 12,000 registered Democrats. That county registered over 28,000 democratic votes in the primary and Hillary was the overwhelming winner.
• 8 counties in TX that went overwhelmingly for Bush in the last 2 presidential elections showed almost no Republican votes on Tuesday and an extraordinary amount of Democratic votes. Hillary again simply *killed* Obama in those counties.

 Get this my liberal & progressive friends: we are about to have our candidate picked for us by right wing assholes who’s agenda is to make us put up the most hated and Republican-galvanizing candidate we possibly can, because it’s all they’ve got. Since they cannot grab their asses with both hands much less put together a campaign that has ANYTHING to do with real contemporary thought or a vision of the future, they are resorting to any tricks they can to affect the general election.I despise them. Selfish, theocratic, pseudo-conservative morons that are destroying my country - and a lot of sheeple are letting it happen.::sigh::

posted by perkiset on Mar 5

On Air America (Thom Hartmann show) they ran a quick poll in TX to see how many people are Republican but voted for Hillary… in 15 minutes they had over 1200 emails confirming that this was exactly what they had done… Thom mentioned that a great many were actually gleeful that they could do it. Man I hate being right all the time …

Now I see three possible scenarios from this new angle on brinksmanship: The right wing nutjobs win with Hillary now and win again in November, Hillary does not win and it’s an open race between McCain and Obama, or worst for them: they help Hillary take the primary and she wins the general election, in which case Rush Limbaugh would have personally assisted Hillary in getting elected. A fitting irony indeed, but still about a million miles away from today.

posted by perkiset on Mar 5

CNN claims that Hillary won Texas because of undecided white male voters that changed to vote for her within the last 3 days before the primary.

Am I the only one that sees that as enormously suspicious?

I mean, isn’t it pretty clear if you are a white male in the state where George Bush came from where you stand re. Hillary? There were that many people that were SUDDENLY swayed into voting for her? She’s both adored and reviled pretty staunchly… so how can this be?

Yes, I have a theory: If you were tuned in at all to the right wing noise machine Monday and yesterday then you would have heard the likes of Rush all exercised about getting EVERYONE to vote for Hillary… why is this? Because they feel dead certain that they can beat her in the general election. The right wing WANTS Hillary as an opponent… does that not scare us horribly?

In my opinion, Bill’s antics cost us the white house for the last 8 years. Had he behaved differently during his presidency and not been impeached then we’d have Al Gore as a president, there’d be no Iraq war, we’d be on a path to energy independence and I would not be embarrassed speaking to my international friends. If their (the Clinton’s) personal love of power is so strong that they cannot see what is really best for the country (for her to go away), she takes the primary and then loses the general election to a war mongering fogey they will never be forgiven. They will have reduced their once-formidable legacy to something similar to Ralph Nader’s cartoon status (on a good day) or worse, being personally responsible for the genocide of hundreds of thousands of middle eastern peoples.

The longer this goes, the more I want her out of the race. However that being said, I am pretty alarmed by Obama’s lack of effective response to a week-ish of bad press and problems… I think the Clinton campaign has expertly and effectively pulled a string from his sweater and demonstrated that he MAY be ill-prepared to handle really tough stuff. The road to Pennsylvania is long and rocky… I guess I am looking forward to seeing how both candidates work through it.

In other news, Mike finally got out of the race last night. As the embodiment of the blending of church and state, all I can say is, “Huckin’ A Bubba!”