Obama and McCain try to get serious. Or at least look serious.
That quote is from an unnamed Obama adviser. I love the implication that things could actually be rather serious, and we the people would still want our leaders putting on the usual comedy show.
September 21, 2008
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There are real laugh lines
"He's terrific on this stuff," Rubin gushed Friday on the return trip from Florida, where he had joined Obama for his emergency economic session. "He starts every meeting the same way, 'Let's try to figure out what's right substantively, then figure out how to handle it.' He asks good questions, really understands these things, the nuance, the distinctions."
The vibrating woman effect takes in also lefty economists.
Labels: Ducks, liptstick, NY Post, NY Sun, Britney Spears, celebrity, Rush Limbaugh.
RH,
I read it as an Obama puff piece designed to play catch-up on their lack of response earlier to the AIG thing.
Trust us, even if Bambi has that deer in the headlights thng when asked a non-scripted question on the economy, He asks good question in meetings and has smart people who know the answers.
Which candidate said the following to provisional administrator Paul Bremer in Iraq in 2003?
"You've got to shoot the looters."
Of course, it was McCain, according to profile of him in the new GQ.
Author Robert Draper analyzes McCain's stance on Iraq, in part based on his eight trips there, and says of McCain "a portrait emerges of an intellectually curious, incisive, energetic, and courageous politician whose leadership would depart significantly from that of the highly unpopular George W. Bush."
Interestingly, I got an automated call yesterday from an anonymous polling group. (Probably environmental based on the questions.) One question was "Do you support an immediate withdrawal from Iraq?" That's like asking "Do you support an immediate end to government bailouts of large companies?" It ain't happening.
So....up to now the crashing dollar, energy crisis, soaring commodity prices, Iraq/Afghan wars, $75 trillion and growing US debt, housing collapse were not serious??
Wasn't Robert E. Rubin de-elevated recently at Citigroup?
A New Title for Rubin at Citi Amid Board Reshuffling
It is the latest in a growing number of reorganizations at Citi, which has sought to simplify its complicated corporate structure in the face of big losses from the credit market shakeup.
Citigroup Credit Risk Highest in More Than Five Years
Citigroup's $1.1 Trillion of Mysterious Assets Shadows Earnings
Citigroup, Wachovia Sued Over Credit-Default Swaps
Oh dear....
Citigroup
bearbee,
Ya beat me to it. Bambi is a good name for this naif. Using the guy who almost crashed Citi.
So there’s a crisis and it turns out there’s a team of superior experts ready to step in and take over operations from the last team of superior experts.
So it turns out that Presidential campaigns in the real world work just like CTU on “24” except Los Angeles hasn’t gotten nuked yet.
Cool.
I thought it was just me that thought obama was AWOL last week.Other than petulant jabs at McCain, he had absolutely nothing to offer in the way of guidance or policy. We are already so over with a president that needs an army of handlers and "experts" to decide when to take a cr*p, why on earth do we want another one in office?
Team Obama: When things are serious enough, people want their leaders to be serious.
So why did you compare Palin to a pig to begin with?
And will Obama continue to play the race card whenever he's dealt a bad hand? Because I don't think people like Ahmadinejad and Putin will put up with it.
Analysis of Obama strategists..."Our candidate couldn't tell a joke and get a laugh if his life depended on it (which it sort of does)".
Response..."These are deadly serious times so ixnay on the okesjay. This means you Sarah Palin and John McCain who are using humor to destroy our candidate."
Fen said.And will Obama continue to play the race card whenever he's dealt a bad hand? Because I don't think people like Ahmadinejad and Putin will put up with it.
There is no "putting up with it" in regards to Ahmandinejad, race is not the criteria, we're all infidels.
History has shown that Russian rulers don't worry about such distinctions either, you're either submissive therefore useful or you're dead.
The question is; how long are we going to put up with it? How long are we prepared to stand silent while being told what is not in our hearts or minds to bully us into acquiescing to what could have been had honestly?
At some point the gender and race cards (played either way) will cease to be trump cards in our society. One hoped it was this election cycle; apparently not.
The conventional wisdom is that a bad economy will help the party that’s “out of power” in an election. With divided government it’s a question of which party is in power. But the assumption is that it’s the President that determines who is in power.
If we accept that, we may believe that a poor economy will be blamed on Bush and the Republicans to the benefit of Obama and the Democrats. And if both parties were running men of proven experience and stature, this could prove to be the tipping point. But they are not.
John McCain has been running against Barack Obama using the tag line “Not ready to lead.” It’s obvious why. Obama has no real leadership resume. His message of “hope” and “change” resonates with people who are secure and comfortable and ready to take a risk on a novelty.
But we have been reminded by the screaming headlines about banks going broke, a plunging stock market, plummeting home values, money market funds (where millions of people have their ready cash) threatening to “break the buck” that we are not in a conventional economic downturn. We are in dangerous waters. Clever catch phrases and a cute smile don’t appeal to people who want someone with proven courage and sound judgment to help them right the ship of state.
Obama recently ridiculed McCain for being “in a panic” over the crisis we are facing. It’s the kind of schoolyard taunt that is typical Obama. But people may not laugh at McCain but start wondering if Obama is unaware of the dangers. They may ask if this elitist is oblivious of the fact that their savings, their retirement assets, are in danger.
McCain has already begun to tie Obama to the people who ran Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into the ground. He an also claim to have foreseen the dangers and recommended fixes over five years ago. And he can point out that is was Democrat leaders like Joe Biden, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd that blocked change and who told us that everything was fine and not change was needed.
If I were advising McCain, I would have him jump on this issue with both feet. If he shuns it he will be tarred with it. If he owns it he can tell the American people that this is not the time to give the car keys to the people who steered it into the ditch. That times are too perilous to play “amateur hour” with someone who has all of the attributes of a rock star without the gravitas. And he doesn’t even have to change his tag line: “Not ready to lead.”
bjm:
I hope you are right, but
I think the the deck of cards is endless, changing only as the users see fit. If we were all identical save ear size, there would be a "small ear" or "large ear" card played for sure.
But in the rapidly unfolding crisis, Obama's team could not move fast enough. His economists gathered Thursday to put together a plan along the lines Volcker preferred, only to learn that Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. would be announcing the outlines of the administration's plan the next morning. With his plans incomplete, Obama's staff cautioned him not to appear as though he was quibbling about details. Markets were rebounding on the expectation that Washington would act, and no one wanted Obama to look like an impediment.
What I was struck by, was that Obama didn't even have a reaction to the AIG bailout. Didn't even feel the need to reference it.
An interesting strategy -- don't say anything, and therefore you can't be wrong.
Rather like his entire voting record, and being the least cited Harvard Law Review editor.
See Obama supporters, when we talk of him being an empty suit, this is the stuff we mean.
Cheers,
Victoria
empty suit
Stinger Assassin wrote:
"'You've got to shoot the looters.'
Of course, it was McCain, according to profile of him in the new GQ."
Not shooting the looters is one of the alleged "mistakes" I'm not willing to denounce as such.
Once US soldiers started intentionally shooting 'civilians' the Left here and in Europe would have gone ape shit, even if it didn't stir up resentment in Iraq.
As it was, to the extent saner Iraqis complained, they wanted us to do *more*. Shooting people in the streets (however otherwise the correct thing to do - make a few examples) would have played into every bit of hostile propaganda about our reasons for being there.
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