Lately I've been having the same sinking feeling in my stomach regarding the Obama campaign as I had for the Kerry campaign in 2004. Kerry was a pretty shithouse candidate, but what really did him in was the Democrats' 'play nice' strategy. Extending the hand of friendship at the same time as their Republican opponents were kicking them in the nuts.
Like, oh, the entire world, I'm rooting for an Obama win. So it galls me to witness the Dems blithely going about and making the same mistakes that lost them the '04 election.
I guess I'm not the only one suffering that frustration- New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has written a column that asks why liberals, i.e. the Democrats, are such nutless wonders when it comes to responding to Republican smears.
Why?
I've seen it written that Obama doesn't want to get too nasty for fear of being accused of playing 'traditional politics'. Well that's clearly not going to be the case, whatever the 'liberal' media's accusations, because the tradition for Democrats is playing nice and losing elections. A 'strongly-worded' response by Obama to ridiculous Republican smears consists of accusing his opponents of being 'phony'. I know that the majority of Americans are pretty stupid. Their current government is evidence of that (don't feel bad, guys, Australia isn't that much better). But the Democrats are running against the party whose current president is surely the worst in the entire history of the United States, and one of the most disastrous leaders of a country in modern history. They are running against a doddering old man with a history of cheating on his wives, who called his current wife a trollop and a cunt, and whose recent political history consists almost entirely of uncritical endorsements of every policy produced by the Bush administration, and a woman who believes the earth is only 6000 years old. The McCain-Palin pairing is a gold-mine for all sorts of potent political attacks. If the Democrats can't win what ought to be a dead-cert (even if you count the substantial impact of racism on peoples' voting decisions) they ought to be shut down altogether. Put out of their fucking misery.
While a celebrity isn't usually the sort of go-to guy any sensible person would approach for some political comment, Matt Damon has some very pertinent questions for shrill creationist/pro-forced-pregnancy/pitt-bull-mom Sarah Palin:
Clip from AP, via Defamer Australia.
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4 comments:
Yes, it seems frequently that the US makes decisions about its elected leaders that are unfathomable to the rest of us.
My partner is American, and he has made the observation about his fellow country-people that they seem to have a hard time distinguishing between personalities and issues. This means that voters look at John McCain and see a war hero who took it up the jacksie for his country as a POW, and they'll see Sarah Palin as an 'everywoman' who isn't some out-of-touch elitist polly who has lived half her life in the cushy surroundings of Capitol Hill. And hey look, HER daughter got knocked up while she was still in high school too! She has the same problems as the rest of us!
This masks the fact that McCain's foreign policy will in fact make conflict with other nations MORE likely, and Palin's pro-life agenda will make things worse for women and girls (as has been noted, just coz she's a woman doesn't mean she'll be good FOR women). That all gets lost in the cult of personality hoo-hah surrounding them.
Yes, I know Aussies don't exactly have the moral high-ground on this one... Was reading yesterday that Howard and Costello considered it a WEAKNESS on Rudd's part coming up to the '07 election that he was educated, intellectual and spoke another language.
Yes guys, God forbid we should actually have an actual INTELLIGENT person running the joint!
He is simply telling it like it is.
Well done Maatt Daamonnnn
Who knew I'd be able to take Matt Damon seriously after he was ripped apart so viciously by the creators of Team America.
Who knew I'd be able to take Matt Damon seriously after he was ripped apart so viciously by the creators of Team America.
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