Notes from the campaign trail
Iowahawk has some embellished comments from the Democratic presidential candidate, but we think the original statements about the McCain campaign and Republicans are noteworthy in themselves:
I’m not making this up, you can’t make this up. It’s like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ routine…I’m skinny but I’m tough…Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president he’ll take on — and I quote — ‘the old boys network in Washington.’ I’m not making this up. This is somebody who’s been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he’s the one who’s going to take on the old boys network. The old boys network. In the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting. Come on…
I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face. And if they tell you that, ‘Well, we’re not sure where he stands on guns.’ I want you to say, ‘He believes in the Second Amendment.’ If they tell you, ‘Well, he’s going to raise your taxes,’ you say, ‘No, he’s not, he’s going lower them.’ You are my ambassadors. You guys are the ones who can make the case.
And the Vice President in waiting had some good material too (as well as some not so good material). The NYT reports:
“John is so out of touch, he just has no idea,” charged Mr. Biden…who called his “old, dear friend” someone who “just doesn’t think,” who is behaving in a repugnant manner and who is peddling “Republican garbage,” and malarkey. The older woman who introduced him at a rally here called…Sarah Palin of Alaska, a “bucket of fluff,” and he rewarded the woman as he took the microphone with an “I love you” and a gentle kiss on the head. “If I sound angry, it’s because I am angry,” Mr. Biden told a few hundred people…he sounds angry, yelling through his stump speeches, flailing his arms and telling a (supportive) member of the audience to “Shush up, will you?” (“I’m kidding,” he added, but did not sound it.)…
Mr. Biden made an improvisational stop at a diner, shook a bunch of hands and walked out into the sun holding a vanilla ice cream cone. “I’m dripping here, man,” Mr. Biden said to a well-wisher as he headed across the street to a carousel. “Am I too old to get on it?” he asked no one in particular, then headed back to his campaign bus. “Anyone need a ride?” he asked some people standing nearby. “I’ve got a nice bus.”
“Saturday Night Live?” “Get in their face?” “I’ve got a nice bus?” Questions: (a) why does this campaign season often seem more like a reality TV program than a presidential election? (b) would a Clinton-McCain contest have sounded this way? (c) does the way that the Democratic candidates comport themselves suggest that they are ahead or trailing in the election?