Notes On The Candidates

[poliphilo]

They say old soldiers make peace-loving politicians because they know first-hand how horrible war is, but this doesn't seem to apply to McCain, who has already- and he's not even in the White House yet- threatened to go to war with Russia.  Maybe this is because his military service involved flying above battlefields, not slogging accross them.

I'll say this for Palin: she hasn't pulled strings or called in favours to keep her son out of her holy war.

As for Obama, he's supposed to be hugely intelligent, right? So why in the world did he make that crack about the pig and the lipstick when he- or his minders- should have known that the GOP attack dogs would be all over it? The more I see and hear of him, the flimsier he seems to be.

Comments

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I'm defending John McCain, but...his military service didn't only involve flying above battlefields, it involved several years (5 or 6, I forget) as a POW, being tortured on a regular basis to the extent of permanently damaging his body. That being said, I can't account for his attitude towards war. It's not from disengagement, that's for sure.

"Lipstick on a pig" is a common expression (particularly in Washington, where this happens so frequently), and I believe that Obama was speaking off the cuff. The accusation that he was speaking about Palin is ridiculous to the extreme.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I would suggest that the experiences of a POW are very different from those of an infantry soldier.

Maybe Obama was tired, maybe he was on auto-pilot- but by using that phrase at that time he handed his enemies a stick to beat him with.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Yes, it went without notice by the media when McCain used it in reference to Hillary Clinton. But then, Republicans get away with a lot that Democrats are not allowed to do (Swift-Boat campaigns, etc.)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And yet they're forever complaining about the liberal media...

[sovay]

I can't believe I'm defending John McCain, but...his military service didn't only involve flying above battlefields, it involved several years (5 or 6, I forget) as a POW, being tortured on a regular basis to the extent of permanently damaging his body.

What perhaps distresses me most about McCain's war record was the discovery that while a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he broke under torture and signed an anti-American confession: and yet continues to advocate the present torturing of captured terrorists etc. on the grounds that it will yield valid and accurate information. He should know better.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He broke under torture, did he? They're keeping that well hushed up.

I'm not blaming him. I'm sure I'd break under torture too.

[sovay]

They're keeping that well hushed up.

Like everything else in this campaign, it appears to be well-documented; and by virtue of being true, rendered completely irrelevant.

I'm not blaming him. I'm sure I'd break under torture too.

Yes. That isn't what distresses me. Whether it's Stockholm syndrome or simple expedience, however, his present position very much does.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I was boggling so much over the information about McCain signing that "confession" that I failed to register the second- more important- part of your comment.

Torture is criminal and barbaric- and if McCain backs its use, those adjectives apply to him as well.

[jenny_evergreen]

In fact, he said nothing even remotely to do with Palin; he was clearly and specifically talking about Bush and McCain's military policies. It was a pathetic attack, frankly not up to the Republicans usual skills. (And not the first one...I don't know what's up with them, but it makes me happy.)

[unbleachedbrun.livejournal.com]

The lipstick on a pig phrase is a common American idiom, and it has been used previously both by Obama and even by McCain (McCain used it in reference to Hillary Clinton's health care ideas). Having McCain operatives try to associate the comment with Palin's pit bull/hockey mom lipstick joke or even her personally was, I thought, quite disingenuous. I smell desperation.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that by using that particular phrase at that particular time he threw his enemies a bone. A really astute politician would have found some other well-worn phrase to employ.

[internet-sampo.livejournal.com]

I've noticed Obama seemed fatigued at times. I've never seen the lipstick comment in full context, so I don't know.

But, lipstick on a pig, is so common it's almost as if McCain/Palin decided that whatever Obama said that day that they would twist it and use it against him.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

This is only tangentially related, but why do contemporary politicians only ever talk in cliches?

[internet-sampo.livejournal.com]

While one of your previous posters reminded me that that phrase is politico-talk, I also think that this cliche also has a country-flavor (farm yard animal) and could be strategically used to make Obama appear less intellectual elite than he is (remember that being anti-intellectual elite is one thing that got Nixon elected).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

If that was the intention, it backfired. Good ol' boy isn't in Obama's repertoire.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Regardless, do people not see that whatever Obama does or does not do will be attacked by the Republicans? Four years ago they were all over John Kerry because he was too "weak" to fight them on their own (dirty) terms. He ran a clean campaign - and lost. This year, Obama fights back and now they are all over HIM.
If this was not such a crucial election, I would just pass on voting. A plague on ALL their houses! But I will cast my vote against McCain/Palin.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

He didn't throw his enemies a bone; he threw them an entire haunch!

I watched the clip on YouTube. Obama paused after "you can put lipstick on a pig," and waited while the audience let out a number of appreciative hoots and cat-calls that suggested that they, at least, linked it with Palin. He then went on to say [I paraphrase, may not be perfect] "and you can wrap up an old fish with newspapers and call it change but it's still going to smell."

It was clear that his audience there took this as references to Palin and McCain, which helped with the perception that he did it in order to get that effect. I think that at the very least, Obama had a tin ear for how those particular figures of speech would be received.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I noticed that pause.

I wondered whether it was a "whoops, now I've said it" moment- and he was wishing he could backtrack and start again.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And it's the voting record that counts.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

"I'll say this for Palin: she hasn't pulled strings or called in favours to keep her son out of her holy war. ."

Say it for McCain, too: his son did a tour of duty in Iraq a year or so ago. I worry a bit about Palin's son becoming a high-value target, as Prince Harry was thought to be in Afghanistan.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that. Respect!

At least Palin's son doesn't have an internationally famous face.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

They're going to clobber him for that "McCain doesn't get the internet" ad, too. There were articles in the Boston Globe and in Forbes way back in 2000 about McCain's savvy use of the internet.

True, McCain doesn't keyboard his own emails. According to an article in Forbes, back in 2000, he is in pain if he tries to type (another of his lasting souvenirs from his five-plus years as a prisoner of war), so he and his wife do his emails together. He reads them, then dictates his replies -- Cindy is apparently a ferocious keyboarder. He stays current on sites and blogs that are key to him, and he did well with pioneering online events such as an online town meeting back in the late 1990s or early 2000s.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be nice if the two camps were to debate policy for a change.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Actually, the "lipstick on a pig" comment played out rather well for the Democratic ticket, all things considered. The Rethuglicans went into high-dudgeon mode for days, but much of the press somewhat surprisingly didn't buy into the faux outrage. The right-wing surrogates kept repeating the same canard, that Obama's audience obviously thought he intended Palin. It never really stuck. The phrase is just too common over here and twice in the past year McCain himself had used it in reference to Senator Hillary Clinton's health-care reform plan.

Nearly every news spot rolled the footage of Obama's supposed gaffe, often leading with it:

"You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough."

Whether intentionally or not, using that phrase allowed Obama's core message to penetrate the fog of lies and diversions pumped out daily by the McCain-Palin campaign and dutifully replayed and amplified in the press. It also allowed the Democratic candidate to go on a popular late-night talk show and joke that, logically, Palin isn't the pig; she's obviously the lipstick on McCain's pig of a campaign. Rather clever, I thought, and also happens to be true.

The truth is that the economy, the issues, social demographics, public opinion, and history itself, are all on the side of the Democrats this year. Manufactured outrage, misleading attacks, and other diversionary tactics are the only way that McCain can win. If public dialog is allowed to turn to the challenges facing the US, the Republicans are toast and they know it. Consequently, there will always be flaps like this, no matter what Obama says, from now until the election. If he doesn't give them a pretense, they'll make one up. The "lipstick on a pig" statement at least directs attention to a simple, easy-to-understand fact of this electioin: McCain offers nothing new. Personally, I suspect we haven't heard the last of pigs and lipsticks.

And for the record: the most serious of McCain's injuries were not suffered at the hands of his captors in North Vietnam. He didn't tuck-in as he should have done, when he triggered his ejection seat. He broke in prison when he realized he wasn't going to get the medical attention he needed for his injuries and told them he was the son of the admiral in command of the Pacific fleet. The Viet Cong offered to release him after two years, I think, and he refused, remaining in prison for five and a half, disregarding the orders given any officer who might be held in captivity.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Why would McCain choose to stay in prison for five and a half years when he could have been out in two?

This seems to be gearing up to be a very nasty election.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Good question.

McCain has claimed, if I remember correctly, that he personally refused the offer, not wishing to leave other prisoners behind. Other accounts say that his US POW commander ordered him to remain and he obeyed. There has been speculation, which you may take for what you will, that McCain turned down the release for political reasons. Given his cooperation with his captors, coerced though it was, an early release of the admiral's son would likely have been an embarrassment for both his father and himself.

I don't know. I always liked McCain, until he spent the past eight years sucking up to the Bush administration and tirelessly cheerleading the worst strategic blunder in US military history. It's impossible to see his campaign against Barack Obama as honorable, and by reflection, it's difficult to still see McCain as an honorable man. I've watched him spinning and outright lying without shame on the campaign trail for weeks, now, and at this point I honestly wonder whether anything he's said, then or now, is credible.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Who knows? Politics is a mirror-maze.

It's difficult, I would suggest, indeed, almost impossible- for an honourable man to keep his honour on the campaign trail.

My impression of McCain is of a bad-tempered, not particularly bright, old man. Strong-willed, easily led- not a good combination.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree. Not a good combination of traits at all.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

And yes, I think this is indeed going to be nasty. I doubt we've seen the half of it, yet. Here's a taste of what Obama's up against this season.

I also worry that whether Obama wins or loses, the country may well be left almost ungovernable as a result of this campaign. I don't think the Republicans are going to go quietly and with Democrat's political power on the rise, I should be very surprised if they take such a loss lying down.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I believe what we're witnessing is the close of the American century. Obama might be able to slow down the process of decline, McCain would probably speed it up.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

"The close of the American century" is a good way of putting it, yes.

At this point in history, the US as empire in all but name is like one of those bubbles economists are always talking about. It cannot sustain itself much longer and has only lasted this long through exuberance, a collective belief in what is now an obvious unreality. This bubble must deflate, eventually. The only question is whether it does so catastrophically or in a controlled manner that minimizes damage on all sides.

If I could demand anything of Obama, I should wish for an orderly climb-down from the past few years in particular and the US's decades-long bid to rule the world, generally. What I fear most from McCain is that he would either slow the natural decline of this country as world power, thus making the inevitable collapse just that much worse, or else act so recklessly that he inaugurates that catastrophe himself. He's already clamoring for a proxy war with the Russians. Goddess only knows what he'd get up to, if given executive power.

Empires do this sort of thing, historically. Sometimes they settle down gracefully and return to minding their own business. Sometimes they see the inevitable approaching and make one last bone-headed attempt to reclaim their former glory. I fear John McCain is just such a bone head.

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

McCain seems like a total fake to me. A man with no substance to him whatsoever- who jumps from foot to foot with a stupid jester's grin on his face while desperately trying to please and impress whoever he thinks has the power. He's a dumb little lapdog longing to ingratiate himself. There is no chance in hell he will exercise the power of the POTUS responsibly. His POW record? A real man would've taken release, then gone back and forcibly freed the other prisoners. Instead he stayed- because it was the easy way to impress.

'But he was tortured..' people say. 'That shows character.' I completely disagree. Him choosing to stay seems utterly manipulative, an immature attempt to win favor- knowing people back home would respect him for his 'bravery'. In knowing he didn't actually have to 'do' anything other than get by to be thought of as a hero. He wasted 5 years of his life trying to be like Mandela, when the situation was not at all similar.

He's completely empty, and he stands for nothing. He's amenable to coercion. Put him in a room with Obama for 10 days, and when he walked out he'd be cheering for Obama. He's the ultimate puppet-leader. I don't know how he stands it- but then his whole life has been a game, with him playing a part, so why should this be any different?

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Quite so.

Col David "Hack" Hackworth, writing in 2000, described John McCain's "war hero" image as a "very slick publicity campaign that plays on flag, duty, honor and country". Coming from one of the most decorated - and outspoken - soldiers in US history, I tend to trust Hack's opinion

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't like McCain.

But that's not saying very much, because I find it hard to name a politician I do like.

Apart from Abraham Lincoln.

If I had a vote I'd give it to Obama- but not with any very great enthusiasm. My fear is he'll turn out to be the American Blair.