Obama and McCain: The Halo Effect

27 Replies

Obama_halo

After the Democratic Convention, I grabbed the above picture of Barack Obama, thinking I had not yet seen a more perfect photographic invocation of the notion that Sen. Obama was The One.

I didn’t think Republican lighting engineers could top that, and they didn’t, but they certainly tried. Note the photo below from Sen. McCain’s Thursday night address. Now you see why he has made some long-delayed inroads among his evangelical base.

Mccainhalo

27 thoughts on “Obama and McCain: The Halo Effect”

  1. Randy E

    That’s no halo on McBush. It’s the bright light of Sarah Palin he’s trying to block out so someone besides Brad will pay him attention now.

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  2. reader

    I’m going to have to suspend our subscription again — and block this site from myself until after the election. The slant does my nerves no good. Whatsoever.

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  3. mark g

    There was a time not long ago when I thought McCain had a halo. I liked his personality and his convictions. But during the GOP convention, he went over to the dark side and completely sold out.

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  4. Wally Altman

    I’m going to have to suspend our subscription again — and block this site from myself until after the election. The slant does my nerves no good. Whatsoever.
    Slant? What in the world are you talking about? I disagree with Brad as much as the next guy, but he’s not espousing any political viewpoint here to which a slant could be applied! He’s just talking about a couple of pictures for crying out loud.

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  7. bud

    Here’s an excerpt from an article in the Washington Post showing just what a fraud Sarah Palin is. She’s no friend of the taxpayer.
    ANCHORAGE, Sept. 8 — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a “per diem” allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

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  9. bud

    Then there’s this. From a E.J. Dionne:
    Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, gave the game away when he said on “Fox News Sunday” that she would not meet with reporters until they showed a willingness to treat her “with some level of respect and deference.”
    Apparently the McCain campaign is now acknowledging that Sarah Palin is not up to the job of VP let alone POTUS. This woman is a joke. A pious, inexperienced, trailer trash woman who has no business being a heartbeat away from the presidency. This is becoming crystal clear to anyone with an open mind to see it.

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  11. bud

    Fascinating isn’t it? While the economy feasters and foreign policy crisis unfold at a dizzying pace the silly season in politics continue to unfold. Brad is becoming the poster boy for the silly season posts. Obama is doing his best to talk about issues while McCain and his willing accomplices in the MSM continue to push a bunch of nonsense. Heck, even the bad stories about Palin serve as much to distract the voter from the issues as they do to underscore how unqualified she is to become VP. On balance the more attention focused on Palin, even bad attention, the better it is for McCain.
    Here’s the situation in a nutshell. McCain is going to pursue policies essentially identical to Bush. His personality may be different. His life experience is certainly not the same. But in what really matters, policy, McCain is a clone of Bush. So what we’ll have is more deficit spending. More war. More wasteful military spending on unnecessary weapons systems. More policies aimed at enriching big oil and big pharma. And less money for the hard working men and women of this country that provide the labor to make the economy work.
    It’s time to say NO to the same old failed policies of the GOP and YES to the fresh, bold new approach of Barack Obama. And it’s time to say to John McCain shut up whenever he rants on about change. John McCain is just John McSame. No matter how much he tries to say otherwise.

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  13. Mike Cakora

    bud –
    That same page 1 (slow news day?) WaPo article says this:

    Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.
    “She flies coach and encourages her cabinet to fly coach as well,” said Garnero, whose job is equivalent to state controller. “Some do, some don’t.”
    Leighow said that the governor’s staff has tallied the travel expenses charged by Murkowski’s wife: $35,675 in 2006, $43,659 in 2005, $13,607 in 2004 and $29,608 in 2003. Associates of Murkowski said the former governor was moose hunting and could not be reached to comment.

    I’ve noticed that a lot of Obama-boosters are ready with a stick to throw at any, and I mean any, news about Palin. But you know, most times the stick is a boomerang.

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  14. Mike Cakora

    bud –
    Yer udder noose is dated:

    NEW YORK (AP) — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has agreed to sit down with ABC’s Charles Gibson later this week for her first television interview since John McCain chose her as his running mate more than a week ago.
    Palin will sit down for multiple interviews with Gibson in Alaska over two days, most likely Thursday and Friday, said McCain adviser Mark Salter.
    The interview with Palin was confirmed Friday, ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said.

    I guess you need to hit “refresh” more often when reading the Lefty blogs. Try the RSS feeds.

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  15. bud

    I get it now. It’s ok for the GOP VP candidate to claim she is a fiscal conservative, maverick EVEN THOUGH she bills the government for travel expenses while she stays at home PROVIDED her predecessor wasted even more money. Good ole GOP logic for you.

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  16. bud

    So Mike, why is Palin waiting so long to appear before the press? Why wasn’t she on the Sunday talk shows? Seems like she needs time to prep before going on the Gibson show. The woman is clearly unqualified to be VP let alone POTUS. Isn’t that obvious?

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  17. bud

    An open letter to Obama/Biden supporters.
    My Fellow Democrats,
    Now is not the time to panic. Even though the opposition has erased our once commanding lead the polls generally show the candidates locked in a virtual tie. What is apparent this election cycle is that the fluctuations up and down have been relatively modest compared to previous elections. This suggests that the election will go down to the wire. So we need to get to work to ensure our folks turn out in record numbers.
    Here’s how we do that. First, we simply must stay focused on the issues. We’ve all gotten caught in the GOP trap that causes us to get distracted by non-issues such as preachers, pregnancies, and other assorted silliness. Even when we attack obvious character flaws in the other candidates we wind up losing. That’s because our biggest advantage is with the issues. Sure we need to come out stridently whenever the other side falsely accusses our guys of something ridiculous. That was all too obvious in both the 2000 and 2004 campaigns when the GOP smear campaigns caught fire in the MSM and thus doomed Gore and Kerry. But it would be a mistake to come down to their level. The Rush Limbaugh brain-dead koolaid drinkers will not vote for us. We can’t try to persuade them to vote in their own best interests. Instead we need to focus on people that do know how to think. People who have problems with health care, jobs and other economic issues that are open to the change that Obama promises. These are the people we need to reach out to.
    Many of these people are turned off by the negative politics of the GOP and they are more than willing to listen, just so long as they are not driven off by the same low tactics our opponents use. Besides, with all-due humility, the GOP smear machine is so much better than anything we can muster. That’s because that’s all they have.
    What we have is the truth. The truth is simply this: Our team will work for the American people, not for big oil. Not for big pharma. Not for the bloated military industrial complex. Our guys know that it’s wrong to invade non-threatening countries that result in endless, costly occupations. Our guys understand the need to conserve energy and adopt new, clean ways of powering our economy. Our guys understand that it’s not the super rich who are over taxed, it’s folks like you and me that actually go to work every day to make a living that need tax relief. These are the issues that Obama will work for.
    This is not the time to panic, nor is it the time to give in to the temptations of playing the smear game. That’s a game that we can’t win because we’re better than that. We’re not the same as the Lee Atwaters and the Carl Roves. We love America and all the good qualities of this great land too much to ever be as good at negative campaigning as they are. It’s time to stay on message and win those last few votes we need to put Barack Obama and Joe Biden over the top.
    This is not for the faint of heart. No, this is for brave souls who want a better world, free of the tyranny of the GOP. Its time to stay focused. The truth will set you free. And the truth will elect Barack Obama to the presidency.
    Yours Truly
    An American Patriot

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  18. Mike Cakora

    bud –
    That’s pretty strong, but quite courageous of you. Aren’t you afraid that the GOP secret police are going to come and lock you in a free speech zone?
    I’ll do what I can to get you good bread and bottled water, maybe enven an occasional Pellegrino.

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  19. bud

    I’d prefer a Guiness Stout.
    For the rest of the campaign I’m going to focus strictly on issues and refrain from all the silly stuff attacks. I’m sure all four people on the 2 major party tickets are good, patriotic Americans who want only to do the best for their country. I’ll leave the negative charges to others.

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  21. Mike Cakora

    bud – Yup, focus on the positive.
    Here’s an idea for you: just start telling folks they have an obligation to the world to elect Obama. The World Wants Obama!

    US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may be struggling to nudge ahead of his Republican rival in polls at home, but people across the world want him in the White House, a BBC poll said.
    All 22 countries covered in the poll would prefer to see Senator Obama elected US president ahead of Republican John McCain.
    In 17 of the 22 nations, people expect relations between the US and the rest of the world to improve if Senator Obama wins.
    More than 22,000 people were questioned by pollster GlobeScan in countries ranging from Australia to India and across Africa, Europe and South America.
    The margin in favour of Senator Obama ranged from 9 per cent in India to 82 per cent in Kenya, while an average of 49 per cent across the 22 countries preferred Senator Obama compared with 12 per cent preferring Senator McCain. Some four in 10 did not take a view.
    “Large numbers of people around the world clearly like what Barack Obama represents,” GlobeScan chairman Doug Miller said.

    Who cares what a few malcontents in Missouri think?
    Hey, the Obama campaign could adopt the “We are the World” theme for the campaign.

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  22. slugger

    Bud,
    Per chance are you being paid by the Democratic Party to post all this stuff you are posting? You are not in step with the local voting citizens of South Carolina.
    I cannot think for a minute that you spend all this time posting for the liberal agenda and the election of Obama without in some way being compensated financially. But of course, you could be a fanatic and they never get paid or accomplish anything except to pigeon hole themselves to the readers of the blog.

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  23. Randy E

    Cak’s point is screw what the world thinks, we’re America, dammit. Sounds like the “you’re with us or against us” foreign policy that has helped put our country in the predicament it is in now. Who needs good relations with the world when we can simply Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran.
    Bud, apparently all four are not patriotic. If you listen to Brad’s idol, McCain, you wouldn’t think Obama is a patriot because he “wants to lose a war to win an election”.

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  25. penultimo mcfarland

    “Cak’s point is screw what the world thinks, we’re America.” – Randy E.
    Yeah, Randy, who gives a free-form functionless fusillade what 82 percent of Kenyans think?
    The same poll had 30 of 35 countries preferring John Kerry four years ago.
    You really think we should elect our officials based on what the Lebanese and folks in the United Arab Emirates say they want?

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  26. bud

    Penultimo, we should elect our officials based on the best man with the best policies. Just because the rest of the world has it right doesn’t mean we should do the wrong thing and elect John McSame to screw up the country for 4 more years.
    This election should have been over a long time ago. John McCain has supported the Bush policies 90% of the time. Those policies have failed. The other side offers, with a great deal of credibility, to change those failed policies. All the distractions in the world are not going to make the horrors of the Bush years go away. The only thing that will do that is to elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

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