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Posted on 08.29.08 by dancurry @ 9:04 am
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is a very risky pick as vice president. As a first-term governor, it brings the issue of experience front and center. But the news media, in the first few minutes of trying to digest this, are missing the point. Palin has built her reputation as a gutsy reformer. She stood up against her own party’s corruption in Alaska. John McCain’s strategists probably believed that the experience argument against Obama is relevant, but ultimately out of their hands. In other words, if Obama performed well in the debates and the public viewed him as qualified for president, the argument is negated. Reform, on the other hand, is something that Obama can’t claim. He has the festering Rezko house deal and did nothing about corruption in his own state. McCain and Palin have bucked their own party. They are truly independent. Obama and Biden are not. They are boilerplate Democrats with no credible record of reform. Suddenly, the change ticket changed to McCain-Palin. Technorati Tags: |
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Posted on 08.29.08 by dancurry @ 7:21 am
Pundits both left and even some from the right were effusive in their praise of Barack Obama’s speech last night. Once again, Obama, the magician, fooled them. This speech wasn’t even close to great as a piece of art. It was a mismash of several different styles—stump speech, soaring rhetoric, churlish attacks, defensive pre-emption. Much has been made about Obama writing his own speeches. If you look closely at the text, it appears that Obama’s language was invaded by insertion of the attacks and pre-emption. Read the text and then read George W. Bush’s 2000 acceptance speech. Putting aside partisan feelings, the Obama speech is not even close to GWB’s as a piece of writing. The tactics of Obama’s speech may have been clever, we’ll see. But a symphony it wasn’t. Technorati Tags: |
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Posted on 08.28.08 by dancurry @ 9:32 pm
My immediate impressions of Barack Obama’s speech is that more than anything, it was a tactical treatise. He tried to pre-empt Republican attacks to come and gave a few more specifics to satisfy those who say he is an empty suit. It was the same old liberal ideas we’ve heard for four decades, but of course delivered in a superior way than previous liberal presidential candidates. There wasn’t a single new idea or theme. He probably believes he doesn’t need one—he’ll ride the dissatisfaction with Republicans to victory. In a way, a very defensive speech. John McCain needs to jump right back into his face. If he does, he will win. Technorati Tags: |
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Posted on 08.27.08 by dancurry @ 2:18 pm
Here’s what a prominent liberal blogger thinks of the Democratic convention so far.
Probably should have thought of that before nominating the most liberal and inexperienced major party candidate in U.S. history. Technorati Tags: |
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Posted on 08.25.08 by dancurry @ 6:13 pm
Barack Obama has lots of political problems but none is as large as this ad and this issue. He has no good response. He won’t gain the trust of middle America once they absorb this information.
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Posted on 08.25.08 by dancurry @ 8:08 am
Joe Biden’s ties to the Tony Rezko scandal were reported on in the last 24 hours by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and Daily Herald. The accounts focused on Joe Cari, a longtime Democratic fundraiser.
Another angle to the story is David Wilhelm. The former DNC chairman and Bill Clinton campaign manager was a key advisor to Biden’s 1988 and 2008 campaign run. Wilhelm also is a longtime confident of Barack Obama’s senior strategist David Axelrod. As I wrote previously, the news media has curiously failed to ask Wilhelm questions about his role in the Rezko scandal in Illinois, dubbed Operation Board Games. His firm was subpoenaed after taking a no-bid pension contract from the Teachers’ Retirement System, the agency where a significant portion of the Rezko related fraud was centered. He was campaign chairman in 2002 for Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, whose administration is so entwined in Operation Board Games the DNC won’t allow him to speak at the convention this week. The Rezko scandal centered on funneling money to Blagojevich’s campaign fund, and Wilhelm served as the captain of that ship when it raised much of its money. Then, suddenly, as the Blagojevich investigations heated up, Wilhelm moved back to his native Ohio, denying the move had anything to do with the prosecutorial atmosphere in Illinois. That was two years ago. At the very least, you would think the media would ask him if he’s been questioned by the feds about Operation Board Games. Technorati Tags: |
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Posted on 08.25.08 by dancurry @ 6:27 am
Not decisive evidence, but a focus group conducted by Frank Luntz shows that, like many speculated last week, the Obama “seven houses” attack on John McCain is not effective.
I would be curious how the Bill Ayres ad tested. I bet better than all the other attacks last week. Technorati Tags: |
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Posted on 08.24.08 by dancurry @ 2:03 pm
He’s fading from view on Barack’s logo. The One didn’t want to share a ticket with his 50-50 rival and now he doesn’t even want to equally share his logo with Joe Biden. Technorati Tags: |
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Posted on 08.24.08 by dancurry @ 11:49 am
That “man of the people,” the scrappy senator Joe Biden from Scranton, who takes the train every morning and evening from Wilmington, DE., to Washington DC, apparently has an arrangement with Amtrak that sounds antithetical to what the Democrats are trying to sell. Read this first person account of a passenger. It’s fascinating.
A private seat for Senator Scrappy. The Democrats are trying to sell Biden as an asset in attracting working class votes. It won’t work. There are few politicians in Washington who exude pomposity more than ol’ Joe. Technorati Tags: |
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Posted on 08.23.08 by dancurry @ 7:13 pm
Closest primary race in history and Barack Obama treated the second place finisher like a discarded one-night stand. His first great test of leadership: flunked.
The convention looms. Obama’s “bounce” might just come from his own party. Technorati Tags: |
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