Comments on: Intellectual dishonesty: Ur doin’ it rite on the “left!”

By: Emma

Emma — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:48:52 +0000

And who helped blow the Henry Louis Gates incident out of proportion? Beer summit, anyone?

By: Rad Readr

Rad Readr — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:03:42 +0000

Well, I can’t disagree on the filibuster. But too many dittoes on a blog are likely to be followed with someone pushing Oxycontin. So here it goes…I don’t think Obama’s leadership is the issue here. I would go back to the post on Tiger Woods. Obama has tried to make people aware of the importance of this issue, but really a lot of people want to know about Tiger. A lot who have insurance, don’t care. Some who don’t have insurance have been told Obama is Hitler. The drug and insurance companies are buying legislators, and Palin is going rouge, etc. etc.

A few months ago he did a big speech — I believe it was on health care — but it got completely overshadowed by…Henry Louis Gates and the racist cop, one of the stories completely blown out of proportion. So the Tonya Harding metaphor might be appropriate here. In order for Obama to take the lead on the news, he would have to hire Jeff Gillooly.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:28:10 +0000

Anybody running with the D brand last year was going to win. Emma is right: Obama didn’t pull ahead decisively until after the stock market cratered, and McCain started talking and acting like a dotty old man in response.

Obama supporters would have voted for Hillary Clinton, just as Clinton supporters voted for Obama. But, it doesn’t matter now! Obama is President, not Clinton. It’s up to him to smarten up and lead, or to get steamrolled.

His choice.

By: steveeboy

steveeboy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:25:28 +0000

I think lots of people underestimate the level of so-called “clinton fatigue” out there…

By: Comrade PhysioProf

Comrade PhysioProf — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:25:31 +0000

Anyone over the age of fourteen who writes “sigh” should be summarily executed.

By: KC

KC — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:48:58 +0000

I can’t imagine Palin even being on the Republican ticket if Hillary had been the Democratic nominee. And McCain being neck-and-neck with Obama in the polls came right after the Republican convention, when the shine hadn’t yet come off Palin’s star among independents.

By: Emma

Emma — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:12:26 +0000

Obama wasn’t doing all that hot until the economy tanked in Sept/Oct. McCain was neck and neck w/him in the polls.

After the economy tanked, anybody with a D could’ve won. I think Hillary would’ve started pulling away right after the convention because she matched up better against McCain’s strengths. And would’ve rendered Palin an oddity. Too, I think HRC would’ve been smart enough to ask Obama to be her VP.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:40:38 +0000

A real fillibuster, televised all day and all night on C-SPAN. That would be great, like on my first trip to England, when they were bringing 100-year old Labor Lords down from the mountains of Wales on stretchers, with oxygen masks, for the first time since WW I ended to denounce and vote against Thatcher on the Poll Tax bill. A real national catharsis. And then end the debate and roll with the bill.

I think Hillary would have won in ’08 just fine, and we’d be having different kinds of discussions now. Like moving those Offutt jets and jobs to Watertown, NY.

By: KC

KC — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:42:43 +0000

And, I still don’t believe that HRC would have won the election had she been the nominee.

Not to replay all this 2008 stuff over again, but, I think she would have. McCain was a weak candidate. She probably would not have won Virginia or Colorado or North Carolina or Indiana, but she would have cleaned up in the Kerry states, won Ohio, won Florida, won Arkansas, won West Virginia, and probably a few other states I’m not thinking of right now.

She was a very strong candidate and McCain was nothing special. Plus, her nomination would have had the added bonus of sparing the country of the tokenism of the Palin phenomenon in the first place.

By: steveeboy

steveeboy — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:50:02 +0000

All sorts of callers to Monsieur Hannity were freaking out yesterday cuz the rumour was that Rahm told Ben Nelson that if he liked Offutt AFB so much and he liked the 10,000 jobs it brought to his state along with the big defense bucks he better get his vote right.

Seems to me this is some LBJ-style hard ball–if it’s true.

But, if we recall the arguments of the dead-enders from just a few months ago Obama was a thug, a Chicago tough guy steeped in dirty politics, a wannabe dictator, a machiavellian personality of the highest order.

Seems weird that such a person would be unable to control his own caucus…

Still, I support the post vis-a-vis the need to force a real filibuster, the desire to watch such an event on CSPAN–while drinking heavily of course, the need for a bit more arm twisting, etc.

And Lieberman needed to be purged a long time ago.

But, I still have no regrets. The thought of McCain and that Palin nightmare in the WH–and that was the preference of a large number of the dead-enders– cures all regrets.

And, I still don’t believe that HRC would have won the election had she been the nominee.