skip to main |
skip to sidebar
You don't have to be stupid to love John McCain, but it helps. Last night, Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church held a Conference on Faith, and both men answered similar questions for an hour each. Video here. The questions were supposed to be identical, but McCain answered so quickly that he was able to receive more questions. More on that, but first.
Between the two Q&A sessions, both men were on stage for a brief moment together. Check out the picture: John is 5'7", Obama is 6'1". John was wearing lifts.
The deal with the questions is that they were good. They were interesting. They were the questions people should be asking, and Obama gave smart, nuanced responses to difficult queries. McCain gave one word answers that pandered. In a world of news bites, that's what the stupid people want to hear.
One of the questions had to do with confronting evil. Whether it existed, and what one did with it. Obama framed evil as existing in too many places: in war zones, in our cities, in the parents who did horrible things to their children. He spoke about how to confront it, and what to do. McCain said "destroy it". Done. On the issue of energy, Obama spoke about needing to look at a variety of options, and explained how it would take multiple undertakings to get a grip on the situation. Later, in answer to another question, he alluded to the fact that solving the energy crisis would not be easy. John's answer? "Drill."If you are bright, you appreciate the nuance, the consideration, and the understanding that the respondent understands the depth and breadth of both the question, and the solutions. If you're stupid, you like one word answers. Like "drill" -- for people who like that response, they don't understand that oil is a non-renewable resource that the world will one day run out of. They don't care that if we all worked together in little ways, we could SAVE oil, and need less, and therefore make what we have last longer. Sadly, when someone doesn't know something, and doesn't WANT to know, they tune out anything more than 2 word answers.
You may remember that John McCain has seemingly violated campaign law. In the most recent draft opinion, the FEC has indicated that they might give him a walk on the $5 million dollar loan he collateralized using public money.
But the second part of the problem is that he felt it was okay to opt in and then opt out and the opt back in of the public financing system. The FEC says not so fast -- you'll need an affirmative vote of 4 of the Commissioners. That vote will be held next week.If McCain is found in violation, they will be able to fine him. Theoretically they can file a criminal case, but that's never happened for FEC violations.Then again, John McCain doesn't need to care about money.
Do you remember Roy Barnes? He used to be the Governor of Georgia. He fought for states rights in terms of not letting the mortgage banking crisis get out of hand. Yuu may not remember because this happened in the 1990's. He saw the looming crisis, and pushed through legislation to make Georgia a safe haven for consumers. He was opposed by virtually everyone, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his law was gutted by the new Republican administration in 1993.
Later, he was part of a group of lawyers suing for the consumer rights of retired military.
Hillary Clinton's name will be entered in nomination at Denver. This is the first time in 16 years, since Jerry Brown challenged Bill Clinton, that this has happened. Others say that this will help heal the party, assuage the PUMAs, and lead to the kind of unity needed in the fall. I think they're all crazy.This is the Clinton grand plan to launch the 2012 race. As I said back in the spring, the Clintons will work very hard to elect John McCain so that Hillary can run in 2012. Remember, Mike Bloomberg didn't run this year because he didn't want to run against Obama. He won't feel that way in 4 years when the Clintons are at it again.We didn't listen hard enough back in the 90's. The Clintons should be ashamed.
When all is said and done, 75,000 lucky people will be in Denver for Senator Obama's acceptance speech. But there are, oh, a few more of us who will want to watch it. Why be alone?
There will be a lot of venues to watch the speech besides your own living room. Here in Chester County, PA, we are planning at least 3 large parties (so far). I know from other people involved with the campaign that there will be thousands of parties large and small across the country. Some events will be small house parties, some will be large parties for supporters, some will be paired with local fundraisers.
The specific party I'm involved with already has 50 people planning on attending, and we believe we will likely have over a hundred when all is said and done.
If you are interested in spending the evening with a bunch of like-minded folks, sign on to www.mybarackobama.com, put in your zip code, and find a party. Because of the planning involved, if you don't see a close party, check again next week, as a lot will be posted over the weekend as venues are finalized.
Contrary to previous rumours, Dick is planning on joining George Bush on Monday night, and both will be speaking at the Republican Convention. Megan Mitchell, Dick's spokesperson, said: "The Vice President looks forward to participating in the Republican National Convention and continuing to work for the election of Sen. McCain and other Republican candidates in the coming months."
I say THANK YOU DICK -- please spend as much time as you possibly can on the trail with John McBush.
You don't have to be stupid to love John McCain, but it helps. Last night, Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church held a Conference on Faith, and both men answered similar questions for an hour each. Video here. The questions were supposed to be identical, but McCain answered so quickly that he was able to receive more questions. More on that, but first.
Posts
