The Power and the Money

A musical challenge

This post is from my good friend and colleague, Carlos Yu.  He's a native Wisconsonian, an adopted Brooklynite, and completely brilliant.  His occasional posts here (mostly lifted from another blog, Halfway Down the Danube, where he used to post) can be identified with the coffeecup logo. 

I first saw this video in Belgrade, which should tell you how much in the loop I am, after visiting an exhibit of national historic Yugoslav Serbian costumes:

Do I think that, should the American experiment fail, people will adopt demented Uncle Sam, biker, and cheerleader outfits as markers of national identity?

Yes; next question. (The Yugoslav costumes had belts made of dinars. I've seen Navajo jewelry made from silver dollars and turquoise, but this was all about the bling.) Anyway. Noel called me on route to Florida informing me that there is, in fact, one demographic the Obama campaign has not fully reached in musical form, the headbanging sunburned Pabst Blue Ribbon drinker. Hell, enough of them are blood kin, so I'll just say it: the redneck.

PS: Southern rock as American turbofolk. Discuss.

PPS: Yes, it's possible to change the "KID ROCK" logo in the video to "BARACK". No, it's not worth the effort.

¡Viva Obama!

I could have used the same title as Carlos's last post for this one. 

Anyway, I do worry about the same issue that Carlos does.  I also wonder about this whole "plagiarism" thing.  Is it getting traction, or dying the heat-death that it deserves?  Same for the new McCain non-scandal:  the "scandal" is ridiculous.  The only good that could possibly come of it is if the press starts holding McCain to the same standards that it holds everyone else.  But I'm not here to talk about any of that.  I am here to talk about foreign policy, but not yet.

No, rather, I am here to lament the fact that Matthew Yglesias doesn't read this blog.  (We's done got the reggaetón first, and we gots yer video here.)  I read his, though, and there I found this:

No demographic left behind, indeed.  I think that's a good thing, by the way.

No demographic left behind

My god, they're even reaching out to the Cheetos-eating basement dwellers.

(Hm. The YouTube still image makes it look NSFW. It's not, but under the cut it goes.)

¡Venceremos!

This is mainly an excuse to test out some new image-processing software.

You know what I'm waiting for? One of the GOP anti-immigration people to say, "You can all go home now. Except for the hot ones." I wonder why not.

In related news, John McCain has announced his new campaign theme, "I May Not Get There With You".

(I was going to write a brief scene involving McCain trying to find music which might appeal to the youth vote, settling on Metallica after hearing "One" and bawling his eyes out. But it just wasn't gelling. I do want to keep this line, though: "Play it, or so help me God I'll send you back to the Young Republicans hogtied with a box of poppers.")

Oh ... my ... God ...

The election is continuing.  I don't know who will win.  I do want to repeat that I think that Hillary Clinton would make a fine president.  I have some doubts, of course, which I promise to post about after today's primary. 

But this, this is just awful.  Don't click the link.  Go down to the Obama reggaetón, click that link.  I'm warning you again.  Don't click the link.

How cow.  Dave M.B. just found a video that is, in fact, considerably worse than the one above.  Again, please don't click the link:

Is Obama like Dubya? Uh ... could you repeat the question?

Could Obama's charisma be a bad thing?  One commentator wrote, in reference to Obama's popularity, “Dubya was definitely a pig in a poke when presented to GOP primary voters in 1999, to a great deal of regret all around. I honestly don't see this as a completely different set of circumstances.”

He's not alone.  John Dickerson wrote in Slate:   “More generally, shouldn't Democrats who have complained that George Bush was elected on the strength of a popularity contest be nervous that this blossoming Obamadulation is getting out of hand?”

So, is Obama like Dubya?  Answer outsourced to D at Lawyers, Guns, and Money:

Um... Hold that thought while I retrieve a cool, refreshing drink from the linen closet.

Okay then. I have a limited amount of time before I go blind and slip into a coma, so I'll make this brief. Could Dickerson possibly be speaking of George “Where Wings Take Dream” Bush?

Last I recall, his — ahem — “election”  to office in 2000 was a “popularity contest” in the following senses:

• He received 50.5 million out of 104 million votes cast. That is to say, he lost the “popularity contest” outright. (Three million of those votes, of course, went to Ralph Nader.)
• F**k off, Ralph Nader.
• Bush was, on the other hand, quite popular with the Dowdified corporate press corps who behaved egregiously thoguhout the campaign, blathering endlessly about his “folksy demeanor” while overlooking the fact that when he spoke about actual policy matters, his breath reeked of model airplane glue. Meantime, Gore was portrayed a desperate, arrogant wonk who — though not yet fat — was clearly unworthy of the office he sought.
• Bush was also hip in the eyes of the rent-a-mob who disrupted the “undervote” recount in Dade County and helped their preferred candidate win a state whose “popularity contest” he had, in all likelihood, actually lost.
• And finally, he was popular with five Supreme Court justices who offered the final stroke of legitimacy to the pretense that Bush was indeed “the people's choice.”

Beyond those niggling details, it's totally plausible that Dickerson might confuse Obama '08 with Bush '00. The resemblance is just uncanny.

Freakonomics on Obama

Normally I try to be witty in these plugs, but this time I'm going to skip it.  I am simply going to say that anyone who wants to know about Barack Obama's intellect and philosophy can simply pick up his second book, The Audacity of Hope.  It is very well-written, and rather substantive.

Steven Levitt, the economist behind Freakonomics, liked it quite a lot.  If you say that you have interest in the candidate, then it behooves you to read it. 

¿Cómo se dice? ¿Cómo se llama?

Will Baird wants to know about Obama's "Latino problem."  The short answer is that he doesn't have one.  His majority in Virginia only demonstrates what we already knew, after he got 41 percent of the Latino vote in Arizona and a majority in Connecticut. 

Of course, the race is far from over.  Hillary is ahead in Ohio (by quite a lot, actually) and Texas is up for grabs.  After all, as I shout from the rooftops to any Anglo who will listen, there isn't any reason to believe that Mexican-Americans in Texas will vote like Mexican-Americans in Arizona, let alone Puerto Ricans in Connecticut. 

That said, here's a good sign.  Music doesn't get much more all-American than this:

McCainiacs

How Others See Us:  "Obama wins Grammy and whitest US state," Times of India.  The Grammy does not, I should point out, refer to the "Yes We Can" video.

Of course, one great video begats another.  Go click the link.  Then watch the following.

Which brings me to an admission and an admonition.  The admission is that back in 2000 my journal tells me that I was a McCainiac.  I even gave my first ever recorded campaign contribution to the guy, a full $500.  What seems to have excited me was that he was against reducing federal taxes even one penny until the national debt was paid off, and in an election where nobody was talking about health care (Gore hadn't yet proposed to add a pharmaceutical benefit to Medicare) and war seemed far away, that seemed like the big issue.  Pay down that debt, baby!  Andrew Jackson's one good idea.  Plus, he didn't seem to, like, hate the environment. 

That McCain, well, I wouldn't vote for him now.  Times change, other issues take on salience.  But the new McCain?  Even less. 

The admonition is that anybody who is trying to decide between John McCain and whichever of the Democrats gets the nomination is simply not paying attention.  That is a decision that makes no sense.  One guy has pledged to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, keep us in Iraq for a century, confront Iran, and keep our insane health care system.  The others will do none of the above.  If McCain's platform seems reasonable, even desirable, then there is no way in hell that you should be even thinking of voting for the Democrat.  And vice versa. 

Will, I promise to get around to the Latino question that you posed, but c'mon man.  His choice of veep could sway you?

Obamarama!

I hate being short.

Anyway, it was a good long weekend.  (Campaign-related program activities and the programming of work-related ones, or something like that, plus the Superbowl.  Today is my first time back in the office since Friday.)  Since it looks like this thing is going to go all the way to the convention, I've decided that it can't hurt to put up a few posts about the candidates, the platforms, the issues, and all that other boring stuff.

So let's start with the economic issues.  What separates the Democratic candidates?  Well, not a whole lot.  They both back health care reform, progressive tax hikes, a carbon cap-and-trade system, and appointing public officials who, well, know what they're doing.  (There is a corollary to that, which I'll discuss in my next post.)

But there are differences.  I put 'em in three categories:  strategy, philosophy, and understanding.  A not-terriby-short and not-particularly-incisive discussion below the fold.

Grump, grump, grump, grump, grump

There will be no explanation, no pictures, nothin'.  Y'all know what I'm complaining about. 

There's always a bright side, though.  First, I'm in the Golden State, rather than the Bay one.  That makes it easier.  Second, there was a worry that the victory parade might depress turnout for my favored candidate in Tuesday's primary.  Guess that's not a worry anymore.  Third, Amma's family in Queens are very very happy.  (My family in Miami is not.) 

Carlos, I thought that football was supposed to be more predictable.  This was like watching three starters give up 21 runs in four innings.  WTF?  It certainly gave meaning to the phrase, "The best defense is a good offense," but still. 

Please don't forget to thank Doug for the Friday links.  We're all overwhelmed a bit by work-related program activities at the moment.  Feel free to discuss the game.  Or any other game.  I will endeavor (but don't promise) not to delete any "go jints!" or "woooo" comments.