Hard News: History is now
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There is no redeeming himself by changing the Republican Party. McCain is 72 years old, a failed candidate for president and at the end of the road.
More likely is Sarah Palin, who is far more attuned to the evangelical base like Bush was, being promoted as the Republican hope. Lets face it - the GOP is more likely to blame the "centrist" McCain for losing than it is to look in the mirror and see the hate filled party of resentment it has become. -
looking forward to them repainting the __white__house. place'll look bad.
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No, Americans all seem to have a not to latent idealism about the unifying idea of the American dream.
It what makes them so different from us, I think culturally we lost that idealism of our imperial dream - blown to muddy smithereens on the Somme and at Passchendaele - never to be recovered.
"Never" seems a bit harsh - but did we have a collective, unifying dream before then? Warfare and fighting, here and abroad, marked us for a long time and we're still channelling it into sport and violence. No-one's articulated an alternative vision. or if they have, they got stomped on in the ruck ;-)
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Yep, agree with Don.
McCain's job was to sound gracious and try to avoid the blame for the feral elements of the Republican supporters going out and behaving badly. He was out to salvage some of his reputation for behaving honourably and acting in a less partisan manner. The fact that he delivered it well and sounded like a half-decent human being shouldn't disguise the people he represented during this campaign, and the compromises he made with his own, much-vaunted, integrity to secure the Republican 'base'.
Like I said a couple of pages back, McCain may have delivered a good speech warmly, but Obama's is the one that historians are going to be able to look back on and say, 'yep, here's a man mapping out the challenges of his presidency and how he's going to govern'.
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I wonder what a future Republican competitor to Obama could be like.
He's dealt convincingly with the patriotism and terrorism and socialism slurs, he's overcome being a black man. He's beaten the patricians and the would-be dynasty. And he currently owns political decency. The more he's slimed, the better he looks.
Meanwhile the Rs are a bitter, congealing lump, like a dislodged limpet in the sun.
One of my colleagues at work remarked that the electoral map looked like an old map of the Union vs the Confederacy. And that's right. The Republicans are reduced to what's left of the Southern Strategy.
My bet is that he'll go two terms, and even then, if the Dems lose it will be because they can't find a half-way good successor.
Anyway, I'm getting happily drunk. The lawless, revolting, torturing pluto-klepto-caco-archy are going to be out on their ear. Their cheerleaders on Fox (now there are some lickspittles) are slump shouldered and grim and I'm maxing out on schadenfreude. If the Obama regime is the most boring, bloodless, merely competent administration ever, we will have been rescued.
I think they'll do better than that though.
(My sentimental part has been tearing up all day with accounts of African Americans at the polls who never thought this day would come. That really gladdened my heart.)
I wonder what will happen in NZ politics three years hence? You'd have to be studying the Obama campaign and its stupendous use of volunteer energy for clues.
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looking forward to them repainting the whitehouse. place'll look bad.
yeah, I was wondering if Clinton (George that is) will be invited to perform at the inauguration. I'm sure he can get the old band back together for just that one tune.
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Obama beat the best.
He beat the biggest short-ods favourite for the Dem nomination, with all her undoubted talents and infrastrucutre.
And then he beat the best Rep candidate since pre-Nixon days.
And he did it pulling away and in the midst of a financial melt-down
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Here you go, Simon:
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The Republicans have to change the demographics of the nation are changing rapidly.
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You're probably right, but I'd rather be having a steak dinner. If Saturday night turns out to my liking and I'm still doing the humpty dance on Monday morning, you have my permission to come around and do to me all that shit you no longer have a S. 59 defence for if you do it to a child.
Craig, just to make things crystal clear, my primary emotion at the moment is relief. The same relief I'd feel if after eight years of having a P-house next door, the police finally shut it down and carted off the crazies. Finally I can come home from work and get a decent nights sleep, because I won't be woken up at 3.00AM by a nutter on the front lawn waving a knife, and shouting about the messages from God being beamed into his head.
And I'm getting a side-order of hope with that relief. Maybe the family that moves in will keep the grass cut, and won't block the carport with their people-mover every morning.
So, I'm (literally) opening the champagne with one hand and (metaphorically) taking noise control off the speed dial, but gloating is a quite a way down the to-do list.
Years ago Russell mentioned that he wanted to keep things 'clubbable', for which I read 'at least civil'. We may disagree vehemently about politics and policy, but I would hope we can still sit down and break bread together.
So, as far as Saturday goes: que sera, sera. Enjoy the steak dinner.
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I just checked. Obama currently has 52% of the popular vote in the US. It is literally 20 years since a president enjoyed that level of support (oddly, that was Bush senior, on 53).
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My sentimental part has been tearing up all day with accounts of African Americans at the polls who never thought this day would come.
amen. i'd give anything to see what the turn-out in tyler, texas was like. i loved living in that town, but learned there what deep-seated racism was really like.
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I just checked. Obama currently has 52% of the popular vote in the US.
Half of California yet to be counted.
Like I said a couple of pages back, McCain may have delivered a good speech warmly, but Obama's is the one that historians are going to be able to look back on and say, 'yep
There's an Onion quote for every occasion. The day after Kerry's defeat (from memory):
"Gore: it could have been me delivering that concession speech"
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Franken is 250 votes behind, and Karl Rove himself just said he''l take it when the blue districts come in.
Well it certainly got out higher than that, but it seems as though your friend Karl Rove may come through for you...
96% of precincts reporting and Franken is up by 1100.
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The fact that he delivered it well and sounded like a half-decent human being shouldn't disguise the people he represented during this campaign, and the compromises he made with his own, much-vaunted, integrity to secure the Republican 'base'.
well, that's kind of my point. i heard a guy who having the shackles of representing those people being lifted of his shoulders.
because... well... he can't do it himself...
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Totally stoked by the result. But after watching 4 glorious news channels of Sky at home I went to Guy Fawkes at my folks who only had the public channels. Whichever ARSEHOLE at TV1 and 3 decided to interrupt Obama's speech with their own inane commentary on it, while it was actually LIVE, deserves a kick up the arse. Then they hand-picked the only bitter sounding part out of McCain's one, which I'd already heard on the radio during all the gracious bits. I will seriously never watch news on 1 or 3 by choice again. They suck goat's nobs.
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They suck goat's nobs
Love it, Ben. May not be Obama but it's sure eloquent in its own way. :)
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well, that's kind of my point. i heard a guy who having the shackles of representing those people being lifted of his shoulders.
because... well... he can't do it himself...
Yes he could - McCain chose to go down the Rovian path after 2004. Nobody forced him to do that. After another 4 years of Bush incompetence he might have stood a better chance against Obama if he'd been his former self. But I still think his former self was highly suspect anyway.
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BenWilson "Totally stoked by the result... ...ARSEHOLE at TV1 and 3... ...suck goat's nobs"
Ben
not for the first time...
TOTALLY agree -
tho'
why goats' ?
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Whichever ARSEHOLE at TV1 and 3 decided to interrupt Obama's speech with their own inane commentary on it, while it was actually LIVE, deserves a kick up the arse.
So, I called home to get the old TV unpacked from a hole somewhere and dig out the bunny ears. Family sits down for the historic (and educational) moment just as Obama is talking puppies in the White House...
...and it all stops so we can hear from a kiwi TV jorno who things Obama's running mate is Joe Lieberman. Thank god for youtube, that'll be the last we see of NZ TV for a long while again.
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Craig, just to make things crystal clear, my primary emotion at the moment is relief.
Rich, just to be equally clear in return, my emotions are a little more mixed. I was an ObamaCon for reasons I've articulated at exhausted length and don't have the energy to recap.
I get that plenty of folks around these parts don't give a flying fuck what happens to the Republicans -- that in their view the GOP is irredeemably evil and McCain is a wrinkled colostomy bag by definition. But can you understand why my delight at Obama's well-deserved victory against nay-sayers from both left and right is tempered by mourning for what a great party became. It can return to being the party of Lincoln and Reagan; but that's not a sure thing, by any measure. And it will be a long hard fight. I don't expect TomS or Don Christie or you to have any investment in that whatsoever. But I do.
Ah, screw it. I'm running on adrenaline fumes and still have work to do before going to bed. If anyone is interested, I might be more articulate when I've got a clear(-ish) desk and had a good night's sleep.
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Don, Max etc
Imagine the dilemma the One News producer/editor must have had.
"Who do the viewers want to hear from right now? Obama, or Wilson? Let's see ... Obama's making history, but on the other hand, we've paid Tim's airfare. So Tim it is!"
What's worse is if you complain, you'll get the usual PR guff: "live television ... instant decision ... benefit of hindsight ... can't please everyone".
It's an easy decision, only foresight was needed, and you would please everyone, bar Tim's mum.
This is how bad it was: I was grateful for Fox News (and Prime for relaying them).
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Do we have television in New Zealand?
Who needs them?
I have the interwobs. I have CNN and Fox and BBC world on Saturn cable. I haven't watched NZ news since when Dad came to visit months ago, and apart from our own election coverage, when I will reluctantly tune in, I can't imagine when I will again.
Because NZ tv news sucks. Hard. It has for years. I'm sure I'll hear about it when it improves, via some other medium.
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Don, Max etc
Imagine the dilemma the One News producer/editor must have had.And on that note, who's joining me in giving mad props to CNN? Their coverage was pretty flawless I though. They didn't interject before, during or after Obama's speech, had a hotline for the fuckups at the electoral booths (a public service! from the media!), they kept the bombast to a minimum and did their best to provide intelligent commentary from people who had a fairly good sense of the kind of history that was being made. And then there was John King with his sexy touch screen. Joy!
(Okay, the holograms were fuking stupid. But hey...)
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