Mr. President, Shut the Hell Up
No, I'm not going Keith Olbermann on you with that title... but I do think that President Bush did more harm than good to the McCain campaign with his speech in Israel the other day. I've had enough time to think about this speech, and I think my original reaction is the one to go with.
Don't get me wrong; I certainly think Barack Obama earns "get over yourself" points for thinking that Bush was talking about him, but Obama (or more precisely, DNC Chair Howard Dean) has decided that this election will be about running against Bush (even though they technically aren't and can't). Therefore, Bush needs to lay low and not provide ammo for the DNC. Yeah, I really don't see how that's possible when pretty much anything he says gets spun for the DNC's benefit these days. Take the recent comment Bush made about cutting back on his golf game. As soon as I heard it, I knew what he meant. He doesn't want any more of those "Fahrenheit 9-11" ("Now watch this drive") moments that can get misedited into something attacking him. However, in this case, it didn't take Michael Moore for the bile to start. It's been almost universally condemned as Bush not caring about injured or disabled soldiers. And looking at that quote again... yeah, I knew what he meant but as has been the case with so many "Bushisms" over the years, the words didn't come out right. Maybe he just needs to stop making public statements until November... nah, the media would say he was hiding from them...
Anyway, back to the Obama/Dean "strategy": It's all about McCain = Bush. Obama, Dean, and all the talking-points-repeating Democrats are declaring that John McCain amounts to nothing more than "Bush's 3rd term." The problem with all of this is that the only people who believe that... are Obama, Dean, and all the talking-points-repeating Democrats. Republicans certainly don't buy that at all, right-wingers especially. If John McCain really was offering us a 3rd Bush term, conservatives would be a lot more eager to vote for him. Instead, they continue to say they are hesitant at best. When Bob Barr announced he was running as the "true conservative" last week, I braced for a string of endorsements from right-wing talk show hosts for Barr, but so far that has not happened.
In a recent Pew Research study, voters saw McCain as centrist and much like themselves in terms of views... which is precisely why the right is so pissed off. They want a conservative, and they're threatening to bolt if McCain picks a VP who is much like himself. If you're still not convinced that McCain is not a 3rd Bush term, let me ask you this... if McCain is so much like Bush, why did Bush and his right-wing cronies go to such lengths to smear him back in 2000?
The real problem for Obama is that by making this campaign be so much about discrediting John McCain, he's not exactly pitching a "new kind of politics", is he? Sounds like the same old, same old to me. But I saw this coming when Dean and the DNC started trotting out this rhetoric well before the nomination appeared to be decided. I wondered how Obama could possibly sell his vision of change and hope when the DNC would be running the same old negative attacks right and left. The answer, apparently, is for Obama to talk out of both sides of his mouth. He dismisses any criticism of himself (or more recently, his wife Michelle) as divisive, while slamming McCain constantly... and isn't THAT in itself divisive? Obama and Dean say we cannot talk about Jeremiah Wright anymore, but Obama says that McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal nearly two decades ago is fair game. They are trying to dictate what we can and can't talk about in this election. Nope, that doesn't sound like the same elitism that brought us the whole "bitter" comment about clinging to guns and religion and prejudice.
Meanwhile, McCain IS offering a vision. He made a speech last week that we would be victorious in Iraq and most of the troops home by 2013 (I know how that can happen, but that's another entry). He also said we will have captured or killed Osama bin Laden, Iran and North Korea will have been persuaded to end their nuclear programs, there will be no more "signing statements" like Bush has done which virtually ignore the bills he is signing into law, health care will be more accessible to Americans than any other time in history, and he will take questions from Congress like the Prime Minister does in Britain. THAT is vision. THAT is hope.
The response from the Obama campaign? Basically, it was "we agree with a lot of your vision, but you're being divisive, just like Bush." Get ready for 5 1/2 more months of "attack, attack, attack" from the left...
Speaking of Olbermann... I understand he definitely dislikes the president. I get that. I wouldn't be caught dead watching his show on MSNBC (and for that matter, neither would most of America), but I was still able to enjoy him on NBC's Sunday night football show because it was the Keith Olbermann who was on ESPN back in the day, and I loved his sports humor. However, when you pretty much play the "baby killer" card with our troops as he has done... I don't think I'm ever gonna get past that with him. I'm usually a "live and let live" type, but no, I lost any respect I had for him...
And as long as I'm passing out "get over yourself" awards, I will give one to the New York sports media for their treatment of Billy Wagner's remarks last week. You really do have to wonder why the press is interviewing Wagner after a game he didn't play in... gee, could it be because he just gave them a great remark not too long ago and they need to have something controversial to write about? So he goes off on them, but since the New York sports media is above criticism, they decided someone else needed to be criticized. So first they went after Carlos Delgado... except the reason he wasn't in the locker room was because of a family situation... so then they inferred that Wagner was criticizing his teammates who don't speak good English... but someone must have told them that was racist... so then they decided it's all Willie Randolph's fault and he needs to be fired. Bob Klapisch even went so far as to say that the Mets players don't say they admire Willie. BS. Ask ANY of them and they will tell you they do... just because they don't go out of their way to say, "Hey, he's the greatest," I guess that translates to lack of respect. Whatever. So to the New York sports media, I end this entry the way I began it, and tell you all to SHUT THE HELL UP...
Don't get me wrong; I certainly think Barack Obama earns "get over yourself" points for thinking that Bush was talking about him, but Obama (or more precisely, DNC Chair Howard Dean) has decided that this election will be about running against Bush (even though they technically aren't and can't). Therefore, Bush needs to lay low and not provide ammo for the DNC. Yeah, I really don't see how that's possible when pretty much anything he says gets spun for the DNC's benefit these days. Take the recent comment Bush made about cutting back on his golf game. As soon as I heard it, I knew what he meant. He doesn't want any more of those "Fahrenheit 9-11" ("Now watch this drive") moments that can get misedited into something attacking him. However, in this case, it didn't take Michael Moore for the bile to start. It's been almost universally condemned as Bush not caring about injured or disabled soldiers. And looking at that quote again... yeah, I knew what he meant but as has been the case with so many "Bushisms" over the years, the words didn't come out right. Maybe he just needs to stop making public statements until November... nah, the media would say he was hiding from them...
Anyway, back to the Obama/Dean "strategy": It's all about McCain = Bush. Obama, Dean, and all the talking-points-repeating Democrats are declaring that John McCain amounts to nothing more than "Bush's 3rd term." The problem with all of this is that the only people who believe that... are Obama, Dean, and all the talking-points-repeating Democrats. Republicans certainly don't buy that at all, right-wingers especially. If John McCain really was offering us a 3rd Bush term, conservatives would be a lot more eager to vote for him. Instead, they continue to say they are hesitant at best. When Bob Barr announced he was running as the "true conservative" last week, I braced for a string of endorsements from right-wing talk show hosts for Barr, but so far that has not happened.
In a recent Pew Research study, voters saw McCain as centrist and much like themselves in terms of views... which is precisely why the right is so pissed off. They want a conservative, and they're threatening to bolt if McCain picks a VP who is much like himself. If you're still not convinced that McCain is not a 3rd Bush term, let me ask you this... if McCain is so much like Bush, why did Bush and his right-wing cronies go to such lengths to smear him back in 2000?
The real problem for Obama is that by making this campaign be so much about discrediting John McCain, he's not exactly pitching a "new kind of politics", is he? Sounds like the same old, same old to me. But I saw this coming when Dean and the DNC started trotting out this rhetoric well before the nomination appeared to be decided. I wondered how Obama could possibly sell his vision of change and hope when the DNC would be running the same old negative attacks right and left. The answer, apparently, is for Obama to talk out of both sides of his mouth. He dismisses any criticism of himself (or more recently, his wife Michelle) as divisive, while slamming McCain constantly... and isn't THAT in itself divisive? Obama and Dean say we cannot talk about Jeremiah Wright anymore, but Obama says that McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal nearly two decades ago is fair game. They are trying to dictate what we can and can't talk about in this election. Nope, that doesn't sound like the same elitism that brought us the whole "bitter" comment about clinging to guns and religion and prejudice.
Meanwhile, McCain IS offering a vision. He made a speech last week that we would be victorious in Iraq and most of the troops home by 2013 (I know how that can happen, but that's another entry). He also said we will have captured or killed Osama bin Laden, Iran and North Korea will have been persuaded to end their nuclear programs, there will be no more "signing statements" like Bush has done which virtually ignore the bills he is signing into law, health care will be more accessible to Americans than any other time in history, and he will take questions from Congress like the Prime Minister does in Britain. THAT is vision. THAT is hope.
The response from the Obama campaign? Basically, it was "we agree with a lot of your vision, but you're being divisive, just like Bush." Get ready for 5 1/2 more months of "attack, attack, attack" from the left...
Speaking of Olbermann... I understand he definitely dislikes the president. I get that. I wouldn't be caught dead watching his show on MSNBC (and for that matter, neither would most of America), but I was still able to enjoy him on NBC's Sunday night football show because it was the Keith Olbermann who was on ESPN back in the day, and I loved his sports humor. However, when you pretty much play the "baby killer" card with our troops as he has done... I don't think I'm ever gonna get past that with him. I'm usually a "live and let live" type, but no, I lost any respect I had for him...
And as long as I'm passing out "get over yourself" awards, I will give one to the New York sports media for their treatment of Billy Wagner's remarks last week. You really do have to wonder why the press is interviewing Wagner after a game he didn't play in... gee, could it be because he just gave them a great remark not too long ago and they need to have something controversial to write about? So he goes off on them, but since the New York sports media is above criticism, they decided someone else needed to be criticized. So first they went after Carlos Delgado... except the reason he wasn't in the locker room was because of a family situation... so then they inferred that Wagner was criticizing his teammates who don't speak good English... but someone must have told them that was racist... so then they decided it's all Willie Randolph's fault and he needs to be fired. Bob Klapisch even went so far as to say that the Mets players don't say they admire Willie. BS. Ask ANY of them and they will tell you they do... just because they don't go out of their way to say, "Hey, he's the greatest," I guess that translates to lack of respect. Whatever. So to the New York sports media, I end this entry the way I began it, and tell you all to SHUT THE HELL UP...
posted by Dave | 4:49 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home