Starrfall on 16/9/2008 at 22:04

---

Is anyone else starting to get the feeling that the McCain campaign (or at least one advisor) is really just a massive troll of the entire US? Surely they're not doing things like saying that John McCain created the Blackberry on purpose?

Ghostly Apparition on 17/9/2008 at 02:14

---

The tactic is called just throwing any old shit against the wall to see what sticks.
The Republicans have nothing to run on. Their policies are the same failed policies of the Bush administration.Only worse.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/opinion/16herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin)
All they have to run on is fear and smear.

Meanwhile Rome burns while Nero fiddles.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/opinion/16tue1.html?ref=opinion)

Ko0K on 17/9/2008 at 05:41

---

In other words, pandering.

I have few issues against conservatives on an individual basis, and the fact of the matter is that I was brought up as a typical evangelical conservative myself. The RNC, however is the most vile and slimiest entity I can think of in recent memory other than the Nazi propaganda machine. It's unfortunate that most people don't seem to realize this, but dividing us like this is the single most profound impact the Bush administration had on America, in my opinion. It's hard to believe that hardly anybody saw the red flags when Bush kept using phrases such as "god" and "evil" during his presidential campaign and early during his first term. The RNC found that there was a line to be drawn to divide us, but we were too distracted by many other things going on during that time to realize it. By the way, is it just coincidence that the current state of economy and general mood among the conservative population is almost identical to those of pre-War Nazi Germany?

The 2000 election was stolen by the RNC so that Bush could achieve its agenda, and the RNC is at it again. Remember that it doesn't matter what the real numbers are, which is why I said earlier in this thread that you shouldn't believe what the polls say. All the RNC has to do is simply give people the impression that Obama and McCain are neck to neck, so that they can manipulate the outcome and still be able to get away with it. It's easy for them to get away with it when most people are psychologically conditioned to dismiss any questions as bitter partisan anger or unfounded conspiracy theory. So the real challenge is not so much the actual technical aspect of manipulating the outcome of the election, but manufacturing the popular perception that what happened actually happened.

Honestly, I don't believe the RNC does what it does for the purpose of being evil. Quite to the contrary, I think it believes that it has a noble end that justifies any means necessary. Guess who else thought that way, though, before the whole world ganged up on him.

jay pettitt on 17/9/2008 at 12:54

---

No, I think that tells me all I need to know.

heywood on 17/9/2008 at 14:05

---

IMO, Bush had the more inclusive message in the 2000 election. Obviously, he didn't follow it after 2001. But during the campaign, Gore had the more divisive message: the old class warfare strategy that Democrats have been following on and off for decades.

Obama has been smart not to go too far down that road again, although he almost did it with the guns & religion comment. It's not just that it's a bad stereotype, or that he directed it at the wrong part of the country. The real problem is that he makes it sound like guns, religion, trade, and immigration are not legitimate issues in their own right. His comment implies that IF people were economically better off, that their positions on social issues could be made to fall in line with liberal orthodoxy. It's as if he thinks that what separates a liberal urban voter in San Francisco from gun-owning, church-going conservative rural voters is primarily economic class.

EDIT: Just read that the government is taking over AIG with $85b in taxpayer money. This infuriates me. When are the candidates going to stake out some solid positions regarding the relationship between the government and the financial sector? They just seem to keep dancing around the issue.