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PoliGAF Interim Thread of USA General Elections (DAWN OF THE VEEP)

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S

siamesedreamer

Banned
In an effort to cast himself as independent of the influence of money on politics, Senator Barack Obama often highlights the campaign contributions of $200 or less that have amounted to fully half of the $340 million he has collected so far.

But records show that a third of his record-breaking haul has come from donations of $1,000 or more - a total of $112 million, more than the total of contributions in that category taken in by either Senator John McCain, his Republican rival, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his opponent in the Democratic primaries.

Behind those large donations is a phalanx of more than 500 Obama "bundlers," fund-raisers who have each collected contributions totaling $50,000 or more. Many of the bundlers come from industries with critical interests in Washington. Nearly three dozen of the bundlers have raised more than $500,000, including more than a half-dozen who have passed the $1 million mark and one or two who have exceeded $2 million, according to interviews with fund-raisers.
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LINK
 
F

Frank the Great

Banned
So McCain goes from spending $4 million a week on ads to $.6 million, in order to pay for an ad spot during the Olympics for $6 million?

The best part is that he is doing this only because Obama bought an ad spot. The Obama campaign is doing a great job of forcing McCain to empty his coffers extremely early on.
 
S

soul creator

Member
the daily show bit about conservatives and their use of language in order to frame things was brilliant. Shows how coordinated they are (it's an evil kind of genius in a way).

5-10 different people all of a sudden deciding to use "time horizons" in public interviews isn't a coincidence.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Romney is asked to name one legislative accomplishment of McCain's that moved the US toward energy independence.

He punts: "I'm not a historian."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4BmgxF0zvw

soul creator said:
the daily show bit about conservatives and their use of language in order to frame things was brilliant. Shows how coordinated they are (it's an evil kind of genius in a way).

5-10 different people all of a sudden deciding to use "time horizons" in public interviews isn't a coincidence.
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Reminds me of when "strong interrogation techniques" and "enemy combatants" were invented for similar reasons.
 
J

Jonm1010

Banned
soul creator said:
the daily show bit about conservatives and their use of language in order to frame things was brilliant. Shows how coordinated they are (it's an evil kind of genius in a way).

5-10 different people all of a sudden deciding to use "time horizons" in public interviews isn't a coincidence.
Click to expand...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1586483862/?tag=neogaf0e-20

yea its pretty interesting how it works. I cant remember the name of that guy who was credited for really starting this though, i remember he was the one who framed estate tax into death tax and things like deforestation into "exploration for energy."
 
A

adamsappel

Member
maynerd said:
And?
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It's a perfectly legitimate story to link. Yes, APF and siamesedreamer only post stories that reflect poorly (in their eyes) on Obama, but echo chambers are boring.

Maybe they'll start doubling-down on McCain photos, which in the end will only end up helping Obama. Barack simply hasn't had a bad picture, and McCain looks like the embalming didn't quite take.
 
A

Agent Icebeezy

Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
Rachel and Keith were commenting on the biker speech of John McCain and they surmised that he probably doesn't know what the hell he is going to say until he looks at the script. On top of that, he adlibs in his shit. He looked like a deer in headlights up there on that stage. Stumbling over words and other goofy shit. He's just a puppet.

DNC created this

http://www.democrats.org/page/content/thenextcheney/
 
M

maynerd

Banned
adamsappel said:
It's a perfectly legitimate story to link. Yes, APF and siamesedreamer only post stories that reflect poorly (in their eyes) on Obama, but echo chambers are boring.

Maybe they'll start doubling-down on McCain photos, which in the end will only end up helping Obama. Barack simply hasn't had a bad picture, and McCain looks like the embalming didn't quite take.
Click to expand...

I agree Obama is far more photogenic.

I wonder how many of those Obama photos were tied to a negative article about him vs how many of McCain's were. A photo is one thing but a negative article is another.
 
M

maximum360

Member
Jack Cafferty is probably the only one worth listening to on CNN. He said today, Obama finally opened a "can of whup ***" on McCain.

:lol
 
D

Door2Dawn

Banned
Barack Obama just had the worst week since his beloved pastor, Jeremiah Wright, decided to expatiate on black liberation theology at the National Press Club.

Coming off his royal progress through the Near and Middle East, Berlin, Paris and London, Barack had surged to a nine-point lead in the Gallup tracking poll. By Friday, he was back to a dead heat with a 72-year-old opponent with none of his natural skills, in a year when grocers are pulling Republican brands off the shelves.

For all its gracelessness, the McCain campaign, given openings by Barack, stepped in and put Muhammad Ali on the canvas.

The first opening was the clumsiness with which Barack dealt with a planned visit to wounded U.S. troops in Landshul, Germany.

While the first half of his foreign trip, to Afghanistan and Iraq, was official, the European tour was campaign related. Yet, it was on this leg that a visit to wounded U.S. soldiers had been scheduled. As campaigning in a military hospital is prohibited, the visit was canceled.

But, instead of going ahead and visiting the troops alone, without aides, press or cameras, Barack bailed out and flew on to Paris.

This left the McCain folks an opening to paint Obama as a cold-hearted opportunist avid to visit a military hospital only if he could bring in press and cameras to record his compassion.

Enraged Obama aides savagely accused McCain of running a dishonorable campaign. This reflex reaction, and the ugly brawl that ensued, made some Americans think less of Obama, but many more forget what a success his foreign trip had been.

Came then the Paris-Britney ad. This opens with shots of the wayward blondes, then of Barack, presuming to equate the three as vacuous, insubstantial and aimless. Purpose: Disparage Barack's rock-star popularity and turn it into something laughable.

While the ad seemed both defensive and non-credible, too much of a stretch to be believed -- even Republicans derided it as "childish" -- it apparently acted as something of a matador's cape snapped in front of an already tormented Obama.

Stung, Barack retorted: "What they're going to try 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 those dollar bills you know. He's risky."

Barack was accusing the McCain campaign of implying he is risky because he is black.

This was the opening Rick Davis of McCain's campaign needed to deliver a vicious uppercut to Obama's jaw, charging him with "playing the race card ... from the bottom of the deck." Added Davis, this was "divisive, negative, shameful and wrong." McCain, sadly, agreed.

With that, both benches cleared.

Saturday, Bob Herbert of The New York Times charged McCain and the Republican Party with producing ads that are "slimy ... foul, poisonous ... designed to exploit the hostility, anxiety and resentment of the many white Americans who are still freakishly hung up on the idea of black men rising above their station and becoming sexually involved with white women."

Sunday, Gene Robinson of The Washington Post accused McCain of "running a desperate, ugly campaign."

The Britney-Paris ad calling Obama "the biggest celebrity in the world" was an attempt to "turn Obama's popularity into a flaw."

Now, undeniably, McCain's ad was designed to minimize and mock Obama's popularity as a modern form of Beatlemania.

But what is wrong with that?

On the weekend, the McCain folks released another ad. Called "The One," it features Barack's grandiose pronouncements about who he is, what he means to mankind and the marvelous miracles that await our messiah's arrival -- and twins him with Moses (Charlton Heston) parting the Red Sea in "The Ten Commandments."

The effectiveness of the ad is that people laugh with it, and so doing, laugh at the perceived pretentiousness of Barack Obama.

In a week, Barack, an object of media homage on his trip abroad, has become an object of mockery in much of Middle America. Though his media allies may howl racism, most Americans tend more and more to dismiss this. That card has been played so often it's dog-eared.

And Barack's raising the race issue anew seems suicidal. When one is winning the black vote 94 to 1, does it make sense to keep pushing into the face of the 87 percent of Americans who are Asian, Hispanic and Caucasian that the next president will definitely not be one of you?

When JFK's polls showed him sweeping 80 percent of Catholics, he did not whistle-stop through the Bible Belt, billing himself as our "first Roman Catholic president." He sent Lyndon and Lady Bird on a Dixie special to talk about JFK's war record and rake Richard Nixon.

Thus did he become our first Catholic president. If Barack wishes to be our first black president, he will tell his friends to stop bellowing and braying every day about it.

Copyright 2008, Creators Syndicate Inc.
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By Pat Buchanan
 
The Chosen One

The Chosen One

Member
Good job McCain. You brought Paris Hilton to the mix. But...

... that ad was hilarious! :lol Paris did a good job delivering the lines.

It will be interesting if this ad gets any traction. It already was on most of the cable shows tonight, hopefully it will carry over tomorrow. The only downside to the Paris ad is that it's too long. Since it's not 30 seconds, it keeps getting chopped up when the cable shows play it where some of the funniest bits get left out.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Thinking back to it, something really bothers me about the fact that none of the debates are west of St Louis. Way to ignore half the nation.
 
J

Joe

Member
how hard is it to get into these debates? the last debate is right by me but i don't go to the school. do people sell tickets on craigslist?
 
W

worldrunover

Member
Mumei said:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26045520#26045577

"The Army may begin paying a retention bonus of as much as $150,000 to Arabic speaking soldiers in reflection of how critical it has become for the US military to retain native language and cultural know-how in its ranks." - from the CS Monitor article

Can anyone here translate? Interested? :lol
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Olberman had a piece about this yesterday and concluded the government is more afraid of American gay men than terrorists.
 
S

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Joe said:
how hard is it to get into these debates? the last debate is right by me but i don't go to the school. do people sell tickets on craigslist?
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very. I tried like mad to get into the democratic debate here in Austin.. there were 500 tickets for the public, the rest go to supporters and party insiders.
 
J

Jason's Ultimatum

Member
Wouldn't Paris Hilton's plan be considered favorable to both candidates and not just McCains? Afterall, Obama said he would allow offshore drilling if it meant alternative energy, like in the compromise bill.
 
I

Instigator

Banned
I can't believe this hasn't been posted yet.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,570315,00.html

McCain’s Green-Eyed Monster

Not since Iago and Othello obsessed on the comely Cassio, not since Richard of Gloucester killed his two nephews, not since Nixon and Johnson glowered at the glittering J.F.K., has there been such an unseemly outpouring of boy envy.

Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson and John Edwards have all been crazed with envy over the ascendance of the new “It” guy, Barack Obama.

Unlike his wife, Bill Clinton — the master of fake sincerity — still continues to openly begrudge his party’s betrothed.

Asked by Kate Snow of ABC News in Africa whether Obama was ready to be president, Clinton gave a classic Clintonian answer: “You could argue that no one’s ever ready to be president.”

As always, the Big Dog was more concerned with himself — asserting that he’s not a racist — than his party. Bill Clinton is not a racist. We can posit that. But he did play subtle racial politics in the primary. It’s way past time for him to accept the fact that there’s a new wunderkind in town.

Just as Bill Clinton looks at Obama and sees his own oblivion, so does Jesse Jackson. As Shelby Steele wrote in The Wall Street Journal, Jackson and his generation of civil rights leaders “made keeping whites ‘on the hook’ the most sacred article of the post-’60s black identity,” equality pursued by manipulating white guilt.

Now John McCain is pea-green with envy. That’s the only explanation for why a man who prides himself on honor, a man who vowed not to take the low road in the campaign, having been mugged by W. and Rove in South Carolina in 2000, is engaging in a festival of juvenilia.

The Arizona senator who built his reputation on being a brave proponent of big solutions is running a schoolyard campaign about tire gauges and Paris Hilton, childishly accusing his opponent of being too serious, too popular and not patriotic enough.

Even his own mother, the magical 96-year-old Roberta McCain, let slip that she thought the Paris Hilton-Britney Spears ad was “kinda stupid.”

McCain’s 2000 strategist, John Weaver, was equally blunt with Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter: “It’s hard to imagine America responding to ‘small ball’ when we have all these problems.”

Some of McCain’s old pals in the Senate are cringing at what they see as his soulless transformation into what he once scorned.

“John’s eaten up with envy,” said one. “His image of himself was always the handsome, celebrity flyboy.

“Now somebody else is the celebrity,” the colleague continued, while John looks in the mirror and sees his face marred by skin cancer and looks at the TV and sees his dashing self-image replaced by visions of William Frawley, with Letterman jokes about his membership in the ham radio club and adventures with wagon trains.

For McCain, being cool meant being a rogue, not a policy wonk; but Obama manages to be a cool College Bowl type, which must irk McCain, who liked to play up his bad-boy cool. Now the guy in the back of the class is shooting spitballs at the class pet and is coming off as more juvenile than daring.

Around the McCain campaign, they grouse that Obama “hasn’t bled.” He hasn’t bled literally, in military service, just like W., the last holder of an E-ZPass who sped past McCain. And he hasn’t paid his dues in the Senate, since he basically just stopped by for directions to the Oval Office.

As a new senator, Obama was not only precocious enough to pounce on turf that McCain had invested years in, such as campaign finance lobbying, ethics reform and earmarks. When Obama did reach across the aisle for a mentor, it was to the staid Richard Lugar of Indiana, not to the salty Republican of choice for Democrats, McCain.

When the Illinois freshman took back a private promise to join McCain’s campaign finance reform effort, McCain told his aide Mark Salter to “brush him back.” Salter sent an over-the-top vituperative letter to Obama. “I guess I beaned him instead,” Salter told Newsweek’s Howard Fineman.

McCain could dismiss W. as a lightweight, but he knows Obama’s smart. Obama wrote his own books, while McCain’s were written by Salter. McCain knows he’s the affirmative action scion of admirals who might not have gotten through Annapolis without being a legacy. Obama didn’t even tell Harvard Law School that he was black on his application.

McCain upbraids Obama for being a poppet, while he’s becoming a puppet. His mouth is moving but the words coming out belong to his new hard-boiled strategist, Steve Schmidt, a Rove protégé, nicknamed “The Bullet” for his bald pate.

Schmidt has turned Mr. Straight Talk into Mr. Desperate Straits. It’s not a good trade.
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APF in 3, 2, 1...
 
M

Mike M

Nick N
Dan said:
Thinking back to it, something really bothers me about the fact that none of the debates are west of St Louis. Way to ignore half the nation.
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Probably has more to do with time zones than anything else.
 
Smiles and Cries

Smiles and Cries

Member
tanod said:
Not pictured: Bloodied corpse shot with hundreds of bullets. :p

Bumper stickers = serious business
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well if you can get a bumper sticker on a bus that McCain might take a ride on I just wonder how safe these guys are right now
 
T

tanod

when is my burrito
McCain's outburst at Sturgis yesterday seemed like a desperate attempt to channel Obama. Wow, did he fail miserably at it. He gets wound up in front of crowds and instead of working them, he stumbles all over himself and whores out his wife. While entertaining, I'm not sure he helped his chances of getting anybody in that crowd to vote for him.

Hopefully, his convention speech will be as terrible as the speech on the night of Obama's primary victory and the Sturgis appearance.
 
C

Cheebs

Member
tanod said:
Hopefully, his convention speech will be as terrible as the speech on the night of Obama's primary victory and the Sturgis appearance.
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Regardless of the speech content he'll lose the convention comparison on pure imagary.

McCain will speak in front of 2,000 in a convention hall. Obama will speak in front of 70,000 in a football stadium.
 
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