Pennsylvania 5th District - no longer safe Republican?

We've just been informed by a highly reliable source that an internal Republican poll of Pennsylvania's Fifth Congressional district, a "safe Republican" district for decades, is now showing a tie between Republican Glenn Thompson and Democrat Mark McCracken.

Thompson has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the campaign. The district has been so safely Republican that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did not send money to McCracken, who has spent almost nothing on the campaign.

This would be a historic upset for the largest Congressional in Pennsylvania.

What's Your Sign?

Every Obama-Biden yard sign in our small-town suburban neighborhood, where we've lived for over thirty years, was stolen last night. There must have been at least a dozen -- I have never seen so many. All gone. Way to go, real Americans.

Studs Terkel

Studs Terkel has died at the age of 96. The Chicago Tribune summed up his career today, and surely it is fitting to read what the Chicago papers have to say about this great man.

photo credit: Charles Osgood, Chicago Tribune, 16 May 2007 (1 November 2008)

Ronald Reagan Chief of Staff Endorses Obama-Biden

The Daily Kos on an MSNBC interview with Ken Duberstein, chief of staff to Ronald Reagan, in which Duberstein discusses Sarah Palin's lack of qualifications -- and John McCain's lack of judgment in choosing her as candidate for vice president.

Bill Clinton at Penn State, take two

Here are some additional photos of Bill Clinton's visit to Penn State on October 29.

Jack Selzer, professor of English and associate dean
of the College of Liberal Arts introduced President Clinton.

The tone was cordial and serious, by all reports. The local paper went so far as to lead with the story that President Clinton presented a reasoned argument for the election of Barack Obama -- a real contrast to the usual frame of combat taken for granted with everyday casualness by the press.

On the other hand, there are rumors around campus, so far unverified by Senses of Rhetoric, that during her visit to campus to speak at Rec Hall, the day before President Clinton's speech in the same location, Sarah Palin refused an offer to meet University President Graham Spanier on the grounds that he was suspected of being a Democrat. If true, would not that qualify as churlish? Would you be surprised?


these and more photos are at Penn State Public Information

photo credits:

Bill Clinton and Jack Selzer, by AnneMarie Mountz for Penn State Public Information.

Bill Clinton speaking, by Greg Grieco for Penn State Public Information.

Penn State Public Information photo album of Sarah Palin visit.

The Morning Paper

The morning paper that comes to our door at 5:00 a.m. or so (and wakes the cat) is ready every day to read at breakfast.

Today in the Centre Daily Times:

Friday, Oct. 31, 2008

Phillies victory doesn’t cause riot

By Sara Ganim

Why this man bites dog story? On Saturday night, after Penn State beat Ohio State in Ohio, there was a riot in State College.

Surviving the Academic Job Hunt

Debra Hawhee has a timely reminder of Kit Hume's Surviving Your Academic Job Hunt. Useful for humanists looking for tenure track positions in the humanities.

Bill Clinton at Penn State

Bill Clinton spoke at a rally for Barack Obama at Penn State yesterday afternoon (while I was meeting with a seminar on Alfred Hitchcock). The Centre Daily Times, our local paper, which runs a story, photos, and video this morning, reports that 1500 people attended.


Photo credit: Nabil K. Mark, Centre Daily Times, 30 October 2008.

In Bag News Notes this morning, photos by Alan Chin of Sarah Palin and John McCain in Pennsylvania.

Barack Obama Television Speech, 29 October 2008

A video of the Barack Obama 30-minute TV speech on Wednesday, 29 October 2008 is at Huffington Post and YouTube.



Analysis by Jim Rutenberg at the New York Times.

Tom Shales in the Washington Post.

Is the Income Tax Socialism?

Sarah Palin and John McCain have been claiming that Barack Obama's tax plan is share-the-wealth socialism -- taking your money to give to somebody else.

We have had a progressive income tax system in the United States for a century, with adjustments here or there along the way, and some calls for a flat tax.

Some links on this issue (I'll add a few more to round this out)

Daily Kos, "Let's Put an End to McCain's Lies about Obama's Tax Plan," 29 October 2008.

GOP Holocaust Warning in Pennsylvania

The Republican Party is apparently targeting Jewish voters in Pennsylvania with a warning that Barack Obama might precipitate a second Holocaust.

Bonnie Goldstein, "How the GOP Scares Jews," Slate, 28 October 2008.

Errol Morris on Political Advertising

In today's New York Times, Errol Morris on political ads.

Errol Morris, "People in the Middle," New York Times, 29 October 2008.

Pennsylvania in the Balance

Judging by the commentators and the actions of the candidates, Pennsylvania is a crucial state in this presidential election.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden are leading in all the polls, but of course anything could happen.

In our mid-state university town, we have had visits this year from Barack Obama (during primary season), Sarah Palin (a photo op earlier in the month, and a rally on campus on Tuesday evening). Bill Clinton will speak on campus tonight.

From Getty Images, here is a campaign rally in Pottsville, Pennsylvania --

The image captures the dismay in the press over the McCain campaign's "I'm a patriot and a war hero and we don't really know much about the loyalties of that other guy." The appeal has worn thin, and though it does apparently appeal strongly to a core of constituents, it seems likely to remind independent voters, given the skepticism of the press frame, of how thin the McCain rhetoric is.

Our local paper this morning frames the story of last night's Sarah Palin rally as a desperate gesture: "The McCain campaign's last-minute dash for Pennsylvania blew into town Tuesday night as running mate Sarah Palin stood in a packed Rec Hall and declared that "this is a close race.""

Another front page story in the CDT is headlined, "Die-Hard Supporters Flock to Palin."


Sarah Palin photo credit, Nabil Mark, Centre Daily Times, 29 October 2008.

See also Bag News Notes, "One Woman in Pennsylvania," 29 October 2008.

ABC News on Palin lies about Obama in Western Pennsylvania.

Obama ad on McCain and winking Palin, at Huffington Post.

Russ Rymer, The George Wallace We Forgot

In today's Times, next to the Times editorial endorsement of Barack Obama for president, is a column by Russ Rymer, "The George Wallace We Forgot," with a useful reminder of what John Lewis meant in his criticism of the McCain campaign of anger and fear.

Russ Rymer, "The George Wallace We Forgot," New York Times, 24 October 2008.

Bush Endorses McCain. On Saturday Night Live.

Harry Truman in October

President Harry S. Truman on the bark Eagle, at the Coast Guard Academy, New London, Connecticut, 20 September 1952. Photo at Truman Library.

-----

Harry Truman's campaign for re-election in 1948 appeared to be doomed. The polls and the papers assumed that the Republican candidate, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey would be elected on November 2.

Truman took to the rails, with his famous whistle-stop campaign of 1948.

I was a small boy in elementary school in Waterford, Connecticut in October 1948 when we were organized into a field trip to our local city, New London to see Harry Truman when his train came through town.

Here is the speech I heard on that October 28, 1948, from the Public Papers of the President, online at the American Presidency Project.

President Harry S. Truman. NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT. 28 October 1948. (Rear platform, 12:42 p.m.)

Thank you, thank you. Thank you very much. I'm very glad, my friends--very glad to be here in New London this afternoon. New London is world famous. The submarines that were built here were a vital power to the United States Navy during the war. The "Silent Service" never got the publicity that it deserved. But I know that the histories of this war will make it clear how great a part you people who built submarines, and the gallant submarine crews, had in winning the war.

The Coast Guard Academy here in New London and the Naval Base are important parts of our national defense. We intend to keep both the Academy and the Naval Base as strong and as active as possible.

Now, my friends, the real basis of our strength is a strong economy in this country. We are now enjoying a great prosperity, but a number of storm warnings have been hoisted. We are in a boom period that can turn into a bust period unless we are very, very careful. I have repeatedly warned the Congress and the country that we must take strong measures to prevent another depression. The Republican candidate for President says that I shouldn't even mention depression. He says I'm helping the Communists by talking about a depression. Talking about a depression won't help the Communists. What would help them would be to have a depression.

The only thing in the world which can endanger our leadership for peace would be a bust, brought on by failure to stop skyrocketing prices. The Republicans in Congress took the lead in killing price control 2 years ago. I have been urging Congress since then to pass price control laws. And I called the Republican 80th Congress back into special session twice for that very purpose.

The Republican 80th Congress made it perfectly clear that the Republican Party does not believe in doing anything about high prices. They prefer to let things run their course. The Republican candidate for Congress and the Republican candidate for President endorsed the 80th Congress. And he has made it perfectly clear that he does not want to help you in any way.

Now, I know what you are going to do, I think, on election day. I think you're going to make Chester Bowles Governor of Connecticut. I think you're going to make Mrs. Chase Going Woodhouse your representative in Congress again from this district. I think you are going to look after your own interests on election day, and when [p.895] you do that you can't do but one thing: that is to vote for yourselves. Go to the polls and vote the Democratic ticket straight, from top to bottom, and then you'll be on the right track because you will be voting in your own interests--you won't be voting for special interests. And your President then won't be troubled with the housing shortage like a lot of other people are--I'll still be in the White House another 4 years.

It was a beautiful fall day in October, sunny and crisp, and I vividly remember President Truman's zest and geniality, though as a small boy I was hardly familiar with the language of politics.

In an oral history at the Truman Library, Williams J. Bray, "Recollections of the 1948 Campaign" recalls

For the ride through Connecticut we were joined by a large delegation of high officials. The President made rear platform speeches at New London, New Haven, Bridgeport, South Norwalk to large crowds. We then proceeded into New York City, arriving there at 4 p.m.

Governor Dewey came through town the next day, and drew a crowd of 15,000; his train was headed for New York and a big speech he had scheduled there. I may have been in that audience, too, but my memory of it is so unclear that I may just be imagining it -- the tidy little figure of Dewey, a precise, small man with a little mustache. There was a famous cartoon of Dewey as the formal little groom on a wedding cake. The papers, including the New York Times, reported the day as a triumphal acknowledgment of the big win Dewey was everywhere expected to gain the next week. And then he lost.

For an account of the 1948 campaign from a rhetorical perspective, see Steven R. Goldzwig, Truman's Whistle-stop Campaign (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008).

Harry S. Truman text from John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters,The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California (hosted), Gerhard Peters (database). Available from World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=13074.

Tom Ridge, Robot

Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, the former Secretary of Homeland Security, has recorded a robocall for the McCain campaign warning of Barack Obama's possible terrorist sympathies.

The McCain campaign has launched a second robocall campaign painting Barack Obama as terrorist sympathizer and a potential threat to national security.

Narrated by former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, who identifies himself as "America's first Secretary of Homeland Security," the call suggests Obama would "give traditional civil rights to terrorists and talk unconditionally to dictators and state sponsors of terror."

This is hard for a Pennsylvania citizen to hear. Ridge, who has long been an opportunist pretending to be a principled conservative, has cast real doubt on his integrity as a former cabinet officer.

His call says

Hello, this is Governor Tom Ridge, America's first Secretary of Homeland Security. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because this week Joe Biden, Barack Obama's running mate, made startling comments that we must take seriously. He reminded us of Sen. Obama's inexperience when he said that America would face an international crisis that Sen. Obama would be unprepared to handle alone. If the Democrats win complete control of government they will want to give traditional civil rights to terrorists and talk unconditionally to dictators and state sponsors of terror. Barack Obama and his Democrat allies lack the experience and judgment to lead America.

Seth Colter Walls, "Second McCain Robocall Paints Obama as Terrorist Sympathizer," Huffington Post, 23 October 2008.

What's It Worth to You?

Gail Collins writes a column in today's New York Times on a phone solicitor for the McCain-Palin campaign who resigned rather than read the dirty campaign smear he had been hired to peddle.

"Confessions of a Phone Solicitor," GAIL COLLINS, New York Times, October 23, 2008.

If you can come up with something that would send a telemarketer over the edge, you have really overachieved on the offensiveness front.

See also "McCain Camp Silencing Supporter Who Repudiated Anti-Muslim Smears," Daily Kos, 23 October 2008.

ACORN roundup

M.S. Bellows Jr., "Anti-ACORN Messages Threaten Staff and Obama," Huffington Post, 22 October 2008.

Are those anti-ACORN calls being incited by the Sarah Palin and John McCain accusations of vote fraud and their attempts to link Obama and ACORN?

This new wave of threats underscores John Lewis's warning about violent rhetoric and its links to racist hatred in the 1960s. See "John Lewis Warns McCain: You're 'Sowing the Seeds of Hatred and Division," Huffington Post, 11 October 2008.

What's So Funny?

In our seminar this semester on the rhetoric of the American presidency, we found ourselves today discussing John Murphy's wonderful QJS essay on JFK's speech at Yale, June 11, 1962.

We discussed, among other things, the use of humor by presidents or directed at presidents.

John McCain and Barack Obama both appeared as featured speakers at the Alfred E. Smith dinner in New York last week (16 October 2008) to deliver humorous speeches. Both were shown on TV and there are links to their speeches.

There's a story from the LA Times on the McCain speech and presidential humor.
Transcripts here at Kansas City Star.

Here is a YouTube link to the Obama speech.

Here is a YouTube link to the McCain speech.

Full video at YouTube.

See also John M. Murphy, "The Language of the Liberal Consensus: John F. Kennedy, Technical Reason, and the 'New Economics' at Yale University," Quarterly Journal of Speech 90 (2004): 133-162.

John F. Kennedy, "Commencement Address at Yale University," President John F. Kennedy, June 11, 1962

Ken Adelman Endorsement of Obama

George Packer of The New Yorker reports conservative Ken Adelman's endorsement of Barack Obama.

October 22 - The Wall Street Journal accuses Fed chair Ben Bernanke of implicitly endorsing Obama for president -- "Bernanke Endorses Obama," Wall Street Journal, 22 October 2008.

October 23 - Scott McClellan endorses Obama. Huffington Post.

Jon Stewart on "un-American" Rhetoric

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart on the "un-American" theme in Republic campaign rhetoric -- here.

Copyright and Fair Use in a Free Society

Copyright helps to preserve the institutions of communication that make democracy possible. But copyright can also be used to limit open, democratic debate and the sort of critical analysis that makes it possible for a democracy to reflect on itself.

There's an interesting column today in the New York Times by Lawrence Lessig about copyright and politics. Lessig is not an anti-copyright fundamentalist. The column makes interesting reading.

The copyright and fair use problem as it affects critical social reflection is addressed on the blogs Bag News Notes and Notes on Politics, Theory, and Photography -- there are links to both on this page; the discussions of fair use are posted in the sidebars of these sites.

Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama on Meet the Press

Today on NBC, Meet the Press, Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama.

"I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities -- and you have to take that into account -- as well as his substance -- he has both style and substance," Powell said. "He has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president."

Story at Huffington Post, "Colin Powell Endorses Obama," 19 October 2008.

Comment by Hendrik Hertzberg in The New Yorker.

Maureen Dowd, "Moved by a Crescent," New York Times, 22 October 2008.

Frank Rich on McCain-Bush

Frank Rich in today's New York Times writes:

One journalist who detected this modus operandi early was Ron Suskind, who, writing for Esquire in January 2003, induced John DiIulio, the disillusioned chief of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, to tell all. “There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus,” DiIulio said. “What you’ve got is everything — and I mean everything — being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis.” . . . Incredibly, McCain has nakedly endorsed the Bush-Rove brand of governance in his own campaign by assembling his personal set of lobbyist cronies and Rove operatives to run it. . . . What he has offered his country this year is an older, crankier, more unsteady version of Bush. Tragically, he can no sooner escape our despised president than he can escape himself.

Frank Rich, "He Just Can't Quit W," New York Times, 19 October 2008.

Those McCain Robocalls

Talking Points Memo has recordings and transcripts, along with some fact-checking, of the McCain-Palin robocalls that many observers are calling a new low in presidential campaigning.

First Dude Express Comes to State College, PA

The Centre Daily Times, State College, PA, reports today that Todd Palin will arrive this afternoon in time to tailgate and attend the Penn State - Michigan game.

Joe the Plumber. Isn't. Joe. Or a Plumber.

New York Times [blog], October 16, 2008, 1:30 pm

Joe in the Spotlight, Larry Rohter and Liz Robbins

also --

"Joe The Plumber Admits He Wasn't Undecided After All" at Daily Kos

Why Is John McCain So Angry?

I watched last night's presidential debate, the third and last, between John McCain and Barack Obama.

I was watching the debate on C-SPAN, which, except for cutaways for the moderator's questions, maintained a split screen of two close-ups -- Obama on the left, McCain on the right. The whole debate was very distracting, as McCain, especially when Obama was speaking, seemed to be having trouble containing his emotions -- anger, impatience, shakiness, giddiness. McCain seemed to be seething.

There is a clip showing some of the anger at Daily Kos, along with a discussion of the matter on CNN with David Gergen, here.

Watching the debate in a format that showed close-ups of the alternating speakers produced much less of this effect, though since McCain interrupted and heckled fairly frequently, even that format seemed to reinforce the frame, by now well established for at least a large part of the electorate and the press, that McCain may be erratic and impulsive.

The New York Times ran a feature today with both video and a transcript here.

Angry McCain at Huffington Post, from YouTube.

George Packer at the New Yorker.

Service Employees International Union on McCain

Here's an ad from the SEIU on the McCain prospect -- an interesting and very simple animated graphic.

Bush and McCain: What's the Difference?

Have You No Sense of Decency?

The Palin - McCain attacks that have stimulated such frantic rage at their rallies in the past two weeks have been compared to the tactics of Joe McCarthy, and we have been reminded by some commentators of the moment in the Army-McCarthy hearings when Joseph Welch issued his famous rebuke.

The exchange is in text and audio at AmericanRhetoric.com, which also shows these images, among others, from that moment.

Bob Shrum has compared the McCain-Palin rhetoric with the handbill of John F. Kennedy circulated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, the day he was shot and killed by an assassin.


In today's Times a useful analysis by Frank Rich of the McCain-Palin rhetoric, with further links to recent incidents at their rallies. Rich writes, "The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder."

Frank Rich, "The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama," New York Times, 12 October 2008.

Rich's column is accompanied by this image by Barry Blitt, which captures some of the many layers of association, menace, and triumphalism of the campaign --

Barry Blitt - New York Times - 12 October 2008

.

Sarah Palin in the Pumpkin Patch

Sarah Palin and the Straight Talk Express came to our little town yesterday.

We did not hear about it until we picked up the Sunday paper on our front porch, and there she was, taking up most of the front page.

Governor Palin and her daughter were on their way from a rally in Johnstown to the University Park airport for a flight to Philadelphia, where Palin dropped the puck to start the game--and was apparently roundly booed by the crowd. Her surprise visit yesterday to the Way Fruit Farm was apparently a big success.

It is not a surprise that a visit from a vice presidential candidate would take over the front page of the Sunday paper -- even though Penn State beat Wisconsin in Madison yesterday evening, 48-7.

It is interesting, just to remind ourselves how thoroughly saturated we are by media practices, how normal it seems to us that a surprise, unnanouced appearance would be so fully covered by a local reporter and photographer. And of course the story captures exactly that double quality -- absolutely carried away by celebrity, absolutely not aware of the levels of staging and back-stage preparation this sort of surprise and its coverage entail, absolutely awed by how normal the candidate seems -- she's one of us!

Sarah Ganim, "AN OCTOBER SURPRISE -- Palin Mingles with Crowd in Unexpected Visit to Way Fruit Farm," Centre Daily Times, 12 October 2008.

(photo credit: CDT/Christopher Weddle; Centre Daily Times, 12 October 2008)

A Bad Week for McCain-Palin

This is the week that the campaign reached its ugliest -- so far.

Serge Kovaleski, "Alaska Inquiry Concludes Palin Abused Powers," New York Times, 10 October 2008.

Gov. Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office by pressuring subordinates to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, an investigation concluded.

Elizabeth Bumiller, "McCain Lauds and Attacks Obama on Same Day," New York Times, 10 October 2008.

After a week of trying to portray Senator Barack Obama as a friend of terrorists who would drive the country into bankruptcy, Senator John McCain abruptly changed his tone on Friday and told voters at a town-hall-style meeting that Mr. Obama was “a decent person” and a “family man” and suggested that he would be an acceptable president should he win the White House.

But moments later, Mr. McCain, the Republican nominee, renewed his attacks on Mr. Obama for his association with the 1960s radical William Ayers and told the crowd, “Mr. Obama’s political career was launched in Mr. Ayers’ living room.”

"Your Abbreviated Pundit Roundup," Daily Kos, 11 October 2008.

Bob Shrum, "Time to Ask McCain, 'Have You No Sense of Decency Left?'" Huffington Post, 10 October 2008.

The reality is that in a country facing two wars and a mounting economic crisis, these desparate and despicable appeals aren't working. Obama's lead is mounting, nationally and in the battleground states. But there is a threat here too that is all too real. When I heard someone in a Palin crowd yell out "traitor" as the candidate lashed out at the Democratic nominee, I thought of the full-page ad that appeared in a Dallas newspaper on the morning of Nov. 22, 1963. The headline--"Wanted for Treason"-- was sprawled across a poster-sized photo of President John F. Kennedy.

You don't put country first by running this kind of campaign.

A more or less coherent narrative is emerging in press coverage of the Republican campaign, all the more surprising because essentially the same narrative is emerging left and right, and on the "main stream media" as well as in the blogosphere, and in serious journalism as well as comic sendups. Palin is portrayed as superficial, dishonest, and abusive. McCain is portrayed as a geriatric case -- an angry, out of touch, desperate old man who will do anything to seize his last chance at the presidency. This is a narrative that will be difficult for McCain to disentangle himself from, as it seems to account for both the silly (his "wandering" at the debate) and the serious (his and Palin's encouragement of a level of anger and threat that, as one commentator pointed out, would stimulate a Secret Service intervention if said by anyone else). McCain's very inconsistency has emerged as part of a consistent narrative -- and that's hard to shake, since any new tactics fit so easily into the coherent story of his incoherence.

See also Harold Ford, Jr., "Will McCain Do Anything to Win?" Washington Post, 11 October 2008.

Khaled Hosseini, "McCain and Palin Are Playing with Fire," Washington Post, 12 October 2008.

Jonathan Martin, "John Lewis, Invoking George Wallace, Says McCain and Palin 'Playing with Fire,'" Politico, 11 October 2008.

(image Stephen Crowley/The New York Times, 11 October 2008)

The McCain Wander

Rachel Sklar, "The McCain Wander" in the Huffington Post includes a video compilation of town hall debate moments both from the actual debate and as treated by TV comics.

The image is from the Huffington Post for 11 October 2008.

Rolling Stone on John McCain

In the new issue of Rolling Stone, an investigative report, Tim Dickinson, "Make Believe Maverick," Rolling Stone, 16 October 2008. It is worse than we had supposed, though consistent with the general contempt in which Senator McCain appears to be held by his Senate colleagues.

In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.

(Illustration by Robert Grossman)

Touche, Prime Minister

Italian Prime Minister Sylvio Berlusconi on "Porta a Porta"




(image from NewPress at Corriere della Sera 5 October 2008)

Not Yet, Prime Minister

European prime ministers lining up for a photo



(image from today's Irish Times)

Is Health Care for All Socialized Medicine?

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, "socialized medicine" was a scare-phrase that carried considerable weight in heading off attempts to provide federal regulation or support for health insurance. Here we go again.

We are apparently in for a comeback.

The image is from Jim Johnson's (Notes on) Politics, Theory, Photography blog.

Wink, But Don't Blink or You'll Miss Something

The Palin wink from the vice-presidential debate.













image from Bag News Notes there you betcha

October Is a Dirty Month

Now it's going to get really nasty. The McCain-Palin campaign has been steadily losing ground in the polls for almost two weeks as undecided voters grew sick of McCain's impulsive grandstanding, Palin's obvious unreadiness, and the growing economic collapse.

John McCain's campaign has not been about issues, but about the "maverick" tale, and it is not working. The obvious next move is to attack Barack Obama, and that is evidently what the campaign has apparently decided to do. Whether it will work -- or boomerang -- nobody knows, but it will surely be unpleasant.

See Michael D. Shear, "McCain Plans Fiercer Strategy Against Obama," Washington Post, 4 October 2008.

Moments after the House of Representatives approved a bailout package for Wall Street on Friday afternoon, the McCain campaign released a television ad that challenges Obama's honesty and asks, "Who is Barack Obama?" The ad alleges that "Senator Obama voted 94 times for higher taxes. Ninety-four times. He's not truthful on taxes." The charge that Obama voted 94 times for higher taxes has been called misleading by independent fact-checkers, who have noted that the majority of those votes were on nonbinding budget resolutions.

A senior campaign official called the ad "just the beginning" of commercials that will "strike the new tone" in the campaign's final days. The official said the "aggressive tone" will center on the question of "whether this guy is ready to be president."

McCain's only positive commercial, called "Original Mavericks," has largely been taken off the air, according to Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political ads.

Unregulated Greed

A small story in the New York Times on October 3, 2008, tells the story of how the five biggest investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, then headed by Henry Paulson, now our Treasury Secretary, won approval of new deregulation from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The action was little noticed at the time, but it was apparently one of the key de-regulatory moves that led to the currently spiraling crisis, which is going to need new rules as well as new money before it's over.

This is a story of greed, negligence, and misguided ideology. It is not going to be fixed by moralizing from John McCain about a few bad apples on Wall Street and at the SEC, but by serious attention to fixing the rules of the financial markets.

"S.E.C.'s 2004Rule Let Banks Pile Up New Risks," New York Times, 4 October 2008.

Stephen Labaton, "The Reckoning -- Agency's '04 Rule Let Banks Pile Up New Debt," New York Times, 2 October 2008.

Critics on VP Debate

Arianna Huffington on the Joe Biden - Sarah Palin vice-presidential debate: " It was the folksiest appearance since Hee-Haw went off the air." The article is here.

See also Gail Collins, "Talking in Points," New York Times, 4 October 2008. "Palin did indeed answer each question with poise and self-confidence, reeling off a bunch of talking points that were sometimes totally unrelated to the matter at hand. When she was asked to respond to Joe Biden’s critique of the McCain health care plan, she announced: “I would like to respond about the tax increases,” cheerfully ignoring the fact that tax increases had never been mentioned."

Bob Herbert, "Palin's Alternate Universe," New York Times, 3 October 2008. " --

We’ve lived through nearly two terms of an administration that believed it could create its own reality:

“Deficits don’t matter.” “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.” “Those weapons of mass destruction must be somewhere.”

Now comes Ms. Palin, a smiling, bubbly vice-presidential candidate who travels in an alternate language universe. For Ms. Palin, such things as context, syntax and the proximity of answers to questions have no meaning."

David Letterman on Sarah Palin (YouTube links from Daily Kos) here.

John McCain on Gwen Ifill

John McCain today seemed to claim that he was surprised to discover that Gwen Ifill, who will moderate tonight's vice-presidential debate, is writing a book about African American political figures that includes Barack Obama in the title. McCain complained that her choice demonstrates that "life isn't fair." He did acknowledge that Ifill is a professional.

Coming on the day of the debate, and many weeks after his campaign agreed to Ifill as the moderator, when her book project was already well known, and coming after ten days of impulsive and desperate gestures from McCain, the attack on Ifill seems sure to rebound.

Ifill is the moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week in Review" and a senior correspondent on the "Lehrer News Hour" on PBS.

See Jim Ruttenberg's account of the incident at his New York Times blog.

McCain Pulls Out of Michigan

The McCain campaign is apparently conceding Michigan a month before the election.

Chris Cilliza blog at the Washington Post.

Jonathan Martin at Politico.

Are Your Students Sleeping?

Tracy Jan writes in the Boston Globe about college students who are not getting enough sleep.

Tracy Jan, "Colleges Calling Sleep a Success Prerequisite," Boston Globe, 30 September 2008.

It's an age-old predicament: Caffeine-fueled college students cramming for exams and writing papers until the crack of dawn, then skipping or snoozing through classes. Sleep deprivation has long been considered a rite of passage, a point of pride even.

But now, alarmed by recent studies tying lack of sleep to poor academic performance, college officials are urging students just to go to bed. More than a dozen Massachusetts schools have begun waging campaigns touting the benefits of sleep through dorm seminars, posters, and catchy slogans like, "Want A's? Get Z's."

NPR on Palin-Biden Debate Preparation

National Public Radio - ALL THINGS CONSIDERED on the VP Debate today:

Election 2008

How VP Candidates Are Preparing for Debate

Audio for this story will be available at approx. 7:00 p.m. ET

All Things Considered, September 30, 2008 · On Thursday, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin will participate in the only vice presidential debate. Jennifer Palmieri, senior vice president of communications for the Center for American Progress, and Republican media strategist Stuart Stevens discuss the candidates' preparation.

Daily Kos, John McCain Fails to Deliver Votes

The Daily Kos account of John McCain's to-ing and fro-ing over today's failed vote on the financial rescue package is here.

Barney Frank, Somebody Hurt Their Feelings

The video of the Republican explanation for today's failed vote, blaming it on Speaker Pelosi, and Barney Frank's "because somebody hurt their feelings they decided to punish the country" is here.

Jon Stewart on McCain Stunt

Jon Stewart on the Daily Show announces John McCain's impulsive response to a 10-day-old crisis.

Hendrik Hertzberg on the Palin - Couric Interview

Hendrik Hertzberg at the New Yorker on the Palin - Couric interview.

See also Hertzberg's account of John McCain's "let's make it a hundred" commitment on how many years the U.S. should stay in Iraq.

Communication Advice for Joe Biden

"Communication Advice for Joe Biden," from Daily Kos

Fareed Zakariah on Sarah Palin

Newsweek

Fareed Zakaria

Palin Is Ready? Please.

McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, that is simply not true.

Published Sep 27, 2008

From the magazine issue dated Oct 6, 2008

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

Here's the link to Huffington Post and the video.

McCain's Suspension Bridge to Nowhere

from the New York Times

Op-Ed Columnist

McCain’s Suspension Bridge to Nowhere

By FRANK RICH

Published: September 28, 2008

John McCain may be the first presidential candidate in our history to risk wrecking the country even before being voted into the Oval Office.

Rich provides useful links and a close review of last week's crazy McCain timeline.

Paul Newman is Still HUD

Paul Newman is Still HUD

From today's New York Times:

archives

Paul Newman Is Still HUD

By PAUL NEWMAN

Published: August 19, 2003

The Fox News Network is suing Al Franken, the political satirist, for using the phrase fair and balanced in the title of his new book. In claiming trademark violation, Fox sets a noble example for standing firm against whatever. Unreliable sources report that the Fox suit has inspired Paul Newman, the actor, to file a similar suit in federal court against the Department of Housing and Urban Development, commonly called HUD. Mr. Newman claims piracy of personality and copycat infringement.

Voluntourism

Mary Fitzpatrick describes "voluntourism" -- travelers to New Orleans to volunteer in rebuilding efforts for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Rebuilding Together New Orleans

National Trust for Historic Preservation

NewOrleansOnline.com

Art For Obama: Authenticity And Purity Of Race And Patriotism

Art For Obama: Authenticity And Purity Of Race And Patriotism

Posted using ShareThis

(Notes on) Politics, Theory & Photography: A Bailout We Don't Need

(Notes on) Politics, Theory & Photography: A Bailout We Don't Need

Volunteering

If you are looking for a chance to travel but don't want a study tour and would rather commit yourself to doing something useful and learning something new, consider volunteering.

Here are some opportunities --

American Friends Service Committee -- I was a volunteer in their Mexico project in 1956. AFSC entry at Volunteer Match

VolunteerMatch

Volunteer Abroad -- opportunities in Italy

Transitions Abroad -- opportunities in Italy

Global Volunteers -- opportunities in Italy

CADIP -- Canadian Alliance for Development Initiatives and Projects -- opportunities in Italy

Sarah Palin and the Rape Kits

Dorothy Samuels writes in today's New York Times that "Even in tough budget times, there are lines that cannot be crossed. So I was startled by this tidbit reported recently by The Associated Press: When Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the small town began billing sexual-assault victims for the cost of rape kits and forensic exams."

Dorothy Samuels, "Wasilla Watch: Sarah Palin and the Rape Kits," New York Times, 26 September 2008.

Broken

One of John McCain's early TV ads, which started showing on 5 August 2008, is called "Broken."

For students of rhetoric and of the presidency, it is a curious ad, since McCain is a Senator running for President, and yet the illustration that we see when we hear the voiceover telling us that "Washington is broken . . . " is the floor of Congress. By his direct and indirect disavowals of George Bush, McCain seems to convey that it is the presidency that has been broken, by George Bush -- and yet the ad invokes the old cultural cliche of a gridlocked Congress.

Is McCain arguing that presidential action can enhance Congressional deliberation, or that, since all hope for Congressional deliberation is lost, only a president can step forward and offer decisive leadership in place of deliberation? It is not an idle question, since this is exactly the question at the center of the idea of the rhetorical presidency advanced by Jeffrey Tulis, The Rhetorical Presidency (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989). Tulis, whose thesis is much debated among political scientists, historians, and rhetorical scholars, argues that beginning with Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, presidents have increasingly found various means of pre-empting Congressional deliberation by direct popular appeals to the people, resulting in plebiscitary government.

For a recent discussion of the rhetorical presidency, see David Cheshier, Amateur Humanist (thanks to Hillary Jones for a tip about this link).

Where Is John McCain?

John McCain has had a strange few weeks. He has gone from trying to recover his maverick credentials to almost completely untethered from reality -- or so it seems in what one sees in the media.

The famous series of absolute switches over a few days from "the economy is fundamentally sound" to "the economy is in trouble" to "I haven't actually read the [3-page] bailout plan" to "I am going to suspend my campaign" to "that doesn't mean I won't give speeches, run ads, and do everything else a campaign does" to "I'm going to Washington and won't leave until a deal is agreed to by all parties" to blowing up the deal that was coming together and then, today, announcing that we would, after all, show up for the debate with Barack Obama tonight in Mississippi.


Earlier this morning, before he announced that he would change his mind again and participate in the debate, his campaign web site posted an ad claiming that he had won the debate.



See Sam Stein, "McCain 'Blinked,' Campaign 'Governed by Tactics, Not Ideology,'" Huffington Post, 26 September 2008.

Economists' Petition

Perhaps it was just a prop, but Republican Senator Richard Shelby waved a petition that he and other senators had received from economists, arguing that Congress should slow down on the passage of the administration's $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, as if it really had made a difference to his own thinking.

The petition, initiated at the University of Chicago, presented a critique of the plan itself from economists of widely differing opinions about what in the end should be done, if anything.

Today's Chronicle of Higher Education as an interesting background piece on the petition and its call for deliberation, which should surely be interesting to students of rhetoric.

"Economists and the Bailout: For Once, a Petition Has an Impact," Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog, 26 September 2008.

Photo Op - Not

The Huffington Post and other news organizations reported today that the planned visit of Sarah Palin to the UN today, designed to introduce her to foreign leaders and demonstrate that she is qualified in foreign policy, met a united wall of resistance from the networks when they discovered that the whole event was a (gasp!) photo-op.

Network and newspaper reporters were barred by the McCain campaign from the event -- only the photographers and videographers were allowed to work -- thus ensuring that the captive networks and newspapers would print photographs that constituted the story of Palin on the international stage.

In response, the networks did something almost unprecedented -- they refused to play along. They told the McCain-Palin campaign that they would not report the event under the restrictions imposed.

See also Michael Cooper, "Palin in the City," New York Times Politics Blog, 23 September 2008.

See also Scott Lilly, "Playing Hooky Pays Off for Palin," Politico, 23 September 2008.

The Palin lockout of the press continues.

Obama Ad on Healthcare Deregulation

The Huffington Post this morning has the video of the Obama campaign ad responding to McCain's proposals to deregulate health care.

Conservatives Abandon McCain

On ABC News today George Will, Cokie Roberts, and Sam Donaldson agreed that John McCain appeared to be unfit for the presidency.

The Court, the World

In recent years, the citation of American court decisions by courts in other nations has rapidly declined.

Legal scholars and jurists in the United States debate whether the laws and practices of other countries should be of any interest in the decisions of our own courts--or our presidency and Congress.

Adam Liptak, "U.S. Court Is Guiding Fewer Nations," New York Times, 17 September 2008.

Our government has long held that we are a beacon of freedom for the world. In the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, one heard the appeal that "the whole world is watching." Should we care that the world, especially the most advanced nations, seems to be deciding that the United States is no longer such a beacon?

Presidential and VP Debates

The New York Times reports today that the formats for this season's presidential and vice-presidential campaigns have been negotiated.

"The Obama and McCain campaigns have agreed to an unusual free-flowing format for the three televised presidential debates, which begin Friday, but the McCain camp fought for and won a much more structured approach for the questioning at the vice-presidential debate, advisers to both campaigns said Saturday."

Patrick Healy, "Pact on Debates Will Let McCain and Obama Spar," New York Times, 21 September 2008.

What strange language we talk when we talk about politics: a "pact" is about making peace, typically with an international treaty; a "debate" is about a mode of structured deliberation; "sparring" is a faux fight. Yet when we read these three words in a headline about a TV meeting between two presidential candidates, the words do not immediately strike us as mismatched. Is this a sign of our sophistication or our confusion?

Campaign Language and the GOPAC Memo

In 1990 Newt Gingrich circulated what came to be known as the GOPAC Memo, instructing politicians on the right how to choose a vocabulary suited to the style of campaign that Gingrich mastered.

Today's Doonesbury features the GOPAC Memo, "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control," a version of which may be found here.

Gingrich did not invent dirty campaigning, but he made a contribution.

Abdication by Palin

The Anchorage Daily News complains that Governor Palin has abdicated the functions of her governor's office to the McCain campaign staff.

"Abdication by Palin"

"When did the McCain campaign take over the governor's office?"

More on Troopergate

Barack Obama Speaks to Women about the Economic Crisis

Barack Obama on the economic crisis, September 20 on YouTube.

John McCain's health care plan

Paul Krugman, a Princeton economist, on John McCain's idea to further privatize health insurance -- deregulate it to make it more like the financial markets.

Other reports indicate that Senator McCain also advocates privatizing Social Security. Let the market take care of it.

McCain, as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, oversaw the widespread deregulation that he has complained about this week -- when he hasn't defended it.

Race and the Campaign

This post appeared yesterday in CRTNET:

Lisa Dove, EJLISADOVE@aol.com 

>From Letters to the Editors @ Fort Worth Star-Telegram - today

How racism works

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said "I do" to?

What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not  only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama were a member of the "Keating 5"?

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does.

It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

See also BAGNewsNotes on McCain campaign ad.

Faith, Secrecy, Cronyism, . . . and Reform

Perhaps process issues are not the most important elements in the current presidential election campaign -- after all, there's the war, national security, health care, trade, the economy.

And yet both campaigns are now promising to bring REFORM to Washington and its politics.

Barack Obama has argued from the beginning that the path to reform and national unity is to be found in deliberation and compromise.

John McCain and Sarah Palin also claim to be on the warpath to reform.

It seems to me that the sort of faith-based certainties, cronyism, and secrecy that are so characteristic of the McCain-Palin ticket make reform unlikely if not impossible. Genuine reform can only come from government transparency, with reasoned deliberation among a wide group of differing views, and with an active and open process to recruit competent civil servants.

These qualities are notably missing in the McCain campaign and in the record of Sarah Palin as a mayor and as governor of Alaska.

We do need reform, but we won't get it with faith-based (and gut-based) decisions, secrecy, and cronyism.

Jo Becker, Peter S. Goodman and Michael Powell, "Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes," New York Times, 14 September 2008.

Huffington Post on Palin-Gibson interview

The Huffington Post has links to video and a transcript of the Palin-Gibson interview.

Palin as Governor

It has taken some time for the truly discouraging picture of Sarah Palin's political career to take shape in the serious press. Here's an excerpt from today's article in the Times:

Ms. Palin walks the national stage as a small-town foe of “good old boy” politics and a champion of ethics reform. The charismatic 44-year-old governor draws enthusiastic audiences and high approval ratings. And as the Republican vice-presidential nominee, she points to her management experience while deriding her Democratic rivals, Senators Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr., as speechmakers who never have run anything.

But an examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls local opponents “haters” — contrasts with her carefully crafted public image.

Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.

Jo Becker, Peter S. Goodman and Michael Powell, "Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes," New York Times, 14 September 2008.

On Palin as a mayor, see Alec McGillis, "As Mayor of Wasilla, Palin Cut Own Duties, Left Trail of Bad Blood," Washington Post, 14 September 2008.

As councilwoman. From BAGNewsNotes: Early Signs of Sarah Palin's Radical Agenda?

Dowd on Gibson-Palin

Maureen Dowd writes today in the Times about Sarah Palin's interview last week with Charlie Gibson of ABC News, her first interview since being named by John McCain more than a week earlier:

An Arctic blast of action has swept into the 2008 race, making thinking passé. We don’t really need to hurt our brains studying the world; we just need the world to know we’re capable of bringing a world of hurt to the world if the world continues to be hell-bent on misbehaving. . . .

The really scary part of the Palin interview was how much she seemed like W. in 2000, and not just the way she pronounced nu-cue-lar. She had the same flimsy but tenacious adeptness at saying nothing, the same generalities and platitudes, the same restrained resentment at being pressed to be specific, as though specific is the province of silly eggheads, not people who clear brush at the ranch or shoot moose on the tundra.

Maureen Dowd, "Bering Straight Talk," New York Times, 14 September 2008.

See also Steve Coll, "The Bush Doctrine," The New Yorker: Think Tank [blog], 15 September 2008.

The difference

Thomas Friedman in today's New York Times:

In order to disguise the fact that the core of his campaign is to continue the same Bush policies that have led 80 percent of the country to conclude we’re on the wrong track, McCain has decided to play the culture-war card. Obama may be a bit professorial, but at least he is trying to unite the country to face the real issues rather than divide us over cultural differences.

Battle Exhortation

This month, the University of South Carolina Press is publishing Keith Yellin's Battle Exhortation. Here's the catalog entry

Battle Exhortation
The Rhetoric of Combat Leadership

Keith Yellin

A commanding study of the motivational speech of military leaders across the centuries

6 x 9, 208 pages
cloth, $34.95s
ISBN 978-1-57003-735-1