I regret that the idea of having the earth give way under Mr. Limpbaugh's mass did not occur to me until after the cartoon was inked.
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
05 March 2009
01 December 2008
Conservative Suicide
If Conservatives were less intent upon attending to other people's business and assuring that they legislated effectively, they would not be scrounging around the Beltway for lobbying jobs today. If Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter had been more cognizant of the situation facing the nation; had Lou Dobbs ever bothered to vet a statistic, then Conservative ideas may have earned broader acceptance in the marketplace.
Conservatives got what they asked for.
One does not wish to discredit conservative punditry's knowledge of it's audience. Among them, discussion of alterations to the Tax Code, Abortion, Immigration Reform, or Gay Rights provokes a visceral, immediate and almost uniform reaction. Regrettably (for them), the Far Right Opinion Machine had either no idea or no reverence for the growing chasm between them and the majority.
The Far Right lost on alterations to the Tax Code. Governor Mike Huckabee, and Representative Ron Paul followed behind the "Fair Tax," a consumption tax scheme designed by Atlanta-based radio host Neal Boortz, and Representative John Linder. The basis of its appeal, the decommissioning of the IRS and the sixteenth amendment, is also its downfall.
While one is disinclined to speaking favorably about the IRS, the IRS also has the unenviable task of enforcing the tax codes of the United States. The Internal Revenue Service is overdue for reform in more aspects than can be enumerated here. But doing away with it and moving to a consumption tax lacking regulation or enforcement mechanisms is a vote for the same lack of oversight that put the nation in dutch in the first place.
One also questions a system which allows government to know exactly what and in what quantities an individual purchases. (Hey! Bob just bought fifteen gallons of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. Why does he need that?) The current system stinks, but it's better than this alternative.
While questioning President-elect Obama's credentials as a Capitalist, there has been no outcry from Far-Right punditry about the redistribution of wealth from 99% to 1% of the population via current tax policy. One is loath to use a broad term like oligarchist, but what, precisely, is different from the Bolsheviks apart from the transparency of the wealth transfer?
The wealthy have the option of sitting upon their wealth. In the middle classes, a pent up demand exists for liquidity which will purchase cars, homes, durable goods and health care. Call it Trickle Up, a/k/a a rising tide lifts all boats.
The worthy far-right opposition totally lost the abortion debate. The majority is disinclined to reinstating governmental authority over abortion, at times in spite of intense moral opposition to the practice itself. The majority feels that the home is the best place for this discussion, as opposed to public fora. That, and about half of the population is biologically incapable of ever having an abortion in the first place, and would really rather watch football.
In the case of Immigration Reform, four candidates made their opposition a centerpiece of their campaigns. To put it in perspective, in Georgia's Republican primary, the two most vocal opponents to Immigration Reform, Representatives Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo, managed to gain 1,076 votes combined.
The author of the Immigration Reform bill despised by Representatives Hunter and Tancredo, Senator John McCain, was a very credible second place with 303,639 votes. Governor Huckabee, who had actually enacted legislation which could be construed as benefitting people who had entered illegally, took first place with 326,069. Call that a 585 to 1 differential against Hunter and Tancredo.
The Far Right Opinion Machine got one small victory in 2008. Proposition 8 failed in California. Judicial resources are going to be tied up for the foreseeable future, and anybody betting on prop 8's survival in the Golden State should be encouraged to send that money via The Wandering Gentile's Commode, P.O. Box Flush-Like-Rush, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
The Gay activist community may soon discover that they are better served by exacting revenge upon the talismen of conservatism. A few well placed ballot initiatives with regard to additional levies upon SUVs, McMansions, guns, and politically active faith communities in California could be much more effective than protesting in West Hollywood.
There is a country which already has many of the things that the Far Right Opinion Machine embraces already. This crucible should be seen as a oracle for the far right. That country has one of the lowest tax burdens in the world. Nativism has been an obstacle to diversity. The country has a strong relationship with a Conservative Christian community of both clergy and laity. Money is not spent on onerous schools or social programs. The wealthy have authority in all matters, and Mexicans are leaving in droves.
That country is Mexico.
Conservatives got what they asked for.
One does not wish to discredit conservative punditry's knowledge of it's audience. Among them, discussion of alterations to the Tax Code, Abortion, Immigration Reform, or Gay Rights provokes a visceral, immediate and almost uniform reaction. Regrettably (for them), the Far Right Opinion Machine had either no idea or no reverence for the growing chasm between them and the majority.
The Far Right lost on alterations to the Tax Code. Governor Mike Huckabee, and Representative Ron Paul followed behind the "Fair Tax," a consumption tax scheme designed by Atlanta-based radio host Neal Boortz, and Representative John Linder. The basis of its appeal, the decommissioning of the IRS and the sixteenth amendment, is also its downfall.
While one is disinclined to speaking favorably about the IRS, the IRS also has the unenviable task of enforcing the tax codes of the United States. The Internal Revenue Service is overdue for reform in more aspects than can be enumerated here. But doing away with it and moving to a consumption tax lacking regulation or enforcement mechanisms is a vote for the same lack of oversight that put the nation in dutch in the first place.
One also questions a system which allows government to know exactly what and in what quantities an individual purchases. (Hey! Bob just bought fifteen gallons of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. Why does he need that?) The current system stinks, but it's better than this alternative.
While questioning President-elect Obama's credentials as a Capitalist, there has been no outcry from Far-Right punditry about the redistribution of wealth from 99% to 1% of the population via current tax policy. One is loath to use a broad term like oligarchist, but what, precisely, is different from the Bolsheviks apart from the transparency of the wealth transfer?
The wealthy have the option of sitting upon their wealth. In the middle classes, a pent up demand exists for liquidity which will purchase cars, homes, durable goods and health care. Call it Trickle Up, a/k/a a rising tide lifts all boats.
The worthy far-right opposition totally lost the abortion debate. The majority is disinclined to reinstating governmental authority over abortion, at times in spite of intense moral opposition to the practice itself. The majority feels that the home is the best place for this discussion, as opposed to public fora. That, and about half of the population is biologically incapable of ever having an abortion in the first place, and would really rather watch football.
In the case of Immigration Reform, four candidates made their opposition a centerpiece of their campaigns. To put it in perspective, in Georgia's Republican primary, the two most vocal opponents to Immigration Reform, Representatives Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo, managed to gain 1,076 votes combined.
The author of the Immigration Reform bill despised by Representatives Hunter and Tancredo, Senator John McCain, was a very credible second place with 303,639 votes. Governor Huckabee, who had actually enacted legislation which could be construed as benefitting people who had entered illegally, took first place with 326,069. Call that a 585 to 1 differential against Hunter and Tancredo.
The Far Right Opinion Machine got one small victory in 2008. Proposition 8 failed in California. Judicial resources are going to be tied up for the foreseeable future, and anybody betting on prop 8's survival in the Golden State should be encouraged to send that money via The Wandering Gentile's Commode, P.O. Box Flush-Like-Rush, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
The Gay activist community may soon discover that they are better served by exacting revenge upon the talismen of conservatism. A few well placed ballot initiatives with regard to additional levies upon SUVs, McMansions, guns, and politically active faith communities in California could be much more effective than protesting in West Hollywood.
There is a country which already has many of the things that the Far Right Opinion Machine embraces already. This crucible should be seen as a oracle for the far right. That country has one of the lowest tax burdens in the world. Nativism has been an obstacle to diversity. The country has a strong relationship with a Conservative Christian community of both clergy and laity. Money is not spent on onerous schools or social programs. The wealthy have authority in all matters, and Mexicans are leaving in droves.
That country is Mexico.
29 September 2008
And the Hits Just Keep A-Coming
John McCain has had a worse day than last Friday, but it was the beginning of a long presence in Hanoi. If Senator McCain's performance in the debate was not a deal-breaker for undecided voters, then Sarah Palin will be the bullet that ends the pulse of the Republucan campaign in 2008.
It is not appropriate to blame McCain. The handlers from his party have managed to take the likeable, engaging maverick operating on a shoestring, and managed to convert him into a cookie-cutter Republican candidate, scarcely distinguished from former Georgia Representative Pat Swindall, who left office in disgrace in the late eighties.
The Republican handlers are under the illusion that voters actually care about their social conservative wedge issues when the car is out of gas, the pumps are dry (as they are in the southeast), the house is getting foreclosed on, and the 401(k) is more like a 179(B). One suspects that an unemployed individual on the edge of returning to the land of the renter would be happy to host the most flamboyant Gay wedding in history on his lawn, if it means he has a job and gets to keep his lawn.
McCain, the ever-aware pilot, is much too savvy a politician to allow himself to come off as the acrimonious, infirm elderly man we saw on Friday night. The rambling rants were characteristic of the misanthropic message of a party which is willing to sacrifice a war hero who did not always hew closely to a party line which makes no allowances for living up to Christian doctrine which it finds inconvenient.
The Republican party wants to sell the voter upon experience. They want the voter to know that Barack Obama is naive and doesn't get it.
Experienced military leaders lost 4000+ American servicepeople, while the inexperienced Barack Obama was of the opinion that they should not have been committed. The best we can hope for is a draw, and now Saddam isn't there to occupy the Iranians. Oh yeah, by the way, WHERE THE HELL IS BIN LADEN?
McCain, and Republicans "got it," that lax oversight in the housing and financial sectors would be great for the economy because we can trust bankers and lawyers to police themselves. Highly motivated financial people can be counted upon to behave diligently and ethically, right?
And there was nothing AT ALL naive about tax breaks that allowed manufacturing jobs to be shipped overseas at a rate that very nearly replicates the giant sucking sound that H. Ross Perot counseled the American public about in 1992-but he never imagined that the slurping would come from the People's Republic of China instead of Mexico...and the Chinese would be holding a trillion dollars of American debt as a result.
Very well, then, maybe experienced, non-naive people who "get it" aren't all that they are advertised to be. So the Republicans are going to bring out their own inexperienced, naive person who doesn't get it. Governor Sarah Palin makes Dan Quayle look like Shakespeare.
One hopes that the awkward interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric were a tactic to lower expectations for the debate with Joe Biden. Regrettably, one suspects that Governor Palin is as dumb as a bag of hammers. However, she is much easier on the eyes.
Those who had a complaint about Senator Clinton were less motivated by her genitalia than they were by a perception that the Senator from New York is a bit too tempestuous to be effective in the presidency. Governor Palin does exhibit a level of tempestuousness, but her targets are satirists and those who question her qualifications.
One would guess that "Saturday Night Live" is not shown in Alaska at all, but a quick perusal of the website for Palin's former employer, KTUU in Anchorage, indicated that it is an NBC affiliate. Did she expect her loud arrival on the national stage to pass unnoticed by parodists in New York? Making fun of public figures has been part of the program's description since 1975, and the producers and network know their audience is more likely to give Obama a pass.
A cagey tweener could have seen that coming. Why didn't the 44-year-old? Oh, she talks about having gotten into politics by moving from the PTA, but my math indicates that her oldest child must have started kindergarten at 18 months old.
Getting back to the experience issue, (and away from a rant fueled by lust for Tina Fey), if her experience running a city of any size were characterized by some spectacular accomplishment or demonstration of competence one may be inclined to listen. Giuliani's miracle in New York comes immediately to mind.
However, we are presented with a small town which shares many of the same difficulties of towns its size nationwide. Adding the state into the mix, one wishes for a record which reflects the kind of forward-thinking leadership that puts a state in good stead for future prosperity. Zell Miller's helmsmanship in Georgia is a perfectly fine example of a man who did an outstanding job of running a state that cannot simply dig a hole and have it puke up oil.
Regrets to Governor Palin, but without the North Slope, Alaska would be likened to the Mississippi of the Arctic. That is not entirely fair. Mississippi would be justified in being insulted by the comparison.
So the Republican Party now expects us to put on the Emperor's New Clothes, and accept that this is the best ticket that they can offer. No. Mike Huckabee has spoken eloquently about the Republican lack of political prowess this year.
And he is the next Republican who has a chance of ever being elected president.
It is not appropriate to blame McCain. The handlers from his party have managed to take the likeable, engaging maverick operating on a shoestring, and managed to convert him into a cookie-cutter Republican candidate, scarcely distinguished from former Georgia Representative Pat Swindall, who left office in disgrace in the late eighties.
The Republican handlers are under the illusion that voters actually care about their social conservative wedge issues when the car is out of gas, the pumps are dry (as they are in the southeast), the house is getting foreclosed on, and the 401(k) is more like a 179(B). One suspects that an unemployed individual on the edge of returning to the land of the renter would be happy to host the most flamboyant Gay wedding in history on his lawn, if it means he has a job and gets to keep his lawn.
McCain, the ever-aware pilot, is much too savvy a politician to allow himself to come off as the acrimonious, infirm elderly man we saw on Friday night. The rambling rants were characteristic of the misanthropic message of a party which is willing to sacrifice a war hero who did not always hew closely to a party line which makes no allowances for living up to Christian doctrine which it finds inconvenient.
The Republican party wants to sell the voter upon experience. They want the voter to know that Barack Obama is naive and doesn't get it.
Experienced military leaders lost 4000+ American servicepeople, while the inexperienced Barack Obama was of the opinion that they should not have been committed. The best we can hope for is a draw, and now Saddam isn't there to occupy the Iranians. Oh yeah, by the way, WHERE THE HELL IS BIN LADEN?
McCain, and Republicans "got it," that lax oversight in the housing and financial sectors would be great for the economy because we can trust bankers and lawyers to police themselves. Highly motivated financial people can be counted upon to behave diligently and ethically, right?
And there was nothing AT ALL naive about tax breaks that allowed manufacturing jobs to be shipped overseas at a rate that very nearly replicates the giant sucking sound that H. Ross Perot counseled the American public about in 1992-but he never imagined that the slurping would come from the People's Republic of China instead of Mexico...and the Chinese would be holding a trillion dollars of American debt as a result.
Very well, then, maybe experienced, non-naive people who "get it" aren't all that they are advertised to be. So the Republicans are going to bring out their own inexperienced, naive person who doesn't get it. Governor Sarah Palin makes Dan Quayle look like Shakespeare.
One hopes that the awkward interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric were a tactic to lower expectations for the debate with Joe Biden. Regrettably, one suspects that Governor Palin is as dumb as a bag of hammers. However, she is much easier on the eyes.
Those who had a complaint about Senator Clinton were less motivated by her genitalia than they were by a perception that the Senator from New York is a bit too tempestuous to be effective in the presidency. Governor Palin does exhibit a level of tempestuousness, but her targets are satirists and those who question her qualifications.
One would guess that "Saturday Night Live" is not shown in Alaska at all, but a quick perusal of the website for Palin's former employer, KTUU in Anchorage, indicated that it is an NBC affiliate. Did she expect her loud arrival on the national stage to pass unnoticed by parodists in New York? Making fun of public figures has been part of the program's description since 1975, and the producers and network know their audience is more likely to give Obama a pass.
A cagey tweener could have seen that coming. Why didn't the 44-year-old? Oh, she talks about having gotten into politics by moving from the PTA, but my math indicates that her oldest child must have started kindergarten at 18 months old.
Getting back to the experience issue, (and away from a rant fueled by lust for Tina Fey), if her experience running a city of any size were characterized by some spectacular accomplishment or demonstration of competence one may be inclined to listen. Giuliani's miracle in New York comes immediately to mind.
However, we are presented with a small town which shares many of the same difficulties of towns its size nationwide. Adding the state into the mix, one wishes for a record which reflects the kind of forward-thinking leadership that puts a state in good stead for future prosperity. Zell Miller's helmsmanship in Georgia is a perfectly fine example of a man who did an outstanding job of running a state that cannot simply dig a hole and have it puke up oil.
Regrets to Governor Palin, but without the North Slope, Alaska would be likened to the Mississippi of the Arctic. That is not entirely fair. Mississippi would be justified in being insulted by the comparison.
So the Republican Party now expects us to put on the Emperor's New Clothes, and accept that this is the best ticket that they can offer. No. Mike Huckabee has spoken eloquently about the Republican lack of political prowess this year.
And he is the next Republican who has a chance of ever being elected president.
16 September 2008
How Obama Gets His Groove Back
Apparently, Your Wandering Gentile is a Black, Muslim, Socialist, Anarchist, Miscegenist, Anti-American Pawn of the New World Order, harboring closeted homosexual tendencies, immediately disposed to the murder of infants and the elderly, and perverting kindergarteners with free access to pornography.
Wow, I got all of this for one small donation to the Obama campaign!
To those who share their viewpoint with the lead paragraph, I would also like to say that I dislike puppies, SUVs, and the idea of persons wearing uniforms being granted the authority to review my papers on a whim. While we're at it, the idea of a fence as a barrier between my nation and the rest of the world suggests an infrastructure to convert the nation I love into a prison, an idea which is spectacularly offensive.
Okay, I don't really dislike puppies, but I am allergic to them.
I live in the middle of America, the suburbs of a major city, with an income, age, and educational attainment that sit exactly in the middle. I am John Doe. I am the guy who John McCain got in 2000, and the man he lost in 2008.
That being said, the Obama campaign has a couple of issues that need to be fixed...yesterday.
The campaign must address the fact that issues that face black America are fundamentally the same issues that face white, latino, asian and native Americans. Economic issues in particular have a disproportionately negative effect on black Americans, as do questions of selective enforcement and overt bigotry. To Obama's credit, all of the issues which are not receiving the attention appropriate to their importance were addressed in The Audacity of Hope.
The focus has to be moved on two fronts.
The first front is to demonstrate credibly that the interests of Americans of every identity are more alike than they are different. That in and of itself is a whole hell of a lot easier to say than do. The Republicans have been spectacularly effective in communicating that Obama and his supporters are different and strange, in such a fashion as to make a monolithic body which is questioned for its ability to be considered as a part of America.
This is the overwhelming theme of Conservative opinon, particularly talk radio which has a twenty year head start on Liberal talk radio. The best idea is not by attempting to discredit or disprove allegations, but by moving the conversation to where the audience overlaps in opinion with Obama.
As Chris Rock pointed out in Head of State, the worst thing that Bugs Bunny could do to Elmer Fudd was not blowing him up, but kissing him. An Obama presence with The Portly Pundit and Hannie Pie would be a better opportunity to reach middle America than a billion dollars worth of TV ads. All he would have to do is show up for an hour, take a couple of phone calls which are likely to come from hostile people, and hope the presenter would blow his stack, or in the unlikely event of a civil discussion, he connects with an audience which was not likely to seek his message.
Whether or not Democrats like it, Limbaugh and Hannity are big power brokers in the middle of America. A great big chunk of their audience is rural, white, and blue collar, a few of whom are highly susceptible to rumors and innuendo. The idea is not to mine those who are absolutely opposed to Obama under any circumstances, but appeal to the large component of middle class listeners to these programs who are fair minded and willing to review their decisions based upon a fair hearing of the facts.
There is no question of "legitimizing" Right-wing talk radio. It is not an issue of legitimization or de-legitimization. Right-wing talk radio simply is and no definition of the word is necessary. There is nothing to fear except abandoning an audience which lives in Obama's weakest demographic. One counts upon the junior Senator from Illinois bringing his charisma and charm to the microphone, swinging a few opinions to his side. This idea is a winner.
The other front is deemphasizing the "Change" brand. Senator Obama's resources have him in a position to upgrade his brand from "Change" to "Hope." One supposes that the Gentle Reader is considering that The Wandering Gentile is in deep need of a drug screening after suggesting that Obama show up on Rush Limbaugh and alter his branding.
Change tells the voter that the candidate would do things differently from the current administration, but it does not delineate how or how much. The idea of casting a candidate from the incumbent party as the incumbent is proving to be a non-starter. Hope is what persuaded voters to Clinton in '92, Reagan in '80, Roosevelt in '32. While McCain's policies are deeply similar to Bush's, he remains a different man, thusly falling under a generic idea of change.
It's not persuasive, nor was it ever. The Obama campaign requires the message of Hope to propel the conversation in its direction. Change without hope? Hell, I can get that with McCain. Non-Traditional on the ticket? Sarah Palin is not a traditional person on the ticket. Change is coming regardless.
No, change kind of sucks as a message. Obama would be well served to dance with the one what brung him, and that one is Hope. This is the point where the Clinton assets should come to the table. The Clinton brand was built on hope in the nineties, a particularly potent message in the atmosphere of the Bush 41 recession and the Keating Five. Considering the atmosphere where financial institutions are dropping like cell phone calls in the boonies, and all of the other crud the economy is going through now, hope combined with a clearly articulated agenda has a lot of potential.
The idea is not for either candidate to change their positions, but for both candidates positions to appear clearly and comprehensibly to the electorate. This absurd pattern where both parties' wedge issues are taking center stage needs to end now. While the candidates engage in volleys of juvenile name calling and finger pointing, the issues affecting the quotidian lives of real Americans are not being addressed.
A gifted orator and communicator like Obama can survive the slings and arrows of the partisan opposition if his campaign sticks to the qualities that make him compelling combined with a principled and concrete discussion of his positions. Playing a game invented by his opponents suggests that Obama's presence at the inauguration would be at the discretion of President-elect John McCain, not the American people who have worked so hard to support him.
One asks- does Senator Obama feel that the campaign lives up to the expectations of his supporters?
Wow, I got all of this for one small donation to the Obama campaign!
To those who share their viewpoint with the lead paragraph, I would also like to say that I dislike puppies, SUVs, and the idea of persons wearing uniforms being granted the authority to review my papers on a whim. While we're at it, the idea of a fence as a barrier between my nation and the rest of the world suggests an infrastructure to convert the nation I love into a prison, an idea which is spectacularly offensive.
Okay, I don't really dislike puppies, but I am allergic to them.
I live in the middle of America, the suburbs of a major city, with an income, age, and educational attainment that sit exactly in the middle. I am John Doe. I am the guy who John McCain got in 2000, and the man he lost in 2008.
That being said, the Obama campaign has a couple of issues that need to be fixed...yesterday.
The campaign must address the fact that issues that face black America are fundamentally the same issues that face white, latino, asian and native Americans. Economic issues in particular have a disproportionately negative effect on black Americans, as do questions of selective enforcement and overt bigotry. To Obama's credit, all of the issues which are not receiving the attention appropriate to their importance were addressed in The Audacity of Hope.
The focus has to be moved on two fronts.
The first front is to demonstrate credibly that the interests of Americans of every identity are more alike than they are different. That in and of itself is a whole hell of a lot easier to say than do. The Republicans have been spectacularly effective in communicating that Obama and his supporters are different and strange, in such a fashion as to make a monolithic body which is questioned for its ability to be considered as a part of America.
This is the overwhelming theme of Conservative opinon, particularly talk radio which has a twenty year head start on Liberal talk radio. The best idea is not by attempting to discredit or disprove allegations, but by moving the conversation to where the audience overlaps in opinion with Obama.
As Chris Rock pointed out in Head of State, the worst thing that Bugs Bunny could do to Elmer Fudd was not blowing him up, but kissing him. An Obama presence with The Portly Pundit and Hannie Pie would be a better opportunity to reach middle America than a billion dollars worth of TV ads. All he would have to do is show up for an hour, take a couple of phone calls which are likely to come from hostile people, and hope the presenter would blow his stack, or in the unlikely event of a civil discussion, he connects with an audience which was not likely to seek his message.
Whether or not Democrats like it, Limbaugh and Hannity are big power brokers in the middle of America. A great big chunk of their audience is rural, white, and blue collar, a few of whom are highly susceptible to rumors and innuendo. The idea is not to mine those who are absolutely opposed to Obama under any circumstances, but appeal to the large component of middle class listeners to these programs who are fair minded and willing to review their decisions based upon a fair hearing of the facts.
There is no question of "legitimizing" Right-wing talk radio. It is not an issue of legitimization or de-legitimization. Right-wing talk radio simply is and no definition of the word is necessary. There is nothing to fear except abandoning an audience which lives in Obama's weakest demographic. One counts upon the junior Senator from Illinois bringing his charisma and charm to the microphone, swinging a few opinions to his side. This idea is a winner.
The other front is deemphasizing the "Change" brand. Senator Obama's resources have him in a position to upgrade his brand from "Change" to "Hope." One supposes that the Gentle Reader is considering that The Wandering Gentile is in deep need of a drug screening after suggesting that Obama show up on Rush Limbaugh and alter his branding.
Change tells the voter that the candidate would do things differently from the current administration, but it does not delineate how or how much. The idea of casting a candidate from the incumbent party as the incumbent is proving to be a non-starter. Hope is what persuaded voters to Clinton in '92, Reagan in '80, Roosevelt in '32. While McCain's policies are deeply similar to Bush's, he remains a different man, thusly falling under a generic idea of change.
It's not persuasive, nor was it ever. The Obama campaign requires the message of Hope to propel the conversation in its direction. Change without hope? Hell, I can get that with McCain. Non-Traditional on the ticket? Sarah Palin is not a traditional person on the ticket. Change is coming regardless.
No, change kind of sucks as a message. Obama would be well served to dance with the one what brung him, and that one is Hope. This is the point where the Clinton assets should come to the table. The Clinton brand was built on hope in the nineties, a particularly potent message in the atmosphere of the Bush 41 recession and the Keating Five. Considering the atmosphere where financial institutions are dropping like cell phone calls in the boonies, and all of the other crud the economy is going through now, hope combined with a clearly articulated agenda has a lot of potential.
The idea is not for either candidate to change their positions, but for both candidates positions to appear clearly and comprehensibly to the electorate. This absurd pattern where both parties' wedge issues are taking center stage needs to end now. While the candidates engage in volleys of juvenile name calling and finger pointing, the issues affecting the quotidian lives of real Americans are not being addressed.
A gifted orator and communicator like Obama can survive the slings and arrows of the partisan opposition if his campaign sticks to the qualities that make him compelling combined with a principled and concrete discussion of his positions. Playing a game invented by his opponents suggests that Obama's presence at the inauguration would be at the discretion of President-elect John McCain, not the American people who have worked so hard to support him.
One asks- does Senator Obama feel that the campaign lives up to the expectations of his supporters?
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