Obama, you need to get fired up

Today I was planning to rant about McCain's Sarah Palin lies – since she was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it – but realized that actually I'm more pissed off at Obama.

So this rant's for you, Barack.

First off, you're my man. That's why it hurts so much to see you acting like a weenie. It killed me to watch you interviewed on MSNBC yesterday, whiffing the softball questions Keith Olbermann threw at you. Such as:

OLBERMANN:  And Governor Palin hired a lobbyist to get earmarks to the tune of $27 million for a 6,000-person town which is — in its own scope, is kind of a neat trick, but it does seem to counterbalance the basic platform of the Republican Party.

You said that they're not telling the truth here, but when the stuff is a gross distortion, whether it's about their own positions or yours, or facts in your history or whatever, what can you do about it? And why do people hesitate to use the word "lie" about these things?

OBAMA:  Well, look, we have been very clear about the fact that this argument John McCain and Sarah Palin are making, that they are agents of change, just won't fly.  It defies their history and their background.  And we saw it in the convention that they wouldn't talk about the basic issues that are really going to make a difference in the lives of middle class families.

So you know, I'm happy to have legitimate policy debates with them on where we want to take health care, what we want to do about energy, what we want to do about education, what are we going to do about the war in Iraq.

But you know, for them to run an ad that basically doesn't present an accurate record of their positions on issues I think should raise some questions about how they would approach an administration.

Jesus! Just say, "Yes, McCain and Palin are lying. That's unfortunate. The American people deserve better."

Over on the Huffington Post, Drew Westen does a good job analyzing what the Obama campaign is doing wrong. In short, lots. This is right on:

But McCain shouldn't have gotten a 10-point bump from his uncivil convention, and this election shouldn't be close. What happened in one short week was both completely predictable and completely avoidable. Just hours after a Democratic Convention that reignited Democratic enthusiasm and started to swing those swing voters who just weren't sure about Obama, the Obama campaign had forgotten everything it should have learned from its success of Denver--most importantly that you never drop your gloves, and that you never let the other side control the narratives--and had returned to the same failed strategies that gave us Presidents Dukakis, Gore, and Kerry, strategies Democratic consultants have passed from generation to generation like a family heirloom laced with hemlock.

It's starting to drive me nuts, this be nice strategy that doesn't work against Republican toughness. Voters don't want a smiley-face president. Obama has to show that he's got the fire in his belly to take this country in a new direction and to face up to foreign policy challenges.

Except for flashes during his Mile High stadium speech, I haven't seen this from Obama. Both he and Biden keep talking about how much they respect McCain, without getting the same in return.

Last week I saw Biden on CNN, speaking live at a campaign event. Here's a chance for him to make the most of a few minutes of air time on a major cable news channel. And he blows it.

Speaking extemporaneously, he starts talking about how he and McCain are such good friends. Not just casual Senate buddies, but really good friends. Then he tells a warm and fuzzy story about travelling to Greece, or somewhere, with McCain.

Eventually he gets around to talking about how even though McCain is a great guy, his policies suck. By this time all of Biden's sweet talking about the Republican candidate has diluted his differences with him.

Once again, just like in 2004, the Democrats are assuming that being right on the issues will make up for turning the other cheek on baseless Rove'ian attacks. Well, it didn't work for Kerry, and it won't work for Obama.

Obama frequently says, "The Republicans can't govern, but they sure know how to run a campaign." Well dude, if you admire their campaigning ability so much (as you should), why can't you learn from them?

I'm not quite at worried as Adam McKay, who says "We're Gonna Frickin' Lose this Thing." But it seriously bothers me to see Obama acting so calm and collected while McCain and Palin roast him.

Richard Cohen asks, "Too cool to fight?"

It is true that on the stump, Obama goes on the attack. But those are fragments -- maybe 15 seconds on the evening news. It is with extended interviews, such as the Sunday shows, that we get to visit with the man -- and that man, for all his splendid virtues, seems to lack fight. Maybe he's worried about how America would receive an angry black man or maybe he's just too cool to ever get hot, but the end result is that we have little insight into his passions: What, above all, does he care about? The answer, at least to the Sunday TV viewer, was nothing much.

Show us, Barack. Show us what you care about, and how much you're willing to fight for this country.

Right now it looks like you and Biden are willing to hand McCain and Palin the keys to the White House, preferring to say that you didn't descend to their level rather than ascend to the leadership the United States needs.

Not acceptable. Not at all. You can keep sending me your almost-daily requests for more money. But until I see some fire from your campaign, my Visa card is staying in my wallet.

Comments

[twocanpete]

Don't be to hard on Barrack. I think he's been told to take it easy on this pit viper because his managers are afraid of the Republicans playing the gender card AGAIN. I think Obama is afraid, and probably with good reason, of looking like a black man beating up on a poor defenseless white woman. But in the end I have to agree with your assessment and if the Obama campaign were to ask me I would tell them not pet timber rattlers. Nope, put your snake boots on and let's go huntin'. http://twocanpete.blogspot.com/

[Rain]

I agree, he has to be tougher but take it to the issues and over and over again discuss why his plans are better than the personality/Messiah offerings from the other side. Obama also has to keep talking about how his tax ideas work as too many Republicans are scared to death they might have to pay for the wars they have been cheering. Obama won't raise taxes on anybody who makes less than $250,000 a year and even them it's back to the pre-Bush tax cuts is all.

'Trust me, I have a plan but won't tell you what it is' has gotten a lot of people elected in this country and it's how we end up with more Bush types. It's ironic how Rove works this with accusing the other side of something and then turning around and playing that same card. As Obama said, you gotta admit they do know how to run a campaign, just not a government.

The problem is as soon as Obama does say something even remotely suggesting an attack-- with a sense of humor even (pig with lipstick from the sow's ear Biblical saying), the Republicans are whining about how mean it was and McCain is really angry. Actually not a bad idea. McCain angry will reveal himself. Wonder if Palin can calm him down in time unless maybe she has the same kind of temper. :) Might work

[Harry Vanderpool]

Brian, I'm beginning to see your eyes opening to the real critical crux of this election:
Is "Your Man" Competent to be Commander & Chief?
Forget his views on abortion, gays, public speaking ect..........
Can he protect the United States of America?
Its time that we get REAL serious about our homeland and our nation.
Barrack Obama is a fad, PERIOD
This fad has run it's course like many one hit wonders, and then faded into nowhere.
The crowds with the outstretched arms, tears running doen their faces!!!!

Its over.

Now lets return to reality.
Lets rejoice in the fact that we are within but a few months of saying goodbye to THE WORST president in the history of the USA.
I'm looking forward to seeing the shake-up in Washington with the McCain / Palin team.
Should be VERY interesting.

[Rain]

Harry are you aware that McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time. That he agrees with him on economics, the war, foreign policy, and pretty much everything except global warming which he is likely to change as soon as he gets in office? Do you mistake strength with nastiness in your dealings with other people? When someone is belligerent (as many people are cheering on Palin for being in her speeches) does that really get any job done?

Rove has mastered the art of saying one thing while doing the other and he did it during the Bush administration leading us to failing banks, more money in the hands of a few, no facing of any climate change possibilities, more dependent then ever on foreign oil with only one answer from McCain/Palin on how to solve that-- drill drill drill. There are many sources of energy that would help us get this thing turned around but that won't make money for those already wealthy.

Bush and now McCain/Palin will not help the average person. Now if you happen to be rich already (which I don't know), you might be ahead for voting for them if you don't value anything else except your bank balance-- speaking of that, watch out what banks your money is in because more are going to fail with a government having nobody else around the world willing to loan to them except China-- ain't it great they are such 'friends' to us :)

Do you know why Palin has had Alaskans liking her? It's the money that is pumped through taxes back into their pockets from the oil companies (it was $2000 a year to each citizen there but went up under Palin with the gas price hikes). This is money we pay down here in the states. Despite all that money, they still have gone after federal pork from the rest of us.

The woman has no real clue about what life is like out of Alaska which definitely is not typical with its small population and limited minorities or many other problems that the rest of the states face.

What Palin is good at is looking pretty and saying something nasty. Then, if it comes back on her, screaming sexism. Actually she doesn't, Karl Rove does that part through his minions. But what can I say. If you liked Bush/Rove, vote for McCain and get more of the same. They have done so well by the people. Well one group at least, the wealthiest. They have made out like bandits-- in some cases literally. And yet because people get a kick out of seeing a pit bull which is why they liked Bush so much, they vote for it again and again and see our reputation further damaged overseas, ourselves in more wars that our kids fight but not the sons of the wealthiest (except in families like the McCains where it's a family tradition to be a soldier back to the Revolution-- to see solutions in terms of wars).

All I can say is research her record in Alaska and look at McCain's through the years also. What did he actually do, not what does he say. This maverick thing is an image, not a reality. He has played ball with the big guys and he will continue to do that while he postures that he didn't. It works, why not!
People should not trust any one news source for knowing what is going on. They all spin. Look at what they did, check newspapers of many sorts. The only hope we have as a country is that voters are able to get past the spin, look at the issues and check what both sides have done, not what a clever ad says about them. It would be nice to think people would vote on something besides personality. I think this is just almost funny where McCain tore into Obama as all about celebrity but now he has one of his own and suddenly it's good.

Oh and look up what a community organizer actually does. Palin obviously didn't even know as she delivered Karl Rove's line with total sincerity, her cheering crowd at the Republican convention didn't either. Find out what those groups are doing. They kind of resemble a thousand points of light or Faith Based Initiatives.

You do know that Rove ran a lot of the Bush administration and left just in time to start running the next guy's, whoever it ended up being. He will find it easier to control Palin (who is so like Bush that it's amazing) than McCain which means McCain better employ a taste tester as one of his first administrative aides. *s*

As for me, I am thinking of moving to the hills... oh wait, I already live there.

[Roger]

Rain,

OK, ....young lady!!!

You don't need to be messin with those dang Hills.....

I suggest you focus more on what is know as a Laccolith.

A laccolith is an igneous intrusion (or concordant pluton) that has been injected between two layers of sedimentary rock.

A world famous example is, Devil's Tower.

Sincerely,
Roger

p.s. -- Sarah Palin is going to give an interview on ABC, thursday night. It will be interesting to hear what she has to say.

[Rain]

I actually loved Devil's Tower, my one trip there :)

[Harry Vanderpool]

Dear Rain,
Not to flame, but you sure have the Lock-step talking points down pat.

>>>Bush and now McCain/Palin will not help the average person. Now if you happen to be rich already (which I don't know), you might be ahead for voting for them if you don't value anything else except your bank balance...<<<

So who is the average person?
I think I SHOULD be the average person.
Starting out with a mother on welfare.
Zero, and I do mean zero assistance in working my way through college.
Mastering a couple of trades.
Then several years of building a business by reinvesting ALL of the profits back into building the business.
During all of this time, raising a family with a wife that clips cupons and cans the garden veggys.
Driving a '63 Ford pickup and a '68 Volkswagon bug.
Now all of my kids are on their own and it's time to start to draw some income from the business.
But after decades of hard work, you want to spit on me as a "rich" parasite of society.
Please tell me my crime?
Oh, and I should share in my profits with the junkies and bums?
And what goal do you set for the folks?
To get another minimum wage raise, mandated by the law?

Let me announce right here & now on Brian & Laurels blog that I will be changing my political affiliation from Dem of some 32 years to REPUBLICAN this year.

Thank you for helping me work through this reality!

If you despise "the rich" then please encourage your kids to seek employment from welfare recipients, or minimum wage earners, or union workers.

Why don't you report back on all of the gainful employment opportunities that they uncover through those channels.

Let me tell you what "rich" means:

A lifetime of working your ass off, 12 hrs daily in the hopes that you can evenuually get a return by providing gainful employment in the community and increasing volume.

Oh, no!!! No, that is the mark of the ugly "rich" person. Someone just handed them millions and now they are rich overnight.

Thank you for pushing me over the edge.

I will vote as a republican next time.
:-Q

[Rain]

Harry, where are you getting your information that your taxes will go up if you don't make over $250,000 a year income (and if you do, only to the level before Bush began destroying our economy)? Fox? Just wondering what makes people believe they will have to pay more under Obama than McCain? McCain is the one who wants an ongoing occupation overseas, possibly a war in Georgia and who knows where else that ticks him off, a new draft for a larger military. Exactly how did you figure he will pay for these wars? Voodoo? Pray to god to drop dollars from heaven? My experience with god is that there is personal responsibility and what we can cover, we are supposed to.

You were always going to vote Republican based on what you say here, Harry. The edge, if you vote based on my telling you anything here about Obama's actual plans, wasn't far off.

I think that anybody who worries more about taxes than their children/grandchildren being drafted to fight wars around the world, than an environment that is trashed, than using up resources and not investing in new technologies so they have something waiting for their use is not caring much about their children's actual future but more about their personal bank account.

And Harry, although not remotely rich, I am in the economic group that just might pay more but money isn't all that matters. Listen to what McCain says and then try to figure out how he will pay for any of it.

I stay off all talk radio but have been paying attention to the actual issues and you should too. Personalities will not solve our problems. Emotional responses won't either. We have to pay for what we use and McCain has made as many (and sometimes more) promises for fixing problems as Obama. If you go to sites who actually look at what their proposals will cost, you will see McCain can't do what he claims without also raising taxes somewhere. There are many ways to do that, through things like fees, turning over more of the government to Halliburtons and then paying for the use of what we once owned (like freeways). If the stock market crashes, a lot of people who thought they had a good retirement ahead, won't. That also could happen under irresponsible management. How many more Fannie Maes can we cover to keep their rich CEOs rolling in their millions.

McCain is going to be a one term president and he won't care about being re-elected. I honestly have no idea for sure what he would do if he gets elected given he changes his mind all the time. Given who his supporters have been, the lobbyists who are in his campaign, I would guess you won't be on his list of beneficiaries-- even if you are donating to him. You just aren't big enough to count.

What amazes me is how often Republicans vote for those who don't really benefit them on any level. But hey, you go ahead and vote for McCain. Oregon will go for obama and your vote won't count anyway. *s* A new thing for you to concentrate on the next 4 years-- changing the electoral system because it's what elects presidents and in 2000 we Democrats had to accept a president who lost the majority of the vote by 3 million and still won because of a few votes in Florida.

Obama will win though. He's going to win despite bigotry, fear, and pie in the sky promises from the right (things like canceling the gas tax for a summer and then trying to figure out how to pay for the roads it repairs and builds) because he's got the issues that more people care about than a veep who kills moose. Hopefully women will stop thinking they have to vote for a woman because she's so pretty and looks like them and start noticing what her issues are.

Right now the Messiah complex has taken a lot of people's attention, as they expect to find leaders who can solve all problems at no cost, but I think Americans will be a lot more practical when it's down to the wire.

I might add that you are assuming people hate the rich. Are you getting that idea from the talk radio??? Or have you known personally people who hate you because you are well off? I am trying to figure out where you got the idea that there is class warfare against the wealthy. I know quite a few multimillionaires (with the kind of money that a tax increase back to 2000 levels won't worry them at all) who are very nice people-- a few who are not. Rich isn't different than poor for how honest or dishonest people are. Rich just means someone has more opportunity to spend and doesn't have to worry about money. Some rich people live frugally, some high on the hog. Might you be listening to Rush Limbaugh (or his ilk)?

However, you seem like a nice person, Harry and you vote what you think is best for this nation and so will I, but don't believe that talk about the rich. The rich aren't hated. Mostly they are admired and Obama has never put them down at all. That was Edwards. Obama just says that we have to cover our bills (something most of the rest of us also understand) and someone who makes over $250,000 (that's income, Harry, not net worth) a year, can pay the taxes they did before Bush promised he could cover a war and then occupation in Iraq without paying for any of it. He's put it on the cuff and it's your cuff.

[condor]

Now that the conventions are over, it is evident that the battle of John McCain is over (McCain won) and the battle of Barack Obama will determine the outcome of the election.

Now that McCain has definitively, and I suspect irreversibly, separated himself from Bush, he has become an acceptable alternative to Obama for voters seeking change. The question now is whether Obama’s extra quotient of change — or the different direction that change will take — is worth the risk of electing him.

Obama was wrong to invest so much in the Bush-McCain linkage. Any candidate can define himself at his convention. And if McCain chose, as he did, to use the gathering to distance himself from Washington and from the Bush administration, there was really nothing that Obama could do to stop him. He should have focused very specifically on McCain himself and taken shots at specific votes and bills that he introduced.

Now, after the massive exposure McCain got at his convention and the demonstrable commitment to change embodied in the selection of Sarah Palin, it is too late.

The Obama campaign doesn’t seem to get that it is running against McCain, not Sarah Palin. They spent the entire Republican convention and the week since attacking the vice presidential candidate. That’s like stabbing the capillaries instead of the arteries. Nobody is going to vote for or against McCain because they want Sarah Palin to be vice president of the United States, or don’t. But Palin has served, and will serve, a key purpose in illustrating and demonstrating what kind of a man John McCain is. She stands as a tribute to his desire to bring change, his willingness to cut loose from the past, and his courage in attempting innovation. No amount of criticism of Palin is going to stop that process. Obama needs to remember who his opponent is.

Now the election will hinge on a referendum on Obama. Is the extra healthcare coverage he would pass worth the huge tax increases he will impose? Nobody buys his claim that he will only increase taxes on a few rich people and give the rest of us tax cuts. Voters can add, and they realize that his spending plans and tax-cut promises come to a trillion dollars and that his tax increases represent only one-tenth as much. They know that everyone who pays taxes will end up paying more if Obama is elected. The question will be: Is it worth it?

Is his commitment to income redistribution and increasing tax “fairness” worth the risk his tax plans pose for the economy?

Is his plan to pull out of Iraq and his commitment to multilateralism in foreign policy worth the risk of putting someone with virtually no foreign policy experience in charge of our international relations in the middle of a war? Is his promise to respect the Constitution and ratchet back the intrusions of the Bush homeland security measures worth the extra risk of terror attack?

The answer to these questions will only partially depend on what Obama is proposing and on how sound we think his judgment is. They will also depend on the events that will transpire between now and Election Day. If Iran moves closer to getting nuclear weapons or Israel attacks Iran to forestall that development, things could change in a hurry. If the current atmosphere of economic uncertainty and impending possible crisis — signaled by the federal takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae — deepens, it may make voters less willing to risk the high taxes and big spending that Obama will bring in his wake. If Russia continues to assert its imperial right to dominate Eastern Europe and restore a Soviet-style satellite empire, voters will wonder if they can take a chance on Obama.

But if things are relatively peaceful and uneventful, voters may bristle at the stagnation and turn to Obama in the hopes of change.

The key point is that this race is now not about Bush or McCain or Clinton or Palin. It’s all about Obama.

[Jeanie]

The Democratics need to get over their six year attitude when it comes to Obama.

He is such a joke---God only knows who else he pals around with besides a domestic terrorists. But the Democratics are incapable of connecting the dots. Be safe become a republican, Obama is a complete fool.