Reasons why Obama should win...

The 2012 Presidential elections: 

[...] because he’s a seriously intelligent, thoughtful leader more in tune and in touch with Americans’ lives than his sheltered opponent is. He still has poetry in him, and he still has fight. But this campaign has illuminated nothing so brightly as the limits of his magic, along with shortcomings that he would carry with him into a second term (should he get one) and would be wise to address.

Frank Bruni, NYT

Elections

I like what David Brooks, NYTimes columnist says about going by the polls.

He believes that political junkie's suffer from "cognitive laziness."

Just as the teenage mind naturally migrates from homework to Facebook, just as the normal reader’s mind naturally wanders from Toynbee to Twitter, so the political junkie’s brain has a tendency to slide downhill from policy to polling.

A thought on the Presidential debate #1

On my way to my neighborhood grocery store, I cross a street with two-way traffic and without a walk sign.

Needless to say, I have to keep my ears and eyes open for cavalier drivers.

Today, a young woman in a SUV stood still for more than 40 seconds, allowing pedestrians to cross. Seconds before I acknowledged her courtesy with a wave of gratitude, another driver pushes through with aggression and swerves into the street inches away from my toe.

A courteous driver and a bully of a driver: Who gets abused and whose behavior is deemed normal? The driver behind the courteous one screams "fuck you!" at the latter, to my shock and chagrin.

Having watched the first Presidential debate on Wednesday October 4 the picture of the drivers and the performances of Obama and Romney seem to be a bit analogous.

Romney is the driver who almost crushed my toes and rudely hogged the space at his disposal. Romney did the same in another context. His goal was to hog the limelight (instead of earning it over the evening), and he scolded the moderator. He also seemed anxious to steal time away from Obama.

Obama might have been the courteous driver who stood while pedestrians passed.

Yet, it was Obama who got clobbered by the media as the one who sleep-walked through the debate, and Romney received praises for his aggressive and blunt "style".

Americans look more and more like the surly guy who screamed at the courteous driver. Too impatient, myopic and precariously perched to reward the undeserving candidate.

Xanax President

President Obama’s stylistic strategy during Wednesday night’s debate seemed to be to try to stay right above the rancor, to appear dignified, presidential. The problem with that approach is that the line between dignified and presidential and anodyne and weak is the width of a cat’s hair.

--Charles Blow's assessment in nytimes. The message: ability to be rancorous=sign of confidence.

Frank Bruni's take on Obama's "ambien" performance last night:

He toggled between light and heavy, scathing and upbeat, and demonstrated improved (though not great) control of that annoyed, tight, fake smile that plays so disastrously into his cartoon image as “a wealthy plutocrat married to a known equestrian,” in the inimitable words of Haley Barbour.

Haven't and won't delve into the Republican posts as the vitriol would be too much to bear. Extreme avoidance of the George Wills and the Charles (Sour)Krauthammers.

Mitt Romney: study in insentience

The way in which Mitt Romney has been described in the popular (and liberal, if you will) press thus far, reminds me of the character of the bride that rises from the dead in Tim Burton's stop-motion-animated-fantasy musical film, the Corpse Bride.

Except that the corpse bride was more animated than Romney is. 

Frank Bruni, among others, observes that he lacks a "palpable soul" and an "audible heartbeat."

Sentences...

There is a rumor that Condoleeza Rice could be Mitt Romney's vice-presidential nominee. Rice denies this and says she doesn't want to re-enter politics. But as the NYTimes reports, "a barnburner of a speech" Rice gave to Romney's donors a few weeks ago, "apparently created a boomlet of support for her potential candidacy."

As I extrapolate from the report I see the following: "A barnburner of a speech creates a boomlet of support." Alliteration in politics! The English language in connection with politics is going places. Orwell would've been happy.