Houshphandzadeh wrote:I'm a bit of a Biden fanboy.

Philly the Kid wrote:I don't remember seeing "Smooth" on the ropes so much ?!

dajafi wrote:I'm shocked at how good this NYT piece--by Elisabeth Bumiller, someone many of us viewed as an administration sycophant--is on the question of how close Bush and McCain are in terms of policy views. I think she gets it exactly right: they're pretty much indistinguishable on the economy and judiciary, close but not exactly aligned on foreign policy, and clearly distinct on the environment as well as in leadership style, personality and mindset.

(I'd add integrity. Anyone who saw David Iglesias on the Daily Show last night probably got a reminder of just how Stalinist the current administration can be in terms of using government power for political ends. McCain's maverick/reformer cred might be overstated, but I can't imagine him doing anything like that.)

My contention remains that on the issues McCain simply doesn't care about that much--the economy and the culture war stuff--he cedes ground to the relevant Big Republican. That's the true similarity to Bush, though it's possible Bush wasn't aware that he was outsourcing administration policy to the Dobson and Norquist crowds.

jeff2sf wrote:Could someone offer a half decent argument in favor of the Windfall Profits Tax that doesn't make me wonder if I moved back in time to the USSR? "You can do good, just not TOO good". It's Un-American, dammit. And this is from someone who's more or less in favor of the progressive tax system (in other words, I may not think the current tax system is HAMELS, but I get and approve of the general idea that as income goes up, so does tax rate).

Obama lost the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania by 9 points — but a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows him leading McCain by 12 points, 52-40. In Ohio — a state Obama lost to Hillary Clinton by 10 points in March — he’s leading McCain 48-42. And in Florida, where he did not campaign this primary season and lost an unsanctioned Democratic contest, he leads McCain 47-43.

The Ohio and Florida results are reversals from Quinnipiac polls published a month ago, when Clinton was still in the race, and McCain led Obama in hypothetical match-ups.

"Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified," he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA "devastating" and "a big mistake," despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.

Does that mean his rhetoric was overheated and amplified? "Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don't exempt myself," he answered.

pacino wrote:black guy beating old guy!!! courtesy cnn.com:

Obama lost the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania by 9 points — but a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows him leading McCain by 12 points, 52-40. In Ohio — a state Obama lost to Hillary Clinton by 10 points in March — he’s leading McCain 48-42. And in Florida, where he did not campaign this primary season and lost an unsanctioned Democratic contest, he leads McCain 47-43.

The Ohio and Florida results are reversals from Quinnipiac polls published a month ago, when Clinton was still in the race, and McCain led Obama in hypothetical match-ups.

dajafi wrote:McCain might be taking this Reagan thing a little too far...

The Red Tornado wrote:

dajafi wrote:McCain might be taking this Reagan thing a little too far...

My Dad was a sharp guy- he would memorize rubber prices and shipping quotes and rattle them off when needed with customers. Nowadays, it's become a hindrance that he's relied so heavily on his memory because he frequently gets it wrong and gets himself into trouble. Seemed to happen once he turned 62- I think McCain may be suffering from the same problems and may get himself into situations by relying too much on his memory when going into specifics without being briefed properly right before or using note cards.

* He said that the number of troops in Iraq was "down to pre-surge levels". In fact, we have 25,000 more troops in Iraq than we did when the surge began.

* He gets Shi'a and Sunni Islam confused, and doesn't seem to know that Iran, which is Shi'a, is very unlikely to train al Qaeda in Iraq, which is Sunni, within its borders. Possibly that's because he thinks that al Qaeda is Shi'a.

* He doesn't seem to know what his own Social Security policy is. From the WSJ:

"On Social Security, the Arizona senator says he still backs a system of private retirement accounts that President Bush pushed unsuccessfully, and disowned details of a Social Security proposal on his campaign Web site."

* He also seems to disagree with his campaign and his website on whether he plans to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax.

* My personal favorite:

""The economy is not good. The stock market continues down. And the indicators are not good. I'm not too astonished. ... We let spending get totally out of control, and it continues today, and I'm sorry to tell you this," McCain said at a town-hall style meeting at the Carolina Hospital East Campus in Florence. (...)

"People talk about a stimulus package. Fine, if that's what we want to come up with. But stop the spending first," he said."

Um: excessive government spending does not slow the economy down. And you stimulate the economy by (basically) putting more money into it. Saying that we need to "stop the spending" before passing a stimulus package is like saying: "Sure, we need to deal with the flooding in your basement. But let's finish filling it up with water first."

The Red Tornado wrote:My Dad was a sharp guy- he would memorize rubber prices and shipping quotes and rattle them off when needed with customers.

dajafi wrote:PtK, why do you think it is that one never hears from Nader in years that don't end in multiples of 4?

The guy is an ass, plain and simple. He has no credibility. I feel like a total sucker for having voted for him eight years ago, and I find it grimly satisfying that he's destroyed his good name through the sort of egomania that would make a Clinton blush.