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The Obama campaign commemorates 5 years since Obama announced for president. It’s political propaganda, of course, but boy is it some slick, professional, cutting edge advertising. And the consistency in tone with the ’08 campaign shows a remarkable feel for continuity of “branding”: So does this mean that the 2012 Obama campaign will be going, [...]
Archive for the ‘2008 Presidential Race’ Category
Happy Times
February 11th, 2012 
Daniel Fincke Thoughts and Questions About Obama
December 11th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Before Obama, America had not elected as president a legislator, either a congressperson or a senator, for decades. We have consistently preferred governors, vice presidents, and generals. Now in electing Obama we have a legislator, law professor, and grass roots organizer. We have someone whose skills are building consensus, managing intricate relationships with allies and enemies, [...]
Campaign Promises, Democracy, And What Fair Warning Requires
February 23rd, 2011 Daniel Fincke Andrew Sullivan points out and documents that even though Governor Scott Walker campaigned on the promise to cut public sector salaries, as he claims, and has an arguable democratic mandate therefore to propose some of the cuts he has (and which unions have conceded to), he did not during the campaign advocate ending unions’ collective [...]
Chris Rock On Obama-Era Hatred: Racism's One Last Temper Tantrum Before It Goes To Sleep
February 17th, 2011 Daniel Fincke From an Esquire interview online now: SR: Like many nice Caucasians, I cried the night Barack Obama was elected. It was one of the high points in American history. And all that’s happened since the election is just a shitstorm of hatred. You want to weigh in on that? CR: I actually like it, in [...]
Hitchens Brings The Most Eloquent Takedown Of The Tea Party Ever
January 29th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Every time I see him speak of late, he only becomes better. It’s almost like the cancer only makes him stronger: Your Thoughts?
Real America
July 4th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Back in 2008, The Daily Show explored “real America” so those of us who don’t live there could learn from it. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c <td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'Understanding Real America in Wasilla www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party Your Thoughts?
The Best Of Shepard Smith: Taking On BP, Torture, Anti-Vaxers, Glenn Beck, Joe The Plumber, & More
May 21st, 2010 Daniel Fincke FOX News’s one passionately sane and moral voice last week went after BP executive Tony Hayward for his flippant attitude towards the ecological disaster his company has recently wrought. The man is an oasis amidst his network’s cynical demagoguery and sincere lunacy. And, of course, there is his passionate denunciation of torture from over a [...]
Posted in 2008 Presidential Race, Civil Liberties, Law, Law & Politics, News, News Discussion, Politics, Videos 
Tags: AIG bonuses, Anti-Vaccination, Birthers, BP, BP Oil Spill, Brian Kilmeade, CDC, Chris Wallace, FOX News, Gretchen Carlson, H1N1 Vaccinations, Israel, Jane Skinner, Joe The Plumber, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Katrina, Media Bias, Naomi Wolf, Ralph Nader, Sam Wurzelbacher, Shepard Smith, Steve Doocy, Sue Field, Tony Hayward, Torture, Torture As Part Of Interrogation, Torture Memos 
No Comments »Obama’s Rawlsian Defense Of Separation Of Church And State
April 25th, 2010 Daniel Fincke This video of a speech Obama made during his presidential campaign which is making the rounds among my atheist Facebook friends today: When the speech was made I commented on James Dobson’s faulty reaction to Obama. As I implied in that post, in the part not addressing Dobson, I think this speech is a spectacular [...]
Posted in 2008 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, News Discussion, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Politics, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Videos Tags: Abraham and Isaac, James Dobson, John Rawls, Pluralism, Political Philosophy No Comments »He Came From A Very Good Christian Family
December 1st, 2009 Daniel Fincke Maurice Clemmons, the murderer shot and killed in Seattle today years ago had his sentence famously commuted by Governor Mike Huckabee, who we all know makes no bones about his desire to base U.S. law on his perception of God’s law. Here’s some of his Christian judgment about who deserves mercy under such laws: Clemmons [...]
Daily Hilarity: Marlin Hill’s Awesome Obama Impression
October 14th, 2009 Daniel Fincke This guy is so, so, so much better than the lame SNL one we seem stuck with. His Obama is as good as Carvey’s Bush, Sr. and Fey’s Palin.
Posted in 2008 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Comedy, Hilarious, Parody Tags: Marlin Hill No Comments »Why Barack Obama DOES Deserve A Nobel Peace Prize Already
October 9th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Everyone left, right, and center is baffled today by Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize received out of the blue and before he has actually accomplished much of anything of what he had promised from his presidency (as Saturday Night Live compellingly argued). He certainly has failed to be a fierce advocate of gay and lesbian rights, failed [...]
“Why Should God Bless America?”
September 19th, 2009 Daniel Fincke This laughable awfulness would be qualify as funny if the theocratic attitudes it expressed were not so serious and were the forum for this nonsense was not a presidential debate. Rachel Maddow had a great report last night on this year’s meeting of the same group that sponsored this. The footage of the astoundingly self-absorbed [...]
Posted in 2008 Presidential Race, Authoritarianism, Christianity, Fundamentalism, Politics, Religion, Religious Extremism, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Unintentional Comedy, Videos Tags: "God Bless America", "Why Should God Bless America", Carrie Prejean, Rachel Maddow, Religious Authoritarianism, The Church of God Choir of Springfield Ohio, Values Voter, Values Voter Presidential Debate No Comments »Kanye Disses Taylor Swift (On The Pusillanimity Of Joe Wilson And Kanye West Vs. The Magnanimity Of Beyonce Knowles And Barack Obama)
September 13th, 2009 Daniel Fincke So last night, Kanye proved once and for all that he has no class through a single action which demonstrated an unbelievable lack of grace. Taylor Swift looked so demoralized and her speech had been all about feelings of being surprised to be accepted by this particular voting bloc, when he insulted her by implying [...]
Posted in 2008 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Culture, Ethics, Featured, Music, News Discussion, Nietzsche, Politics, Pop Culture, Racism, Videos, Virtues Tags: Agon, Agonistic Democracy, Barack Obama, Beyonce, Cruelty, Ignobility, Illegal Immigration, Joe Wilson, Kanye West, Magnanimity, MTV, Nobility, Obama’s Health Care Speech, Pettiness, Pusillanimity, Rancor, Ressentiment, Taylor Swift, Vices, Video Music Awards, VMAs, Xenophobia 24 Comments »Professors As Insistent On The Moral Imperative To Vote As To Donate
July 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Eric Schwitzgebel is initially surprised by the data but then does rough calculations about why it is sensible: Now is it just crazy to say that voting is as morally good as giving 10% of one’s income to charity? That was my first reaction. Giving that much to charity seems uncommon to me and highly [...]
Posted in 2008 Presidential Race Tags: Bank Bailouts, Charity, Derek Parfit, Eric Schwitzgebel, Generosity, Iraq War No Comments »Palin Hung Out To Dry By McCain Campaign Last Year
July 11th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Easily the ugliest and most irresponsible moment of the 2008 Presidential Campaigns came when Sarah Palin accused Obama of bieng someone who: sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country. This is not a man who sees America as you see [...]
Does Palin Represent “Real America?”
July 6th, 2009 Daniel Fincke David Weigel is baffled that such a meme persists: Scarborough’s quasi-co-host Mika Brzezinski followed this up by saying Palin represented “real Americans,” and that some people in “urban America” didn’t get it. This is fascinating. In 2004, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) lost the presidency with 48.3 percent of the vote, [...]
Posted in 2008 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, News Discussion, Politics, Sarah Palin Tags: 2004 Presidential Race, 2008 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Ben Smith, Culture Wars, David Weigel, Joe Scarborough, John Edwards, John Kerry, John McCain, Mika Brzezinski, North Carolina, Real America, Rural, Sarah Palin, Urban No Comments »Anti-Obama Centered Feminism
July 6th, 2009 Daniel Fincke This is an alluringly and gorgeously produced but positively goofy propaganda video which sides with both Clinton and Palin against Obama (with all the usual baseless smears against him thrown in for good measure).
Sarah Palin: A Daily Show Retrospective
July 4th, 2009 Daniel Fincke In honor of the surprising news of Sarah Palin’s resignation, here are my nine favorite classic Daily Show segments on her (in chronological order): September 3, 2008: Sarah Palin Gender Card September 4, 2008: Sarah Palin-Vet This! September 15, 2008: Sarah Palin Won’t Blink September 18, 2008: Gov. At First Sight October 6, 2008: Vice [...]
Posted in 2008 Presidential Race, Hypocrisy, News Discussion, Political Satire, Politics, Sarah Palin, Videos Tags: 2008 Presidential Race, Bill O'Reilly, Jason Jones, Joe Biden, Joe The Plumber, John McCain, Jon Stewart, Karl Rove, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Nancy Pfotenhauer, Rudy Giuliani, Sarah Palin, Sexism, Shepard Smith, Wasilla No Comments »Andrew Sullivan Lets Loose On Palin (Again)
June 30th, 2009 Daniel Fincke The last year or more I’ve been a devoted reader of Andrew Sullivan’s blog. But it was the last three months of the presidential campaign that I have the warmest nostalgia for and much of that time his blog painstakingly logged ever one of Sarah Palin’s lies and character flaws. It was a great source [...]
Barack Obama’s Most Important Achievement Regardless of What Follows
June 26th, 2008 Daniel Fincke I have always held in this race that while of course we shouldn’t vote for a presidential candidate based on something as skin deep as skin color, that nonetheless all things being equal in terms of character, temperament, policy proposals, principles, and priorities, that there is a crucial psychological bonus to having a black president. [...]
The Theocratic Mindset of James Dobson
June 24th, 2008 Daniel Fincke As something of a Rawlsian about public discourse, I have no problem with religious people arguing in government for application of ideals that they personally discovered through their religion or their sacred texts, their religious institutions, etc. as long as they respect the need to give reasons that are publicly accessible, reasons that do not [...]
Obama Speaks In Politician and I Translate For the Readers At Home
June 20th, 2008 Daniel Fincke Flip-flopping on NAFTA, Obama explains his position in his native politician language: “Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA “devastating” and “a big mistake,” despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy. [...]
Quote of the day
June 4th, 2008 Daniel Fincke From a New York Times profile on quotes Obama: “I love when I’m shaking hands on a rope line and”— he mimes the motion, hand over hand — “I see little old white ladies and big burly black guys and Latino girls and all their hands are entwining. They’re feeding on each other as much [...]
A Treasure Trove of Polling Information and Analysis of Obama and Clinton’s Chances vis-a-vis McCain
May 27th, 2008 Daniel Fincke Fascinatingly thorough and multiple treatments of the hard numbers about Obama and Clinton’s respective prospects against McCain. That and more important analysis that should go into superdelegate thinking about whom to support. And all this info and analysis is on one page of multiple mathematical pleasures
Posted in 2008 Presidential Race, News Discussion Tags: 2008 Presidential Race, Politics No Comments »Daily Hilarity: Senator Tom Coburn’s Editorial About Why The Republicans Are Set Up For A Rout In November
May 27th, 2008 Daniel Fincke Senator Coburn writes, Compassionate conservatism’s starting point had merit. The essential argument that Republicans should orient policy around how our ideas will affect the poor, the widow, the orphan, the forgotten and the “other” is indisputable – particularly for those who claim, as I do, to submit to an authority higher than government. Yet conservatives [...]
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