It’s scary to think that American voters might be swayed one way or another simply because a Presidential candidate appears on Saturday Night Live and provides some laughs. That’s precisely what Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain has done- for a moment you forget the fact that he’s simply George Bush in another man’s skin. He’s likable, humourous, and all of it is nothing more than a façade in an attempt to win support.
Of course, one thing that didn’t come up, and certainly isn’t humourous, is the fact that last week five members of his campaign staff had to resign because of their ties to lobbyist firms. In truth, the two most powerful men at the head of McCain’s campaign are on ‘hiatus’ from lobbying jobs. This, of course, is explained away with the reasoning that they currently have no ties to those firms that employed them and are full time McCain staffers. How much would you like to bet that if McCain loses in November that they’ll be back at their old jobs by the end of that month?
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A very wise man once said: “Stupid is as stupid does”. This means judge people by what they do and not how they appear. Hopefully the American voters will be so wise this time around.
On a separate note - just a reminder to concert go-ers (specifically the shows I am attending in Mount Forest, Kitchener, Hamilton & NOTL) that unless your name is Matthew Good, you really shouldn’t sing during the show, especially during the acoustic portions. Really, you don’t sound as good as you might think (just listen to some of the live clips on you-tube). And those of us who paid to see MG really don’t want you to hear you pollute the air-waves.
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I really hope that Barack Obama wins in November. If John McCain wins we will all be in serious trouble.
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If there’s a Colbert Bump, there’s likely an SNL Bump.
I doubt people picture McCain the same way they pictured Dubya. There’s no southern accent, and no “good ol’ boy” kind of vibe. He seems… lizardish. Snakelike. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy I’d like to have as a neighbor. I’d always be making sure the kids go up AND down his walk on hallowe’en.
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While I know I seem to be putting my faith in people who continually let me down…I’d hope that the general public who hasn’t made up their minds yet will wait until Clinton shuts her trap and lets Obama and McSame have some debates on policy. At least there, his temper and lack of handlers will get the better of him and make Obama even more appealing.
As a side note concerning Obama, a good friend of mine who happens to be a die-hard Republican (we’re an odd pairing, yes) saw him in South Dakota during her vacation and so I get a call at about midnight where she told me how incredible he was and how she wouldn’t be surprised if she votes for him in November despite any policy differences they may have. I’d like to see McSame try and make that same conversion…
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To be honest, I hope the evil fucker wins. Think of how many people were politicized and mobilized because of the last shit head. Barack Obama will do nothing but placate the masses into continuing to support an inevitably evil capitalist colonialist state. Bring on the shit heads if it wakes people up!
Side note: Hey I just stumbled by this site by accident (I’m mentioning this cuz there’s quite a few borderline stalkers on this site…) But I served you coffee in gastown a few months ago, at the redhead’s coffee shop, how is your dog doin?
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I’d be more concerned if anyone still watched SNL. As near as I can tell, the show (and its fan base) disappeared about a decade ago.
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I don’t think McCain will benifit from his appearence too much. The only Presidential candidate I can think of that benefited from appearing on late night television was Bill Clinton on the Arsenio Hall Show back in the day. Since then, at most, appearances on the late night circuit are blips on a campain trail. Besides, it’s SNL. That show has lost so much viewership in the past 10 years, it’s hard to imagine enough people were watching it to make it worth while for his cause.
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I really think all the late-night appearances will cancel each other out. Clinton, Obama, and McCain have all made stops on SNL, the Daily Show, and the Colbert Report. I think it’s almost mandatory, if you’re running a political campaign in the states these days, to stop by the popular programs and ‘act funny’ and ‘relate to the common man’. Hopefully one candidate will not benefit more than another from this tactic - It’s just more impression management.
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Quoting revisited:
TWO decades ago.
Yep, McCain’s guys will go back to their lobbying gigs just as Cheney will “go back” to his gig with Haliburton. I bet he’s worth four times what he was BEFORE he swore to uphold the Constitution.
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I have a hard time believing that the Republican party even factors as a player in the upcoming election. The amount of buzz surrounding the Democratic race is so great that McCain isn’t getting a lick of press to speak of. Plus, he looks like a goddamned sheister. Needless to say, he’s all the Republican party’s got, and compared to Clinton and Obama, he doesn’t cut a terribly interesting picture.
The Democratic race is very, very visible. It kind of takes all the wind out of the Republican Party’s sails. We shall have to see when the race really gets going, though.
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Quoting D. Lilly:
Two decades ago was when I started watching. :P Back in then, VCRs were just introduced and my mother took full advantage of the technology and began setting the timer to tape SNL and then watching the episode Sunday afternoon. By the time I was 5, I was quoting Church Lady and telling people I’m going to pump (*clap*) them up.
I’ve only stopped watching in the past three or four years, after I started this night shift and their revolving door of cast members made it confusing as to who’s who.
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They all stink as choices and it comes down to picking who is the least dishonest and corrupt. I guess Obama wins that ,but he still ain’t my knight in shining armor. It’s great we have so little choices now unlike the old days when there where tons of candidates to choose from.
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McCain wants to be seen as a cool old grandpa figure, that’s why he made numerous jokes about his age. In all honesty, he came off rigid and unfunny because when he reads off a teleprompter, it’s painful. Just like when he recently appeared, along with Obama and Clinton, on WWE RAW.
Gotta appeal to those voters who’d rather laugh at a joke then worry about the next four years of our country.
Side note: Did you hear comments made my West Virginia voters after Clinton’s victory their last week? Terrifying doesn’t do it justice. There was actually one woman who believed that Obama is a Muslim.
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I voted for Bush in 2000 because he seemed like a good ol’ down-to-earth guy. I mean, a guy who i could sit down and have a beer with and talk about last night’s ball game. I mean c’mon, Gore is such an awkward robotic dork.
Oh and i’d never vote for Dennis Kucinich because he’s too short.
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Thats exactly what I want to do with the man someday; sit down and have a beer with him. I think he’d be an interesting man to sit down and have a conversation with.
As for John McCain, I think its a harsh generalization to write him off as “George Bush in another man’s skin”. I think out of any of the candidates he would be the most anti war/anti torture of them all given what hes been through.
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Quoting Moonlight Graham:
Great strategy to pick a president based on his ability to be a patron in a dive bar. Avoid those things called voting booths this year, say around, november. The end is nigh
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IF McCain loses?
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And he’s done shit all nothing to enforce his Muhammed Ali Bill!
Don King should be in jail -oh that’s right, Don King is a republican.
Wonder what Cassius would say about that if he could speak like he used to.
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Quoting Shabs:
What do you think will change then? Just interested. There’s no politics whithout lying, the exact opposite being true: politics only work through lying. Obama’s just another politician who will be trapped in the role his country plays in the world and to which everything else - peoples needs for example - are subordinate.
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Edit:
It’s that false belief of having a real choice to influence policies of one’s country that annoys me the most.
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Is SNL still on the air? What’s that about? The only thing the world can do at this point is try to give the American public the benefit of the doubt and hope they can see through that crap. The times I have traveled to the States in recent years has been a refreshing surprise. The majority of the people I have spoken to are completely discusted in the Republican party despite the fact that the media seems to paint a different picture.
Having said that, the election will have to be a blow out in order to insure that there is no possibility of cheating and miss counts. Harsh words I know but does anybody really believe that didn’t happen?
Who knows? Maybe the best thing that could happen is the Republicans do win which would possibly ensure there complete demise and they would disappear off the face of the earth much like the Whigs of the nineteenth century. Especially if it’s led by that fucking brain dead idiot John McCain. We can dream can’t we? They haven’t figured out a way to tax us on that yet.
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Sorry “disgusted”. To early for proper spelling and proof reading
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Quoting Mike Florek:
Apparently you didn’t watch the beginning of this process, when each party had roughly a dozen politicians vying to become the candidate.
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@ ianb: “IF McCain loses?”
Don’t get cocky. Most of Obama’s popular support is blacks and educated middle class whites. They predominate in the Democratic primaries, but in the general public there are millions more who will vote based on racism and fear.
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I don’t know how anybody laughs at that guy - he’s about as funny as John Wayne Gacy in a clown suit.
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McCain continues to make serious horrifyingly idiotic gaffes - i.e. mixing up Sunni/Shiite Muslims. Even after being corrected several times for making the same identical mistake. He said that Iran (Shiite Muslims) were aiding al Qaeda (Sunni Muslims). If he’s allowed to become President … duck and cover. Like many (but not all!) senior people, he has no appetite or capacity for learning new things. McCain always performed poorly in school too. Just like W.
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The media has been all over SNL as relevant once again in light of Clinton pointing out their earlier jokes this season about Obama getting preferential treatment; the fact that corporate media began to question their supposed glad-handling of him just shows that we need to be just as wary of how the medium has become, in some cases, more important than the message. Just try to watch Fox News Channel for more than 5 minutes without wondering how they can claim journalistic integrity while simultaneously giving the White House a handjob on air.
The hot topic last year was how so many people get their news from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and while those of us with a liberal lean and half a brain snicker at that, the fact is that we’re a nation that is deeply divided, regardless of how bad Bush has fucked things up, and there’s no guarantee the intelligence of Obama or the tenacity of Clinton is going to overcome a nation of Republicans that will most likely vote party-line while many Clinton supporters say they’ll vote for McCain before they do Obama. SNL is relevant again because the media has deemed it so; while they’ve tried to sway away from their initial support of Clinton, the jokes lately about Clinton and McCain haven’t been anywhere near as biting or funny. Remember, we’re a nation full of God-fearing NASCAR, WWE and GTA4 lovers; To think that McCain couldn’t take this election is as elitist as everyone wants Barack to be portrayed. God help us when I live in a nation where a man running for president could lose because he’s seen as too intelligent.
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He wasn’t all that funny; I actually found him a tad annoying. Just a ploy to garner the attention of a different slice of the pie.
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Quoting kanji:
Good point Kanji
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Quoting kanji:
You might THINK that, given what he’s been through. But that’s simply not the case. McCain voted against a ban on waterboarding, and he is a huge proponent of the Iraq War.
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Quoting Mike Florek:
Interestingly enough, I do believe thats why he won against both Gore and especially against Kerry. I would never have voted for Kerry as he always seemed just, well, uncomfortable. Oh, and he couldnt take a firm stand on any relevant issue whatsoever.
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I think Jon Stewart said it best, when all that crap was flying around about Barack Obama being “elite”. He said something along the lines of “of course we want the guy running for president to be smarter than all of us. He’s trying to be f*cking president. I hope like hell he’s smarter than me.”
Voting for someone because they’re someone you wouldn’t mind having a beer with puts about 200 hockey players ahead of Barack Obama but I wouldn’t trust any of them to run Canada, let alone the United States of America.
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it is standard form to appear on shows like these now, kind of sad really. i hope it doesn’t affect anything in the end and people take it as it is.
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I think, in the minds of voters, the reality is a lot more complicated than people give it credit for. With all the media everywhere reporting different things, omitting certain facts and overemphasizing others, it’s hard to tell what the truth is sometimes. I don’t see too much of a difference between Bill O’Reilly and Jon Stewart other than their appeal to different demographics.
People are quick to dismiss rural Americans/Republican voters as lesser thans, probably because it makes them feel smart. Power to them, I guess. But just because they aren’t always as eloquent in explaining themselves (sometimes, I think, a charming quality) doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot to think about. Sure, there are some simple people voting out of racism and blind fear, just as there are probably a lot of simple people voting for Obama without considering the potential downside of his presidency. But most voters are seriously weighing the options between two good men and very distinct choices, while Hillary continues to caricature herself in the background.
America has a lot on its plate and a lot of responsibility in the world, and whether or not to withdraw in Iraq is not an easy choice for many Americans. McCain himself has a son serving there, although he doesn’t trumpet it like he could. It might be naive to assume the old-style bravado/determination that says we should never give up, as McCain is doing. And yes, it might be even more naive to assume that pulling troops out of Iraq and simply being diplomatic with everyone is going to make everything suddenly poof and disappear. Peace is great until someone attacks you or someone who can’t defend themselves. Not all wars are evil or dumb.
Personally I would take the gamble with Obama, but the real fools in this campaign are the ones who support the man who calls for unity and empathy on one hand and continue to look down on others whose opinions and beliefs they don’t share on the other.
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Some of the comments I read in today’s paper scared me, because it made me realize that in some parts of the US, (the article used Kentucky and the Carolinas as an example) if Obama beats Clinton, a large number of Democrat votes will slide the way of the Republicans. I feel incredibly naive for thinking that people would keep their overtly racist views to themselves, and not have them published in newspapers across the continent.
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Politics is definately not my thing ~ I find it hard to take interest in something so corrupt ~ however, I remember Chris Rock saying something to the effect of: anybody who decides who they are voting for before voting day is a dummy. Point being, we learn about these candidates for the duration of the whole voting process and with every passing day, we learn good and bad about all of them and it’s not until the very end [after all the shit's come out] that we can weigh what was important to us and what was not.
Me? I think they’re all full of shit! It boils down to who is most sane to run the most powerful country in the world! Yikes ~ this is the best we have to offer? OMG!
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Quoting Mike Florek:
Sarcasm strikes again my friend! Directly into your left ventricle.
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Quoting Tony1031:
He’s apparently the real deal - Barack on negotiating with Iran:
“Here’s the truth: the Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear weapons, and Iran doesn’t have a single one. But when the world was on the brink of nuclear holocaust, Kennedy talked to Khrushchev and he got those missiles out of Cuba. Why shouldn’t we have the same courage and the confidence to talk to our enemies? That’s what strong countries do, that’s what strong presidents do, that’s what I’ll do when I’m president of the United States of America.” - Barack Obama.
Plus the simple fact is that most Iranians prefer the west despite America’s/Britain’s joint 1953 coup removing their 1st democratically elected government.
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McCain 08!
I want him to win because I’m as cynical as fuck. Having someone screw up the US completely might cause a general awakening to how wrong things really are regarding the US government and its election at present. Apathy will end as soon as people need to care. Implosion is a realistic and reliable way of bringing that about.
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There’s a great exchange on a recent Bill Maher show: Maher said people can’t afford to vote “barbecue” this election, and his Real Time Real Reporter interjected, correcting him: “People can’t afford to have a barbecue.”
seriousbusiness:
You wrote:
Quoting seriousbusiness:
Screwing up the U.S. . . . is what, at this point? A Simpson’s quote might capture what the entire McCain presidency might be about:
“[Several townspeople are stuck in a deep hole they've dug.]
Homer: I know! We’ll dig our way out!
[They begin shovelling afresh.]
Chief Wiggum: No, no dig up, stupid.”
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He was funny on Letterman too
See I think it’s a completely VALID idea to vote for someone you think you could have a beer in a bar with because it’s democratic.
Realistically there are MANY many people that don’t pay the depth of attention to politics that the demographic of this site does, and while I myself would often prefer that the uninformed or uneducated wouldn’t vote at all, it’s a selfish thing because it’d likely mean the NDP/Bloc Quebecois as the Government of Canada. Better? Of course. Democratic? Less. It isn’t at all democratic to ostracize someone’s methods of choosing a candidate, that’s a step in the fascist direction.
It should be easy enough for the Democrats or the Green Party to pick somebody who’d be a good conversation over a beer at a bar is my point and if dumbasses are who the politician represents then for better or worse that politician should be the best dumbass possible and I think USA’s doing just fine in that regard.
No worries though if McCain’s cool cause Barack Obama you could have a drink AND a smoke with.