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The debate last night in Bluefield showed the difference between an experienced and confident sitting Congressman and a challenger whose entire presentation was full of the usual buzz words of Teatardism. Spike's audience included members of the WV Metro Valley Tea Party who were there handing out leaflets and who cheered him on as he disdainfully shouted out the Tea Party Call to Arms... "Obama, Pelosi, ObamaCare", and even a reference to Congressman Rahall's use of the words "Stength Through Unity" as being a slogan of the Communist Party. Spike is going to need a lot more meat in his arguments than meaningless buzz words. By the way his reference to communism drew boos from most of the audience who were shocked at such a reference being aimed at Mr Rahall. The Congressman had a lot of supporters in the audience as well, and they were far better behaved than Maynard's crowd.
The sponsors would not allow any video recording so I don't have any pertinent moments to play to you. Needless to say Congressman Rahall did well in staying above the fray, and cogently presented his case.
Both of them tried to point put that they are strong supporters of coal, and both agreed that money needs to be spent on restoring infrastructure in our state and on highways.
Both candidates support mountaintop removal and both feel that the EPA is waging a war on Coal. The difference is that Congressman Rahall blames the EPA, and Maynard blames the Democratic party and President Obama as well as the EPA.
I hope that the transcript of this debate is made available, and that pertinant video becomes available as well. I also hope that Congressman Rahall starts getting aggressive and maybe a little pissed off at Maynard's Teatardism.
Congressman Rahall's team is letting folks know that tickets are available starting today for the debate between himself and the disgraced Spike Maynard. This is the first of two debates mentioned in an earlier post by Heath Harrison that can be read here.
The debate will take place at Bluefield High School's auditorium at 7:00pm on September 7th. Tickets can be picked up in advance at WVVA's offices on Hwy 460 in Bluefield or at The Bluefield Daily Telegraph's office on Bluefield Avenue in downtown Bluefield. Individuals are limited to 4 advance tickets.
We need a strong crowd at this debate to support the Congressman. Get your tickets today for this event. (Of course we can't be sure that Maynard will even show up)
We are spending $2 Billion a week in Afghanistan. If you want to see zeros, that's $2,000,000,000.00 a week. It also means $104 Billion a year.
Meanwhile, we can't afford to keep our education budgets in functional condition. We can't reduce our National Debt. We can't bring down our operating deficit. And we are spending a fortune on foreign servicing (read China) of our debt.
My voice is getting hoarse from yelling at the television today when the Republicans debating the Health Care Bill make statements which are patently untrue. The primary statement is one Boehner and his biddies keep making, that the majority of Americans have come out against this bill.
Now where is it that this has been shown, John? The various polls for weeks have shown the majority of Americans for this reform. Especially, they have shown a strong favor of the Public Option, something you keep saying all Americans are against.
via AmericaBlog, a Daily KOS diary that is more than a little surprising. I would need to see some confirmation of this response before I believed it. But, if true, it is very good:
"Well, it looks like the candidate in this election who will be the ultimate uniter won't by Barack Obama but Sarah Palin. Yesterday I was booowled over to learn that some rabid, rabid Republicans who live in rural Missouri now agree with me on one thing: They hate Sarah Palin. Hate her. The final nail was Thursday night's VP debate....
It turns out that they really, really, really, really did not like the fact that Palin flat out did not answer many of the questions. They found that to be outrageous. After all, the entire reason they were watching the debate was to see her answer questions, doggone it.
They also did not like all her attempts to be folksy. To them it just came off as, um, I think the word they used was "phony." In fact, the candidate who seemed to them to be real and more like them was not Sarah Palin but Joe Biden.
The women, in particularly, did not like Palin's flirty, winky act. That went over like a lead balloon. And both the men and the women did not like her "Can I Call You Joe" schtick. They found that to be disrespectful to Senator Biden."
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo...
Carnaki highlighted John Cole's take on the meta narrative that seems to be taking hold after the debate - specifically within the context of McCain's actions over the previous week: "Look for the appearance of the following words in days to come: cranky, grumpy, crotchety, angry, mean, rude, sneering, snarling, contemptuous, off-putting, snide, boorish ...." I think that is exactly right, but there is more happening than just that.
McCain's body language drove a message of dismissive contempt towards an obviously competent Obama that was deeply unsettling on both an conscious and subconscious level. He was being very rude towards a man that a clear majority of the public likes, according to all the polling. His behavior was surprisingly un-presidential, and simply reinforced the unease over his erratic actions over the previous two weeks. As people absorb the totality of his recent performance, I can't help but believe that unease over this man will continue to grow. John Aravosis (of AmericaBlog) noted a few days ago that 'erratic is not a characteristic we want to see in our presidents.' Unless you are the Christianist RW base, where this kind of behavior is not seen as a bug, rather a feature - because they like surly bullies. In their Bible, Jesus apparently was all about throwing stones.
The always excellent James Fallows has had some fine analyses of the debate in historic terms:
"When the details of this encounter fade, as they soon will, I think the debate as a whole will be seen as of a piece with Kennedy-Nixon in 1960, Reagan-Carter in 1980, and Clinton-Bush in 1992." http://tiny.cc/87Ug1
. . . and in terms of what the candidate's "tactics versus strategy" approach to the debate means about how they act and how they would govern:
"For years and years, Democrats have wondered how their candidates could "win" the debates on logical points -- that is, tactics -- but lose the larger struggle because these seemed too aggressive, supercilious, cold-blooded, or whatever. To put it in tactical/strategic terms, Democrats have gotten used to winning battles and losing wars. Last night, the Democratic candidate showed a far keener grasp of this distinction than did the Republican who accused him of not understanding it."
http://tiny.cc/vQz58
Speaking of a campaign driven by short term tactical decisions, and from the "you can't make this up" department, TPM reports that:
"In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one -- the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.
Inside John McCain's campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. "It would be fantastic," said a McCain insider. "You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week.""
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/a...
As we enter the final stretch of the election, let's keep in mind what's still at stake. (Reposted from April 27, 2007.) Democratic presidential candidates Mike Gravel, Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and Sen. Hillary Clinton gather on stage prior to the first presidential debate. Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times
Statements you won't hear from Republican presidential candidates not named Ron Paul: highlights from the the April 26, 2007 Democratic presidential debate in S.C. (transcript)
#10 - GOV. BILL RICHARDSON, D-N.M.
"This war is a disaster. We must end this war. This is what I would do if were president today. I would withdraw all of our troops, including residual troops, by the end of this calendar year."
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