The Atlantic - Latest Comments in He hit me first

Re: He hit me first

Llegar Tarde — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:01:12 -0000

Roger says: "One positive we can take from the protracted Democratic primary was that the Rezko/Ayers/Wright thing was played to death by the Media and the Clinton people. People don't care about that now."

I disagree; I doubt that most people who do not read political blogs know who Rezko is. And I'd guess that very few beneath the age of 40 know who Ayers is. These stories have not really hit the mainstream press; there certainly hasn't been much on the local tv level. Also, the house fight -- McCain hitting Obama with Rezko, etc. and Obama hitting McCain with not knowing how many he owns -- is worse for Obama.

The more one knows about McCain and the context, the less powerful the real estate story is. He has investments (or rather, his wife's trust does), which include some real estate. After reading the transcript my impression is that he was trying to avoid some gotcha question because he wasn't sure how many investment properties he (or his wife) had.

Conversely, I think there's a great deal more to explain about how Rezko helped the Obama's pay for their house, how Rezko bought up the adjacent lot then sold it to the Obamas for less money, etc. Reading up on the story hasn't helped me dismiss it. (The way, for example, knowing more helped me dismiss worries about Obama's drug use as a teenager.)

Sure, the soundbyte makes McCain sound elitist, but both the soundbyte *and* the story make Obama sound like a machine pol willing to cut corners. Obama would have been wiser to leave the house thing alone. On the whole, he has run a fantastic campaign, but it seems clear that this housing stuff is a misstep.

Re: He hit me first

Breukelyne — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:27:48 -0000

John McCain has a whining problem.

It's just not appealing. No one wants to hear you complain that the other guy hit you first. Especially when it's not true. But regardless... you're RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, man. Holy Jeebus, STFU.

Obama was at his least appealing when he got cranky and irritable in the early back-and-forth with Clinton. I think he learned to stop doing that. McCain, on the other hand...

Re: He hit me first

Tinare — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:25:39 -0000

Any Rezko talk needs to be countered with Keating 5 talk.

Re: He hit me first

Mark — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:28:00 -0000

John McCain is a clueless, bumbling, out-of-touch neanderthal. Obama will pick up huge momentum after he wipes the floor with McCain in the debates.

Re: He hit me first

sv — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:21:59 -0000

Polymath that is a good point. when there are 3 months to go until an election I was already sick of hearing about 6 months ago, that says something. maybe i should just tune out for a couple of weeks, things will probably improve in september when there are some head-to-head debates. hopefully well-moderated ones.

Yes all the platform information & stump speech text is online, i'm more or less familiar with it, which is why i've more or less made up my mind. i guess that means i should sit back & read about sports etc. until the debates, which i think i could get something out of.

Re: He hit me first

Po-Mo Polymath — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:10:08 -0000

I really think this is almost a natural result of how infuriatingly long the US election cycle is. I mean, people want substantive debate, but the fact is that we've already had it. The candidates have produced 2-3 versions of their stump speeches already, each focusing on areas of their proposed policy that they consider important. (One of them) has large amounts of detailed policy papers on the web for anyone who cares to dig into details across a broad array of issues. They've already had months to articulate views on nearly every issue, and anyone who remotely cares has been able to find out their views already. Those who don't care, well, they probably are more swayed by all that remains: reacting to the little outside news that comes out between now and November and the attacks that are launched at one another.

I can see a substantial issues-based election occurring someday, but it won't happen so long as the candidates have a full year of time to kill in the election cycle.

Re: He hit me first

asl — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:04:39 -0000

"In terms of who's an elitist, I think people have made a judgment that John McCain is not an arugula-eating, pointy headed professor-type based on his life story."

Taking Pride in Being Ignorant. Again.

Re: He hit me first

sv — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:01:30 -0000

to clarify, i don't mean to totally equate the two candidates. i'm biased cause i lean strongly obama, but it seems to me that mccain so far has not deviated far from the overall rovian, republican game plan we've seen for the past few years - smear your opponent's character unfairly with gutter-level insinuations, appeal to the basest, dumbest expressions of fear and anger and witless arrogance. i know that a fair amount of McCain's "maverick" reputation is a result of media man-crush and professional image management.

However, I think that despite the presence of those factors in both candidates' public personas, each man is still capable (partially due to their good reputations) of running more honorable and substantive national campaigns than recent years have seen.

Re: He hit me first

Eric — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:54:19 -0000

The best part of the McCain campaign's response was this, quoted from the Washington Post:

He also added: "This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," referring to the prisoner of war camp that McCain was in during the Vietnam War.

Re: He hit me first

sv — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:47:42 -0000

please. all i have to say about that quote.

this is all crap. the rezko thing doesn't really have anything to it, especially not after all this time out in the sun, as others here have pointed out.

i also don't care that mccain is super-rich (has a general election ever *not* been between 2 or 3 rich guys?), or even that he married into it, or that he married into it after (during) ending his 1st marriage under kind of grimy circumstances. Don't give a shit about any of that.

I just.. really hope that this isn't the way the rest of the election season is gonna go. I was already getting bored, and now all this? What happened to all the lofty talk from these two about "real respectful substantive debate"? BOTH of them are doing that "they hit first now it's on I'm no punk" thing, something which is very difficult to avoid and pretty much impossible to stop, once started. But to us citizens, honestly none of this is useful, except to a small extent in terms of 'revealing character'. But even there, it was already obvious that neither one of these guys is an angel (Obama isn't the new Jesus, McCain isn't the new Washington) and that this is still an American political contest. You're supposed to be talking about how you'll run the executive branch better than the other guy, assholes - get to the point.

I'm not saying that no 'personal' attacks or negative attacks are appropriate, but all of this stuff is irrelevant. I hold out a very small bit of hope that they are capable of mutually agreeing to stop with the childishness.

Re: He hit me first

Rob — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:32:28 -0000

Yes, Sen. McCain. We are perfectly happy to have the housing debate at a time or place of your choosing. If you like, we can reserve some space for your four friends so they can weigh in.

Re: He hit me first

Freedom Fry — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:27:34 -0000

The Rezko business is so six months ago. But John McCain not knowing how many houses he owns? That's news. Then trying to explain it away by saying it's all Cindy's? Pretty lame. Someone needs to ask John McCain what life is like as a kept man.

Re: He hit me first

Guest — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:17:35 -0000

Rezko was always a bit of a non starter, there was no *there* there. Was there anything illegal in that deal? No? STFU. It's a smear by association that doesn't stick. Ask the Clintons.

The McMansion drama however, does fit a narrative of extreme privilege. Seriously, who doesn't know how many freaking houses they own? That will play well in this economic climate... I wonder if Cindy allow John to have his own checkbook?

Also if McMansions picks Romney for VP between them they will have like twelvety hundred homes...

Re: He hit me first

Mark — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:17:11 -0000

Guess if they want to go all Rezko on us it's time to talk about Keating and the gang of 5 of which Johnny was a member.

Re: He hit me first

shani-o — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:09:42 -0000

I'm thinking this is a good thing for Obama. His campaign is getting aggressive and that's what needed to happen.

People have been trying to link him to Rezko for a year now, and no one seems to have anything substantial. I can't imagine that McCain's people, who can't even agree on a message half the time, will be able to do much better.

Re: He hit me first

Roger — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:02:36 -0000

One positive we can take from the protracted Democratic primary was that the Rezko/Ayers/Wright thing was played to death by the Media and the Clinton people. People don't care about that now.