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News & ArtsThursday, October 30, 2008
2008 Attacking Obama With Arab Music
Posted by Eli Sanders on Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 10:45 AM
McCain again hits the Ahmadinejad panic button, this time with a one-minute ad that features images of Obama with ominous-sounding Arab music playing in the background:
It's all inflammatory nonsense, of course. Obama has said that he would meet with the Iranian leadership without "preconditions"--namely, the Bush Administration requirement that the Iranians stop processing uranium. Of course, the Bush Administration doesn't seem so set on that precondition anymore, either. Again, this is a purposeful effort to mislead on Obama's actual position: he would begin lower-level negotiations with the Iranians, and see how much progress could be made. That is a position supported by many of McCain's own diplomatic supporters.But that's not really what this is all about: this ad--with its Middle Eastern music--is all about implying that Obama isn't one of us, that he's one of them. It is shameful, in the extreme. It's also really bad policy.
2
Madeleine Albright says:
the last time we were all together as former secretaries of State was at a panel about three weeks ago. And we were asked, all five of us there were asked what we would do in terms of negotiating or having a dialogue with Iran without preconditions. And so Henry Kissinger, Jim Baker, Colin Powell and Warren Christopher and I all agreed that we should be willing to talk to Iran without preconditions.
7
i knew i shouldn't have watched that. total waste of time. this is the sort of thing that makes me wonder about the human soul. does it exist? can it be sold? does it decay and wither away?
given the mccain campaign's shamelessness the answer to those three questions would be either
1) no, thus no and no
or
2) yes, apparently, and obviously
9
So they are saying that since Obama said he is willing to drop preconditions, he either has to "admit he was wrong" or do whatever the Iranians want?
Even if you know nothing about this issue, the add makes no sense at all.
10
So I know that there is a tremendous effort of younger people, say 30 and below, shaping the Obama campaign through their ingenuity, technical savvy and awareness of a burgeoning liberal political climate. What I wonder about when I see this blatant use of rehashed and truthfully boring music and imagery is, who are the young people who are shaping the McCain campaign strategies. My first instinct is to imagine many of the dickwads I knew in Texas. But then I can't see any of them really producing anything 'artistic' or working in a degree of creativity that would include the branding of a candidate or the production of a tv spot. What I'm really seeing is that the creative forces which present the Obama campaign, those strategic younger participants who have done so well to build so much momentum are far more talented then their Republican equivalents. As stupid as it sounds, I really imagine it as an art school equivalent of 'boring fashion photographer' vs 'interesting contemporary art nerd'. It's just a way for me to abstract the situation.
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