Email of the Day

A reader: "Also, if there's one we can learn from tonight, it's that Democrats and Republicans both want populists with goofy ears." Indeed, only a Big Ears Unity Ticket can bring the country together.

Comments

That's the ticket that got us Dubya, if you'll recall. He was a "uniter". Gots big ears. I always thought "compassionate conservatism" was codespeak for populism. Huck, at least, might as well be GB3.

Posted by gerontion | January 4, 2008 9:26 AM

Wasn't this the entire justification for the Perot run?

Posted by Sam | January 4, 2008 9:45 AM

you have readers stupid enough to consider obama a populist?

Posted by matt | January 4, 2008 9:49 AM

We've had enough with the Big Ears, what America needs is the Ron Paul "Big Nose" ReLOVEution.

Posted by Used to be a Big Ear Democrat, Now a Big Nose Independent! | January 4, 2008 10:05 AM

On Bloomberg television this morning Huckabee compared himself to Obama by saying that he has experience in actually governing while Obama can give a good speach.

I think even Huckabee will crush Obama in a general election. It will not even be close.

The childrens crusade led by Obama for a new way has been tried before. It never works. And even if this time is different, what do we win? We get a black man in the white house. That is about it.

Meanwhile our economy is crumbling, we are in debt to our enemies, people are losing jobs, the middle class is shrinking and prices are rising on everything except the houses people live in. In short, we are fucked.

And what does Obama offer? He offers right wing talking points. So tell me, why should the country pick a democrat who talks like a republican over a real republican? They won't.

Posted by ken | January 4, 2008 10:15 AM

I think even Huckabee will crush Obama in a general election. It will not even be close.

Well you got that last part right.

As a Democrat, I'm considering giving money to the Huckabee campaign.

Posted by goethean | January 4, 2008 10:38 AM

Actually, if you listen carefully, Obama and Huckabee are using pretty much the same rhetorical strategy. It's a mix of the media friendly "independent, high minded, above it all, maverick" strategy used by McCain in 2000 and a "vote for me -- I'll give you all of the benefits of the Clinton years and none of the drawbacks" (Huckabee's angle here is, of course, the AK connection).

And the sort of whispering campaign that killed McCain in 2000 would be ineffective against either Huckabee or Obama.

*

And even if this time is different, what do we win? [...] In short, we are fucked. - ken

But our country is Cheney'd up so bad, that even if we get a Dem who could fix it, what would need to be done would be so difficult that it would ensure a real right-wingnut (running on a "GW Bush was enthrall to the 'neo-con' not so former commies" platform, if you catch my drift) sweeps the 2012 race.

Perhaps, in his own way, Obama is just trying to keep expectations low ("'the audacity of hope' ...'cause hope is all we have no matter who wins") while simultaniously not being a nattering nabob of negativism -- that way if he does win, he'll not have to have enacted some pony-filled agenda (like the one to which Edwards is committing himself) to get re-elected but just establish that people still have the audacity to hope for something better than GW Bush.

Ya know, it'll take Moshiach winning the election for things really to be that much different. So why set yourself up for a major disappointment? Why not just have smooth enough talking points that people'll have a reason to vote for you and not give people ammo to use against you (mandates? that's political suicide right there ...)?

Posted by DAS | January 4, 2008 12:12 PM

Yup.

This woman was quite puzzled by that whole "Obama girl" thing. The big ears and rail-thinness just seem to give him the gangly high school kid look, which might be a turn-on to an older woman dreaming of a May/December fling, but is not exactly what I thin of as the essence of playerdom.

And on Huckabee, I want to congratulate the person on this site brought up the Gomer Pyle thing. I can't get it out of my mind.

Posted by artappraiser | January 4, 2008 4:36 PM

One night not long ago, Anderson Coooper was interviewing Obama. My wife and I were a little drunk and noticed the ears and got the giggles and couldn't stop. It looked like a white Dumbo interviewing a black Dumbo.

Posted by dan | January 5, 2008 6:07 PM