Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

The more and more and more Bill talked about his wonderful marriage with Hillary the more and more and more eyes rolled.

The PAH is what she is. Going on for 30 minutes humanizing her isn't really going to change the perception much. Don't waste your time. Go after Trump!

[hack]

Agreed -- Bill looked a bit doddering up there. I forget whether it was 08 or 12, but man what a speech he made at that convention. That Bill's not gone. This speech just, I guess, had to be that sort of memory lane bit. It was definitely creepy at the beginning.

Linesman I've gone out of my way to extend to you a level of respect that is common here amongst other posters. I'll continue to do that out of respect for the group, even despite the high degree of difficulty at times. Call yourself whatever you want but you're not stupid in my book, and the degree of control you have over this group shows it. But this isn't about me or you -- it's about the thread, which everyone is pleasantly surprised about. We all clearly value its presence here, and it would be good if you weren't a challenge to that.

[UMStan White]

"it's about the thread, which everyone is pleasantly surprised about. We all clearly value its presence here, and it would be good if you weren't a challenge to that. "

Yeah, that's my job!

[hack]

You've sucked at that lately. Maybe that's why linesman is dropping bombs on us.

[Mike]

I think you're referring to the 2012 speech, Hack. The "It's just math" speech?

[iam416]

It's a short take on Clinton's speech and the DNC to date from Ramesh Ponnuru, who is a columnist I respect if not agree with all the time: http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articl...se-for-clinton

His point is that voters don't like either one of the candidates and that for the PAH this opinion has been formed over 25 years -- it's not going away. However, voters trust PAH gads more than Trump, so play that the fuck up -- tell us how experienced PAH is and how scary Trump is. That's her winning strategy. Not likability.

[hack]

I think she has to keep going with the ``you love me when I'm in office but when I'm running you don't'' thing. She'd be more likeable if she stopped trying and admitted she wasn't likeable.

But I don't know where we're at if they can't sink Trump based on him being Putin's boy. Sign of the apocalypse if he can successfully ratfuck our election on behalf of a specific candidate. Or, and perhaps slightly more realistic, it's a sign that voters' first and only priority is to throw the bums out. They obviously want new faces. They may want new faces badly enough to not care if Putin is pulling any strings. Policy matters much less than fatigue with self-interested Washingtonians.

(Good call by the DNC therefore in rigging the primary to make sure they run a self-interested Washington rather than ride the obvious trend and pick the outsider.)

[Hannibal]

What does PAH stand for?

The problem with playing up Hillary's experience is that her experience has nothing to brag about. Hillarycare was so frightening that she got booed off of the proverbial stage. Playing up Trump's negatives with TV commercials and counting on CNN, The New York Times, MSNBC, etc to follow up is her only strategy.

[hack]

I think you're referring to the 2012 speech, Hack. The "It's just math" speech?

Could be. Don't recall specific details other than it was a pretty fully-throated defense of liberalism. Which is odd since he's the guy that killed that approach for almost two decades.

[iam416]

Volmillion always referred to HRC as the Pig-Ankled Harridan.

PAH's experience is a problem if you're of the mind that America is in an awful place right now. I mean, here real experience is serving under Obama. So, she either runs on that legacy or doesn't.

[Hannibal]

PAH's experience is a problem if you're of the mind that America is in an awful place right now.

About the closest thing that you will get to that measure...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/direction_of_country-902.html

Direction of the Country RCP average:
Right Direction -- 23.1
Wrong Track -- 68.9

Obama's personal approval ratings have, by-and-large, avoided the fallout from these numbers, but the dissatisfaction with the direction of the country is profound. Has Hillary voted "yes" on anything that people actually like?

What's more is that her most notable experiences (Hillarycare, Benghazi, e-mail server, etc) make her look, at best, ineffective and blitheringly incompetent.

Using her bazillion dollar war chest to play up Trump's negatives while avoiding any unscripted interactions with the public is still her best bet.

Volmillion always referred to HRC as the Pig-Ankled Harridan.

Heh. I have referred to the Dem ticket this year lovingly referred to as "Kaine-kles"

[Jeff Buchanan]

............. The problem with playing up Hillary's experience is that her experience has nothing to brag about. Hillarycare was so frightening that she got booed off of the proverbial stage. Playing up Trump's negatives with TV commercials and counting on CNN, The New York Times, MSNBC, etc to follow up is her only strategy.

That's pretty much what the article linked above by Ponnuru says:

Instead of trying to make voters happy, that is, they could try to make them scared: scared of the consequences of a Trump presidency.

That’s the case Hillary Clinton needs this convention to make. With the Democrats having spent the first half of it flailing, it’s increasingly clear she’ll have to do it herself.

Having not watched a bit of the convention but reading some of the takes from commentators I respect, I don't think that is the Dem's strategy here although it ought to be. Given that there a lot of voters who are on the fence about choosing between shitty candidates, it seems to me trying to convince them Hillary is not shitty is near impossible because she is. Trump is just WAY shittier than she is.

[Hannibal]

I don't watch conventions. They have outlived their purpose. When was the last time that a legitimate nomination vote had to take place at one of them?

[UMStan White]

"I don't watch conventions. They have outlived their purpose. When was the last time that a legitimate nomination vote had to take place at one of them?"

That's exactly how I feel. They are nothing more than a giant circle jerk. Hell, they don't even show the nomination vote in full. Just sound bites on the nightly news.

[hack]

I've tuned in this week to hear people I'm interested in speaking. And generally feel like a dupe for doing so. I will say though, the glass-ceiling thing last night was quite the show. Amidst all that's terrible, that was great. Though how delicious it would have been were it Elizabeth Warren to make that breakthrough that Hillary always aspired to. I wished Warren would have run.