Dear John: No Late Papers Accepted
I'm writing this from my faculty office at USC so I'm in school-marm mode. One of the highlighted, bold-faced portions of each syllabus I issue reads something like "No Late Papers Accepted."
Didya hear that, John McCain?
The ploy he has come up with this morning is simply ridiculous and --as usual-- reeks with despair and defeat. Johnny Mac, who has clearly said and ably demonstrated that he has no clue on economics, now wants to postpone this Fridays' first presidential debate so he can he help lead some sort of phanstasmagorical bi-partisan study group on the trillion dollar Bush-Bernanke blackmail demand.
Hey, I can't say I blame McCain for this wobbly Hail Mary pass. If I had screwed up on this issue last week the way he did and if I were facing a national debate that might be watched by 100 million very anxious Americans, just as I was tanking in the polls, I would also ask for an extension before having to deliver my oral report to class.
I also found it fabulous that McCain, who has been AWOL on this topic for, say, 25 years or so, had the pelotas to make this empty gesture WITHOUT mentioning that the plea for a bi-partisan approach involving both campaigns was actually something that Barack Obama proposed to him earlier this morning on the phone.
As I write, I'm watching Barack Obama on the tube and he's saying he wants to go ahead with the debate. Good for him. Perfect response and tally up one more hole that bumbling Mac has drilled in his own boat.
This credit crunch is not a terrorist attack. It is not an act of war. Nor is it some kind of natural disaster of the sort that routinely interrupts politics-as-usual. On the contrary. The financial burnout we are now watching with mounting horror is a DIRECT product of 25 years of a certain free market, de-regulatory ideology which has been and which now -- more than ever--remains at the center of the national political debate.
There is no time better than this Friday night to have both presidential candidates repsond to and answer to this crisis. Especially a candidate like McCain who has adamantly supported the voodoo economic policies thate have led us directly into this trench.
John McCain, see you Friday. And come to class prepared to give your report.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Portfolio packets are due from the students in in my program Friday, Marc.
I will issue no Mcextensions.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
You know, when I was a POW for five years I didn’t have the luxury of being able to debate.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Well Marc and others in the thread below…
Seems we are on the same track.
I too just saw Baracks response. Well said by him and all that entails. The next 24 hr spin will be interesting as hell.
So long McCain – Sayonora
September 24th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I also found it fabulous that McCain, who has been AWOL on this topic for, say, 25 years or so, had the pelotas to make this empty gesture WITHOUT mentioning that the plea for a bi-partisan approach involving both campaigns was actually something that Barack Obama proposed to him earlier this morning on the phone.
I believe the word you’re looking for is pasas, not pelotas.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Word is that a deal – which kills the $700 Billion Paulson Solution in favor of a more restrained approach involving $150 billion – is almost done.
Johnny McComelately…
Of course, $150 billion is HUGE and it might well be that the Dems still got played by the biggest game of Chicken (Little) ever concocted…
September 24th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
It is heartening that the Obama campaign is learning how to deal effectively with McCain’s clownish provocations. This one is sure to backfire, and is too transparent for even the most doltish voters to not see through.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
“Oh, brother. What idiot came up with this stunt? It ranks somewhere on the stupidity scale between plain silly and numbingly desperate. McCain and Obama are both members of the senate and they’re both able to help craft a solution if they wish to do so without putting the presidential campaign on hold; after all, I’m sure congressional leaders would be willing to accept their calls if they have some important insights to impart. And while one of them will eventually become president, neither one is president yet, nor is either one a member of the congressional leadership; I’m confident that somehow the administration and the other 533 members of congress will be able to muddle through without tapping into the superior wisdom and intellect of their nominees. Sorry, John; it really sounds like you’re afraid to debate. This sounds like the sort of ploy we used to use in junior high school elections.” — former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards on Politico.com.
September 24th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Polling shows only ten per cent of responants agree with John. Cratering? Marc reports, you decide!
September 24th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Country first. This is McCain. This is his style. What you see is what you get, and you guys used to love his bipartisan style when he was p–sing off his own party. Now its Candidate First.
John wants to lead a bipartisan deal in a serious national problem that needs leadership. Obama wants to debate, then vote present, so as not to p–s off anyone.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Oh, and I hope John gets a chance to show is signature impatience with the children in DC.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Can’t make this stuff up:
Politico
September 24, 2008
The McCain campaign’s new urgency about the financial crisis didn’t entirely clear his schedule this morning.
My colleague Amie Parnes reports that he made it to his scheduled morning meeting with Lady Lynn de Rothschild, a Clinton backer who recently came out in support of him.
All while Obama was waiting by the phone for a returned call.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Jim R:
I think John McCain has already glaringly shown his “signature impatience” by making, now, a couple of the most impetuous, stupid, reckless and ultimately self-destructive deicisons in modern political history. The staggering idiocy of picking Governor Gidget is outmatched only by his confusion and now his cowardice in the face of the economic meltdown which ss a direct product of trickle-down (or should we now call it fire-hose) economics.
I hope YOU get used to the idea of living under a Barack Obama administration because it’s just around the corner.
I think the hardest part for folks like you is gonna be figuring out who the real “normal, average American” voter is i.e. an Obama voter. And therefore it’s going to be equally hard to accept the reality of who the freaks are. Take a guess, man. And get ready for a psychologically challenging eight years.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
John McCain said that if a deal isn’t reached by Friday there will be no debate. He’s looking forward to “a couple of town hall meetings with Obama,” though. He’s STILL trying to get Obama to campaign on his terms. McCain is making an empty gesture to look like he’s putting the country first. I don’t know if he’s afraid of the debate, after all it is the foreign policy one, but I’m sure he believes it’ll make people believe he’s the solution to the crisis. This is a political stunt. “Country first” and “putting politics on hold” my ass.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I’m trying to figure out some major legislation other than McCain-Feingold, which de facto was a failure and which most of his supporters hate, that John McCain has gotten through Congress. Why does he suddenly become the “indispensible man” – other than by virtue of his grandstanding and narcissism. Is he going to bring Phil Gramm with him to whisper in his ear when he’s confused ?
Had McCain issued a joint statement with Obama setting some shared terms for a solution, he could have demonstrated a penchant for pragmatic, bi-partisan leadership. He pulled a cheap stunt.
The guy’s desperate and any integrity he ever demonstrated has been displaced by his ego and petty ambition. I’m not convinced Viagra will even want him as their spokesman when the smoke clears.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
McCain’s “make a deal by Friday or I’m going to hold my breath and you’ll all be sorry” is about the worst approach to this mess one could possibly imagine. It looks like a modified, much less expensive alternative is already on the table – the only question is will the GOP turn this into a partisan pigfuck ? (Which is probably one reason McCain wants to go back to the Beltway to plead with his party peers not to totally screw him.)
September 24th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Marc is getting kind of mean…
September 24th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
(Good for him.)
September 24th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Jim R…whose 527 gang of thugs do you belong to?
My guess is some group pays you in six packs of Coors and pay porn site access to have you plant a set of provocative posts each day in as many liberal blogs as possible.
I bet you don;t even vote.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-04-24/news/trolling-right-wing-political-blogs-proves-that-november-can-t-come-too-soon/
September 24th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
This is all a scheme to quash the VP debate. Sarah’s performance with Katie Couric is the final straw.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Randy is right on target. McCain and the Dumbos fear the VP debate, so this is a way to kill it in a “statesmanlike” way.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
The thought that comes to mind watching the news the past few days is that George Bush appearing before the nation to explain a crisis is about as reassuring as the Three Stooges showing up to paint your house.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
David Letterman skewers McCain
Apparently, McCain really likes the word crater, making the title of your previous post apt, indeed. And, Letterman seems to suggest McCain doesn’t pass the sniff test.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Speaking of “no shows”, Woody hasn’t showed up here since I asked him if he’d actually ever PLAYED football…
September 24th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Typically, the Rethugs squeak by in Presidential elections by winning a few more independent votes than the Defeatocrats
This thread demonstrates why. McCain makes a plausible proposal that the debate be postponed and Obama counters with a plausible reason why it should not be.
Obama’s hyper-partisan left-wing supporters, (who are, no doubt, depressed over the recent, conclusive, irrefutable bad news about the Rosenbergs being dirty commie spies who gave the bomb away to Stalin), pronounce McCain a contemptible arch-villain.
The majority of Americans have no reason to trust either the Rethugs or the Defeatocrats, but they do know that they despise hateful mean-spirited hyper-partisans.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
There is some funny stuff here tonight.
The Three Stooges are funnier than Mcain’t, though.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
“get ready for a psychologically challenging eight years.”
Indeed. Paranoia is the core mentality of identity conservatives. With a mixed race Harvard lawyer running the country, these whiners will be reminding themselves daily that as high-school educated poor white males, they never get a fair shake — “look, even the president isn’t white anymore…”
The talkradio/wingnutosphere will descend even more deeply into its infantile echo chamber of self-pity and resentment.
It’s bound to get even uglier than it is today, but, more than ever, the noise machine will be seen as the circus freak show it really is.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Mike Huckabee on the bailouts:
http://www.huckpac.com/?FuseAction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=1899
September 24th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Or maybe this McCain’s idea for lowering expectations. Should he deem in the end to simply show up for the debate, he’ll be held to be at such a disadvantage if he scores any points at all, he’ll be deemed the comeback kid…
When it comes to debates, the GOP knows no bounds in lowering expectations…
September 24th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Yes, Reg. I’m getting mean. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I am now officially TIRED of this election and want it to be over. McCain — who I once quite liked– makes me sick to my stomach. And Palin offends me.
I’m so cranky nowadays that I even got yelled at tonite at the poker table, accused of being too brash and obnoxious. I set my focus on some guy next to me wearing a McCain T-shirt and I literally mowed him down. I was bad. I outplayed him, I took all his money (!), gloated over my victory, and mocked his sorry-ass playing style. Man, I was BADDDD.
Just plain out of patience with the craziness coming from the McCain campaign.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:46 am
I had brilliantly predicted on Monday that Friday’s debate would be moot because…
but the moderation monster ate my post…
Oh damn it. Incomplete paper!
September 25th, 2008 at 2:28 am
“I’m so cranky nowadays”
Funny – because I go around grinning and assuring nervous liberals who can’t see their way past the daily tracking polls, and assume everyone outside of their enclave-of-the-like-minded is terminally stupid and hopelessly racist, that we’ve just about got this thing nailed. The one thing that makes me cranky is that the folks who are least likely to lift a finger to help the campaign are the ones who are most likely to indulge in an air of gloom-and-doom superiority to the unwashed masses.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:56 am
qdp – Huckabee’s rhetorical gloss is almost as appealing as his “analysis” and concrete proposals are ridiculous…
“Don’t reward Wall Street” but eliminate ALL capital gains taxes and repeal even minimal regulation like Sarbanes-Oxley. Boy, that’s really kicking ‘em in the nuts for getting us into this mess. I will say this – if McCain wanted to pick a simple-minded, marginally-qualified fundamentalist governor as his running mate, he’d have been a lot better off with Huckabee than Palin. At least Mike has some authentic charm, as opposed to that phony “Miss Alaska” veneer that wears off the third or fourth time you’ve heard the same six lines regurgitated.
September 25th, 2008 at 5:44 am
John wants to lead a bipartisan deal in a serious national problem that needs leadership. Obama wants to debate, then vote present, so as not to p–s off anyone.
I call bullshit. McCain hasn’t voted in the senate since April. This is pure cynical ass-covering.
September 25th, 2008 at 7:04 am
samuel stott -
It’s funny. I thought McCain’s campaign suspension was a transparent political (i.e PARTISAN) gimmick. It really seemed clear to me, given the other stunts he’s pulled. But now you’ve made me realize how blind I was. I see now that it wasn’t his reckless, dumpster-diving campaign that led me to this conclusion. It wasn’t the fact that he’s barely appeared in the senate over the last two years. And it wasn’t his lurching heedlessly from one position to another every day for the last two weeks. It had nothing to do with any of that elitist empirical “evidence”.
It was the Rosenbergs!
September 25th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Marc, I have to say: I like the “mean” you. Your blog has been pumping me up these days. Keep kickin’ tail, compadre.
September 25th, 2008 at 7:52 am
PS, Stott, it’s not clear the gov’t looks much better than the Rosenbergs. It’s clear Julius Rosenberg was a Soviet spy, but also that he did not know or pass any information of significance. It’s also pretty clear they whacked the hapless Ethel Rosenberg in a failed attempt to blackmail her husband into confessing. The prosecution clearly suborned perjury from Ethel’s no-goodnik brother and s-i-l in order to get to Ethel. Saddam Hussein used to do that kind of shit too.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:30 am
samuel stott’s “Rosenbergs” comment pegs him as an old fart who is totally irrelevant in the context of contemporary politics. He’s utterly clueless as to the character of Obama’s supporters (and, frankly, the country circa 2008) – what a wanker!
September 25th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Interesting comments guy…and gals. Can we agree that both Obama and Palin are light-weights and both tend toward the extremes of their respective parties?
Obviously Palin is more of a lightweight intellectually and academically, but she’s not running for the top job and her governing experience and accomplishment are equal to or greater than Obamas’, especially in the ‘decision’ making category.
Regarding the economy, which I take is another of Marc’s beefs, this crises started by the unleashing and application of political pressure on Fannie and Freddie to accept and buy subprime loans by the Democrats, beginning 1999 by the Bill, by his own admission. “I felt to much money was being made by the stock holders and Executives(of Fannie and Freddie) ” I agree, but was taking on risky loans a good way to do it Bill? How about ‘regulation’? Well, the good old greedy capitalistic system took this new un-regulation and ran us right in the ground with it.
Look guys. I am surprised with all the vitriol here over my comments because I am the most non-partisan commenter other than Michael Turner. But, I know ’tis the season, and yes I do go over-the-top sometimes when responding to another over-the-top purely partisan attack, and sometimes just to wake up regs creativity when he hasn’t commented for a while.
Anyway, bottom line is, most of us know, especially Marc, we are fighting over scrapes left to us by the Feudal Lords and Aristocracy in Washington. They set the rules for us, but rarely live by them themselves. They collect their taxes from us, and return them in pet pork projects to buy our loyalty. Yes Marc, it leaves me in need of psychological help, but certainly no more than anyone else that knows who’s really out to get them.
Oh, and no Anna. I don’t look at porn silly. I do the porn. I’m the one with the Coor’s tattoo ad. Look for me in your videos.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Jim R, I think Obama is anything but a lightweight. He may have a “light” style, but he has great depth, I believe. If he were a lightweight, he would have been blown away months ago by the gale winds surrounding Rev Wright.
Under the intense pressure of this campaign, against all the Clinton and Republican attack apparatus could muster, he has stood his ground. Now, he is stronger and cooler than ever. Lightweight? Don’t think so.
September 25th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Dammit Marc, I just did my no-late-papers threat and now I come across your totally excellent idea! Come on people, this is college, not some presidential campaign!
September 25th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Jim R –
I don’t get the “most non-paritsan” comment because only a partisan would think Obama is a lightweight. You may hate him for all kinds of reasons, you may even think he is unfit to be President because he has only been in the Senate for a few years, but lightweight? I don’t know how a lightweight gets to be editor of the Harvard Law Review, or how a lightweight can write his own pretty impressive speeches, and so on. He brigns gravitas and thoughtfulness absent for at least eight years, and more like sixteen.
On your “extremes” comment, this is just more evidence that the range of acceptable discourse in this country is sadly truncated. It perplexes me when people talk about the left in America, because, *there is no left* in the US. Not in the category of viable politician. There is slightly left of center. There is liberal. That’s it. There has been a large right-ward shift in viable discourse over the last few decades. The leftmost we get here is maybe Bernie Sanders or Barney Frank, and both of them largely buy into the reigning orthodoxy. There are no Socialists in office. There are no Communists in office. That is, no genuine left. I’m not rooting to have Communists in office by the way, just trying to map the terrain.
So no, absolutely not, Obama does not represent the extreme of the party. He is a mildly left of center centrist. That’s it.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Slate predicts McCain’s next 10 Hail Mary stunts.
1. Returns to Vietnam and jails himself.
2. Offers the post of “vice vice president” to Warren Buffett.
3. Challenges Obama to suspend campaign so they both can go and personally drill for oil offshore.
4. Learns to use computer.
5. Does bombing run over Taliban-controlled tribal areas of Pakistan.
6. Offers to forgo salary, sell one house.
7. Sex-change operation.
8. Suspends campaign until Nov. 4, offers to start being president right now.
9. Sells Alaska to Russia for $700 billion.
10. Pledges to serve only one term. OK, half a term.
September 25th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Will someone please tell Bill Clinton to go away:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/bill-clinton-do.html
September 25th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Jim R, the crisis began with a housing bubble. You can attempt to position any number of players at center stage, but truly, only the most misinformed will follow you there. Had home values continued to skyrocket, no one would be pointing fingers at anybody. Fannie and Freddie are the least of the mess. The *very* least of this mess. And, you insult my intelligence by suggesting otherwise.