Friday, August 01, 2008

What A Card

Okay, here's what Obama said: "What they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name, you know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills....he's risky."

What's interesting is what happened during the ellipsis. The "dollar bill" line created a huge whoop of laughter followed by prolonged applause. The other claims about his opponents' scare tactics got little or no reaction.

This is the side of politics I really hate. The ugliness, which both sides have, of feeling such moral superiority that you never respond more than when your candidate reminds you of how nasty the other side is.

PS Some have noted Obama's gaffe in stating there's more than one President on the dollar bill, but we get what he means.

PPS Obama's spokesperson said he wasn't referring to race, which only compounds the insult.

PPPS You can tell as much about an audience by what they don't cheer as what they do. I'm reminded of Obama's big speech in Berlin. When he said we must reject torture and support the rule of law, wild applause. When he said we have to defeat terror and extremism, nothing. Let's face it, Obama's European fans don't want to hear him attack the enemies of the West, they want him to rip into America.

5 Comments:

Blogger QueensGuy said...

Do you have a cite for that pps? I said it as a joke, and can't believe they're trying to do it with a straight face.

5:42 AM, August 01, 2008  
Blogger LAGuy said...

This was fairly widely reported. For instance, this is from the AP report:


Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the senator was not referring to race.

"What Barack Obama was talking about was that he didn't get here after spending decades in Washington," Gibbs said Thursday. "There is nothing more to this than the fact that he was describing that he was new to the political scene. He was referring to the fact that he didn't come into the race with the history of others. It is not about race."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2008-07-31-obama-mccain_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

9:27 AM, August 01, 2008  
Blogger QueensGuy said...

Well, it didn't take long for Obama to back away from that one. But they're stuck with "cynical," because they certainly can't take this line of argument, whether it's what they believe or not.

12:11 PM, August 02, 2008  
Blogger QueensGuy said...

Oh, and for what it's worth, contrasting Obama's face with those on dollar bills seemingly was McCain's idea after all.

12:27 PM, August 02, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is that a real John McCain web ad, QueensGuy? If so, I'd like VermontGuy's comment on it.

10:56 PM, August 05, 2008  

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