I'm starting to feel pity for McCain.

[Ramo]

And that can't happen if Billy the Witchdoctor gets a tax increase.

[img]www.mcpeepants.com/pics/billywitchdoctor1.gif[/img]

[Naked Gents Rut]

Yet another piece of evidence that Obama is a European-style social democrat from New Ground, the publication of Chicago Democratic Socialists of America...

Barack Obama observed that Martin Luther King's March on Washington in the 1960s wasn't simply about civil rights but demanded jobs as well. Now the issue is again coming to the front, but he wished the issue was on the Democratic agenda not just on Buchanan's.

One of the themes that has emerged in Barack Obama's campaign is "what does it take to create productive communities", not just consumptive communities. It is an issue that joins some of the best instincts of the conservatives with the better instincts of the left. He felt the state government has three constructive roles to play.

The first is "human capital development". By this he meant public education, welfare reform, and a "workforce preparation strategy". Public education requires equality in funding. It's not that money is the only solution to public education's problems but it's a start toward a solution. The current proposals for welfare reform are intended to eliminate welfare but it's also true that the status quo is not tenable. A true welfare system would provide for medical care, child care and job training. While Barack Obama did not use this term, it sounded very much like the "social wage" approach used by many social democratic labor parties. By "workforce preparation strategy", Barack Obama simply meant a coordinated, purposeful program of job training instead of the ad hoc, fragmented approach used by the State of Illinois today.

The state government can also play a role in redistribution, the allocation of wages and jobs. As Barack Obama noted, when someone gets paid $10 million to eliminate 4,000 jobs, the voters in his district know this is an issue of power not economics. The government can use as tools labor law reform, public works and contracts.

Finally, Illinois needs an industrial strategy. How do we create more jobs for everyone? Illinois has no strategy for encouraging high wage, high productivity jobs.

http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng45.html

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by GePap
Back in 2007 McCain was a clear frontfunner for the Republican nomination

What?! Guiliani or Romney were considered far more of a "frontrunner" than McCain, who was still considered to be distrusted by his party.

The only reason McCain was able to get into the race, especially after his candidacy was almost dead as a result of being unable to raise any money, was because people overestimated how much the Republican rank-and-file would go for Guiliani (and his stupid ass primary strategy to just go for Florida) and Romney was thought to be too weasily and slick... and was a Mormon. McCain benefited from the rest of the candidates falling from their perches (aside from Huckabee who came from no where).

[Naked Gents Rut]

This is the real reason to pity McCain...

[Jon Miller]

The evil liberal media.

JM

[Naked Gents Rut]

I'm glad one of the big networks finally said something about it. It would've been better if they had mentioned the purposefully lax credit card security used for Obama's online donations (which allowed anyone, foreign or domestic, to contribute to the Obama campaign well in excess of donation limits provided they were willing to make multiple sub-$200 contributions), but something is better than nothing.

[-Jrabbit]

I post this as someone who was a McCain supporter in 2000.

The post-primaries campaign itself is the biggest indictment against McCain as leader and manager/executive. Since he clinched, McCain has never had a consistent strategy or message. Instead, the campaign has bounced from message to message -- almost weekly. The grand gestures -- "suspending" the convention, "suspending" the campaign -- rang hollow, as neither disaster relief nor an economic rescue plan, respectively, was forthcoming. The Palin choice is another fine example of a gambling, opportunistic approach -- great for short-term (tactical) advantage, but the strategic implications seemingly were not thought through. It forced yet another change of message (from "experienced" to "maverick") while defusing one of the strongest narratives against Obama. The protectionism of Palin (from the press) was eerily self-incriminating, even as the inevitable WTF questions were being raised. Supposedly she was vetted, and proposed as VP, by the core campaign staff. But all seem to agree that the final decision was McCain's.

It's smart to surround yourself with good people and trust them to do their jobs. But I can't shake the feeling that McCain's trust was blind, never seeing the problems and inconsistencies his team was creating. Or if he did, never correcting them.

So looking at how they have run their campaigns and organizations as an example of leadership and management credentials, McCain -- who has been through this before -- has been an enormous disappointment.

[Jon Miller]

He's old. It is a rare man who is on top of his game still in his mid 70s.

JM

[Boris Godunov]

Looks like McCain has figured out a possible way to win.

Switch parties.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Fox News showing their true colors.

[Theben]

I'm starting to suspect Intertube photoshopping.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Theben
I'm starting to suspect Intertube photoshopping.

I've seen it myself on more than one occasion on the teevee.

[Kuciwalker]

It forced yet another change of message (from "experienced" to "maverick") while defusing one of the strongest narratives against Obama.

This is an interesting use of the word "narrative" that I've seen a lot but doesn't make sense to me, even metaphorically.

[-Jrabbit]

The campaign and candidate are telling a story ("he's not experienced, he's not ready") intended to explain how and why their opponent is a poor choice for the audience (voters).

Narrative (noun)
a spoken or written account of connected events; a story

Seems pretty straightforward. No metaphor involved. In what way is the term "interesting"?

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by Naked Gents Rut
Yet another piece of evidence that Obama is a European-style social democrat from New Ground, the publication of Chicago Democratic Socialists of America...
http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng45.html

Shhhhh! Don't tell them! If you tell Americans that a really good idea is popular in, or from Europe, they will reject it instantly because Europe Sucks!(TM)