Politics 2008:The Caucuses and The Dem/Rep Conventions

[RedefinedDiva]

There are several points I have here:

1. I had NO CLUE throughout the ENTIRE debate what in the hell McCain was talking about! I can't tell you ONE single time that he actually answered the question presented. He was constantly talking about random things, rambling, interrupting, running over time, etc., that I lost track and focus.

2. I was extremely disappointed with the moderation of the debate. While I clearly think that Sen. Obama won, a lot of points went unmade because he was attempting to be respectful of Sen. McCain and the format of the debate. Anyone that THINKS McCain won is going solely off the strength that he basically took over the debate and talked what HE wanted to talk about, with no regard for the questions or regulations of debating.

I think that the moderator should be someone who can actually moderate and keep things on track, specifically pointing out that McCain has gone over time and/or has NOT answered the question. Lord, I wish that Tim Russert were still here with us. We need someone like him to get it regulate!

3. Sarah Palin AIN'T READY for the drama that is Joe Biden! She is going to get chopped up on site! I can't, for the life of me, understand how and why people are fooled by her! I can see right through her LACK of education, experience, wit, talents, personality, charisma.... OK, I'll just stop there! LOL! The chick is just lacking ALL OVER!

Thursday can't get here fast enough!

[mccoyred]

Originally Posted by RedefinedDiva

There are several points I have here:

3. Sarah Palin AIN'T READY for the drama that is Joe Biden! She is going to get chopped up on site! I can't, for the life of me, understand how and why people are fooled by her! I can see right through her LACK of education, experience, wit, talents, personality, charisma.... OK, I'll just stop there! LOL! The chick is just lacking ALL OVER!

Don't you know why? She's a BABE! We all know that 'good-looking' people get the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, she has NO substance.

I think that is also one of the reasons why 'some' people have a problem with Obama. They assume that just because he is 'good-looking' that he is an empty suit.

Yes, it IS a double standard. HE is a BLACK MAN and SHE is a WHITE WOMAN. Two totally different standards....

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by mccoyred

The height difference many be true but it most likely is not related to the regime change which only happened after WWII. Evolutionary changes take time to develop; something so dramatic is not llikey to have happened in the short span of 2 generations.

If anyone has some research or background on this phenomenon, I would love to hear it.

I don't know about S. Korea specifically but I once heard something similar about children in Japan only a generation after WWII.

It's not evolutionary, but as a result of better nutrition. Children were getting more milk and protein in their diets as well as more calories over all.

How real this is, I have no idea.

ETA: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...ns/?hp&apage=2

[mccoyred]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

I don't know about S. Korea specifically but I once heard something similar about children in Japan only a generation after WWII.

It's not evolutionary, but as a result of better nutrition. Children were getting more milk and protein in their diets as well as more calories over all.

How real this is, I have no idea.

ETA: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...ns/?hp&apage=2

Thanks for the source! Instinctively, anything that comes out of his mouth, I take with a bushel of salt

[Honeykiss1974]

Originally Posted by Little32

I am of two minds about this debate.

Either I will emerge from the debate dumber for having listened to Sarah Palin for an hour and a half,

Or great hilarity will ensue.

I believe it shall be the later - like watching a comedy special.

I subscribe to Tory Johnson's Women For Hire blog and she did a story about palin's interview with Katie Couric. Basically she said that if someone performed in a job interview the way Palin performed in her interview with Katie, we would have been tossed out on our arse - and DEFINTIELY not considered a candidate for VP!

[Honeykiss1974]

Ifill's book was no secret
Michael Calderone
Wed Oct 1, 10:44 AM ET

Michelle Malkin and World Net Daily have made a lot of noise today about the fact the Gwen Ifill, the moderator of Thursday's VP debate, has a new book coming on Inauguration day about Barack Obama and the politics of race -- it's now leading on the front of Drudge.

Fox's Greta Van Susteren reports that the McCain campaign didn't know about it.

"I am stunned….the campaign (actually both) should have been told before the campaign agreed to have her moderate. It simply is not fair -- in law, this would create a mistrial."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/200...politico/22742

I love the last line in the article....

Legitimate questions, indeed. So why is this coming up less than 36 hours before Palin and Biden hit the stage?

[TonyB06]

Originally Posted by Honeykiss1974

Ifill's book was no secret
Michael Calderone
Wed Oct 1, 10:44 AM ET

Michelle Malkin and World Net Daily have made a lot of noise today about the fact the Gwen Ifill, the moderator of Thursday's VP debate, has a new book coming on Inauguration day about Barack Obama and the politics of race -- it's now leading on the front of Drudge.

Fox's Greta Van Susteren reports that the McCain campaign didn't know about it.

"I am stunned….the campaign (actually both) should have been told before the campaign agreed to have her moderate. It simply is not fair -- in law, this would create a mistrial."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/200...politico/22742

I love the last line in the article....

Ok, this is a potential conflict (and I say that as longtime admirer of Ifill's reporting.) ...and a pretty obvious ready-made excuse for the Palin camp if they lose the debate.

If the McCain camp knew of Ifill's book, why wait until now to lodge a complaint? If they didn't know of it, which seems highly implausible, that's bad staff work.

If I'm the Obama campaign, I sit back and let this play out. If a new moderator is chosen at this late date, it potentially throws both candidates into chaos, and it then is a matter of who recovers first and best.

[jitterbug13]

Gwen has made it no secret that this book is coming out. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the book is not coming out until next year. Gwen has also done interviews with the Obamas for Essence.

Whether or not Gwen's the moderator, Palin is still going to look dumb as a doorknob.

[mccoyred]

Originally Posted by jitterbug13

Whether or not Gwen's the moderator, Palin is still going to look dumb as a doorknob.

Its all about the spin They HAVE to make it look like McPalin is getting bullied because that endears her to the 'base'. They can have the 'base', Obama will take the middle (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/1..._n_131039.html)

[Velocity_14]

They were talking about this on the view this morning and I am so sick and tired of all of the excuses that are floating around about Palin. I'm going to underestimate her and say that Joe Biden is about to talk circles around her tonight....based off of what I have seen and read...it does not matter who the moderator is...she does not know what in the hayle she is doing or talking about.

She has illustrated in her own words too many times, in the 30 days that we have even known who she was, what she can bring to the table----nothing. I don't care who may disagree and I'm not going to sugar-coat my opinion...but Palin should not be the republican VP candidate...I KNOW there are more "qualified" women in the republican party that could have been chosen if McCain was so stuck on choosing the "other minority" to make his ticket more appealing.

It just bothers me that society sometimes tend to lean more to superficial things than substance. Yeah she is cute...but that doesn't have a thing to do with my job security or my ability to keep my home, pay my bills, get a job, put gas in my car, drive to work, provide food for my home, save money, or just function as an independent member of society. My life is not a political game and I am tired of these greedy jokers who are more worried about having a title and more money than they can spend rather than understanding that the decisions and choices they make effect more people than just themselves. This is partially why this country is in the situation it is in now....

wheeeeew, I'm so sorry for kind of going off but things have gotten so out of hand and it really pisses me off. Please forgive me for any typos but I had to get that off my chest...lol. I'm sorry but McCain and his camp is a big joke to me and you don't have to be a comedian to see that...

[Honeykiss1974]

/\/\ There are plenty of people that agree with you. In fact, his choice of Palin actually should be an insult to women everywhere. It is OBVIOUS that she wasn't chosen because she is competent and can do the job. She was chosen because she is easy on the eyes, a woman, and his camp figured that women will vote for him because he has a woman on the ticket. That's the equivalent of when (as a woman) I go out to look at a new car and the first thing the salesman shows me is the driver's side visor mirror "for checking your make-up".

There are PLENTY of more capable women out there. He should have looked harder.

[SummerChild]

Ok, so I've figured it out. What Palin does during her interviews (and what she'll probably do tonight during the debate).

Here's her trick:
If anyone (Charlie Gibson, Katie Couric or even tonight, Gwen Ifill) asks her a question about anything in which she will have to be specific, she answers a different question - namely, she rearranges the question the question in her mind to one in which she can just broadly talk about the subject matter in general and then she actually answers the question that she has put together in her own mind. This is probably her and McCain's strategy b/c she is ignorant of everything of substance.

For example, when asked about the policy on preemption, I think she answered as if Charlie had asked her if America needs to defend itself IN GENERAL. She made that question up in her own mind and answered her own question - forget Charlie.

The only problem for her is that Biden is likely to push her to the wall and force her to answer the question that was asked. After all, this is a debate. Tonight, she won't be able to merely have a conversation with herself before the American people as she has been doing.

It's actually pretty swift if you think about it. If one is not listening closely enough to her answer, she uses enough of the related key words to *sound like* she's addressing the question (this flies over the head of the sloooow Americans who either are not paying attention or don't understand the issues anyway, which is many unfortunately) and it's also swift b/c she actually has to be *smart enough* to rearrange the sentence in her mind in real time and answer the new question that she has made up. I think that this is what the camp has her doing. It's actually pretty good when you think about it. Maybe she's not as dumb as everyone thinks - ok, that might be going too far. LOL.

Between Biden and Ifill, I think that she'll have to answer the questions ASKED tonight. I am almost certain that the Obama camp is on to her and her flicted strategy.

SC

[jitterbug13]

Palin's plan is to go after Biden:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/14220

And if that's the case, Biden will go after her. They don't call him Joey the Shark for nothing.

McCain's camp is leaving Michigan. He needs to hang it up after that wonderful speech Obama gave in Grand Rapids this morning.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/200..._OfOBNFONsnwcF

[I.A.S.K.]

Originally Posted by SummerChild

It's actually pretty swift if you think about it. If one is not listening closely enough to her answer, she uses enough of the related key words to *sound like* she's addressing the question (this flies over the head of the sloooow Americans who either are not paying attention or don't understand the issues anyway, which is many unfortunately) and it's also swift b/c she actually has to be *smart enough* to rearrange the sentence in her mind in real time and answer the new question that she has made up. I think that this is what the camp has her doing. It's actually pretty good when you think about it. Maybe she's not as dumb as everyone thinks - ok, that might be going too far. LOL.

Between Biden and Ifill, I think that she'll have to answer the questions ASKED tonight. I am almost certain that the Obama camp is on to her and her flicted strategy.

SC

I agree. This is the McBush Camp's overall strategy. Look at his answers to the questions during the debate last Friday. He was clearly taking the question and finding a related question that he knew the answer to and answering the related question, but not the question that was asked. Palin will try the same thing, but it wont work against Biden because he will be less lenient on Palin than Obama was with McSame. I'm SO excited to watch this! I do think that Palin will look better comming out of the debate because she can only go up from where she is and because I think she's been playing dumb.

[KAPPAtivating]

Originally Posted by SummerChild

Ok, so I've figured it out. What Palin does during her interviews (and what she'll probably do tonight during the debate).

Here's her trick:
If anyone (Charlie Gibson, Katie Couric or even tonight, Gwen Ifill) asks her a question about anything in which she will have to be specific, she answers a different question - namely, she rearranges the question the question in her mind to one in which she can just broadly talk about the subject matter in general and then she actually answers the question that she has put together in her own mind. This is probably her and McCain's strategy b/c she is ignorant of everything of substance.

For example, when asked about the policy on preemption, I think she answered as if Charlie had asked her if America needs to defend itself IN GENERAL. She made that question up in her own mind and answered her own question - forget Charlie.

The only problem for her is that Biden is likely to push her to the wall and force her to answer the question that was asked. After all, this is a debate. Tonight, she won't be able to merely have a conversation with herself before the American people as she has been doing.

It's actually pretty swift if you think about it. If one is not listening closely enough to her answer, she uses enough of the related key words to *sound like* she's addressing the question (this flies over the head of the sloooow Americans who either are not paying attention or don't understand the issues anyway, which is many unfortunately) and it's also swift b/c she actually has to be *smart enough* to rearrange the sentence in her mind in real time and answer the new question that she has made up. I think that this is what the camp has her doing. It's actually pretty good when you think about it. Maybe she's not as dumb as everyone thinks - ok, that might be going too far. LOL.

Between Biden and Ifill, I think that she'll have to answer the questions ASKED tonight. I am almost certain that the Obama camp is on to her and her flicted strategy.

SC

You are exactly right. She has already done this when asked the first question tonight. She also makes a ploy to tug at "average" american's heart strings. She always begins with some sort of "soccer mom" comment. Nice try, but if you don't know let it go. She also asked first off if she could call Joe Biden by his first name during the debate. It implies that we should feel relaxed with her. She simply sounds decent because she fails to use political jargon that sometimes flies over the heads of Americans, but I think that's only because she doesn't know any big words...lol.