The Republicans spit in our food so they can fish it out of the dumpster when we throw it out

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Watching Obama on the stump today, he has never seemed more charming, sympathetic, well intentioned and trustworthy. He also seemed strangely small... Watched Biden and had the same feeling.

Then McCain... something even less than trivial. Trivial in slow motion. Then Palin. Beyond nothingness... not even real, let alone significant. An actual clown. She’s like watching a High School production of TOOTSIE.

A "bummer" factor has been injected into campaign 2008, and probably by design.

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When Newt Gingrich came to Congress he had a remarkable insight derived from the corporate “hostile takeover” culture of the 1980s.

If you want to get something, destroy it. Make it so nobody else wants it.

The single most ridiculous scandal of our time—above the Clenis, flag pins or even freedom fries—was the Congressional checking scandal that was essential to the Republican takeover of 1994.

For those who don’t recall… many well-to-do people have checking accounts with “overdraft protection.” If you happen to bounce a check the bank knows you are good for it (for instance, you may have more than enough to cover it in a savings account, or your paychecks are direct deposited) and covers it rather than creating an incident. The banking service available to Congressmen offered over-draft protection.

Some congressmen got pretty casual about over-using the overdraft protection feature as a credit feature rather than an emergency protection. Consequently, many checks were written on the House bank that exceeded the funds available.

Newt Gingrisch spun this pedestrian fact up into a “check bouncing” scandal even though not a single check was bounced. A bounced check is when you write someone a check and they don’t get the money. If the bank forwards the right amount of money to the person who deposits the check it isn’t a bounced check.

The Republican line was that common folk, “you or I,” would go to jail for what these Congressmen were doing. That was a double lie. First, most people reading this have accidentally bounced a check at least once in their lives, like in college (ahem), and did not go to jail. Second, the Congressmen WERE NOT BOUNCING CHECKS. They were doing nothing illegal. The "crime" was, at worst, on par with over-using the "take a penny-leave a penny" dish at a convenience store.

The funny thing about the Congressional checking scandal was that it was going to ensnare as many Republicans as Democrats. It was precisely the sort of thing neither side goes after.

But Newt went after it.

He wanted to completely destroy and demoralize Congress as an institution for the purpose of controlling Congress. I would guess that Congress never recovered in public esteem. But the Republicans got control of it… dented and covered with shit, but they got it.

Sarah Palin makes it difficult to take the presidency seriously. If one contestant is a clownish reality show reject it’s hard to take the contest very seriously. Obama/Biden is obviously the SERIOUS choice so the pugs cannot hope to win a serious contest. The pugs have no interest in SERIOUS peple being involved in the process.

But McCain/Palin would make better reality show contestants than Obama/Biden. So make everyone look like a clown simply for even being in the same forum as Palin.

This tactic has worked in the past because the Republican base will vote even if everyone else is too disgusted to bother. Republicans rely heavily on general suppresion of voter interest to reduce the electorate to a few managable interest groups.

If elections can be reduced to moronic non-issues then only morons will be fired up to vote.

The technical powers of political office are worth trillions of dollars, not matter how shabby the office is made to look.

Picking Sarah Palin is as cynical as burning down America for the insurance money.

Fortunately we have a lot of enthusiasm on our side this year. People will vote for Obama as a positve act, not merely a despairing gesture. So the usual vote supression through malaise method won't work. But that is part of the game plan we are seeing unfold.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. Since longer posts sink fast these days please give a Kick if it's worthy of a Rec. Thanks!

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

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[Kurt_and_Hunter]

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[Kdillard]

3. kick

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. ADDENDUM: (since all our nerves are frayed these days)

In saying at the beginning that Obama is looking small to me,, that is not to suggest that he is personally any different.

It's that the majesty of the office has been diminished by the idea of putting an actual clown a heart-beat away, so the entire enterprise has taken on a surreal cast.