Monday, June 9, 2008

An augury

Now, I understand why he's trying to do this, but does John McCain really think he's going to be able to pull in some nontrivial percentage of Clinton-supporting women? I would understand him half-heartedly going through the motions, but I've read too much indicating that this is, like, a huge strategy for him, which seems silly in the abstract and especially now that Clinton has strongly endorsed Barack Obama. At the end of the day, what has McCain got to offer these women? And if it's the fact that Obama didn't adequately stand up to the MSM's anti-Clinton sexist bias (such as it was), it's not like McCain stood up against the Clintonistas' perceived sexist bugaboos either. It might have been that they're angry that Obama benefited from these things, though I don't recall Clinton chomping at the bit to disown Geraldine Ferraro. Given time, these women will come to their senses. They're Democrats after all.

Back to McCain: I don't know why he's wasting the energy, especially when lavishing praise on Hillary Clinton is probably not the best way to get the right enthused about your campaign. I mean, McCain isn't even at 50% in South Carolina according to the most recent poll. Couldn't he be devoting his energies to, you know, convincing conservatives who don't like him to actually vote for him, instead of some pipe dream of winning Clinton support?

Oh, wait--actually, perhaps he ought to keep on doing this, since I want him to lose. I don't necessarily object to McCain trying to snatch Clinton supporters on principle. It would be smart politics if it were possible. I'm just offended by the stupidity of it all. It's Beltway-bound CW that Obama is going to have problems with Clinton supporters, and McCain seems to get his information straight from the Washington Post rather than from, I don't know, internal considerations? An augury, perhaps...

The Man, The Myth, The Bio

East Bay, California, United States
Problem: I have lots of opinions on politics and culture that I need to vent. If I do not do this I will wind up muttering to myself, and that's only like one or two steps away from being a hobo. Solution: I write two blogs. A political blog that has some evident sympathies (pro-Obama, mostly liberal though I dissent on some issues, like guns and trade) and a culture blog that does, well, cultural essays in a more long-form manner. My particular thing is taking overrated things (movies, mostly, but other things too) down a peg and putting underrated things up a peg. I'm sort of the court of last resort, and I tend to focus on more obscure cultural phenomena.