I don’t even know what to say, other than when I read the description of this, I figured it featured actors impersonating Clinton, Obama and McCain.

Nope.

May I present Wrestling style trash-talking from our candidate. Pardon me while I walk away, hanging my head in shame.

After I read this article, I couldn’t resist making this.

The Idea of Progress has been sick the last few days and apologizes for the lack of posts. Please enjoy this video from Slate in the meantime.

Dear [The Idea of Progress],
Thank you for taking time out to put together your well-argued reply, which I found particularly touching in its compassionate views on foreign affairs. It’s coming up to the fifth anniversary of the million-strong London anti-war march that I attended in February 2003, and I’m sure many of the people I marched with would be impressed by your outlook on the conflict and America’s role on the world stage.

From my perspective, American politics in Primaries Season looks like a Lollapalooza for suits, where unpopular acts get kicked off the bill as the tour goes on. I’m fascinated by the often grandly surreal lurches American politics takes. I remember when Bush Jr was going for his second term and I saw footage from the New York Republican Convention in which delegates were lampooning Kerry’s alleged policy switches by waving around huge Styrofoam flip-flops, echoing the main buzz-phrase of the time. And I sat there thinking, Christ – there’s about 20,000 people in that enormodome waving around at least 40,000 giant flip-flops… that would *never* happen over here! It was like a Monty Python sketch re-imagined by Leni Riefenstahl.

Your explanation for your support of Obama is very persuasive – I can tell that you admire him a great deal. There probably aren’t all that many policy differences between he and Mrs C, but I think that as a political operator, he has far more going for him in terms of freshness and dynamism. He photographs well, has a lot of energy, and most importantly, he comes with no baggage. Mrs C may be able to trade off the past, but Obama can beat that by trading off the future. And to have a potential pattern of four-year administrations from 1989 reading ‘Bush-Clinton-Clinton-Bush-Bush-Clinton’ would be ruinous to the whole ‘Hey, *anyone* can do this’ appeal of the Presidency.

While I’m puzzled by some of the excesses of US election campaigns (apart from taking Springsteen on the road with you – I mean, any rational person would want to do that…), something that really grabs me about them is the public’s willingness to be inspired; to find someone to believe in and back them to the hilt. We in the UK have such an in-built sense of irreverence that apathy is just a breath away. Blair’s victory in ’97 may have looked like a rock-star reception to overseas observers, but it was sealed by the lowest turn-out since the Second World War. Amid all the changes and the soporific media honeymoon, people were just waiting for him to mess up.
In the most ironic possible way, he didn’t disappoint.

I hope your guy keeps his momentum, and his cool, especially with such a long way to go. I also hope that his zeal for change proves to be more than just a buzz-word. Living under Blair for a decade, you get to be a little suspicious of that kind of talk.

All the best,

Matt

PS – feel free to add this to your blog if you think it would be helpful.

I’ve been interested to note your evident support for Obama, and I was hoping you’d do me the honor of explaining to me why you’re backing him and what makes him preferable to Mrs C. I could read up on this in my usual press outlets, but would rather hear it from someone at grassroots level than a stuffy columnist, really.

Reply in as much detail as you feel necessary!

All the best,

Matt

I received this message today from a friend of mine who lives in England. It must be curious to observe from a distance this wacky race we call the presidential primaries. It may or may not come to a surprise to everyone out there that I am an Obama supporter. I’ve never explained my position on this however, nor have I expressed any sentiment towards Clinton. This presents me with an excellent opportunity to do so.

So why Barack Obama? Why not Clinton? It’s certainly not their stances on political issues. We are fortunate in this race to have two candidates who champion many of the causes that we speak for in our daily lives. People need access to health care. We need to stop allowing companies the ability to pollute. We need to repeal the tax breaks that Bush put into place that only benefit his wealthy contributors. We need to stop this heartbreaking, costly and destructive war.

Most importantly, we need to change the perception of the world that America is a swaggering, self-centered, destructive lout that imposes its will where it pleases, and will destroy all in its path for profit. That’s not America. That’s a rather accurate description of this administration and this president.

If Obama and Clinton share similar ideas, why do I prefer Obama? There are a few reasons there. First, to paraphrase David Dinkins, I’m not against Clinton, I’m for Obama. If Clinton garners the Democratic nomination, I will happily vote for her. It’s not that I don’t feel that she is qualified, or that she would make a fine president.

I just think Barack Obama will be a better one.

Politics as usual. That’s what bothers me about Clinton. Hillary, and even more importantly Bill Clinton are masters of politics. They are able to use the machine to achieve their mostly noble goals. Bill was an excellent president, one of the best of the 20th century, an achievement even more notable for the fact that he managed to accomplish so much while being dogged at every step by a hostile Republican party, lead by Newt Gingrich, one of the more reprehensible figures to grace our national stage in some time (a man that was demonizing Clinton for cheating on his wife while he himself had a mistress–the difference being Clinton didn’t dump his wife while she recovered from cancer therapy in a hospital).

The Clintons, and make no mistake, they are as much of a team now as they were when Bill was President, know how to play that fiddle. And you know what? I’m sick of that particular tune.

Obama’s campaign has been built on progress, on moving forward. Clinton’s campaign has been built on “Look at all of the bad things I can say about my opponent.” When Obama speaks, people listen. People believe, because he doesn’t speak to tell people what they want to hear, he tells them what they need. They need hope. They need change. They need a leader that they don’t need to apologize for, a leader whose faults they don’t need to look past. A leader that inspires all, from young to old.

Obama’s done it. His supporters are young and old, black and white, men and women. He makes people believe, and to look forward to the future for once. He doesn’t traffic in fear. He traffics in change, and anyone who has ever heard him speak generally finds it hard to discount the power he has in his voice.

And on another note, the very presence of a man that was born of a white Protestant mother and a black Kenyan father, who was raised by his mother and Indonesian stepfather in Indonesia, a man who has admitted past drug use and doesn’t lie about it, someone who attended a Muslim school as a child, will inevitably change the perception of America abroad. It’s easy to consider the US a devilish nation controlled by rich WASPy white men, but what happens when that is subverted?

It’s not a race thing. It’s not a gender thing. It’s just time for a change in the way things are. Obama can built friendships and coalitions, can facilitate new ideas and can lead this nation on the path of better living, both at home and abroad.

And that’s why he had my vote in the primaries.

-So the Pentagon is now supporting video games. No, not Grand Theft Auto. Not Manhunt 2. Not even Super Mario Brothers. No, our military is supporting “faith-based” entertainment. Faith-based, despite the George Michael reference, is wholly religious, and the game they are supporting is Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a military strategy game that takes place after the Rapture.

Having our military, which is fighting what some might refer to as a ‘holy war,’ sponsoring an evangelical Christian agenda…is that a good idea?

Tony Snow Will Crush You

-Tony Snow is resigning. Hurray! Now we get to hate someone else as much as we hate him! I have to say, he’s the first Bush White House spokesman I’ve ever seen that was as cocky as who he was speaking for. Remember how flustered Scott McClennan always seemed to be, or how hounded Ari Fleisher always was? Snow was like a sleazy used car salesman, which I liked, because it was soooooo easy to want him dead.

A bit of his conversation with Hugh Hewitt:

HEWITT: Are there any other resignations upcoming, Tony Snow?

SNOW: No, I’m not going to be…I’ve already made it clear I’m not going to be able to go the distance, but that’s primarily for financial reasons. I’ve told people when my money runs out, then I’ve got to go.

I like this conversation for two reasons. ONE: The implication that poor, poor Tony Snow is running out of money. Good thing he’s using his health savings account to pay for his fight against cancer (no, I’m not mocking him for having cancer, just his and his administration’s opposition to public health care). He must have been making minimum wage over at Fox Noise, and not much more at the White House. TWO: At least as a Republican, he’s sticking to his guns, and going where the money is.

You know they really just wanted to make out.

-I thought Karl Rove was taking time off to spend with his family? I guess he’d rather spend his time ripping on Hillary Clinton. He made these comments as a guest on the Rush Limbaugh show (I didn’t even know people still listened to him. I though Bill O’Reilly had stepped into his stinky shoes)…

On what Rove characterizes as Clinton’s ‘lack of support’ for our troops.

“I’m a little bit surprised that somebody with a record so weak on these things would somehow deign to lecture this president, who is very popular among the military and military families because they see him as a strong commander-in-chief who supports them, loves them, and gives them everything they need and want,” Mr. Rove said.” (I find something very 1984-Big-Brother about that statement)

-Mr. Rove said that Mrs. Clinton’s criticism of the president showed “a lack of vision” on her part.

I think he just has a crush on her.