Casual Politics: “Why, McCain?” Edition
We decided we’d be making this a little more active now that my travels’re coming to an end and my co-host AHM is no longer a guest editor at another blog while doing that lil’ thing called a 9-to-5. And we got positive feedback from the last one of these we did, so I figure, why the hell not, eh?
John McCain had a miserable week this week, making a series of gaffes that didn’t exactly push me resolutely into Obama’s camp but certainly made me feel like I couldn’t vote for him. AHM and I discussed this late in the evening (or on a cheerful Wednesday afternoon if you’re not in Singapore) and came to some fairly intriguing conclusions. Once again, we’re crude monsters in real life, so pardon our nastiness. I think it’s endearing myself, but maybe that’s why I’m single.
Subscribe to the comments for this postDodging The Bullet In Mongolia
The man was a politician. You could tell it even though every word that came out of his mouth was Mongolian. He had that not-too-broad smile. He spoke clearly and crisply, nodding slightly at points to the appropriate parties. And he paused flawlessly to let the translator give out his message again, in English, without ever seeming off-put by the breaks in his thought process.
Casual Politics with AHM and CEC: Guantanamo Edition
We’ve both been rather busy this summer, myself expectedly, AHM unexpectedly (as far as I know, but I’m in Moscow and don’t keep up with his schedule, or anyone else’s, for that matter). To keep this from stagnating, I thought I might post a few slices of our online discussions, which usually take place at 1 AM my time, early evening his time, when we are both stumbling home from either work or time out.
For obvious reasons, the commentary isn’t as, uh, well-drawn out, linguistically, as we might like, but I thought, for lack of time to put up content, it might be interesting to you to know that, yes, we do talk about politics pretty much all the time.
The Ghost of Tim Russert in Barcelona
“Tourism is the march of stupidity.”
-Don Delillo, The Names, 1982
The boys were Quebeçois, neither of them over the age of 17, the baby fat in their faces still not settled into the unremitting paunch I’d battled for so long at 22. They spoke rapid-fire French at one another, grinning, talking about their future plans. Across from them sat two women, perhaps a mother and child, perhaps distant sisters, discussing in English their plans for the future. They’d been there when my brother and I set out for the Plaça de George Orwell at 9:30, and they were there when we returned at 12:45, hunched over a laptop, second-guessing themselves as to their future plans.
Is McCain Tone-Deaf To This Campaign’s Hits?
Now there’s a “NEXT ON FOX NEWS” question for you.
Here is John McCain’s “first general election ad,” entitled “Safe”:
It’s much better than the green backdrop at his speech in not-New Orleans where he promised to give dehydrated babies bottled hot water, but that’s not saying much. Does it matter that McCain seems to be stumbling out of the general election gate in terms of providing a resonant message? You might want to consider the candidacies of two previous contenders that McCain’s trying to navigate between: Hillary Clinton (2008) and Bob Dole (1996). Read more »
Off We Go
click above to see my travel path for these next seven weeks
If you need me, I’ll be in one of these places. I will try and post at least once from every location (except, for obvious reasons, Kaesong).
I leave on June 9th and will return on July 28th. I will be in regular e-mail contact except from the period of July 8th to July 13th, when I will be on a train to Ulaanbaatar.
Note that the line on the map goes off the edge after Seoul - this is because the world is flat and I will be GOING INTO SPACE
Live-Blogging the DNC Rules & By-Laws Committee
The Democratic National Committee’s Rules & By-Laws Committee is meeting today to talk about Michigan and Florida’s Democratic delegates. I got up this morning and decided to watch this all through the damn day, so you better read it. I’ll put a “more” tag here so this doesn’t soak up every single piece of space on the front page. Wham! Here it comes! After the jump: Thrills! Spills! Chills! Delegates! Read more »
Excerpt: “On Sally Massenet”
contributor’s note: sorry for the lack of posts. we’ve both been busy. now we’ll be back to your regular “at least a post a day” schedule. here’s an excerpt from a piece of short fiction to tide you over. I’ll be back tonight to tell you why I hate Bill Clinton. really.
on sally massenet
It’s difficult to begin to talk about Sally Massenet. So much ink’s already been spilled over her, it makes you feel guilty just putting another sheet in the typewriter. But what’s done cannot be undone, as Lady Macbeth once said, so I guess now that we’re well on the way down this particular sheet of paper we might as well discuss Sally Massenet. Read more »
Bad vibes
Hillary’s West Virginia bloodbath yesterday was totally expected, but it’s a bummer nonetheless. Everyone and their brother is taking the opportunity to write their pieces about how Obama is never going to win the general election because he can’t get uneducated whites to vote for him. Watching the primary returns early yesterday evening I was getting very uneasy– the lack of sleep didn’t help, and I wasn’t drunk yet, but I do think it had a lot to do with the increasingly creepy segregation banter that has come along with this campaign. I realize that this is all politics, and that perhaps its all about the numbers and not really about the people, but there is a definite sense that there is a value judgment being made when you keep hearing over and over again that Obama can’t win in the places where “it matters.” The class and race breakdown certainly looks polarized, but there doesn’t seem to be much of an attempt to explain this, either from the Clinton side or the Obama side or anywhere in between. People are pointing to the numbers and seeing that race is a big factor for people in West Virginia, and sort of accepting this without comment. I can’t help but feel that this should be addressed. Obama should take it on directly. “Hey West Virginia: I’m black. I know most of y’all aren’t, but let’s figure this out. Y’all like Will Smith, right?” You know, I think this is a chance for Hillary to step up and show some actual political courage. I think it would be a very strong move for her to actually say straight up that any vote that is made on racial motivations is a vote that she doesn’t want. She should just say it. Instead of continuing to argue that white people like her best, she should be using the language of reconciliation to unite her party, explaining to people that Obama is just like them or whatever it is they need to hear. She should stay in the race– why the fuck not at this point– but the race and class division stuff that she keeps hammering is extremely unhelpful. As has been extensively pointed out, of course she’s not a racist, but she’s just really not helping Obama’s cause for the future, and I hope people remember this. The damage she is doing by emphasizing demographics all the time is real, and I think it may be permanent. I’m having nightmares about the general, and posts like this are giving me the shakes.