ChrisWeigant.com

Archive of Articles for August, 2008

Friday Talking Points [45] -- Lessons Democrats Should Learn From Obama's Speech

[ Posted Friday, August 29th, 2008 – 17:11 UTC ]

I know that just about the entire blogosphere is talking about John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin (who?) for his running mate, but I, for one, refuse to let John McCain distract me from writing about Barack Obama's acceptance speech last night, given to a cheering throng of 84,000 in Denver's football stadium (I refuse [...]

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Convention Thoughts -- Day Three (Some Red Meat)

[ Posted Thursday, August 28th, 2008 – 16:45 UTC ]

As I've said, this convention is being directed by a maestro -- slow and warm at first, then a big resounding call for unity, and now, on Day 3, some red meat to the crowd. Tonight should be absolutely stunning, that's all I can say, because the "build" has gone swimmingly well.

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Convention Thoughts -- Day Two (Hil-la-ry!)

[ Posted Thursday, August 28th, 2008 – 13:42 UTC ]

...I have to say that the credit for the presentation of the convention has to be split between the Clintons and Barack's campaign team. Each has proven what a great job of defying the media expectations Democrats can (at times) manage to do. For the first two days, the media kept beating the "Hillary people are going to show a divided party" drum, and it never happened. What was the overwhelming image out of the convention so far? Party unity. This would only increase on the next night, but I'm separating these into separate posts, so I'll get to that in a little bit here. For now, I had to give credit to one talking head (I forget who it was, it may have been Bob Schieffer on CBS) who, obviously speaking without a script, said immediately after Hillary's speech something along the lines of: "Well, we've all be telling the story of how divided the Democrats are, but we were wrong. They are united." I didn't write down the exact words, but to me it was a stunning admission of journalistic failure -- for almost everyone in the media. They really, really wanted a fight. They didn't get one. Too bad. One would like to hope that now their media narrative will pivot on a dime into "It's astonishing how united the Democratic Party has become," but (as always when expecting things from the media) I'm not going to hold my breath or anything.

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Convention Thoughts -- Day One (Warm And Fuzzy)

[ Posted Thursday, August 28th, 2008 – 11:15 UTC ]

...But the kids stole the show. The youngest one, obviously having a ball with her moment on the world stage, in about five seconds became the best thing of the entire night. Who can't resist an adorable girl saying "I love you Daddy!" to her father?

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PUMA -- Endangered Species

[ Posted Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 – 21:24 UTC ]

After Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's speech tonight, every single one of her supporters who could be convinced now have been convinced. Clinton gave certainly the best speech I have ever seen her give, if not the best speech she has ever given in her entire life.

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A Historical Perspective On Divided Democratic Conventions

[ Posted Monday, August 25th, 2008 – 04:54 UTC ]

Today begins the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The media (or some sections of it, I should say) have been pushing for a big rousing fight on the floor of the convention in Denver -- the Hillary Clinton supporters staging some sort of scene for the cameras -- so they can continue their "look how [...]

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Friday Talking Points [44] -- McCain House Party!

[ Posted Friday, August 22nd, 2008 – 17:00 UTC ]

But I'm certainly not looking this gift horse in the mouth. For weeks now, I have been practically begging someone -- ANYone -- to ask John McCain this exact question: "How many houses do you and your wife own?" Politico finally asked. John McCain blew the answer. Yet another gaffe from McCain, but the difference this time is that the media chose to run with it.

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John McCain's (Glass) Houses

[ Posted Thursday, August 21st, 2008 – 15:31 UTC ]

One can almost picture the scene -- a high-level campaign strategy session inside Barack Obama's headquarters. "So everyone's saying Obama should fight back against McCain's smears... how should we go about doing that?" "Hey, what about... I don't know... maybe highlighting the really stupid things McCain says on the campaign trail -- almost on a daily basis?!?"

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Electoral Math -- Obama Sure Could Use A Bump

[ Posted Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 – 15:25 UTC ]

It's time once again to take a look at how the electoral math is shaping up for Barack Obama and John McCain. While the news this time around isn't all that great for Obama, I wanted to take another of these snapshots of the polls -- before the running mates are announced and before the conventions happen -- in order to provide a statistical baseline to see how big a "bump" in the polls either candidate will get in the next few weeks. My analysis in short: while the news isn't dire quite yet, Obama could certainly use such a bump at this point.

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Obama Begins To Fight Back

[ Posted Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 – 14:16 UTC ]

Many people have been saying for the past few weeks (myself included) that Barack Obama needs to stand up for himself a little bit more, and strongly counter the negative attacks coming from John McCain. I have also suggested (and I'm not alone in this one either) that Obama needs to start actually taking the fight to McCain, by painting a picture of McCain for America to see -- to counteract who the McCain campaign would like you to believe John McCain is.

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