Wednesday, October 08, 2008

That debate

(via Andrew Sullivan)

The Republicans loves it some "That One" talk (via Ben Smith at Politico):
A Republican official emails, on background:
The most memorable line of the night belonged to John McCain. McCain pointed out that “That One” vote for the 05 energy bill. Look for Republicans to note in coming days that “That One” also voted for higher taxes at least 94 times; “That One” has associations with unrepentant terrorists, etc…
And here's the exchange that caused the phrase "That One" to immediately enter the forefront of the American lexicon:



(h/t Kos)

There's going to be some idle examination of "that" phrase over the next day or two, but I don't really think it's that big a thing. And I don't buy the idea that the phrase is in any way racist; it can just as effectively been used by Obama to describe McCain if he wanted to go down that road. The "That One" thing reminds me slightly of the supposed pejorative "The One" used by the GOP to imply that Obama is too popular or something, but it fell way short. What it does show is the obvious contempt that John McCain feels for Barack Obama in a very non-classy way. It hurt McCain more than it helped him.

Obama won the debate last night by sticking to the issues, and we'll see even more desperate tactics by McCain and the GOP over the coming week.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think "That One," was racist, I think it was disrespectful and dismissive. Once again, John McCain doesn't think Barack Obama, and those who support him, deserves to be on the presidential stage with him. He reminds me a lot of Joe Lieberman, very dismissive of those who do not worship him.
Obama did well. When he turned McCain's own words around to "I don't understand" how we attacked Iraq a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, that was exactly right what I would like to see more of. Also when he talked about his mother's struggle with insurance companies while dying with cancer, that was powerful and real.
McCain looked terrible in that format (can't believe he wanted more). He kept wandering around, he seemed to be stalking Obama at times and every one of his jokes fell flat.
I am looking for a T-shirt for election day that said "I voted for That One!!!!"
UptowNYChick

Anonymous said...

The other thing that ticked me off was how many times McCain brought up Lieberman as an example of him "reaching across the aisle."
Someone please tell him it's not reaching across the aisle when Lieberman's lips are permanently applied to his ass.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't the republican party just be outlawed after the november elections? Or at the least make it to painful for them to exist? They serve no useful purpose and have severely damaged people nationaly and locally. Ah paradise, no republicans.

CT Bob said...

Ha ha! I'm gonna get a "I voted for That One!" T-shirt! Knowing all the marketing opportunists out there, I'm sure there'a already plenty of sources online.