by Peter | 16 Oct 2008 |
I actually enjoyed last night's debate much more so than the previous three. Part of it could be that I watched with a real-live crowd of college-aged students instead of by myself at home with only my minuscule live-blog audience. But mostly, I think, it was because it was, finally, more of an actual debate and less of a set of parallel talking points. The two actually had to speak to each other and were given sufficient time to articulate a...
by Dan Nexon | 16 Oct 2008 |
ACORN is on the brink of "perpetrating the greatest vote fraud" in American history? About to "destroy the fabric of democracy"? As I said before, we're through the looking glass, people.... Oh, and the Asian markets are tanking right now.
by Charli Carpenter | 16 Oct 2008 |
I am no expert on American political campaigns, and do not know the literature on political adverstisements. I have, however, done a fair amount of qualitative research aimed at measuring the meaning of things in a reliable, replicable way. So I'm curious to know who is using such a method to keep track of "negativity" in campaign ads?Someone must be. Because the candidates both argued tonight not just that their opponent's ads are perceived by...
by Dan Nexon | 16 Oct 2008 |
The third "debate" turns out to be an actual debate. Other than that, no live blogging tonight. Had to finish a midterm for one of my classes.I may post some general impressions after the debate. My gut reaction now is that McCain isn't pushing a consistent line of attack. In consequence, his digs at Obama are rebounding to the latter's benefit by making him look cool, reasonable, and collected. In some respects, this may prove a real problem...
by Rodger Payne | 15 Oct 2008 | Featured
Given the way the campaign has gone lately, this seems to offer a preview of tonight's presidential debate: I never really previously noticed the parallels between Senator McCain and the Penguin.
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 15 Oct 2008 |
I started writing this post as a further contribution to the comment thread sparked by my last post, and in particular to the discussion that Janice Bially Mattern and I were having there. But my reply got too long for Haloscan to process, so I have moved it up a level and made it into a separate post. Plus, in doing so I am able to add this striking graphic, which is, I think, another example of the phenomenon we're wrestling with. Full...
by Dan Nexon | 15 Oct 2008 |
With apologies to Mojo Nixon:Power is everywherePower is everythingPower is everybodyPower is not still the king
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 13 Oct 2008 |
There's this video of McCain supporters in line at a rally in Pennsylvania that has been making the rounds on the 'Net (tip of the hat to Janice Bially Mattern for sending it to me). Here it is now:Figuring out what to make of this is slightly more complicated than simply having a gut reaction to it -- not the a gut reaction is unimportant, or even necessarily wrong, but in this case I think it can obscure some of what's going on in the scene....
by Peter | 11 Oct 2008 |
One thing that has been bothering me of late in the Presidential debate is how the press and the public are asking the wrong questions of the candidates about the economy. While part of it may be symptomatic of a general lack of understanding as to what is going on, it also betrays an intellectual laziness in those covering and discussing the campaign. Wedded to tired lines of debate, these questions rehash what we think is important and...
by Dan Nexon | 11 Oct 2008 |
David Brooks always styled himself as a member of the conservative intellectual vanguard. He would much rather be an observer of "real people" than to actually dirty his hands at playing milkmaid in his own Hameau de la reine.But David Brooks has recently come to a stunning realization: To borrow a line from Jeff Foxworthy, "you might be a member of the East Coast elite if... you have a column in The New York Times, are a regular commentator on...
by Dan Nexon | 11 Oct 2008 |
Yesterday I wrote in an email to a conservative blogger that I thought that McCain still had a fighting chance. I don't think so any more. I suppose enough slime might make this thing close. An al Qaeda intervention, or some other exogenous shock, might even salvage McCain's position.But I'll be very surprised if Obama doesn't win this thing, and win it convincingly.
by Dan Nexon | 11 Oct 2008 |
I've been fairly prolific lately. This state of affairs stems, in part, from what I've been working on for the last couple days: copy editing page proofs, which amounts to one of the dullest things I've done in furtherance of my career. Ever. Moreover, as I'm sure is the case for at least some of our readers, my mind has been colonized by two pressing developments: the final innings of the 2008 US Presidential campaign and the potential...