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October 4, 2004
Here’s a remix from the Republican Convention (“Keeping America Scared”), via Liz via Joi. I haven’t been able to see it because of my sub-par connection here in the hotel. (BTW, I got to hang out with Liz at the fun drinks-and-snacks fest Microsoft put on for its “Search Champs,” i.e., people it’s going to show some of its search software to tomorrow. Lucky me! Liz is here as the sole representative of all women.)
October 3, 2004
John Perry Barlow, brillliant and frank, explains why he’s supporting Kerry for President, albeit maybe not for prom king.
October 1, 2004
Micah Sifry has a new blog address. Not only do you get pungent analysis by a guy who knows politics and knows progressive organizing, it’s yet another tasty design by Bryan Bell.
The DNC has released an ad that boils the campaign down to Kerry’s uptilted chin and Bush’s unfortunate facial body language (bodily face language?). Yes, politics has now been reduced to as close to nothing as possible. But, given that Gore lost the first debate because he sighed in exasperation at Bush’s unknowing incoherence, maybe turnabout is fair play. Might as well complete the degradation of democracy and get it over with.
WiserBlog runs a letter home from Farnaz Fassihi, staff reporter and Middle East correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. It is a devastating portrait of the situation in Iraq. Here’s just a snippet:
Despite President Bush’s rosy assessments, Iraq remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was a ‘potential’ threat, under the Americans it has been transformed to ‘imminent and active threat,’ a foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to come.
Iraqis like to call this mess ‘the situation.’ When asked ‘how are thing?’ they reply: ‘the situation is very bad.”
What they mean by situation is this: the Iraqi government doesn’t control most Iraqi cities, there are several car bombs going off each day around the country killing and injuring scores of innocent people, the country’s roads are becoming impassable and littered by hundreds of landmines and explosive devices aimed to kill American soldiers, there are assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings. The situation, basically, means a raging barbaric guerilla war.
…The Sunnis have already said they’d boycott elections, leaving the stage open for polarized government of Kurds and Shiites that will not be deemed as legitimate and will most certainly lead to civil war
The New Yorker has an article this week that paints a bleaker picture in another dimension. Hussein’s ethnic cleansing, dispossessing Kurds to make for ethnically pure cities, has created fault lines that are already cracking wide open. It is an ugly, frightening future.
Email from Ken Mehlman, the Bush campaign manager:
President Bush spoke clearly and from the heart last night about the path forward – toward victory and security – in the War on Terror. The President spoke candidly about the difficulties facing our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as these countries prepare for their first free elections. The terrorists will continue to fight these steps toward freedom because they fear the optimism and hope of democracy. They fear the prospects for their ideology of hate in a free and democratic Middle East.
President Bush detailed a path forward in the War on Terror – a plan that will ensure that America fights the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan – not in America’s cities.
John Kerry failed the one test he had to pass last night: he failed to close the credibility gap he has with the American people as his record of troubling contradiction and vacillation spiraled down to incoherence.
More here.
Back when Dean was Da Man, one of the things that kept me going was the thought him and W squaring off in a debate. So, having seen Kerry last night, do I think Dean would have done better?
I actually think not. If Dean were debating W, I would expect more jabs. Kerry has the rhythm of a howitzer. But it worked for him. I think Kerry gained more votes for himself than Dean would have. I think Dean would have done well, but Kerry is more presidential, i.e., he talks slower and is taller. Yes, here in America we’re focused on the essentials.
Of course, W wouldn’t have had the same flip-flop charge to repeat ad nauseum (which I thought Kerry answered definitively only in the very last line of the debate: Hussein was a threat, but the question is how you respond to that threat). Karl Rove would certainly have come up with another theme with even more devastating results. Maybe it’d be that the ship of state needs a calm and steady hand, not an angry nut job. Plus the Republicans would have (rightfully) pressured Dean to unseal his gubernatorial records, and then would have spent 3 months finding and distorting everything they could.
On the other hand, I still believe that Dean’s campaign strategy was better than Kerry’s: Instead of running for the center in a fight over the handful of undecideds, run as a real alternative and hope to energize the I Don’t Vote party. On the third hand, Dean would have provided so many opportunities for the Republicans to trash him. By now, we’d probably have heard $80M worth of ads claiming that Dr. Judy Steinberg, his wife, had once prescribed cough syrup with alcohol in it to a 12 year old. With their politics of unerring irony, the Republicans would claim that Dr. Steinberg believes drinking is good for minors.
I am still deeply disappointed by the demise of the Dean campaign, but more because of the character of the campaign than because of the candidate. And I believe that someday — not in this election even if Kerry wins (please please please please) — we will take our country back. Or at least what’s left of it.
Perhaps you could hear my long sigh of relief. I thought Kerry was clear, concise, determined and offered a better set of solutions. Bush looked startled and confused and, for my money, kept repeating lines that Kerry’s very presence refuted.
The bad news is that I was certain that Gore creamed Bush, Mondale creamed Reagan, Carter creamed Reagan…
September 30, 2004
I enjoyed the new MoveOn.org ad. Will it convert any Republicans? I doubt it. But I can still have my little moment, can’t I? Please?
The actually-funny Hank Blakely has written a version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic that will amuse Kerryists and annoy Busholians. Here’s the chorus:
Glory, glory hallelujah.
Glory, glory, how they fooled ya.
From Florida to bloody Fallujah,
Their lies go marching on.
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