quote:

Originally posted by matthewden:

quote:

Originally posted by legjoints:

quote:

Originally posted by matthewden:
NOT climate change and its effects. As I said, no one cares about polar bears or climate change when they haven't got a job.

Which is why climate change deniers like to keep mentioning polar bears, because they think if they link the phrases climate change and polar bears enough times people will see the two things as being linked and will therefore start to believe that climate change is no threat to human beings and therefore no threat to them and their families. Bush did a similar thing a few years back when he kept saying Saddam Hussein and 9/11 in the same breath such that many people, many Americans at least, ended up believing that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11.

Completely irrelevant ramble.

Irrelevant to what?

quote:

Originally posted by matthewden:

quote:

Originally posted by legjoints:

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Originally posted by matthewden:
The economy, Iraq, Iran, Russia etc will dominate

The Republicans hope is that the economy will not dominate. They are trying to turn the election to being about personality rather than issues, and one of their key strategists has admitted that they don't believe this election will be about issues.

They probably don't want to talk about the economy as a whole, but when it comes to climate change, they will push the idea that their policies will not harm business, and will in fact help the economy by increasing drilling in Alaska, etc.

But most people know that when the Republicans say they'll do something to help the economy what they really mean is they'll help themselves and their big business backers. Palin is as much in the pockets of the oil industry as Bush. What they won't do however is help ordinary working class / middle class Americans have decent affordable healthcare, a major financial burden on most of those who have insurance, and also a stress because you never know whether your insurance company will agree to pay up if you do fall ill and require treatment. That's another issue the Republicans don't want to talk about, and another issue where Republicans side with big business rather than with ordinary people.

quote:

Originally posted by matthewden:

quote:

Originally posted by legjoints:

quote:

Originally posted by matthewden:
The economy, Iraq, Iran, Russia etc will dominate

The Republicans hope is that the economy will not dominate. They are trying to turn the election to being about personality rather than issues, and one of their key strategists has admitted that they don't believe this election will be about issues.

who exactly admitted that the republicans don't want to talk about issues??

"don't believe the election will be about issues" - I read it somewhere but couldn't remember where or who said it, but found it now. It was actually Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager. Here's how the Baltimore Sun reports it:

quote:

Obama has tried to inoculate himself against expected Republican attacks. He has repeatedly criticized a comment by McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, who said last week that the election "is not about issues" but instead is about the candidates' personalities - "their values, their character, their opinions, their principles."

At a Scranton, Pa., stop on Friday, Obama said, "When they say this isn't about issues, it's about personalities, what they're really saying is, 'We're going to try to scare people about Barack. So we're going to say that, you know, maybe he's got Muslim connections, or we're going to say that, you know, he hangs out with radicals, or he's not patriotic.'"

A bit off-topic, but a couple of weeks ago Newsnight did a piece during the Democrat's convention when they interviewed 4 people in a bar in Pennsylvania and though all were considering voting for Obama they were all a bit worried about him being a muslim!

quote:

Originally posted by legjoints:
Irrelevant to what?

My argument that poor people do not care about the environment as much as the economy. When the economy goes bad, cc will be less of an issue

The biggest scandal of them all is that she does not swallow the man-made global warming thing? Has everyone noticed now it's not global warming it's climate change?

quote:

Originally posted by Bonmot:
The biggest scandal of them all is that she does not swallow the man-made global warming thing? Has everyone noticed now it's not global warming it's climate change?

A few years ago a memo from Republican pollster Frank Luntz appeared:

quote:

The phrase "global warming" should be abandoned in favour of "climate change", Mr Luntz says
...
The phrase "global warming" appeared frequently in President Bush's speeches in 2001, but decreased to almost nothing during 2002, when the memo was produced.

The Guardian (2003)

I think we are experiencing a notable period of global inclemency. Anything is climate and we see from the hurricane situation that the more it appears on TV the more the belief is that it is extraordinary. It is not extraordinary it has battered the caribbean since time began and very often much worse. They turned no more than a tropical storm recently into a massive event by having 2 million people leave their homes. The beas, the rain, the increased green and pleasant land, the winds, the thames barrier, butterflies, my GI system after a curry, just about anything to justify a myth.

Has there ever been anyone ever who has scared the Left quite so much as Palin? The hysterical and desperate attempts to smear her, the cheap innuendo, the bleating, the abject fear, the manufactured fury, the childish rants....if O'Bama has been subject to half as much character assasination by the Right, the left-dominated media would be in full frothing-at-the-mouth, 'dog ate my homework', 'moral highground', 'defenders of freedom' mode.

Another day, another unlikely chapter in the 'Story Of O'Bama'.

quote:

Originally posted by empiricist:
Has there ever been anyone ever who has scared the Left quite so much as Palin? The hysterical and desperate attempts to smear her, the cheap innuendo, the bleating, the abject fear, the manufactured fury, the childish rants....if O'Bama has been subject to half as much character assasination by the Right, the left-dominated media would be in full frothing-at-the-mouth, 'dog ate my homework', 'moral highground', 'defenders of freedom' mode.

Another day, another unlikely chapter in the 'Story Of O'Bama'.

It's not fear it's derision. Simple as that. As for Obama not being the subject of that much character assassination you must be kidding right? He's been accused of everything from being gay and a crypto-muslim to being the anti-christ. He's weathered all that. He'll probably still lose the election because the democrats still haven't learned the lesson of fighting as dirty as the republicans.

quote:

Originally posted by plandalet:

quote:

Originally posted by empiricist:
Has there ever been anyone ever who has scared the Left quite so much as Palin? The hysterical and desperate attempts to smear her, the cheap innuendo, the bleating, the abject fear, the manufactured fury, the childish rants....if O'Bama has been subject to half as much character assasination by the Right, the left-dominated media would be in full frothing-at-the-mouth, 'dog ate my homework', 'moral highground', 'defenders of freedom' mode.

Another day, another unlikely chapter in the 'Story Of O'Bama'.

It's not fear it's derision. Simple as that. As for Obama not being the subject of that much character assassination you must be kidding right? He's been accused of everything from being gay and a crypto-muslim to being the anti-christ. He's weathered all that. He'll probably still lose the election because the democrats still haven't learned the lesson of fighting as dirty as the republicans.

My point proven I think-I can see the fear, I can smell the fear, the fear is real.

'She's horrid. It's not fair.'

'Simple as that.'



The irony is I am not actually a fan of either party-I just recognise what's going to happen when a candidate with nothing to offer but charisma suddenly and late in the day finds himself up against an opponent who is perhaps even better at winning the crowd.

quote:

Originally posted by plandalet:
It's not fear it's derision. Simple as that. As for Obama not being the subject of that much character assassination you must be kidding right? He's been accused of everything from being gay and a crypto-muslim to being the anti-christ. He's weathered all that. He'll probably still lose the election because the democrats still haven't learned the lesson of fighting as dirty as the republicans.

But hasn't most of that been by bloogers and not by the mainstream media - with the exception of Fox news perhaps? I don't recall seeing the BBC or the like, runing reports that Obama is the Anti-Christ or that he is gay - though they may exist???

quote:

Originally posted by matthewden:

quote:

Originally posted by plandalet:
It's not fear it's derision. Simple as that. As for Obama not being the subject of that much character assassination you must be kidding right? He's been accused of everything from being gay and a crypto-muslim to being the anti-christ. He's weathered all that. He'll probably still lose the election because the democrats still haven't learned the lesson of fighting as dirty as the republicans.

But hasn't most of that been by bloogers and not by the mainstream media - with the exception of Fox news perhaps? I don't recall seeing the BBC or the like, runing reports that Obama is the Anti-Christ or that he is gay - though they may exist???

And foxnews doesn't count as the mainstream media? How exactly have the media attacked Palin in a way which Fox news for example hasn't attacked Obama?

They questioned her experience and suitability. The "mainstream media" only reported the fact that her daughter was pregnant after the campaign announced it themselves.

This "the media are attacking me because I'm a woman" nonsense is just the republicans trying to have it both ways.

quote:

Originally posted by matthewden:

quote:

Originally posted by plandalet:
It's not fear it's derision. Simple as that. As for Obama not being the subject of that much character assassination you must be kidding right? He's been accused of everything from being gay and a crypto-muslim to being the anti-christ. He's weathered all that. He'll probably still lose the election because the democrats still haven't learned the lesson of fighting as dirty as the republicans.

But hasn't most of that been by bloogers and not by the mainstream media - with the exception of Fox news perhaps? I don't recall seeing the BBC or the like, runing reports that Obama is the Anti-Christ or that he is gay - though they may exist???

The BBC gets a little girly and weak at the knees at the very mention of O'Bama (it's all rather homoerotic) and as a consequence, and funded by us, it gets to use its influence to talk down Palin, which is about as high a compliment as one could give her.

quote:

Originally posted by empiricist:

quote:

Originally posted by plandalet:

quote:

Originally posted by empiricist:
Has there ever been anyone ever who has scared the Left quite so much as Palin? The hysterical and desperate attempts to smear her, the cheap innuendo, the bleating, the abject fear, the manufactured fury, the childish rants....if O'Bama has been subject to half as much character assasination by the Right, the left-dominated media would be in full frothing-at-the-mouth, 'dog ate my homework', 'moral highground', 'defenders of freedom' mode.

Another day, another unlikely chapter in the 'Story Of O'Bama'.

It's not fear it's derision. Simple as that. As for Obama not being the subject of that much character assassination you must be kidding right? He's been accused of everything from being gay and a crypto-muslim to being the anti-christ. He's weathered all that. He'll probably still lose the election because the democrats still haven't learned the lesson of fighting as dirty as the republicans.

My point proven I think-I can see the fear, I can smell the fear, the fear is real.

'She's horrid. It's not fair.'

'Simple as that.'



The irony is I am not actually a fan of either party-I just recognise what's going to happen when a candidate with nothing to offer but charisma suddenly and late in the day finds himself up against an opponent who is perhaps even better at winning the crowd.

What fear? I don't have a dog in this fight. I find one lot of candidates more laughable than the the other lot though. Call me cynical.

quote:

My point proven I think-I can see the fear, I can smell the fear, the fear is real.

'She's horrid. It's not fair.'

'Simple as that.'

The irony is I am not actually a fan of either party-I just recognise what's going to happen when a candidate with nothing to offer but charisma suddenly and late in the day finds himself up against an opponent who is perhaps even better at winning the crowd.


What fear? I don't have a dog in this fight. I find one lot of candidates more laughable than the the other lot though. Call me cynical.

I don't doubt your word one iota but I must add that your comments don't support that viewpoint at all.

What Palin has done is grab the attention of the apathetic and disillusioned voter who previously had the excuse to stay away from the Diebold because 'all politicians are the same'. If she can mobilise a small percentage of these previously apathetic and disillusioned millions of voters into going out and voting for or against her, she will have re-energised the democratic process in America.

What is the biggest hoot is that if Obama had overcome his blind hatred of Clinton and chosen her as his running mate, Palin would be as unknown today as she was a fortnight ago, and the presidential race would be as good as over instead of being wide open.

By the by, Margaret Thatcher had to put up with the derision of leftie sneerers and the liberal establishment throughout her long career. She throve on it.

PALIN - THE REAL SCANDEL!

That you're all talking about it SO much

quote:

Originally posted by boots:
PALIN - THE REAL SCANDEL!

That you're all talking about it SO much

Thankyou for reinforcing my point.

By the by, it's scandal.

Thanks Rabies!

It is more important to me to have my english corrected than to comment on Micheal Palin!!

Rabs - Surely you meant ..thrived!!!

quote:

Originally posted by NWK:
Rabs - Surely you meant ..thrived!!!

Not unless my Collins English Dictionary is wrong, robred.

Rabs - Sorry - I was educated by you Tories...Doh!!!!!!!!!1

quote:

Originally posted by NWK:
Rabs - Sorry - I was educated by you Tories...Doh!!!!!!!!!1

Yeah me too!! It was somewhat inadequate actually, - obviously!