Hail Mary vs. Cool Barry

Washington Post ^ | October 3, 2008 | Charles Krauthammer

[floozy22]

Krauthammer's Hail Mary Rule: You get only two per game. John McCain, unfortunately, has already thrown three. The first was his bet on the surge, a deep pass to David Petraeus who miraculously ran it all the way into the end zone.

Then, seeking a game-changer after the Democratic convention, McCain threw blind into the end zone to a waiting Sarah Palin. She caught the ball. Her subsequent fumbles have taken the sheen off of that play, but she nonetheless invaluably solidifies his Republican base.

When the financial crisis hit, McCain went razzle-dazzle again, suspending his campaign and declaring that he'd stay away from the first presidential debate until the financial crisis was solved.

He tempted fate one time too many.

[floozy22]

Don't know what to make of this article. There's a whole gaggle of YouTube vids showing Obamer to be...ahhh....ummm..a complete, inarticulate moron. He doesn't have a fraction of the debating talent of Sarah Palin.

[kingattax]

sarah palin looked like a leader. biden looked like an old washington DC hack.

no one is listening to you, charles. go take a nap

[Mamzelle]

I don't get the shtick about Kraut being such a brain. I think Rush is wrong about him. He is frequently pretentious, smug and entirely too East Coast and urban. He was pro-Amnesty, and was one of the neo "intellectuals" that helped us get a new AlQaida stronghold in the Balkans....along with Biden, by the way.

I wish pundits would run for office every few years, so we could vote and get rid of them.

[Tublecane]

Krauthammer is out of sorts over Palin. She’s no William Jennings Bryan, but no one on earth can convince me that Obama and Biden have made fewer flubs. 57 states? Roosevelt on the television in ‘29? Why does the media constantly get away with painting Republicans as morons? The law of averages would suggest that at least one national Democratic figure would be on a par with Reagan, Bush, and Palin.

[OCC]

This is not 1980. The more people get to know Obama, the less they trust him. McCain does need to get his act together for the next two debates. Everybody knows his bio, he needs to say why he is different from Obama. Democrats and Obama have given him a lot of ammunition, time to use it.

[fantom]

I am sick of the erroneous football analogy from Charles and the rest. These moves were not Hail Marys , it is part of an effective passing game.

[GeeMoney]

You have to watch it with Krauthammer, he’s a former Jimmy Carter Democrat turned semi-conservative. Occasionally his old Democratic sympathies creep into his logic.

[w1nston]

You gotta keep in mind, Krauthammer is part of the media elite, same as Brooks or Broder or Ifill or anyone else.

That informs his thinking much more than being purported conservative.

[FredZarguna]

Frankly, the whole stable of conservatives in the Washington Post Writers Group has come down with a case of Palin Madness Syndrome, and Krauthammer may be the worst of the bunch. I used to love Charlie but he's got some kind of emotional problem with Sarah Palin and it's hurting his ability to analyze objectively. I used to turn off Brit's panel if Charlie wasn't there. Now I don't watch it at all.

[webrover]

Palin’s been in the national spotlight for 5 weeks and she more than held her own with a US senator of 23 years. She's both a natural communicator and pol, which actually kinda scares me. If she can ome so far in 5 weeks, in the face of such virulent and rabid attacks, there's no telling what she can do. I'm hearing stuff that an’t too conservative coming from her. And I hope it's just temporary because she's linked to McCain. IF she turns out to be really like McCain, That will suck in thought, word and deed.

[nclaurel]

Krauthammer is a pompous, arrogant elitist and has never liked Palin—too normal for him. He is a perfect fit with his “cool” Obama. I bet Michelle will never invite him over regardless of how he kisses up.

[Wil H]

You get only two per game. John McCain, unfortunately, has already thrown three

False premise

You only get two if they fail.

You can keep throwing Hail Marys all day if you score every time.

[MurryMom]

What Krauthammer's analysis suggests to me how it really describes McCain:

McCain has shown that he is a man of limited experience, questionable convictions, deeply troubling associations (Phil Gramm, Charles Keating, George Bush) and an alarming lack of self-definition.

Does anybody really know who John McCain is and what he believes?

[Texas_shutterbug]

The point is that Obama is running a great campaign. McCain is not. It has nothing to do with ideology.

He's just honest enough to put that in print and not just bitch about it on Free Republic. :)

[floozy22]

I wouldn’t call Obama’s campaign “great.” The media is making it better than it is. But McCain’s not running well right now. His campaign can’t change that he’s a lackluster candidate. At least Palin fires up the base.

[Texas_shutterbug]

"Great" is subjective, I realize, but compared to the McCain campaign and every other candidate for president this year, he is, indeed, running a great campaign.

I like to maintain my credibiity, so I give the devil his due when it is deserved. :) That so many freepers think Obama is a stupid ass running a lousy campaign and that Pailin is the Republican version of a goddess, tells me a lot of people around here can't maintain even the remotest level of objectivity.

[floozy22]

I think his campaign was a lot better when he ran against Hillary. I don’t see large crowds for Obama now, like he had when she was his rival. I see a bunch of videos on YouTube showing many moments where he has trouble enunciating words - with or without a teleprompter. A lot of his handlers are from the Carter days. Bill and Hillary are dissing him indirectly every time they can. I’ll grant that he’s avoiding any and all blame for the Fannie/Freddie fiasco - and that’s impressive. But the media is behind him, and his campaign gets no real scrutiny. What am I missing that makes his campaign “great?”

[Texas_shutterbug]

His involvement in the economic fiasco is no better and no worse than most of the other politicians. I'm one of those who believes they're all guilty, but then I believe in reasonable regulation, so I blame republicans, as well.

For what it's worth (yes, she's a liberal), but I happen to think there's a lot of truth to this article.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6037097.html The Houston Chronicle is my home paper, by the way, but I take it for the ads! LOL