Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Murphy's Laws

Mike Murphy has a funny piece in Time on debate prep. (H/t Weekly Standard's Matthew Continetti)

My favorite bit:

Finally, the savvy viewer should remember that any moment that looks too perfect to be true probably isn't. I once worked on a campaign in which we made a big show of opening our secret debate-prep session to reporters. The highlight was the part when the candidate dramatically rejected the lame, scripted debate answers we staffers had offered up, vowing instead to just tell it like it was. We were very proud of our candidate; that was precisely the bit we had carefully rehearsed.
Bonus links (compiled by Time, not me):
Galllery of campaign gaffes here
10 Memorable Debate Moments
Top 10 campaign ads in U.S. political history here

Monday, September 15, 2008

Who Says All Politics Are Local?

I just realized I now know more about the politics in Wassila, AK than I do about my town of Falls Church, VA.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Dem Fundraiser: "It's Happening Again"

A major Democratic fundraiser described it a good bit more starkly after
digesting the polls of recent days: “I’m so depressed. It’s happening again.
It’s a nightmare.”

Politico piece. Check out this graf:

“The [Obama] campaign is beginning to look like other campaigns,” said a former top strategist for past Democratic presidential campaigns, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Obama is struggling with working-class whites just like John Kerry, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Michael Dukakis did, and Walter Mondale. He’s struggling with voters in the border-state South. And he’s struggling with an enormous wind at his back, a hatred for George Bush and a mainstream media that is little short of a chorus for his campaign.”

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Worst Ad I've Seen In a Long Time...

I was hoping the McCain campaign wouldn't go this route.

Monday, September 08, 2008

Can You Say "Backlash?"

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews are out as election anchors, to be replaced by David Gregory, according to the New York Times.

I love this bit:

NBC Universal executives are also known to be concerned about the perception that MSNBC’s partisan tilt in prime time is bleeding into the rest of the programming day. On a recent Friday afternoon, a graphic labeled “Breaking News” asked: “How many houses does Palin add to the Republican ticket?” [Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC] called the graphic “an embarrassment.”
via Drudge

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Palin Debate Video

PrestoPundit has video of Palin debating her two general election opponents in the 2006 Alaskan gubernatorial election.

Note that you can use your left/right arrow keys to get to the good parts. She handles questions on rape/incest abortions and embryonic stem cell research with aplomb.

Via NRO Corner.

McCain-Palin: American Gothic

Didn't take long for something like this to show up! (original here).


One Thing I Wish Giuliani Had Said...

He really cut Obama down to size last night, making good use of Barack's many "Present" votes in the IL legislature. I thought for sure Rudy was setting up this line:

"So the choice is clear: "Present," or President."

Understatement of the Night

Chris Matthews on Sarah Palin's speech:

“At no time during her entire presentation, did I think of Hillary Clinton,” Matthews said. “They have nothing in common.”
Um, yeah, safe to say I wasn't thinking at all of Hillary Clinton during Sarah's speech. Not one bit.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

That Reagan Video

The Reagan tribute video tonight at the GOP convention was... not as good as it could have been, or should have been, given its subject. I think the problem was the writing.

The "B movie actor" line was graceless. And the line summing up his accomplishments was clumsy and missed a great opportunity. The before/after construction was something like "when he took office, unemployment was up, inflation was up, and the Soviet Union was on the march. But by such and such a time, unemployment was down, inflation was down..." but then they forgot to add the clincher, "and by the end of the decade we witnessed something unthinkable to everyone but Ronald Reagan himself, and unthinkable without his leadership -- the fall of the Berlin Wall."

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Susan Estrich on Sarah Palin

Don't know how significant this might be, but after Palin was unveiled (but before the pregnancy story), I saw Susan Estrich on FOX and thought this revelation was interesting (close paraphrase):

"I've heard from a lot women, and my email is split. There are of course lots of women saying Hillary supporters can't vote for a McCain-Palin ticket, she's anti-choice, we're not stupid enough to fall for this. But the other half is saying, listen, this is an impressive woman who worked her way up from the PTA, a working women balancing career and family, isn't this what we've been wanting to see this whole time?"

Most American Sentence Ever

From a George Will piece on political populism:

A story, perhaps apocryphal but certainly plausible, is that a child once began a school essay with this sentence: "Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin he built himself."

Monday, September 01, 2008

Mirror Image at the New Republic

The New Republic's Jonathan Chait's "quick response" to Sarah Palin's speech in Dayton:

It sort of seemed like one of those regular person testimonials where somebody gets up and talks about their family and their blue-collar job -- except then she says that she's on the ticket. Maybe it will help McCain connect with blue-collar voters. Maybe she'll come off as someone you can't possibly imagine as president. I don't know. It's really different.

I agree that we don't know how she will ultimately play (I'm very optimistic). But regarding his impression of Sarah Palin -- we really do live in different worlds. Right-wingers see Obama and think he's like some kind of motivational speaker (world-class, no doubt), or some Master of Feelings combination of Oprah and Deepak Choprah (hey, they rhyme) until he says "... and that's why I'm running for president."

In fact, "motivational speaker" seems to capture Obama's whole shtick; after all, motivational speakers don't actually accomplish things (other than generating their gig), they urge you to accomplish things. (Obama does have one big accomplishment: he beat the Clintons in a long and tough primary, despite having no accomplishments.)

Or we can use the game of basketball to illustrate the difference between Obama and Palin, since word has it they both got game. As the star point guard for her high school basketball team, Palin hit the free throw in the last seconds in the state championship to win the game. Obama's most famous shot was that beautiful three-pointer he hit at the military base while over in Europe. Except, it wasn't really worth three points, because it wasn't in an actual game. Just an awesome photo op.

(I wish I had, like, famous readers from the Left who could quote me out context and claim that I'm saying a good game of hoops qualifies you to be commander in chief. 'Cause that would be awesome.)