So, I'm signing off guys--for a couple hours, at least. As you guys know, I've had a crush on the Atlantic peeps for awhile. In a bout of insanity, they've decided that I'm not so bad myself. This blog will be moving at some point today. Any comments made here after 12 noon, may not make it over. See you guys on the other side. Thanks so much for your support these past few months. If you guys didn't read, this wouldn't be happening. I am not afraid to say it--I love you all.
T.
Heh, Obama is beating John McCain by ten points among white working class workers. You can bet if the numbers were reversed we'd see a big blaring headline that says "Obama Can't Win Working Class Whites." The bias toward narrative in campaign coverage is sort of revolting.
Ezra smartly advises us nervous Obama supporters to calm the eff down:
I've long worried that Obama over-learned Iowa, where he was somewhat aided by John Edwards' willingness to attack on his behalf. But as the primary stretched on, Obama seemed pretty comfortable lacing up his own gloves. Either way, the campaign, for now, seems to be pursuing a pretty similar strategy to what they used in the early primaries: Hold back, focus on fundamentals, let your opponent sully their own image by attacking you, and ready yourself to engage on your own terms when it suits your strategy. That McCain has gone so negative, so early, is a sign of his campaign's glaring weaknesses. That doesn't mean it won't work. But if it does show up in the polls, it's pretty likely that the Obama campaign will respond. And they're going to have quite a bit of money with which to do it.
It's worth noting that it's only August. I'll be interested in how this all goes down post-convention.
If the Packers give Favre the starting job back they will be getting exactly what they deserve. SOrry for the link--I've been with the Dallas Cowboys longer than I've been with anything else in my life, save my family.
I still think that the celeb ad will ultimately be ineffective, but I did some more thinking on why this spot--more than any released this election season--really bugs me. I watched the ad again, and saw the McCain camp's response to the debate proposal. A lot of folks claim that this strategy is a continuation of the Republican efforts to turn John Kerry into an effete flip-flopper. I guess--but it also seems to be of a lower order. At least calling someone a flip-flopper--no matter how dubious the charge--has some reference to policy and issues. Passive-aggressively describing Obama as a "worldwide celeb" is just an attempt to appeal to a sort of base sense of jealousy and xenophobia. It makes absolutely no comment on what an Obama presidency might look like. It simply says "don't vote for these guys because the rest of the world likes him." It really would be no different than Obama releasing an ad that said "John McCain fought in one failed war, no wonder he's backing another."
The new McCain strategy is a fascinating alloy of elitism and anti-intellectualism, and in that sense, perhaps no alloy at all. Still, the tactic derides celebrity--presumably because celebrity is achieved through popularity, not through doing anything "real," and then it asks people to vote on base prejudice toward people who aren't like them, not on issues. Consider this incredible quote from McCain henchman Rick Davis:
"Only celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day, demand ‘MET-RX chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew—Black Forest Berry Honest Tea’ and worry about the price of arugula."
I read those words, and thought only of generic gangsta rappers ranting about "Keeping it real." All cultures have their essentialist brutes, and if anything radiates from Davis's statement, it's rank thuggism. It's contempt for "The Other" is only outweighed by its complete embrace of ignorance--"This guy shouldn't be president because he eats power-bars." The housing market is collapsing, Iran is pursuing the bomb, climate change is peeking over the horizon--and we are discussing power-bars and Honest Tea. Look, all campaigns do their share of unfair attacks. And at the end of the day, it's Obama's job to come back with a devastating counter. He's excelled at that all year. I expect him to do no less here. But--and I this will sound totally syrupy and naive--I really thought John McCain was a little better than this.
Here's a good one--Obama's campaign is too disciplined. This is the sort of story in which the reporter ends up saying more about their profession, than about the alleged subject. Anne Kornblut claims that Dems are pissed that Obama's Chicago operation is tight, leak-free, and doesn't defer to Washington. Kornblut does not offer a single quote to back up this contention--not even an anonymous one. Instead we are treated to the following:
Some Democrats on Capitol Hill have complained that he is not inclusive enough. They gripe that he is running his own campaign in some states, rather than the traditional coordinated effort; that he is not focusing on working-class white voters as he had promised at the end of the primaries; and that he has taken sides in some House primaries.
Amazing. I'd love to know what you guys think, but what I'm getting is that reporters are pissed that Obama--or his surrogates--won't write their stories for them. These guys ought to be ashamed of themsleves. I have no pity for them.
Sorry to overdo it with the D&D posts, but this is the sort of comment that makes me fume whenever people talk about the anti-intellectualism of the black community:
"If the shareholders of The New York Times ever wonder why the paper's ad revenue is plummeting and its share price tanking, they need look no further than the hysterical reaction of the paper's editors to any slight, real or imagined, against their preferred candidate," said McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb.
Goldfarb compared the editors to a blogger "sitting at home in his mother's basement and ranting into the ether between games of Dungeons & Dragons."
I resemble that remark. Once again John McCain reveals his unfitness for the presidency. Any credible candidate knows that us nerds don't sit at home in our mother's basement "ranting into the ether between games of Dungeons & Dragons." We rant into the ether between games of World of Warcraft. Just...one...more...crit...
Barack Obama opposes reparations. This is news because black leadership--also known as the NAACP--supports reparations. Obama isn't like most black people. Get it? At this rate, he will cede his share of the black vote to Cynthia McKinney--the true black candidate. Everyone knows that African-Americans think that reparations is the most critical issue facing the black community. Critical, I said.
...attack him for rather daftly saying he'd support off-shore drilling. I have no idea why he thinks this will help him. I know what the defense will be--the press taking his statement out of context. But dude, you know the game. The fact that someone punched you in the face, doesn't excuse you not having your guard up. Furthermore, it looks pretty in context to me. You shouldn't even hint at something like this if you're not serious. I like the nuance and thoughtfulness of Obama, but he has to be careful not to muddy his message. I guess I could be wrong, but this just looks dumb to me. It's like a classic Al Gore presidential move--I'm thinking Elian Gonzalez--in which you move just enough to piss your base, but not enough to reach folks who are in your opponents column.
UPDATE: As always, my highly intelligent commenters round out this post, pointing to the fine print. FWIW I actually wrote this last night and set it to post today--since I'd be indisposed (My Pops got married. Congratz Dad.) So I missed a lot of the clarifying narrative. But to be clear, I don't so much worry about Obama embracing comprimise, as a matter of policy, as I worry about it as electoral strategy. In other words, I'm concerned about Obama giving fuel to the whole flip-flopper label. An unfair charge, in most cases, it's still quite potent.
When I first started blogging, I read and linked to Matt pretty religiously. That hasn't changed (scroll down, I'm sure you can find a couple links) mostly because Matt's always had what I think is essential in any great blogger/writer--a sense of humor. This is typical sort of turn of a sentence that I could never pull off. While I'm excited about blogging for the Atlantic, I'm pretty bummed about following in his footsteps as opposed to working with him as a colleague. Nevertheless, I really wish him the best and will continue to read and link to him religiously.
Ta-Nehisi Coates: The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood
A heartbreaking work of staggering...Oh, wait...
