Tonights Debate 15 Oct 2008

[Big Sarge]

Radar - you say this is the largest and dirtiest smear campaign? You must not be a student of history. Let's check out some earlier campaigns.

1876: Rutherford Hayes vs. Samuel Tilden -- This is the granddaddy of them all: a truly stolen election in which Republicans turned defeat into victory for Rutherford Hayes by counting Democratic votes as their own in three Southern states. Both parties used violence to intimidate former black slaves for their votes. And not to mention that Republicans extorted 2% of the salaries of Federal employees to aid in their campaign efforts, or that Democrats accused Hayes of shooting his mother and robbing the dead, or that Republicans claimed that Samuel Tilden suffered from venereal disease.

1964: Lyndon Johnson vs. Barry Goldwater -- Not as well know as Nixon's 1972 dirty tricks election, Johnson's 1964 win over Goldwater featured the cynical manufacturing of anti-Goldwater stories planted with gullible reporters; children's coloring books portraying Goldwater as a Klansman; CIA invasion of Goldwater's campaign; and FBI bugging of Goldwater's campaign plane.

1800: Thomas Jefferson vs. John Adams -- Wayback in only the third election ever held in this country, Thomas Jefferson of the Republicans and John Adams of the Federalists went at it tooth and nail, with Republicans hiring hack writers to attack the incumbent Adams as a "hideous hermaphroditical character." whatever that means, and Federalsts claiming that Jefferson slept with slaves. Thomas Jefferson claimed incumbent John Adams wanted to marry off his son to the daughter of King George III, creating an American dynasty under British rule. Jefferson haters called the challenger a fraud, a coward, a thief, and "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father." The close election was thrown into the House of Representatives, where Jefferson almost certainly made a secret deal to win it all.

[Radar]

Those campaigns were certainly dirty, but not on the scale we have today. McCain's supporters are accusing Obama of being a terrorists, or hanging out with them. They are making up bogus stories about his birth certificate not being authentic in an effort to take attention away from the fact that McCain isn't a natural-born American citizen. They doctor photos, they make racist comments, they lie and lie and lie and lie. And unlike the elections you mentioned, now we've got the internet and hundreds of television stations constantly barraging us with these negative smear campaigns plus biased radio shows by morons like Savage, Hannity, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Coulter, etc.

In two of the elections you mentioned, we had fewer states than we do now, and in all of them we had a lot less people.

[Radar]

Originally Posted by Big Sarge

Radar,

You need to check you facts. I've noticed many of your posts are filled with incorrect information.

The Senate Ethics Committee determined that Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB in its investigation of Lincoln Savings, with Cranston receiving a formal reprimand. Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly.

McCain and Glenn were cleared because of their political clout and for no other reason. McCain was the closest to Keating of all of the Keating Five. He got the most in bribes, and special favors. His family were all close to Charles Keating, and McCain himself tried to get regulators to stop investigating Lincoln Savings & Loan and Keating.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by dar512

NBC had commentary by Mitt Romney. He was quite personable. Why did this guy not make it to the republican nomination? He might have given Barack a run for his money.

Religion.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by glatt

I think McCain only said "My Friends" twice last night. Somebody must have talked to him about it.

Thank God. That drove me crazy with the last debate.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by classicman

Oh come on Sarge - Why would you interrupt his little tirade with facts ... thats no fun.

[Shawnee123]

The blind leading the blind.

That's all you got?

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Radar

biased radio shows by morons like Savage, Hannity, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Coulter, etc.

Sing with me, "which one of these is not like the other?"

[barefoot serpent]

Most interesting in last nights debate was not a single mention of Iraq or surge or troops or victory.

Or did I nod off?

[classicman]

Actually Merc, I think they are all about the same - worthless.

[TheMercenary]

I contend that Obama whipped McCain's ass in the debate. Not that much of what Obama said I agreed with, because he said essentially the same bs that he has been saying for the last 2 years, but hey, the dudes a master orator.

[Pico and ME]

He's also a smart, effective, and perceptive communicator. I think its time for someone like that in the White House.

[DanaC]

He's also consistent. That he's been saying the same thing for two years suggests he actually has a plan. You might not like his plan, but at least he has one.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by DanaC

He's also consistent. That he's been saying the same thing for two years suggests he actually has a plan. You might not like his plan, but at least he has one.

Well actually no that is not true. He has been saying the same things but he really only produced more specific plans since his nomination. And most of them are so broadly worded that there is no evidence any of them will work. Same for McCain, but his plans have been around a bit longer, Obama is a late comer to that game.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Pico and ME

He's also a smart, effective, and perceptive communicator. I think its time for someone like that in the White House.

Orator:
2. one distinguished for skill and power as a public speaker