....still giggling like an idiot...

[fpb]

Do you think that Hillary Clinton has talked herself out of a nomination? I know that I could not vote for someone who told a lie that was certain to be found out. Sure, politicians have to lie. The more reason for knowing how to lie...

Comments

Re: Lurker feeling talkative for a change

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Obama has the magic touch. I have changed my mind about him, at least partially - I would still regard it as bad news if he came to power, but I can see now why he has reached this level. Even most of his opponents agree that he is the greatest public speaker in America for decades, and in his recent speech about his minister and race problems he has shown why. Great orators, from Demosthenes to Winston Churchill, make sense. It is not just a matter of verbal beauty, although that has to be there; there has to be an argument. Lincoln's great Cooper Union speech, that opened his way to the Presidency in spite of his utter obscurity, was a merciless forensic dissection of his opponents' attitudes, using the skills he had learned as a lawyer to demolish all their arguments on the issue of new States. As for Winston Churchill, to mention the most famous of his great speeches - before he got to the great peroration, "We shall not flag or fail. We shall fight in France; we shall fight on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air - we shall defend our island - whatever the cost may be..." and so on, he had given a large and detailed picture of the war that managed to tell his people the worst, yet show reason to hope and continue. That was the reason why - as my first teacher of English, who had heard it on the day it was delivered, told me - one would simply hear it and say, "yes, that is what we will do". Truly great speeches embody a sound argument in an artistic form. By the same token, Obama's great speech was based on sound argument. He has managed to disown his minister without rejecting him, explain the black viewpoint to whites without sounding hostile, and define himself as black while treating whites as friends, not opponents or enemies. Some of America's greatest Presidents - Lincoln and FDR spring to mind - have made their way to the White House on the back of their speaking abilities. That is why, so long as Obama and McCain have not measured off against each other, Obama leaves the bigger impression.

On the other hand, while Obama is magnificent at talking at people, McCain has won his nomination by talking with them. The whole McCain campaign has been based, not on great speeches, which McCain knows he cannot deliver, but on sitting down and answering any and all questions flung at him, face to face with his electorate. That is not only good in itself, but particularly an answer to those who regard him as moody, irritable and unreliable. He has been seen at his best when the NY Times levelled those admittedly silly charges of sexual misconduct with an attractive lobbyist: he called a press conference and answered question after question till no journalist had anything left to say. Obama is not at all good at this, and has been known to walk out of press conferences. So, when face to face, McCain is likely to out-argue Obama; and he has managed the trick of gaining much greater experience while keeping his reputation as independent and unbesmirched by corruption. Which, you have to admit, is a considerable asset.

The consequences of the election will be felt more on the domestic than on the foreign stage. Both candidates have disavowed the old, macho, arrogant, go-it-alone attitude of the Rumsfelds and Cheneys, and McCain has stressed as much as Obama the need to have the support of one's allies. And while McCain has been more gung-ho than Obama about Iraq, Obama has made it clear that he would not just leave the country without the consent of American commanders and Iraqi leaders. So American foreign policy is pretty much set whichever of the two wins. ON the other hand, in domestic policy there could not be a bigger difference than that between the free marketeer and pro-life activist McCain and the former activist Obama, who has floated the idea of appointing people without legal experience to the Supreme Court and has managed to find support for abortion in the Gospel.

Re: Lurker feeling talkative for a change

[elegant-bonfire.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, while Obama is magnificent at talking at people, McCain has won his nomination by talking with them.

You know, that's a fantastic summary right there. McCain may be cranky and outspoken at times, but in the end what you see is what you get--he's not afraid to tell you exactly what he thinks. Obama does give great speeches, but to me he's still a bit of an unknown--you can look at his record, but he really hasn't been in national politics that long. A lot of the extreme right-wing wackos have been calling him a socialist, which in my opinion he's not.

I admit I do like McCain, and if he and Obama are the final candidates, it will be very interesting to watch any debates they may have.

Edited 'cause I suck at HTML.