The Atlantic - Latest Comments in Do it Rick

Re: Do it Rick

anna perez — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:34:05 -0000

It's going to get worse, above and below ground. McCain's campaign believes (especially after the last few days of widening polls) that their only route to the White House lies through Appalachia and perhaps Florida. Get ready for Rev. Wright, terrorism, communism, mesegenation, drug use, drug dealing, adultery, thuggery, soft on crime, baby killing, anti-americanism, treason, welfare give-aways, anything that they think will help them win. Their credo is win now, "apologize" later (remember "compassionate conservativism.") Trust me, I know and have worked with several of McCain's campaign aides. It won't work, of course, but they either don't know that or don't care. Probably both. They certainly don't care what it may do to the body politic because of course their cause is just.

Re: Do it Rick

Kiese — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:39:11 -0000

Check out this essay on Reasonable Doubt, President Obama, White Anger and Us. Directly tied to what you're saying about forced race-baiting.

http://kieselaymon.com/?cat=8

Re: Do it Rick

grawk — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:46:42 -0000

I so want them to go there. And throw in the drugs while they're at it. I want these dudes to throw the whole book at Obama, and then I want him to bury them. This isn't about a hatred of McCain, it's about my utter and complete disgust with Northern Virginia not being the "real Virginia," with small-town American snobbery, with neo-red-baiting, with Obama monkeys, and Obama bucks. End this now

Yeah... Good luck with that, brother. I remember a long exhale the night of the 1992 election where I thought nearly the exact same thoughts about Clinton: "Go there," I thought. "Let's find all about McDougal and Whitewater and..." yadda yadda yadda. "There's no there there." And there wasn't. Did that help? Um.. no.

So, you remember 'Blazing Saddles' doncha??

"That's Mungo. Don't shoot him. It only makes him mad."

Farmers don't put lipstick on their pigs and psychiatrists don't argue with their patients neuroses and/or psychoses... pigs, you see, are immune to lipstick and mental patients are immune to logic. Mungo is immune to bullets. The modern day GOP is immune to rationality.

although, I must say, your belief in an emergent rationality is touching.... I do so wish you were right and I was wrong. Sigh.

Re: Do it Rick

Grunthos — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:12:03 -0000

I find it humorous, and somewhat poetic, that Davis chose to make the campaign about "character" because he thought that would give McCain an advantage. All it has done is prove that Obama has the better temperament.

And the highly negative attacks are certainly riling up the base; but what McCain's campaign people are assuming is that the same attacks *won't* rile up the center against McCain. In general, that's a sound bet. This year? It's suicidal ignorance.

Re: Do it Rick

Nquest — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:06:13 -0000

Further....

"I still marvel that claiming McCain is comparable to Wallace okey dokey but bringing up Wright is somehow dishonorable. Why?"

You're marveling because you're making sh*t up. Rick Davis is too, in the typical White "you called me racist" sort of way. Simple reading comprehension would you dropping that campaign spin because the only person to person comparison between McCain and Wallace was the idea that Wallace, at one point in his career, decided to employ race-baiting tactics in his campaign(s) to advance his political career.

From Lewis' account, Wallace, himself, wasn't racist at the time but appealed to the racist/racial lowest common denominator which eventually produced the tragic results and infamy Wallace is now known for. Lewis' remarks came right after a weeks worth of McCain/Palin rallies that drew those words of cautioned that never suggested that neither McCain was racist, just that he was playing with racist fire which McCain himself found himself trying to sprinkle out at the townhall event when he was compelled to state that Obama is not an Arab=Muslim=terrorist and is a "decent, family man."

So Rick Davis and you, IPH, can STFU. The record speaks for itself. That's why you're trying to pretend like the McCain campaign has been so focused on tax policy because, you too, inherently admit that McCain went there, just like he did.

Re: Do it Rick

Mikel — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:02:57 -0000

I don't know if any of you are fans of cartoonist Ted Rall, but here's his cartoon for Thursday, guaranteed to cause controversy. It's on topic.

http://www.rall.com/uploaded_images/10-23-08-733451.jpg

Re: Do it Rick

Nquest — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:47:14 -0000

Iron Pimp Hand,

John McCain's sissified attempt to make Sen. Obama "repudiate" John Lewis is John (lol)... JIM Crow personified.

John Lewis has a phone number and, given how close McCain pretended to be to Lewis at the Saddleback Forum when he claimed Lewis would be one of the "wise" men he would count on for advice during his presidency, surely McCain can either heed the wise counsel given or STFU.

John McCain -- the man who denies the Black side of his family (slave heritage) -- show us all how that wasn't stuff you said at the Saddleback wasn't just bs.

Re: Do it Rick

John Henry — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:19:16 -0000

McCain has already neutralized his own attack. During the primary he already said, "I know Obama. I know he does not share Wright's views." Just last week he said, "I admire Obama and his accomplishments." Bringing up Wright is just going to be one more poorly executed tactic in a poorly managed campaign. He's going to contradict himself when he brings this up.

As we witness one misstep after another in McCain's strategy what's becoming clear is Davis has never run a winning campaign ever. McCain may have lost this back in July 2007 when he picked Davis to "manage" his campaign. If you look at Obama's team, you realize that his guys have been with him almost from the beginning and helped him win his Senate race.

Re: Do it Rick

jetan — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:54:08 -0000

I agree completely. But let's hope McCain says this crap directly instead of leaving it to his surrogates.Let's get the race thing out in the sunlight and kill it off there, where everyone can see it.

And I never thought that I would see a black candidate dealing with these issues from a position of actual electoral strength....I'm glad that I lived to witness it.

Re: Do it Rick

Steel7 — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:53:24 -0000

IPH, and anyone else who continues to delude themselves that the McCain campaign's hands are clean when it comes to the Obama smears, should check out Ken Silverstein's article in the current Harper's. Maybe someone can find a link to the whole thing, it's in the subscriber area. Long story short, there is a lot of Republican money being funneled to some very scary people, and to fund some truly disgusting shit. Most of these folks want to keep their names out of the public eye, and cosidering the rumors they are spreading, I don't blame them.

The fact is, the Obama campaign has broken new ground in usiong the internet to raise funds and bring new people into the political process. The McCain campaign has used it to spread vile hatred and suspicion. The difference between "conservatives" and liberals in a nutshell, folks.

Re: Do it Rick

Karl — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:53:00 -0000

You guys are missing the point on the Lewis pushback.

The problem with that, and the reason McCain keeps repeating it, isn't that Lewis is saying that McCain is Wallace: it's that, by extension, Lewis is saying that these crowds of Good Honest Republicans are lynch mobs. They're terrorists waiting to happen. They're bomb-builders, murderers, racists.

Now, none of that is necessarily incorrect, but it is inflammatory.

This isn't a point of personal honor for McCain, it's a point of political advantage. Or at least he thinks it is.

Re: Do it Rick

Tyler — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:45:27 -0000

McCain is starting to sound like your typical wife-beater: “Baby, I don’t want to hit you and I hate myself when I do it, but you really have to show a guy more respect. You give me no choice, baby. Why do you do these things that force me to hit you?”

I do take solace in the fact that McCain and his toadies are sounding so desperate, despicable and delusional that they are driving otherwise hesitant voters straight into Obama’s arms. Take my father for example; the man is a dyed-in-the-wool, old-school (read: fiscal, not social conservative) Republican. He’s voted for a Republican for president every year since 1964. When I spoke with him last night he was beyond livid at McCain and the Republican Party. He told me that for the longest time, he sincerely believed (or deluded himself into believing, as he now admits) that the racist elements of the party were merely a fringe. He now sees the Republican Party for what it is, so when he cast his early ballot yesterday, he voted for Obama. He’s 65-years old and this was his first vote ever for a Democratic president. He lives in Colorado too, so that really helps!

So yes McCain, do bring on Reverend Wright and continue to alienate the last of your non-kooky supporters. Expose your true self.

On a side note: I may not agree with what Reverend Wright has to say, but god damn it; he’s served his country honorably as a Marine in Vietnam. Methinks he’s done more to earn the right to say whatever he damn well pleases than 99% of the assholes calling him anti-American for doing so.

Re: Do it Rick

anonymous — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:25:59 -0000

St. Peter is gonna make me answer for it, but it is still worth noting how much visiting his grandmother is going to seal the deal for Obama, following on the you-can't-make-it-up weekend of Sarah Palin going on SNL the night before Colin Powell endorsed Obama, largely because McCain picked a VP who simply isn't ready for the Oval Office.

Like Powell, Obama is a guy who is comfortable with who he is -- famously because of, not despite his unusual identity as the child of a Kenyan father and a girl from Kansas named Stanley. His grandmother raised him -- so the truth is, he's got a LOT more Kansas in him than many people suspect.

An election ought to be about SOMETHING, which is why candidates keep trying to use issues as a vehicle for images. Obama's campaign will be studied for a very long time for the superb way he handled strategy -- starting out sound and building on every break that came his way, and he got a lot of 'em: a sign how good he is, not just how lucky. (It can be hard to handle success, especially when followed by challenge: a lesser guy would have made big mistakes after New Hampshire or the Wall Street crash.)

That it was Obama's opponents who made the mistakes is another sign how good his campaign has been. Let's all hope he handles Putin and Kim Jong Il and Iraq and Iran and Hamas as well.

It was McCain, more than Obama, who made this an election about the future vs. the past, about hope vs fear, about calm and cool vs. erratic excitement.

I'm with TNC -- the more McCain tries to turn out the "50 million" (ye gods!) of his base with this crap, the better off the country is. Let 'em make this election a STARK choice.

Re: Do it Rick

Ta-Nehisi Coates — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:18:21 -0000

"And TNC, if you are really so tired of the 'race baiting' then I suggest you focus some attention on the ACTUAL McCAIN CAMPAIGN instead of sniffing around for every hint of racism you can find and then ascribing it to McCain with ever more tortured reasoning"

iron pimp hand,

You are a racist. And you were sent here by John McCain. You're a McCain racist. Also change your handle, please--you racist.

Re: Do it Rick

ploeg — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:43:53 -0000

You do realize that Obama is not going to bury McCain right?

Well no we don't realize that. Obama isn't going to pull a Reagan '84, but he's in a better position than most people realize. That's good. Obama will need the momentum heading into the battles next year, and we need to give him as hard of a push right now so that he comes through.

Obama isn't going to bury conservatism as is practiced today, but he's certainly going to bury McCain.

Re: Do it Rick

Sacha — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:50:47 -0000

We have a saying in the UK, when someone is making threats, and you know you can clean them out, it's a simple one, and it's "Lets fucking 'ave it"

Let McCain do it, really lets have the final salvo, and then Barack can simply clean the GOP/NeoCon clock for a generation.

Re: Do it Rick

MoeLarryAndJesus — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:51:46 -0000

iron pimp hand = Michael Savage

And that isn't a compliment.

Re: Do it Rick

MNPundit — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:50:19 -0000

You do realize that Obama is not going to bury McCain right?

God, what the hell is wrong with you and Booman?

Re: Do it Rick

iron pimp hand — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:05:21 -0000

*jim crow

Re: Do it Rick

iron pimp hand — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:04:26 -0000

I still marvel that claiming McCain is comparable to Wallace okey dokey but bringing up Wright is somehow dishonorable. Why?

The Wright issue has nothing to do with Wright being black and everything to do with Wright being a crazy mofo. It is also perfectly legitimate. I think the only reason McCain has laid off thus far is because he feared that such an attack would be spun as racially motivated, but if he's going to be called a racist anyway then that fear becomes irrelevant.

And TNC, if you are really so tired of the 'race baiting' then I suggest you focus some attention on the ACTUAL McCAIN CAMPAIGN instead of sniffing around for every hint of racism you can find and then ascribing it to McCain with ever more tortured reasoning. The actual McCain campaign has spent the majority of the last few weeks talking about tax policy rather than the urgent need for the return of the john crow laws. This can all be gleaned easily enough from his website but if you've been looking to the newsletters of obscure women's groups for the McCain team's message then I can see why this passed you by.

Re: Do it Rick

Al K. — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:26:40 -0000

"I am astounded that they haven't gotten how the culture war stuff isn't working for them"

Oh, I think they get it. This stuff is not being deployed to get McCain new voters, but to ensure large Republican turnout: with Senator Obama well ahead in the polls and with time running out, their only hope is for his supporters to get complacent while they race-bait their way to massive GOP turnout on election day to try to turn things. The Reverend Wright/William Ayers/Obama-is-a-muslim/Obama-is-a-socialist lines of attack serve the purpose of mobilizing christianists, the ignorant and the bigoted (i.e., the GOP's base) to go to the polls and save America from the communist-yet-elitist, muslim-yet-black-liberation-church-going terrorist-with-eleven-years-in-elected-office. Wait, make that "black-terrorist-with-eleven-yadda-yadda."

Look, I get that the culture war-based attacks seem desperate. That's because they are. But the fact that they're desperate doesn't mean that this stuff can't work (not by converting new voters, but by increasing GOP turnout as explained above.) And in that respect, the attacks are kind of brilliant: they get the feeble-minded all riled up, while looking to the rest of us like Republicans digging a deeper hole for themselves. They get Republicans to the polls en masse, while the rest of us get complacent.

So, like, don't get complacent, is what I'm trying to say.

Re: Do it Rick

Martin — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:24:29 -0000

So, shorter McCain campaign:

"This reputable guy compared us, but not really, to a racist, so now we're forced to go out there and remind everyone that our black opponent hangs out with black people."

Re: Do it Rick

Reginald Avery Wilkins, Ph.D. — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:56:13 -0000

I would bet most of us strong Obama partisans would feel so good to see him actually lay into McCain and Palin in a big, big way. It's our seven year itch compressed into a primary and general: we wanted him to tear into Hillary and he wouldn't do it and now he's teasing us again with Gramps and Caribou - two dull softballs floating over the center of the plate, begging.

This is why he's winning of course because he won't go there. Because he won't go there, he can't be brought there, either. As it drove Hillary to speak to the heavens in mocking frustration, so it drives Gramps to mutter and stumble across the stage of his campaign. There must be a great school of Aikido in Hawaii.

So, TNC, all of us Obamatrons (still my favorite)ultimately must be satisfied with dreams of vengeance - and the reality of a winning campaign.

Re: Do it Rick

jimmy — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:31:09 -0000

But what if they throw the book at him and he loses?

Re: Do it Rick

Jesal — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:58:55 -0000

I have been following your thoughts & this one post just reached, unleashed emotions.

Words are everything and that one phrase, "pals around with terrorists" changed the tone of this election and country. Racism and resentment residential in America's underbelly seems to have seen a rebirth ----I thought America had progressed its past in greater ways through lesser times.

As an Asian/Indian-American kid who has lived through white kids throwing stones at her in her early immigrant days in America ----it is sad to see we are not done being divisive, demeaning.