Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Reagan and Identity Politics

The argument, AI, is that the papers handle Obama now as they did Jackson then. It is obvious. Ferraro is right.

5 comments:

Tecumseh said...

The Ferraro quote I take at face value, since it gibes with her style. But there is no Reagan quote, just some vague paraphrase, and Jesse's ruminations. So I don't buy it. At any rate, Ronnie was doing more important stuff in 1988 (like, winning the Cold War), than worrying about Jesse's run against Dukakis (!) I mean, seriously. You're slippin', JJ, while straining to dig into that hole.

Mr roT said...

You talk a lot of bluster, but you know we've all caught a whiff of your Depends, AI.
Your boy Ronnie could throw spitballs too.

Tecumseh said...

Now, to the substance: Ferraro was probably right in 1988, dumb as a bell as she is: Jackson is a hustler and a con artist. But Obama, much as I disagree with him on substance (he almost surely is to Jackson's left, politically) is a much more serious (and formidable) candidate. I think it's a mistake to under-estimate him. If he can defeat la Clinton, he will be rather unstoppable in the Fall. McCain's only chance is for Hillary to soften him up now -- which she's doing right now, thank you m'am.

Tecumseh said...

Ronnie could throw knuckleballs, corkballs, you name it. But by 1988 he had other fish to fry, and was getting ready to fade away. Chances that would have gotten involved in such a pesky way in the Dem primaries are close to nil.

Mr roT said...

So am to understand that you think Obama is getting gotcha'd by the press whenever possible, but is that squeaky clean?

What were you saying a while back about McCain never being able to expect a fair shake from the NYT, then?

Maybe a commuting diagram would help to understand what you're saying, AI.