[Archived] Barack Obama

[Billy Castell]

You're probably right. Maybe it has something to do with that competitive 'I must win! U-S-A U-S-A' attitude that is integral to Presidential campaigns.

Oh, and Palin may be MILF, but she really worries me. One rouge Werthers Original and then we'll have to put up with Georgina Bush.

[Eddie]

I like how everyone jokes about McCain as if he'll die if a fly touches him. The man was a tortured (although he no longer uses that word) POW, I think he can probably handle sitting in a chair most days.

I still can't make up my mind about who I want to win. I like McCain more as a person, but have a strong dislike for his party. I would normally always want the democrats to win, but have quite the dislike for Obama. It is quite the quandry.

From a betting perspective, I think the odds being offered on a McCain win look good value.

[ABBEY]

.

[Rovermatt]

I like how everyone jokes about McCain as if he'll die if a fly touches him. The man was a tortured (although he no longer uses that word) POW, I think he can probably handle sitting in a chair most days.

I still can't make up my mind about who I want to win. I like McCain more as a person, but have a strong dislike for his party. I would normally always want the democrats to win, but have quite the dislike for Obama. It is quite the quandry.

From a betting perspective, I think the odds being offered on a McCain win look good value.

McCain used to be a good guy. His maverick status was not a good fit though and so he promptly sold out to the right of his party and is running one stupid, lie-ridden campaign ad after another. Frankly he's beginning to look like a senile old fool. Only the other day, on the subject of speaking with the Spanish PM, he started harping on about 'Latin America'. He then anointed Sarah Palin, a woman who makes Hillary Clinton look like a homely aunt. The GOP gives me the creeps and I hope they get what they deserve come November.

[philipl]

Palin's interview with Couric of CBS falls off the scale for being cringeworthy.

I reckon Hugh Hefner (soon to be bust Playboy) got it right in offering her a centre spread after the election.

[Billy Castell]

Was that the interview abou a week ago, where she was tripped up by the interiewer asking about the 'Bush Doctrine'. It was The Daily Show, but is it true that when she was mayor/senator/govenor she made suspected rape victims pay for their 'rape kit' ?

She seems to be the kind of bible bashing right wing nutjob the USA really doesn't need right now. Anyone who calls their son Track has to be a bit suspect. Being MILF can only take you so far.

[philipl]

The two halves of the Katie Couric interview with Palin are here. It is like watching Borat... only its real. This was a new interview she gave yesterday- the one on foreign policy is utterly hilarious but they are all completely awful.

The pay-off is that the the McCain campaign were so alarmed by what happened that they canned his return to Washington and sent him to do an immediate impromptu interview with Couric so the media wouldn't major on Palin's complete horlicks.

Of course, McCain had already cried off the Letterman show "to go fix the global financial crisis in Washington" and got absolutely slaughtered on the Late Show- watch what happens when they suddenly get the live feed of McCain in another New York studio being made up for his Couric interview

[Billy Castell]

Has this financial crisis damaged McCain in any way? He seemed intent on going to Washington to 'sort it out', and then there was a big bust up over the $700b deal just as he was in Washington. And has Obama been damaged because he's seen as more interventionalist in economic matters?

[neekoy]

The two halves of the Katie Couric interview with Palin are here. It is like watching Borat... only its real. This was a new interview she gave yesterday- the one on foreign policy is utterly hilarious but they are all completely awful.

The pay-off is that the the McCain campaign were so alarmed by what happened that they canned his return to Washington and sent him to do an immediate impromptu interview with Couric so the media wouldn't major on Palin's complete horlicks.

Of course, McCain had already cried off the Letterman show "to go fix the global financial crisis in Washington" and got absolutely slaughtered on the Late Show- watch what happens when they suddenly get the live feed of McCain in another New York studio being made up for his Couric interview

That was classic. The comments regarding how close Russia is to Alaska and the Israel statements are the best. She won't even sit down with Iran and would not second guess any decision by Israel.

Palin meets Zardari Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, you are georgous.

[Rovermatt]

That says more about him than it does her. Yes she's vastly out of her depth but the fact that she is attractive is irrelevant. Is that how he'll talk to her if she and McCain win the election? What a tosser.

What amuses me most about the McCain/Palin ticket is the sheer unashamedness in lifting Obama's ideas and passing them off as their own. Adopting a platform of change and railing against lobbyists - hardly a revolutionary position in the first place - has clearly been part of the Obama message for over 18 months. Yet his opponents now appear to have just reached the conclusion that these are probably good ideas to promote and that they are the ones to carry them through.

[USRoverME]

Rovermatt, I don't think either one lifted it from the other, considering McCains been using his "maverick" status all along, his "line item pen" gag for earmarks, his "ethics reform" legislation issue which they both try to "win" on., etc. its a recurring theme, though tactically, he is harping on it more now than he did in the past.

Persoanlly, I think either one who gets elected is going to make huge mistakes, with the economy and with foreign policy. These two candidates continue to underwhelm. McCain for looking Senile, and Obama for being a rudderless-ship, when his opponent is so inept.

[philipl]

Rovermatt, I don't think either one lifted it from the other, considering McCains been using his "maverick" status all along, his "line item pen" gag for earmarks, his "ethics reform" legislation issue which they both try to "win" on., etc. its a recurring theme, though tactically, he is harping on it more now than he did in the past.

Persoanlly, I think either one who gets elected is going to make huge mistakes, with the economy and with foreign policy. These two candidates continue to underwhelm. McCain for looking Senile, and Obama for being a rudderless-ship, when his opponent is so inept.

Sorry to write this but I will be interested to hear what the other Americans are thinking.

Let's look at the mechanics of the campaign.

Obama is consistently in front in the polls so the election is his to lose.

His on the ground organisation is so good that he has already beaten a vastly superior opponent in Clinton/Clinton than he faces in McCain/Palin. By all accounts, the Obama organisation is two to three times bigger in every "swing" state except Florida where the Republicans have the problem of getting the geriatrics to the polling stations. And even in Florida, Obama will probably be much better organised come polling day.

The McCain team has assembled the most aggressive, nasty, vicious attack dog support team in American history.

McCain and Palin (and Biden) are gaffes and mistakes waiting to happen.

The no risk route to the White House is to be quiet, authoritative and say nothing your opponent can meaningfully attack. Just leave it to McCain and Palin to be reduced to pure comedy parodies which they have been doing a brilliant job of becoming over the past ten days.

Hence the Obama campaign.

He might open out with a visionary motivational flourish of that brilliant oratory right at the end of the campaign when it is basically too late for the "Obama is a Moslem" guff to be let loose by McCain's team.

One miscalculation has been that Obama's folk were naive in assuming the McCain team would not find ways to get round the ban on raising private money after accepting the State $89m funds and carry on fund raising. The Obama team refused the $89m and are relying on the now 2 million+ small private donations instead. McCain has about $60m more in his campaign coffers than Obama as a result so if McCain want to tell the BIG LIE, he has the cash to do so- this is even more reason for Obama to remain quiet.

[blue phil]

The only BIG LIE I can detect in the American presidential race is that of the media continually perpetrating the myth that Obama has anything new to offer or that he is anything other than a mediocre orator . (Actually that's two big myths )

As a political speaker I'd rate Obama lower than a Kinnock or a William Hague . His vision of "change" on the scale of things is on a par with Cameron over here . ie ...a lot of talk with very little substance underneath .

McCain's a mediocrity as well .......

[Billy Castell]

I'm going to add to Blue Phil's point by saying something controversial: JFK is over rated. His 'calibrated response' to trouble in Vietnam set up that whole mess, the Bay of Pigs and his attempts to kill Castro made him look foolish, his deal with the Chicago mob to secure votes, all tarnish his reputation.

The only good thing he has is the nerve he had when the Cuban Missile Crisis was unfolding. A evry very big thing, but still, only one thing.

As Albert Speer once advised someone who asked how he could improve his chances of success, you should work on your charisma. And Speer should know,his charisma saved him from being hanged.

[Rovermatt]

The only BIG LIE I can detect in the American presidential race is that of the media continually perpetrating the myth that Obama has anything new to offer or that he is anything other than a mediocre orator . (Actually that's two big myths )

He's clearly a brilliant orator. Whether or not his policies are substantive remains to be seen.

[USRoverME]

philipl, the problem with your proposed approach for Obama, the "stay silent and let your opponent hang himself" route, is that there's too much going on right now to be silent, with the economic disaster, in progress, before that is was Musharraf and its implications in the mid-east, etc. Staying silent works if you are the party in power running on sustained momentum. But you can't be silent AND advocate for change. It leaves out too many questions that need answering.

[blue phil]

He's clearly a brilliant orator.

Matt , if you think Obama is a "brilliant" orator go and listen to Martin Luther King's speeches - there's plenty on Youtube .

The delivery of his speeches are peerless ; made with unparalleled feeling and controlled emotion that Obama couldn't even dream of .

Not just that , the construction and language of the speeches (written by MLK himself) border on poetry . In fact his speeches are well worth reading let alone listening to purely for their literary content .

I'm afraid I can't ever imagine Obama conjuring up anything worth listening to - with or without his speechwriters . Take away the fact that he may be the first black president - which is remarkable achievement nonetheless - I think he's a very ordinary candidate , built up by the media . For poltical clout I doubt he'll ever be in the same league as LBJ or Nixon nor Robert Kennedy (who IMO could have been one of the great presidents )

[philipl]

Amongst the current generation of politicians, Obama is a brilliant orator.

He is also a deeply profound thinker who is able to articulate the most complex and sensitive of issues.

99% of politicians would have been dead in the water after the youtubing of the Rev Jeremiah Wright's diatribes. Obama's speech in response is easily the most impressive political speech so far this century and effectively killed the issue of Wright and race in this election as big items in the political/media circles.

McCain's campaign would no doubt love to resurrect Wright against Obama but they are probably too scared that they would give him the opportunity to unleash another brilliant performance that would blow them out of the race.

As usual blue phil, your opinions are in a tiny minority.

Anyway, we have a different type of effective orator coming up in the veep debate tonight. If Britain's Daily Torygraph is dismissing her, she has got to be bad. My gut feel is that she will actually do OK but then will be laid low again when the rest of the Katie Couric interview gets screened- apparently she clams up altogether at one point.

[dave birch]

Amongst the current generation of politicians, Obama is a brilliant orator.

That, IMO, says it all.

It places him alongside, the likes of Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, John Howard, and dare I say it the worst of the lot GeorgeW, all nonedescripts when it comes to oration.

For me, Obama shouts, has no intonation, and is full of pregnant pauses. All we have seen of him is preaching to the converted and the 10 second grab.

It's time that, rather than money getting you into the White House, there was someone who could lead with their own policy rather than be manipulated by the lobbyists.

I would suggest that If Obama gets elected, then there will be another four years of the same.

[Eddie]

Dare I say it, but I totally agree with blue phil (just looked out the window and there are no flying pigs). The world is trying very hard to convince itself that Obama will be a something different and whilst it might be a difficult pill for everyone to swallow, but I would argue that this is mainly supported by his race. It would be quite a thing to see a non-white person in office, but I do hope that Obama isn't the first.

It appears that the world is simply absorbing whatever they are being told by CNN and various other media sources. Most are buying into this "change" that Obama will bring, yet few can name any concrete policies that he has put forward. He feeds off of his image as a brilliant orator, but we can all look good when we speak to our flock. His supporters would scream and shout if he came on stage and just sat on the loo. His gaffs that I posted showed that he is simply reading his script and I very much doubt that he has any serious input when it comes to their content. That makes him no worse than the majority of politicians, but when it is your claim to fame and really the main pillar supporting his campaign then it is a serious blow.

Eventually the world will realise that as long as party politics rules the roost and money buys power, there won't be any serious change. If Obama comes in he'll pass a few bills that McCain or Bush wouldn't have, but when it comes to the big issues he'll be just the same. He'll fall in line over Israel. He probably won't make significant changes to health or education.

[Rovermatt]

Dare I say it, but I totally agree with blue phil (just looked out the window and there are no flying pigs). The world is trying very hard to convince itself that Obama will be a something different and whilst it might be a difficult pill for everyone to swallow, but I would argue that this is mainly supported by his race. It would be quite a thing to see a non-white person in office, but I do hope that Obama isn't the first.

Well then Eddie, that's quite worrying because the alternative to Obama (whether one admires him or not) is John McCain and the incredibly dim Sarah Palin. I've pointed out before that Obama's policies are perfectly sound (if open to abandonment if he ever gets in) and just as substantial as anything offered by his opponent. McCain has shown himself over the last two weeks to be hugely volatile, unpredictable and a loose canon rather than 'a maverick'. He has surrendered his integrity to the extreme elements of his party and I found his performance on Friday, in which he spouted one lie after the other, to be quite distasteful. Obama on the other hand remained calm and collected and while, like most of his party's presidential candidates over the years, he failed to go for the jugular there was only one person at the podium who seemed to have a grasp of the issues at hand. And it sure wasn't McCain.

[philipl]

Eddie at worst, Obama will be an ordinary run-of-the-mill president.

That will be a revolutionary improvement on the last eight years.

BP's beef is actually about Obama's oratory being poor. I seem to recall you being pretty excited by Obama's speeches when he was slugging it out with Clinton.

[blue phil]

Amongst the current generation of politicians, Obama is a brilliant orator.

He is also a deeply profound thinker who is able to articulate the most complex and sensitive of issues.

99% of politicians would have been dead in the water after the youtubing of the Rev Jeremiah Wright's diatribes. Obama's speech in response is easily the most impressive political speech so far this century and effectively killed the issue of Wright and race in this election as big items in the political/media circles.

McCain's campaign would no doubt love to resurrect Wright against Obama but they are probably too scared that they would give him the opportunity to unleash another brilliant performance that would blow them out of the race.

As usual blue phil, your opinions are in a tiny minority.

Being in a minority is quite a compliment if being in the majority means being passively dictated to by the media's hysterical over-reaction to Mr Obama .

If truth be told I'd like Obama to win the election not just because he's marginally the better candidate but mainly to get this "first black man to be president" nonsense over and done with . (Hopefullly the next president after this will be a black woman )

I've watched a video of the Rev Wright . It took a few minutes before I realised it wasn't a spoof ! Let's face facts ........the average parish councillor could demolish his arguments without thinking - and I bet Obama still had to use both a speechwriter and a speech prompter . Hardly a Mountain Top moment ......

Amongst contemporary politicians Obama is maybe slightly better than most - his outstanding feature , I'm afraid to say , is his colour . It shouldn't be that way .

[philipl]

Never mind blue phil, you don't know the speech I am referring to or the context in which it was made.

Here is the transcript.

[American]

I was just reading that he saw Leonard Nimoy in the crowd at a fundraiser and gave him the vulcan hand signal!