The barkeeper comments on the parties election strategies.
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August 1, 2004
Billmon: What Goes Around
Comments
“waived the olive branch”….tee hee. I know he meant “waved”, but the unintended humor actually works in that line.
Posted by: maxcrat | Aug 1 2004 8:24 utc | 1
Thanks Billmon, another great insightful comment.
Your notice of “Michael Barone, the effete conservative columnist” reminded me of other conservative commentators. David and Tucker – what is up? Is effete a republican commentator selection criteria? Every time Tucker talks about “jacuzzi babies” I feel sick. Where do they get these guys?
Posted by: David E… | Aug 1 2004 16:01 utc | 2
Billmon said:
“….culturally liberal on social issues, Clintonian centrists on economics, but most of all, completely pragmatic about elections and what it takes to win them.”
Everyone contributed, it wasn’t just Kerry.
All, looked very ‘leader like’. I’d feel ‘safe’ with this bunch in charge.
Posted by: pb | Aug 1 2004 17:51 utc | 3
The Democratic campaign is even shrewder than Billmon suggests.
In a previous post he argued that Kerry’s speech overkilled the “Kill Terrorists” meme.
Referring to a Gallup poll, this paragraph appeared in that previous post:
Terrorism is not considered to be the most important problem facing the nation today. The top problems are the economy and Iraq.
I thought that was essentially erroneous then, and given the litany of threats this weekend… it is obvious we are just one kaboom away from terrorism inserting inself again as the main issue.
That’s why Kerry’s speech had to beat terrorism to death.
It is worth reminding everyone again:
The WTC attack was the most watched and rewatched Pearl Harbor in history. Never underestimate its effect on the American psyche.
One can’t get teary enough, angry enough, or maudlin enough in regards to the WTC attack.
Because of the way the media slurped up and usurped that story…the WTC attack is the greatest disaster ever to befall a people.
I know that’s bullshit. You know that’s bullshit. But go and tell it to the sheeple.
You will be crucified faster than you can say Jesus Hebrew Christ.
Kerry’s campaign has not and will not undersell the 9/11 calamity.
And while the shrill war drumming at the convention makes many of us physically ill… protecting and soothing the people must be the support beam of every other plank of the party.
Else… it is four more years of the worst blunderer and plunger in US presidential history.
Posted by: koreyel | Aug 1 2004 20:47 utc | 4
exactly;
If the people need warm fuzzy security blankets, I say pile them on. If the people need a little he-man (war) heroics…. what the hell, give’m sergeant rock with a bayonet in his teeth. If the people crave a future as bright as a happyface, well give em, well…… John Edwards. Lets face it, when half the electorate will cast their own (and their childrens) economic self interest and survival to the wind for pie in the sky “social issues” that will never be implemented (win or loose), no amount of cosmetic engineering to our candidate can undermine the necessity of winning in the fall.
Posted by: annamist | Aug 1 2004 22:24 utc | 5
I agree with Billmon. Baronehead is a god-damned idiot. I say win at all cost. if that means stealing the GOP playbook, lets start reading their signs. Like in baseball, football, and basketball, stealing the oppositions playbook is fair game. Anyway, by the Nov election Bushies drug problems will have him in a state of psychosis and he will probably screww up on the campaign trail many times where the public will see how nuts he is.
How is that fuck going to get through the debates? I think Kerry will rip him a new one.
Posted by: jdp | Aug 1 2004 23:46 utc | 7
How is that fuck going to get through the debates? I think Kerry will rip him a new one.
Posted by: jdp | August 1, 2004 07:46 PM
_______________
He’ll fumble and flub and smirk and shirk and everyone will feel sorry for the twerp and vote for him.
Posted by: pb | Aug 2 2004 1:40 utc | 8
“Why of course the people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don’t want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
– Hermann Goering, April 18, 1946, while awaiting the Nuremberg trials.
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 2 2004 1:59 utc | 9
@Anonymous:
Three questions:
1. Did that American colonel who guarded Hermann laxly, let female visitors in?
2. How old is Karl Rove?
3. Is it time to call for DNA testing yet?
Posted by: Robert Jackson | Aug 2 2004 3:06 utc | 10
ah Rove….
“All the other male pigs on the farm were porkers. The best known among them was a small fat pig named Squealer, with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail which was somehow very persuasive. The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white.”
-George Orwell, Animal Farm 1946
Posted by: koreyel | Aug 2 2004 3:16 utc | 11
ot: those orders to pakistan to capture a terrorist during the dem convention, well lucky guys, turns out thats the source of our
terra alert
2 birds w/one stone
“The plans were found by intelligence agents in e-mails on the computer of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian arrested on July 25 after a 12-hour gun battle in the Pakistani city of Gujrat.”
Posted by: annie | Aug 2 2004 14:08 utc | 12
I thought this line in Norman Soloman’s article at Commondreams.org summed up my feelings well:
“And let’s not imitate the Democratic Party’s hype machine. Just because you think people should hold their nose and vote for Kerry, don’t act like there isn’t a stench.”
I find Kedwards nearly as odious as Bush, honestly. Which is why I bristle so much at being directed to vote for him. Of course, the thrust of Norm’s article is precisely that.
Wee vignette: I met some Republicans this weekend- it was interesting. We were all helping a friend move, so conversation was pretty light until the end, when politics reared its ugly head. Our friend mentioned that, though she leans Republican, she didn’t really plan on voting. To which my fiancee replied, first “what, not voting- why not?” but then added, “Well, if you’re leaning Republican, feel free to not vote, actually.”
Afterwards, I came to think that was the wrong approach. Am I crazy to believe that I’d rather see 100% voter turnout, regardless of the consequences, than 50% or less, whatever we usually average for presidential elections? I guess that amounts to thinking that a (better) working democracy trumps the potential outcome?
Among the reasons I can’t get behind Kewards is their refusal to address the much needed electoral reform that I see as the first step in improving, well, basically everything else. I rank order the reforms I’d like to see thusly:
1- Access. Compulsory voting, or making election day a holiday, or possibly extending voting over 2-3 days.
2- IRV & PR. Both ways to increase the plurality of opinions represented by candidates and options for voters
3- The Money Thing. Publicly-financed campaigns. If all the candidates had the same amout to spend and could not be bought off by corporations and the like, we’d force the pols to really apply themselves to campaigning, rather than raising enough money to campaign.
Anyway, I know many of the customers in this Bar need no convincing on these points… I’m more curious about whether ’tis better to direct people not to vote at all than to potentially vote for Bush. Or Kerry, or whomever you want to loose.
sorry if this seems OT…
Posted by: æ | Aug 2 2004 16:11 utc | 13
“…. neither party can gain a lasting edge without seeing its best sales ideas stolen by the other. Do the voters seem to like moderate Southern governors with a folksy charm? Hey, our guy is like that!”
Since when did Billmon start channeling Fred Silverman???
….director of daytime programs, then vice president of programs for CBS-TV, New York City, 1963-75; president, ABC Entertainment, New York City, 1975-78; president and chief executive officer, NBC, New York City, 1978; president, Fred Silverman Company, Los Angeles, from 1981.”
Can it be true?….Is America soon to be bamboozled by a half-bright young TV executive turned 2nd generation Rovian who is able to seamlessly make the connection between the election campaign of BushIII and the remaking of Happy Days?
Posted by: RossK | Aug 3 2004 6:34 utc | 14