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At this point, I think we are arguing just to keep our skills up, because Hillary as Madame Secretary seems to be a done deal. But, my mother always said I would rather argue than eat, so: Whoa, Hanna, how is it that "in every way it is petty to want to deny her" the top foreign policy job when her views on foreign policy are not compatible with Obama's. (At least, that was my understanding when I voted for him.) As McCain campaign blogger Michael Goldfarb says in a post for the Weekly Standard, "On the issues, Clinton's a hawk ... Clinton flipped on the war, but as the nomination slipped out of her reach last spring she spoke of the threats this country faces, and of the prescriptions offered by Obama, in language that would warm the hearts of neoconservatives. ... She threatened to 'obliterate' Iran in response to unprovoked aggression against Israel, she spoke of unconditional meetings with the leaders of rogue states as 'irresponsible and, frankly, naive,' and she castigated Obama's transparent saber-rattling on Pakistan. ... On matters of diplomacy, Clinton's views are not so different from those held by John McCain and most Republicans [big fat bold letters mine]—and they are certainly well to the right of Obama.''
I fail to see why it is "right-minded, in a feminist way'' to appoint someone whose views were rejected by the majority of Americans. And though I understand the impulse to aw, just go ahead and give it to her, this job is too important to be anybody's consolation prize, and that she has suffered does not mean she has earned it. To me, her trippy Tuzla flashbacks, or whatever those were, do not suggest a firm grasp of even her own life. Emily B., you imagine that though she's been a lousy manager in the past, she's "too smart not to figure out (finally) how to successfully delegate the management of this'' State Department. But isn't history a better predictor than IQ?
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Ann, don't you love how we've all turned into headhunters for Hillary, eager to pitch in and help her locate just the right job? State wouldn't be the best possible platform for her diplomatic and managerial skill set. But Hillary as war czar isn't quite the ticket, either. (Because nearly everything reminds me of a scene from a musical, what I'm thinking is "May God bless and keep the czar ... far away from us.'' In the Senate, for example.) Obama has created a problem for himself by dangling a major cabinet post as an option; if he doesn't offer it to her now, her partisans won't be happy. But it would be even worse to begin his bright new day in Washington with a confirmation hearing starring all the ghosts of Clinton scandals past. And Defense doesn't work as a Hillary landing pad any better than State does; her initial and lingering poor judgment on Iraq wasn't a plus in any way. Where did rewarding those who were wrong about the war ever get us? Truly, I never followed the '04 reasoning of those who argued that since Bush made the mess, he should be the guy on cleanup. During the run-up to the war, I remember talking to a top Clinton foreign policy person who patiently explained to me that, in fact, the Clinton and Bush administration's views vis-à-vis Saddam and invading and coalition-building were just not that different: "Together if we can, alone if we must.'' Which is why Clinton at DoD would not be different enough for me.
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Forgive me, but I can't be bothered with Palin anymore. I want to linger with the victor. As I've thought about Obama's speech on election night, and his demeanor since, the word that has stayed with me most isn't the names of the groups he said he hoped to unite (blacks, whites, gays, straights, etc.) or the particular policy proposals he reiterated. Rather, it's the name of one of the temptations he hopes we'll avoid as a nation going forward: "immaturity."
It's a striking word for a politician to use (along with the more customary "partisanship" and "pettiness" ). Reading the Newsweek series about the campaign, I was less interested in the latest revelations about Palin's wardrobe than those about the sheer childishness of the Hillary and McCain camps: the toddlerlike tantrums, the puerile infighting, the impulsiveness, the adolescent refusal to accept responsibility for anything that went wrong. Many commentators, of course, have noted Obama's self-containment, his self-discipline, his unflappability. His campaign's motto was No-Drama Obama (i.e., no teenage theatrics). But isn't this just another way of saying that Obama is that rare thing in recent American politics: a grown-up as opposed to a mere adult?
By contrast, Bush, McCain and Hillary remain, quite literally, children. One or both of their parents are remarkably still alive. Indeed, what struck me most about Obama on election night was how alone he was on that stage, except for his own wife and children. (Even an aged Biden could hold his mother's hand.) And I wonder if, even more than race, this unusual parentlessness for a man Obama's age hasn’t contributed to what I regard as his singular strength and virtue in our youth-obsessed culture: his maturity. Yes, McCain was older and more experienced, but in this election, he actually came across as less mature. The youth vote went for the grown-up.
Obama's election may have finally closed the chapter on the 1960s, by which most people mean the debates over Vietnam. But born as he was at the tail end of the baby boomers, Obama, I think, may have also turned the page on the extended adolescence of his generation. In many ways, the last eight years have felt like one of those teenage parties where the grown-ups are absent and things have spiraled dangerously out of control. Countries, like kids, need and want limits. So, while I've been overjoyed this last week as I've watched a confident and competent Obama begin to assume power, what I've felt most, I've suddenly realized, is sheer relief: A responsible adult has finally showed up to shepherd everyone home.
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Thank you, Melinda and Lauren, for saying what I wanted to say but was avoiding since I've largely been our lone Sarah Palin defender. Saying that Palin doesn't know that Africa is a continent sounds like something you'd say about your ex after a bitter breakup (which is perhaps what this is). It sounds far more sarcastic and bitter than serious, and it says more about the speaker than the target.
John McCain might not have been able to win even if he'd put God himself on the ticket, given the standing of the Republican Party right now. And Palin surely didn't help him pull in as many women as he'd hoped. But still, as Chris Beam points out in Slate, he didn't have a lot of good choices (or rather, left himself with few good choices because of his rumored stubborn insistence on Joe Lieberman). I kind of wish in hindsight that it had been Mitt Romney, because he'd have brought credibility on the economic front. But the narrative would have been about their contentious primary. And I liked Tim Pawlenty, once I'd heard of him, but Chris is right that you would have been able to hear crickets chirping at rallies. And Joe Lieberman? Worse than crickets. The networks would have had to find a way to silence the echoes in the convention center during the acceptance speeches while the conventioneers were out at bars drowning their sorrows. Heck, I would have voted for Obama if he picked Lieberman. (No offense, Joe.) So, it seems a little unfair for all the blame to fall on Sarah Palin. McCain was trailing, he threw a Hail Mary, and it fell short. It's not like he was leading by 10 points and then she brought down the whole campaign.
Like Anne says, whether Palin is that dumb or not, this says something bad about the McCain campaign. The candidate himself gave a gracious concession speech Tuesday night. It's too bad his staffers don't have the same amount of class.
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Sounds like those McCain aides are fast-tracking their guy's return to pariah—I mean, maverick—status by alienating every last conservative who voted for him with their mean, sexist, and derriere-covering hooey about Sarah Palin. I'm sorry, but I do not for one second believe that she did not know Africa was a continent. If she threw those poor foot soldiers for democracy into a panic by appearing at her hotel-room door "essentially ... wrapped in a bathrobe''—grow up, people; it's not the first time a candidate has finished dressing on the run. And from what I saw of the crack McCain-Palin organization, somebody needed to engage in the dreaded "throwing of paperwork and things of that nature.'' I see this as the jump-start of her rehab with women voters: diva, shopaholic, temptress, hmmm. Keep up the women-hating insults, McCainiacs, and it'll be Palin in '12.
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Oprah cried, Jesse Jackson cried, and John Lewis said he had no tears left. Our next first lady whispered, "I love you" to her husband, who didn't seem to want to let her go even when it was time to leave the stage. Michelle Obama's mom, Marion Robinson, was kvelling for all of them. And our next president was appropriately sober; bringing us together is going to be hard. But a little easier because the crowd that came to hear President-Elect Obama cheered readily at his bow to John McCain. When he spoke of moving people "to put their hand on the arc of history and bend it once more to the hope of a better day," I really could dare to hope that even people who can't look at him without shouting at the television might take a breath and give him a chance.
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John McCain went beyond where he had to go with the speech he just gave, pretty much all but begging his supporters to please forget everything his campaign has been suggesting about Barack Obama and instead hear this: "I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him but in offering our next president our goodwill and earnest effort to find ways to come together. ... Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans, and please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.'' I do believe him. And not only am I proud of President-Elect Obama, but it's good to have John McCain back as well. At the end, when he complained that his campaign "at times seemed to be the most challenged campaign in modern times,'' he seemed more comfortable than he had in months.
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CNN is reporting that Obama received 60 percent to McCain's 38 percent of the female vote with just less than 50 percent of national precincts reporting. This 22-point margin is much higher than polls predicted.
Adding Sarah Palin to the ballot didn't attract the women vote as McCain and the Republicans might have hoped. After picking Palin as a running mate, many speculated that Clinton supporters would flock to the McCain-Palin ticket. These early results don't show that to be the case.
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There have been times, yes, when I've felt like the corniest living American. But, oh, this is not one of those times. Suddenly, here come e-mails even from normally non-woo-woo quarters, sharing Obama-related stories of people coming together and feeling great about it, like they were not only thirsty but had forgotten what water was. My favorite: A gentlemanly McCain supporter in Ohio offers his XL Dale Earnhardt jacket to three XS elderly Jewish ladies so they can vote despite having shown up in forbidden Obama T-shirts—and they not only bond but win his vote without ever asking for it. Others tell of African-Americans taking photos of their deceased parents into the booth with them, and a former Freedom Rider who cannot believe this day has come. In Santa Monica, my friend who is wearing her lucky Indiana Motor Speedway shirt while dialing undecided Hoosiers reports enjoying even those "long, cordial conversations'' that do not end in conversion experiences. A certain husband who in 24 years has never sniffled at anything other than my Amex bill is beyond misty that Obama's grandma didn't live one more day. And my hands-down most levelheaded friend, Rose, who is a teacher (but no, she's not that "Rose the teacher") writes, "I see a new day dawning after today.'' McCainiacs, beware, or you just might get hugged into submission; we needed this, bless our hearts.
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Wow, even the McCain camp is turning blue. Or at least that's the way I read this McCain aide's reaction to the Doonesbury cartoon predicting an Obama victory on Tuesday: "We hope the strip proves to be as predictive as it is consistently lame," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.
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Hmmm, the top 10 worst political campaign ads ever? The bottom 10, I guess you'd say? Rachael, yer on:
10) OK, in the spirit of comity, let's start with an attack ad against a Republican, Colorado Rep. Marilyn Musgrave. I know you'd agree she's kinda out there, what with her famous charge that the number-one threat facing America is gay marriage. Still, this '04 ad featuring a Musgrave impersonator picking the pocket of an American soldier in the middle of a firefight is beyondo. (I also much enjoyed a ridiculous '06 radio ad against Musgrave that I can't find a link to, blasting her for leaving the scene of a fender bender: "Hit and run, cut and run; that's Marilyn Musgrave.'' Whatever.)
9) One classic of the genre is the Willie Horton ad—murdering black inmate turned loose!—that George W.'s daddy ran against Michael Dukakis in '88. Thanks to Al Gore, who raised Horton's early release from prison as an issue during the Democratic primary.
8) And Gore knew from negative campaigning, too, because that's how his dad got taken out. Richard Nixon ordered a political hit job on Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Sr. over his opposition to the Vietnam War. So in 1970, his opponent used the racist shout-out "Bill Brock Believes the Things We Believe'' on highway billboards, referring to Gore's refusal to sign the segregationist Southern Manifesto.
7) In that same vein, can't exclude this lovely George Wallace ad from '68.
6) Or the attack on Vietnam vet Max Cleland's patriotism by Saxby Chambliss, who looks like he's going down on Tuesday.
5) The Swift boat lies about John Kerry still make me bananas.
4) But the ads Jerry Kilgore ran against death penalty opponent Tim Kaine in their '05 Virginia gubernatorial race backfired, just like Dole's "Godless'' ad has. Particularly offensive was the Kilgore ad claiming that Kaine would keep even Hitler from paying the ultimate price. Oh, and Kilgore gave the whole thing an extra kick by first airing it on Yom Kippur.
3) Republican Doug Forrester's '05 ad against Jon Corzine in the New Jersey gubernatorial race used a quote from the ex-Mrs. Corzine that the louse had "let his family down, and he'll probably let New Jersey down, too."
2) Will Hillary's 3 a.m. ad stand the test of time? I think so.
1) But still the champ: The "Daisy'' ad LBJ ran in '64 against Goldwater, who in light of his daughter's revelation that he helped her get an abortion a few months before her wedding might now be considered too socially liberal to be nominated by his party.
So is my list skewed by partisanship, or have there been equally appalling attacks by more Democrats than are leaping to mind? I would have included the "John McCain has a black love child' push-polling ahead of the 2000 Republican primary in South Carolina, but technically those weren't ads—and aren't some of the guys who masterminded that smear working for him now? I am thinking I should have found room for the one with the blonde babe telling Tennessee's Harold Ford to call her, but if I go beyond 10, I'll be at this 'til Election Day.
Given how many of these doozies played to racial fears, maybe the fact that McCain's ads haven't been even as overt as Hillary's 3 a.m. ad in that regard means his advisers didn't think they would work, so that's a hopeful sign. And while five of these 10 lulus hit their mark, most of the recent ones did not, so let's pray this turns into an honest-to-God trend.
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Are we really preparing to underwrite private insurance companies? I'm sorry, but when did they ever do that for us? In fact, I'd say their current symptoms involve a pre-existing condition, wouldn't you? If we're gonna nationalize this bunch of heartless scammers, mightn't this be an excellent moment to think seriously at last about a single-payer health care system? You gotta give John McCain and Sarah Palin credit for chutzpah, running around squawking that Barack Obama's health care plan is booga-booga scary socialist. But the idea that we should reserve our largesse for bean-counters looking for reasons to cut off benefits mid-chemo makes me feel Sicko.
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So, news outlets reported that yesterday Joe Biden told fundraisers in Seattle that in the next six months an international crisis would "test" Barack Obama just as one had tested Kennedy. According to reports, Biden told supporters: "The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States. Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy." The gist in part seems to be that Obama is as brilliant as Kennedy. But one wonders why, exactly, Biden felt he had to say this now, since it opened Obama up to an easy counterattack, which McCain promptly seized. At a rally this afternoon, he asked crowds why they'd want to elect a president whose mettle the world feels primed to test--i.e., a president who has so little experience he seems an easy target, or at least an urgent target.
Meanwhile, according to CNN, McCain has been closing ground in one poll, which asked voters who they supported for president, leaving Obama with a five-point lead compared to the eight-point one he had at the beginning of the month. These polls are changing all the time. But maybe not a good time for Biden to be acting as if Obama has the race locked up.
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Like W., I squint when I'm puzzlin' -- and so have whole new frown lines from trying to make sense of the McCain-Palin game plan. Last night, though, while watching Saturday Night Live, the light finally dawned: They have either a) totally given up; b) lack the common sense God gave a moose (a creature that will forget you are there if you duck behind a tree for three seconds); or c) have a vice-presidential nominee more interested in her close-up than in closing the deal with voters.
Only that last one would explain how much Palin was enjoying grooving on TV while Amy Poehler did the "Sarah Palin rap,'' to lyrics like "I'm Jeremiah Wright cuz tonight I'm the preacha, I got a bookish look and you all hot for teacha.'' For me, this shined a whole new (softer, but also dimmer) light on all her mugging and smiling while whipping crowds up with hateful distortions about Barack Obama. Because there she was, mugging and smiling while Poehler stopped just short of grabbing her crotch, Eminem style, and rapped that McCain's "smile be creepy.'' So...maybe girlfriend just likes the camera? Like you, Emily, I was squirming through the whole first skit, too -- only I was thinking oh, how demeaning for Alec Baldwin.
Remember when Al and Tipper Gore did that hot tub skit on SNL - and how clear that made it that he really wasn't going to run in ‘04? I had that same feeling watching Palin - that no one who thought they had a serious shot would be so comfy so far over the line.
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Watch the amazing video of John McCain and Barack Obama at tonight’s Alfred E Smith Memorial Dinner in New York. It’s not just that both of them are wreck-yer-mascara funny. They are. And it’s not just that they let themselves laugh out loud at each other’s jokes. They do. The really stunning part is getting to see them both again the way they were back when we loved and adored them: two men in full, completely inhabiting their quirky, funny, inspirational selves. Watching them makes you wonder who these freaky spectral candidates are—the boring squashed-up versions of Obama and McCain we've endured through the end of last night’s debate. It makes you wonder what it is about presidential politics in 2008 that sucks out what’s best in our candidates and leaves us with a distillate of small, safe, hard, angry little men.
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Rosa,
I'm glad we can agree on something! I, too, feel sorry for Joe. The way the media has responded to him today has been appalling. For a time, the lead story on NYTimes.com was "Joe the Plumber is under scrutiny, " even highlighting ominously that "his full name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher." It's not exactly uncommon for people to go by their middle names. MSNBC.com's lead story right now digs into Wurzelbacher's background (even citing his DIVORCE RECORDS), saying that the plumber he works for might be fined because Joe doesn't have proper licensing. And, horrors, the business might take in only $100,000, not $250,000, and that's revenue, not profits. But who knows? Earlier media reports I've seen have been riddled with errors, saying that Joe already owns the business or runs the business, or that Wurzelbacher said he wouldn't be able to BUY the business if Obama's tax plan kicked in. I might have misheard Wurzelbacher in the original video, but I don't remember him saying that.
Forgive me for sounding like a knee-jerk reactionary, but how can people look at the scrutiny Wurzelbacher has received in the last 24 hours and not think there is some kind of bias at play? John McCain cites a regular old American in his debate-something that can annoy me when it's a sob story about how the government has failed someone—and people cheer for the guy, identify with the guy, and so he has to be taken down? Obama has a pretty comfortable lead in the polls right now. He can't possibly be afraid of Joe the Plumber. I don't get the media feeding frenzy.
I might feel bad for Joe, but I'm not worried about him. (And I think you might be disappointed if you expect him to blame the attention on McCain.) He's got a good perspective on it all. "I'll have my 15 minutes," he told MSNBC. After Nov. 4, "I won't be recognized again, and that'll be fine with me." I just wish the media had the same good common sense.
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I take back what I said about his bright future even as a Fox News star.
Joe is a faux plumber! (Quel horreur!) And a tax scofflaw! And something about Obama just happens to remind him of Sammy Davis Jr.! And-- if true, this next thing is weirder than weird—Joe may be related by marriage to Charles Keating, star of the S &L scandal that almost ended McCain's Senate career! And—his name's not even Joe!
By now I am starting to feel kind of sorry for Joe. Faux Joe. Samuel. Whatever his name is. He registered as a Republican last spring. By now, he's probably having second thoughts about how great it is to be championed by John McCain before a viewing audience of 38 million U.S. households.
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I'm still not worried about Joe the Plumber. For one thing, the guy's now the most famous plumber in America, and I'd say he's got a future as a Fox News star.
But for another, Emily, he's fine either way: If he buys this company and it doesn't make enough to push his personal income over $250,000, then he gets no Obama tax increase, and depending on his income level, he very likely gets one of those Obama tax cuts. Lucky fella. And if his company's profits do push him over $250,000 (I can't find the link, but I believe that in an interview he says they probably would), then his marginal tax rate would go up a tad under Obama's plan, but he's still making far, far more than most of his fellow Americans—and keeping most of it, too.
So what's the problem here for Joe? He'd rather not have his marginal tax rate increase. OK, I get that. But no one—certainly not Obama—is suggesting he didn't work hard to get his money, or that he's not "entitled to keep most of it." We're talking about a small increase in the marginal tax rate for Americans in the top fifth percentile of incomes, not about nationalizing Joe's plumbing business. (Much as I'd like free government-provided plumbing ...)
I guess I just don't see why Obama's comment about wanting to "spread the wealth around" strikes fear into anyone's heart. That's what the progressive income tax is supposed to do—and no one really questions the core concept, just the details (What should the highest marginal tax rate be? What should the income threshold be? etc.). Right now, given the stunning levels of income inequality in this country, both parties agree that we need to spread the weath around a bit. The question is just what mechanism will most effectively do the trick. Is it improving education while cutting taxes for all, as McCain proposes?Or is it tax cuts for the lower 95 percent and marginal tax rate increases for the wealthiest 5 percent, including, hypothetically, Joe the Plumber—if he hits the big time?
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Can we look at a larger point about Joe the Plumber? Joe Wurzelbacher is, after all, a plumber. He didn't have his well-off parents send him off for his MBA or a law-school degree so he could get a cushy 9-to-5 job with an office and an assistant and good benefits. He's not a 25-year-old starting an Internet company with someone else's venture capital. He's gotten where he is today by unclogging our smelly toilets and fixing the pipes we probably should have had looked at before they burst.
He's been a plumber for 15 years. That's a lot of midnight calls and weekend shifts and probably a lot of years with low pay. If he's a smart small-business owner, and this interview seems to indicate he's not rash, he's going to take a chunk of those profits and expand his company—as he says, he would hire more plumbers, which requires more trucks and more equipment. All of which helps our economy.
Is $250,000 a year a lot of money? Certainly. But businesses with fewer than 20 employees account for over 20 million jobs in this country. That's not a small figure, and it's pretty comforting in a time when we watch unwieldy big businesses with eight-figure CEOs crashing down on a weekly basis. We should want our small businesses to succeed.
When I watch the video that made Joe famous, and I hear Barack Obama's comment that he wants to "spread the wealth around," I get chills down my spine. Joe wants to spread the wealth around, too. And it's his wealth. I trust him with it more than I trust the government. I hope he does get that plumbing business, and I hope he turns it into a $500,000-a-year business. And I won't begrudge him a single penny of it.
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According to the Washington Post, McCain got it wrong tonight when he said that, under Obama's health-care plan, Joe the plumber would pay a fine if he didn't provide his employees health insurance, because the Obama plan has an exemption for small businesses. Given that McCain from practically the first sentence trucked in Joe, last name and all, as his carefully planted and lovingly tended Real Guy, isn't this the definition of campaign malpractice? How could his staff have possibly failed to get Joe right? McCain was often strong tonight, on guard and on the offensive. But when he registered open-mouthed surprise as Obama explained why he was wrong about Joe, McCain looked like a man playing Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin asking for a life line. Obama had his weak moments, too, in the reaction shots, like the big smile he cracked while McCain was making serious charges about Bill Ayers and ACORN. Watching them listen sometimes seems more enlightening than listening to them talk.
Read more XX Factor posts about Joe the Plumber.