Tim's Favorite Blogs
Media Matters
Blog Directories
Thursday, October 16. 2008
Grumpy Old Man Syndrome
The debate has been over for several hours now and I’ve had the opportunity to watch it and a number of the analysis programs on both CNN and MSNBC. My verdict: Former Secretary of Education and conservative gadfly William Bennett had the best line of the night on CNN: “We haven’t heard so much about plumbers since Nixon!”Joe the plumber, who said he favors Senator’s McCain’s tax plan, was mentioned … 25 times? Didn’t count, but he became the center of Senator McCain’s pitch for tax cuts all around. The now famous plumber is Joe Wurzelbacher of Toledo, Ohio. He’s a little surprised by all the attention.
Joe met Senator Barack Obama during a campaign stop by the Democrat, asking Obama, “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?”Obama answered him truthfully — much to Joe’s disappointment and much to McCain’s delight! Here was the game-changing moment he had been waiting for! A real, live issue with a face and shaved head, a man who appeared on Fox News to assist the Republican broadcasting company’s excoriation of the Democratic candidate. John would mention Joe as often as possible, remind everyone that Barack was picking on Joe, the plumber, who just wanted to realize the American Dream.
For the record, I hope Joe buys his plumbing business and makes more than $250k per year. And then I hope he takes all the tax credits that will be thrown his way if the Obama tax plan gets approved. And do yourself a favor Joe; buy your wife the Mercedes she’s always wanted and get yourself a Ferrari. That’s what I would do — if I wasn’t such a slacker.
Did it change the game, throw the McCain-Palin campaign ahead of their rivals? No. All the polls taken right after the debate show Obama wining the debate by as many as 31 points. That was the CBS poll: 53% to 22%. The CNN poll was even more dramatic in its chasm between the winner, Barack Obama, and the loser, John McCain: 58% to 31%. In the CNN poll independent voters broke for Obama by 57% to 31%.It isn’t looking good for the Republicans, who still refuse to label themselves as Republicans. Doing so ties them to the president who is most responsible for their party’s fall from public grace. Cutting Bush and Cheney out of the convention just five-plus weeks ago wasn’t enough. The public perception that the surge in Iraq worked wasn’t enough. Choosing Sarah Palin as a vice presidential running mate surely wasn’t enough and may have been detrimental.
Jumping from one economic recovery plan to another — sometimes in a matter of hours — wasn’t enough. Nothing has been enough for the so-called “Happy Warrior” who came off in the fourth and final debate as being anything but happy. He was “Grumpy,” and not in the curmudgeonly lovable Disney sort of way. Not even in the curmudgeonly Andy Rooney sort of way that makes you want to love the old guy because, well, he means well.No, McCain was Grumpy in the mean-neighbor-next-door kind of way that makes you want to do pull pranks on him just to teach the mean old bastard a lesson or two. He gritted his teeth, bared his teeth, maybe even feigning a struggle to keep himself from erupting into a raging harangue of Barack Obama; it appeared as if McCain wanted to jump out of his chair and pummel the younger man with all his septuagenarian fury.
Guys that age need to settle down, not get so worked up. Not even Clint Eastwood gets so angry on screen anymore. The last time Eastwood showed that much rage on screen George H.W. Bush was still president. When I pedal up and down the hills of Scripps Ranch, checking my heart rate is a regular reason — excuse — to stop and rest. As we get older we become more susceptible to heart attacks so, ya gotta go easy John!
Voters were turned off by McCain’s third and final performance in a debate. McCain told Obama he lied to the American public twice that I can remember — and the dial meter at the bottom of the screen (CNN had undecided voters in Ohio giving constant feedback throughout the debate) began dropping; men and women. McCain continually brought up the old William Ayers story — only to see the dial meters drop. He brought up the ACORN issue, trying to tie the Democrat to some unproven conspiracy to instigate voter fraud. And the ubiquitous dial meters dropped.
McCain did admit that his health care plan would tax those of us getting employer-sponsored health care benefits … well, no props there for that bit of honesty. Dial meters went down on that too.When McCain brought up his opposition to abortion, and mocked the “health of the mother” clauses Democrats put into laws banning certain types of abortions, women overwhelmingly were turned off by McCain’s rhetoric. His exact words: “Just again, the example of the eloquence of Sen. Obama. He’s health for the mother. You know, that’s been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything. That’s the extreme pro-abortion position, quote, ‘health.’ ”
Protecting the health and life of mothers is Bad? Even the men, who were going along with McCain in his harangue against Roe v Wade dialed down with that remark.
McCain rarely caught a break. He got props for coming out swinging, but that was the extent of his “victory.” The American public overwhelmingly gave him a thumbs down.
Early this morning (Thursday, October 16, 2008) Joe Scarborough claimed John McCain won the debate. Well, one out of millions, that’s a start.
The Happy Warrior is no more, swept away in the whirlwind of a collapsing world economy and a Democratic candidate who tapped into the Internet and all those unclaimed, once unregistered voters who dropped hundreds of millions of dollars into his campaign.McCain has a much happier warrior at his side, but Sarah Palin won’t energize the voters McCain needs to win. She’s actually turning away voters at this stage.
There’s really not much left that can happen, save for some kind of terrorist attack and unfortunately for McCain, Bush so over-abused the “terror threat” warnings in the previous presidential elections, the Bush Administration hasn’t used them in nearly four years.
Maybe McCain should have let the president and vice president attend the convention. He could use those terror alerts now.
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
Calendar
|
February '12 |
|
||||
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | ||||
Quicksearch
Categories
AD Links
Referrals
Syndicate This Blog
Blog Administration
Powered by
TheForkesReport