n a t b s

What is it about Sara Palin that scares the shit out of me, and frankly, let’s admit it, all democrats?  It’s plainly obvious that everyone is scared shitless by this woman, so let’s just end the denials and the false confidence.  First we have to admit it, then we can try to figure out why we’re scared so we can beat her.

The problem is, I don’t really know why.  It’s a feeling, there’s something about her and how she’s being received that makes me feel like we could be in trouble.  She’s like a new product, and she makes the old one appear obsolete.  It’s like when when a newer model iPod comes out, suddenly that old one just not as good.  She’s got the sheen of newness about her. People love new products, and Obama’s been around for 9 months already.  Bo-ring.  Hope?  …Did you hear Bristol is pregnant? For better or worse, well…for worse, she just dominates the mind.  She’s just a huge, good-looking, distraction.  And the primary person she’s distracting us from is John McCain.  That guy still running? His daughter is hot.  What, that’s his running mate?

Maybe because the Democrats are all dorks, and she seems like that stupid popular girl at your high school.  Or those 8 stupid popular girls.  And the scary part is people vote for that girl.

I’m not really sure how you beat the hot new product, the popular girl.  I’m not sure Obama knows how to do that either.  Is 57 days enough for people to get sick of her?  Something else needs to happen.  McCain needs to explode with anger on television, or maybe the debates will change things if there’s some moment that resonates.  I don’t know, and I don’t think the Obama campaign planned for this contingency.  Who could have expected them to?  Can they figure her out in time?  Can we?  There’s not much time left.  But first we have to admit we’re scared.

Following Wright’s unapologetic press conference today, Obama had his own, and he strongly denounced Wright’s words. From Salon:

“I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday,” Obama told reporters about Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I had come to know over 20 years.” While he said he gave Wright “the benefit of the doubt” because “soundbites [of his sermons] created a caricature of him,” in Wright’s sneering Monday press club performance “he caricatured himself.”

“I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church,” he said. “But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century; when he equates the U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism – then there are no exuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced, and that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today.”

“It is antithetical to my campaign. It is antithetical to what I’m about. It is not what I think America stands for,” he said.

Can we finally put this matter to rest? I like that Barack tried to avoid doing this as best he could, but after Wright’s unapologetic appearances this weekend and today, I don’t think he had a choice. This controversy just keeps cropping up, and hopefully, after today’s strong clear words denouncing these ridiculous statements (except for the US terrorizing people, that one I agree with, but I also completely understand why Obama must denounce it) it will finally go away. Obama said the remarks offend him, he said they’re antithetical to his campaign and himself, and he even said Wright was no longer the person he had known for the past 20 years. So please, America, stop talking about it. And please, Jeremiah Wright, shut up for the next 7 months. Thanks.

On this PA-primary-eve-day one might consider writing a scathing post about team Hillary’s latest bs, but that’s been done to death. What I’d rather do is issue a desperate plea to the people of PA to please, please end this horrible primary. There is only one way that you can end it, by giving the win to Obama. See the thing is, Obama already won sometime back in February, and Hillary’s been in denial ever since. Don’t believe me? Than how come every big contest has been do or die for Hillary? If you’re winning like Barack, you can afford to lose a big contest, but if you’re losing like Hillary, one big loss is the final nail in the coffin. So please Pennsylvenians, vote for Obama. At this point a vote for Hillary is a vote to help McCain. I wont go so far as to say it’s a vote for McCain as that would be excessive, but it is definitely a vote to keep this slugfest going, and every day it does is a gift to the McCain campaign.

I hate to break it to you but she really can’t win. So please, vote for the Democrats to finally have a candidate. If you make the right choice, we can have one tomorrow. And then we can finally start going after our real opponent John McCain. He is formidable and we can’t keep wasting our time.

What was with that debate last night? I thought CNN was bad, but wow ABC takes the cake for most terrible news network (Fox isn’t a news network). Or at least worst debate moderation ever. Right off the bat they asked Obama about the bitter remark. After beating that one into the ground for ten minutes, they brought up Rev. Wright. Aren’t we past that one already? But ABC had a new take on it: “do you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do?”[nyt] What, the fuck, is that? That’s not really an answerable question. How does George Stephanopoilous even pretend he’s a journalist? Other “important” issues ABC raised:

• Why doesn’t Obama wear a flag pin?
• Is he friends with William Ayers of the Weather Underground?
• Why they want to raise taxes when clearly that hurts everything

They were really adamant that raising the capital gains tax is clearly bad for the country. I didn’t think the news was supposed to take that kind of partisan position. And what do a bunch of out of work factory workers in PA care about the capital gains tax anyway?

In the second half there were more policy questions, but I found they were often given in an antagonistic tone. Overall I’d say it was 60/40 worthless-gossip questions to real policy questions. Terrible ratio, more than half that debate was worthless and stupid. The candidates should stick to holding their own rallies and q&a sessions. Or what if prominent Democrats moderated the Democratic debate? They would probably be less dickish to their colleagues. I’d like to close this with something Obama said in the debate:

What the American people want are not distractions. They want to figure out, how are we actually going to deliver on health care; how are we going to deliver better jobs for people; how are we going to improve their incomes; how are we going to send them to college?[nyt]