de-Baits

[pieces o nine]

Well, we just wrapped up de-Bait #1.

I am exhausted from refuting the tv screen.   




I also said bad words...

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Missed 'em. But reading the wrap up and going to watch them later online.
Heard Obama did pretty well and that McCain said a lot of silly things and looked old and grumpy.

[Sibling Chatty]

If I'd had to scream "LYING SACK OF SHIT" one more time, Spencer was gonna need a tranquilizer...

Grandpa did everything but tell that kid to get off his lawn...

Obama was respectful, both to McCain and Lehrer...which McCain did NOT bother with. (Either one of 'em. Nobody expected him to behave decently to Obama, but his rudeness to Lehrer was stunningly bad.)

Grandpa also had problems when his memorized talking points were soundly refuted. He just kept dragging out the same lies.

Wait until NEXT week. Joe "Think on his Feet" Biden verus Sarah "Wha..?? Think?? Uhhh... OK, CHYARRLIE!!" Palin.

Oh, was McCain smirking, grinding his teeth or having a stroke? Hard to tell.

[pieces o nine]

Crooks and Liars  posted a link to the Seminal's "Presidential Debates Drinking Game."

So many good ones (careful -- I think the Seminal server is getting a lot of hits right now & has frozen a window for me twice when I clicked to read the whole game) but my immediate favorite: Every time John McCain says "my friends", spit out your drink and shout "I am not your friend" at the television.

Every time John McCain mentions his POW experience, praise his courage and drink a kamikaze. This one is only for the heavy drinkers.

Every time Obama says change everyone has to switch seats and drink the other person's drink of choice.

Every time John McCain tries to associate Barack Obama with an unsavory character, take a sip of your dirty martini.

Every time someone says bailout you have to finish your drink and pour another.

Every time John McCain says "my friends", spit out your drink and shout "I am not your friend" at the television.

Every time "evil", "evil doers", or anything with evil is mentioned, drink a sip of French red wine.

Every time John McCain threatens Iran, drink a savage car bomb or cherry bomb.

Every time Barack Obama ties John McCain to George W. Bush, drink a sloe gin fizz and wish for better days.

Every time John McCain displays how hopelessly out of touch he is, drink an old bastard.

Every time John McCain refers to the USSR or any other non-existent formerly communist country, get ready to ride the red tide.

When Georgia is mentioned, drink a fuzzy navel.

Every time John McCain mentions Sarah Palin, drink a white russian. After all, if Sarah Palin is around there must be a Russian nearby somewhere.

Every time John McCain smiles creepily, drink a roofie-colada.

If anyone mentions a golden parachute, pound some goldschlager.

Every time John McCain makes an appeal to states rights, lean back and take a sip of that sweet southern comfort.

When NATO membership is mentioned, clink glasses with everyone around you and attack anyone who refuses to clink.

If John McCain doesn't show up, lock yourself inside and sip Jack Daniels all night. It is going to be a long six weeks.

Every time John McCain says anything, take a drink from the oldest, crappiest bottle you have—that skunked beer in the back of the fridge, the two-dollar wine someone gave you for your birthday five years ago, the dregs from that bottle of Popov vodka left over from a party you had in February—because you've heard it all before, and you didn't much like it the first time.

Regardless of what either candidate says, at the end of the debate, drink something that must be lit on fire first, then hit yourself in the face with a shovel.

Maybe I could play this game with my (essentially teetotaler) mom during the next one!  

Here's the link to Wonkette's version:

Whenever John McCain says "My Friends":
Two drinks (or one shot), poke the breast of the person to your right and smile creepily.

When Barack Obama shakes his head with dignity:
Shake your own head with dignity, take the beverage from the person to your left, and tell them to go get you a new drink because you are not going to get AIDS from their backwash/lipstick.

When you see the black abyss of Jim Lehrer's lifeless eyes, which are lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes ....
Cross yourself, tell everybody you didn't know you were a Catholic, and chase a shot of whisky with a gulp of red wine.

When Lehrer first says that while he knows this was supposed to be a debate about Foreign Policy ....
Chug your entire beer or drain your glass and pour a shot for immediate consumption when he completes this with something along the lines of:
"But an extraordinary situation has developed within our financial system, something both of you know from your trip to the White House yesterday ...."

LIGHTNING ROUND:

When McCain says anything about his family:
Angrily drink half a beer or half a glass of wine and call your host a cunt.

When Obama stutters about some foreign-policy trick question probably about Israel:
Get on your knees, look to the East, and do a shot.

When McCain makes his first reference to being a prisoner of war:
Everybody get in a box and take a Vicodin.

At McCain's second reference to being a POW:
Two shots, punch the person next to you in the biceps, demand a confession.

Third POW reference:
Five-and-a-half shots.

PRESCRIPTION FOR (GREATEST) DEPRESSION:

When McCain tries to articulate his non-existent economic policy and/or bailout plan:
Fight your friends for change under the couch cushions, pass around a joint because who can afford fancy store-bought booze anymore?

When Obama acknowledges that the financial crisis may limit the amount of Hope and Change his administration can afford:
Immediately finish off the best bottle of liquor in the house, because who the hell is ever going to see that again.

When McCain is unable to remember either the number of mansions, number of cars or number of millions he (and Cindy) own:
One Ambien, chased with one shot, followed with Metamucil dumped in a gin & tonic.

McCain actually has a muppet (probably Beaker) pop up next to him and do the talking:
Everybody do three lines of coke, take off your clothes and GET IN THE TANK.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Think I like Wonkette's version better than Hot Air

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Not surprisingly McSame dodged a few (answering something that had nothing to do with the question, if on a bad spot), but was able to hammer how 'naive' Obama was 4 or 5 times.

In general I saw more nuance in Obama but his lack of aggressiveness (or his decency?) allowed McSame to say the last word too often.

As an interesting bit, McC mentioned how there was waste on military spending (something that Obama could not afford to say), and also Obama congratulated McC on his posture regarding torture losing the opportunity to show the apparent change of heart of McC on the subject while voting.

On a more general note they were far more in agreement on foreign policy than I would've suspected, making Iraq the main difference.

[beagle]

Does anyone in the States think it's weird the debates took place? From here it looks a bit like one of those "and the band played on" type scenarios.

In fact the papers are predicting which corporations will fail first if they can't roll over short term debt (GM and Ford seem the lucky "winners" of that contest).

[Griffin NoName]

I'm not in the States, so I have no right to reply, but I endorse Beagle's post/question. My brain has been making very similar ticking sounds.

P09's topic title is to the point.

Not that the UK is so different. Never mind New Labour, the whole World needs New Politics.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

I certainly didn't find it weird. That's what candidates do--they debate. If they had canceled it, I'd have wtf'd. THAT there would have been weird.

[Griffin NoName]

Not meaning to offend, debate is not what I observe (either here or the US).

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Not meaning to offend, debate is not what I observe (either here or the US).

*ding* *ding* *ding*

Exactly-- what happened was NOT debate, but was a carefully orchestrated series of political speeches....

.... *bleah*

[pieces o nine]

Does anyone in the States think it's weird the debates took place? From here it looks a bit like one of those "and the band played on" type scenarios.

My  *personal*  take on that is this:

One of these candidates is going to be in the hot seat come January. With all the political and economic chickens coming home to roost, I want to hear even more about how my preferred candidate thinks and what his priorities are. I want others to hear that too, and T-H-I-N-K about what is required to break the last eight year cycle of devastation.

He's going to have to compromise with Congress and he's going to have some PR battles with the press and the Merrikin Peepul, but I still want him to keep articulating what his plans are. Too many of my relatives and acquaintances have forgotten that leaders are supposed to friggin LEAD,  not hide out whenever the chimps [sic] are down, emerging only to read boilerplate sound bites that they can't even pronuncificate, 'cause they aren't "cultural elites".

As for the other ... well, let's call him a "not-so-candid-ate" ... I'd like to see him pinned in front of a bank of microphones, under a nice TV studio spot light, until he provides straight answers on wotdehell he's thinking, if, indeed, he is  thinking of anything beyond his own choked up, angry, festering issues with "Leaving a War in Victory and with Honor". If, indeed, he's got no plans, no visions, no ability to deal with more than one issue at a time, then there is a horribly large chunk of the populace that needs to *see* that tantrums, insults, and flop sweat are the only things in his bag of tricks.  (Aside from being willing at any moment to completely whore himself and his "values" to further enrich his very-well-heeled cronies.)

No insult is intended to his service -- I respect that. But it was decades  ago. What has he done lately  that "deserves" the Oval Office -- more than any other vet or POW?

And that's why I was glad McSame's pitiful "Razzle!Dazzle!" ploy to bump the Pres debate, in order to bump the Veep debate right off the calendar, failed. I want to people to keep seeing both him and her say crazy and out-of-touch things, and see it frequently enough that they T-H-I-N-K before pulling that lever for more of the same come November.

That's why the 'debates' are important and should not be cancelled. But, that's just my opinion.. . 

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

What?!

During the first Presidential debate last night, Jim Lehrer challenged each candidate about what he would do to take account of the new fiscal reality likely to result from the bailout (or whatever action is taken). Sen. Obama said he would invest in vital infrastructure and look to cut unnecessary programs, singling out private insurance for Medicare; he also suggested he would delay some of his other proposals, presumably including health care; and he said he would seek an expeditious reduction in our spending on Iraq. Sen. McCain said he would consider an across-the-board spending freeze on non-military, non-veterans, non-entitlement programs.
...
Bottom Line: Obama was correct when, in the debate, he said that McCain's approach would use a cleaver instead of a scalpel, but the much bigger problem with McCain's freeze is that McCain's cleaver is orders of magnitude too small to do the job.

This, I assume, would include education, research grants, and a variety of other programs. Some of those cuts, sure, would make sense, but a lot of others

[beagle]

Does anyone in the States think it's weird the debates took place? From here it looks a bit like one of those "and the band played on" type scenarios.

My  *personal*  take on that is this:

One of these candidates is going to be in the hot seat come January. With all the political and economic chickens coming home to roost, I want to hear even more about how my preferred candidate thinks and what his priorities are. I want others to hear that too, and T-H-I-N-K about what is required to break the last eight year cycle of devastation.

I can see that, sort of , but any candidate who is busy banging his own drum rather than working on a solution at this point would lose my vote on the principle that they were:

A: Madly egotistiscal.
B: Out of touch with the seriousness of the situation and therefore, economics.
C: Not to be trusted to concentrate on the public good rather than their own career trajectory.

Fortunately for you I don't get a vote, and have no idea who the third candidate is anyway.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I'll be naive and the devil's advocate and say that saying whatever they really want to do would kill their elections instantly. If McC wants to privatize social security this would be the worst possible time to say it. If Obama wants to slash dramatically defense spending he would loose the gains he had made on the moderate republicans.

Obviously there is no way to tell if those are their real intentions (or what are for what matters), but then again name one politician that has been upfront about his intentions, elected, and warmly remembered*.

* Hitler was quite upfront about his intentions IIRC.