The relationship between Barack Obama and Joe Biden grew so strained during the 2008 campaign, according to a new book, that the two rarely spoke and aides not only kept Biden off internal conference calls but refused to even tell him they existed.
[…When] Biden, at an October fund-raiser in Seattle, famously predicted that Obama would be tested with an international crisis, the then-Illinois senator had had enough.
“How many times is Biden gonna say something stupid?” he demanded of his advisers on a conference call, a moment at which most people on the call said the candidate was as angry as they had ever heard him.
[…]
Frustrated over the campaign following her disastrous interview with Katie Couric, Sarah Palin said she regretted accepting the Republican vice presidential nomination. “If I’d known everything I know now, I would not have done this,” she said. McCain’s high command, already worried about her lack of eating and drinking and fearing that she was suffering from post-partum depression, convened a conference call and discussed whether she was mentally unstable.
Your Uncle Dave still thinks the Republican controllers threw the election by nominating ancient McCain and idiot Palin so the Democrats would win and have to deal with the impossible to fix mess Bush & Co + Congress left so they can win it all back in 2012.
Only a silly lib would think that. So how did the Repubs convince all the Republican voters to vote for him? Maybe it was due to open primaries that allowed Dems to vote for McCain? Could that possibility enter your very limited mind, Aunt Dave? Your idiotic opinions never fail to amaze me.
Uncle Dave must still believe there are two parties.
I am still waiting for you to post something about Obama’s lack of transparency and 180 on Iran and how OBama is continuing to pretty much mirror BUsh’s stance on the war.
“Republican controllers threw the election … so they can win it all back in 2012.”
Seems this strategy is working perfectly.
Conspiracy much?
#2: Sure. Two parties with the same agenda (money, power), just a different take on some issues. The result is no matter how much commenters on this blog say we should ‘wake up’ and ‘do something’ about all this, voting the incumbents out and the other party’s choice in is simply an example of the old saw about rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic at this point. Old boss same as the new boss, and all that.
#3: Why? People already know that from the MSM.
“Republican controllers threw the election…”
Absolutely agree. In fact, both parties tried to throw the 2000 election, as the controllers could see the looming Dot Com bubble burst, and the mess that would follow (and which everyone has already forgotten). Bush and Gore, two of the least qualified presidential candidates in 100 years (IMHO).
Once it was clear that the Dems were playing the same game in 2000, the GOP had to pair Cheney with Bush to save the republic from collapse.
The Dems threw the election again with Kerry in 2004.
#7,
When you couple that with the actions of a Kenyan Muslim terrorist sheep herder conspiring to make a non-American Muslim double agent the POTUS, it all makes perfect sense.
If anything, conspiracy theory should be about sudden, completely non-market-sane (production rising while demand dropping) oil prices skyrocketing during the Summer before elections of 2008. Economy was on the brink but this move was the executing stab, making everything crash in 9/2008 vs. some other (later) time. Who drove oil prices insane via nonsensical trading? Companies with close ties to Democratic party Dodd/Frank/…
“Your Uncle Dave still thinks the Republican controllers threw the election by nominating ancient McCain and idiot Palin so the Democrats would win and have to deal with the impossible to fix mess Bush & Co + Congress left so they can win it all back in 2012.”
As a registered Republican going back to 1984, all I can say is wait to see who the Republicans nominate for Prez in 2012. My prediction is the far-right of the party will have such a stranglehold on the nomination that Obama could win with Tiger Woods as his running mate.
Kanga,
Who would be a GOP candidate to merit the honor of presidential office?
What would be the characteristics of that person?
“voting the incumbents out and the other party’s choice in is simply an example of the old saw about rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic at this point”
Agree 100%. They have the clueless voters exactly where they want them, bouncing back and forth every two years between two virtually identical, completely owned, bought and paid for (but NOT by the voters) parties. They just swap window and aisle seats on the taxpayer funded gravy train.
No doubt that the RNC knew that Obama and the Democrat congress would go nuts, raise taxes, increase regulation, increase energy prices, encourage unionization, nationalize American business where possible, and then spend America into a disaster of third world proportion and thus called up all their pals in the mainstream media (who we know are really all conservatives) to push McCain to insure Obama’s victory and thus guarantee a great depression.
How can you liberals reconcile your idea that the Republicans are so smart with your idea that the Republicans are so stupid? Isn’t there a hint of dissonance there?
RSweeney,
Well, as there were anti-war protests before Obama, and now I’m not hearing of them, would you say that the media has a role in inciting the people (effectively crying “fire” in a crowed theater)?
#11 That is the problem, as I see it. No one now in the picture for 2012 on the Rep. side has any leadership/honesty/integrity. I would have thought Romney, but he was so quick to run far right in the last primary, that he lost all my respect. And any candidate who does not parrot the “conservative” line top to bottom is so viciously attacked by their own “party” that only the hacks will show themselves.
#13 Increasing energy prices, nationalizing businesses, spending America into the poor house actually happened under Bush. Obama also has no obvious interest in building union power.
There’s this great divergence in the popular opinion of Obama. His most fawning fans, and his harshest critics think he is moving the world(and it’s just a question of if he’s going the right way). Neutral observers don’t see much substantive action. It’s a strange thing. Maybe it’s if you buy into political theater…
I don’t think the GOP decided to lose in ’08, Bush guaranteed that. Big media obviously determined Obama was no threat and backed him. Safer for them to have a softy than a scary(HRC).
“Obama also has no obvious interest in building union power.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Except giving them a car company, tons of cash with the bailout, card check, and so on and so on. He’s a union whore!
Leftist/liberal here…
If the republican party really can adopt the mantle of populism, and go after the Bankers, the way they have gone after Gays, and can deal with the war, the same way they dealt with single mothers…
Then they have my vote, I just have no expectations that their new-found point of view will have any lasting effect after the election this fall, anymore than Obama was “change we could believe in”. (can I have my change now please?)
Also, once shit really starts to hit the fan next year (anyone think the recession is coming to an end???), we will probably start to see domestic terrorism combined with civil disobedience. That is made possible with a 1/3 of the country hungry, and seemingly little property for a increasingly draconian police system to seize (the real danger of sustained piss poor economy)
I am already starting to look back at the 00’s as the good ol’ days.
I wonder when Texas not only limits entry from Mexico but the rest of America as well, because I find it more than curious that they are the only state that seems to have a vigorous economy at this point…
The one irrefutable truth coming from all this is after the failed experiment with Obama fades into the Kenyan sunset, the US has seen its last black president for quite a while.
#19 You should have said “negro president” just to be consistent.
#20-qb
Or is it “negra president?”
This is all too much… somebody should just pick a name and stay with it.
#21 I agree. I also think it’s just dandy we let negroes play in the major leagues now too, don’t you? And they can fight for their country too, as long as they stay in their own units. We wouldn’t want the morale of the troops to drop.
As a “Republican Strategist” I can say Uncle Dave is giving political strategists WAY too much credit for their ability to influence these things.
-ancient news, the system is “perfectly corrupt” makes no difference who you vote in.
lookie here, more “perfection” is on the way for the 2010-12 cycles.
The Courts are about to roll back / pull out all the stops on campaign finance laws so the skies the limit next year..
From NY Times 2 days ago Jan 8
-and you thought “voting the bums out” would make a difference. ha!
Time for a complete reset
-s
#23 I also can’t believe that the Republican party would willingly toss an election. Politicians don’t like to lose.
#21 Mulatto makes it easier to switch back and forth.
Oh, I get it. Republicans WANTED to lose. Alrighty then.
Just when you thought you saw the most absurd thing from the GOP sewer, up comes another turd !
By 2012 the ‘traditional’ Republican party will have ceased to exist, having become a party of right wing extremism and anti-government loons. It will be used in the future as the textbook definition of political implosion. The vast majority of current Republicans will repudiate their party and declare themselves independents. And as independents, they will vote for the liberal side because they will be so disgusted by what the ‘conservative’ side has become.
Add to that an economy that by then will be in a strong upswing (there are strong positive signs already, take a look at this or this Bloomberg story, and the wind-down of the failed Neo-Con military policies, and the Democrats will be owning not only the presidency, but also a stronger majority of both the House and the Senate.
I was wondering back in 2006 who in the Republican party would be stupid enough to attempt a doomed run for president after Bush… the theory of McCain being a ‘sacrificial lamb’ is not all that farfetched. And by selecting Palin as a running mate, they set a new low threshold, so the 2012 candidates can only look good by comparison… but by then the Republicans will have zero membership remaining.
#28 Sadly the Republicans aren’t going anywhere. Obama got in because people were angry, and he was the “change” guy. Obviously not. Now that anger can get captured by right wing populism.
Business Republicans will hold their nose and grab whatever warm bodies are around, no matter how religious or survivalist. They will have a harder time maintaining a consistent media message. That is a distant second priority to all voting together, which the GOP does extremely well.
If Obama had turned out to be FDR-lite the GOP would be in the wilds for a decade or two. Since he’s just an empty suit with a nice smile they will be back much sooner.
#17 The UAW was given a stake in GM to prevent it from going into liquidation. Many of GM’s bondholders bought in at distressed prices and were counting on breaking up the company. Between payoffs from credit default swaps and a sale of assets GM was worth more dead than alive. The only group who really wanted GM to continue were the workers. The workers, represented by the UAW, had also been promised billions in health/retirement benefits which entitled them to a place at the table. Think of it as a debt to equity swap.
More generally Obama has been negative on teachers’ unions and public employees unions. Not as negative as Bush II, but anyway…
If Obama has a pimp it is obviously the big banks.
Either the Republican Party did a better job of keeping the “tell all” press off of Bush/Cheney’s back. Or these guys are funded by the Republican. And they couldn’t wait more than a year to “tell all” about Obama. With a little bit about McCain/Palin thrown in to appear bipartisan. Where’s the “tell all” book about the 8 years of the last administration? Surely nobody believes it was a spotless 8 years. But one year into this one, and already there’s enough to print a book about?! If that’s true, than the prior eight should fill volumes!
Yeah, I believe that the GOP purposely threw the 2008 race. And the Dems threw it the term before (2004). Bush II just isn’t that clever, to have won it without their help. So US elections have become a contest of who can out “low ball” the other. Basically a contest of “hot potato” (or potatoe if you’re Dan Quayle). As in, “Who wants to deal with the mess we’ve gotten the USA into, this time?” It’s no longer such a simple job, as it use to be. It requires a whole lot more creative lying skills. As Bush II probably found out.
So possibly the only reason left for wanting the job of US President. Is to help out your influential friends, who will later help you out, after it’s over. Usually paybacks come in the form of book deals. Even if it’s a book supposedly written by the “First Dog”. Yeah, wasn’t that special?