Tag Archives: mccain

Gates of Hell

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McCain said it again on Saturday night.

If I’m President of the United States, my friends, if I have to follow him to the gates of Hell, I will get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.

As you can see from the link, McCain has used that expression several times.

I hate it when he says this. The expression makes no sense to me.

Why does McCain keep saying he’s going to go to Hell?

And if bin Laden himself is going to Hell, why does McCain need to follow him? Isn’t bin Laden already going to get justice there?

Is it some biblical expression I’ve never heard before?

Or is it just one of those things that’s meant to sound tough but actually sounds like something out of a bad movie?

Obamangst

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I haven’t been happy with the Obama campaign lately. The McCain campaign is doing all the defining and driving most of the news coverage. Yes, McCain’s ads have been asinine, but they’ve got the media talking, and that’s where many voters get their information.

Regular readers of my blog will know that I am no doe-eyed Obama supporter. I went back and forth between Clinton and Obama over the course of the primary race. First I was undecided; then I chose Obama, voted for him in my primary in February, and posted an Obama icon on my blog. Then, as the race went on and Clinton began to define the debate, I started to think she might be a more impressive general election candidate, even if I loathed some of what she was doing. (Gas tax holiday? Please.)

Lately I still think she might have been a better nominee.

On June 3, the day Obama effectively clinched the nomination, Electoral-vote.com published its last set of competing matchups: Clinton vs. McCain and Obama vs. McCain. Clinton was doing much better against McCain than Obama was. That was two months ago, and things have moved in Obama’s direction since then. But I can’t help wonder whether Clinton would have a stronger lead right now.

Several months ago, the Republicans were relishing the idea of running against Clinton; they had a whole attack plan ready. And if she were the nominee they’d be using it right now.

But Clinton would be out-Roving McCain. She’d be running commercials that everyone would be talking about, defining the debate, defining McCain, going on the offensive against him, while casting herself as an issues-oriented champion of the working class. That’s what she started doing against Obama once she got her act together in March. The only reason Obama won is because he had a superior organization and racked up state after state in February. There’s nothing illegitimate to that; he knew the rules and took advantage of them. But he got blindsided once the Ohio/Texas campaign got under way and never really recovered. If not for February, Clinton would be the nominee. She ultimately lost, but she won the rhetorical debate.

The polls right now should not be as close as they are. Granted, according to the state-by-state polls, Obama still has a healthy lead. But the election is exactly three months from today, and so much can happen in that time. I want to smack Obama upside the head for not being more aggressive these last couple of weeks. Of course, if he winds up winning, everyone will say he chose his strategy wisely. But if he loses, Democrats will once again be banging their heads against the wall.

He’s still the favorite right now. But is anyone talking about his commercials? Is he doing anything but play defense? I’m sick of Democratic nominees who overestimate the intelligence of the American people. We need a nominee who kicks people’s asses. Clinton would have been that nominee.

Would her cynicism piss me off? Yes. Would I call her craven? Yes.

But would she have a better chance of winning?

Yes.

Dreams

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I think my body’s making up for not getting much sleep the other night, because I’ve been having vivid dreams lately.

Last night I dreamed that my brother and I were riding a New Jersey Transit train into Manhattan. The train was moving slowly and we weren’t sure way. Then the train stopped, and some ticket-takers came down the aisle and told us that it was a hijacking. We saw that they had guns. One of them walked down the aisle carrying a big garbage bag and asked everyone to empty the cash from their wallets into it.

I took out my wallet and removed the cash — several twenties — and put it in the bag. I realized I still had a dollar bill left in there that the guy hadn’t seen, and I was going to keep it, but then I thought better of it and took that out too.

Then my brother, being a badass, pressed a very visible silent alarm button. It was above the seats, just like the “request stop” button is on buses. He pressed it for several seconds. I was sure he was going to get shot, but nothing happened.

Then the crew was done robbing us, and they drove the train down a side track. It stopped on a street corner in a country neighborhood so we could get off. Tall trees, overgrown grass, a house at the corner. We all jumped off the train in a civilized way, but my heart was racing and I couldn’t wait to get away from there.

Later in the dream, someone told me that I was expected at the police station, where I was supposed to recount my story about what had happened. But I knew that the policemen were in league with the train crew and I refused to go, because I thought they were going to do something bad to me.

I guess authority figures scare me?

I also dreamed that the news media reported that Joe Lieberman had died while on a trip in Afghanistan, and I was glad, because he wouldn’t be able to help McCain anymore or speak at the Republican National Convention.