McCain and the Housing Gaffe: the implications
My Dad retired and took a lump sum payment. He turned most of it into real estate, some into stocks. For years, my folks had been buying property on the advice of a crafty real estate agent who also handled some of my real estate. How many houses did my folks own? I think it was seven, and a couple of condos. While my dad could still manage things, he'd go over and deal with repairs. When he got really too feeble, I did a few things for him from time to time. Then we agreed to turn the maintenance over to a handyman, who'd farm out really big jobs: an altogether satisfactory relationship. They sold a few off, took a nice vacation every year, put up solar panels in India and Africa, built a school for the Dalit (untouchables) in India, raised prodigious amounts of money via matching grants. These people, my parents, were once so poor we kids drank powdered milk and couldn’t afford a real family vacation, ever.
Anyone with any sense buys some real estate, as part of a diversification strategy. As it happens, my parents did very, very well with their real estate investments. My mother didn’t do so well with her mutual funds. But if you asked me today, how many houses my Dad had at any given point, that's an unfair question. My Dad lived in one modest home, the same place he and Mom had lived for years. They weren’t speculating on real estate, they’d just invested, hoping to fund their retirement on rental income. DuPage County Illinois real estate was undervalued when they bought, and they ended up quite wealthy, almost by accident.
So what if John McCain had a few condos here and there? I know a consultant who buys good property everywhere he goes, even vacant land sometimes. We've been around each other for years and years, that's what we'd do of a weekend, go out and look for interesting property.
Everyone should own some property. It's the essence of the capitalist society, to own property. As much as I have made fun at McCain's expense, this Houses Gotcha is a non-issue, a gotcha, a shibboleth. Neither of these candidate dudes is a Common Man, they raise hundreds of millions of dollars and write books and walk around the Senate with egos the size of the Hindenburg. All this pandering and aw-shucks-ing and eating watermelon at the county fair is just hogwash to fool the rubes into believing these guys are Common Men. They aren’t, and they shouldn’t be.
I’m coming to believe this incident is cut from the same cloth as the Obama Didn’t Visit the Troops in Germany. The hospital administrator would later write a letter saying she was thankful Obama didn’t make a circus sideshow out of her patients. John McCain has been a full-time politician since he left the Navy, and there’s way more to bash him over the head with than the number of houses he and his wife have. There’s no right answer to that question. What’s a house? What’s a condo? What if there’s more than one dwelling on a property? McCain’s enemies are fools to believe this is going to hold water. It does, however, betray their pettiness and mean-spiritedness. McCain’s not a whit better, dragging Rezko into this. It’s guilt by association, all of it, ass biting by evil poli-trolls with nothing better to do than gin up this sort of baloney. Both sides need to lay out their positions more clearly, and prove they’re worthy of leading this nation, which isn’t of one opinion nor two. This isn’t a demonstration of leadership, it’s fifth grade girls gossiping in the bathroom.
--
- BlaiseP's blog
- Login or register to post comments
It's now becoming a joke.
This is all he's got. Best not use it up before Labor Day.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
- Login or register to post comments
)
--~At times like these I am reminded of the immortal words of Socrates when he said...."I drank what?"
- Login or register to post comments
)It is, I gotta tell ya, simply a beautiful thing. This story has absolutely nothing to do with whether McCain is *actually* a coddled aristocratic elitist twit. What it does, as pointed out by athenas owl, dionysus, Harley et al. is it shuts down the GOP efforts to tar Obama as an elitist.
That sound you're hearing is the noise of Republican siege machines thundering down into the moat of forgotten smear campaigns. Or, it could be Phantom of the Opera.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
- Login or register to post comments
)Rich and elitist aren't considered the same thing.
I also think many of you are misunderstanding why Sen. Obama has been
--tarredperceived by many as an elitist.“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Democrat running for President.
Explained here =)
--Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )that the Rezko house sweetheart deal was insignificant, inconsequential, misconstrued, a sign of Repub desperation, blah blah blah.
The elitism apparent in Obama's "Pennsylvania hicks are grasping at God and guns" statement to Marin County limo libs has no relation to how much real estate a candidate owns. There are many things McCain can be attacked on; going wild about this one smacks of desperate cluelessness.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )the Rezko deal was insignificant, and you won't see McCain making the "elitist" charges anytime soon.
So other than that, it was a good week for McCain.
--I blame it all on the Internet
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )since the campaign started. Rezko will be around till the election (just saw him on the tube yesterday; he's trimmed down) but the Rezko house/yard deal? Haven't heard that one in some time, until this week.
The limousine liberal elitist meme is also here to stay IMO, but that doesn't require houses either. Quick, how many houses does Nancy Pelosi have? How about Feinstein or Boxer? I don't know, but that doesn't dim the LL tattoo on any of them.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )It's not how many houses they own, it's whether or not they're clueless enough -- or kept enough -- to have no idea. Or better still, to refer it to their staff.
When's the next Starbucks motorcade?
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )I'm pretty sure Starbucks will deliver directly to the Oval Office, if they're asked politely.
--- Login or register to post comments
| parent )And I thought we'd been yucking it up before today. Take your medicine like a good lad; it may look, smell and taste like cod liver oil, but I'm sure you can convince yourself that it actually is nectar of the gods. Enjoy.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Unless you're a middle-aged lesbian still furious that Hillary didn't get the nod, I'm confused by all the Biden animus, particularly as it's based on little other than, well, the desire to display it.
But then again, anyone who thinks Mitt Romney is a deal-maker has been paying precious little attention to the last political year. Ahh, Hawaii. Good times.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Several people have posted here where the disappointment comes from. Biden's a hawk, an authoritarian, and he's perfectly willing to throw away our civil liberties in order to look like he's combating terrorism or those scary scary drugs.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Biden is an authoritarian and isn't exactly going to cut the defense budget.
But to describe him as a 'hawk' is unfair. On the most important FP issue, Iran, he's drawn a clear distinction between him + the real hawks:
War with Iran is not just a bad option. It would be a disaster.
if the President takes us to war with Iran without Congressional approval, I will call for his impeachment.
I don't really like Biden and to me it's just another nail in the coffin of the idea that Obama is going to be 'transformational'.
But he's not a deal-breaker especially when contrasted with the alternative.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Well, I'd say Biden's not a very stupid hawk -- ie, he doesn't want to get into another tarpit of a war -- but it seems like he'd still be all for dropping bombs if you convinced him that it would be easy.
Regarding your other points, I do still have some faith in Obama (at least because of his push for govt transparency), even if I'm still disappointed with some of his recent choices.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )The drug criticism is the one that sticks for me. But I still think he's a good choice, for a host of reasons. And I'm yet to hear the case made for a better, more ideogicaly pure, selection. Tho' I'm sure there's one out there.
Dennis Kucinich?
Oh. And my previous comment was addressed to tomsyl. Whom, I would think, would be just jake with three out of four..
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Kucinich is obviously much more ideologically pure, but he's a lousy politician. Biden's much better on camera, but he wrote the law that put Tommy Chong in prison. The Democrats seem to have internalized this fear that they won't win elections without sounding "tough," where tough means the latest right-wing or Republican formulation. It's hard to find a politician who makes sense on civil liberty issues, who isn't afraid to be public about it, and who has enough charisma to survive his critics and their fainting couches. Hence some of the excitement over Obama from the left.
So I send my political donations now, however small, to organizations that actually challenge, typically in court, these stupid laws peeking into your house or bedroom, granting govt agents license to do as they wish, and stripping away any means of recourse. Too bad we can't really draft ACLU people into office, since they seem to get most of these issues right.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent ){snark} Yeah, those Conservatives, so concerned about our rights in law. All that fine rhetoric about the Individual and Opportunity and A Man's Home is his Castle, but let some ACLU lawyer stand up to defend those very things, the Usual Suspects gibber, rant and froth, flinging feces from the treetops.{/snark}
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )May I ask why those three sprang to mind as perfect examples of the limousine liberal elitist meme?
--Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )and Feinstein's hubbie is a real estate magnet. I'm betting she doesn't know how many houses and apartments they own within a +/- 100 error margin.
But as you know, the LL label sticks to people who are rich and only hang out with the A List, while telling everyone they know how poor people live. Like that hair guy with the extra kid.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )I blame it all on the Internet
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Lotsa "uppity" going around these days.
--It's impossible to debate if people simply hold beliefs that have no grounding in reality.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )What matters is that McCain appears to be out of touch and living in conditions of comfort most Americans can't relate to, and acting like someone who can't relate to them. Also, equally important is the fact that a good half of the McCain campaign so far has been devoted to this exact attack against Obama. That makes this newsworthy.
Americans would vote for a Warren Buffett type. McCain ain't that type.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Where?
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )to my comment above. The Rezko story & bittergate occupied the GOP dirt shovelers for the better part of a week, each.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )around. There's nothing elitist about hanging out with a convicted felon; I know that firsthand because I regularly get together with my extended family, some of whom wear orange jumpsuits and manacles to our reunions.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Both convicted & unconvicted.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )McCain doesn't know a single one of my relatives.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )when it's hot, even though Hawaii isn't as liable as some climates to be hard on an engine.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )and have seen a 2-3 mpg improvement with the banana-scented blend, though part of that may be due to the helium an Obama supporter told me to shoot into my tires.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )smells summery. :)
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )I'm still mystified that Sen. Obama would be so naïve as to open up this can worms, particularly because he could have had all the benefits without the downside he's going to get. The media and arm's-length surrogates could have carried the ball on this, but the Senator lacked the discipline to keep his personal fingerprints off of it.
Just to give you an example of what will be considered fair game now, this is up over at lucianne.com:
Obama's half-brother earns $1 a month:
Obama at Saddleback Forum: "I think America’s greatest moral failure in my lifetime has been that we still don’t abide by that basic precept in Matthew that whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me"
Yes, consider the source of course, go ahead and say it's despicable and should be off limits, but I wouldn't dismiss it completely, because the Senator himself, in his own words, dragged Mrs. McCain and her family's wealth into the game, and he wanted to talk about hypocrisy.
What could have been a nice riposte putting a chink in the McCain armor, free of charge from a bored media in August, may take Sen. Obama to areas of the mat he so far was able to keep of limits. Sen. "Let's just talk about the issues" should have stuck to that script, let others crow about it. Instead, the Senator put it in his stump speech.
Enjoy this news cycle while it lasts.
Oh, and of course it goes without saying that I must be completely and totally wrong.
--“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”
- Login or register to post comments
)Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )soon to have a US President as a blood relative. I wonder how long he'll go on living in a shack on $1 a month? Anyhow, the brother's a made to order photo-op dramatizing Obama's origins, proof positive that his truly is a rags-to-riches story, a great American adventure. This is going to be so easy.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )McCain's dying over this. He'll get better. But a lot of damage has been done. And his primary campaign strategy -- to paint Obama as the elitist -- just took a very bad hit. But hey, he can still motorcade for his morning cup of coffee. So there's that.
Let me know when you dire blowback graduates from lucianne.com to the MSM. Thanks in advance.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )just to show the voting public the degree to which he's prepared to debase himself to secure the Presidency by adopting the worst tactics of those who defeated him for the nomination in 2000.
I want to hear the words - "I'm John McCain and I approved this message".
--GW Bush, leading contender for worst President ever.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )nt
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )That sounds like an attack on a poster to me. Can you explain why it is not?
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Was that McCain wouldn't dare, but left it others to do it, because he (or his campaign) knew someone would. McCain's hand are clean, but the message is out there.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )what kind of an elitist are you, anyway?
--I blame it all on the Internet
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )innaleckshuls.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )lobbying the news media to do the job for them and I don't rate the chances of that happening very highly, outside the usual suspects on Fox of course.
--GW Bush, leading contender for worst President ever.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Have you read Obama's books, especially Dreams of my Father? Anyone who says such things has no conception of Obama's relationship to his father or half-siblings.
Dragging Obama's half-brother into this debate is bafflingly stupid.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )I'm not the one dragging the half-brother in, I'm not saying it's a good idea, or smart politics, or that it isn't stupid.
I'm only commenting on the unforced error of the Senator having his own fingerprints on toomanyhousesoutoftouchgate.
--“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )yes, posting a picture isn't bringing it up.
The fact is there's plenty of little gotchas that can affect any candidate. Why one particular one gains traction is impossible to predict up front - that's why everybody throws whatever they can at the wall and sees what sticks. Coarse and inane it may be, but it's certainly nothing new.
--I blame it all on the Internet
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )It is baffling, this is not what politics could or should be about. Worse, even though negative campaigning works, to some limited extent, I don't see either the House Gaffe or Obama's Brother as effective. It's this sort of stuff which makes reasonable people throw up their hands and shout "enough of this, already!"
Which is why I wrote this diary...
Edit: let me put it plainly, Obama's an idiot to drag in the House Gaffe. He could have done a much better job of this, letting McCain have a mulligan, but get in a much deadlier jab, saying McCain is getting forgetful.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Letting McCain slide on a stupid remark that encapsulates the problem of his economic policy, but going out of the way to get in an unrelated jab at McCain's age, strikes me as a really bad idea for Obama.
--Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Damn. And it worked so well for Gore and Kerry. Hey, we may be losers, but at least we're good sports about it.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )First, I'd like to discuss the carbon footprint ramifications with tomsyl. Second, just how tone-deaf and arrogant do you have to be to do this during Housegate? Third, this is what sinks McCain: the bloated self-regard that makes this feel like defiance to him.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
- Login or register to post comments
)with you but right now I'm grappling with who drove and
--flew what, and how many, into Denver for the Cheerathon. As your governor said in T1, I'll be Bach.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Motorcade. Cup of coffee. Bomb sniffing dog. Discuss.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )did the bomb sniffing dog have to wear sunglasses and a baseball cap? That alone should have tipped off the media that something was amiss.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Splat! I assumed everyone knew that he is one of John McCain's top advisors.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )I thought those were reserved only for the Left! Wonderful news for all ventriloquists regardless of political persuasion. Senor Wences would be so happy.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Wouldn't it have been easier to just send a single staff member to Starbuck's for coffee all around? They do have those nifty cardboard carriers for multiple cups.
This is just weird.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )If I were in the market, I'd get a Technivorm ("...certified by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) to brew at the correct 200 degrees Fahrenheit").
Two hundred dollars and up is pricey for a coffee maker, but the McCains can probably afford it.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )I'm a complete sucker for complex, expensive and unreliable kitchen appliances, and the possibility that something that spendy would make java that was equal to a $19.95 Mr. Coffee intrigues me.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Beautiful. Should be in Roget's Thesaurus. Under "election".
--The other day I heard that ignorance and apathy are sweeping the country. I didn't know that, but I don't really care.
- Login or register to post comments
)And then...
Politics, beanbag. Heat, kitchen. You know the drill.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
- Login or register to post comments
)from the view that the housing brouhaha is more than just a temple in a teapot? Anyone who claims that conservatives are "shocked, angry, and most of all, scared" by this is just nuts.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )what the hell do you think they're getting paid all that money for?
As for Republicans, as far as I can tell they're always shocked and angry.
--I blame it all on the Internet
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )I'm shocked and angry that you'd say that.
--“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )I blame it all on the Internet
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )just the McCain campaign.
--GW Bush, leading contender for worst President ever.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )I advise people, that's all I do. I used to have a girlfriend, long ago, who said these words were about me.
Which of you to gain me, tell, will risk uncertain pains of hell?
I will not forgive you if you will not take the chance.
The sailor gave at least a try, the soldier being much too wise,
Strategy was his strength, and not disaster.
I am not a concern troll, I'm a strategist. I'm busily killing a very bad MS Access system, in between posts here. This Houses Gaffe makes the Dems look like the crazies back when Jeremiah Wright was playing the merry idiot. There they were, running around in little circles, gibbering and flapping their hands like a bunch of sissies, "ZOMG! Obama's a Black Liberationist!"
How far did that go? Nowhere.
The Houses Gaffe might turn some people against McCain, but the Whining Sissies calling McCain silly names are preaching to the choir and looking mighty stupid whilst they chortle and titter about an entirely reasonable answer to a Gotcha Question. That is the sort of question you refer to a staffer.
But then again, this might get worse. McCain's response shows he can be needled, easily provoked. Sun Tzu said:
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )But again, you're missing a few things. The Jeremiah Wright Merry Idiot Scandal hurt Obama, full stop. His opponents may have gone over the top with it. But to suggest it had no impact, or that the real story was how over the top they were, that's just counter factual. How far did that go? He kept Hillary in the primaries for three extra months, that's how far.
Again, and I promise for the last time, the Houses Gaffe is a metaphor for the candidate's weakness on economic issues. The out-of-touch tag is deadly and hard to shake. Given the fealty almost every GOP candidate shows to the very wealthy? (And McCain is someone who changed his own opinions re taxation in order to get this gig, jftr.) The tag comes with even more bite.
As for calling him silly names, that's not the point either. The point is that ridicule is a very very effective political weapon, far more than anger and bitterness. That's why the Britney ads had legs, so to speak. That McCain is likely to respond in a manner out of proportion to the perceived insult? That only makes the tactic more effective.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )First, yes you're right, the Rev. Wright story hurt Obama. But how badly? The over-reaction undid the lasting damage the Wright episode might have achieved, had Obama's enemies played those cards more carefully. Does that make any sense? I dunno, maybe I'm wrong here. People got sick of the story.
Once, in a fit of gluttony, I ate too many red Twizzlers. Now I can't eat another Twizzler, ever. People overdose on this stuff, like the Monica story, the OJ story, it's just laid on too thick.
Yes, I suppose you're right, this could be played as a metaphor for McCain being out of touch. But the reality is far different: McCain is acutely aware of what he's doing, he's going to sell America out to the highest bidder. He's changed his tune, no more Mr. Maverick. Now he's playing the standard Conservative ditties, banging the same old drum all the other Conservatives beat on, and for the same reasons. McCain's not Out of Touch, quite the opposite, he's in touch with a lot of very nasty Sellout Artistes like Phil Gramm and assorted nefarious dictator types, who are all too willing to move in and export every job they can, privatize everything, deregulate us until we're a goddamn Banana Republic. Oh, he's not Out of Touch at all.
In this Houses Kerfuffle, that point seems to be getting lost. Go straight for the jugular, Mr. Obama, McCain knows perfectly well what he's up to, he'll corporatize America to the point we'll all be flipping each others' hamburgers.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Once, in a fit of gluttony, I ate too many red Twizzlers
And was this a long series of individ. twizzlers or didya cram an entire pack into your mouth?
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )that the episode spanned multiple packages?
...which is more along the lines of something I once did with teriyaki-flavored beef jerky.
[EDIT] Oh...already answered, I see. Let's just forget I said anything about jerky, shall we?
--Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. - W. Somerset Maugham
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Beef jerky, huh? I am a great eater of rice, the good stuff, basmati, I take my rice maker on the road with me. I'll sometimes throw some jerky into the uncooked rice with a little extra water, let it stew in there. Surprisingly good.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Slightly undercooked is the way I like it best.
My grandfather had to avoid honey. If he swallowed any, it would close up his trachea in a histamine reaction. As a boy, he'd discovered a hive, torn apart the comb and gorged on it. He consumed so much that his body simply rebelled.
For the rest of his life, a plain jar of honey was an object of forbidden lust.
--Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. - W. Somerset Maugham
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )It's hella good. My recipe:
-A good sized bag of beef jerky, chopped up and reduced to dust in a blender.
-About half that much dried berries, whatever suits your fancy, I dry out pitted cherries but anything will do, as long as it's citrusy. Reduce them to dust in the blender, too.
-Enough butter or beef tallow to make it into a hard paste.
Roll out this mess into thin strips or patties, throw it in ziploc baggies and freeze it. Superb cold-weather food.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Long road trip, terrible traffic, nothing to do. Oh they sat in my stomach like a congregation when the pastor's running long on the sermon, just praying to get out.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )is like a fortress besieged.
The Twizzlers on the outside want to get in while those on the inside want to get out.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )He tempts mankind with such things, hateful being. I have been convicted, and turned my soul away from this vile, vomitrocious confection.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Thanks..that reminded of Gramm calling Americans whiners.
That just heaps it on...
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )McCain is so dangerous, and nobody seems to realize it. If, as you say, this opens the door to a larger discussion of his lazy-faire economics, I'm all for it.
But this could backfire on the Chattering Classes. In the huffle-puff over the Houses, we must absolutely tack McCain's feet to the floor and point out his lack of an economic policy. He just doesn't have one. Obama's got one, but it's way too wonky. It has to be reduced to something very simple, like I said, "Rebuild America First" would be a damned good start. McCain's gonna sell us out to every overseas investor and fat cat on the planet.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )...McCain's foreign policy doesn't register that much. Except in a nebulous way. And they usually blame the "libs" or that...though it has sunk in that Bush is an idiot. And maybe Iraq wasn't such a great idea after all.
But THIS and being called whiners...it does stick. That's the beauty of it.
Should McCain lose because of larger issues. Yes. But that's not how it works anymore (or most likely ever has).
I may be a latte drinking, Saab driving "elite", but I spend more time in the red neck bars than any coffee house. The conversations are interesting. People are worried.
Plus the pure comedy of the whole thing helps. :)
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )The best speechwriters know this. America's in bad shape. Just terrible shape. Most people don't have a clue how rotten the bridges have gotten over time, we've got infrastructure issues on a massive scale. People understand potholes and bridge collapses and the wreckage of Katrina still moldering in the sun like something out of a Stephen King story. That they get. Blighted neighborhoods, rural poverty, gangs, empty factories, abandoned hospitals, broken-down schools, that they get.
Rebuild America First. I'm telling you, that sums it up. Put those poor people into school as a prerequisite to getting any more federal assistance. Force-feed our prison population the schoolwork they never got while they were on the outside. Bust the price-fixing in health insurance, get serious about offshore corporations. I'd shut down every contract for Accenture Government Consulting while their headquarters are in the Bahamas. Start training and employing people to install solar panels, get serious about hydrogen power, start putting in nuclear power plants on the standardized Navy reactor vessel design, and get all those trained Naval techs to operate them safely. Start persecuting union-busters. Start paying teachers a living wage and get those public schools safe, treat education like the strategic asset is is. We're in competition with the entire world now. Rebuild America First.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )Strictly speaking, does the # of houses he owns have any bearing on his ability to make economic decisions as President? Of course not.
However, does it have a bearing on his ability to tar his opponent with the standard "elite liberal" brush while proposing policies that help the rich while doing nothing for everyone else? I'd hope so.
The Obama camp can now retort to every usage of "celebrity", "out of touch liberal", "blah blah" with "Coming from him? This guy doesn't even know how many houses he owns!"
- Login or register to post comments
)The beauty of "check with my staff" is that it completely and totally shuts down the "effete elitist" or "elite effetist" number McCain's been trying to run on Obama.
McCain caught himself in his own Rovian jujitsu.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )You're missing the point, the forests for the trees, and congratulations on the successful investments.
This is, as is usually the case about this stuff, a metaphor for something else. John McCain's economic policy deficiencies, his fealty to nut-jobs like Phil Gramm, the out-of-touchness of it all? All those things and more were encapsulated in one simple answer to one simple question. That he took a nine-car motorcade to pick up a cappuccino this morning? That's just the cherry on top of this particular sundae.
What's a house? What's a condo? Heh. Most folks don't get to play the real estate market. They're too busy hanging on to what they've got. There's nothing foolish about taking the time to define your political opponent. It's part of the process and always has been.
I admire your demand for campaigning purity, however. Heck. It's worked out so well for us, and the country, the last eight years.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
- Login or register to post comments
)Mostly to demonstrate a Liberal Obama-ite can see through Gotcha Politics. Your points about Phil Gramm and simplistic economics and all the rest of McCain's woefully inadequate economic viewpoints are well-taken: these are far more significant than the Houses Gaffe.
Maybe what I'm trying to say here is this: McCain's dangerous enough without trying to do a Nelson Ha-Ha on the Houses Gaffe. Don't go for the metaphor, go straight for the jugular: McCain is exactly the wrong president for this economy.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )But, like it or not, the most effective way to get to the jugular is by way of the metaphor. That's just the way it works. Obama and others have been talking about McCain's deficiencies on economic issues for a long while. This merely makes it easier to put the case in front of the voting public.
Did I mention he took a nine-car motorcade to pick up a cappuccino this morning?
Cue Nelson. Ha-ha.
John Cole is right. Heaven forbid we should suffer a Democratic candidate willing to come right back at these people. And do so effectively. The Obama campaign isn't creating these vulnerabilities. They're merely shining a light on them.
And given just how dangerous McCain is?* Good for them.
*And we haven't even got to the Trigger Happy stuff yet.
--To think is not enough; you must think of something -- Jules Renard
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )However, and sad to say, the sound bite rules politics today.
That one small gaffe by McCain himself DOES open the conversation. Most people don't have a clue what most blogging wonks do about economics. But discussing this gaffe, people can be brought into a larger conversation.
I don't have multiple properties, but good friends do..and they know EVERY stinking piece of property, because they worked darn hard to get them. At 71, they still do the work on them themselves...pride of ownership. All the while, still running their commerical fishing boats. McCain...meh, couldn't be bothered. It does not impress. They support Obama, btw.
Again, the disconnect...it works so simply. Thanks McCain!
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )But considering how high-octane things are at this point in the election cycle, gaffes like this can end up being fatal.
I'm frustrated with him, because he should have known better. Seriously...what's a bigger subject amongst the electorate than the housing crisis? Both candidates have spoken at length about it in particular and the economy in general. McCain knew how many houses he owned as he gave those stump speeches, and how that fact might (rightly or wrongly) be perceived by his audience.
So there's simply no excuse for not having an answer ready for such an inevitable question.
--Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. - W. Somerset Maugham
- Login or register to post comments
)McCain ( or his handlers) hammered Obama for being a celebrity. Yet it is McCain who is the celebrity, bit movie actor and well known aside from his presidental bid. And like many celebrities who don't even know how many houses they has or don't have. Except perhaps the one that graced the cover of Archictectual Digest. Perception..anyway.
The guy want's to be president of the U.S. and doesn't even know his own families business. And for those that say "But Cindy!"...I know what separate incomes mean..I live the same way, but I can tell you flat out that purchases as big as a house are still done together. Imagine this.."Evening honey...how was you day?"..."Great, sweetheart. Oh, btw, I bought another house and got the cat dewormed.".."That's nice...so what do you want for dinner". That's not how a marriage works, separate incomes or not. So McCain not knowing about things that impact his own children, if not him (which I don't believe)..he just doesn't pay attention, apparently. Do we really want someone that ill-informed to be president? You know, get your own house in order, etc, etc. Perception.
McCain's camp wants to paint Obama as an elitist, yet in one simple sentence McCain opened to door to an examination of his own version of it. "I don't with the "small" stuff, I have staff for that." Again, not in touch. Perception.
If anything, this gaffe should have put to bed the old "elitist" canard. I doubt it will..."pointy headed professor"...oh an McCain was a P.O.W..did you know that?
- Login or register to post comments
)They lord it over their pedestrian brethren in the House, and every one of them thinks he's the Secretary of State. McCain's biggest gaffe of late was sending a diplomatic contingent to Georgia. That's hubris on a massive, dangerous, idiotic scale. But what makes the news cycle? What turns into blog fodder? The Houses Gaffe.
Obama is an elite, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with being elite. Nobody running for high office is anything but an elite. The word is from eligere, to choose. We get the words Eligible and Elect from the same root.
Let's just quit this farce about Politicians as Common Men. Both McCain and Obama have endured life's struggles. Neither man is any more qualified than the other. It's been a long time since we've had a POTUS elected from the Senate, most of them have been governors of late, people with executive experience, and neither McCain nor Obama have any, though arguably you could say McCain had a bit in the service. We can't afford any more Aw Shucks Common Men like Bush or Clinton, the situation requires a bona-fide leader, and all the good ones are extraordinary people.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )several major election victories in the recent past because they care only about winning and are not particularly concerned about how they win. I don't particularly like it anymore than you do and agree that Obama wins any policy debate hands down. But if we don't fight fire with fire when gifted the opportunity they will likely win again because there will be no such debate. Painful as it may be to concede, 30 second sound bite negative advertising actually works and the McCain camp has been putting them to good use in recent weeks, re-defining Obama in order to narrow the gap and circumvent any real debate on the issues.
I'm not suggesting Obama should get completely down into the weeds with McCain with the negative advertising, but he has to counter the attacks when they come and not just parry them. If he doesn't and he doesn't take the opportunity to attack McCain's stumbles such as the houses gaffe, then he will be perceived as weak and the attacks will multiply and the narrative which that builds will be all that's talked about during the debates. The time to launch the policy onslaught will be during and after the convention once McCain's never ending negative campaigning has been neutralized, because McCain has got nothing to offer on the policy front or the issues most Americans are really concerned about.
--GW Bush, leading contender for worst President ever.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )It's about his economic plan, which is out of touch with the realities facing ordinary Americans.
His houses gaffe is just a hook for the policy attack.
--Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
- Login or register to post comments
)They don't make plans. The market's sposta solve those problems. He's bowing down to every principle of what passes for Conservative economics these days: lower taxes, expand American influence in the world at large through trading frameworks like NAFTA and CAFTA, that sort of thing.
That's Bush43 in a nutshell. But does this Houses Gaffe tie into this problem? No it doesn't, in my opinion. It distracts from the real problem, a problem Obama hasn't addressed effectively: his lack of a simple bumper-sticker economic slogan. Obama needs to fire up the ordinary working-class guy with a vision of America retooling and re-engineering itself in a struggle to win the other war nobody's talking about, the war we're losing, the economic war. A blue-collar vision of America could be summed up in this bumpersticker:
Rebuild America First.
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )It seems like both candidates, when they address job creation, are thinking of emerging green technologies, which I suppose is a win-win if handled capably.
I was thinking of the lower taxes bit in particular. McCain's proposed rates for the top brackets work out very nicely for the sort of people who can afford to own several million-dollar properties.
--Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
- Login or register to post comments
| parent )