September 25, 2008

Snark, Stunts, and Manufactured Controversies

Ross Douthat yawns at the latest alleged what's-it in the presidential race, and it's hard not to yawn along with him:

Barack Obama, who once claimed to embody sweeping, once-in-a-generation change, has ended up running a cautious, negative, and deeply generic Democratic campaign, while John McCain, who's supposedly all about honor and service and aching nobility, has offered a mix of snark, stunts, and manufactured controversies week in and week out. And the pundit class, deeply invested in the notion that the stakes in this election are stunningly, awesomely high, has responded to the fundamental dullness of the race itself with wild hyperventilation, unable to accept that this campaign just hasn't lived up to their round-the-clock hype.
Posted by Dr. Frank at September 25, 2008 06:11 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Yup. Makes me wanna go hear Nader at MPC (Monterey) Mon aft, just to hear some meaty content, free of bantering. I talked with a brilliant guy, John Arquillo of the Naval Postgraduate School (sh-sh) at a Mtry County Green mtg in support of Nader back in 2000. We could relate, since we both had GOP roots but weren’t impressed with Geo W. And while Geo and Al Gore were focusing on Star Wars, they were ignoring terrorism, which Nader felt should be the focus instead (this was pre-911, remember). I agreed, based on gut instinct, as did Arquillo, based on his professional expertise! Anyway . . . 8 yrs later . . . still not impressed with the campaign focuses, huh?

Posted by: Mari at September 26, 2008 05:49 AM

Obama has run a fairly ordinary campaign as far as his media strategy and message goes, but it's out of the ordinary in it's approach to organizing new voters, even in traditionally red states. It's also different in that it's not been trying to dominate news cycles--something McCain has taken to new levels of absurdity.

And it's not been negative by any reasonable standard.

Posted by: ambivalentmaybe at September 26, 2008 08:46 PM

Negative? Obama has been quite restrained; I actually wish that he would be less conciliatory and sensitive at times. Obviously, Douthat is an example of the many neo-cons (including Frank) who project their guy's attributes onto the other guy...you know, "Obama may have gone from food stamps as a child to the Harvard Law Review, but he is the elitist," while the obvious (well, not so obvious to some...) elephant in that room is the one who left his first wife, and the mother of his children, for a billionaire beer heiress young enough to be his daughter....the same elephant who cannot recall how many homes he owns.

Neo-cons are scrambling because McCain and his ridiculous choice of a running mate are sinking, and sinking fast. Eight years of having President McNumbnuts has finally worn down America's patience, and this election is going to be a blowout. McCain will be the George McGovern of 2008. It is about bloody time.

Posted by: David at September 26, 2008 11:25 PM

Yeah the GREAT GROOVY DEBATE is an ELUSIVE EXCLUSIVE CLUB that the dems and repubs made for only dems and repubs... back in the 80s was it? They only let in one other party candidate since; why? Because the guy had the mega dough re mi...

gee wilikers... there are other candidates and other parties... in which the candidates don't use a thesaurus to rewrite their opponent's speech like in the Great Groovy Debate. YAWN.

D's & R's are the same corporation. They are frightened to have the other parties' debate them... poor fragile babies.

Oh I forgot the voting machines and the hackers...

Posted by: demos, repubs & the tidy club - oh my at September 30, 2008 12:15 AM