Comments on: McCain’s Two Front Plan To Nudge In On Obama Speech Airtime

By: SteveK

SteveK — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:02:27 +0000

"McSame is a rough, tough and battle-worn veteran."

McCain wouldn't be quite so 'battle-worn' if he'd paid more attention in his "How to Land an Airplane" classes.

By: Silhouette

Silhouette — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:26:25 +0000

If afros were the style I'd say yes, have one. Most black men today keep their hair trimmed short. You want him to appeal to as many as possible.
*******

"You realize his opponent is a crippled war vet, right? ~ Chris
******

Exactly. McSame is a rough, tough and battle-worn veteran. That's the image Obama needs to try to compete with in time of war.

By: JSpencer

JSpencer — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:45:18 +0000

Silhouette, I guess an afro is out then?

By: denisedh

denisedh — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:16:44 +0000

This game, speculating about whether McCain will announce his VP pick tonight or not, is a work of psychpathic genius. If he does it, then a few will tut-tut about the impropriety of it; if he waits then McCain can be seen as taking the “high road” and bucking Rove or some such nonsense.
Psychopathic genius if obviously fascinating to the easily duped media, especially as they treat the campaign as some kind of spectator sport, They don't ask the question whether the psychopathic genius minds who win campaigns are the best to be in charge of a government.

By: CStanley

CStanley — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:14:03 +0000

Heh, relax Joe, et al. The Maverick still has some class, after all.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080828/ap_on_el_pr…

I said the other day that I'd be disappointed if McCain tried to rain on the parade tonight, and in fact that he should make a point of congratulating Obama and noting the historic nature of his candidacy. I guess his staff must be tracking my comments and taking my advice

Now, about that VP pick…

By: ChrisWWW

ChrisWWW — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:53:49 +0000

his thin upper body makes him look too weak and frail.

You realize his opponent is a crippled war vet, right?

By: Silhouette

Silhouette — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:35:27 +0000

On the subject of obama's image..

If I was advising him for a makeover I would suggest the following while he stumps for the Fall:

1. Ben Davis or equivalent shirt with just the bottoms of the cuffs rolled up.
2. Upper body bulk training ASAP
3. Work pants, clean and pressed
4. Bolo tie...yes...bolo tie..
5. Slight, ever so slight 5' O Clock shadow

The pantsuit look for a dude just ain't cutting it and his thin upper body makes him look too weak and frail. I cannot emphasize more how a man's-man look will save him from that fragile look...and the implications...

We need all the ammo we can get.

By: kritt11

kritt11 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:29:51 +0000

Chris – You've got a point- all they have to do is stick to the record and it should be a cakewalk— uh never mind- bad choice of words!

By: Silhouette

Silhouette — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:14:19 +0000

See,

JSpencer knows what time it is...

The only chance obama/BIDEN has is to go heavy, hard and fast for the McSame jugular. This will be twofold successful:

1. It will catch them off guard and expose their weaknesses
2. Most importantly it will make obama look strong and warlike, an image he REALLY needs to impress on the people to get a win this Fall.

No one is going to line up, when all is said and done and they're behind the curtain in the voting booth, behind a limp-wristed liberal who was afraid to take off his gloves for fear of not looking gentlemanly.

In time of war people don't go with passive, they go with Rambo.

By: JSpencer

JSpencer — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:13:18 +0000

If the R's plan mischief for tonight then it will be entirely in keeping with the modus operandi they adopted many years ago and have grown so fond of. The D's will be wise this election season to expect the absolute least from them in terms of decent standards of conduct.

By: ChrisWWW

ChrisWWW — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:50:55 +0000

kritt,
The thing is, there is soooo much negative stuff they could say about Republicans without resorting to distortions or outright lies (aka, the Rove playbook). With so much ammunition, its disheartening to see such tepid attacks.

By: kritt11

kritt11 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:43:59 +0000

The Democrats have time and again tried to take the high road and lost elections because of it. Think Kerry, Dukakis and Gore. The exception? Bill Clinton who did whatever it took to win. We can moan all we want about the regrettable partisan political environment , but as long as it keeps working, advisers like Karl Rove will keep doing it.

By: djshay

djshay — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:40:51 +0000

Joe only posts on polls that are bad news for Obama. Notice the one he posted yesterday spelling doom and destruction, while completely ignoring the Time/CNN poll showing good news for Obama in swing states.

By: RememberNovember

RememberNovember — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:38:45 +0000

McCain needs to take lessons from Steve Jobs about hype.

McCain: FAIL.

and the whole columns thing...maybe they haven't noticed but our capital is FILLED WITH THE FRIKKEN THINGS!!!!

That is, once you get past the cavity searches and no-photo police.

By: ChrisWWW

ChrisWWW — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:36:10 +0000

Joe,
Where's the post about Obama's bump in the Gallup daily tracking poll?

By: Ben (The Tiger)

Ben (The Tiger) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:31:50 +0000

Kerry did it in '04, for all the good it did him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/03/politics/camp...

By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:31:47 +0000

If the pick is Pawltany (sorry guys I admit spelling ain't my strong point), he gets completely buried by the Obama speech. He looks petty and inept.

By: ChrisWWW

ChrisWWW — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:30:33 +0000

Great post from Ezra Klein:

The McCain campaign is currently getting coverage on the networks for an ad they haven't even released. No one has seen it, no one knows what's in it, but the McCain flacks are running around promising "a historic ad. I think this is the first of its kind. Senator McCain is going to speak direct to camera to Barack Obama. I’m not going to give away many more details than that. But suffice to say it’s going to be a very exciting ad, and I think it’s going to get a lot of attention."

It's amazing how dumb they seem to think the press corps is. And its amazing how dumb the press corps is willing to be. It's like watching Tom Sawyer run for president: "You know what's great? Being a bad speaker! And having very few people show up at my events! Nothing better than the peace and quiet of an sparsely attended townhall. I'd hate to be cool and flashy and eloquent. What could be more suspicious then that? Meanwhile, you should see what I'm going to do later. It's going to be great!"

By: elrod

elrod — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:14:30 +0000

Actually, I think McCain's moves will be seen by the media as poor taste and a bit desperate. Gallup's tracking poll has Obama up 6; two days ago McCain was up 2. Obama jumped 8 points in two days. And that was before Bill Clinton and Joe Biden spoke.

I think the McCain people are overly nervous about Obama's convention bounce and are looking to step on it in a panic.

By: Mike_P

Mike_P — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:53:26 +0000

I'm not sure about the wisdom of releasing the name of McCain's veep choice tonight - unless it's a bad one. There's no way that announcement will take anything away from Obama's acceptance speech in front of 75,000 (and America) at Mile-High. It seems to me to almost guarantee it will be completely eclipsed by the speech, and may even come off as a wee bit of attention-desperate disorder. A Friday announcement make much more sense, since it will get real-time coverage, and at least partially take away some of the day's news cycle from Obama.

Edit: In line with attention-desperate disorder comes this gem from Sullivan - http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily...

Hmm. They can't seem to give tickets away for McCain's likely announcement.