Full Version: In order for Obama to win...
It is apparent to me that the weak minded and ignorant is the constituency that the McCain camp is appealing to, which unfortunately is an important number of voters that determines who wins the election. Just listen to how Palin uses phrases like "hockey mom" and "good ole boys" in order to relate to a voting group that lacks perspective on issues. Obama is too sophisticated and cerebral to appeal to the average redneck. It is time to stop fooling around! Obama needs to talk in short sentences and with a more simplistic vocabulary. That's a reality, unfortunately.
Can you give an example of where he's speaking in a manner that is to sophisticated or cerebral? He's not exactly taking the John Kerry path here.
If by appealing to the average redneck you mean call McCain a phony soldier, or a pervert, or any number of nasty things similar to what has come out of the mouths of the McCain camp, that won't happen.
Obama and Biden are doing what they need t do. They're calling McCain out on the inherent dishonesty of his ads and his rhetoric. I think it's building up steam, and it seems clear that the media is catching on and running with the meme.
By the time the debates are over, McCain will be seen in the eyes of the voters as one of the most prolific liars in American politics, and Sarah Palin will be seen as both a liar and an incompetent.
If by appealing to the average redneck you mean call McCain a phony soldier, or a pervert, or any number of nasty things similar to what has come out of the mouths of the McCain camp, that won't happen.
Obama and Biden are doing what they need t do. They're calling McCain out on the inherent dishonesty of his ads and his rhetoric. I think it's building up steam, and it seems clear that the media is catching on and running with the meme.
By the time the debates are over, McCain will be seen in the eyes of the voters as one of the most prolific liars in American politics, and Sarah Palin will be seen as both a liar and an incompetent.
QUOTE (love-obama @ Sep 16 2008, 09:31 AM) 
It is apparent to me that the weak minded and ignorant is the constituency that the McCain camp is appealing to, which unfortunately is an important number of voters that determines who wins the election. Just listen to how Palin uses phrases like "hockey mom" and "good ole boys" in order to relate to a voting group that lacks perspective on issues. Obama is too sophisticated and cerebral to appeal to the average redneck. It is time to stop fooling around! Obama needs to talk in short sentences and with a more simplistic vocabulary. That's a reality, unfortunately.
There are lots of ways to cut the electorate: by income (Republicans like that one), by gender (Republicans like that one too), by race (ditto), by sexual preference (ditto), by education (ditto), by religion (ditto), etc. In fact, Republicans are pretty expert at "slice and dice" politics, which is also called "divide and conquer". They turn one segment against the other.
Obama's theme is unification, and actually restoring the US and actually solving problems. Unfortunately his message is likely beyond the reach of most of the bell curve. So if he were to play the "slice and dice" game, which dimension would he use to set one segment against the other. He could use race, but that's not so great. IMO, the best dimension to use is AGE.
He needs to set the younger generation against the older. And he is doing that. The young are carrying less baggage. They have more at stake, since the length of time they have to live with this election is longer. Those of us older types who see him doing that, will forgive him if it helps to win this election.
This BBC article can explain better what I am trying to say. And yes, Obama needs to use shorter sentences and not to appear like a university professor giving a lecture; he needs from time to time use something similar to "my friends"...hehehe... .
"Why rednecks may rule the world"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsi...000/7600592.stm
BBC NEWS
Why rednecks may rule the world
By Joe Bageant
Author of Deerhunting With Jesus
During this US election cycle we are hearing a lot from the pundits and candidates about "heartland voters," and "white working class voters."
What they are talking about are rednecks. But in their political correctness, media types cannot bring themselves to utter the word "redneck." So I'll say it for them: redneck-redneck-redneck-redneck.
The fact is that we American rednecks embrace the term in a sort of proud defiance. To us, the term redneck indicates a culture we were born in and enjoy. So I find it very interesting that politically correct people have taken it upon themselves to protect us from what has come to be one of our own warm and light hearted terms for one another.
On the other hand, I can quite imagine their concern, given what's at stake in the upcoming election. We represent at least a third of all voters and no US president has ever been elected without our support.
Consequently, rednecks have never had so many friends or so much attention as in 2008. Contrary to the stereotype, we are not all tobacco chewing, guffawing Southerners, but are scattered from coast to coast. Over 50% of us live in the "cultural south", which is to say places with white Southern Scots-Irish values - redneck values.
We fry things nobody ever considered friable - things like cupcakes, banana sandwiches and batter dipped artificial cheese even pickles
They include western Pennsylvania, central Missouri and southern Illinois, upstate Michigan and Minnesota, eastern Connecticut, northern New Hampshire
So when you look at what pundits call the red state heartland, you are looking at the Republic of Redneckia.
As to having our delicate beer-sodden feelings protected from the term redneck; well, I appreciate the effort, though I highly suspect that the best way to hide snobbishness is to pose as protector of any class of folks you cannot bear. Thus we are being protected by the very people who look down on us - educated urban progressives.
And let's face it, there's plenty to look down on. By any tasteful standard, we ain't a pretty people.
Uppity and slick? Not us...
We come in one size: extra large. We are sometimes insolent and often quick to fight. We love competitive spectacle such as NASCAR and paintball, and believe gun ownership is the eleventh commandment.
We fry things nobody ever considered friable - things like cupcakes, banana sandwiches and batter dipped artificial cheese even pickles.
Her daughter had a baby out of wedlock? Big deal. What family has not?
And most of all we are defiant and suspicious of authority, and people who are "uppity" (sophisticated) and "slick" (people who use words with more than three syllables). Two should be enough for anybody.
And that is one of the reasons that, mystifying as it is to the outside world, John McCain's choice of the moose-shooting Alaskan woman with the pregnant unmarried teen daughter appeals to many redneck and working class Americans.
We all understand that there is a political class which dominates in America, and that Sarah Palin for damned sure is not one of them. And the more she is attacked by liberal Democratic elements (translation: elite highly-educated big city people) the more America's working mooks will come to her defence. Her daughter had a baby out of wedlock? Big deal. What family has not? She is a Christian fundamentalist who believes God spat on his beefy paws and made the world in seven days? So do at least 150 million other Americans. She snowmobiles and fishes and she is a looker to boot. She's a redneck.
American ethos
The term redneck indicates a lifestyle and culture that can be found in every state in our union. The essentials of redneck culture were brought to America by what we call the Scots Irish, after first being shipped to the Ulster Plantation, where our, uh, remarkable cultural legacy can still be seen every 12 July in Ireland.
Ultimately, the Scots Irish have had more of an effect on the American ethos than any other immigrant group. Here are a few you will recognize:
* Belief that no law is above God's law, not even the US Constitution.
* Hyper patriotism. A fighting defence of native land, home and heart, even when it is not actually threatened: ie, Iraq, Panama, Grenada, Somalia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Haiti and dozens more with righteous operations titles such as Enduring Freedom, Restore Hope, and Just Cause.
* A love of guns and tremendous respect for the warrior ideal. Along with this comes a strong sense of fealty and loyalty. Fealty to wartime leaders, whether it be FDR or George Bush.
* Self effacement, humility. We are usually the butt of our own jokes, in an effort not to appear aloof among one another.
* Belief that most things outside our own community and nation are inferior and threatening, that the world is jealous of the American lifestyle.
* Personal pride in equality. No man, however rich or powerful, is better than me.
* Perseverance and belief in hard work. If a man or a family is poor, it is because they did not work hard enough. God rewards those who work hard enough. So does the American system.
* The only free country in the world is the United States, and the only reason we ever go to war is to protect that freedom.
All this has become so deeply instilled as to now be reflexive. It represents many of the worst traits in American culture and a few of the best.
And that has every thinking person here in the US, except perhaps John McCain and Sarah Palin, worried.
Very worried.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/today/hi/...000/7600592.stm
Published: 2008/09/06 09:39:12 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
"Why rednecks may rule the world"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsi...000/7600592.stm
BBC NEWS
Why rednecks may rule the world
By Joe Bageant
Author of Deerhunting With Jesus
During this US election cycle we are hearing a lot from the pundits and candidates about "heartland voters," and "white working class voters."
What they are talking about are rednecks. But in their political correctness, media types cannot bring themselves to utter the word "redneck." So I'll say it for them: redneck-redneck-redneck-redneck.
The fact is that we American rednecks embrace the term in a sort of proud defiance. To us, the term redneck indicates a culture we were born in and enjoy. So I find it very interesting that politically correct people have taken it upon themselves to protect us from what has come to be one of our own warm and light hearted terms for one another.
On the other hand, I can quite imagine their concern, given what's at stake in the upcoming election. We represent at least a third of all voters and no US president has ever been elected without our support.
Consequently, rednecks have never had so many friends or so much attention as in 2008. Contrary to the stereotype, we are not all tobacco chewing, guffawing Southerners, but are scattered from coast to coast. Over 50% of us live in the "cultural south", which is to say places with white Southern Scots-Irish values - redneck values.
We fry things nobody ever considered friable - things like cupcakes, banana sandwiches and batter dipped artificial cheese even pickles
They include western Pennsylvania, central Missouri and southern Illinois, upstate Michigan and Minnesota, eastern Connecticut, northern New Hampshire
So when you look at what pundits call the red state heartland, you are looking at the Republic of Redneckia.
As to having our delicate beer-sodden feelings protected from the term redneck; well, I appreciate the effort, though I highly suspect that the best way to hide snobbishness is to pose as protector of any class of folks you cannot bear. Thus we are being protected by the very people who look down on us - educated urban progressives.
And let's face it, there's plenty to look down on. By any tasteful standard, we ain't a pretty people.
Uppity and slick? Not us...
We come in one size: extra large. We are sometimes insolent and often quick to fight. We love competitive spectacle such as NASCAR and paintball, and believe gun ownership is the eleventh commandment.
We fry things nobody ever considered friable - things like cupcakes, banana sandwiches and batter dipped artificial cheese even pickles.
Her daughter had a baby out of wedlock? Big deal. What family has not?
And most of all we are defiant and suspicious of authority, and people who are "uppity" (sophisticated) and "slick" (people who use words with more than three syllables). Two should be enough for anybody.
And that is one of the reasons that, mystifying as it is to the outside world, John McCain's choice of the moose-shooting Alaskan woman with the pregnant unmarried teen daughter appeals to many redneck and working class Americans.
We all understand that there is a political class which dominates in America, and that Sarah Palin for damned sure is not one of them. And the more she is attacked by liberal Democratic elements (translation: elite highly-educated big city people) the more America's working mooks will come to her defence. Her daughter had a baby out of wedlock? Big deal. What family has not? She is a Christian fundamentalist who believes God spat on his beefy paws and made the world in seven days? So do at least 150 million other Americans. She snowmobiles and fishes and she is a looker to boot. She's a redneck.
American ethos
The term redneck indicates a lifestyle and culture that can be found in every state in our union. The essentials of redneck culture were brought to America by what we call the Scots Irish, after first being shipped to the Ulster Plantation, where our, uh, remarkable cultural legacy can still be seen every 12 July in Ireland.
Ultimately, the Scots Irish have had more of an effect on the American ethos than any other immigrant group. Here are a few you will recognize:
* Belief that no law is above God's law, not even the US Constitution.
* Hyper patriotism. A fighting defence of native land, home and heart, even when it is not actually threatened: ie, Iraq, Panama, Grenada, Somalia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Haiti and dozens more with righteous operations titles such as Enduring Freedom, Restore Hope, and Just Cause.
* A love of guns and tremendous respect for the warrior ideal. Along with this comes a strong sense of fealty and loyalty. Fealty to wartime leaders, whether it be FDR or George Bush.
* Self effacement, humility. We are usually the butt of our own jokes, in an effort not to appear aloof among one another.
* Belief that most things outside our own community and nation are inferior and threatening, that the world is jealous of the American lifestyle.
* Personal pride in equality. No man, however rich or powerful, is better than me.
* Perseverance and belief in hard work. If a man or a family is poor, it is because they did not work hard enough. God rewards those who work hard enough. So does the American system.
* The only free country in the world is the United States, and the only reason we ever go to war is to protect that freedom.
All this has become so deeply instilled as to now be reflexive. It represents many of the worst traits in American culture and a few of the best.
And that has every thinking person here in the US, except perhaps John McCain and Sarah Palin, worried.
Very worried.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/today/hi/...000/7600592.stm
Published: 2008/09/06 09:39:12 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
It's a simple concept called the idiocracy.
Dumb people reproduce faster and in greater numbers than smarter people. It's just a fact of the world given the time constraints of education. Dumb people are having more babies than smart people and we're starting to feel the effects of the idiocracy.
I say we bring back the voting exam and apply it universally. Nothing complicated, just simple things like, "Which of the following is not a presidential power?" or "Which of the following is not a Judicial power?"
Simple things that any person who paid any attention in civics or US History should know.
Bring it back and ween out the dumb people.
Dumb people reproduce faster and in greater numbers than smarter people. It's just a fact of the world given the time constraints of education. Dumb people are having more babies than smart people and we're starting to feel the effects of the idiocracy.
I say we bring back the voting exam and apply it universally. Nothing complicated, just simple things like, "Which of the following is not a presidential power?" or "Which of the following is not a Judicial power?"
Simple things that any person who paid any attention in civics or US History should know.
Bring it back and ween out the dumb people.
False construct.
Appealing to the stupid is much like the notion that we have to appeal to the "swing voter" that doesn't exist, and isn't what's going to determine the election.
What Obama has to do, and indeed is doing ridiculously successfully, is appealing to all those people who were so disgusted by how stupid politics had gotten, that they left the process entirely.
Those people have now been invited back into their democracy, and it is THEY who will determine the election. The smart people who are excited to finally see somebody running for office who has more than two brain synapses to rub together to get a spark.
Appealing to the stupid is much like the notion that we have to appeal to the "swing voter" that doesn't exist, and isn't what's going to determine the election.
What Obama has to do, and indeed is doing ridiculously successfully, is appealing to all those people who were so disgusted by how stupid politics had gotten, that they left the process entirely.
Those people have now been invited back into their democracy, and it is THEY who will determine the election. The smart people who are excited to finally see somebody running for office who has more than two brain synapses to rub together to get a spark.
The lowest common denominator of which you speak is ignorant, racist, rural white trash. No matter how much Senator Obama tries to dumb it down, these sheeple cannot be reached because all they know is HATE and FEAR. The other part of McInsane's base -- the obscenely wealthy -- cannot be reached because all they know is SELFISHNESS and GREED.
There is no sense obsessing over those who can never be won over. We just need to concentrate on the reach-able in the middle and keep our "boots on the ground" until November 4.
True Patriots vs. Candidate McCain | Why John McCain is the Antithesis of Patriotism
There is no sense obsessing over those who can never be won over. We just need to concentrate on the reach-able in the middle and keep our "boots on the ground" until November 4.
True Patriots vs. Candidate McCain | Why John McCain is the Antithesis of Patriotism
QUOTE (NamelessGenXer @ Sep 16 2008, 11:00 AM)
The lowest common denominator of which you speak is ignorant, racist, rural white trash. No matter how much Senator Obama tries to dumb it down, these sheeple cannot be reached because all they know is HATE and FEAR. The other part of McInsane's base -- the obscenely wealthy -- cannot be reached because all they know is SELFISHNESS and GREED.
There is no sense obsessing over those who can never be won over. We just need to concentrate on the reach-able in the middle and keep our "boots on the ground" until November 4.
True Patriots vs. Candidate McCain | Why John McCain is the Antithesis of Patriotism
There is no sense obsessing over those who can never be won over. We just need to concentrate on the reach-able in the middle and keep our "boots on the ground" until November 4.
True Patriots vs. Candidate McCain | Why John McCain is the Antithesis of Patriotism
That's true. The registered undecided voters. The registered undecided non-voters. The non registered voters. The voters who would have voted, but who are caged or otherwise disenfrancished.
QUOTE (love-obama @ Sep 16 2008, 09:31 AM)
It is apparent to me that the weak minded and ignorant is the constituency that the McCain camp is appealing to, which unfortunately is an important number of voters that determines who wins the election. Just listen to how Palin uses phrases like "hockey mom" and "good ole boys" in order to relate to a voting group that lacks perspective on issues. Obama is too sophisticated and cerebral to appeal to the average redneck. It is time to stop fooling around! Obama needs to talk in short sentences and with a more simplistic vocabulary. That's a reality, unfortunately.
No question, this is correct.
Obama is fully capable of this kind of deliberate, focused, shortened, concentrated form of communication.
Remember ... "ENOUGH!" ... at the Democratic Convention?
One word! So powerful!
In fact, Obama is MASTERFUL at this ... once he DECIDES he needs to communicate in just this way.
I just hope someone from his top campaign staff is reading this thread ...
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