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Current Events => Archives => Politics => Election 2008 => Topic started by: The Night Owl on February 06, 2008, 04:43:04 PM

Title: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: The Night Owl on February 06, 2008, 04:43:04 PM
Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House

Christopher Hitchens 06/02/2008

The Super Tuesday voting system is modelled on the rules of Quidditch but if you want a brief rule of thumb to guide you through the maze it is this: Republicans care about states whereas Democrats care about delegates. Thus for Mike Huckabee to have “won” West Virginia means that he has all that state’s delegates to his party’s convention, and this helps explain why Senator John McCain’s supporters went for Huckabee on the second round (in order to deny the total of West Virginia’s votes to Mitt Romney). While to say that Barack Obama “won” Montana, North Dakota and several other states is only to say that he will get a proportion of the delegates that roughly conforms to the number of congressional districts that he would have won if this was another election. If that’s clear, then good.

In a season of upsets, one might note that the endorsement of the Kennedy family was of no use to Senator Obama in the one state – Massachusetts – where it might have really helped. But it was also startling to see Obama get considerable majorities in heartland and western states such as Minnesota where the “black vote” is negligible or non-existent, as well as in states like Georgia that in living memory were highly segregated.

Early impressions of the night would have to include Governor Huckabee’s amusing speech, cocking a snook at all the pundits who had written him off and deftly mentioning two biblical tales (about David and Goliath and the widow’s mite) calculated to excite his evangelical supporters. This was another in a series of smacks in the face endured by Governor Mitt Romney. Obama’s spokesman David Axelrod appeared to have heard disappointing private news from California, in that he was cautioning against any over-optimistic expectations. Senator McCain had a fair evening but not the knock-out that he had been counting on, and appeared a bit glassy-eyed and antique as he rallied his home-state crowd in Arizona. Mrs Clinton looked a great deal better than she must have felt (given that a few weeks ago she thought she’d have things wrapped up by now) and delivered an unwavering speech in New York. Senator Obama, by contrast, gave his usual “Yes We Can” address but at greater length and at lower temperature than previously.

...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/02/06/christopher-hitchens-on-super-tuesday-and-the-race-for-the-white-house-89520-20310850/
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: Tess Anderson on February 06, 2008, 05:55:17 PM
Wow, I was just waiting to see what a British atheist socialist thought of yesterday's events!

Of course, he doesn't like Huckabee (silly fundie), nor Romney (scary Mormon boy), but loves himself some Obama, who represents TWO big religions.

No matter, he;s going to have be stuck with Madame again, just like Ann Coulter will. :cheersmate:
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: The Night Owl on February 06, 2008, 06:07:09 PM
Quote from: Tess Anderson on February 06, 2008, 05:55:17 PM

Of course, he doesn't like Huckabee (silly fundie), nor Romney (scary Mormon boy), but loves himself some Obama, who represents TWO big religions.


I'm pretty sure that Christopher Hitchens hates everyone. One thing is for certain... Hitchens seems to have about the same level of disdain for Barack Obama's church as he does for Mike Huckabee's church.

Identity Crisis
There's something pathetic and embarrassing about our obsession with Barack Obama's race.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, Jan. 7, 2008, at 12:04 PM ET

To put it squarely and bluntly, is it because he is or is it because he isn't? To phrase it another way, is it because of what he says or what he doesn't say? Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is the current beneficiary of a tsunami of drool. He sometimes claims credit on behalf of all Americans regardless of race, color, creed, blah blah blah, though his recent speeches appear also to claim a victory for blackness while his supporters—most especially the white ones—sob happily that at last we can have an African-American chief executive. Off to the side, snarling with barely concealed rage, are the Clinton machine-minders, who, having failed to ignite the same kind of identity excitement with an aging and resentful female, are perhaps wishing that they had made more of her errant husband having already been "our first black president."

Or perhaps not. Isn't there something pathetic and embarrassing about this emphasis on shade? And why is a man with a white mother considered to be "black," anyway? Is it for this that we fought so hard to get over Plessy v. Ferguson? Would we accept, if Obama's mother had also been Jewish, that he would therefore be the first Jewish president? The more that people claim Obama's mere identity to be a "breakthrough," the more they demonstrate that they have failed to emancipate themselves from the original categories of identity that acted as a fetter upon clear thought.

...

Sen. Obama is a congregant of a church in Chicago called Trinity United Church of Christ. I recommend that you take a brisk tour of its Web site. Run by the sort of character that the press often guardedly describes as "flamboyant"—a man calling himself the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.—this bizarre outfit describes itself as "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian" and speaks of "a chosen people" whose nature we are allowed to assume is "Afrocentric." Trinity United sells creationist books and its home page includes a graphic link to a thing called Goodsearch—the name is surmounted with a halo in its logo—which announces cheerily that "Every time you search or shop online! Our Church earns money." Much or most of what Trinity United says is harmless and boring, rather like Gov. Mike Huckabee's idiotic belief that his own success in Iowa is comparable to the "miracle" of the loaves and fishes, and the site offers a volume called Bad Girls of the Bible: Exploring Women of Questionable Virtue, which I have added to my cart, but nobody who wants to be taken seriously can possibly be associated with such a substandard and shade-oriented place.

...

http://www.slate.com/id/2181460
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: Lord Undies on February 06, 2008, 06:12:47 PM
(http://i28.tinypic.com/14xz904.png)

.     .     .     .
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: Splashdown on February 06, 2008, 06:25:54 PM
(http://lolcat.com/pics/edumactionkat.jpg)
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: Bh on February 06, 2008, 06:29:04 PM
The Drive-By's are heavily populated with guilt ridden liberals who look for atonement in Obama. They will ignore his racist church.They will marvel at his vapid platitudes and do everything in their power -diminishing but still extremely powerful - to ride the Obama Express all the way to November.
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: Chris_ on February 06, 2008, 06:52:54 PM
And why should we care about what Christopher Hitchens has to say?

TNO, this is not a liberal website.  You need to remember that, and quit acting like this place should be your personal playground.  Right now, you remind me a lot of Malloyfan, who constantly pimped out his/her/it's favorite radio host at CU.   :mental:
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: The Night Owl on February 06, 2008, 07:06:21 PM
Quote from: ACrazyConservative on February 06, 2008, 06:52:54 PM
And why should we care about what Christopher Hitchens has to say?


CCers, including one of your bosses, seem to have at least some interest in what Christopher Hitchens has to say...

http://www.conservativescave.com/index.php?topic=1671.0



Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: Lauri on February 06, 2008, 07:15:14 PM
Quote from: Bh on February 06, 2008, 06:29:04 PM
The Drive-By's are heavily populated with guilt ridden liberals who look for atonement in Obama. They will ignore his racist church.They will marvel at his vapid platitudes and do everything in their power -diminishing but still extremely powerful - to ride the Obama Express all the way to November.

i'm just waiting for the Magic Negro to start talking about his platform... does ANYbody know what this guy stands for other than "change" ...?
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: Lauri on February 06, 2008, 07:18:33 PM
I also liked Hitchens last paragraph from the OP ..

Quote
Much depends on the big and golden state of California, where the Clintons hope to benefit from black-Hispanic rivalry without actually saying that this is their strategy. In San Francisco on Monday night, the Grateful Dead (in the unavoidable absence of Jerry Garcia) staged a reunion in honour of the Obama campaign. Following as it did on the much e-mailed music video produced by Bob Dylan’s son Jesse; this had given many of the “zeitgeist” commentators the impression of an Obama “wave”. And it was a good night for him, but not a great one and above all not a conclusive one. Never underestimate, as the uplifting music plays on, the remorseless grinding of the machine.

but overall, Hitchens needs to drink more so his diatribes are at least interesting..
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: The Night Owl on February 06, 2008, 07:23:40 PM
Quote from: Lauri on February 06, 2008, 07:15:14 PM

i'm just waiting for the Magic Negro to start talking about his platform... does ANYbody know what this guy stands for other than "change" ...?

Barack Obama's platform can be found at his site.
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: Bh on February 06, 2008, 08:10:27 PM
Quote from: Lauri on February 06, 2008, 07:15:14 PM
Quote from: Bh on February 06, 2008, 06:29:04 PM
The Drive-By's are heavily populated with guilt ridden liberals who look for atonement in Obama. They will ignore his racist church.They will marvel at his vapid platitudes and do everything in their power -diminishing but still extremely powerful - to ride the Obama Express all the way to November.

i'm just waiting for the Magic Negro to start talking about his platform... does ANYbody know what this guy stands for other than "change" ...?
Oh he stands for change alright. Change course in Iraq and cut-n-run, regardless of the consequences and the honor of those who have sacrificed. Change our health care system into something resembling Canada or England, were people die waiting to see a specialist. Change how much tax you pay, increasing it to pay for the hoax fixes to the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the world, global warming. Change our foreign policy and start negotiating with the world's dictator thugs. He's for change alright, a change to dangerous foreign policy* and domestically horrible economic policies.

Hey Obama! Can you tell me where the Socialist/Marxist model of Govt. has succeeded? Anywhere? Can you show me where liberal Govt. has ever really helped the little guy in the US? New Orleans is a perfect example of what liberalism results in. When are Blacks going to wake up and stop voting for people who NEVER deliver?

* Libs will say Bush has made the world more dangerous, I disagree, but that's fr another thread.
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: BEG on February 06, 2008, 08:14:40 PM
Quote from: The Night Owl on February 06, 2008, 07:23:40 PM
Quote from: Lauri on February 06, 2008, 07:15:14 PM

i'm just waiting for the Magic Negro to start talking about his platform... does ANYbody know what this guy stands for other than "change" ...?

Barack Obama's platform can be found at his site.

Seriously, how many voters do you think will go to his website?  All they hear is "CHANGE" and that is all they need.  They don't care what the change is....and they call us Repukes sheeple.
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: Lauri on February 06, 2008, 08:17:25 PM
Quote from: The Night Owl on February 06, 2008, 07:23:40 PM
Quote from: Lauri on February 06, 2008, 07:15:14 PM

i'm just waiting for the Magic Negro to start talking about his platform... does ANYbody know what this guy stands for other than "change" ...?

Barack Obama's platform can be found at his site.


ive watched pretty much every single debate .. ive heard almost all of his speeches, starting back when he was the Wonder Boy at the Dem Convention and gave a rousing speech.

he doesnt say a lot for talking so much..
Title: Re: Christopher Hitchens on Super Tuesday and the race for the White House
Post by: Lauri on February 06, 2008, 08:19:50 PM
Quote from: BEG on February 06, 2008, 08:14:40 PM
Quote from: The Night Owl on February 06, 2008, 07:23:40 PM
Quote from: Lauri on February 06, 2008, 07:15:14 PM

i'm just waiting for the Magic Negro to start talking about his platform... does ANYbody know what this guy stands for other than "change" ...?

Barack Obama's platform can be found at his site.

Seriously, how many voters do you think will go to his website?  All they hear is "CHANGE" and that is all they need.  They don't care what the change is....and they call us Repukes sheeple.

that sounds so familiar doesnt it? It's exactly what John Kerry said for nearly a ful year: "Go to my website and look at my positions"

Um, no. If you cant articulate them to me while you stand there, then you dont have any conviction. Sound bites and platitudes dont work on intelligent people... well, 52% of us anyway.  :-)