I’m so used to horrible attitudes toward abortion that I didn’t adequately react to John McCain’s debate response last night. Did you see it? Mocking the idea of "health of the mother" in hand gestures and a voice of dismissal. I don’t think I need to say anything except to thank, for probably the only time in my life, Fox News, for the best edit on YouTube. It speaks for itself.
Tag: debate
WOULD YOU HIRE JOHN MCCAIN OR SARAH PALIN? SERIOUSLY
This image was just removed from the Sacramento County Republican Party website, according to its Google source. And it’s very disturbing, but I’m tired. I admit it. All these days of Jewish holiday cooking and praying * (not necessarily in that order) have left me frazzled. So maybe I’m just cranky. But when I saw this on a search for something else all the anxiety and sadness overcame me. There is hate out there – and the Republicans seem to be finding it useful.
No, the McCain supporters aren’t all like this; capable of dreaming up and posting such a terrible thing. But they’ve been ginning their crowds into a frenzy and so this "free speech" issue is becoming a life-threatening undertaking. Generating that kind of distaste so familiar to so many young people will make a big difference. How that difference plays out will depend on the stars.
I want to write so much more but it has to be tomorrow. This is a very nervous election; I and many friends get more nervous the larger the margin is. There’s lots to talk about, although where the debate ranks, not much more than has been said after But if I don’t go to sleep you won’t want to read what I write; neither of us will understand what the hell I’m trying to say. More tomorrow. For now you may want to take a look at the live blog transcript on Writes Like She Talks or the one on BlogHer.
*a post on the same subject from last year.
Oh Oh Obama – McCain Was So Bad it Was Hard to Watch
The Ohio uncommitted focus group dials on CNN during tonight’s debate were riveting. Among other things, almost every time Obama stood up to respond the dials went up. Almost every time McCain stood up, the dials went down. If they are at all accurate McCain was having a terrible night. I would give my right (well, maybe my left) arm to be in the spin room tonight and hear what the McCain people are saying to justify this.
The big problem is that it was so uncomfortable to watch. McCain was — well — icky. You didn’t feel sorry for him you just wanted him to stop so you didn’t have to look. Obama was excellent but the thing was so hard to watch that I don’t know if it’s possible to feel good about it. When McCain says you need a strong hand on the tiller it sounded like a commercial for the other guy. I’m just kind of grossed out by pitiful McCainitude. Nobody on TV is saying what I’m seeing though; Buchanan says Obama was being presidential but he didn’t see McCain as pathetic as I did.
The Republican commentators on CNN were actually being pretty hard on McCain’s "looking to the past" and was also "condescending to voters" according to the Republican consultants. They’re being really hard on him. AND they all seem to be assuming that Obama won – "had to stand toe to toe with John McCain and surpass him — and he did." says Gloria Borger. David Gergen says he was "very presidential" BUT "he is black and the polls may not be accurate." He’s talking about the "Bradley effect" issues – people misleading pollsters because they’re embarrassed to say that they won’t vote for an African American. It will be tragic if that’s the case.
Finally, the CNN post-debate poll tonight of 38% D/ 31% R indicates a rout: 54% of independents say Obama won the debate. 30% said McCain so that’s not even all the Republicans. Oh and CBS’s poll has 59% saying Obama won.
The details tell a lot. Here’s a breakdown:
Who did best job? Obama 54% McCain 30%
Who did better on the economy? Obama 59% McCain 37%.
Who expressed his views more clearly? Obama 60% -McCain 30%
Who was more likable? Obama 65%-McCain 28%
Who would better handle Iraq? Obama 54 % McCain 47%
Your opinion of Obama: Positive went from 60% to 64%
Negatives went down — from 38% to 34%
McCain’s favorables stayed at 51% and unfavorables at 46% but he DID win one category: Who would better handle terrorism? McCain 51% Obama 46%. The results are astonishing – Obama in almost every category.
I’m still frightened about race though; I think Gergen is right. These results look great. But when you canvas in Virginia and see how people respond — the reasons they give for "not liking" Obama, you can see it; feel it. And we don’t know how many intentionally didn’t answer the door; how many are better actors and keeping their true feelings hidden. What happens with those voters will determine our future, internationally, politically, economically and racially. This time, more than usual, we’re not just electing a president here – we’re redefining our country.
SARAH PALIN, JOE SIXPACK AND GEORGE ORWELL
I used to run a TV news show, and I told my staff (literally) that using the term "Joe Six Pack" in a script or interview was a firing offense. I probably couldn’t have gotten away with firing them but it made the point. I grew up just outside a mill town along the Monongahela River — it was the same town so brilliantly portrayed in The Deer Hunter — and I went to school with kids whose parents worked in steel mills and coke plants and river locks. Some of them lived in trailers. I was the Jewish Girl – a bit of an outsider but usually part of the gang – parties, sleepovers, crazy afternoons sneaking cigarettes in pine-paneled basement "family rooms."
I guess lots of those parents were what Sarah Palin called Joe Six Pack. But that’s not who they were- who they are. America is full of hard working people who drink beer. Bruce Springsteen portrays them all the time – much better than I could. They are dads and husbands and brothers and sons and they love their kids and their wives and, where I lived, the Steelers. They often don’t ever move out of their "starter houses" because that’s what they can afford. The dads that I knew sent their kids to college though – or to "the service" which paid their tuition, and the next generation did better economically – the American dream at work.
I admired these people, and loved some of them. When you spend lots of Saturday night sleepovers at girlfriends’ houses you get to know their parents. And, remembering those dads, I do NOT understand how Sarah Palin can talk about "Joe Six Pack" and still say she’s one of "the people." It’s like talking about "Polacks" and then claiming you’re Polish. The term is a colossal insult, the speaker setting herself above the folks she’s describing. For some reason, it’s painful — almost heartbreaking, to hear. I know it’s partially my rage at her for claiming some special channel to working class Americans while, it appears, cynically performing like a parody of them – much like Frances McNormand did as Marge Gunderson in FARGO. Her "Joe Six Packs" deserve better.
I was going to write about all the Orwellian rhetoric too — McCain and Palin repeatedly claiming untruths and running against things McCain himself helped to put in place. Here’s what I mean: They talk about Wall Street malfeasance when they and their party repeatedly squashed efforts to bring it under control. They talk about change when they’re fighting it and economic insecurity when their policies helped to cause it. That’s not a working class agenda, it’s just cynical pandering. Mr. Orwell would be proud. "Joe Six Pack" — and the rest of us, deserve better than that, too.