When, on the first day of the trip, he stepped onto the basketball court at the air base in Kuwait and sent his first three-point shot cleanly through the basket, you knew the gods had decided to favor him.

Is Broder trying to say Obama is swishy?

What you’ve quoted there sounds like he’s just making a favourable comparison to his opponent and his predecessor, both of which fuck up much of what they say.

If someone notes he didn’t molest any dignatories while in Germany, you’re aware this won’t be a suggest that black are bang up for that, right ?

“be a suggest that black are bang up for that”
Whiskey does wonders for your spelling. Try it kids. Try it lots.

How come he missed the “presumptious” part? Usually Broder is so astute.

Broder left out the ‘elitist’ part too!

We badly need a senior resthouse fund to pay for Broder and McCain to exchange 1980-era Reaganesque stories on the front porch, while yelling for the kids to get the fuck off the grass.

Can’t spell presumptuous without U-P-T

Well, being athletic and articulate definitely puts him a couple of major steps up from McNobrain…

Yep: Seems to me he is completely right. Articulate, agile, quick on his feet, accurate for the most part. Glad he could see it. What does he say about the white guy?

I know he’s a little green, but he has to be short-listed for press secretary to Krusty.

There was a really long thread about language and, among other things, the use of ‘articulate’ as applied by whites to blacks, over at Making Light.

Broder ought to know better: ‘articulate’ is understood, when used of black men, to mean something closer to ‘OMG, he speaks standard English instead of sounding like a high school dropout from a ghetto.’

Yep..code. My dad used to talk about the adverts for cottages on Cape Cod in the 40s and early 50s. They always used to put in them, “Churches close by” as a reminder to Jews not to bother trying to come up.

Broder would never say that a white man was “articulate” – that is so condescending. What a stupid old man he is. If he thinks he is hiding his racism he’d better think again.

WTF? The title and date are from Friday and the comments are from the current post?

Broder’s a disgrace.

Suddenly, long-standing Obama policies — direct talks with Iran and a 16-month timetable for withdrawal — seemed to be ratified by events.

Note how the word “seemed” undermines the apparent force of the statement. Look at the difference if Broder had said,

Suddenly, long-standing Obama policies — direct talks with Iran and a 16-month timetable for withdrawal — were ratified by events.

Obama still has trouble admitting when he is wrong.

And Broder who is never wrong can say this with perfect confidence. The article ends:

But now the ground has shifted — and his opponent was right where he needed to be to capture the advantage. July has been a cruel month for McCain.

What this is saying is that Obama was right but only by chance and that McCain wasn’t wrong on the issues but suffered from a cruel fate. There is certainly a touch of the “lucky blackman” in the piece but mostly it’s vintage mealymouthed Inside-the-Beltway carping masquerading as insight.

It’s really confusing trying to keep up with the posts, isn’t it. The time difference and now the days. Geez.
It’s like having a conversation with ghosts.

I agree that the editor should have caught this. But I really don’t think it was intended as code here. Broder has to compare Obama to Bush and McCain, who are so stunningly INarticulate that the media has to clean up their interviews of them.

You have a good point but I am just so sick of the media and their bias. They don’t even try to hide it any more.

Probably belongs in the previous thread but Obama appeared on NBC’s MTP today and the two Senators (Hagel and Reed) who accompanied him were on CBS. ABC? They have John McCain. I can’t help thinking there is more than a little toing and froing going on between the strongly Republican folks at ABCNews and the Obama campaign. Obama pulled the plug on them and they responded by wheeling out their geriatric godfather. Obama can have his moment in Berlin. They don’t need it as long as they have their man eating brats somewhere in the good ole US of A.

I think the cocktail weenie circuit columnists are going to hate Obama more than they hated Clinton. To them, Broder in particular, Clinton was like the poor relative who came to visit and wouldn’t leave, but he was white. McSFB could be running his campaign from the dementia wing at the local mental hospital and Broder would be singing his praises.

Teh Gods must be crazy.

Yesterday, knocking on doors, I talked to two women, one elderly, one younger (25-30ish), both had received the memo on the Muslim extremist poised to take over our country. The wife and daughters, part of the plot. I was amazed.

But that memo has got a hold on some people.

The Dean? Hell, Broder should never have been granted tenure. After 6 months in DC, Broder should have been sent back to the Daily Pantagraph in Bloomimgton, Illinois.

Remember what Biden said of Obama and how he got blasted for it

Of course, I should point out that this did not prevent Brokaw from pulling out the critical pontifications of Brooks and Krauthammer on Obama’s appearance in Berlin. All of which blows by the main point that Obama is popular with Europeans while Bush and McCain (the two guys who are supposed to be big on national security) aren’t. The importance to national security of being on good terms with the Europeans is simply not addressed. That would be substance and Brokaw like the rest of the MSM doesn’t do it and wouldn’t know it if it kicked him.

The Dean? Hell, Broder should never have been granted tenure. After 6 months in DC, Broder should have been sent back to the Daily Pantagraph in Bloomington, Illinois.

That is a dreadful thing to wish on the Pantagraph.

Intent is only half of a communication.
Perception is the other half.
In terms of racism, if the receiving end knows the statement was offensive, the sending end’s intent is subject to question.

Europeans are cheese eating surrender monkeys.

Be afraid of stupid people in large numbers

so they got the memo, huh? There’s no excuse for this brand of stupidity. If they got the memo, they have a computer and they CAN CHOOSE to educate themselves, but they have not.
What or what! to do about my fellow idiot Americans, these people who are my fellow country men and women but are as dumb as a box of hair!
God help us.

The fact that John McCain has any foothold at all is largly explained by America’s discomfort with the prospect of a Black President;especially one with a foreign sounding name. It is NOT to his advantage that he is multiracial. This is the other wing of the ‘articulate’ description.
Obama’s strength has been his addressing race as a complicated set. His weakness is that political communication abhors complication.

The challenge, as I see it, is to assess the unsalvagable from those in need of help.
All stupidity is the product of fear.
Add pure hate and there’s not much you can do.
Stupidity from basically decent , but fearful types can be educated.
You are right that they have the tools.
But wrong if you think you can win without helping the fearful because they are not as smart as you.
The opposition has no problem with helping them to their side.
And they are damn good at it too.

That is a dreadful thing to wish on the Pantagraph.

Very funny, but you know what – you are right.

The politics of personal destruction is ruining out country. I don’t care if the candidates beat each other up over policy or positions they have taken. That’s fine and helps to get the issues before the public. But the sheer mean spirit of the last several campaigns has obviously turned people off. The Obama campaign has caused a level of excitement and brought many people out again. Good for them.

WTF? The title and date are from Friday and the comments are from the current post?

A major nutroots scandal. Let the kerning begin.

I Am John Doe.

A problem is how people believe what they believe. What you have said works if and when decisions are based on facts and how these facts fit into their frame of reference. There are many who have internalyzed a belief system which defines their perceptions and determine who is even allowed to present Truth all others are liberals, unpatriotic, godless, socialists, etc. and are not to believed

I’m John McCain, a thoroughly dishonorable man, and I approve this message.

-G

I’m watching Obama on “Meet the Press” and he sounds like he always does in debates and interviews, like an ineloquent teacher’s aide. His lists of facts and ideas are as engaging as a physics lecture and believe me those take alot to keep one’s attention on.

Any good orator knows you need to spin a web of narrative interwoven with your ideas to ensnare your audience. He knows this when he gives speeches but he doesn’t apply it one-on-one where he needs to close the sale.

Spin a web ????????????????

If that’s Broder’s office in the picture on the front page, I would be VERY worried that he has a Bob Dornan yard sign up in the window. B-1 Bob was one of the true Congressional crazies of Special Orders when the D’s had the majority last time. One wonders where Broder-san’s loyalties lie?

Notice the two posters on Broder’s cube glass? B-1 Bob Dornan and Osama.

Wow.

What a combo for a “thinking” man.

It works for Spiderman. It drew you in and it’ll stick in your head better than saying creating a holistic narrative that connects a list of facts and ideas in a manner that is registered in the subconscious which later influences conscious thought and actions. Did I lose you yet.

Have you listened to McCain lately?

Obama isn’t a great speaker, but his speeches are brilliantly written and engaging. The delivery does leave something to be desired IMO.

What is your assessment of McCain’s oratory?

Obama may just have facts and ideas but McC is clueless in any category. Facts and ideas surely work for me since our country is sadly in need of both.

Yes.

And wrt McSame, I can’t even get past teh stupid to even start evaluating the oratory.

Why does John “Whiter Than Cottage Cheese” McCain still have such an advantage in places like rural Penn. and West Virginia? I actually heard some old white guy in West Virginia say that he would only vote for Obama over Hillary if he acted a “little whiter”. You can’t reach people with even a mild prejudice consciously. They are controlled by their subconscious.You need to use the subconscious Trojan Horse of narrative and metaphor. If you’ve watching “Mad Men” the TV show about 50’s advertising exec.’s you’ll know that you don’t appeal to people by logic, you push their subconscious buttons.

Really haven’t followed Spiderman. A single or couple of facts can be rationalized and dumped. Sometimes it takes a very significant event that touches home in which that subconscious paradigm fails and a new set of perceptions must emerge

We’re like a herd of spooked cattle running in every direction. Either Obama or McCain can round us up now. Whoever controlls the narrative (metaphors) will win.

OTOH, I also met voters who were quite astute. Some of them loved Clinton, because he left the economy/country in the black, they totally get what Bush has done. Some are so disenchanted, won’t vote because they voted twice against Bush, and he still won.

I met one elderly woman who was a total bible thumper. She may vote for BO because “young people can change things.” Even though the end times are coming, and she is anti-abortion first and last.

Honestly, we have to be out there talking to people at their doors, over and over. They need to regain hope. They need to be supported to change, to undo the work of the memo.

I think of myself more of a cat in any herding scenario : )

McC has no narrative and I don’t want our President acting like some character in a movie or TV show. I’ll take the real thing – warts and all.

As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger when confronted with thousands of angry Indians “whats with this we stuff”

I suppose the old guys can’t stand the fact that Barack Obama works out in a gym. Hell, the old guys like McTeleprompter are lucky if they can bend over to tie their shoes at this point! Bah hahahahaha!

Anyways, this young female reporter got the chance to work out with Barack Obama in a gym in Germany. She’s smitten now.

http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/b…..erlin.html

Orators from Demosthenes to JFK knew that you have to reach people’s souls before you can reach their minds.

We are social mammals. There is nothing in human history that doesn’t have a parallel in “Merkat Manor” a TV show about our fellow social mammal. Tyranny, oppression, persecution, genocide, war. Every social behaves the same from wolves to humans.

Before the start of the Afghan War a group of top American generals were asked by there are so many religious wars. They couldn’t answer. The truth is religion as we know it in the West comes from the mammalian social instinct to submit to the alpha leader and the group. The irony is the church we think comes from the highest providence actually comes from the deepest instincts. You understand social mammals you understand religion, government, society, history.

I’m a cat person myself but we’re not worried about liberals. We’re worried about those moderates who as unselfaware are any herd animal. You enlighten them you win the election.

Seems to me that that’s what Obama is doing with his facts and ideas.

Excellent points, well said!
WTG mack.

There is one thing that differs us from the other social mammals. We can appreciate the sublime. That is the basis of liberalism. We don’t only see the shadows on the wall of our cave, we also realize there is a brilliant light outside that casts them. Seeking that light elevates us.

We seek the truth beyond your instincts. The ancient Greeks sought to overcome their bestial natures with logic. Through logic philosophers like Plato and Pythagoras sought the sublime geometry of the universe.

You hit the nail on the head about religion in the west but religion particularly in the USA, has had a fluidity in that it deals with particular problems. Ie. a religion dealing with the poor espouses work, thrift etc. as the group achieves prosperity that religion transitions to coping with relative wealth.

New post at fdl

This is the trap we liberals get into. Just because we are logical doesn’t mean that the 99.9% of the people in our past, present and future are so. If humans were logical we won’t have tyranny, oppression, persecution, genocide, war. They come from the instinct to submission to the alpha leader, submission to the group, attack of dissenters, evilness of all foreigners, and control of territory that all social mammals are controlled by.

We can achieve the sublime but we must never forget our mammalian ancestry.

zoolopolis at 54 says in part–”Orators from Demosthenes to JFK knew that you have to reach people’s souls before you can reach their minds.”

i would say touch or trigger ’emotions’ instead of ’souls’…..and most people don’t want to/can’t think and feel at the same time. hit the emotions, then the brain. after you hit both of those, then you can talk reaching their souls.

========

found this–didn’t know they post it–weekly post of ap photos……dug through some past posts, too……was interesting for many different reasons…….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..eature=dir

My view is that there are two forms of religion, salvation and enlightenment.

Salvation religion says you submit to god/s and the church/sect. It comes from social mammalian instinct to submit to the alpha leader and group.

Enlightenment religion says you use logical and knowledge to seek the sublime. It comes from our logic and thirst for knowledge.

The West used to have a combination of both until the Roman Empire became Christian and Catholism be came a tool of emperial power. There was no more place for a religion that would question authority.Religion became a tool to promote submission.

Eastern religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism still have a combination of salvation and enlightenment.

Wow! & LOL & Whoopsie & Egad & I stand in awe, as a flaming liberal who knows a lotta moderates who no more resemble wildebeests than…. some elitists.

Congrats on writing a dead-bang, accuracy-be-dammed, honest-to-golly, elitist statement.

But then, we only have MS and PhD level ethologists in this household, and one only taught 30 yrs., we only personally shook Konrad Lorenz’s hand once each, yadda yadda yadda.

Whew! Is it nap time yet? I’m exhausted from tooting our horn wayyy too much. no snark.

We can achieve the sublime but we must never forget our mammalian ancestry.

OMG! That’s a keeper. It goes up on our door immediately. hee hee.

who was that masked – um – being?

forgive me, for i know at least a smidgeon about what i do. teh true.

I wasn’t bothered by calling Obama articulate, he IS and it’s striking.

But if ya wanna see just how stupid Broder can be- check THIS out- he gives Clusterfuck credit for creative management for-among other things, the dept of homeland security (which Clusterfuck fought and then fucked up) and for remodeling the fucking White House…

Broder should call Clusterfuck a creative interior decorator, not a creative MANAGER..What a fuckhead!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..inionsbox1

There is one thing that differs us from the other social mammals. We can appreciate the sublime. That is the basis of liberalism. We don’t only see the shadows on the wall of our cave, we also realize there is a brilliant light outside that casts them. Seeking that light elevates us.

Apologies, but egad people!

Our CATS both know that and more.

dear pups.

please don’t get snookered by snake-oil salesmen.

yep.

i knew u wouldn’t.

THIMK! ;->

Worse than listening is looking…grimacing phony smile, phony teeth, phony grin, and truly can hardly enunciate (not to say articulate.)

p.s. to zooloople, the LAST thing ungulates would be expected to do if spooked, is scatter. call it counterintuitive. great way to clean up the gene pool without even having to use a net or bother the pool boy while he’s sunbathing.

true, that. ;->

We wonder how the conservatives win 2 presidential elections with George W. Bush. It’s because be refuse to acknowledge our own nature. We refuse to acknowledge it’s influence on history. We refuse to acknowledge it’s influence on our politics.

Conservatism is the oldist political philosophy. It goes back to the beginning of history. From the time before we were humans we have abhorred change. We have abhorred dissent. We have abhorred foreigners. We have wanted to conquer.

Conservatives use our nature against us. A ten second ad showing wolves threateningly stalk in the woods scared more than 50% of the US voters into cowering apes and voting for someone who is obviously any idiot.

We have to stop acting like ants under a magnifying glass and realize how they are beating us.

Mr. Broder, “Dean” of journalists in what remains a southern city, albeit one so politically inbred it could be situated in a fictional Appalachia, is telling his white readers that Obama is a surprising if uppity black man. He can good English speak, though unsurprisingly, like his brethren, he’s good at sports. No doubt, he’s musical too, in a rhythmicky, fast-footed sort of way.

Mr. Broder’s thinly veiled candor is refreshing, but equally repugnant for being that. If he’s the epitome of Washington journalism, what can we expect of its dregs?

some people believe those elections were

s t o l e n

i am among them

I’m not sure I read this the same way you do, for I don’t see anything condscending that seems to even hint at Obama’s race. Perhaps I’m missing something.
When he calls Obama invariably articulate and well-spoken, couldn’t that simply be in contrast to both our current mumblemouth and McCain? *I’m* always impressed by how well he speaks and how poised he is, but that isn’t because he’s biracial, but because intelligent thought cogently presented is becoming very rare these days.
Obama makes a three-point shot, but he says that means the gods were favoring him. Could he mean as is producing a miracle, since he didn’t expect he’d be able to do it on his own?

The boiler-room pundits of the The Republican Party, such as Broder, are struggling to capture the nuance and a word they can no longer publicly use.

David Gregory bemoans how Obama appears “elitist” to joe six-pack.

ABC parrots that Obama seems “presumptous” on his M.E. and European trip.

We can go back for a year and catalogue all the different attempts by the blow-darting press to find the 21st Century replacement for the 20th Century word – uppity.

It would be very educational to get a list with the pundit’s name and the word or phrase entry they nominated to update the word uppity for modern sensilbilities.

That’s right. A society which is not comprised of primarily submissives – would destroy itself – no evolution for them. Logic and reason, even well presented, cannot over-ride this DNA driven imperative to follow.

Also aiding the charasmatic hucksters through-out human history is the fact that we are a story telling, fable believing species. That trait allowed societal wisdom to accumulate, and further aided evolutionary progression. It also makes easy pickin’s for the Bakers, Swaggerts and TD Jakes of the planet.

definition of submissive, please?

is cooperative passe?

For this discussion …

Submissive – all those members of the group which follow the lead of the alpha or charasmatic leader – even if they don’t like Kool-Aid.

I am not submissive, but I DO know how to cooperate when it makes sense to do so. I know a lot of people like that. I have even convinced some to become so.

We are not an ant colony, so please do not start that stuff again.

The shadow knows some things.

So does adie.

P. E. A. C. E.