Obama Rules are Back Again

Message

TheCalvinator24 · #51 Post by **TheCalvinator24** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:20 am

Nat_X wrote:The same Man who made February be Black History Month, the coldest month of the year, just in case we wanted to have a parade!

Don't forget that it's also the shortest month.

Bob Juch · #52 Post by **Bob Juch** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:26 am

nitrah55 wrote:SSS wrote:
I read recently that Obama's greatest strength, and I can agree with this, is his ability to enable people to project their own personal set of goals and desires onto him and that he shares them.

This is, as near as I can tell, how Reagan got elected and ran the country for eight years.

David Brooks has an op-ed piece in the New York Times today explaining why Hillary has about a 5 percent chance of being the nominee, but will not give up.

Here's my shorthand understanding of racial issues in the US: Barack Obama has a better chance of being elected president than he has of hailing down a cab at 86th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan.

That would depend on whether he's going uptown or downtown.

nitrah55 · #53 Post by **nitrah55** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:31 am

Jeemie wrote:
nitrah55 wrote:Here's my shorthand understanding of racial issues in the US: Barack Obama has a better chance of being elected president than he has of hailing down a cab at 86th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan.
As long as we have people believing this, the race issue will not go away.

I did a bit of research, as much as lunchtime would allow me.

I Googled "Black man" and taxi, and got a lot of references to the movie "Taxi Driver," and these two links:

http://www.iconocast.com/News_Files/ZZZ ... /News1.htm

A 1997 article from the Washington Post based around an experiment in which a white reporter and a black reporter tried to hail cabs. As it turned out, all six cabs, driven by dark-skinned drivers, stopped for the black reporter- one driver saying he did it because he knew how hard it was for a black guy to get a cab. The article also relates how a cab driver, outside of the experiment, wouldn't drive the black reporter to a predominately black neighborhood, and would never pick up a black guy between the ages of 16 and 21.

http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2 ... -taxi-cab/

This is a link to a video interview with Chris Gardner, the subject of the movie "Pursuit of Happyness." He says it's tough for him to get a cab.

The only comfort I take from this is that if Jeemie's right, the race issue in this country is not entirely my fault.

wbtravis007 · #54 Post by **wbtravis007** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:23 pm

peacock2121 wrote:
tlynn78 wrote:
denying Hillary her due
What, exactly, is her "due?"
GREAT question!

This could get interesting.

Jeemy got it right. Just a little jab at the Hillary pouters for acting like they're offended that somebody came along who was good enough to deny her the prize that a lot of them seemed to consider she was entitled to, or whatever.

That's all.

flockofseagulls104 · #55 Post by **flockofseagulls104** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:32 pm

What an indictment of our system of selecting a President that conservatives are driven to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton and liberals are driven to vote for RINO McCain.

ToLiveIsToFly · #56 Post by **ToLiveIsToFly** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:35 pm

I just had a long argument with a coworker about the disparity in the tone of Hillary's media coverage vs Obama's, and whether or not the main underlying reason is the media's underlying sexism.

Seems to me it's mostly about charisma. I recall seven previous Presidential elections and I can't think of a case where the more charismatic had less positive press coverage than his opponents, unless the more charismatic person did something idiotic and public enough that the press had to pay attention. I don't really recall the 1980 Republican primary, but Kennedy was more charismatic than Carter and got better coverage, then Reagan got more positive coverage than Carter. Gary Hart got better press than Mondale until Monkey Business. Reagan got better coverage than Mondale. Jackson vs Dukakis might be an exception, but it just might have been apparent how batshit crazy Jesse was. Then again, I don't remember that well but the tone of Jesse's coverage may have been more positive than I remember it. And didn't the "Hymietown" thing happen during that campaign? GHWB had the incredible good fortune to run against maybe the only 3 people in the world who were less charismatic than he was - DuPont (remember when he called him "Pierre" at the debate?), Dole and then Dukakis. Clinton was more charismatic than Tsongas or Harkin or any of the other people I can't remember from that primary. Buchanan was probably more charismatic than GHWB, but he had that Nazi thing going against him. And Clinton was far more charismatic than Bush. Perot in his crazy-ass way had charisma at a similar level to Clinton, and his coverage was about as positive. None of the 1996 Republican candidates I remember (Dole, Forbes, Alexander, Gramm) had ANY charisma, and it showed in the press coverage they received. Clinton had more charisma than Dole. Bradley had more charisma than Gore and he got more positive coverage until it became clear he couldn't win. Bush had more charisma than McCain. Dean had more charisma than Kerry right up until that yell, and then he had less. Gephardt has no charisma at all.

You can argue that Hilary's a better candidate, or that she'd make a better President (I think they're different things) than Obama. I think you'd be wrong, but you can make the argument. But if you try to tell me that Hilary's more charismatic than Obama, I'll laugh at you. And I think that's the biggest factor in how positively the press portrays you.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #57 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 3:40 pm

I think that Hillary is the stronger candidate both because of her experience the fact that she is a "known quantity." I don't like some of the things that she does and would say that Obama is the more charismatic person.

I couldn't stand Bill Clinton and never voted for him, but I would say that he is more charismatic than his wife. He just radiates smarm and I just don't like that sort of person.

I think that people who lack charisma sometimes have to work harder in life and I am of the mind that I am going to pick the hard worker over the more charismatic candidate because they will be better for the country.

Bob Juch · #58 Post by **Bob Juch** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:02 pm

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:I think that Hillary is the stronger candidate both because of her experience the fact that she is a "known quantity." I don't like some of the things that she does and would say that Obama is the more charismatic person.

I couldn't stand Bill Clinton and never voted for him, but I would say that he is more charismatic than his wife. He just radiates smarm and I just don't like that sort of person.

I think that people who lack charisma sometimes have to work harder in life and I am of the mind that I am going to pick the hard worker over the more charismatic candidate because they will be better for the country.

Hilliary is a "known quantity". I know her and don't like her. I'd rather have someone who's not one of the good ol' "boys".