After 800 years, someone is finally mocking the Irish. @TheAVClub Jersey Shore producer will now do that to Boston http://t.co/YIZsTSVp14 hours ago
Noooooooooo! @Deadspin: Report: Steelers Hire Todd Haley As New Offensive Coordinator http://t.co/PJ3PXg8m14 hours ago
This is the part where I shamelessly brag about going 145-112 picking against the spread in the NFL this year. I KNOW FOOTBALL STUFF GOOD. 18 hours ago
People are chanting “Obama! Obama!”, honking their horns, pounding drums and clapping in unison outside my window in Ann Arbor tonight, and it’s 2:40 a.m. This is louder than any Michigan game and is unlike anything I’ve ever heard. Even when I discount partisanship, the tone feels so much different than the Bush wins of 2000 and 2004 — when I look at the victorious mood I saw back then, it felt that the tone of the celebrations was more, “We won and you didn’t; we proved our ideas right and defeated yours.” Yet today the nature of the happiness seems different, like a huge sense of relief that things really can be what we hoped they could be. Maybe that’s just because it’s been so many years of the other side winning, and so the left side doesn’t know how to gloat; maybe not. But it seems like the difference between a fan who watches his favorite team trounce the visitors versus a guy passing a test that he studied for and still worried he’d fail.
Even up until the last minute, I just didn’t believe Obama would win. It’s not so much that I thought America was racist, but that it was too set in its ways to make such a historic shift in such tumultuous times. People cling to the familiar, I thought. We rally round the known. Yet tonight I saw that so much of the country was so desperate to better things after eight years of the worst un-American leadership it has ever seen that it moved beyond any familiar model and was ready to listen to new ideas.
The old, heroic American John McCain made a reappearance tonight, just as I thought he would under winning circumstances. That he did so even while losing is a testament to Sen. John McCain. Maybe if he had stayed in his own personality earlier and avoided handing his campaign over to the worst of his party, things would have gone differently. But I don’t know that Republican circumstances could have allowed him to avoid running the campaign he did — there are too many influentials in the Republican Party who continue to bay for liberal blood even after eight years of government dominance, and getting past that obstacle to win the nomination is all but impossible. No matter what the worst of Democratic partisans say, we all saw that McCain never warmed to the ugliest of the attack-dog nastiness that was demanded of him by the party poo-bahs, and that’s why he was ultimately ineffective at it. Perhaps another scored-earth partisan like Bush or the oily Rudy Giuliani would have been able to exploit the nation’s worst attitudes enough to take down Obama, but McCain just seems incapable of that — and that’s a compliment.
I really did feel a great sadness watching him concede tonight, because the entire nation knew that this was the end for a guy who gave his body and so many years of his life to his country. The fact that McCain never would have been able to run the campaign that he probably wanted to run is what has made me so cynical about our political system, because it chews up positive and pure ideals as the barrier for entry into the public forum. Yet watching McCain return to the Senate to ultimately fade from the scene, even with all of his failings — there’s something sad about it all.
What will make the victory easier to accept for the nation is that there’s no question of the winner — Obama won not only Ohio, but Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, New Mexico, Colorado and potentially even Indiana and North Carolina. (As of now.) Seismic, indeed.
I keep my emotions in check over political events, but I almost teared up watching Jesse Jackson, Oprah and Obama’s other black supporters weeping with joy at the Grant Park rally. My grandpa who emigrated from Ireland greatly admired John F. Kennedy, and in the Irish admiration for Kennedy and the parallel black support for Obama on dispay tonight there’s something really profound: no matter how awful the things history has done to your race or your nationality, with time and human spirit it’s possible to rise above it and get to a better place. Even if it takes generations, it really can be done. To finally get to witness the end triumph is something very special indeed, and no matter your political leanings, that was special to see tonight.
As I looked at the McCain rally’s audience today, I wondered more than ever just how the Republican party is going to move into the demographics of the 21st century. While Grant Park was a total mishmash, I couldn’t find any non-white faces in all the Arizona crowd shots and panning shots that I saw. No matter what you consider the “real America”, when that America has to share space with demographic reality, you had better find a way to move towards positive integration.
I’d like to end on one strange political note, and to acknowledge a historical man who has indirectly led to the greatest racial advance this country has ever seen. You probably won’t guess his name.
He is George W. Bush.
Bush is that reviled type of historical figure who inherits a bad situation, then complicates it and makes it worse to a degree far beyond its original nature. As the worst president in American history, he has in fact done such a poor job for the nation that many of those older voters in Ohio or Virginia who would have otherwise been far too focused on Obama’s race likely said to themselves today, “Race used to be a directly negative factor in a politician, but after the incompetence this country has endured in the past eight years and how angry it has made me, I will vote for anybody the opposition party can offer who represents a break from the present situation.” Obama has a funny name, he’s not white, and he has liberal ideas, but he is something new and became a vessel for hope about a different and better future. That won him the election tonight, and strangely George W. Bush did a lot to open the door.
Because it’s late, I’m tired from the immense amount of work being dumped on my head — never listen to someone who says business school is a joke — and I think we’re all nervous and exhausted to see how this crazy thing will turn out, I’ll get this out there:
I still like some things about John McCain. His socialist / terrorist name-calling campaign makes me really pissed (and legitimately scared for Obama’s life), but sadly you can chalk a lot of that up to the cynical desire to win at all costs that lives at both ends of the political spectrum. (And Obama has it a lot easier: he just has to say “George Bush and John McCain are both Republicans” and that’s all the negative advertising any candidate could ever need.) I like his military experience; I think that’s undervalued in public office these days. I like how he used to buck his party and criticize its worst elements — again, I think most of the not-bucking these days is based on cynical political stuff. Most of the time leading up to late summer, I even thought McCain would make a good president.
But McCain took the win-at-all-costs thing one step too far when he placed a divisive, creationist, happily ignorant hypocrite as his second for the keys to destroy human civilization. Presidents die, it’s happened plenty of times, and choosing your potential successor is not a decision to make based wholly on cynical political considerations. Her handlers let her face the press just a few times, but fortunately that seems to have been enough to scare most voters back to reality. I think there are still good things somewhere under McCain’s ugly 2008 political shell; I think he’ll somehow try to come out of it if elected, though that will be more difficult than ever after yet another year of scorched-earth, “real America” (there’s fake America?), hate-inducing campaigning. But because of Palin, and McCain’s total lack of “country first” principles in choosing her, I can never support their election.
To get to the other side, I’d like to say off the bat that the cult of personality around Barack Obama weirds me out. After seeing the sausage being made, I don’t get the fawning over a politician. And particularly after 2004, putting your faith in politics is a bad proposition.
But before I get too cynical, one thing I really believe is government as arbiter — non-state actors like business make this nation go more than government ever can, but for that to happen we need fairness, information and protection for when we can’t get it ourselves. This is where we need government: to build our roads, defend our citizens, protect our environment, bring expert knowledge to bear and keep things square all around, at least as best it can. It’s entirely true that government should get out of the way when smart people are out to get positive things done. But the past president actively took government in the wrong direction and treated it as a tool for the powerful and the cynical, not as a protector for America’s best interests. America is a lot more than fattening the top 1% and making false gestures at morality, and the military, the budget, the environment and the consumer have all suffered because the worst administration in American history didn’t bother to look at the whole picture. And when I compare the two candidates, I gotta back the. one who I think is better at seeing and thinking about that whole picture: Obama.
McCain-supporting readers who want to sway me before I vote should know that I learned from all those Bond-villain soliloquies, and have in fact carried out my plan before informing you of it. Your bad. But I hope that you get out and vote no matter who you are -- let's do this.
This New Yorker article sent to me by The Wife is a really interesting look at the parts of Ohio that would seem like Obama country, but are still a bit shaky:
It’d be nice to write off racial prejudice as no longer an issue, but the big fact is that it still is, particularly in lots of the areas that are going to decide the election. I only hope racism doesn’t get in the way of economic self-interest.
Also, I thought McCain did slightly — slightly — better than Obama last night, even though the whole thing was tremendously boring. Reading the reactions this morning I seem to be alone in this view, but then that’s a good thing. Plus, even if it’s a tie, it automatically goes to That One thanks to the current momentum. (That is not a nice way to refer to someone when they’re sitting right there, btw.)
First off, name-dropping: some MBA section friends and I tried to watch the debate at a local A2 watering hole, only to have our peaceful watching interrupted by a hard-partying Michael Phelps and his XL crew of groupies. And yes, that is 100% true. We had to bail and watch the thing on DVR at a friend’s house.
Notable tonight was the near-complete absence of God talk. Nobody mentioned The Creator, or God’s will for the U.S., and they particularly stayed away from God’s perspective on the Iraq troop surge. Perhaps this just reflects both candidates’ personal approach to religion, but I noted how much it differed from the 2000 and 2004 debates. I guarantee, 9,000%, that Palin will break this newly identified trend within the first ten minutes of the VP debate.
The following are directly pertinent truths that clearly could not have been spoken by either candidate:
The government budget is so high because defense spending is completely out of control. (McCain, to his credit, sorta addressed this. Only he can pull that off, what with the POW hell-on-Earth thing and all.) Earmarks don’t matter for 1/100th of a damn. If you really want to save government money, take the Air Force and fold it back into the Army. Seriously, they are a huge waste of cash.
A nuclear-armed Iran is probably unavoidable at this stage, but that doesn’t in the slightest mean Israel is going to die. Is anybody really discussing a conventional military invasion of Iran at this point in time, even before they have nuclear weapons? Because with Ali Khameini’s interest in regime self-preservation (props to Obama for finally identifying on a national political stage that Ahmedinedjad has very little real power in Iran), the likelihood of a nuclear first strike on Israel is next to zero. If you want to take it to a level that’s really beyond the pale in politically concerned discussion, a nuclear Iran and subsequent Arab arms race could actually promote regional stability through the reduced threat of conventional war.
Discuss. Or in keeping with political reality, don’t.
The United States — though a permanent fixture on the world stage due to its huge geographic area, natural resources and very large population — is no longer a world-bestriding colossus and needs to find its real friends fast. We don’t know who the candidates think these countries are, because like I said, declining U.S. power and influence is an unspeakable political reality. (Not that I fault Jim Lehrer for not asking — Jim, you’re great, on the serious for real. I met you at that D.C. book party that one time, plus I find it hella cool that you were a Marine and are an awesome, truly objective, non-airhead throwback, so I’m permanently on your side. Please don’t retire, ever.)
I will never get enough of that “You son of a bitch, I cannot believe you just said that, if it weren’t for all these cameras I’d tear out your throat” smile that the candidates inevitably make.
Does Barack Obama lose voter points for his correct pronunciation of “Pakistan” vs. McCain’s Americanized version? (And I guarantee McCain knows that it’s “Pock-ee-STAHN” instead of “PACK-i-stan”.) Survey says: points deduction — speak like a ‘Mercan!
I can’t watch Rudy Giuliani these days without wanting to punch him hard in the mouth. I thought Americans were supposed to hate disdain, and then the Republican party keeps airing this guy who’s just sopping with sarcastic condescension. For real, has there ever been a national political figure as condescending as Giuliani? He’s really crossed some kind of jagoff Rubicon. Good for Giuliani, I guess: he wins at being a slime-oozing hyena. Hooray for the G man.
All of this debate stuff matters very little, but it’s always fascinating to watch the national discourse try to enshrine the opposite. For instance, I know very few people who would change their vote because one candidate sighed too many times, and yet it has become an article of fact that Al Gore’s sighing was a major factor in his defeat. Nor have I ever seen a presidential debate that involved as much complete ownage as John Kerry’s verbal dismemberment of George W. Bush in the first debate of 2004, and yet we all know how well that worked out for Kerry. Look for some very minor facet of this debate to become a future “turning point” for whoever is elected.
Do I have a winner? If I’m writing as me, no — they both made some good and unexpected points and hit the essentials effectively. (One Obama supporter with whom I watched the debate lamented that McCain “kicked his ass.” Eh, not really.) If I’m writing as Joe Average, then I think McCain had a slight edge. As Joe Average, I care about the election, but I just don’t have time for all of Barack Obama’s explanations and clarifications. Plus, dude talked more than once about plans that “might work, or they might not.” What? Certainty is the key here, homes, whether the outcome is certain or not.
McCain tonight reminded me that I really don’t dislike McCain the dude that much. As a matter of fact, under normal circumstances, I think he’d be an OK president. But then he went way beyond acceptability with the Palin pick, and I’ve lost a ton of respect for him after watching her repeatedly demonstrate just how far out of her league she really is. I know he wants to win, but picking someone so dangerously clueless to be the second in command of the United States of America is the complete opposite of all that “country first” stuff he’s spouting. What happened, yo? McCain better have agonized over the soul sale involved in making such a ridiculous and dangerous sop to the political base. I hope he fills us in some day in the memoirs, because a potentially juicy memoir read is the only good thing about that pick.
That’ll clearly become more important in the future, because I’ve thought for months that a McCain victory is inevitable. I’m sorry, fellow lefties, and while you really never know, I do think McCain has this one locked up. Like I said, I’d mostly be OK with President John McCain, but then you run into this very real possibility: “Ladies and gentlemen, The President of the United States, Sarah Palin.”
I no longer work there, but that won’t stop me from plugging this nicely summarizing Slate piece by Tim Wu detailing the two presidential candidates’ positions on media ownership and net neutrality.
Suffice it to say that I fall squarely within the Obama camp on the question of net neutrality: the Internet can no longer be considered a product, but instead a network similar to the airwaves. Like the airwaves are licensed by the government, there’s room for licensing of the Internet’s physical network by bandwidth costs, but you can’t package “the web” and sell it to consumers in a realistic fashion. That’s a really old-fashioned way of thinking about it. Instead, the web is the marketplace wherein websites sell their goods and duke it out for audience and revenue share. To change the web into a cable-television model is just imposing an old-fashioned dynamic on a system that’s already created its own rules.
As for fair share of political views within the media, the lefty side of me thinks it’s necessary, but the MBA/realist side of me thinks differently: people are going to listen to or watch the crap no matter what you do, so somebody might as well make some money off of it. Do you then require those moneymakers to put on informed, objective (if that’s even possible), educated content as a result? I don’t think it’s even relevant: the media marketplace is so segmented these days anyway that the consumer is going to seek out whatever they want and likely find it, whether that’s on-the-scene reporting from Zimbabwe’s reconstituted parliament or the skateboarding dog.
And I must add that I feel really bad for the daughter. This is a private thing they have to face, so it’s a shame they’re going to have to add political implications to what’s already a really tough thing.
I recently read and enjoyed the following, so feel free to hook that up for yourself:
This UK Daily Mail profile of John McCain’s first wife. I had always heard about his first marriage, but knew next to nothing about it. Definitely a sensationalist source, but an unflattering new look.
An article on the prevalence of skulls by Stephen Marche in Esquire. There’s no link to it on their site, so you can just read this other description of it. Who doesn’t like a memento mori?
My old compatriots at Slate did their 