Posts by Simon Grigg
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No, I think the Democrats have to get over it because I find it hard to believe that McCain operatives didn't have attack ads ready to go for everyone who was seriously in the Veepstakes.
Yep, agreed, and that preparation and level of aggression is the point of campaigning difference that I'd like to see the Dems make up.
McCain is a turkey (and a sad indicator of, post Reagan, how insubstantial a candidate you can reasonably nominate and get away with) and ridiculously vulnerable but the Democrats so far honourable style of campaigning has given him a pass to date.....as the GOP swings out yet another series of pretty vicious attack ads, and loosens the attack dogs, both at the base level of Rush and in places like the Murdoch press.
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You just can't get a nerdier starting place than that for a long-term relationship. I'm sorry. You can all try, but you will not top it. It is totally ludicrous
Ahh the post I was waiting for in this thread.....
To be honest, I didn't know Costello-l was still trucking but it seems it is. It's also spawned a variety of albums including one which included a track by a young guy, Dane Wagge, who died in 1996. His story was a pretty moving part of my early days on the net and the power of it.
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Simon: The attack dogs would have been off the leash if Jesus Christ was on the ticket. Get over it
Umm..yes. Not sure what that has to do with anything. I wasn't making any comment about Biden as VP as such but the way the Republicans attack if you read through. You sound a mite defensive there Craig? Myself I think Biden has a neutral effect.
I would say though that based on past races, the debates matter less than playing to the lowest denominator. Which had more resonance in 2004, the debates or the relentless Swift Boating. I'd argue the latter.
The GOP know that the electorate is not to be over estimated. One of their themes this time around is to imply that Obama is too smart for his own good.
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Given that the issue reduces to electability, the point should have been confronted during the primaries.
It was, repeatedly, and pushed aside but as those two commentaries, and a few others over the past few days have said, you can can sweep it under the carpet but it won't go away. Race is a huge issue in this election. If it wasn't McCain wouldn't be running those ads suggesting Obama was uppity and had forgotten his place. They have resonance.
That said, Obama's imminent selection as the Democratic nominee, his continuing popularity, and the fact that he is still favoured to win
Kerry had more of a lead this far out.
Frankly, unless the Democrats toughen up they are likely toast in the POTUS race come November. McCain is a shitty candidate with a less than slender grasp on international affairs and lousy domestic policies. Not only that but he's extraordinarily dangerous on several levels. But he's level pegging with Obama.
The Republicans know: keep it dumb, play to peoples' prejudices and fears and thump the very simple messages over and over regardless of their veracity. It worked for Reagan, it worked for GWB and it's working now. It only took them a couple of hours to bang the attack ads on after Biden was nominated.
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Rightly or wrongly, the Democrats have decided the gap between McCain's hardscrabble image and the reality of his marrying into wealth decades ago (after walking out on his seriously ill first wife) is worth exploiting. Biden's way more able to do that: he's the poorest guy in the Senate.
If that's the only reason to bring Biden in then I think the Democrats are wasting their time. It's not a point that is going to stick with those touting security & experience as tipping points for giving their votes to McCain. It may have some resonance with some but I think those are already likely Obama voters, and I don't think either way the Dems have the attack dogs to hit McCain hard enough with that to make it work.
The Democrats really are just too nice. The rabid lunatic fringe can repeat the most outrageous garbage over and over again, slapping Obama regardless of its truth and the Democrats respond politely with 'it's not true'. No-one cares about the truth..in Rove, Rush and Murdoch's America it's about repeating the lie, no matter how irrational or ridiculous, over and over again to make it stick.
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Obama's prejudice problem is the subject of this in today's observer.
Senator Biden voted for the invasion and the war.Obama now has lost the high moral ground argument which I think appealed to so many.
The irony is that Biden has been bought on board to add an experience factor to the Democrat ticket..to add that perception of experience since such a perception is adding polls points to McCain right now despite McCain's experience mostly consisting of a few years in a DRV jail, and a history of misjudgement and gross over-reaction.
I'm thinking that experience hasn't served America that well in recent years, but there seems to be a desire on the right for more of the same.
Interesting OpEd in the FT from Singapore's Kishore Mahbubani a couple of days back which accentuates an important non-Western perspective to the current crossroads which I think this election symbolises. He talks of the return of history, ie a repudiation of Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History, which, from a Neo-Con perspective touted the supremacy of the West about 20 years back, and I think he's right.
McCain however represents a continuation of those somewhat discredited Fukuyama themes (not least by Fukuyama himself) of US dominance and right and, if elected, must serve to continue Bush's slow but steady destruction of perceived US supremacy and right to supremacy (which has largely evaporated in the past decade).
That's what experience gets yer...
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A reversion to red/blue America was inevitable IMO, but still its not exactly good news.
Obama has to walk a tightrope. One one hand he has to sound reasoned, rational and provide some hope for his core base and on the other he has to mouth the inane, patriotic gung-ho-isms that so much of America expects. McCain's base on the other hand just expects the latter as dumbed down as possible which is much easier.
And then there is the whole way McCain has structured his attack ads of recent to imply that Obama is uppity, has forgotten his place. The race thing still has huge resonance.
McCain just needs to keep it simplistic, target and play on the fear of those enemies America needs, and subtly keep on playing the race card and he'll walk in in November.
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can I make that good god, but then, thinking about it, either way works as Grant seems estranged from his.
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I would cut her off if she did.
God god.
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Churton's writing is valid for his personal perspective as much as anyone else's but hi 20 page essay in mysterex on the gladstone was practically unreadable and bore little resemblance to the actual happening at the venue.
was that him? It was unsigned as i recall...no I agree, it was rambling and almost incoherent.
having lived through a number of these periods its sometimes hard to recognise the picture painted an the actual events.
That's the way I feel about some of the stuff in Mysterex relating to Auckland in the late 70s-mid 80s period.
But for all that, I'm extraordinarily glad that someone is documenting it. I've lived through or watched a few sub-scenes in Auckland that have produced some fairly interesting people and been rather influential in their own way and they've kinda slipped off the radar, perhaps lost forever.