The end of this election means tune in more, not less
In less than 24 hours, we will almost certainly have a president-elect.
That president elect will likely be Barack Obama, though it might not be.
Everyone knows this has been a historic campaign, blah blah blah. People are more tuned in than any other campaign in history, blah blah blah.
But here’s the thing.
I read a really good thing (for once) on CNN’s Political Ticker the other day, where they made this point: This marathon of a presidential campaign isn’t the end, it’s the beginning.
No president is going to single-handedly fix our problems or prevent them from being solved. That lies with us.
I know a lot of people who’ve taken an interest in politics and other current events this year where they haven’t before. If you’re one of those people, I’m going to make a plea to you, on my metaphorical hands and knees. Keep caring. Keep learning. Keep voting. Stay on top of it.
The real work starts on January 20, when the Bushies finally get the boot out of the White House and the next government starts to figure out where we go from here. You don’t need to be a news junkie to know our world and our country is in the process of getting seriously, seriously fucked. So stay in the know. It never hurts, it only helps. KEEP CARING ABOUT THIS WORLD. Nobody gets anything done otherwise. Not even Barack Obama.
I hope you all have a good Election Night, and you wake up on Wednesday morning with a clear idea of what to do next.
Millennials’ sense of entitlement, McCain seems to almost want to lose, and math and politics were meant to be
Colin fucking Powell just endorsed Obama. If that ain’t a trip. And just when McCain was getting some momentum too.
Anyways, there was a really damn thought-provoking letter to us Millennials by a fellow Millennial in a Newsweek article a few weeks back. And it made me think a bit about our sense of entitlement as a generation.
We were brought up to believe we could have it all. Our childhood of the ’90s knew nationwide peace and prosperity. Even our adolescence, in which our innocence was supposedly shattered by 9/11, made us think we could have it all. After all, we went to war with only one demand from our President: Go shopping.
Grade inflation has soared over the past couple decades, because we (or more effectively, I suppose, our parents) can’t believe that we can’t get the best just by showing up. Of course we deserve an A, we did the work. We came to class. If we didn’t do the best work possible, well…look, we’re stressed, okay? We’ve got a lot on our minds.
I see it too in my job working at my campus bookstore. People lose their receipts, but they still want to make returns. People misunderstand the last day they can return a book, but they still want to do it, and they get hoppin’ mad when they don’t. People bend up their new books, but they didn’t really use them, so they still want their money back for new books. They want it all.
I think motives are given a little more credit than action sometimes. If you didn’t mean to do it, somehow it’s okay. If you misunderstood, and that’s why you did something wrong, then it’s okay, because you’re still a good person, so why should anything bad happen to you? You didn’t mean it. Isn’t that enough?
Though an Obama victory seems more and more likely these days, there’s a very common thread running through my fellow Obama-ites: “I swear if he doesn’t win because of the (fill-in-your-typical-right-wing-enemy-here), I’m going to bust a nut.” But nobody ever says “If Obama doesn’t win, I’ll really regret not canvassing more. Not talking to my relatives in swing states. Not knocking on doors and getting them slammed in my face. Not donating that twenty-five dollars.” Somehow that doesn’t get said as much.
Anyway, I think I’ve bashed my generation enough for a day or two. That sense of entitlement has just really been bugging me these days. Maybe it’s because I work in customer service, a position that will darken anybody’s view on humanity given enough time.
In other news, I got my ballot today woooo! I’ll probably put up a voter’s guide with my thoughts for my fellow Oregonians in a day or two, because obviously EVERYBODY wants to know what I think about Ballot Measure Whatever-The-Fuck.
Also, I know a lot of you probably know this site, but I’ve been having a shitload of fun with FiveThirtyEight lately. It’s the place where math geekery and political geekery get married.
Finally, does the McCain campaign just want to fail or what? CHARACTER ATTACKS AREN’T WORKING. STOP THEM. Calling Obama a socialist is not going to work anymore than saying he pals around with terrorists. It will rev up the conservative-leaning folks, but is not going to sway those moderates and independents who you have not yet convinced.
To play devil’s advocate as an Obama supporter, there are two things McCain needs to do if he wants to come back and win this thing:
1) Convince voters that his economic plan is better. Attacking Obama’s won’t work, people like it and it’s solid and they’re sick of hearing about bad things about Obama. They would be more receptive to good things about McCain. Talk about what he’s going to do to move this country forward. Get Mitt Romney on the TV hawking it or something.
2) Play up divided government. This is, really, his most powerful and solid argument for his candidacy and he’s got rocks in his head for not making this a cornerstone of his campaign. Americans strongly, STRONGLY prefer a divided-party government, and they usually vote that way. He needs to say “Look, the Democrats will control Congress and possibly have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Do you really want a Democratic president too? Our government is built on checks and balances. Obama will not provide that, I will.”
Of course, a McCain presidency would likely appoint conservative judges to replace the two liberal ones that will likely be retiring (Stevens and Ginsburg. BTW, say bye-bye to Roe v. Wade under a President McCain) so that argument only goes so far from an objective standpoint. Still, it would greatly help his campaign.
Fifteen days till this crapping thing is over. Damn.
Suh-cure-uh-tee?
It’s interesting to me that McCain’s one ace in the hole, the only thing that seems to be keeping him alive in this election, is national security. So many moderates I’ve talked to, so many non-partisan pundits I read, seem to say: “You know, it’s a dangerous world out there. McCain knows it, and I’m not sure Obama does. McCain’s been there, Obama hasn’t. And we need someone who can protect us, because if our enemies come to our borders, they’re not going to ask you which way you voted. They’re just going to kill you. I know McCain will protect me. And I’m not saying Obama won’t, but I’m just not sure. I’m just not sure.”
I have my own opinions, as you can probably imagine, and I’ll talk about them later, but what do you think? Screw the pitter-patter about the decision to invade Iraq or McCain’s opposition to invading Lebanon back in ‘83. (For my money, the best line McCain had all night on Friday is when he said “The next president of the United States is not going to have to address the issue as to whether we went into Iraq or not. The next president of the United States is going to have to decide how we leave, when we leave, and what we leave behind.”)
How do you feel the personal safety of you and the people you love will be affected by who’s in the White House next January? And why?
McCain be riding dirty, Obama and him might not be sparring, if he loses then bye bye Barry, and Hillary 2012.
At first it was that John McCain had eight houses, and now it’s that he’s got thirteen, count ‘em, thirteen fuckin’ cars. Two of which are foreign (He’s been saying all along that he buys American, and now the head of the UAW has thrown a hissy fit).
The funniest punch line ever, of course, is that it turns out Obama owns one car, and it’s a Ford Escape Hybrid. Good work, Barry.
It hasn’t received a lot of press. I’m kinda glad. Yeah, it’s a little relevant in that it kinda demolishes McCain’s attempts to paint Obama as an elitist, but really? Who. The fuck. Cares.
What does matter is the financial meltdown, and both campaigns’ shenanigans have been really interesting that way. McCain says he ain’t gonna go to the debate on Friday unless a bailout’s resolved (You can dissect that decision for quite a while, no?)
Obama said STFU McCain, we gonna debate like already planned. Apparently he commented “It’s my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess…I think that it is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once.”
Oh snap Barry!
In all seriousness, the joint statement they both issued was kinda nice, but maybe I’m just a big softie.
I really have to wonder what’s going to happen what’ll be next for the loser’s career in this race. If McCain loses, it’ll be Presidential Loss #2 and he’ll be up for re-election in 2010. I don’t think he’ll lose his seat, though I wonder if anything would happen to his influence in the Senate. Really don’t know on that one. With Obama, however, I kinda get the feeling that if he loses, he’s done. Like, gone. 2010 will roll around and Illinois will throw his ass out. He’s got an all-or-nothing game here, he’s risen so fast that if he loses, he’ll fall just as fast as he rose.
And maybe not, but given Obama’s constantly shifting onwards-and-upwards life history, I wonder what the man will do if Nov. 5th gives us a president-elect McCain.
One thing I’m willing to put bets on right now. If we have a McCain 2008, we’re going to see Hillary 2012. There’s no way voters will go for a fourth Republican term, and she wouldn’t have to do anything to win the primary, because it’ll just go unsaid: “Ya shoulda picked me.”
I’ll throw down a twenty on this. Seriously. Who’s in.
On a final note, you guys know LOLcats? Well it hasn’t been updated in forever but in case you haven’t seen it yet, try all-new LOLJohnMcCain.
Juno porn, Palin vs. Feminist Establishment, the rise and fall of Michael Moore, and hope for Obama-ites because no one calls us fucking Millennials
I went to preview Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist with my friend Shads yesterday. It was like Juno porn. Bunch of quirky, silly, awkward submissive boys and kick-ass dominating girls (Not that, y’know, I identify with that or anything). Pretty sub-par plot, but amusing to watch. Twenty years from now we’ll be looking at those flicks of movies of our generation. Millenial movies? Turn of the millenium culture? “I’ll text you,” says the Evil Girl in the movie (Who doesn’t really seem to change from generation to generation). It seems funny now, and it’ll probably seem funny then too.
Anyways, then I went to see Wayne’s World at the Laurelhurst theater, and it made me miss the ’90s. Sweet.
You know what I’m not going to miss? The brou-ha-ha over Sarah Palin. Talk about a VP pick that totally turned the entire game on its ear. As an Obama supporter, it’s both darkly funny and hauntingly sad how bewildered the educated NPR left is at Palin’s popularity. “Palin isn’t for women!” “She ain’t no feminist!” “Palin…she…fuck, she hunts moose! Goddamn!” they gesticulate over their microbrews.
Enough ink has been spilled about how Palin has more in common with the average American woman than the Feminist Establishment does, so I’ll just use that as a springboard to say that Palin’s popularity and the inability of the left to contend with that is symptomatic of a larger issue: Liberals plain-out don’t understand conservatives. Judith Warner wrote a really good piece in the NYT about this the other day about how she went to a McCain rally in Virginia, and she really brings it home in the end with her point of how conservatives are able to grapple with the liberal mindset, but liberals fail to get into the conservative one (And she even backs it up with data, other pundits should take note, dammit).
I’ve noticed that one thing everyone always thinks they have a handle on is how people work (ha, and that statement kind of supports itself. Funny). Everyone thinks they know how people are going to react to what and why. And nowhere is this more evident than the political phenomenon of Sarah Palin. The whole deal with her daughter getting pregnant is the best example of this. Evangelicals aren’t shocked by that, with one in five girls under 20 getting pregnant these days, and they’ve probably had to deal with it in their own communities (especially, cause, y’know, evangelical communities tend to not have the most encouraging access to birth control). But that set of liberals (read: everybody in Portland, where I live) was so sure that it would doom Palin to scandal. Everyone thinks they know how voters are going react. But the polls say otherwise.
So on a completely different note, Michael Moore. It seems like everybody I talk to these days, liberals included, nobody likes the man, even those who willingly go see his movies. Which is fair, as the dude does have a really really polarizing style and his documentaries try to be documentaries like the Swift Boats Veterans for Truth tried to be for truth. I certainly think his work is entertaining, and some of the sensationalism in his movies, like the harrowing direct personal anecdotes, certainly have some valid things to say. But the way he cherry-picks his facts and cuts out material that doesn’t align with his views is so extreme that his movies border on propaganda. Things like the comments he made about Hurricane Gustav being proof that there’s a God in heaven just confirms to me that he’s up there with Rush and Sean in terms of being a partisan slimeball.
Yet four years ago, this guy was the darling of the American left. Fahrenheit 9/11 won the Palme D’or and got a 15-minute ovation at Cannes. It made more money than any documentary in history. And everybody was loving him. I realized though, as much as I almost hate to say it, we needed Michael Moore in 2004, a time when there really WERE a glut of crazy neocons leaving the country in ruins (Remember our good buddies Rummy, Wolfowitz, and Ashcroft?) and nobody, NOBODY was talking about it. Our nation’s memory seems to get shorter and shorter. At least now mainstream America is mostly aware of what’s going on, but four-five years ago, Congress was handing our rights away, fabricating evidence to start a war. This is an administration that said, when they were faced with the information about the failure of abstinence-only education, “values trump data.” These people are still running the country, but back then, nobody was questioning them. And Michael Moore, like it or not, played a big part in stirring up a shit-storm to start doing that.
It doesn’t help much to play the “What if?” game, and I certainly don’t like the guy now, but I do wonder now if people like Moore were necessary back in 2004 (Not that it helped much in defeating Bush, obviously…)
Finally, a little message of hope (har!) to my fellow Obama supporters. Don’t be too discouraged about McCain’s surge (har again!) in the polls. While we should still be working as hard we can to get good ol’ Barry elected, keep in mind we’ve got a few aces up our sleeves:
1) The debates. Perhaps nothing else in a national election influences voters as much as debates do, and McCain, to put it bluntly, kind of sucks at it. Of course, Obama’s debating performance can range from awesome to shitty (There’s a really good article here analyzing both candidates’ abilities. It’s long but worth the read.) but I’d still say the odds are in our favor.
2) Polling data tends to leave out voter demographics such as: Newly registered voters and voters who don’t have landlines. And guess who those demographics are way more likely to vote for.
3) The Obama campaign is working like mad to register new voters (who, again, are way more likely to vote for Obama) and they’re largely succeeding. Those people aren’t reflected in polling data either.
4) Finally, don’t forget that it’s been sixteen, count ‘em, sixteen days since Sarah Palin was announced as VP. Seems like forever ago, don’t it? Well there are fifty-one days until November 4, and a lot, lot more can happen in that time.
McCain’s lead, Obama’s silliness
Ho ho. So now McCain is in the lead, according to the RCP numbers. Palin’s blistering-yet-folksy diatribe and McCain’s heartwarming policy-devoid narrative has obviously worked a bit, as well as their genius hijacking of the change theme right out from Obama’s nose.
Big Barry doesn’t seem too happy about it either, with his “Republicans must think you’re stupid” tirade in Indiana a couple days ago. These are the words of a man who none too pleased. Has me a little worried, actually. Americans (and certainly us rockin’ Millennials) tend to get none too happy when we’re told how we’re supposed to think, which is kind of what he’s doing here. If I happen to genuinely believe McCain’s change shtick, and Obama uses that line on me, I don’t think I’d react too positively. So, you know. Boo.
I had a lot more to say. I was going to talk about Michael Moore’s rise and fall, Palin’s new alleged fundamentalism, and my bet with a friend of mine that Biden is going to use some variation of “Governor, you are no Hillary Clinton,” during the VP debates. But I have to go. So I’ll talk about it later.
In the meantime, here’s a really good editorial by Frank Rich that goes into why a McCain presidency would be dangerous, with no less partisan rhetoric than most.
Conservative Anti-Sexism Is Not An Oxymoron
Did I just see a keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention railing against Democrats for sexist attacks?
“How dare they question whether Sarah Palin has enough time to spend with her children and be vice president.” Guiliani thundered tonight at the end of his speech. “How dare they do that. When do they ever ask a man that question? When?”
Hot diggity dog-damn. The times they are a-changing.
I have to say, as an obedient little liberal Portlander, the idea of a Vice President Palin scares the crap out of me like most people who are not to the right of James Dobson. Her radical stances on abortion, drilling in the ANWF, abstinence-only education, and same-sex marriage (signed a referendum on her first day in the governor’s office to deny benefits to same-sex partners of state employees. How compassionate) all make me sweat.
But as a feminist (and yes, dammit, men can be feminists)? I…kind…of…like…her. And I like the implications her candidacy has for sexism in America. I know! I know! Let me explain!
Those who would fight sexism are so frequently given the wholly unfair “Femi-nazi” label. And – and I know I’m about to make a HUGE HUGE generalization – I feel like a lot of sexism-fighting comes from the left, and there’s more sexism within the right. The history is with the left, women tend to vote more with the left, conservatism is more traditional almost by definition, blah blah blah.
But, sexism doesn’t know any political party. There are plenty of women on the right, and they know what it feels like to be victims of sexism too. And I like the idea that they have a voice in Sarah Palin. I like the idea that Palin can promote the idea that you can be a hard right-winger and still advocate against sexism and for women’s rights (I have an issue with anybody who says that being pro-life means you’re anti-woman. I bet most pro-life women would have something to say to you about that).
Though I can kinda sympathize and see where they’re coming from, I’ve really been disliking all the chatter from the left of “Palin is not for women!” “Palin is not going to represent American women!” “Palin will not support women’s rights!” Palin may not uphold your views (She sure as hell doesn’t uphold mine) but true gender equality means an equal amount of women and men in positions all across the board, even in organizations one does not like.
So as a feminist, I love the fact that a woman is No. 2 in the party traditionally associated with more sexism, and I love the fact that a cranky and crochety balding man within said party is blowing his top over sexist treatment of her.
Call me crazy, but that, to me, is part of progress too.
On a slightly different note, I think Palin’s candidacy (and her intimidatingly kick-ass speech she gave tonight) further paves the way for a woman president. Though I don’t agree with the Hillary zealots who say the nomination was stolen from her by a sexist media, I think it’s pretty clear that Hillary dealt with sexism to a much greater degree than Obama dealt with racism.
And while the reasoning for that goes into a much more complex analysis of sexism and racism in America today, I think part of it can be attributed to Jesse Jackson’s candidacy in 1988. We’ve already had the national conversation “What about a black president?” and we had it twenty years ago, so the idea of that as a serious possibility has had a long time to marinate in our consciousness. But we’ve never had the conversation “What about a woman president?” and that gave Hillary a lot more obstacles to slog through.
One more thing, totally irrelevant and unimportant but something I’ve always wondered: Does all the random battleground state name-dropping in speeches actually work? Palin had the line tonight “Maybe you are trying to keep your job at a plant in Michigan or in Ohio…or you’re trying — you’re trying to create jobs from clean coal, from Pennsylvania or West Virginia.”
Do people in those states really respond to that? Like, holy crap, she mentioned my state, she cares about me! If Oregon was a pivotal swing state in economic ruin and Obama and McCain started inserting the plight of “forestry workers/salmon fishermen/baristas from Oregon”, I’d throw up. Frequently.
I know. It’s probably been focus grouped, and it’s probably worked. Or at least it can’t hurt. Such an unromantic answer.
