Bullshit About Horseshit

Now there's a rumor going around that when Obama confronted McCain on his comments about Spain, the latter muttered "horseshit" under his breath. Andrew Sullivan, the famous blogger, is spreading around this, uh, manure, and it's going all over the place. {Edit: Sullivan just retracted his comments. I love the guy but he's, uh, stepped in it this time, and is going to get slammed on this (and rightly so).}

I listened to it several times, and while I am not absolutely clear what he said, the hard "C" sound is, to me, unmistakable -- I think that he said "course not" or similar. It is definitely not clear that he said "horseshit", and I think it's damned irresponsible for people to start with this sort of nonsense.

Even if it sounds like "horseshit" to some people, you do NOT make an accusation like this unless you are 100% positive, and that is not the case here. Whatever else I think about McCain, he is an experienced politician and would never do something like that.

It doesn't help Obama at all for his supporters to hand the McCain camp another piece of ammunition a la "Trig is not Sarah Palin's baby".

How to Figure Out Who Won the Debate

Judd Legum makes some good points about how debates are won or lost based on key moments and perceptions.

I Wonder...

If McCain actually shows up tomorrow night, will he get booed? It's a "home field" crowd for him in Mississippi, but the Ole Miss folks must be royally pissed at him trying to blow them off.

Maybe not, but if they do, it will look really bad. Then again, McCain looks really bad constantly these days.

McCain's Advisors "Saw No Need" to Clear McCain's Schedule to Prepare for the Debate. Gee, I Wonder Why?

Here's what the AP said about the candidates' preparations for the debate before McCain's little stunt yesterday.

On Obama:

Democrat Barack Obama studied and practiced privately with aides in a Florida hotel Tuesday in the first of three days of intense preparations for his upcoming foreign policy debate with GOP rival John McCain.

And on McCain:

McCain is showing more confidence with a full schedule this week that leaves less time for preparations. His advisers said they saw no reason to clear his calendar to prepare, given the Arizona Republican's decades-long experience on foreign affairs issues and his years of debating colleagues in the Senate.

Gee, I wonder if there might have been another reason why McCain's schedule wasn't cleared. You know, aside from his "confidence". Like, say, maybe knowing all along that you're going to try to get the debate postponed?

"That's Why It's Called the Hardest Job in the World"

Seth Grahame-Smith:

Real leaders don't have the luxury of taking time outs, Senator McCain. They're supposed to be able to deal with a wide array of problems, all at once. Especially when they're President. That's why it's called "the hardest job in the world."

Lincoln ran for office during the Civil War. Reagan ran at the height of the Cold War. Bush ran with two wars raging in Afghanistan and Iraq. But McCain can't run during a crisis on Wall Street?

Kind've makes you wonder what his multitasking threshold is, and what else he'd "suspend" or "postpone" when the going got tough.

Maybe he'd just hand it all over to Sarah Palin.

Obama: "Part of the President's Job to Deal with More than One Thing at Once"

Yep.

He's speaking live now, so no link. He's emphasizing bipartisan cooperation without falling for the bait from the press to attack McCain. But he's also made very clear that he thinks it is more important than ever to have the debates, and did make much the same point I did earlier: the president has to be able to multitask.

Oh, and if Obama is to be believed, McCain blindsided him with the announcement, but Obama classily gave him the benefit of the doubt on it.

Uh, Obama Needs to Work on This

This is a "word cloud" someone did on a speech Obama recently gave. Uh, there's a bit of a problem in it.


Now don't get me wrong. I do realize that this was done deliberately to make Obama look bad, since normally those sort of "pause sounds" aren't included in a speech transcript. And I also know that when he does that it means he's thinking, and I'd much rather have a president who says "uh" and thinks than one who does neither.

But it sounds bad. It makes Obama seem not so much thoughtful as unsure. I really hope this is something he and his team are working on in prep for the debate this Friday.

McCain Continues to Prove Palin is Unready to Lead and He is Unfit for Office

Since it's now been over three weeks with no opportunity for the public to freely interact with Palin, it may come down to the solitary VP debate for anyone to be able to ask her questions. But McCain has been trying to sabotage that as well:

At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between Gov. Sarah Palin and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

The wrangling was chiefly between the McCain-Palin camp and the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which is sponsoring the forums.

Commission members wanted a relaxed format that included time for unpredictable questioning and challenges between the vice-presidential candidates. Last week, it rejected a proposal from advisers to Ms. Palin and Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee, for few if any unfettered exchanges. Advisers to Mr. Biden say they were comfortable with either format.

McCain knows how unready Palin is for high office, which is why he continues to shield her
from anyone who might challenge her. The media is STILL not making enough of a deal over this. McCain should have his feet held to the fire as long as he keeps treating a potential president like a 9-year-old girl being put in front of cameras for the first time.

Kitty and the Pit-Bull: Two Lessons from One Question

I’m going to use one historical incident here to make two very different points.

Michael Dukakis’s ill-fated 1988 presidential run is widely considered to have jumped the shark when he was asked the following question about his wife during his second debate with George H. W. Bush:

"Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?"

Dukakis answered:

"No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life."

The reply was calm, logical and consistent – and helped cost him the election. Why? Because the American people want a strong leader, and matter-of-factly answering a question about one’s own wife being raped by saying you wouldn’t want the murderer dead made Dukakis look like a wimp.

Fair or not, this is probably a textbook example of how even voters who care very much about issues can turn on a candidate who is just too cerebral and too detached from the emotional aspects of serious matters that impact them. This is something that Barack Obama really needs to pay attention to, because he’s another Democrat who is often considered at times to be overly-intellectual and almost too cool for his own good. The McCain camp is trying to make the election about personalities and likeability rather than issues, and while Obama is right to stick to the issues, he can’t ignore the personality factor either. (I know he knows that. It just makes me feel better to write it down. :) )

I’m not sure what would have been a good answer for Dukakis, but I think this would have at least been better, while still honest:

“I’d want to strangle the killer with my bare hands. But we are a nation of laws, not of men running wild with vengeance, and in the long term I think he’d suffer more being behind bars for 50 years than getting a quick exit.”

Of course, that’s easy for me to say with the benefit of hindsight.

--

Now, let’s switch gears completely, back to one of my favorite topics of late: Sarah Palin.

There’s just something about the Kitty Dukakis question and Sarah Palin’s right-wing viewpoints that immediately resonated. And so I wondered, what would happen if anyone in the media still had the balls that Bernard Shaw had in 1988, and if that reporter were willing to put Sarah Palin on the spot and force her to acknowledge to the whole nation the extreme nature of her abortion stance. Something like this:

"Governor, if your 13-year-old daughter were raped and became pregnant, would you favor her right to terminate the pregnancy?"

An honest answer to that question would probably go a long way towards breaking the mythical “super-mommy moose-hunter uber-reformer” populist spell that the GOP has successfully cast on both the media and the electorate over the last ten days.

Is it a tough question? You bet. So is being president.

Too personal? No way. If she wants to be able to make Supreme Court appointments, I want, nay demand, that the people of the United States get the chance to learn about her positions – in detail. And the fact that she's a woman doesn't matter.

Sometimes a president needs to deal with tough questions and scenarios. Just like Dukakis did. Just like the tough questions Obama was asked during the primary. If Sarah Palin can’t answer those questions, she should withdraw from this election. If the American people and media can’t ask those questions, they should withdraw in advance any complaints they have about a future President Palin.