Was Feminism Necessary? (Harvey Mansfield 09.15.08, Forbes)
An obvious difference between the women's movement and the civil rights movement is the ease with which the former triumphed. Of course there was male chauvinism at the start, but it was complacent, passive and ineffective. No man could look a woman in the eye and say "you are not equal to me" once the issue was put. There was nothing like the "massive resistance" to racial desegregation in the South; instead, there was a massive movement of women into jobs and careers.The early feminists were radicals inspired by Simone de Beauvoir, who thought it necessary to show that all sex differences were bourgeois conventions or stereotypes. They would show this not so much in regard to careers as in sex itself. They bought into the sexual revolution and decided that women could best show they are equal to men by becoming as predatory as the most wolfish men. This demonstration required the fallback assistance of ready abortion in case something should go wrong; and it gave new legitimacy to--this word is never used--spinsterhood. Single-parent families also gained respectability as women pressed their husbands with newly justifiable equality grievances, often leading to divorce.
As sex goes up in social estimation, love goes down. The trouble with love is that it narrows your options and endangers your independence. If you loved a man, you might actually want to put up with, or even admire, his ways. You may be sure that I am not the first one to notice that feminist women are unerotic.
If none of what I am saying were true, feminists would be welcoming Sarah Palin with embraces as warm as they are capable of. They should be happy that their cause has spread to conservatives and become bipartisan. In fact, they see the Palin choice as a gross deceit, and their response is close to fury. Doesn't this suggest that feminism is not in behalf of the women's movement--but rather to promote radical adventures above and beyond its concern for women?
The Audacity of Defeat: What if the impossible happens and Obama loses the election? Among Democrats, expect a rash of rage, depression, angst and finger-pointing at the media. (Russ Smith, Splice)
I was reasonably certain that Obama would win convincingly, and perhaps by a landslide. In fact, although favoring McCain, I’d resigned myself to at least four years of the charismatic Illinois one-term senator, despite the nervousness that he’d turn out to be a less pious Jimmy Carter or, a latter-day Adlai Stevenson. What the hell, it’s not as if the Republicans have distinguished themselves in the past four years, McCain included. Besides, one benefit of a turnover at the White House would be the resumption of political conversation with Democratic friends; too many personal and professional relationships have been fractured in the past eight years. [...]New York magazine columnist Kurt Andersen, one of the few Beltway-Boston pundits who bashed Hillary Clinton a year ago, when her nomination appeared inevitable, was unstinting in his speculation of the fallout should Obama lose. He emailed me: “Even without post-November 4th rumors of rigged voting machines and the like, an Obama loss will be a deeply, traumatically depressing event for Democrats and other Obama enthusiasts. (Whereas if McCain loses, who will be seriously bummed outside of the McCain household?) There will be so many facets of potential unhappiness. That an eloquent, inspiring, intelligent, subtle black candidate lost—and if it’s close, it’ll be true that racism beat him… That the rest of the world will be reaffirmed in their belief that America is the land of nincompoops (or worse). That a war with Iran looks a lot likelier… That Sarah Palin won it for the Republicans, and gives a bad name to feminism and (terrifyingly) has a one-in-six (Russian roulette!) chance of becoming president before 2013.”
Tom Bevan, co-founder of Real Clear Politics, was succinct: “Two words: Hari Kari. The base of the [Democratic] party is so vested in its nominee…that to lose in November would be one of the most demoralizing in the modern era.”
Today, John Kerry is mostly a pariah in Democratic circles, seen as an effete and cautious campaigner who couldn’t even beat the laughable George Bush. Yet people, and the media, forget how shocked his supporters were four Novembers ago, so certain that Bush’s Supreme Court “selection” in 2000 would be overturned.
An article in The New York Times shortly after the election described the utter devastation felt by New York City residents, who gave Kerry 75 percent of their votes. Dr. Joseph Zito, a retired psychiatrist, told the reporter, “I’m saddened by what I feel is the obtuseness and shortsightedness of a good part of the country—the heartland… New Yorkers are more sophisticated and at a level of consciousness where we realized we have to think of globalization, of one mankind, that what’s going to injure masses of people is not good for us.” A friend of Zito’s, a native of Wisconsin, added, “New Yorkers are savvy. We have street smarts. Whereas people in the Midwest are more influenced by what their friends say.”
But who says New Yorkers are elitists?
A Beverly Hills psychologist, Cathy Quinn, told a Los Angeles Times reporter—also days after the Kerry defeat—that she’d seen an increase in the number of patients, who were suffering from “despair.” Quinn predicted to the Times’ Melissa Healy that the “postelection” blues would worsen the emotional health of people already plagued by feelings of loss, anxiety and depression.
It’ll be far more acrimonious this time around if the GOP wins.
The Wife and I were both harangued by family and/or "friends," crazed by Sarah Palin, over the past couple days and a neighbor said her mother yelled at her. So we were talking at dinner about how poorly they'd all deal with Senator Obama losing and how strange it was that they're this invested. I said I thought that it was his very vacuousness that sucked them in--since there's nothing there they can create the Obama of their dreams.
At that point, The Boy chimed in: "But when Obama's President he'll bring me a pony."
And there's the rub: John McCain is stealing their ponies.
Obama's teleprompter hits the trail (CNN, 9/15/08)
It appears Barack Obama's teleprompter is hitting the campaign trail.The Democratic presidential nominee has never tried to hide the fact he delivers speeches off the device, though normally he doesn't use one at standard campaign rallies and town hall events.
But the Illinois senator used a teleprompter at both his Colorado events Monday — making for a particularly peculiar scene in Pueblo, where the prompter was set up in the middle of what is normally a rodeo ring.
Witchcraft rumor sparks riot at Congo soccer game (AP, 9/15/08)
Accusations that a soccer player was using witchcraft during a match in eastern Congo sparked a riot that killed 13 people, a U.N.-funded radio station reported Monday.
Despite Market Troubles, Economy Keeps Growing (Michael A. Fletcher, 9/15/08, Washington Post)
Since the housing problems began to boil over last year, the economy has continued to expand. Boosted by federal stimulus payments, the country's gross domestic product grew at a 3.3 percent annual pace in the second quarter of this year, making up for anemic growth the quarter beforehand.Many analysts call the growth -- halting and tepid as it may be -- evidence of the strength and resilience of the U.S. economy, which they say has evolved in ways that have so far have allowed it to absorb the shocks to the housing and financial sectors.
The weakened U.S. dollar, for instance, has fueled a sharp increase in exports. Rising prices for commodities, from soybeans to natural gas, have contributed to upswings in agriculture and mining.
"We are in a weakened but not weak state," said J.D. Foster, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a former associate director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Bush. "There are other strengths in the economy that have allowed us to offset weaknesses in housing and the financial markets."
Technology and globalization have also allowed businesses to operate with fewer people and boost productivity, some economists said. While those efficiencies have squeezed wages and slowed job creation, they also have led to generally healthy corporate balance sheets, helping the economy withstand market turbulence.
Can't you just picture the brainstorming session that produced that one? Hey, fellas, folks in Middle America think Senator Obama is a liberal elitist who doesn't share their values and looks down on their culture.
I've got it! Let's attack John McCain's POW ordeal!
Nevermind that they're now arguing with the vast majority of Americans about whether Maverick is fit to be president
He's Kerry; she's Reagan (JOHN BRUMMETT, 9/14/08, Las Vegas Review Journal)
Barack Obama has turned into Michael Dukakis, John Kerry and Al Gore. Sarah Palin has turned into Ronald Reagan. [...]Democrats win the cities. John McCain and the moose-hunter take all that space in between.
For all the talk of newness and history-making, we've seen this presidential race before.
Democrats are burdened with a mealy-mouthed, message-conflicted, reactive, apologizing, conflict-averse nominee. He goes into a prevent defense on Labor Day, at which point the Republicans commence traipsing up and down the field hitting wide-open receivers.
Turning small-C immigrants into big-C Conservatives (David Akin, September 15, 2008, National Post)
Ever since Stephen Harper assumed the leadership of the Conservative Party, it's been his mission to weaken what has traditionally been the power base for the Liberals in Canada's biggest cities, namely, immigrant communities. Early on, Harper tapped Jason Kenney to be in charge of outreach to Canada's new Canadians. Today, asked about reaching out to that vote, Harper gave a nod to Kenney, who has a line favoured by the PM: "The challenge we face here is the challenge of converting small-c conservatives into big-c Conservatives." But though Kenney and other Conservatives do indeed see some affinity between their views and the views of many new Canadians when it comes to issues like same-sex marriage, faith, crime and other social and justice issues, Liberals and political scientists I've spoken to say the sweet spot in those communities are policies that appeal to entrepreneurs, to risk-takers.
How Palin changed the game (Ed Rollins, 9/15/08, CNN)
The charisma of Palin was even evident on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend. There in the opening skit was Sarah Palin (played by her wonderful look-alike Tina Fey) opposite Hillary Clinton (played by "SNL" regular Amy Poehler).Even though it was a spoof, Palin stood out. Besides anyone who brings Fey back to "SNL" does the country and the show a big favor.
Race -- and the race for Ohio: Center-stage again, the Ohio contest between Obama and McCain may pivot on the impossible-to-handicap racial factor. (Walter Shapiro, Sep. 15, 2008, Salon)
What shapes campaign discussions -- both on- and off-the-record with leading Democrats and Republicans alike in this tightly knotted industrial state -- is uncertainty over the electoral impact of Barack Obama's race. No one has the hubris to try to quantify the racial factor (unlike amateur political mavens who exude ill-informed certainty) and no one dismisses the chances of Obama winning Ohio's 20 electoral votes. But with early voting scheduled to begin here Sept. 30 (another first for Ohio), there is an undercurrent of nervousness among Democrats about the party's great experiment in nominating Obama. [...]In 2004, John Kerry came within 118,000 votes of winning Ohio and the White House. But while Ohio may be a swing state, it also shows unusual internal political stability, with only two counties changing their party allegiance from the 2000 to 2004 presidential elections. "The biggest difference between the Obama campaign and Kerry in 2004 is race," said Mike Curtin, an Ohio political expert who recently stepped down as the associate publisher of the Columbus Dispatch and continues as a consultant to the paper. "You can't avoid it, since Hillary Clinton trounced Obama here." While Clinton won the March 4 Ohio Democratic primary by a 53-to-45-percent margin, she overwhelmed Obama among white voters by 64 to 34 percent, according to exit polls. [...]
A striking feature of the University of Cincinnati's Ohio Poll, which was released Friday, was that while McCain is winning the support of 90 percent of Republican voters, Obama is only picking up 82 percent of the Democrats. These differing levels of party loyalty -- which might (note the conditional tense) be attributed to Palin for the Republicans and Obama's African-American heritage on the Democratic side -- partly explain why McCain leads 48 to 44 percent in the survey.
Gallup Daily: Race Stabilizes With McCain Up by Two (Gallup, 9/15/08)
Voter preferences in the race for president are unchanged from where they stood over the weekend. John McCain still edges out Barack Obama, 47% to 45%, according to Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Sept. 12-14.While today's two percentage point advantage for McCain is not statistically significant, McCain's persistent two-point advantage across the three most recent Gallup Poll Daily tracking reports suggests he does hold a real, albeit slight, lead over Obama. It also suggests the race may be stabilizing at this highly competitive level after the tapering off of some, but not all, of McCain's post-convention bounce.
Bad voter applications found: Clerks see fraudulent, duplicate forms from group ((L.L. BRASIER, 9/14/08, Detroit FREE PRESS)
Several municipal clerks across the state are reporting fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications, most of them from a nationwide community activist group working to help low- and moderate-income families.The majority of the problem applications are coming from the group ACORN, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which has a large voter registration program among its many social service programs. ACORN's Michigan branch, based in Detroit, has enrolled 200,000 voters statewide in recent months, mostly with the use of paid, part-time employees.
"There appears to be a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications," said Kelly Chesney, spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State's Office. "And it appears to be widespread." [...]
ACORN is the nation's largest community organization for low- and moderate-income families. Created more than 30 years ago, it has branches in 100 cities and claims 350,000 families as members
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More voter registration workers under scrutiny (LARRY SANDLER, 8/20/08, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Milwaukee’s election chief on Wednesday turned 32 more voter registration workers in to the district attorney’s office for possible prosecution, saying they tried to submit falsified registration cards.That brings to 39 the number of registration workers under scrutiny, and the number could grow, Election Commission Executive Director Sue Edman said. An organization warned the commission staff late Wednesday afternoon about some questionable cards in the latest batch collected by its workers, Edman said.
All of the workers targeted for investigation were paid employees of two liberal groups running voter registration drives, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and the Community Voters Project.
Inside Obama’s Acorn: By their fruits ye shall know them. (Stanley Kurtz, 5/29/08, National Review)
What if Barack Obama’s most important radical connection has been hiding in plain sight all along? Obama has had an intimate and long-term association with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), the largest radical group in America. If I told you Obama had close ties with MoveOn.org or Code Pink, you’d know what I was talking about. Acorn is at least as radical as these better-known groups, arguably more so. Yet because Acorn works locally, in carefully selected urban areas, its national profile is lower. Acorn likes it that way. And so, I’d wager, does Barack Obama.This is a story we’ve largely missed. While Obama’s Acorn connection has not gone entirely unreported, its depth, extent, and significance have been poorly understood.
Barack Obama under fire for ignoring advice on how to beat John McCain (Tim Shipman, 14 Sep 2008, Daily Telegraph)
Party elders also believe the Obama camp is in denial about warnings from Democratic pollsters that his true standing is four to six points lower than that in published polls because of hidden racism from voters - something that would put him a long way behind Mr McCain.The Sunday Telegraph has learned that senators, governors and union leaders who have experience of winning hard-fought races in swing states have been bombarding Obamas campaign headquarters with telephone calls offering advice. But many of those calls have not been returned.
A senior Democratic strategist, who has played a prominent role in two presidential campaigns, told The Sunday Telegraph: "These guys are on the verge of blowing the greatest gimme in the history of American politics. They're the most arrogant bunch Ive ever seen. They won't accept that they are losing and they won't listen." [...]
Party leaders and commentators say that the Democrat candidate spent too much of the summer enjoying his own popularity and not enough defining his positions on the economy - the number one issue for voters - or reaching out to those blue collar workers whose votes he needs if he is to beat Mr McCain.
Others concede that his trip to Europe was a distraction that enhanced his celebrity status rather than his electability on Main Street, USA.
McCain picks up ground in NY poll; trails by 5 (Newsday, September 15, 2008)
A New York poll finds Sen. Barack Obama's lead in the state has fallen to five points, down from 18 points in June.The Siena Research Institute poll has Obama, a Democrat, leading
Sen. John McCain 46 to 41 percent among likely voters in the heavily Democratic state. He led 51-33 in the June survey.
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Trust Driving 4 Percent McCain Lead in Buckeye State (Suffolk University, 9/15/2008)
With just 51 days remaining in the 2008 Presidential campaign, the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin holds a 4-point lead in the key state of Ohio, according to a poll released today by Suffolk University. McCain-Palin led the Democratic ticket of Barack Obama-Joe Biden 46 percent to 42 percent.
If you made an innocent mistake, and didn't realize why he doesn't type, then apologize and move on. Defending the ad makes it malicious.
About that McCain Photo (Jeffrey Goldberg, 14 Sep 2008, Atlantic Monthly)
Like others at the Atlantic, I was appalled to read about the actions of Jill Greenberg, the freelance photographer who took the cover portrait that illustrates my article about John McCain. Greenberg doctored photographs of McCain she took during her Atlantic-arranged shoot, which took place last month in Las Vegas. She has posted these doctored photographs on her website, which you can go find yourself, if you must. Suffice it to say that her "art" is juvenile, and on occasion repulsive. This is not the issue, of course; the issue is that she betrayed this magazine, and disgraced her profession.
Into the Obama Tank for the Final Push (Jennifer Rubin, 9/15/08, Real Clear Politics)
John McCain believes he is in an existential war. America is engaged in a death struggle against Islamic terrorists.But he is also fighting for his life: against a media establishment dedicated to his political destruction.
Any pretense of fairness by the mainstream media is gone. The MSNBC duo of anchor buffoons have been downgraded but not fired. The Washington Post runs dueling front page articles — one a recycled tabloid-like piece (apologies to our tabloid friends who generally don’t recycle old material) about Cindy McCain’s past drug problems and one, made up out of whole cloth, that Sarah Palin’s allegedly believes and told departing troops that Iraq was behind 9-11. Caught concocting the latter story, the Post tried a hasty edit on the piece (in the middle of the night, no less) — a maneuver which bloggers quickly spotted. We saw the oozing condescension of normally mild-mannered Charlie Gibson in his Palin interview. Assuring Palin he was using a direct quote (he was not) to accuse her of believing her son was on “task form God” and laying a gotcha trap on the Bush Doctrine (which has no single meaning), Gibson seemed himself to have a “task” — to trip up a figure held in contempt by most of his colleagues. And of course we are treated to lengthy “investigative” pieces on Palin — which lack any factual support for their scandal-suggestive headlines. But still there is nary an investigative piece in any major newspaper on Barack Obama’s ties to the Chicago machine of Bill Daley, the mismanaged Annenberg Challenge, his relationship with Bill Ayers or the problematic donations from the Woods Fund.
But at the height of the hoopla only about half of the American people had even seen one of the sermons causing all the trouble. It was only the Democratic primaries and rather few folks were paying attention. When the videos resurface it will be a matter of first impression for a huge chunk of the electorate and he'll have to explain himself to the country, not just his party. Recall that Willie Horton was raised in the Democratic primaries, but came back to haunt Michael Dukakis in the Fall and that George W. Bush's service record became a big deal even when he was running for re-election. At least one of the next six weeks is likely to be dominated by the Wright story and it's a topic where Mr. Obama just can't win. Not only is the attention paid to it harmful but it will drown out whatever else he wants to be talking about. The media may prefer him to Sarah Palin, but it likes a big story most of all.
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The One-Sided Culture War: Polls suggest that the Republicans succeeded more than the Democrats in dividing the electorate along the lines they prefer. (Ronald Brownstein, 9/13/08, National Journal)
Each party made clear at its convention how it wants to divide the electorate. Democrats sought to segment the voters by class. They presented Obama (the "son of a single mom") and running mate Joe Biden (the "scrappy kid from Scranton") as working-class heroes who would defend the middle-class because they are products of it. The Democrats portrayed McCain as an out-of-touch economic elitist who doesn't understand the interests of average families.Republicans sought to segment the voters along cultural lines. They presented McCain as the personification of timeless values--honor and duty. Far more importantly (and effectively), they introduced vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin as an embodiment of small-town America who champions conservative social values not only in public life but also in her private life. They completed the picture with tough national security messages that usually resonate loudest with the same traditionalist voters most attracted to conservative social positions. Meanwhile, the Republicans portrayed Obama as an out-of-touch cultural elitist who belittles small towns like Palin's Wasilla as not "cosmopolitan enough." [...]
An array of surveys released this week show McCain dominating among economically pressed but culturally conservative (and generally hawkish) white working-class voters, just as President Bush did in 2004. In the Diageo/Hotline daily tracking survey this week, Obama was winning just 30 percent of white men without a college education, even lower than the meager 35 percent share that exit polls recorded for John Kerry in 2004. Among white noncollege women, Obama was attracting just 37 percent, down from Kerry's 40 percent. Among "waitress moms" (married white women without college degrees), Obama was polling just 33 percent in the Diageo/Hotline survey, no improvement on Kerry's anemic 32 percent.
But at this point, after Al Gore ran to Bill Bradley's Left and lost and after nominating one losing Northern liberal after another--Stevenson, Humphrey, McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, Kerry--isn't it past time they figured out that their recipe is one for disaster? Isn't the revealing statistic there how badly Kerry did with whites, not how similarly badly Mr. Obama is doing?
Cuba to U.S.: Lift embargo rules for six months (FRANCES ROBLES, 9/15/08, MiamiHerald.com)
''The Cuban Interests Section in Washington wishes to communicate to the government of the United States that our country cannot accept a donation from the country that blockades us, although it is willing to purchase the indispensable materials that the North American companies export to the markets, and requests authorization for the provision of same, as well as the credits that are normal in all commercial operations,'' the statement said.``If the government of the United States does not wish to do so permanently, the government of Cuba requests that at least it do so during the next six months, especially if the damage caused by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike is taken into account, as well as the fact that the most dangerous months of the hurricane season are still ahead.''
The only reason to watch it is to see Ms Gershon objectify herself at the end, thereby undercutting her own politics.
The Left exists only to amuse the rest of us.
LADIES' MAN MAC IS A PLAYER IN NY (FREDRIC U. DICKER, September 15, 2008, NY Post)
The internal Republican and Democratic polls, details of which were provided to The Post, have stunned members of both parties - and produced deep worries among Democrats.One great concern for Democrats is that the data show a continuous movement toward the McCain-Palin ticket by women, a majority of whom traditionally favor Democrats.
The movement by women toward McCain is being credited to Democratic attacks on Alaska Gov. Palin, last week's "lipstick on a pig" crack by Obama and to the continuing unhappiness by female Democrats over Obama's failure to pick Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate.
"If it winds up being tight in New York, that means McCain wins the election nationally," said a prominent Democrat familiar with some of the polling data.
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Poll of polls: Dead heat in Ohio battleground (Paul Steinhauser, 9/15/08, CNN: Political Ticker)
A new CNN poll of polls of the latest surveys in Ohio suggest the race for the state and its crucial 20 electoral votes is a dead heat.Republican presidential nominee John McCain is the choice of 46 percent of Ohio likely voters, one point ahead of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, according to the poll compiled Monday morning. Nine percent of those questioned are undecided.
The CNN poll of polls is an average of the most recent surveys in Ohio, using a Suffolk University poll conducted Sept. 10-13, a University of Cincinnati survey taken Sept. 5-10, and a Quinnipiac University poll conducted Sept. 5-9. All three surveys were taken after the completion of both party's political conventions.
OBAMA TRIED TO STALL GIS' IRAQ WITHDRAWAL (AMIR TAHERI, September 15, 2008, NY Post)
According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July."He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview.
Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops - and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its "state of weakness and political confusion."
"However, as an Iraqi, I prefer to have a security agreement that regulates the activities of foreign troops, rather than keeping the matter open." Zebari says.
Obama blames Wall St. crisis on Republican policy (TERENCE HUNT, 9/15/08, AP)
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Monday the upheaval on Wall Street was "the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression" and blamed it on policies that he said Republican rival John McCain supports.
A study by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington group that tracks campaign finance data, found that Lehman currently ranks No. 4 among all securities firms and investment banks in contributions to federal parties and candidates. Goldman Sachs, a perennial heavyweight on the political scene, leads the pack, having donated $4.3 million in this election cycle on the federal level. [...]A total of 64 percent of the donations went to Democrats, while 36 percent went to Republicans.
When it comes to the presidential race, Lehman employees were among the top contributors to both Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain. Lehman employees gave $370, 524 to Mr. Obama and $117,500 to Mr. McCain.
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And, thanks to the hubris that saw him forego public financing, he has to spend every day selling more influence, Obama needs more cash (JEANNE CUMMINGS | 9/14/08, Politico)
While Obama's campaign coffers are brimming, an effort to funnel money into battleground state party committees lags far behind campaign goals and Republican giving.Finally, McCain-friendly outside groups already are mobilizing and launching independent attack ads on the Illinois senator. Meanwhile, Obama has sent word to the Democratic community that he wouldn't welcome similar independent groups working on his behalf — essentially sidelining what could have been critical allies.
Those complex dynamics are likely to put additional pressure on Obama and his financing team. The enormity of the task is already fraying nerves in Chicago and eating into the Illinois senator’s campaign time as the campaign combs the country for both small and big donations.
“It’s a logistically challenging fundraising environment they face, because time is not on their side and their goals are so ambitious,” said Anthony Corrado, an expert on money and politics.
“Do the math. They have to raise about $3 million a day” to reach an estimated target of about $200 million, he added.
That helps explain why a steady stream of electronic donation appeals was flying out of the Obama headquarters throughout the Democratic convention in Denver.
"Mongol" (James Bowman, 9/15/2008, American Spectator)
Longtime readers will know that I am a skeptic about the possibilities of epic cinema. Epic and movies sort ill together, since the one is a heroic medium and the other is a realistic one. The art of combining a "high" style -- like that of epic poetry -- with the sort of realism suited to the movies seems to me to have eluded film-makers, at least since John Ford shot his last Western. But Sergei Bodrov's Mongol has made a believer out of me. He has managed to find a cinematic equivalent of the paratactic style appropriate to epic, where one declarative statement follows another, and one event follows another, without any significant degree of authorial or grammatical intervention to explain or rationalize the relationship between them. Sentences are simple or compound, rarely complex, and the same is true of the visual sentences in Mr. Bodrov's film.He tells the story of the Mongol leader Temudjin (Tadanobu Asano) -- later to be known as Genghis Khan -- as a series of picturesque defeats followed, after the worst defeat of all -- by an amazing victory in which the future emperor appears to be assisted by divine intervention. That's got to be the hardest thing of all to portray on film, by the way, and I would say is not quite successfully represented even here. But Mr. Bodrov has prepared the ground for the divine lightning bolts perhaps as well as it can be prepared -- partly by means of the film's general visual magnificence and partly by the sense of mystery naturally conveyed by the movie's narrative style.
For the secret of his success is his ability to use the camera to moralize these wonderful Central Asian landscapes.
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Now It’s the DCCC That Is Swimming Against the Tide (Stuart Rothenberg, 9/15/08, Real Clear Politics)
In a curious coincidence of timing, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has added a number of Congressional districts to its various lists of competitive contests at exactly the same time that Republicans are seeing an uptick in their poll and fundraising numbers and an improved political landscape.GOP strategists are quick to point out that they don’t know whether their brightened prospects will last, but one noted that recently received survey data “were the most encouraging that I’ve seen in two years.” A number of different surveys have shown a closer Congressional generic ballot and a better GOP image recently.
“We are seeing a real change up and down the ballot, from state legislative races to Congressional to the presidential,” said one enthusiastic Republican operative.
Given that, it certainly appears that the DCCC is running a risk by promoting some candidates who have little or no chance to win in the fall, and by lumping together very strong contenders with second-tier campaigns.
It's Not Just Palin -- Its the Message (Joe Trippi, 9/15/08, Real Clear Politics)
The Obama campaign's ability to recognize the shifting ground, understand that it is real, and adjust accordingly will determine the outcome. And the outcome, for the first time, is in doubt. [...]John McCain and his team had to make a decision. Run as the more experienced ticket, and run smack into Barack Obama's trap of change vs more of the same just as Clinton had. Or pick Sarah Palin and run as the original mavericks that really will shake up Washington.
If you are an advisor to McCain. Faced with that choice, you urge McCain to pick Palin.
But now its the Obama campaign's turn to learn the lesson of the Clinton campaign. The Obama campaign looks at all its polling data and research and in a race between change and four more years of George Bush, change wins big. So it keeps trying to frame the race as four more years of George Bush and more of the same vs change and cannot understand why it isn't pulling away.
It's not just Palin.
The brilliance of the McCain strategy and messaging is that it includes a trap for Obama. To push back on the McCain claim of "country first" and "the original mavericks who will shake up Washington" the Obama campaign's attack of "four more years of George Bush" becomes a problem. In a country that yearns for post-partisan change the Obama campaign risks sounding too partisan and like more of the same.
It would not surprise me if in one of the debates Obama or Biden uses the "You voted with George Bush and supported him 93% of the time" and its John McCain that retorts "that's the kind of partisan attack the American people are sick of....".
Meanwhile, McCain/Palin's latest ad positions them as the type of reformers needed to deal with Wall Street's troubles:
You have to wonder if the lumbering nature of the Obama campaign and its inability to function effectively isn't a result of having too much cash for too long and ending up with an overly bureaucratic operation. The McCain campaign has much greater dexterity, even if the candidate can't so much as type.
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Records show McCain more bipartisan (Stephen Dinan, September 15, 2008, Washington Times)
Sen. John McCain's record of working with Democrats easily outstrips Sen. Barack Obama's efforts with Republicans, according to an analysis by The Washington Times of their legislative records.Whether looking at bills they have led on or bills they have signed onto, Mr. McCain has reached across the aisle far more frequently and with more members than Mr. Obama since the latter came to the Senate in 2005.
In fact, by several measures, Mr. McCain has been more likely to team up with Democrats than with members of his own party. Democrats made up 55 percent of his political partners over the last two Congresses, including on the tough issues of campaign finance and global warming. For Mr. Obama, Republicans were only 13 percent of his co-sponsors during his time in the Senate, and he had his biggest bipartisan successes on noncontroversial measures, such as issuing a postage stamp in honor of civil rights icon Rosa Parks.
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The pastor who clashed with Palin: Baptist minister Howard Bess, who wrote a book Palin wanted banned and who fought her on abortion and gay rights, says the country should fear her election. (David Talbot, Sep. 16, 2008, Salon)
A retired American Baptist minister who pastors a small congregation in nearby Palmer, Wasilla's twin town in Alaska's Matanuska Valley, [the Rev. Howard] Bess has been tangling with Palin and her fellow evangelical activists ever since she was a Wasilla City Council member in the 1990s. Recently, Bess again found himself in the spotlight with Palin, when it was reported that his 1995 book, "Pastor, I Am Gay," was among those Palin tried to have removed from the Wasilla Public Library when she was mayor."She scares me," said Bess. "She's Jerry Falwell with a pretty face." [...]
After deep reflection on the subject, Bess came to the conclusion that "gay people were not sick, nor they were special sinners."
In his book, Bess suggests that gays have a divine mission. "Look back at the life of our Lord Jesus. He was misunderstood, deserted, unjustly accused, and cruelly killed. Yet we all confess that it was the will of God, for by his wounds we are healed ... Could it be that the homosexual, obedient to the will of God, might be the church's modern day healer-messiah?"
McCain finds friends at NASCAR race in N.H.: Says drivers are 'heroes' to forces in Iraq (Fluto Shinzawa, 9/15/08, Boston Globe)
McCain was in friendly territory for several reasons. In 2000, McCain scored a New Hampshire primary win. Eight years later, after his rival Mike Huckabee won in the Iowa caucuses, McCain regained momentum in New Hampshire once again by recording his second primary victory in the state.In September 2006, before he had declared his candidacy, McCain first visited the Loudon track (capacity 105,000). In May 2007, McCain spent time at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., for the Coca-Cola 600, which takes place every Memorial Day weekend. Virtually every race team is based in the greater Charlotte area.
"I want to thank you for your support of the men and women of the military," McCain told the drivers yesterday. "It's uplifting to these young people."
"When I'm in Iraq and Afghanistan, they're watching you," he said. "You are their role models. You are their heroes, and they are ours. I just want to say that NASCAR heroes, competitors, and teams are supporting the men and women who are serving in a most exemplary fashion."
NASCAR icon Richard Petty, the seven-time champion, led McCain on a tour of the garage area. McCain made stops in front of the haulers transporting the machines sponsored by the US Army (the No. 8 Chevrolet of Aric Almirola) and the Air Force (the No. 21 of Bill Elliott). Before the race, McCain shook the hand of each driver during introductions.
"It's great to be back in the state I love so much," McCain told the crowd.
Fast track forward (Michael Barone, September 15, 2008, Washington Times)
He has gotten inside Barack Obama's OODA loop. [...]For a political candidate, it means acting in such a way that the opponent's responses again and again reinforce the points you are trying to make and undermine his own position.
The Palin selection - and her performance at the convention and on the stump - seems to be having that effect. Obama chief strategist David Axelrod admitted of the Palin pick: "I can honestly say we weren't prepared for that. I mean, her name wasn't on anybody's list." But it was known that McCain's vice-presidential adviser had traveled to Alaska, and anyone clicking on youtube.com could see Mrs. Palin's impressive performance in political debates. The McCain campaign shrewdly kept the information that she was on the short list and that she was the choice to a half-dozen people, who didn't tell even their spouses. The Obama team failed to Observe.
Then they failed to Orient. Mrs. Palin, as her convention and subsequent appearances have shown, powerfully reinforces two McCain themes: She is a maverick who has taken on the leaders of her own party (as Mr. Obama never has in Chicago), and she has a record on energy of favoring drilling and exploiting American resources. Instead of undermining these themes, they dismissed the choice as an attempt to appeal to female Hillary Clinton supporters or to religious conservatives.
Then team Obama and its many backers in the media failed to Decide correctly, so when they Acted they got it wrong. Their attacks on Mrs. Palin tended to ricochet and hit Mr. Obama. Is she inexperienced? Well, what has Mr. Obama ever run (besides his now floundering campaign)?
The Fratellis are on a mission of Mersey (Jim Farber, 9/05/08, NY Daily News)
The Scottish group has made a name for itself on both sides of the Atlantic with a brand of antic pop that recalls the briskly melodic hits of Mersey Beat-era groups like Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Searchers and especially the Kinks. They'll bring that animated sound to a headlining show Friday at Roseland.Fratelli says the heavy '60s strain in his band dates from his teen years. "When I was 16, I didn't have a CD player. I just had my dad's vinyl record collection. So I listened to all his '60s bands. When it comes to influences, I've never grown up."
The singer formed the band four years ago in his native Glasgow with two musicians he didn't know very well, which wound up figuring big in the band's presentation. "When you first meet somebody, you ask their first name, you don't ask their [last name]," he explains. "So we all went away without knowing each other's full names."
As a joke, they each took the same randomly devised last name of Fratelli, with Barry "Fratelli" on bass and Mince Fratelli" on drums. Sort of like the Ramones, except it wasn't the homage many thought. "It was sheer laziness," the singer says. "That's a running theme with this band."
The group's debut, 2007's "Costello Music," exuded a parallel lack of pretense. Its superfast songs had a herky-jerky feel that mirrored the life of its characters. It was one part theatrical Kinks, another part scrappy skiffle music. The song "Flathead" got picked up for an iPod ad, which sold the band in the States. For the new CD, "Here We Stand," the Fratellis butched up their formerly spindly sound, doing the producing themselves for the first time. "It's not rocket science," Fratelli says. "I had a good idea of what the album should sound like. We just wanted to capture the sound of the band we had gotten to be."
The Fratellis are an indie rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. [...]Songs performed: "Dog In A Bag", "A Heady Tale," and "Milk and Money".
MORE:
-VIDEOS: The Fratellis Channel (Youtube)
-MYSPACE: The Fratellis
-REVIEW ARCHIVES: Costello Music by The Fratellis (Metacritic)
-REVIEW ARCHIVES: Here We Stand by The Fratellis (Metacritic)
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Efficient Cassel steps in, leads Pats past Jets (Dennis Waszak Jr., 9/15/08, AP)
Matt Cassel had all the odds stacked against him.He was making his first start since high school, replacing one of the game's greatest quarterbacks and playing against a team drooling at the possibility of shifting the balance of power in the AFC East. [...]
Cassel, in his fourth NFL season, was efficient if unspectacular running things in place of the injured Tom Brady, going 16-of-23 for 165 yards and making no costly mistakes.
Why Mark To Market? (Bob McTeer 09.15.08, Forbes)
I refer primarily to mark to market accounting, which forces firms to revalue their assets to current market values even when the market is frozen or dysfunctional and even when the assets could be held to maturity and redeemed at face value.If a bank loan goes into default, it makes sense to write it off the books. If a borrower has missed several payments, it makes sense to set aside a provision for the likely loss. But if a security trades lower because market interest rates have risen or because of problems in the market itself, requiring an immediate write-down is unduly harsh, because capital is reduced by the same amount.
Because capital is usually, and legitimately, a small percentage of assets, capital can easily go to zero and a perfectly sound institution can be declared insolvent and taken over by its insurer or some other government agencies.
“Prompt corrective action,” also adopted as one the “reforms” of the early 1990s, makes the matter worse by allowing the authorities to pull the trigger before capital reaches zero. Its purpose is to reduce the cost of “resolving” (read “taking over”) troubled institutions, but what it amounts to is shooting the sick and wounded to expedite the burial. Efficiency and cost effectiveness trumps fairness.