Unfortunately titled news articles

[Triforcer]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/29/democrats.obama.ap/index.html

Republican bias or intern being cute?  You be the judge. 

Edit by Trippy: fixed link

[bhodi]

gone now.. what was it?

[Triforcer]

gone now.. what was it?

Its still there...says "Obama will head north as draft movement picks up". 

[bhodi]

oh. you have a trailing \ that got converted into %5C. heh

[HaemishM]

I imagine there's more of you reading into that than actual bias of any significant kind.

[Ironwood]

I don't get it.

[Trippy]

The headline makes it sound like Senator Obama is going to flee to Canada ("head north") if the draft is reinstated.

[Ironwood]

Right.  Got it.

That would be an unfortunate move for a Presidential candidate right enough.

[Righ]

He's not really a Presidential candidate, even if he runs. Even today, white woman would win before black man, and that's only if those were your only two options. Expect white men of retirement age to be the top runners again. Christopher Dodd and Bill Richardson perhaps.

[Yegolev]

I'd vote for Black Man over Hillary.

[stray]

I will work for Obama if it comes down to it.

[Ironwood]

He's not really a Presidential candidate, even if he runs.

Yes he is.

 

[Tale]

Speaking as someone who writes these things, I think the writer did this on purpose. But probably not as a political statement, more for fun. Newswriters love this kind of wordplay.

Headlines written for the Internet are generally duller than in newspapers, due to the way Google interprets them. There's a New York Times article written about this phenomenon called  "This boring headline is written for Google". So finding a boring Internet headline with a funny double meaning is kind of a jackpot.

[Roac]

He's not really a Presidential candidate, even if he runs. Even today, white woman would win before black man, and that's only if those were your only two options.

No way.  I'm unsure about the primary, but he would destroy Clinton in an open election (if you could compare such results).  She comes off as just... wrong somehow, to the right.  The comment that she'd mobilize the right moreso than the Devil was about spot on.  There's no particular reason to dislike her, and another well-qualified woman could do well.  Just not her.  The problem with primaries is that they cater so much to their base.  If a moderate cannidate isn't successful, they will get ruined by someone who caters.  Like Bush.

[Righ]

Way. You can't reinterpret the political process in order to claim that Obama would beat Clinton. You're stuck with what you've got for now, and the usual suspects will back the old white man before the woman and well before the black man. In any case, if there was a general popularity contest, we would elect some pretty starlet who is just restrained enough not to flash her twat to cameramen.

[WayAbvPar]

In any case, if there was a general popularity contest, we would elect some pretty starlet who is just restrained enough not to flash her twat to cameramen.

So Paris and Britney are out. That is encouraging.

[Triforcer]

There is an interesting line of thought out there that hypothesizes that Obama will actually HELP Hilliary's candidacy, and I happen to agree.  Here's how it will go down:

1)  If Obama doesn't enter the race- somebody high profile like Edwards (or Gore, maybe) will stick around and be viable long enough to swoop in after Hillary's inevitable Howard Dean-like implosion.  This is basically the current strategy of ALL non-Obama non-Hillary candidates.

2)  If Obama enters the race- All of the third raters (Vilsack, etc.) and second-raters (Edwards, etc.) will bow out fairly quickly- one Dean moment is likely, but two?  After its a two person race, the "Omg a black man is running" bigotry that people here are discussing will sadly rear its ugly head.  Obama will crash and burn, and no other candidate will have preserved enough strength to get back into the race.

As a general election matter, I think the Dem's only chance (assuming Obama can't get the nom) is maybe Edwards, so #1 is best for that purpose.

[tazelbain]

If Obama runs now, he'll have the creditability problem Edward has. He's a great '12 or '16 candidate after he is elected a second term.  Edwards is even weak candidate this time than the last time.  I am probably the only person who likes the new Al Gore, but he's repeatedly said he's not going to run so it's mote.

Hilary I can only see myself voting for her is if the Repubs send up another Darth Vader nominee. Did anyone else think her "plantation" comments were well past the line of offensive.

[Strazos]

How about that Gov. (I think he's a Gov) out of Virginia? Heard some good stuff...too lazy atm to look up his name though.

[Lantyssa]

Tim Kaine?

[Strazos]

Yeah. Heard something about how he might be a sort of Black Horse candidate.

I don't have much of an opinion on the guy.

[Triforcer]

How about that Gov. (I think he's a Gov) out of Virginia? Heard some good stuff...too lazy atm to look up his name though.

I think you are thinking of Mark Warner, former governor of Virginia.  He supposedly had the "Southern NASCAR Democrat" thing going on.  But its important to note these prospective candidates see things we don't- there is a VERY finite pool of dedicated activists, operatives, and campaign cash out there (especially this early).  They can easily see at this point if they are utterly doomed, no matter what polls might say.

[stray]

Newly elected Montana Senator Jon Tester. Haha.

Meatloaf with a crew cut. Square as hell, but that's a face you can trust!

Guy might be a democrat with his own organic farm, but even Republicans would love him.


Seriously though, I'm becoming an Obama fanboy.

[HaemishM]

I'd feel fine about voting for Obama, Edwards, Mosley-Braun or Wesley Clark.

[stray]

The Dems have a lot of good options now. Clark, Obama, Edwards, even Bill Richardson and Joe Biden.

The R's have.....Rudy Giuliani. No one else would give them much of a chance.

[HaemishM]

They have McCain!!!!

Yeah, I couldn't say it with a straight face either. McCain has cuddled up so much to the religious right, as well as losing all his earlier balls on the war in Iraq, that I can't honestly credit his candidacy anymore. He had a better chance going with the platform he ran with in 2000.

[Trippy]

Colin Powell might have been able to do it earlier, before his reputation got crushed through his association with Bush (I still cringe thinking about his UN appearence presenting the "evidence" that Iraq had WMDs).

[Triforcer]

I'd feel fine about voting for Obama, Edwards, Mosley-Braun or Wesley Clark.

Mosley-Braun?  Didn't she serve only one term because the general wisdom was that she was disastrously incompetent/in over her head?

[HaemishM]

She had some good ideas during her debates in the 2004 primaries.

She'd probably never get through the primaries, but I liked her ideas.

[Evangolis]

There is an interesting line of thought out there that hypothesizes that Obama will actually HELP Hilliary's candidacy, and I happen to agree.  Here's how it will go down:

1)  If Obama doesn't enter the race- somebody high profile like Edwards (or Gore, maybe) will stick around and be viable long enough to swoop in after Hillary's inevitable Howard Dean-like implosion.  This is basically the current strategy of ALL non-Obama non-Hillary candidates.

2)  If Obama enters the race- All of the third raters (Vilsack, etc.) and second-raters (Edwards, etc.) will bow out fairly quickly- one Dean moment is likely, but two?  After its a two person race, the "Omg a black man is running" bigotry that people here are discussing will sadly rear its ugly head.  Obama will crash and burn, and no other candidate will have preserved enough strength to get back into the race.

As a general election matter, I think the Dem's only chance (assuming Obama can't get the nom) is maybe Edwards, so #1 is best for that purpose.

So, kind of a necro post, but Obama's rise has seemed bizarrely personal to me.  It was a couple of years ago, I was having heart issues, and I started listening to a 'smooth jazz' station to reduce stress.  The Who is more my style, but it didn't overstimulate me.  And I start hearing these ads for this guy Obama.  I like his politics, but he has no chance.  Too liberal, foreign name, black but not tied in to the Illinois black powerbrokers, and he has goofy ears.  He is mostly talking in southside black churches at this point.  I'm looking forward to voting for him as a 'statement' vote.

So the primary proceeds, and he is doing alright, leading the race for second, and then the primary leader disintegrates.  Had a bad divorce, tried to keep the details quiet, when the press got them out, the campaign just imploded.  Not that it was anything serious, just typical crap you see in divorce settlements, where both sides explain how their ex was the Spawn of Satan.  Guy's ex-wife even endorsed him, but the whole thing went down in flames.

So Obama is the nominee, and the Republican, Millionaire Jack Ryan, formerly Mr Jeri Ryan, (Oh, which Seven of Nine Photoshopped nude should I use, wait, I'll just link them all - Mildly NWSF) is the articulate, conservative, handsome, and white, did I mention conservative, candidate.  We can see an epic battle of ideologies shaping up, with inevitable racist asides.

But then the tawdry secrets of Ryan's divorce come out.  It seems that the Ryan's went to a sex club.  And Jack asked Jeri to have sex.

The Republicans went apeshit.  They tore Ryan to shreds, for asking his wife to have sex.  And then they tore the entire Illinois Republican Party to shreds.  It took them over a month to come up with a new candidate.  The Democrats looked on in a sort of horrified fascination, while Obama chided the press for focusing on personal matters rather than the issues.  He was more publically supportive of Ryan than most of the state Republican leaders.

They picked Alan Keyes.  Keyes had no time, no money, no base of support, and he used them all to make an utter fool of himself.

So it is easy to look at Obama as a fluke, but there are some things to remember.

The morning after winning the primary, Obama got on a bus and headed for downstate Illinois, to start campaigning in largely Republican territory.  Toward the end of the campaign, when Obama was clearly winning in a landslide, and could have campaigned from his living room, I was in western Illinois visiting my father, and I noticed that Obama was in the area, and had 3 events in three different towns that day.  He'd been doing that since before the primary, and he didn't quit until the day after the election.  At one point, I actually saw a Bush/Cheney sign and an Obama sign on the same rural farm lawn.

Obama is smart, good looking despite the worst ears in Illinois politics since Senator Paul Simon, articulate, personable, able to project great gravitas, relentlessly hard working, able to admit his flaws as soon as they arise (and apologise convincingly, like a clown balloon bag, you punch him and he pops back up smiling), and lucky.

Nobody gets to be president if they aren't lucky, but you have to stretch your luck as far as it goes.  Obama does that as well as any politician I have seen.

[Ironwood]

Whoever wrote his Evangilist-thing-about-AIDS-thing speech is a genius.

If he wrote any of it himself, he'll never be President because he's too good for you fucks.

 :-D


Edited to be clear.

[Strazos]

Why do you hate America?

[Evangolis]

Why do you hate America?

Where is that list?

[stray]

I hate that Ironwood even thinks American jokes are worth telling. Why is it such a big factor to him?

He should insult individuals more often.

[Ironwood]

"You're a dick."


I aim to please.