"No Way, No How, No McCain"

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Democratic National Convention 2008
Posted on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 07:13:20 AM EST
Tags: (all tags)

Share This: Digg!

From last night's speech:

No way, no how, no McCain. . . . Now, John McCain is my colleague and my friend. He has served our country with honor and courage. But we don't need four more years of the last eight years...

AUDIENCE: No!

Senator Clinton: ... more economic stagnation and less affordable health care...

AUDIENCE: No!

[More . . .]

Senator Clinton: ... more high gas prices and less alternative energy..

AUDIENCE: No!

Senator Clinton: ... more jobs getting shipped overseas and fewer jobs created here at home...

AUDIENCE: No!

Senator Clinton: ... more skyrocketing debt, and home foreclosures, and mounting bills that are crushing middle-class families...

AUDIENCE: No!

Senator Clinton: ... more war and less diplomacy...

AUDIENCE: No!

Senator Clinton: ... more of a government where the privileged few come first and everyone else comes last.

AUDIENCE: No!

Senator Clinton: Well, John McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound. John McCain doesn't think 47 million people without health insurance is a crisis. John McCain wants to privatize Social Security. And in 2008, he still thinks it's OK when women don't earn equal pay for equal work. (AUDIENCE BOOS)

Now, with an agenda like that, it makes perfect sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities, because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart.

(APPLAUSE)

Some pundits think the way to gut John McCain is to talk about his seven houses and that he is old or to call him a flip-flopper. Which proves these pundits are so Republicanized, they do not understand how a Democrat can gut a Republican in THIS ELECTION. The way to do it is how Clinton did it - argue that McCain equals Bush's Third Term. It is that simple.

The Obama campaign should have had every speech in this Convention make these arguments. Hillary Clinton demonstrated how it is done.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

< Clinton On Why Obama Should Be President | Hillary's Speech: The Video >

Legal

Nothing on this site should be construed as legal advice. TalkLeft does not give legal advice.

TalkLeft is not responsible for and often disagrees with material posted in the comments section. Read at your own risk.

"No Way, No How, No McCain" | 70 comments (70 topical)

Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

If they are reluctant to bash McCain.... (5.00 / 1) (#4)
by Maria Garcia on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 07:26:34 AM EST

....then they should at least go after the last 8 years with both guns blazing and tie McCain to that mess. Hillary did that with the twin cities reference. It's so easy to do, like taking candy from a baby. They MUST do this. Hopefully Biden will.

: Then Obama needs to change the platform (5.00 / 3) (#49)
by lambert on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 09:15:18 AM EST

Here's the first sentence:
"A great nation now demands that its leaders abandon the politics of partisan division...."
Leaving (since policy is all going to be worked out in a post-partisan fashion after the election) personal attacks as the only way forward. Lucky us.

: Exactly (5.00 / 4) (#66)
by Nadai on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 09:56:32 AM EST

If you want a guard dog, you pick a Doberman, not a Chihuahua. If you pick the Chihuahua, I can only assume you have other priorities than guarding the store.

I watched the speech (5.00 / 3) (#12)
by chel2551 on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 07:39:03 AM EST

and loved it. Although she said what she needed to say about Obama, I also came away with the impression that she was not going anywhere, that she was definitely going to remain a force to be reckoned with.

As I said the other day, it's going to be interesting (and exciting) to watch her as she continues her political journey. I believe what she says, and I believe in her ability to make America a better place. I continue to regret that she's not the nominee and agree that Obama made a huge mistake in not choosing her as Vice-President. Biden has his good points, but he's not Hillary.

Of course, she's not perfect, and I won't agree with everything she does, but compared to many other politicians, she's proven she's a fighter and isn't afraid of anyone.

I thought that's what we all wanted in a candidate.

So bizarre. (5.00 / 6) (#44)
by Landulph on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 09:00:15 AM EST

I remember when the netroots wanted "fighting Dems" and a "politics of contrast" and opposed the "bipartisanship" of DLCers like Lieberman. Now, they have become a carbon clone of the original, late 80, pre-Bill Clinton Robb/Nunn incarnation of the DLC--opposing universal health care, pandering to evangelicals, trying to build a "New Party" without blue-collar voters, and spouting mushy "post-pastisan" pap. In the space of months, the netroots became everything they once despised. What happened?


What happened? (5.00 / 2) (#48)
by lambert on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 09:12:23 AM EST

We've been discussing that, and what to do, in a series of posts here.


: I'm honored! (none / 0) (#67)
by Landulph on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 09:59:23 AM EST

I'm actually a long-time (if slightly sporadic) Corrente lurker, and a big fan of your posts, Lambert! I'll definitely check out that thread.

Well (none / 0) (#14)
by Ga6thDem on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 07:42:18 AM EST

that's not the "new" democratic party. What else can you say?


Someone mentioned Barney (none / 0) (#33)
by Fabian on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 08:09:35 AM EST

The giant purple dinosaur who is always happy and loves EVERYBODY!

You know what would happen to Bipartisan Barney if he was in Congress? He'd be laughed at and ignored if he wasn't be played by one side or the other.

Not afraid, willing to fight...or Bipartisan Barney?


I knew it... (none / 0) (#60)
by kredwyn on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 09:43:24 AM EST

I knew that bloody stupid purple dinosaur was going to be trouble!!!


: He's also imaginary. (none / 0) (#65)
by Fabian on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 09:52:45 AM EST

There's a parallel there somewhere....

Daschle is on Morning Joe..... (5.00 / 7) (#16)
by Maria Garcia on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 07:46:39 AM EST

...his approach is exactly the problem. He says the message is if you don't like what's been going on the last 8 years, we can do better. WTF? This is what you say in an ordinary year as the opposition party. This year you don't even say "if." OF COURSE YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON FOR THE LAST 8 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's been an unmitigated disaster. That's what you have to say.

a great reminder (5.00 / 1) (#19)
by DandyTIger on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 07:51:39 AM EST

of how horrible Daschle was when he was in office. Much like Ried and Pelosi. And I fear this represents the approach of the Obama campaign. With friends like these...


And (5.00 / 2) (#22)
by tek on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 07:55:55 AM EST

why is Tom Dasche even on the talk shows, anyway? Oh, yes, because he's one of the instruments behind Obama's candidacy. If Obama is elected, we can expect four years of inept politics from the people running the real show.

In a way, I'm so sorry to see Hillary and Bill doing this. I know they think that she'll come back in 2012 and win, but not if these people are still in charge. You can see that they're grooming Mark Warner to follow Obama, or Biden will get it in his head that it's his turn.


I don't understand this for the life of me! (5.00 / 4) (#41)
by Landulph on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 08:41:10 AM EST

I can understand, on a certain level, how the "compromise and split the difference" approach made superficial political sense in 2002, when Bush had sky high approval ratings and the GOP had a 50-point edge in national security (and even then it was a bad idea, as witnessed by a Dem congress' support for the Iraq war). But this mushy post-partisan nonsense just isn't needed in 2008. I've said it before: one of the things that turned me off Obama was the realization that he is Daschle with better speeches.


Daschle is on the talk shows... (none / 0) (#46)
by lambert on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 09:08:56 AM EST

... because he was a very early Obama supporter (and has been touted as Obama's chief of staff).


and because he brought SoDak (none / 0) (#50)
by DFLer on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 09:23:19 AM EST

home to Obama in the primary! :)


: Yep (none / 0) (#71)
by dws3665 on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 10:50:08 AM EST

He's a winner all right!

And he was an early supporter (none / 0) (#70)
by standingup on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 10:45:02 AM EST

because Obama targeted Daschle before he was even sworn into the Senate in 2005. Obama was laying the groundwork by reaching out to Daschle (party leader - Dem establishment) by helping him with his 2004 campaign debt. Grassroots, bottom up my arss.


Saw that. (none / 0) (#61)
by inclusiveheart on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 09:44:24 AM EST

I totally agree about the framing.

"Unmitigated disaster" should be a phrase that every Democrat pulls out at every interview, in every conversation, everyday between now and election day.

Primarily because it is TRUE.


dems putting distance between McCain and Bush (5.00 / 2) (#17)
by DandyTIger on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 07:48:45 AM EST

One thing I noticed in one of the speeches last night though was a stupid mistake.

First I've noticed that McCain is seeing the light and in some ways starting to put some distance between him and Bush. He's saying the last four years have had some serious problems, we're not doing as well, etc. That is of course a danger and has to be fought against. Instead,

So the problems is when I heard a dem actually brag that McCain agrees that Bush wasn't good and that we have problems. That is, they gloated that McCain is now distancing himself from Bush, and reinforced that McCain does not equal Bush. Of course the proper thing to do there is to actually call him on his sea change, make it a flip-flop thing, and quickly reinforce that McCain didn't have a problem with Bush or these problems until last week.

Jeez, do we have to spell everything out to these people. :-)

Did you hear (5.00 / 3) (#20)
by chel2551 on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 07:53:44 AM EST

that the repubs have now added the issue of global warming to their platform?

So they're becoming dem lite and we're becoming...

What are we becoming?!


The short answer: (5.00 / 1) (#24)
by tek on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 07:57:10 AM EST

YES!


: We've been TRYING (none / 0) (#30)
by Fabian on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 08:03:41 AM EST

to spell everything out for them for months.
But they know best because, well, because that's what the lobbyists tell them. It's as good a theory as any.

defining Obama by diminishing McCain (5.00 / 1) (#23)
by Howard Zinn on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 07:56:34 AM EST

is certainly necessary, but he also needs one simple theme to unite his policies. The theme needs to be projected onto everything at the convention -- banners, signs, t-shirts, etc. Every speech at the convention should touch on this theme. Two things: simple theme and link McCain to Bush.

I'd say that theme should be "looking to the future." Obama is young -- instead of shying away from that quality, he should exploit it. We're moving toward a new global dynamic, economically and politically. The answers of the past will fail miserably in this new environment.

What Obama needs to do in his speech is this: "The problem is X. McCain has floundered about in the senate for 35 years ignoring the problem or making it worse by voting for Y and Z. My solution is A, B, C. And this will strengthen the US and its position in the world. McCain's way is the same as Bush's: the status quo, which hasn't worked in the past and certainly won't work in the future. It'll cause more job loss, etc. (Insert misc. inspirational ending here)."

This approach incorporates the progress theme, defines McCain as anti-progress and pro-Bush, and more explicitly defines the specifics of Obama's plan.

The Obama "meme" that he is young (5.00 / 1) (#36)
by zfran on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 08:16:52 AM EST

will not work anymore because of 66 year old Biden as veep. If he exploits his age which points out McCain's age, then how does he explain Biden and Obama's own lack of experience?


: Yup. (5.00 / 1) (#42)
by Landulph on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 0