« Edwards on Colbert Last Night | Main | School A Block Away From Me Has A Logo That Looks Like Male Genitalia »
April 18, 2008
Friday
1. I generally think Dick Polman (stop laffin at his name, Louie!) was dead-on with his debate analysis yesterday. It's worth reading in full, but here's a snippet:
Just how bad was Barack Obama's debate performance last night? Not as bad as Britney Spears' song-and-dance routine at the MTV Awards. Not as bad as Bill Buckner's legendary error during the '86 World Series. Not as bad as Bob Dylan's music during his God phase. Not as bad as John Travolta's Scientology cinema experiment in Battlefield Earth. Not as bad as Mike Dukakis' fateful ride in a military tank.
In other words, Obama could have done worse. Neverthless, if he still harbors any hopes of driving Hillary Clinton from the Democratic race by scoring an upset victory in Pennsylvania, he might be wise to get real. It's hard to imagine that he won over the working-class, culturally-conservative Democrats who constitute the swing vote; if anything, his performance during the first 45 minutes of the debate may well have cemented their suspicions.
Obama's devotees will no doubt complain today that the ABC News inquisitors were grossly unfair, that they focused their fire on Obama while leaving Hillary Clinton relatively unscathed, and that they asked too many dirtball questions at Obama's expense. (George Stephanopoulos to Obama: "Do you think Rev. Wright loves America as much as you do?") Whatever. Whining about the media is the last resort of losers. The bottom line is that Obama didn't successfully adapt to the environment.
Polman goes on to outline four specific instances where Obama could have really pulled away, but didn't. And I agree: The snippets of the debate I saw were maddening: an anger born of the twin frustrations of (a) watching Gibson (who I can't fuckin STAND) & Stephanopoulos hammer Obama with 45 minutes' worth of character-assassinating, general-election-haunting, swift-boating bullshit; and (b) watching Obama flail around, seemingly unable to parry convincingly and - perhaps worse still - inept and inexplicably bloodless when it came time to talk about the economy. (THAT'S one area where I really do miss John Edwards. I'm hard-pressed to imagine a political landscape more favorable to Edwards' economic message than the murk of recession into which we slowly slip day after depressing day. Say what you will about Edwards, but I am convinced that he would have been well-positioned here against McCain.)
But. Obama has fought back admirably since his disastrous debate. Perhaps he just needed a good night's sleep - because today, for example, he's in fine form, hammering away at McCain on the economy with precisely the right amount of outrage:
That's what the hell I'm talking about. It's like Mortal Kombat, but tweaked: DEFINE HIM!
I'm hoping Obama pulls off the impossible and wins PA. The sooner we get a nominee, the sooner we can deal with John "Older Than FM Radio" McCain. Let's get on with it. Too much at stake...
2. National Planning Scenarios for various attacks on the United States. Thorough, in a way somehow both terrifying and reassuring:
The response timeline will begin the instant the detonation occurs. Initially, only survivors in the immediate area will conduct rescue and lifesaving activities. Later (minutes to hours), rescue teams will begin to arrive and provide assistance. These initial efforts are likely to be uncoordinated. With the current state of education, training, and equipment, it is likely that many of these responders will subject themselves to very large (perhaps incapacitating or fatal) doses of radiation. As various command posts are set up (which may take hours to days), the response will become more coordinated. The productivity of rescue and direct lifesaving activities will decrease significantly as a function of time and will be very low within a couple of days.
3. U.S. SPENDING ON IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN BY MONTH, WEEK, DAY, HOUR, MINUTE, & SECOND:
IRAQ
Per Month - $10.3 billion
Per Week - $2.4 billion
Per Day - $343 million
Per Hour - $14 million
Per Minute - $238,425
Per Second - $3,973
Also:
If you had a padded expense account that allowed you to spend $1 million dollars a day on whatever you wanted, it would take you 1,918 years to spend as much as we've spent on Iraq and Afghanistan through March 2008 (approximately $700 billion).
Posted by caps at April 18, 2008 01:53 PM