Sunday miscellany: Obama fails to give concise one-sentence answer to question that has baffled mankind for millenia
John McCain triumphs at Saddleback; more Corsi comedy; Obama pressed for specifics
August 17, 2008 10:23 AM
Gallup daily tracking poll: Obama 45%, McCain 44%
...That poll doesn't, of course, reflect any opinions that might have been influenced by John McCain and Barack Obama's first joint campaign appearance, at a forum at Saddleback Church in California yesterday, under the questioning of evangelical pastor Rick Warren. But the conventional media wisdom this morning is that the event belonged to McCain -- not because Obama didn't shine, but because McCain, for once, did. Obama's biggest stumble seems to have been this answer to a question on exactly when human life begins:
Whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity is, you know, above my pay grade.
...which is, fairly obviously, a joke about not being God, but a joke that Obama's conservative critics chose not to get: "News flash -- There's not a job on the planet above the pay grade of the President of the United States," writes Mark Hemingway at The Corner. That's a disingenuous misinterpretation, but then again, it's Obama's job to avoid the potential for disingenuous misinterpretations, and he didn't manage it here, and he sounded far too vague. You can watch the forum here. [Washington Post]
Potential Obama vice-president Joe Biden has gone to Georgia too, along with John McCain's personal delegation, although Biden seems to have been specifically invited by Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili. [TPM Election Central]
Anti-Obama biographer and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, the gift that keeps on giving, now claims that if Obama became president, people who criticised him would be locked up. [Media Matters]
Many of Obama's most influential supporters feel it's time for him to start adding some policy detail to the whole Hope and Change thing. [New York Times] |
