john mccain

Hulk No Vote! Hulk Smash Things!

Someone polled comic book writers to see which candidate each superhero would vote for. Sounds fun, right? Except, of course, the writers really just said the candidate that they would vote for and ascribed it to those characters. So, while it is perhaps likely that Tony Stark (Iron Man) would vote Obama, it seems less likely that Bruce Banner (The Hulk), John Constantine, and all of the X-Men would as well. In fact, it appears that virtually every superhero would vote for Obama, with the Punisher voting for Bob Barr (because he doesn't play by the rules!) and a couple voting for Nader, while McCain and Cynthia McKinney each snagged one vote apiece.

This brings me to my final election question - I have read hundreds of Obama endorsements by bands and movie stars and magazines and web sites and goodness knows what else, and I have read exactly one noteworthy McCain endorsement: Heidi Montag.

So, is there anything, absolutely anything, less cool than endorsing John McCain?

McCain-Obama Debate Live Reactions

All times Central.

8:07 Brokaw asks McCain who he'd nominate for Treasury Secretary. McCain quips "not you, Tom. Sorry." Probably the last life of the night. And not a big laugh.

8:10 McCain is going after Obama.

8:14 Obama says "I've got to correct some of McCain's history. Not surprisingly." McCain starts force-laughing. Man, they're gonna be gunning at each other tonight.

8:14 Obama wants to make Warren Buffet Treasury Secretary and thanks him for his support. Shedding that celebrity label, eh Barack?

8:15 Obama stops pointing fingers for a moment to say "you don't want to see politicians pointing fingers."

8:17 New Drinking Game: Drink every time McCain says "croneyism."

8:20 New Drinking Game: Drink every time Obama puts Bush and McCain in the same sentence.

8:21 McCain almost said "maverick" but didn't quite.

8:22 "Pork-barrel!" Everybody drink.

8:25 McCain said "clean coal technology" and Obama visibly flinched. I think he wanted to hit him on it, but he doesn't get to because of the rules.

8:26 Drink every time Brokaw reminds the candidates about the rules.

8:27 Obama sent out an aide to check the gas prices in the area. Smart.

8:27 Brokaw motioned Obama to wrap up and he smacked him down. "Just one point I want to make, Tom." Ooooooh.

8:27 Brokaw reminds everyone about the rules! Everyone drinks!

8:28 There's a question about sacrifice and the American Dream. Obama's gotta be breathing a sigh of relief that McCain is going first. You never want to go before the Vietnam vet.

8:29 McCain spends no time on sacrifice and the American Dream and instead talks about earmarks for two minutes. The message being "no sacrifice needed! I've got this under control. Elect me!"

8:30 Obama invokes 9-11. This is either a kill punch or a huge mistake.

8:31 It's neither. Obama reminds everyone how terribly Bush did during the 9-11 crisis. Weirdly, that's not how I remember it.

8:32 Obama's now talking about energy incentives. Do you get the sense that both candidates have only two or three issues they're going after tonight?

8:33 Woah, rules comment! Everybody drink!

8:33 Brokaw asks a question with Bush in the question. Little bit of a softball there.

8:34 Obama defended earmarks. He probably shouldn't have mentioned that earmarks are 18% of the federal budget. That is not helping.

8:35 McCain just invoked both Herbert Hoover and Protectionism. No one there has any idea what he's talking about.

8:37 I like Obama's little head twitch whenever he can't respond. It's killing him not to say anything.

8:37 Woah! Take eight drinks! What happened there? Obama tried to respond even though it wasn't his turn, so Brokaw slapped him down, but Obama kept going anyway, so Brokaw started reading a new question anyway. I think Brokaw's getting pissed at Obama's cavalier attitude toward the debate rules.

8:39 Obama has now completely ignored the question and started talking about tax exemptions anyway. Maybe Brokaw will call him on it.

8:40 Obama hits McCain back for his "overhead projector" crack. Saw that coming.

8:40 McCain wants to answer the question and to respond to Obama at the same time. He's so excited he's not sure where to start.

8:41 McCain's getting Mavericky up there.

8:41 Oooh, base closings. Hitting the tough issues.

8:42 No one broke the rules and Brokaw made a rules comment anyway. Take two drinks!

8:43 McCain makes Lieberman reference. Take a drink.

8:43 Am I the only one that thinks that McCain makes it sound like he and Lieberman are perhaps some sort of superhero duo traveling the world proposing alternate energy solutions?

8:45 Obama struggles when he goes first but kills when he goes second.

8:46 Technical director miscuts again. Welcome to prime time, rook.

8:47 Both candidates have this look when the other one is going that says "man, look at this hack dithering away with all this nonsense."

8:47 Huge rules smackdown! Obama takes a potshot. McCain does all but wink at Brokaw. I think he's enjoying that he and Brokaw look like a matched set up there with Obama looking like the odd man out.

8:49 McCain getting cute, he just referred to Obama as "that one." You know that's going to be quoted out of context constantly on MSNBC this week.

8:51 Obama talks health care and only talks about women's issues. Smart.

8:53 I really feel that McCain is winning so far tonight, but I might be too biased to tell. He's certainly extremely well-prepped tonight, and he's throwing heat. But with Obama having a strong lead in economic issues, to undecideds he might look a little desperate more than passionate.

8:55 McCain just booted the health care question. Not good.

8:56 Obama going second on health care is gonna be rough for McCain. He's gonna eat this one up.

8:56 Obama invoked his dead mother. Ooh.

8:57 Obama hints that he thinks it might be possible that John McCain hates children. He's really gunning for him.

8:58 Woah, Obama just took a shot at the great state of Arizona. Don't bring that business up in here, sir.

8:58 New Drinking Game: take two drinks every time Brokaw makes a rules comment and then McCain makes a joke about it.

9:00 "We don't have time for on the job training." Then he turns around and stalks back to the chair. Woah.

9:02 Obama calls McCain a "cheerleader for Bush." That's two drinks.

9:03 Obama says we can't help Darfur until we change John McCain and George Bush's foreign policy. That seems mean of us.

9:05 Darfur reference #2. And wait, the problem is that McCain can't rally international support, but Obama can. Well, he can when he's President. That's when he will receive that magical power.

9:06 McCain wants a cool hand at the tiller. I feel that if you're in charge of steering the boat, you should be allowed gloves.

9:08 McCain just referenced "his hero," Reagan, while also pointing out that he knew more than him about the military. Gutsy.

9:09 Obama might be right. All our problems might really be that we never finished hunting for bin Laden.

9:11 McCain just flip-flopped and said that Teddy Roosevelt is his hero. Reagan or Roosevelt, McCain! Pick a side.

9:12 McCain and Obama can't even agree on how to pronounce "Taliban." Obama pronounces it "TAL-lee-ban" and McCain calls it "TAHL-eh-BAHN."

9:13 Obama just smacked down Brokaw again, and kept going, so much so that Brokaw said "well, I'm just a hired hand here." Someone is not going to be invited to Brokaw's famous Halloween party and bob-for-apples marathon.

9:14 Obama says that McCain calls him "green behind the ears." It does sound like McCain.

9:15 McCain said that he could totally catch bin Laden if he wanted to. He's probably just feeling a little sluggish today, that's all that stopping him.

9:17 Drink every time McCain references General Petraus. That's at least four drinks so far.

9:18 The candidates sound mad at each other. Like, a fight might break out. Quick poll: who's the most likely to hurl their microphone at the other in anger? I think it's tied.

9:19 McCain just said that we're not going to have another Cold War with Russia. Yeah, but that's probably what the last guy said.

9:20 McCain wants to show Georgia "moral support." Just what they're looking for.

9:21 Obama also feels that Georgia could use some moral support. We need to do something about that poor nation's self-esteem.

9:24 Brokaw just asked a "yes or no" question. Nice try.

9:24 McCain said that if he answered "yes" to the question, he would start another Cold War with Russia. The stakes for this debate are high, huh? Also, five minutes ago there was no chance of a cold war, so, this seems like an empty threat.

9:25 McCain just patted an Navy officer in the audience on the shoulder in a decidedly grandfatherly manner. Good work in the Middle East, sonny. Swing by for pinochle sometime.

9:27 Obama went over to the Navy officer to shake his hand, but I think he didn't want to look unoriginal, so he's just standing too close to him, instead.

9:29 Foreign policy is not treating Obama well. He's got his one point ("I hate Iraq. And Bush."), and the rest is a lot of tap dancing. I think he's happy the debate is finally leaving this subject.

9:30 Obama referenced his wife, his grandmother, and his single mother, then swung back and referenced them again. Finish off whatever alcohol you have left.

9:32 The question is "what don't you know?" and both McCain and Obama's answer is "pretty much nothing."

9:34 Oh, a steady hand at the tiller. The guy must've gotten gloves.

9:36 How much does this shaking hands with the audience at the end of the show montage look like the end of SNL each week?

9:40 The "that one" comment is going to be the the story of out this debate. It's gonna be at least three or four news cycles. Guarantee it.

The picture is what sells it.

In my excitement at the discovery of the GOP Ticket = "Battlestar Galactica" Theory, I forgot to mention the continuation of the "The West Wing" = Current Political Situation Theory.

In Season Six of "The West Wing," the Democratic candidate selects an older, weathered politician with Washington credibility and loads of foreign policy experience (along with a checkered past and a slight hint of masochism to his personality), to counteract accusations of his own naiveté. Meanwhile, the Republican goes against the longstanding expectations of his party and selects a young, rising-star governor from a lightly populated backwoods state to be his running mate. While his candidate's main object is to help shore up the base, his VP choice immediate goes on the offensive against the opposition as their dedicated hatchet man. In particular, the VP's eye-opener of a speech at the RNC raises the ire of the Democrats, before the Presidential candidate gives a less partisan, "I promise to work for the American people" speech to close the event.

So really, the similarities between the show and real life seem to have disappeared, eh?

By the way, has anyone else noticed that Obama's tax plan is the one Aaron Sorkin proposed in Season 4? They're even defending it in the same way.

I don't talk about this much...

McCain has rapidly gained five points in the polls over the past few weeks, putting himself only a few points behind Obama - though I’m sure that the Biden announcement combined with the DNC will change things in the coming days; and then the Republican announcement will swing things back again, etc.

I was hunting across news sites looking for reasons why McCain was gaining on Obama and came up empty. I found poll data and a few guesses about the cause, none of which were new: Hillary supporters are considering McCain, McCain has gone on the attack with good effect, etc. The surprising one was how many publications blamed the gain on racism. Here’s one rather unsurprising one.

Analysts continue to refer to racism as “the elephant in the room” in this election, but the obvious truth is that there’s been fairly consistent debate over the nature of race in politics throughout this election year. Not to say, as always, that we don’t still have miles to go.

I just don’t see how racism applies here. Assumably, there are a certain number of people in America who will never vote for a black candidate. Beyond that, there are shades of gray: people who might under very certain circumstances vote for a black president, people who have bitterness towards the black community for one reason or another, people who are vaguely but non-specifically prejudiced, and so on. But shouldn’t all that be decided by now?

If someone’s mind is made up against Obama, either partially or totally because of his race, that shouldn’t change according to current events. As best I understand it, it either affects your decision making or it doesn’t. You don’t suddenly decide “y’know, I don’t think I can vote for Obama after all. He is, after all, black.”

I have to think that the several major publications that blame McCain’s surge on racism have done Obama a disservice. To say that the only reason his opponent could rise in the polls would be general racism isn’t just insulting, it’s politically damaging. Naturally, Obama’s campaign has become the figurehead of race relations in this country, but comments like this make it only that. Obama’s made it fairly clear that he doesn’t want to spend a lot of time discussing his ethnicity (though certainly that hasn’t stopped anybody from doing it for him, and you can read into that however you want), so to turn his Presidential campaign into nothing more than a metaphor for the shape of prejudice in America is insulting to Obama, McCain, and Americans in general.