Dear Senator McCain:
Repeatedly calling me and everyone else in the United States "my friends" is extremely annoying. In part, it's just an irritating phrase. Beyond that, I'm not your friend. I don't know you, and, from what I know of you, I don't even really like you. Sorry to focus on such superficialities when the world economy is going to Hell, but you probably lost more votes with your constant repitition of "my friends" than from anything Obama said.
Sincerely,
David B.
Repeatedly calling me and everyone else in the United States "my friends" is extremely annoying. In part, it's just an irritating phrase. Beyond that, I'm not your friend. I don't know you, and, from what I know of you, I don't even really like you. Sorry to focus on such superficialities when the world economy is going to Hell, but you probably lost more votes with your constant repitition of "my friends" than from anything Obama said.
Sincerely
David B.
Dear Senator McCain:
I'm not your friend, pal.
Your chum,
Terrencephilip
I think Obama looked smug though. It wasn't what he said, but the way he looked when McCain was saying the things he said.
I also thought Obama's little mini tantrum when Brokaw didn't let him have more time to spout more talking points in defense against the mean old guy looked pretty childish. But maybe some out there will think it looked presidential.
I agree, that was a Debate 101 mistake. In his defense, McCain later on made a similar error. In fact, I think both candidates would have preferred less-assertive moderation.
(It seems to me that rather a lot of the time, one candidate got one question and the other didn't get the chance to respond. Being an Obama supporter, I noticed Obama not getting to respond to McCain questions first, but realizing my bias I then noticed McCain being cut off as well).
On the other hand, some folks would argue that clinging to that image of geniality, when he should be going on a no-holds-barred attack, is exactly what's costing McCain the election. And I would be one of those folks.
"I'm not your pal, guy"
In case you never saw this, check this out.
I actually find all four candidates more likable than the four on offer last time.
Maybe McCain is just signaling that he's a tit-for-tat enthusiast.
Don't give in to the Stockholm Syndrome, David!
Contempt does not well suit any presidential candidate. Ever.
Towards the end of the debate I found myself watching the lights to see if they stopped before it turned red, when the lights were in the camera angle. That probably doesn't bode well for either candidate.
I propose that this game could be transposed to the Presidential debates by people taking a drink every time John McCain says, "my friends."
Debate #1: Lehrer ignored timed responses and encouraged the two to ask each other questions. Win!
Debate #2: Palin and Biden (Biden!!) both made an effort to stop talking when their time was up.
Debate #3: Brokaw threw a hissy fit when the two went over time and refused to follow his plan.
Current ranking of moderators:
1) Jim Lehrer
2) Gwen Ilfill
999) Tom Brokaw
Emergency rooms everywhere would be flooded with alcohol poisoning.
nonsense. a presidential candidate should show contempt for that which is contemptible.
So after Bush starts nationalizing everything under the sun and McCain says he's going to buy everyone's mortgage, Obama is the socialist?
Joshua: On the other hand, some folks would argue that clinging to that image of geniality, when he should be going on a no-holds-barred attack, is exactly what's costing McCain the election.
The Secret Service is investigating one of those no-holds-barred attacks.
It is pretty bad when you have to hope a candidate is lying his ass off.
"Hearing that debate made me despair."
Hope's putative audacity does not make despair any more prudent...
Why has nobody commented on the poor example that cigarette-smoking Sen. Obama sets for today's African-American youth?
And why haven't the media printed photographs of his cigarette smoking (they're certainly widely available)?
To those who would doubt my fairness, let's also print photos of the oldster's torture wounds inflicted on him by the Vietnamese.
The root cause of our country's financial problems is excessive public and private sector debt. In a word, we are broke. Your solution: more debt.
Sincerely,
A non-frien
Another vote for Obama. But where was Bill Ayers? Is McCain going to buy his house too? Or is McCain just too timid to say such things to Obama's face? Weak, weak, weak.
While Obama admitted to smoking a few cigarettes in recent months, Im fairly sure the photos are all from over a year ago.
b:In a perfect world, sure. In a media-driven, superficial environment like this one, though, a presidential candidate should show subdued disappointment with that which is contemptible. Assuming s/he wants to win, that is.
We generally disagree on the issues, but you were spot on in your analysis of how the moderators have done.
Note to the Presidential Debate Commission: In 2012, don't invite Brokaw back.
Brian Moore and Gloria La Riva will be so disappointed.
To those who would doubt my fairness, let's also print photos of the oldster's torture wounds inflicted on him by the Vietnamese.
Actually, why don't we keep with the "self-inflicted" nature of cigarette smoking and just keep printing that picture of McCain hugging Bush?
And really, can anybody deny that saying "my friends" sounds different when spoken through clenched teeth?
Not super impressed with either of them, but the whole "that one" moment was really poor showing on McCain's part. Obama also had a little too much smugosity for my liking.
Okey dokey. Franklin Roosevelt admitted to
being confined tousing a wheelchair.John Kennedy admitted to being addicted to hard drugs and Mafia-supplied whores.
Strange, though, that the media never picked up on this seemingly pertinent info.
No, I will be voting for the one most likely to keep Government small. Ok, that's neither - but McCain will grow it less than Obama.
Answer this question - How do you cut the taxes of people who don't pay income taxes?
Well, as long as he didn't inhale.
Brian G,
What you said.
However, you think you've got problems? He's my Senator. I have found myself thinking "my friends" and almost saying it out loud.
Angus, I don't often agree with you either, but have to agree with your ranking. The minister fellow whose name I can't recall at this hour was much more interesting with a lot more interesting questions, as well.
Maybe Tom needs to retire. He could not have been more boring.
McCain's mistake was to try to lay the blame on Obama, whose main deficit in this crisis is not himself but his party. Obama was not even in the Senate when McCain and others were trying to raise the alarm. (And then only about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are only a part of the problem.) If McCain hopes to turn this campaign around he needs to run against the Democrats in Congress rather than against Obama, who most people like, without realizing how much his election will bring the congressional Democrats into power. Too many voters are blaming the Bush Administration and the Republicans because Bush is a Republican, when it was Congress, dominated by the Democrats, that was the problem. They aren't willing to give credit to the Bush Administration for bringing out the problem (too late) and trying to deal with it (even if they don't have a clue how to do it, and neither does anyone else).
McCain needs to hammer this point incessantly until the voters get it. The unsavory associates of Obama that need to used to defeat him are not the likes of Bill Ayers or
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but Chris Dodd, Charles Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Barney Frank.
During the Vice-Presidential debate, I took a drink every time I heard the word "maverick." I didn't wake up until just now.
Plain started from behind in knowledge and fluency on a national stage, but she is learning and improving rapidly, revealing a sharp intelligence. She could work on her elocution skills (which she actually has, because she uses them when in broadcaster mode), but by the end of the campaign I expect her to be fully up to speed.
"That one" reminded me of my grandmother. She used to say it a lot - it was a kind of affectionate dissing. I don't think badly of McCain for using it, but it sure reminded me of how old he is. I'm sure it didn't play well on any level.
On another note, when McCain warned about Russia and Ukraine, I imagined the first meeting between President McCain and Ukrainian President Yushchenko. Didn't work for me, so I went back to the yummier image of Palin and Tymoshenko.
Q: What do you call a lawyer with a 75 IQ?
A: Your Honor.
(I know a lawyer wrote that, because the correct answer is, "Smart.") *rimshot*
Being annoyed at a verbal tic such as, "My friends..." just shows what a moron you are, Bernstein. But then, I'm guessing you've been duped, indoctrinated, and brainwashed by a law school: You have no ability to think off of the narrow gauge rails that have been laid down for you... as is the case with all lawyers; much less do you possess a functional moral compass (No lawyer does, so don't feel too bad).
Obama is certainly a brilliant chameleon. He can change his colors to match any backdrop so as to advance to the next level. Anyone who doesn't fear what he'll change his colors to once he gets to the presidency is an idiot in the abject extreme.
There is one issue in this election: Obama is a lying scumbag lawyer (Lawyers do bear false witness for a living after all. If memory serves, God has a problem with that). Opposite of that, McCain is a military man. No contest (Full disclosure: My father was a USAF pilot). Washington was a warrior. Adams was a lawyer. Aliens and Sedition Act ring a bell? Then there was Jefferson, another sumbag lawyer (Though, the most enlightened one in history). It's been all downhill ever since.
Only deluded fools vote for Obama. Unfortunately, democracy is rule by fool because the masses are asses... which is why this country was originally a representative republic. No more. Any 18 year-old moron can vote. I'm proof that is retarded, because I voted for Carter when I was 18. Look at what an abject dick-in-the-mouth he turned out to be.
America is screwed because democracy is cultural suicide. Every single time.
That's why I favor raising the voting age and making it more difficult to vote, not less. Look at the two duds we have ended up with with the current system.
You can't. You either offer them a tax credit, or you have to cut payroll taxes, but there is no way to cut payroll taxes. I think McCain nailed this answer though-fixes for social security are the easy ones, but the 500 lb elephant in the room is Medicare, and that program is so broken that all it can do is suck giant sums of money out of the treasury and put it down a giant sinking hole-all the fixes for that one are going to be a fix with elements people are going to hate, and lord knows congress would rather table anything that comes with political risk.
I think a much better way to have done questions to make the debate more interesting and actually make the candidates work for the night would have been to choose the audience members from a group of partisan supporters (I am not sure I believe this whole "uncommitted voter" really exists for these things anyway). One half for McCain and one half for Obama.
Have the moderator screen for question appropriateness only.
Then pull the name of an Obama supporter out of the hat, and let McCain answer that question with some give and take discussion time. Then pull a McCain supporter's name out of a hat and let him ask Obama etc. You could mix it up so that occasionally the candidates got a friendly question or two.
But I thought the questions were uninteresting and terrible for the most part. They put both candidates on auto pilot rather than really making them defend or advocate a position.
DB is just shilling for Changey McCahnge these days.
Actually, Tom retired some years ago. He was called back to emergency service when his friend Tim Russert died, just to fill in until a permanent replacement is found. I wonder if McCain is just filling in until a permanent replacement can be found.
It is petty, but have you read most of his posts?
If we're going to be pedantic, I'll note that you say "sorry" fairly often when you're probably not.
Professor Bernstein is one of my favorite posters, even though I rarely agree with his positions.
That said, last night when I saw this hilarious video, I couldn't help but think: "If DB saw this video, his head would explode."
(Be warned: the video features Sarah Silverman and at times is vulgar)
And when confronted with choosing the lesser of two evils, go for the one who won't have control of the Congress.
Exactly. McCain really showed us how to whup those Commies. If it hadn't been for him, Saigon might have fallen, and hundreds of thousands of boat people might have wound up in southern California. Communists might still be in power in Saigon today! He can show us how to achieve the same klind of victory in Iraq we had in Viet Nam, if we just give him half a chance.
Are you telling us that McCain is bilingual? Who woulda guessed.
He wasn't talking to you, he was talking to his friends. Like me. So, next time he says "my friends" he is not referring to you.
Does Obama's "Pock-estan" bother you. How about "Tal-eeban"?
Regards,
Your friend
It doesn't bother the people of Pakistan, who have the effrontery to mispronounce their own nation's name in that fashion, so I try to live with it, myself.
That said, anyone recall the old SNL skit mocking the late Peter Jennings' hyper-native pronunciations of "Nicaragua" &other Latin-American proper nouns? A classic.
Link
Does Obama's "Pock-estan" bother you.
It doesn't bother the people of Pakistan, who have the effrontery to mispronounce their own nation's name in that fashion, so I try to live with it, myself.
So how should Obama pronounce "France"? And which pronunciation would bother you?
Because the Pock-ee-stah-nees have nukes?
And does he do it mainly in the plain?
You'll have to ask Cindy.
"England's better half"
See? Easy to pronounce.
I'm giving away my age, but both Eisenhower and Johnson started their TV speeches this way.
Reagan did.
If you'd followed my advice a couple of weeks back to hop on the Ball State bandwagon, you'd be interrogating Joseph Slater right now about why anybody would pronounce "Toledo," at least for this week. But you didn't, so you're stuck with effete references to places nobody outside the blogosphere has ever heard of. Afgh-who?
yes, of course. A "military man" will always be beyond reproach. Timothy McVeigh for president!
Hucbald's father may have been in the Air Force (apparently hucbald himself did not feel it important enough to serve himself?), but I myself spent 11 years in the Army (11B) and have combat experience in Grenada, Panama and Iraq (Desert Storm). I am also a lawyer.
I can assure you, hucbald, that there are a great many soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen that I knew that I absolutely would not buy a used car from.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHLTKwshxfs
Rocky the Rocket Man is very mad at you right now.
Yep. "My friends" came up 20 times, "we need to make sure" zilch. To be fair, Obama did say "we've got to make sure" twice. That really grated on you, I'll bet.
So much for equivalence.
"My friends" is out.
The new phrase du jour is "My fellow prisoners"
Video at
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/222883.php
Is that some kind of trade school or something?
Of course, they have those clever bumper stickers that say: "I'd rather Ball U than IU." So perhaps I should switch allegiances.
You're right. No "we need to make sure"... but a hell lot of Obama "making sure":
"Make sure" you review the rest of the transcript. There are ten more instances of Obama "making sure".
Well that is a step up from today, when McCain referred to the American people as "my fellow prisoners".
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