Politics and the schoolyard bully

I think tough guy working men the world misted up last night when Joe Biden told the story about his mom imploring him to stand up to bullies: “Bloody their nose so you can walk down the street the next day.”

Question: Why do all politicians have a story where they can picked on and then their mother/father tells them to suck it up and teaches them to fight back?
In this week’s Newsweek, a long profile of Obama begins with him getting picked at school and his step-father teaching him how to box.

Hillary Clinton tells a story about a friend who picked on and when she went home crying was met by an unsympathetic Dorothy Rodham who told her Go back out there and if Suzy hits you, you have my permission to hit her back. You have to stand up for yourself. There’s no room in this house for cowards.”

Does this ever happen in real life? Don’t most mothers and fathers teach their kids to just walk away? When I got knocked down in school, my mom didn’t teach me kung fu–she called the other guy’s mom.

Is that why I’m not in politics? Is it because my parents raised an incredible pussy?

The veep dance

It strikes that the elaborate ritual in choosing a vice-president on both sides this cycle benefits McCain more than it does Obama. For one thing, McCain has proved quite adept at using the press’ breathless veepstakes speculation to get attention just when the everyone is busy looking the other way. Recall, for example, how he seemed to be ready to announce his choice just as Obama was greeting the cheering throngs in Berlin and Kabul; more speculation–that it was between Romney and Pawlenty–broke just as McCain was looking to distract nightly newscasters from pummeling him on how many houses he owns.

And another thing: McCain has done a masterful job in floating Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge as possible picks. Neither is likely of course, for no other reason than conservatives, already skeptical of McCain, would disappear in droves. But still it shows McCain to be reason on the abortion issue (when of course, he is not) and I know for a fact that a certain segment of Jewish voters, who might lean Democratic otherwise, will vote for McCain because of Lieberman’s support.

Meanwhile, every time the Obama camp floats a name, it strikes me as reminding voters of some of his supposed weaknesses that the veep pick is supposed to address–in the case of Biden, his lack of experience; in the case of Kaine, his inability to connect with working class Southerners; in the case of Bayh, his relatively liberal voting record, etc.

the ebb and ebb

Recent polling news for Obamians is bad bad bad, with McCain either having passed the Democrat or matched him, and the O-man’s lead in the electoral college erased.

I wish I could have some note of solace for Democrats but there isn’t one, really. The GOP did a great if dastardly job when they called out Obama for calling out his race, and the “celebrity” meme was right out of the old turn-your-opponent’s-greatest-strength-into-a-weakness playbook and has worked to devasting effect.

A few things of note though. Firstly, it’s important not to get too caught up in the give-and-take of polls and who’s up/who’s down day in and day out. It’s like judging a baseball player over how many hits he got in one game instead of looking at an average for the season. Also, Obama still has a huge advantage in money on hand, enthusiasm, and ground forces, which leads me to believe that if they can keep this thing close until October, they’ll be able to squeeze something out on election day

Narrative Interrupted

From The Trail:

The Democratic National Committee may be trying to get some mileage out of recent news about oil industry contributions to Republican Sen. John McCain, launching a web site spoofing the idea of McCain sharing his presidential ticket with Exxon. But they may have found an unwelcome surprise in a just-released analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Turns out, the biggest recipient of contributions from Exxon executives and employees during this campaign is not McCain. It’s Obama.

The non-partisan center writes: “Through June, Exxon employees have given Obama $42,100 to McCain’s $35,166. Chevron favors Obama $35,157 to $28,500, and Obama edges out McCain with BP $16,046 vs. $11,500.”

“McCain leads the money race with nearly every other top giver in the oil and gas industry, though — Koch Industries, Valero, Marathon Oil, Occidental Petroleum, ConocoPhillips,” the report says. “McCain also has a big edge with Hess Corp. — $91,000 to Obama’s $8,000 — which has gotten some attention. And, overall, McCain’s campaign has gotten three times more money from the industry than Obama’s has — $1.3 million compared to about $394,000.

Boom. This strikes as a moment akin to Maliki saying he supports Obama’s plan for Iraq, in that it undercuts not just a major talking, but a central rationale for his candidacy.

“W.: The Movie” by Oliver Stone

This looks all kinds of awesome. Or awful. Probably the latter, but I bet I love it anyway.

Time to bring the heat

In the primaries, when Hillary carped that Obama was woefully nice and naive and couldn’t possibly be ready for the onslaught of the GOP in the general, Obama countered that he knew how to play the game, and always would fight fire with fire.

In the primary he proved it, getting into a tit-for-tat over who was ready to do what at 3 am

It’s surprising then that the Obama folks found themselves on their heels last week with “The One” and the Paris/Brittney mash-up

I’d be curious to hear what the reasoning for the delay from the Obama team is. Pundits may not like negative ads, and the conventional wisdom is that they turn off independent voters, but negative ads almost always always work to drive down enthusiasm and turn-out for an opponent.

And for those that think it’s too early for mudslinging, it’s worth remembering that it was almost exactly a year ago that Swift Boat Veterans for truth unloaded on John Kerry.

Obama’s tentatively getting into the game with this on gas prices:

But I can’t imagine they let this stuff fly for much longer. Stay, as they say, tuned

Check. Mate.

If you asked me a week ago, I would have said it looks like the McCain campaign was going to just go through the motions, offering up token opposition in order for what is right and just to take place, namely Barack Obama’s coronation.

Now, the McCain folks seem to have found their footing a little bit.

This bit about Obama “playing the race card from the bottom of the deck” may be a tad underhanded, but it’s also a little bit of brilliant. It allows McCain to remind everyone of the race question, but in a “Who? Me?” kind of way.

I think that for all of the confidence Obamaniacs are projecting right now, this country is still casually pretty racist, and they certainly don’t like being reminded of that fact.

And for what it’s worth, Obama’s decision to call them out on the race/funny name question, before the GOP (or their 527’s) could was the right move to, it’s just that McCain countered in a way he hadn’t before