Comments on: It’s the Temperament, Stupid!

By: the nutshell paragraph » Blog Archive » Heroes of journalism, past, present, and … future?

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:16:57 +0000

[...] Obama’s preternatural calm To Andrew Sullivan, Obama “represented a conservative thought process, even if his policies were quite liberal. Obama was comfortable in a world of doubt. He had no qualms about admitting what he didn’t know, and surrounding himself with experts who were smarter than him — even if they disagreed with him…” [...]

By: tencer.net » Blog Archive » Heroes of journalism, past, present, and … future?

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:46:44 +0000

By: kritt11

kritt11 — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:02:21 +0000

DLS- I don't find you condescending. I find your comments entertaining. At least you think about what you write and can usually back up your arguments. Dealing with opposing points of view only makes us stronger, so keep it up- you are ok with me!

By: Holly_in_Cincinnati

Holly_in_Cincinnati — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 07:09:06 +0000

FYI Elrod: A month ago I was in Evanston IL visiting family members, mostly liberals and Northwestern grads like you. They were not overly enthusiastic about Obama but some will vote for him because he is the Democratic candidate.

By: DLS

DLS — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 23:30:51 +0000

Such condescension is so often ironic. Point missed, not taken, usually, though.

By: Patrick E

Patrick E — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 23:17:52 +0000

While I applaud the desire to reach out I'd suggest that perhaps it would be more successful if you didn't look down on those who happen to have a different view.

Condescension is not the best approach to reach out.

By: Apt604

Apt604 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:27:11 +0000

I know what you mean about going from Evanston, IL, to suddenly being surrounded by conservatives (in my case, NE Ohio for college) . . . it was a real shock at first, but I learned more than I ever could have imagined.

By: Trytothink

Trytothink — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:26:02 +0000

I agree with Elrod's temperment article and also Silhouettes idea of reassuring people with different ideas that they will be Ok with an Obama/Biden administration. Maybe win/win negotiation needs to be discussed more also.

But… this article does not seem to be generating much discussion.

By: DLS

DLS — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:16:38 +0000

For those who are curious, the deviation from 50% that has been running for months in Obama's favor over McCain, in the Iowa Electronic Markets, has resumed, and is now greater than the temporary "flat line" prior to the final debate.

Winner-Take-All (probability of winning popular vote) is approaching 90-10 for Obama.

http://iemweb.biz.uiowa.edu/graphs/graph_Pres08...

http://iemweb.biz.uiowa.edu/graphs/graph_Pres08...

By: Prose Before Hos

Prose Before Hos — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:02:52 +0000

Why So Angry?

Angry McWalnuts strikes again.
See Also: Quote du Jour, Obama’s Contempt for the Working Class on Full Display, Debate Analysis: McAngry’s Epic Fall, The Debate Two Days Later, It’s the temperament, stupid!, and “Just Where We Want The…

By: DLS

DLS — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:01:50 +0000

The “secret,” Silhouette, is that so many of the Republican voters know this, and it's more important to them than dissatisfaction with the war and the GOP in 1996. You can bank on that. The only question now is matter of degree.

By: DLS

DLS — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:00:33 +0000

Obama was childish in earlier debates but no doubt was well coached because he exhibited almost no childish agitation in the final debate, and was composed and calm instead, even smiling. (He could have dispensed with the "that's not true" and "false" habit of trying and failing to discredit legitimate, factual attacks on him.)

Temperament (which I'll address in a _mature_ way) is what the near-term and medium-term future of our economy is all about. Shorter-term, it is what I have mentioned elsewhere: not just the bandwagon effect but the coattail effect (Shaun Mullen was wrong; Obama has such an effect) of Obama's success on the Dems' prospects in other elections this year.

The last very few days of the Iowa Electronic Markets will have to be discounted for the bandwagon effect (we see this in _all_ elections covered by that system), but after this weekend I'll be interested to see how the numbers and graphs move more strongly in Obama's favor now that the last debate is done and Obama's team can hold high the broom (they won all the debates). I'm also looking for a "spike" in the graphs of the presidential contest if and when Colin Powell chooses to endorse Obama. Those graphs literally, truly illustrate the current temperament of the nation.

By: Silhouette

Silhouette — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:59:32 +0000

That very thought occured to me this AM as I woke: that democrats, en masse, should go to conservative websites and do their best to reassure those people that an Obama administration would be to their benefit: more jobs, better health care, less fat for the rich and more for the working classes.

We're preaching to the choir over here. We need to get ourselves in the trenches of “Joe Plumber”. Gentle now kids. These folks spook at new ideas, even if those ideas are like finding a pot of gold for themselves..