New Politics? Think Again.
In case you’ve forgotten what this election is really all about, let me point to a couple of recent reminders: First, Rush Limbaugh has been calling for riots during the Democratic Convention as part his “Operation Chaos.” Operation Chaos is his purported effort to game the Democratic nomination process to make Hillary as the nominee instead of Obama, and, in a new wrinkle, start race riots at the convention when (according to Rush) the super delegates overrule the will of the people and give the nomination to Clinton. Just how many laws has this guy violated? Election tampering? Inciting to riot? Given Imus and Randi Rhodes, why is this guy still on the air? Write http://www.fcc.gov and give them a piece of your mind.
In a second outrage, the RNC is running a Harold Ford-level character assassination ad against Obama that will have the net effect of making race the front and center issue in this campaign.
So much for spectacular, MLK-level oratory on the subject of race in America. Nice lecture, tremendous sentiment. Trouble is we don’t deserve it. Trouble is that the people who really need to hear it don’t give a shit.
If Obama is going to be the nominee and ultimately the president who keeps us from forever sliding down that slippery slope to fascism, he’s going to have to grow a set, and right fucking now. It should be clear to everyone by now, as unseemly and distasteful as the primary campaign has been, it will be nothing compared to what’s coming. Obama clearly has no response to the sleazy shit Hillary has been slinging at him–blinking into the camera and symbolically brushing the crap off his shoulders isn’t going to cut it. He needs to skip over Hillary and start calling McCain out. Make the past 8 years, McCain’s 8 years, McCain’s war, McCain’s economy, McCain’s gas prices, McCain’s housing crash, McCain’s toxic environmental policy–the whole stinking works. Make McCain responsible for Limbaugh and O’Reilly and Hannity, not to mention the NC RNC that is trying to lynch him. Call McCain out now before the boat really takes on water, and make it personal. Because it is.
Posted: April 24th, 2008 under Best of the Blogs.
Comments: 7
Comments
Comment from Josh Hammond
Time: April 25, 2008, 5:25 am
Rush Limbaugh is old politics. He runs his mouth, but he doesn’t run the country. This is No Country for Old Men. The NC ad is old politics. I looked at it and it’s about what I expected. It is NOT a Harold Ford type ad as you have suggested. Just the kind of formula ad most campaigns at the local level run about their opponents.
Obama has gotten this far with his new politics. And I suspect, that rather than not having any response (stupidity), he has chosen not to respond (strategy). Now I disagree with the strategy, but let’s not call him stupid. I’d like to see some elbows thrown around, and I think we will. But he has gotten farther with his new politics than SHE has with her old politics.
If Obama loses North Carolina, then he will abandon his present strategy and throw put on a full court pressure for the end game.
Comment from Sasha
Time: April 25, 2008, 6:01 am
What about Randi Rhodes? She broadcasts in her same time slot on the Nova M network. That wasn’t about censorship. It was about a contract dispute, misrepresented by Air America intentionally. I have no objection to the Rush broadcasting from his basement, shouting into the wind, as he pops pills and continues to lose his audience. This is America. Besides there is no point whatsoever in writing to George Bush’s FCC.
About that ad. Your information is incorrect on several counts. It was never the RNC who was creating or running the ad. It was the North Carolina GOP, not the national one. And the ad won’t be running. First Mr. McCain asked them to not run it (wink, wink) and they refused. Then after Mr. McCain was challenged about “how can you run the country if you can’t control a local GOP” he got serious and suddenly the ad has been withdrawn. Won’t be running is the latest word.
I’m afraid that you and I have a fundamental difference over what it means to have courage. You appear to think that oratory full of sound and fury, signifying nothing is an indicator of large testicles. I disagree. I think his steadyness in the face of all this crap is a much better indicator. Right now I would suggest that he take two days off and spend the first at home sleeping and the second playing with his kids. Then get out and do it some more.
I also fail to understand your (and others) sense of urgency. This democratic slog will continue until June 3 regardless of who is winning, who has voted, or how much of who-struck-John has gone on. Then the party will come down like a ton of bricks on whatever superdelegates haven’t declared, By June 10th — 15th at the latest — Senator Obama will be the clear nominee. Oh, and he started campaigning against Senator McCain in his speech after the Pennsylvania primary. That wasn’t his best speech but the direction was as it should have been.
Comment from Leftcoast
Time: April 25, 2008, 12:12 pm
Amazing. The comments above reveal an absolutely amazing lack of understanding of how the Pugs win elections. Where have you been for the past 20 years? You completely underestimate the media climate we live in and how well the Pugs make it serve their interests. The old politics still work my friends, and what the Pugs are doing now is test-marketing themes against Obama in real time. By the time Labor Day rolls around, America will believe that Obama co-founded the Black Panther Party with Malcolm X and raped your daughters. Think what you will about Limbaugh (I think he should be shoved off the air and fined), but he has a real audience and not all of it’s nutjobs. The only way Obama stops this is to throw it down with McCain. Right now. Before this campaign finds its themes and its sea legs. It’s getting closer by the day.
As to your quote Sasha: “I’m afraid that you and I have a fundamental difference over what it means to have courage. You appear to think that oratory full of sound and fury, signifying nothing is an indicator of large testicles.” I think nothing of the kind. I do think Obama is all sound and fury signifying nothing because nothing he says sticks. He’s being marginalized and cast as un-American, not one of us, not mainstream by the minute. And not just by quacking right wing Dittoheads, but by the MSM. WAKE UP!
Comment from Josh Hammond
Time: April 25, 2008, 2:58 pm
Voters sure are stupid. And Al Gore was likeable like a bitchin’ mother-in-law, and lost because he couldn’t carry his home state. And Kerry was tall. And Clinton has Perot to thank for his wins, remembering that the know-it-all Clintons could only muster 43 percent of the vote. Exactly where does this dragon live that you are warning us about? And are you saying that only your gal can slay the dragon when she can’t attract younger voters, including younger women?
Comment from timr
Time: April 26, 2008, 10:21 am
LC, fascism is already here, and is in fact in the process of taking over the country. The dem-reps, or rep-dems have already been co-opted, the MSM fine tunes the propaganda to insure that the sheeple get only the “news” that the multi’s want us to get, censorship rules the airways. The corps are even trying to censor the internet-thru congress and the net neutrality bill. We the people no longer has any meaning, congress is owned by the corps, each and every one of them-including your congressperson, who you think is still honest-the takeover began many years ago, and is finally entering the endgame. Watch the news this election season and take note of which candidate is getting nothing but good press(st john) every lie, misstatement, or wrong statement never has legs, most only last 1 news cycle. If st john, or hillary is elected it will not make any difference to those who really hold the power in the US, they are 2 sides of the same coin. If Obama is the candidate, expect a firestorm from the MSM, it will be even bigger than the 2000 Gore lynching. Remember, the MSM does not give us the real or the entire story, they tell us only what their corp. bosses tell them to. So we remain sheeple, kept in the dark and fed shit.
Comment from I.B.Lever
Time: April 26, 2008, 12:57 pm
“”So we remain sheeple, kept in the dark and fed shit.”"
We call them mushrooms Timr, but you are exactly right. It’s going to get very ugly in a short while and I like you, hope I am not around to witness the carnage and suffering.
Comment from Leftcoast
Time: April 26, 2008, 7:12 pm
One more time, with feeling, Josh, I’m NOT in Hillary’s camp, get it? I’m NOT in Obama’s either. Get it? My writing is NOT filtered through anyone’s talking points. Contrary to others on this blog, my point of view is not that of a zealot, but that of a critic, a pissed off one at that, as it has been for the five years I’ve been posting here. That you frame every comment (”And are you saying that only your gal can slay the dragon…”) as some sort of Hillary advocacy misses the point by a mile. I ditched the bitch because I couldn’t understand why she held onto Mark Penn, and wrote as much here many times. Besides I don’t think she can “slay the dragon” either.
As for your points, ope your eyes and be the ardent critic you’re capable of being. Obama is fatally flawed, not because of his recent actions or Rev. Wright, or his inability to bowl (which somehow got you all tweaked out of shape), but because unfortunately, he’s exactly the wrong man for the times. Not because of what he believes or advocates, but because of who he is. That’s not a Hillary fan speaking, that’s the truth. We’re all going to have to deal with it, might as well start now.
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