Category: politics

Palin or Pallin?

McCain’s primary spokesperson, Tucker Bounds, is on CNN
tonight and he just pronounced Sarah Palin’s two entirely different ways. At
first he said ‘Pal-lin’ with a short ‘a’ sound. Second time through he called
her ‘Pa-lin’ with a long ‘a’ sound. Shouldn’t the lead spokesperson know how to
pronounce his own VP’s name?

Wow.

TP 

Joe Biden at the DNC

 

Beau Biden gave a very good speech. There were a couple
stumbles but he certainly seems well suited, in numerous ways, to contend for
his dad’s Senate seat.

 

There have been a couple very specific references to Biden’s
efforts on behalf of women including the Violence Against Women Act.

 

I’m a helluva success. He probably wasn’t supposed to say
hell, was he?

 

Beau-y? What a great little kid nickname

 

A perfect ‘Freudian slip’ as Biden calls McCain ‘George’
instead of ‘John’.

 

Biden speaks very directly about his friendship with McCain
and then rips him intently. Not unkindly but deliberately, with passion and
verve.

 

This is a really strong speech and did a great job
encapsulating what Biden brings to the table. 

TP

Niebuhrian? Obama yes, Bush, not so much…

This post is part of an article from
Gregg Easterbrook, an ESPN columnist and the author of The Progress Paradox:
How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, and other books. He is also a
contributing editor for The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly and The
Washington Monthly.

 

Speaking
to the columnist E.J. Dionne, Barack Obama not only used but correctly
pronounced the word "Niebuhrian," which means, "The thinking of
Reinhold Niebuhr." Most theologians probably cannot pronounce that word!
Though Niebuhr, a religious celebrity of the midcentury, is little-known today,
it is not that unusual to hear him cited by political leaders (who may or may
not actually have read him; Obama surely has). Niebuhr saw the world as a
malevolent place, and argued that although Christ was a pacifist, Christians
serve Christ by fighting evil. Much contemporary "just war"
philosophy is Niebuhrian. His writing and speeches convinced many Christians to
support war against Germany in World War II — war against Japan was
self-defense, while war against Germany needed just-war underpinnings — and
then to oppose Communist tyranny. Before the elder George Bush took the United
States into the 1991 Gulf War, he consulted religious scholars, including
experts on Niebuhr; the soldiers who fought in that war knew their
commander-in-chief was deeply concerned with moral reasoning. Before George W.
Bush took the United States into the invasion of Iraq, did he engage in any
philosophical contemplation at all?

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/080812&sportCat=nfl

 

Shouldn't even our recent history be instructive? Which Presidential candidate do we trust to make thoughtful, coherent decisions rooted in something beyond political expediency? I hope you have some answer…


TP

Pollstar suggests huge Obama cushion

Doesn’t
this polling data bode incredibly well for Obama’s candidacy?

http://www.slate.com/id/2195956

If
these projections hold something close to form, even if a couple of the lean-to
states fail to go to Obama, McCain would have to run the table by winning every
competitive race, just to throw the outcome into doubt!


TP

Will Obama win in a rout?

Isn’t there a chance that Barack Obama will win in a rout? I
know that prospect would not provide much intrigue for the media but might that
happen?

 

There’s a chance that Obama will do well enough to dominate
the Electoral College vote in 2008. He could carry both Ohio and Florida
without anyone being surprised. That’s realistic and a great start to hitting
270 assuming he holds the states leaning his way.

 

If he does somewhat better than expected, he’ll win Colorado,
Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and sneak out victories in Missouri and Iowa which
would mean something on the order of 310-315 votes. In these days of the deeply
divided electorate, 310 is a clear mandate. That could absolutely happen with a
good night for Obama. 

 

If he does substantially better than expected right now, and
there are some important reasons to think he will, he’ll take most of the
states above as well as Indiana, Missouri, and edge out margins in Alaska,
Louisiana and one of the Mountain West states (one of MT, ND, SD, WY). (That would
mean something like 363 electoral votes and doesn’t take into account the races
in Georgia, New Mexico, the Carolinas and Pennsylvania, some of which may tilt
to Obama.)

 

That kind of electoral outcome would be a shocking
repudiation of John McCain, the Republican party, the Bush years and the Iraq
War. It would indicate a fundamental shift in the American electorate and while I don’t feel confident that this level of victory will happen, something on this order may be an actual outcome in November.

 

TP