It’s Fournier, so Dems and progressives get ready to pull an Olbermann:
Archives for 2008
This Would Not Be Happening If Warren Christopher Were Alive *
What does the Obama Convention offer? Not much.
Nothing on Guatanamo, illegal and unconstitutional torture, nothing about Russia beyond platitudes about Neocon solidarity with Georgian freedom-loving activities, nothing about NATO expansion, nothing about China, India beyond a roll call of rising powers, and so on.
No specifics about Iraq (and skipping Biden’s vote for the war, too). No talk about restoring the constitution or separation of powers from a rogue Imperial Regime in both domestic and foreign affairs. We did get a shout out to the Iranians. And a gloss over the Crowned One’s glaringly thin credentials for the job patently ‘above his pay grade’.
Biden is the attack dog? It wasn’t a Dukakis 1988 gig but no Ann Richards there either. And Joe, lose the French cuff links. (We’re partial to them now and then but not when we pretend to be a working class stiff hob nobbing with Tweety and Scrantonians — and we know the area very well personally). Democrats can’t seem to take their gloves off to save their lives.
If not Biden, who? If not now, when? Carville must be bouncing off walls. Land one. Hard. And keep going. Repeat exercise. Politics is a contact sport — ‘change’ notwithstanding.
We agree Biden at least rose above Mark Warner — who was an outstanding govenor — but eh. Biden’s effort couldn’t even rouse a captive audience ready for red meat. Who would have thought the Democrats could once again teeter on the edge of pulling defeat from the jaws of inevitable victory. Even the Crowned Prince’s ‘surprise’ visit was flat — choreographed to put him in that building briefly for optics. A last minute pirouette to prevent his sole participation being his ‘Party Rally’ in that bizarre Flavian Amphitheatre. One can only pray some idiot doesn’t unknowingly say, ‘Yo dog, wouldn’t a cathedral of light be tight? Suburban soccer moms would think it was like, down with a U2 show. Hectic for sure.’
The Big Dog still shows them how to draw distinctions with ease — something he tried to teach Kerry to no avail. He truly is he most gifted natural politician of this generation. We can’t expect that from the Crowned One tonight based on his rhetorical history. A surprise would be welcome.
Last night was the best for the Democrats so far — although HRC has been exemplary through out. If the Crowned One or David Axelrod doesn’t pay down her debt now (or at a more felicitous moment) in a significant way, they are truly men of little vision, honor or decency.
And as an aside, who precisely anointed the slightly bloated Luke Russert the spokesperson for the Millennials?
*Old joke from 1993 (and yes, we know he is still ambulatory).
You Must Love Me
Surprisingly upbeat Democratic Convention speech with a direction and “movement”. (Tweety did keep babbling this word between choo choo train blasts behind the ridiculous MSNBC gazebo). HRC did draw a great line between McCain and this convention, better than the Prince has managed to do. Was it us or did the MSNBC ‘talent’ appear on the verge of disrobing and engaging in spontaneous if appalling group ‘contact’ ?
We still don’t suspect the schism *in the base* to end any time soon — one speech a rift does not close. His acolytes’ delirium over HRC’s presence (marked by Olbermann’s tent twitching beneath the table) is a rapture shared by those whose pupils are already dilated. Watching Maddow and Olbermann salivate over it all (despite the awkward and terribly unlikely visual) did hold a certain macabre fascination. Until one considers the long term implications of 2 straight hours of *that kool aid* every night.
We had this set piece below all lined up earlier in the day — an Evita-esque lament, albeit not from a balcony; now the set must be dismantled and dispatched to storage beneath the stage, like unused scenery for a cancelled opera at the Met.
Still, Bill Krystal et al. have months to remind us yet again how shabbily she has been treated . . . there is still time.
What interests us most is how Obama-ism (whatever that is) can survive the dismount to concretization into a predictable and specific party platform. Successful (non-American until 2004) electoral mass movements went all the way relying on abstract invocation of emotional intoxification. The intention is obvious — the candidate becomes the projection of all things to all people.
In those cases, it was not inexperience but a calculated device to keep a party platform formless. Once in power, the ‘party’ is discarded and becomes a mere function or extension of the ultimate arbiter’s will. (In the Soviet case, Stalin was forced to destroy the Party over 15 years of murder and chaos to achieve this end. Others who obtained power electorally obtained this far more easily).
The Prince certainly has ambition. We’ve seen what happens when he descends to the concrete — FISA, no offshore but now offshore, etc. We should be grateful one supposes that he lacks the ruthless *hidden, ‘unalterable’* world view shared by a cadre beholden unto him. In the end, he is a normal politician mercifully.
An Obama demystified as another politician sputtering tired and cliched specifics, toting around a jaw-jawing Biden chained to his ankle. Perhaps HRC is indeed shrewd to step aside with an apres vous last night. Going up against, as Paris so aptly summed up, ‘that white haired dude.’ (Hat tip: Unqualifed Offerings).
America, you’ve got talent!
Plus Ca Change . . . Ladies and Gentlemen, I Give You The Senator From Visa And Mastercard !!
The activist assessment of Biden as VP choice: it clouds Obama’s change meme.
How Biden the actual man is positioned will be interesting. The campaign pushes his substantive debating skills and relationships internationally . A kindly Cardinal? The stabilizing elder voice is a familiar message for American voters from Colin Powell to Cheney.
Cheney created the most powerful OVP Americans can remember. Will he inherit that momentum? Personalities can mean far more than org charts in politics. Will Obama make a clean break and roll back OVP? The progressive blogosphere’s obsession with Biden’s Working Stiff in the end is a triviality. How would he actually function with and for Obama?
We won’t know until after America chooses.
“Russia will pay a price” said Rice On Her Way To Brussels
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