Automatically posted links for January 13th:
- Arab Stereotypes in American Film – Jack Shaheen short
- Barack Obama – I’m sure we’ve seen him somewhere before – Armando Iannucci on Obama: it’s dead on
- Comment is free: Laughing at dictatorship – Ibrahim Hudaibi on Mubarak jokes
- Arabs eye £500m Liverpool buy-out | Sport | The Observer – Dubai group to buy Liverpool FC
- Citi Looking Abroad For Major Investors – WSJ.com – Waleed Bin Talal to invest
Thanks for that Obama article. I don’t really know that much about British politics, but I thought it was a really interesting perspective on how the American campaign is going – heavy on the rhetoric and light on the specifics. Although I think that the candidates rely on the rhetoric because (during the primaries at least) there’s not a lot of policy differences between the candidates. I think there’s more focus on substantive issues during the general election campaign, but the “emotive phraseology” is always there.
As for Obama, now that he’s the presumptive frontrunner, his “hope for change” schtick will come under a lot more scrutiny. I think he has a nice message, and it’s nice that he’s able to motivate people to think about politics in a different way, but…..maybe I’m cynical, but it seems a little naive. I think it will take a lot more than a nice message to change how the system works in Washington. And Republicans are going to rip it all apart if he’s the nominee, so he better come up with something more than what he’s got now for how to make this “hope for change” thing happen. One more thing – Obama’s claim that he is the only candidate for change is getting annoying…like he’s got a trademark on the idea. I think any Democrat (and probably some Republicans) could campaign on the message of change after 8 years of Bush. Similar to Armando in the article, am I the only person left on the planet who thinks it will be great to have a bitchy candidate win the election? Why do our candidates always have to be “nice”? Just my two cents….
I actually generally find Obama a candidate worth supporting, but watching his speeches I can’t help feeling I’ve learned nothing new — just a warm fuzzy feeling. My preferred Dem candidate is Edwards, precisely because he doesn’t feel that he has to be nice and bipartisan. But of course he can be just as shmalzy with the Cheschire cat grin of his. Clinton may be the perfect candidate in terms of “grits” as her campaign puts it, but she’s a Clinton — never again! On the rep side you have to admit that despite his quirks and general lack of charm John McCain is an impressive candidate, and one that could win over any of the Democrats above in the right circumstances.
I agree with you on McCain. The way he told off Romney (and Guiliani? I can’t remember) during the YouTube debate was hilarious! If you didn’t see it, Romney was whinging about waterboarding maybe not being torture, and McCain basically told him to shut up and sit down. Awesome! I’ve heard a little buzz about a possible McCain-Huckabee ticket, which would definitely be hard to beat in November….