Completely Unnecessary

I promised to write a (brief and recent) history of political ties, but haven’t the time tonight.

Instead, lest you think my prognostications false, check out the neck decor on Obama and Biden tonight at the convention:

Biden and Obama

Also, check out Bill Clinton, who is sporting the same trademark Obama light blue - no one is stepping on the nominee’s power turf:

Bill Clinton at the Convention

I’ve never seen Bill Clinton wear a tie that color; doesn’t really look that natural, does it?

If I had to guess, I would say that Obama will probably switch back to casual, hope-y blue for the next couple of weeks, but he’ll be wearing red for the debates - and a brighter red at that.

I’m really not sure what he’ll wear tomorrow though; depends on the tone of the speech. If they think Biden was enough of an attack dog tonight, probably blue - if they need Obama to throw some punches, then red.

Don’t you wish we had more colors than red, white and blue in the US? Who could go wrong with a nice kelly green?

Tomorrow -  a deconstruction of the 2004 candidates’ wardrobe choices. We do it to the women all the time; but both Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton looked great (as did Pelosi), so let’s take potshots at the men for a change.

ps - anyone know what time Obama is speaking tomorrow (and timezone please)?

Vaguely Related

• Obama/Biden and Power Ties
• Biden to be Obama’s Vice President

Not that I spend my time obsessively watching Barack Obama, but my impression is that he tends to favor the ‘man of the people’ blue tie. The image currently running on the website, is a perfect example:

Taken from www.barackobama.com

It’s a calming tie - a tie that says, “Come hope with me, etc.’

Even during the debates, I never saw him wear the bright red tie that we usually associate with presidential power.

But now that he’s chosen a running mate, I bet we’re going to be seeing the red ‘power’ tie a lot more often. For instance, during his introduction of Biden as a running mate:

Richard Perry/The New York Times

I bet we’re going to see a much more aggressive Obama now that he has a friendly, loquacious running mate to carry the hope. Biden’s tie is the exact color worn by Obama in so many of his promotional photos.

And lest you think I’m over-analyzing the wardrobe choices - I guarantee the Obama campaign but way more thought into those ties than I put into this post. (Though, we could say that of almost anything, couldn’t we?)

Vaguely Related

• The Ties That Convene
• Biden to be Obama’s Vice President

Well, supposedly the cat’s out of the bag. Eight minutes ago, the NYT posted that Biden’s been selected to fill the other half of the Obama ticket.

If it’s true, it’s certainly not the way Obama would have liked it to get out - Friday night via ‘people told of the decision’.

I’d actually really like it if the Obama camp pulled a big ’syke!’ on the press. That seems unlikely, though, since it would incurr the wrath of the people that Obama needs to communicate with voters.

All the buildup, though, seems rather… blah. The NYT’s Adam Nagourney’s been saying all week it’s Biden. It was supposed to be announced on Saturday, and now it’s announced by Nagourney and Jeff Zelney on Friday night instead.

It’s unclear to me if I’m supposed to be thrilled by this. (Also, if Nagourney’s paper really gets that many accolades for breaking a story that they’ve pretty much had all week.)

I’m hoping for an Obama bait-and-switch. American politics is supposed to be all drama and circuses.

I demand absurd surprises. If McCain selects Alan Keyes, I’ll vote for him.

ps - They’ve got Biden saying that Obama was ‘not yet ready’ to be president. Can’t wait to see those commercials run on loop for the next couple months. (Oh yeah, I don’t have to. Yay!)

Update- Obama’s website now has the Obama/Biden ticket up. Way to steal the Democratic ticket’s thunder, liberal media.

Vaguely Related

• NYT’s Clinton Must-Read
• Life Without Hillary Clinton

I was reading this article on TPM Election Central today, and, gosh, if the older gentleman with bills didn’t look familiar!

Well, there’s a reason - he’s the same bill-checking older gentleman that was concerned about the economy at three am! Here’s him blue-hued by the Clinton staff to indicate ‘nighttime’:

How many thousands of hours of stock footage do you think there is available to both these campaigns?

So, it is just laziness or do you think the McCain campaign is trying to bring up memories of the Clinton campaign? Perhaps a subtle way of reminiding those anti-Obama Clintonites of their vows?

Yeah, or just laziness.

Vaguely Related

• Serenity November
• Obama to Name VP

Let’s watch media priming in action, shall we?

Priming (and this is the short version) argues that the media help shape the way people think about issues - either through highlighting a particular issue or through the way an issue is presented. Essentially, people don’t use all the knowledge they know at any given time; our brains tend to travel down paths created through repetition or recent exposure.

Man, how boring is media theory?!?!

Here’s the lede from the NYT/Reuters story about the Green Party convention and nomination:

The U.S. Green Party, which captured far less than 1 percent of the vote in the last presidential election, chose former Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney as its 2008 presidential candidate on Saturday.

The most important information comes first in hard news. So, the most important thing about the Green Party according to Reuters is that its candidates and the party are wildly unviable. They do not and cannot win elections.

Two paragraphs later, this information is reiterated and expanded upon, just in case you missed it:

In 2004, the Green Party drew 119,859 votes, or 0.1 percent of the total, finishing in sixth place behind the two major parties and three other third-party tickets.

But, wait… didn’t they do pretty well once? (Next paragraph)

The party’s best performance came in 2000 when Ralph Nader headed the ticket, and won 2.8 million votes, or 2.7 percent of the total. Some political analysts say Nader, a political and consumer activist, may have drawn votes from Democrat Al Gore and helped tip the election to Republican George W. Bush. Nader is running for president again this year as an independent.

That information comes before a description of McKinney, meaning it is more important than her qualifications or fitness for the presidency.

There’s a real sense of trying desperately to fill the story out. What is this sentence about?

The U.S. Green Party says it is a partner with the European Federation of Green Parties and the Federation of Green Parties of the Americas.

It ’says’ it is? And what does this signify? We’ll never know. (Sounds vaguely un-American though, doesn’t it?)

And, lastly, we get a quote from what is clearly the Green Party press release.

It’s pretty obvious that Reuters sent no one to the convention. There’s no one quoted in the story; they don’t even use a direct quote for the spokesman in the 3rd par, as would be standard.

So this story is just a combination of a press release and knowledge the Reuters writer thought was important enough for reiteration to readers. These facts are essentially:

• The Green Party loses elections by vast margins.
• When the party does well, they siphon votes from real candidates (and we get George W. Bush)

I don’t necessarily disagree with the bit about Nader (and Jeremy will explain why I am both wrong and a bad person in the comments), but these are the facts that we are constantly told about a party that - by its very position as a third party - challenges the status quo.

Imagine if the story about Obama’s nomination in Denver started this way:

The Democratic Party, which lost the presidency in both 2000 and 2004, chose Senator Barack Obama as its 2008 presidential candidate on Saturday.

Does that sound like a party you want to vote for?

As a small, realatively unfamiliar party, the Green Party relies on the media to introduce it and its candidate to the public. The US paper of record just ran with an agency story based on a press release that says, ‘Don’t waste your vote.’

Democracy served. Or primed.

Link:
Green Party Names McKinney as Presidental Pick

Vaguely Related

• NYT’s Clinton Must-Read
• Life Without Hillary Clinton

Okay, look - I’m not one of those people screaming at the media at the moment. I don’t think Clinton lost because of sexist treatment - though it certainly didn’t help.

This blog, however, has been like a treasure trove of unflattering pictures of HRC. See yesterday’s post, por ejemplo.

So, why - why, is this run now?! (And you can click on the pic for a larger version)

“Now, in her diminishment…” she finally gets a good picture?

I don’t want to sound like a feminist conspiracy theorist, but there’s something odd about the lovely words and images poured forth upon a woman who’s finally stopped being too brassy.

I mean, I’ve seen The Philadelphia Story. Katherine Hepburn learns to be ‘yaw’ and then everyone loves her. It’s a great movie.

But there’s also a reason for that.

NY Magazine Table of Contents

Vaguely Related

• Life Without Hillary Clinton
• NYT’s Clinton Must-Read

I haven’t had a chance to watch Clinton’s concession speech yet, but I hear from all sides that it was wonderful.

With Clinton formally out of the race, at least the press will stop gender-tagging/bashing her:

With Clinton no longer in ‘08 waters, the race for women voters heats up as the McCain campaign senses an opportunity to convert Democratic women who might be upset with the way their gal was treated. In speeches, McCain has been making a play for the frustrated Clinton supporters.

Or not! Jesus, they’re frustrated because they’ve seen a sitting Senator described as a ‘gal’ for 16 months.

I’m sure you guys think I go looking for this stuff, but I really don’t. This was just a Google News story that I clicked on when my browser opened.

Meanwhile, ABC is also running an exteremely long quote from an article by Politico’s Jonathan Martin (I thought the journalistic convention was no more than 25 words). An excerpt reveals a hilarious, though unsourced, belief apparently running around the McCain campaign:

But in doing so, they’ve already raised the question of whether McCain can maintain his upbeat warrior image while running an uphill race covered by a press the campaign sees as biased, and against an opponent for whom the candidate can barely conceal his contempt.

Hey, there’s that underdog meme we’re going to be hearing until November. Passed on without comment by the press, who totally, totally hates John McCain and in no way swallows old thing he has to say.

And that’s just page 2, but I have 2500 more words to write today, so…

Obama Vs McCain: A New Electoral Map Emerges [ABC News]

Vaguely Related

• Serenity November
• Russian TV Explains the Pennsylvania Primary

I kind of cried a bit during the speech. But I was amongst other political dorks, so no one made fun of me.

I love the headline of the NYT, but not so thrilled with the sub! ‘First black…’?!?!?!

Vaguely Related

• The Ties That Convene
• Obama/Biden and Power Ties

Sorry for the conspicuous silence. Four days of no blogging left some of you poking a toe at the corpse. Presumably no one’s ever heard me go so long without talking. (Not heard?)

Anyhow, there are a couple things on the back burner, but a cold, papers and someone’s clever idea of a bottle of champagne at 4am kind of trashed the weekend.

I’m in the midst of reading Frank Rich’s column:

Then again, in his frantic efforts to explain why he sided with Mr. Bush to oppose an expanded G.I. bill that the Senate passed by 75 to 22, Mr. McCain has attacked Mr. Obama for not enlisting in the military.

Besides making Mr. McCain look ever angrier next to his serene opponent, this eruption raises the question of why he chose double-standard partisanship over principle by not applying this criterion to the blunderers who took us into Iraq.

And I wonder if Obama can win the general by appearing ’serene’.

I have a cartoon above my desk of Kevin Rudd and John Howard in a boxing ring. Rudd’s snuggling a puppy, while Howard raises a fist in the air and screams in frustration, ‘HIT ME!’

He never did, and he won by letting Howard hang himself on his own record (and interest rates).

Part of Clinton’s problem in this campaign has been that Obama won’t come out and hit her. The Clintons know how to deal with direct attacks; as has been made clear throughout the campaign, they don’t know what to do when their opponent sort of pretends that they don’t exist.

Perhaps after eight years of a bellicose cowboy, the American people (or at least more than half) might be drawn in by a thoughtful professor who might actually run the country. And not attack everyone that looks at us askance.

This is not to say that Obama’s a puppy snuggler. He’s a Machine candidate, and he’s got Axelrod. There are stories being flogged and dirt being dug, but the Obama campaign’s best move in the campaign has been to have their candidate appear above the fray. They let him sit up top the mountain whilst Clinton and McCain take potshots at him. Most of their missiles have thus far fallen back on their heads.

If someone can get Trinity United to stop taping sermons until after November, Obama’s place on that mountain might be pretty safe.

We might need some good t-shirts, too. Nothing really rhymes with ‘Barack’.

Obama: Great in ‘08?

Vaguely Related

• Obama to Name VP
• NYT’s Clinton Must-Read

Yesterday, Barack Obama told 800 Miami Cubans that he’d meet with Raul Castro and lift the bans on sending money and traveling to Cuba.

Holy hell. How did one man get so brave?

He’s keeping the embargo, but the prospect of negotiations with the island is a huge leap forward.

He either just won Florida with honesty or made sure no Democrat wins it ever again. It’ll depend on how sick Miami is of the usual pandering from the Right.

I can taste the Hatueys in Baracoa already.

Obama Pledges Cuba Policy Change [BBC News, h/t Jessie]

Vaguely Related

• McCain Attacks Obama on Cuba Policy
• The Ties That Convene