.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Born at the Crest of the Empire

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Picture of the Day - 2

I've said it before, but, seriously GOP, this is the best you can do?



posted by mikevotes at 7:05 AM

8 Comments:

  • Sad, isn't it? If this guy wins, I'll finally give up all hope on the American voter.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:09 AM  

  • That speech was just unbelievably bad.

    It's funny, all the Obama camp wants is to get their candidate on TV making speeches in long form, while all the McCain camp wants to do is keep theirs off.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:38 AM  

  • McCain cannot control his apparent dislike of Obama. He just drips with mocking condescension when he's taking about Obama (usually a straw man character).

    The media pounced on Gore for sighing when GWB suggested the moon was made of green cheese... or something like that. To me, the penchant of McCain to be mocking and condescending just feeds into the caricature of the Grumpy Old Man.

    In some regards, McCain is like an aging Borscht Belt comic who doesn't understand the world has moved on.... a regular Mr. Saturday Night.

    By Blogger -epm, at 11:02 AM  

  • Well, that's McCain's core character. That's who he is. He dripped about George Bush in 2000, Romney in the primary.

    John McCain lives in a world of enemies, of good and evil, of absolutes.

    As to his "mocking" he's not very good at it, and then there's that creepy element where he seems to be saying it to please himself. He always follows it with that weird self satisfied smile. It's very unsettling.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 11:06 AM  

  • I'm still wondering about the protest vote levels in the most recent Republican primaries (there's a good overview in the NYT election results page here: http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/results/votes/index.html).

    Not just votes for Ron Paul, but Huckabee, Romney...you name it. How does this compare to 2002?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:06 AM  

  • Mike... Yeah, on top of it all McCain conveys an almost perverse pleasure in tearing down an adversary.

    It'll be interesting to see if the corporate media picks up on this, or if they continue to give him a pass... just the straight talkin', barbeque'n, straight talker.

    In some ways McCain is a similar to Rumsfeld (same generation and all). I remember the media were fawning over the jut-jawed, tough talkin' SECDEF... but the honeymoon didn't last. I think this is what we'll see now that we're out of the primaries. I mean, for the most part McCain has just been a sideshow to the Democrats playing in the main event.

    By Blogger -epm, at 11:36 AM  

  • CZ, I'm not sure, I haven't done the research, but my sense is that it's not way outside normal. You figure the protest voters are motivated while the McCain backers have no real reason to show at this point.

    Thinking back, Jerry Brown protest voted Bill Clinton way into that primary and he was far weirder than the current GOP protest voters.

    .....

    EPM, Maybe I'm wrong, but I think all that has to happen is for McCain to get his speeches televised.

    As I've been saying for a long time, he is probably the worst speech giver in the television era. His tone is uncomfortable and doesn't shift.

    (And the difference with Rumsfeld is that Rumsfeld could pull it off. McCain just doesn't come across as that assured.)

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:15 PM  

  • I love this line:

    "[A]ll that has to happen is for McCain to get his speeches televised."

    McCain can impersonate a human being when he's in a less-staged environment and he's speaking extemporaneously. He's not encumbered by the need to actually get his facts straight and is perfectly OK (in Republican form) to just make shit up and make it sound real. This leaves it up to an alert media to catch these things in real time.

    By Blogger -epm, at 3:42 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home