Comments | wendymr: US Election: A Breath of Fresh Air

wendymr

US Election: A Breath of Fresh Air

Oct 18, 2008 11:44

Anyone as fed up as I am with all the negativity, smears, attacks and adversarial behaviour going around in the election campaign might enjoy these speeches as much as I did. John McCain and Barack Obama addressed the annual Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, with refreshing blasts of humour directed as much against themselves and their own ( Read more... )

us presidential election

Comments 8

taffimai October 18 2008, 16:12:06 UTC

Wasn't it wonderful? OBama was good, but McCain ... it was like a time warp back to 2000. He was classy, funny, and generally awesome.

wendymr October 20 2008, 03:00:53 UTC

It was quite definitely a relief in the midst of all the negativity. Whatever the two candidates' views of each other privately, this brought a bit of dignity and decency back to a campaign that in many ways has become disgraceful.

lt_kitty October 18 2008, 17:15:27 UTC

McCain is definitely the better comedian. He had me in stitches!

Thanks for sharing that, it was fantastic.

wendymr October 20 2008, 03:01:21 UTC

Yes, his was definitely funnier. Better speechwriter? Or the fact that he's trailing and knows it?

lt_kitty October 20 2008, 03:40:02 UTC

I'd be inclined to think speechwriters and speakers' timing - though I have to admit that towards the end it sounded like a concession. (And that surprised me.)

nina_ds October 18 2008, 18:51:45 UTC

McCain was definitely better as a comedian, but he's gone so far I can't really forgive him, sadly. I have a feeling that the "happy warrior" is a front and the impatient, mean-spirited, spoiled guy is underneath there at all times; even his best friend as a kid has called him a "mean little f&#!er". It came out a bit in the Keith Olbermann section - now I am a KO fan, but I have no blinders as to his foibles, and it started off fine, but the "Mission Accomplished" banner sequence was kind of nasty, and it stuck out. I think Obama did a better job at laughing at himself, although McCain's nice words about him at the end were very nice indeed. Shame he doesn't act on them.

Man, I keep trying not to be negative, but I saw Michelle Bachmann on Hardball last night and am still trying not to freak the hell out about what might happen in the next couple of weeks!!

The speeches were indeed a much-needed break in the intensity.

wendymr October 20 2008, 03:05:21 UTC

I do see your point. The sheer nastiness coming out of the McCain campaign lately has been awful. While I did admire McCain very much for telling off people at one of his rallies for calling Obama an Arab and saying they'd be scared of him as president (and taking the time to say that Obama is a decent man and loyal American and there is no reason to be scared of him), at the same time he's endorsing ads that are pretty despicable.

I really know very little about him as a person, though. I know he has a temper and occasionally loses it badly.

I didn't notice the 'Mission Accomplished' sequence, but some of those cultural references just pass me by. I never saw that film (it's a film you're referring to, right?), so wouldn't have recognised the reference. But, yes, it was good to hear some decent tributes to each other, whether or not they actually mean them. I think it's important to get the message across, true or not, that this is just politics and that just because someone's an opponent they're not the Antichrist.

nina_ds October 20 2008, 18:39:22 UTC

The "mission accomplished" thing isn't a movie reference, it's a media thing, related to the banner that Bush had on the aircraft carrier. It also is dependent upon knowing that Keith Olbermann ends each of his broadcasts with a count of how many days it's been since the declaration of "mission accomplished" (we're coming up on 2000). The part that bothered me about the joking was when he was talking about how it was going to be a long night at MSNBC when he won - that part was fine. Then he said that Keith Olbermann was having his own "MA" banner made, and if he wanted any advice as to where to hang it, McCain would have a very good suggestion as to "where he could put it". A lot of it had to do with tone - it's a cheap joke, not a very good one, but it was said with a viciousness that he didn't show in any of the other jokes. The weird combination of the childishness and the viciousness just stuck way out to me. (KO was also his "replacement" on Letterman when he bailed, and when he was on on Thursday night, the one time where his " ( ... )