Was I wrong about Barack?

[JimGinPA]

I thought Senator Obama's bid to become the next US president was doomed, but I keep reading and hearing things which enhance his standing and diminish that of his opponent, John McCain.

-snip-

I mention it because I keep reading and hearing things which diminish Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee, and enhance the standing of Senator Obama. Had you realised, for instance, that McCain's efforts to ingratiate himself with mainstream Republicans who mistrust him so have seen him retreat from many of his more idealistic reform positions?

Cliff Schecter sets them out in detail in a new book, The Real McCain - Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Independents Shouldn't, which creates a portrait of expediency and flip-flopping rather than the famous courage of the Hanoi PoW who refused special favours because his dad was an American admiral.

He has held good on climate change, but not on abortion or even - as a torture victim himself - on the copper-bottom protection of American detainees from torture, the Guardian's Michael Tomasky writes in a revealing review of McCain books in the current edition of the New York Review of Books.

-snip-


I'm resistant to this chatter, but here's a couple of anecdotes. One has the Obama team discussing how to handle the crucial Texas primary - which they lost. The staff on the ground suggest they will need to do two unethical things, one to provide "street money" in big cities like San Antonio and Galveston to get the vote out. The other is to sanction what the rules call 5/27 money, whereby all sorts of election posters appear from "supporters" but the source of the money only surfaces much later.

Obama said no to both. They told him he might lose the state. He said so be it and his authority prevailed. He also lost the state. A wholesome story, if true. But the claim that this is one of the best structured campaigns in modern times keeps coming round. Few leaks, few catastrophes and now a website dedicated to instant rebuttal of some spectacular filth directed at the candidate and - this past week's twist - his wife, Michelle.


More at link

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/06/michael_whites_political_blog_187.html

[begin_within]

1. He's picked up on the populist rhetoric, but is it for real?

[Arugula Latte]

2. He didn't actually lose the state -- with the caucus results, it was just about a wash, no?

[JimGinPA]

4. I Believe Obama Got More Delegates Overall...

But the point was he lost the "primary" phase, when he may have done better by doing things he chose not to do.

[ashrob123]

3. The only thing wrong with that snippet

is that he didn't lose Texas. He got 99 delegates and she got 94. But I'll give this author the benefit of the doubt given that he is in the UK.

It's nice to see some nice things about Obama online sometimes.

[democrattotheend]

5. Street money is not necessarily unethical

It's a little sketchy, but it also helps communities by paying people who are out of work to help out on Election Day. I have really mixed feelings about the practice, but I would not call it unethical. I give him props for sticking to his principles though, especially on the 5/27 money.

[AllentownJake]

6. Its a pretty common practice in large cities

He said the same thing in PA which made alot of Philly pols not happy with him.