Posts by Neil Morrison
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Will Obama be the guy he was from the day he announced he was running for president a couple of years ago, the moderate who will seek to bring everyone together, blah blah, or will he be the person he was for the entirety of his life prior to that point? A hard left activist who seemed to only associate with the most radical and dodgy of characters and voted down the line liberal (when he didn’t vote “present”).
I can't see how you can construe anything in Obama's past as "hard left". He's been a community organiser - following a long tradition of grassroots politics that is quite the norm on both the left and right.
His politics are a bit eclectic - he's very pro parental responsibilty (esp for fathers) which is often characterised as more of a conservative position. He's favouably disposed to performance-based pay for teachers. He's quite firmly against judical activism.
There were some dodgy characters in his past but there were many more good people.
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No sign, unfortunately, of some of the Clinton hardliners ceasing to act crazy.
is that right. let me know when you decide to move on from snark and ill-informed moralising on this issue. there are other forums that offer informed and interesting debate.
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It really seems like Clinton is the better bet for the Dems...
And that's a point that's being lost at the moment. And even, especially, for Obama supporters that must be of concern.
The best analysis of Obama's support base I've seen highlights the fact that he has won states that the Dems just will not win in Nov, whereas Clinton wins the swing Republican states.
But it is over, the supers are no longer listening.
So unless Obama can jig up a new voting coalition, which they've been making noises about, he's gonna lose. Unless he can get the voters that Hillary gets. And there's one very obvious way of doing that.
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Damn good question, Neil. Who's gaming who?
We’re just going to have to disagree about whether Hillary planting factual good news stories about herself to upstage Obama is in the same league as conservatives planting bogus stories to game coverage of the Dem candidates.
If I were conspiratorially minded I’d make a connection between that and Could the Republicans Pick the Democratic Nominee? -- The Untold Story of How the GOP Rigged Florida and Michigan.
But it’s too complicated to have been deliberate – but that is how it's working out.
After seeing what's happened with coverage in the Primaries I now no longer believe Michel Foucault was mad.
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Just going back to Sharon Stone The Guardian's report only quotes the first half of her comments -
"I have been very concerned about how we should deal with the Olympics because they are not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a good friend of mine," she said. "And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened I thought, is that karma?"
and fails to quote the second half of what she says. I think she's being a bit hard done by. My paraphrasing of her is
I've been thinking some negative thoughts blah blah someone please stop me I'm blond and then some real Buddhists did something gernerous that puts me to shame.
Sorry to go on but it does seem to happen a lot and there's extra trouble with transcripts as they don't necessarily capture the intended meaning and will most likely give no indication of irony and other subtleties. And I think there was an element of irony in what Stone is saying that is missed, especially as The Guardian leaves out half her argument.
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I think it was simply Obama using the generic or catch all term...
I think he's just tired, he's also said he's visited 57 states duing the campaign - he must have put in some long hours over the past year.
Not so sure about Sharon Stone, if you watch the full clip it still sounds a bit ditsey but she's making a slightly broader argument, it's a bit of a faux scandel i think -
(I probably didnl't embed that right)
we're talking about a American tabloid
well clearly, but when bogus anti-Hillary stories go straight from The Drudge Report to the New York Post and then uncritically into the world of pundits it's worth considering who's being gamed here.
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Murdoch has been supporting the Obama campaign - Obama always did remind me of Tony Blair (in a good way).
But his New York Post had been planting anti-Hillary lies. I'm sure Obama could do with out that sort of support.
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...if it wasn't so important we could concentrate on other matters that are actually beneficial to our country.
In terms of men and sport, I'd prefer that the testosterone gets burned up in a form competitive tribalism that falls short of killing people.
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Is it the first salvo in a class war.
I read it more as how a lot of people like to feel scandalised. There’s a nicely visceral pay-off to be had with faux scandals. Has the added bonus of not requiring time consuming attention to details.
Instant opinion and so certain.
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is it possible to get the bit preceding
I certainly would urge them (police) not to...
the "certainly" suggests she's already made some other points which might shed a bit of light on what she's saying.