Posts by Craig Ranapia
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In raving objectivist news, would Lindsay Perigo stand a chance of being taken more seriously if he didn't sign off his press releases with paragraphs like this?
Yup -- and that's all I really want to say on the subject. Still, I've got to give John Key mad props for making it hard to tell the difference between the rabid right and the loony left in recent days. In this respect, he's got a touch of the McCain about him. More! More! More!
I was talking to someone on Labour's list a month or so ago and by his own admission Labour's advertising in the 2005 campaign was "crap"
I thought their whole campaign strategy was crap -- it seemed to run to 'Don Brash will eat your baby, trigger a race war and sell the whole country to Rupert Murdoch - by lunchtime', and nothing else had to be done. As I said at the time, it was weird watching the Government run a textbook feral opposition campaign, rather than the equally textbook 'we gave you sunshine, we gave you cute kittens -- more to come' shiny, happy government campaign.
Please, Sir, can I have some more. :)
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I don`t really mind which of the frontrunners takes the nomination, I just want to see the Republicans thrown out of the White House.
And then?
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Ben:
If you want to get right down to it, if Florida and Michigan Democrats are feeling "disenfranchised" they have nobody to blame except their own state party leadership for playing chicken with a T-Rex over the timing of their primaries.
And the same thing happened to the Michigan GOP -- they were warned that sanctions would be imposed if they brought forward their primary and now half their delegation won't be seated. If my memory serves, four or five other states were planning to do the same. They were smart.
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In fact, it puzzles me how Obama has had such a relatively quick rise within the Democrat party, without having achieved anything much of note as a senator. Maybe someone can enlighten me on this?
Well, the first I saw of him was the keynote speaking slot he had at the 2004 Democrat Convention, which I was pretty impressed by.
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Craig R and I were coming back from the radio recording today talking about what would happen if the Dems got to convention with Obama winning the popular vote but Hillary taking it with the super-delegates.
"Florida," said Craig.
And to be fair, if the reverse happened, I could easily imagine NOW and Gloria Steinem really going to town about another woman getting the glass ceiling dropped on her head by the 'bros over hos' establsihment.
While I know Obama and Clinton can only do so much to hose down the nut-roots, I really hope they decide raising the temperature doesn't serve their interests, the party or the public good. If nothing else, it's damn undignified when you're making Coulter and Limbaugh look rational. Do you really want to go there? :)
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Nice turn of phrase, Craig, but hardly what is happening between the two leading Dems right now.
Fair ping where Clinton personally is concerned. But I do stand by my assertion that it beggars credibility that some of the nasty and dishonest stuff coming from proxies like Shaheen and former-President Clinton was going down without her knowledge.
No matter what happens in the Presidential in Nov, the Dems will still hold both the House and the Senate, so a President Obama would expect the Congress would pass his agenda.
Up to a point, but it's way too easy for Kiwi observers to assume Republicans are just over-caffeinated Tories who go to church a lot, and the Dems are Labour with silly accents. I agree with you that it's unlikely the Dems are going to lose their House majority; there might even be a net gain of a couple of seats. But I don't see any change in a significant caucus of so-called 'Blue Dog Democrats' who are holding fairly conservative districts with very thin majorities. Take Mark Foley, for example. I don't think he lost his seat because the Florida 16th suddenly lurched left-wards, but because he was such a thorough scumbag Fidel Castro would look good by comparison. Tim Mahoney might be a Democrat, but by any measure he's on the conservative end of moderate.
I certainly hope after the next election (however it goes), the GOP is going to start realising sticking with the theo-cons is a slow form of electoral suicide.
Finally, Emma wrote:
I do wonder, if Obama ends up pulling a disaffected Republican vote, whether he could then get a second term, once he fails to deliver them... whatever undefined miracle they're looking for.
Well, Emma, the 'miracle' I'd be looking for is quite easily defined. If the GOP put up a Huckabee or Romney in 2012, I would pull the lever for Obama again with a very clear conscience. And I'd keep handing out the ballot box tough love to the GOP, and keep voting for every Democrat who wasn't a flaming sack o' nuts until the Republican Party get the message that there are a lot of conservatives out there who aren't going to swallow Nanny Statist theo-cons any more. I want the Party of Reagan and Goldwater back, or it's no frigging use to me.
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Was she supposed to say nothing?
Well, yes -- it might have been a good move to actually occupy the moral high ground instead of just claiming it. I know it played well in talkback land and she is perfectly entitled to arrange her diary as she sees fit, but her snub wasn't without barbs attached. And whatever else I'd say about Helen Clark, she's not prone to the random blurts.
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Whatever, Key's visit to Waitangi appears to have been a political triumph. I can't claim to understand the politics of it: Key was a member of the party of Don Brash; the party that apparently still wishes to repeal the foreshore and seabed legislation in order to extinguish any prospect of customary rights, and to abolish the Maori seats.
Yes, Virginia, Maori do actually appreciate people who have the bottle to come and say their piece to your face -- even when they know it's not going to be to an entirely enthusiastic audience. And I've heard first hand reports that Key's reception was civil (as it should have been), but people were hardly lining up to kiss his arse (equally as it should have been -- if Key wasn't there to listen more than he spoke, he shouldn't have been there at all).
Problematic right now: Close Up's funding of petrol vouchers and accommodation as the price of access to Iti and his famly at Waitangi. It runs dangerously close to paying for the story, however modestly. Moreover, it's the news media not just conveying a particular Waitangi narrative, but actively creating it. Bad move.
Equally problematic: Don't think it's a wise move for the Prime Minister opining on operational and editorial matters in the news department of a state-owned broadcaster. Three loved it, though.
Personally, my definition of a 'waste of public money' is more like TVNZ using a million dollars of funding earmarked for 'non-commercial' productions being used to extend the second series of Sensing Murder (a massive ratings success) by five episodes.
I've also got to wonder if Clark has a problem with the practice itself, or the fact that beneficiaries were Iti, his son and daughter in law? (She might also like to brush up on the difference between being charged with a criminal offense and a conviction.)
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It reads as if it became something special, and something worth a bit more respect than the snide dismissal it got from John Key.
And do you think Clark could have been a little more snide and condescending herself? It's a bit rich snarking about the dumb Maori being suckered by National's "secret agenda", while down the road at a party function surrounded by the party faithful and invited guests and media.
I understand the politics and media strategy involved on Clark's part, but please don't ask me to accept that she was trying to do Ngapuhi any great favours, or making some grand stand in defence of 'civility' and 'respect'. Perhaps politicians in glass whare shouldn't be throwing stones when it comes to dignified and civil discourse.
I'm also resigned that in certain quarters, Key would be damned no matter what he did or said. Build a bridge and get over it, I suppose.
Anyway, an estimated 46,000+ attended commemorations at Waitangi and none of them got dragged away in paddy waggons after starting a riot. How about giving a little credit where credit's due, and not being quite so snide and dismissive yourself?
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but maybe there's a little less in Obama's Greater Uniter line. He's not exactly uniting Dem voters.
And absolutely nothing in the Inevitability of Hillary line the media were pushing for over a year. I don't actually see how it does the Democrats any harm that their presidential nominee is being elected rather than anointed, in primary after primary where historic numbers of Democrats actually give a shit.
And I'm really beginning to get rather depressed where fundamental civility, and a rhetoric pitched slightly above 'my opponent is a baby-eating pig-fucker', is greeted with a cynical eye roll. If you're voting for Clinton because you believe the same old bullshit in a brand new box is what America needs,don't waste your time wondering why the stench remains the same.
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