The Atlantic - Latest Comments in I hold the microphone like a grudge

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

karen marie — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:23:10 -0000

Nobama got schooled (and righteously so) by John McCain, and the gibbering wails of despair from the Ayers-enabling left are deafening in the extreme.

Remember this, you dishonorable cadre of America-hating traitors: Old Glory survived the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and went on to massively triumph over its enemies. In this regard, so, too, will our great nation and all true American patriots inevitably triumph over underhanded smears vomited against the future President John McCain and Vice President Sarah Palin by the traitorous left.

Country First.

Posted by Atanarjuat | October 8, 2008 10:50 AM

clap

from this point on i plan to enjoy the entertainments on display.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Fred — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:37:40 -0000

I have to admit, it was poor.

So poor I've gone back to thinking of Strom Thurmond when I whack one out.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Baiskeli — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:02:06 -0000

@Atanarjuat,

I think someone watered down your meds. Maybe your psychiatrist is one of those 'traitorous left.'?

Obama won, McCain did okay (he didn't make any major gaffes). But given the way things are, he needed to hit it out of the ballpark. He didn't. I also think the 'that one' comment is going to come back and bite him in the behind.

@Tony Comstock

I think there is a grain of truth there. McCain has looked distinctly uncomfortable of late, like someone forced to wear a pair of ill fitting shoes. Palin's forte is the under-handed attack, when McCain does it, it just comes off as akward.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Sporcupine — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:51:08 -0000

What struck me most?

1. Attack in Pakistan.

2. Kill Bin Laden.

3. Evil in Russia.

There's a standing cliche in American politics about the Democrat/liberal/East-coast guy/Ivy Leaguer. Those guys, it's said, are too soft on our enemies, too interested in talking, and either scared of a fight or too dumb to know when a fight is required.

Obama, without fanfare, rules that out in every debate, with points like the ones above.

Because Obama is quiet-tough rather than loud-tough, the media doesn't grab those sound-bites.

Nevertheless, I think he's steadily closing sales with folks that worry about him being "soft." Not every sale, but enough to bring back some of those "Reagan Democrats," those "Joe Six-Pack" voters.

The comparisons to JFK really aren't just about looks and rhetoric.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Atanarjuat — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:50:09 -0000

Nobama got schooled (and righteously so) by John McCain, and the gibbering wails of despair from the Ayers-enabling left are deafening in the extreme.

Country First.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Daffydd Jenkins — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:57:32 -0000

Anyone else see Hitchen's take?

"The strained indeed agonized politeness about all this goes on and may even continue for a bit longer but I repeat what I wrote just after the last “debate”. Senator John McCain is at least on the frontier of senility and may well have crossed it.

...

when are we going to be honest about mentioning the elephant in the room, or the vacant headroom in the elephant?"

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/hitchens/2008/10/obama-trounces-mccain-in-nashv.html

Ouch.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Tony Comstock — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:42:22 -0000

"You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker. "

Hey TNC, remember a few days back you asked me about the virulent anti-commerce strain that runs through the left?

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Dave Brown — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:02:16 -0000

Do the ghosts of Theodore Roosevelt and Malcolm X haunt the U.S.A.? Does the ghost of TR, along with white racist imperialism and nuclear mushroom clouds, haunt McCain? From Wikipedia:

In The Winning of the West (1889–1896), Roosevelt's frontier thesis stressed a racial struggle between "civilization" (white, especially Germanic peoples) and supposed savagery (of people of color, i.e., Native American Indians). Excerpts:

1. "The settler and pioneer have at bottom had justice on their side; this great continent could not have been kept as nothing but a game preserve for squalid savages."

2. "The most ultimately righteous of all wars is a war with savages."

3. "American and Indian, Boer and Zulu, Cossack and Tartar, New Zealander and Maori, — in each case the victor, horrible though many of his deeds are, has laid deep the foundations for the future greatness of a mighty people."

4. "..it is of incalculable importance that America, Australia, and Siberia should pass out of the hands of their red, black, and yellow aboriginal owners, and become the heritage of the dominant world races."

5. "The world would have halted had it not been for the Teutonic conquests in alien lands; but the victories of Moslem over Christian have always proved a curse in the end. Nothing but sheer evil has come from the victories of Turk and Tartar."

On August 13 and 14, 1906, Brownsville, Texas was the site of what has come to be known as the Brownsville Affair. Racial tensions were high between white townsfolk and black infantrymen stationed at Fort Brown. On the night of August 13th, one white bartender was killed and a white police officer was wounded by rifle shots in the street. Townsfolk, including the mayor, accused the infantrymen as the murderers. Without a chance to defend themselves in a hearing, President Roosevelt dishonorably discharged the entire 167 member regiment due to their accused "conspiracy of silence". Further investigations in the 1970s found that the black infantrymen were not at fault, and the Nixon Administration reversed all of the dishonorable discharges.

Does the ghost of Malcolm X, along with violent revolution and wealth distribution, haunt Obama?

You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker.

Malcolm X

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Tony Comstock — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:22:43 -0000

In bed with my wife after the debate, and she mentions a story she saw on Politico; something from an "unnamed close friend of McCain, who says McCain's grumpy because he is "being force" to run a campaign he doesn't want to run.

The fuck?!?

This really really really pisses me off. Either A: you get your one and last shot, and then don't have the stones to do it the way you want to do it; or B: you know you're going down, taking your reputation with you, and now, three weeks before election day, you're spinning the loss.

Either way this is punk-ass bullshit.

A year ago, Andy was hoping for a Obama/McCain election. Said it would be elevating to the national discourse. Well we got it, and instead of two leaders with different visions making their case, we've ended up with this dottering old fool, who's turned the most important presidential election of my lifetime into a joke.

I'm pissed.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Deborah — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:27:46 -0000

@Asher: Okay, elite was my interpretation, but before seguing into how he knows what it is to suffer, to depend on others, he talked about his mother raising the family while his father was away serving his country. Which I thought was strong, but pivoting into his own suffering rather than "we knew the worries of any kitchen table" weakened it.

This is something that has bothered me since McCain started talking up patriotism and country first--by his definition, am I a patriot? is anyone here? I knew he'd written books about great Americans who sacrificed for country, but until the past few months hadn't heard him speaking about patriotism and sacrifice so explicitly. Is it only Adams and Roosevelt and navy fighter pilots in wartime who can truly claim the mantle of patriot?

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

brucds — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:56:23 -0000

Celeste Fremon at WitnessLA blog caught this post-debate meltdown at FOX:

In a very odd moment I happened to catch at FOX News, conservative polster Frank Lutz, who had gathered together a focus group to watch the debate, asked for a show of hands as to who won the thing. Unfortunately for Lutz, the majority said Obama had won. This didn’t work for Lutz. Nor did it work for FOX anchor, Brit Hume, who began looking a bit sickly.

Lutz decided he could save what was turning into an icky situation. (After all, he’s Frank Lutz always the smartest guy in the room, just ask him.) So he eyed one guy whom he’d determined was a McCain supporter and said, “But people said that McCain was better on the economy, why did you think so?” (Or words to that effect.) The McCain guy immediately catches the tossed ball. “Oh yes,” he says and proceeded to expound as to why.

So, says a slightly cheered Hume, the majority thought that Senator McCain did better on the economy?

Yes, beams Lutz. But then he made a fatal mistake. He turned to his focus group members and asked them how many thought McCain did the best on the economy.

Around six out of the 25 panel members raised their hands. At that juncture, Lutz was not foolish enough to ask how many think that Obama did better on the economy. Instead, he simply lied. “Okay, that’s about half who thought McCain did better,” says Lutz, lying like a rug, as the camera quickly cuts away.

http://witnessla.com/

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Anthony Damiani — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:23:31 -0000

.... you know, Wrath of the Lich King will be coming out shortly after the election.

Just saying. If it frees up some time....

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Asher — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:50:27 -0000

Dave: wanna what? Whatta who? Whatever happened to Jae Millz?

Anyway, the election's over and there's no sense in paying attention anymore, though some folks will get their jollies off of being all self-righteous about how terribly bigoted McCain's campaign will become (and is becoming).

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Dave Brown — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:30:30 -0000

OK folks live blogging starts now. I'd be shocked if McCain doesn't do well. I'd also be shocked if Obama tries to run out the clock. I really think he's going for the kill--even if its killing him softly. Also I'm on Pacific time, Don't let it freak you out. – from Oct 7. Everything freaks out Dave Brown. “Toys Are Us” is a trademark. “Dave Brown Is Permanently Insane and Freaked Out” is a trademark.

I watched the first five minutes of the second Obama vs. McCain debate. I got so scared I couldn’t watch. I saw a moderator, two confident men, and four electric-blue, decayed, half-rotted, shimmering, half-human images. The four ghosts reminded me of a display of the Northern lights that I saw one summer night in the sky over the South Side of Chicago many years ago – but with demons crawling out of a cocaine’s addict’s hallucinations. I believe the four things were the ghosts of Malcolm X, Nat Turner, Teddy Roosevelt, and Stonewall Jackson.

Emerson wrote, “There is a capacity of virtue in us, and there is a capacity of vice to make the blood creep.” Does Senator Obama haunt us with the image of Malcolm X’s violent revolution and massive wealth redistribution? Does Senator McCain haunt us with the image of Teddy Roosevelt’s racist imperialism and massive nuclear war?

Is every gathering of people a house of God – merely because people have souls? Emerson wrote, “The house praises the carpenter.” Is the U.S.A. a house founded by two gods: Satan and Yahweh?

Is God both a false hypothesis and a human necessity? Consider 12 hypotheses on politics, religion, placebo power, and words:

1. Politics is dead on arrival without emotion, God, and placebo power.

2. God is a machine that people drive with belief to reach placebo power.

3. God is a machine that allows atheists to substitute metaphor for belief and thereby gain some placebo power based upon spiritual leverage.

4. If you have a significant problem named Junior, then the problem might not go away until Junior becomes a senior. In politics, if people created a problem with low level thinking, then they might need time and high level thinking to solve or get rid of the problem. To raise children and to practice politics both require social interaction, communication, God, and placebo power.

5. Honesty, empathy, and God are the three keys to communication.

6. God might be the spiritual essence of the human experience, but God must be a lightning bolt in individual belief in order to maximize the potential of placebo power.

7. Placebo power is, almost by definition, bogus in terms of physics and chemistry.

8. Words can be useful false idols that have great value in placebo power.

9. Rudyard Kipling wrote, “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” Religious words that inspire joy share many of the brain’s dopaminergic mechanisms with recreational drugs. Molecular neuroscience might unite religion, science, and cocaine addiction. Any activity without religion is lame. Any activity without politics is hermetic. Words, prayer, and money are essential to politics.

10. People need a basic understanding of God, ghosts, mania, schizophrenia, science, religion, and altered states of consciousness. Without God or Higher Power, it is impossible to understand language, culture, history, and other people. The main tool used by Alcoholics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous must be what? God, of course. The recovering addict needs God or Higher Power to bring forth the psychological magic of placebo power. The spiritual community of fellow sufferers promote placebo healing through communication, social interaction, and the teamwork of worship of the mysterious power called “God,” “Brahma,” “Higher Power,” or semi-bogus placebo power. The overeater is addicted to food that tastes good. If it tastes good, then don’t eat it- or don’t eat much of it. Only God can help you eat a bland, monotonous diet and exercise with consistency. God must help us communicate with each other and practice politics in a reasonable, Godly way with understanding , compromise, and mutual help. Unfortunately, in terms of physics and chemistry, God is merely an incorrect hypothesis, contradicted by the experimental evidence of quantum electrodynamics. Therefore, we must realize three things:

A. Everything is a mixture of myth, metaphor, and reality. B. Everyone has an immortal soul of unspeakable, unknowable value. C. We must read the works of Aldous Huxley, Oliver Sacks, Balzac, Alice Walker, Danielle Steele, Erica Jong, the guy who wrote about Beale Street, and those other people who wrote discarded diaries and wailed lamentations that were forgotten because the wailers were illiterate and had no pen and paper anyway; after these readings and karmic gatherings, we must use science, religion, politics, economics, and street language to synthesize God in pop culture.

11. People who cannot understand Francis Cricks’s scientific ideas and Einstein’s psychological ideas must fail to understand politics, God, and placebo power.

12. The greatest insight of all time is Einstein’s observation, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

*** Should political debate at the top be about God, spiritual and political consensus, and merging together religion and science?

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Doctor Jay — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:07:49 -0000

Heh, I'm no kid, but we've been using "weak sauce" in MMO's for years. It's the opposite of "hot sauce" you see. If something's good, it's spicy, if it is boring and doesn't hold your attention at all, it's weak sauce.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

JT (Chicago) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:55:51 -0000

Can't Hardly Wait Joel?

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Undercover Black Man — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:49:56 -0000

"That one."

Classic! The hottest catch phrase since "You betcha!"

*wink*

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Joel — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:46:01 -0000

Winner: The Replacements. I just put on the Replacements' greatest hits-ish album and Paul Westerberg is singing about jumping off a water tower.

What happened tonight again?

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

JT (Chicago) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:40:44 -0000

Shooter, I have to agree - it was really odd that McCain would agree to this format where he would end up looking so much like Fred Sanford in the junk yard debating with Lamont. Weird flashback indeed!

Somebody will probably set debate footage to the theme music on YouTube.

As for "that one", growing up on Chicago's south side in the '60s & '70s, I often heard white folks refer to black people & us (Mexican Americans) as "that one". Couldn't believe that McCain would use that term. Amazing.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

frankie d — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:38:15 -0000

foo

that one?

mccain is losing it.

it was so inappropriate, so rude at the time it happened that i, as others have similarly stated, snapped to attention, and thought,

he really didn't say that, did he?

now, i didn't get mad about it, cause i just think it's a sign of how close to the edge mccain is...

i laughed out loud, again, because i just couldn't believe he just did it.

but, then, i have a sick sense of humor.

now, was there a racial subtext?

i REALLY don't think so.

i just think that mccain is a great big, a@#hole, and he struggles mightily to contain it.

he got real close to saying that kind of thing to romney in the primaries, and if they'd been on the stage alone together, i could easily have imagined him saying something similar to romney.

in fact, i was rooting for him to say something like that to romney.

mccain's lack of impulse control is legendary. i think that is exactly what "that one" reveals.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

rikyrah — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:30:20 -0000

THAT ONE?

When the old White guy, who wouldn't even LOOK at his younger Black opponent in the last debate, calls him ' THAT ONE'

Yeah, I noticed.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Mike — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:15:56 -0000

Just a comment for TNC:

Not everyone reads your commentary in real time, or has the blow-by blow of thing timed in her head to the minute. It would be helpful if you described what you're commenting on in addition to the comment.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:02:54 -0000

I think I know why Obama is doing so well with women and it isn't because he is dreamy although he is incredibly attractive when you consider the total package (slightly above average looks + educated + committed to his family + successful + smart)

Anyway, it occurred to me today that he might be the first ever potential president who actually knows what today's American woman expects in a husband, and is looking for in a president too. When he said that healthcare is a right and talked about children specifically I was all hallelujah. Women have known this for a long time. Now a potential president seems to realize it. Oh my god. No wonder ladies love him.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Guru42101 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:53:28 -0000

Unfortunately I missed most of the debate as I was at a "debate" meetup but we ended up talking politics and religion amongst ourselves the entire time. That is what I get for going to a meetup at a bar.

So... My only question following the debate is WHY THE HELL DO THEY HAVE TO CLOSE OFF MY ROAD HOME AFTERWARDS?????!?!?! I'm not kidding. I had to sit an a parking lot waiting for the police to get out of the way so I could go 1 block down the street to my apt complex.

By the time the cops moved Obama was still at Belmont. So I can obviously blame McCain for me having to wait 20 extra minutes to get that last block home.

Re: I hold the microphone like a grudge

Joel — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:46:23 -0000

I actually thought McCain came off pretty well (with the exception of his finger-pointing incident) and Obama did reasonably well. I guess the dials and focus groups claim that Obama was a clear winner, but that (to me) has more to do with the fallacy of undecided voters and reflects the lean that those voters (controlling the dials) had before entering the debates.

McCain threw a small curveball - a slider, let's say - with his mortgage renegotiation gambit. I don't think he's serious about it, but exorbitant promises might be the next thing for his ticket...