Entries Tagged 'Politics' ↓

And baby makes six: The Obama family and their newest member(s)

How legitimate are Sarah Palin’s calls that her family be kept out of the press, as she and John McCain attempt to win the White House? Furthermore, is there an implied double standard at work when she does so?

Or, as Frank Rich, in The New York Times, argues in his piece, “The Palin-Whatshisname Ticket,” harshly critiquing the campaign,

The ultimate hypocrisy is that these woebegone, frightened opponents of change, sworn enemies of race-based college-admission initiatives, are now demanding their own affirmative action program for white folks applying to the electoral college. They want the bar for admission to the White House to be placed so low that legitimate scrutiny and criticism of Palin’s qualifications, record and family values can all be placed off limits. Byron York of National Review, a rare conservative who acknowledges the double standard, captured it best: “If the Obamas had a 17-year-old daughter who was unmarried and pregnant by a tough-talking black kid, my guess is if they all appeared onstage at a Democratic convention and the delegates were cheering wildly, a number of conservatives might be discussing the issue of dysfunctional black families.”

You think?

After Alaskan governor / Republican V.P. nominee Sarah Palin—above, with youngest daughter, Piper, and John McCain—gave her presentation at the Republican National Convention last week, like you, I kept getting asked what I thought of the speech.

“Oh: It was a great speech,” I’d respond, utterly serious. “A great speech.” A beat. “It was complete nonsense. But it was a great speech!”

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Funny or Die.com, the folks who brought you Paris Hilton as a presidental candidate, now give us the unendingly sexy Gina Gershon as McCain’s running mate. Funny as all get out, yes, but here’s the crazy part: If you’d seen this two weeks ago, before McCain had announced Palin, you’d have figured these guys were just wacko, correct?

Feelin’ super, post- the DNC? Let this black T-shirt warm your back and strike fear in the hearts of your Republican opponents.

This is an officially licensed Alex Ross t-shirt depicting Super Obama in which these Alex Ross shirts have been screen printed with the Super Barack Obama image on front. These Barack Obama t-shirts are usually made from heavyweight preshrunk 6oz. cotton tee shirt blanks.

In sizes, small – XXXL, $18-$21, from StyleOnline.com.

Click on the pic, above: Is it me, or is Republican presidential nominee John McCain, in full view of his wife, Cindy, rear, checking out vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s behind?

[via BuzzFeed]

That’s the question Max Blumenthal, of The Nation, asks John McCain’s daughter and mother, above, as well as other G.O.P. operatives on the floor of the convention, in this short, Juno From Juneau. Way too short.

[Via HuffPo]

Were Alaska state governor Sarah Palin, left, and 30 Rock‘s Tina Fey separated at birth?

[Via Kath•arsis]

Laying the smack down: Barack Obama’s DNC acceptance speech

It was like faceting a diamond in mid-flight.

Barack Obama’s speech last night, accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination as its candidate for President of the United States—the first time a major party has so ensconced an African-American—had to accomplish a set of diverse objectives, without wasted words, in a very short period of time. (His real audience, obviously, was not the nearly 84,000 gathered inside INVESCO Field at Mile High stadium, where he spoke, but the 25,000,000 watching on TV, like I was, plus the other 275,000,000 Americans.)

Obama had to do the following:

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Who is this? Don’t name him, and win a $1.6 million cash prize

Jesse Washington, my colleague, former editor, and the recently named Associated Press race and ethnicity writer, said it best and most succinctly: “Obama avoids race on King’s ‘Dream’ anniversary.”

In the entirety of his DNC acceptance speech, notes Washington,

Obama did not utter the words “black” or “African-American.” He said “McCain” 21 times, according to the transcript released beforehand. He said “American” 25 times and “promise” 32 times as he sought to create a new definition of, and a new path to, that immortal dream.

But even more so, adds Washington, on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech,

Obama accepted the nomination Thursday night standing on the shoulders of King and thousands of others who suffered and bled to give blacks the right to vote — yet Obama did not speak King’s name. …

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Barack Obama. (Photo by Damon Winter for The New York Times)

Fascinating piece in The New York Times about the challenge Barack Obama faces, not only, externally, to his ascendency, but also internally, from himself.

In the way Mr. Obama has trained himself for competition, he can sometimes seem as much athlete as politician. Even before he entered public life, he began honing not only his political skills, but also his mental and emotional ones. He developed a self-discipline so complete, friends and aides say, that he has established dominion over not only what he does but also how he feels. He does not easily exult, despair or anger: to do so would be an indulgence, a distraction from his goals. Instead, they say, he separates himself from the moment and assesses.

“He doesn’t inhale,” said David Axelrod, his chief strategist.

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