Michelle Obama fondly looks back to another President Bush
By Kevin Holtsberry Posted in 2008 Democratic Primary | 2008 Presidential Campaign | Archived | Michelle Obama — Comments (28) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Can I find within me the audacity to change this blog entry's location to the front page, where it can bestow upon us its message of hope? YES, I CAN. - Moe Lane
The Hotline's On Call has Michelle Obama trying desperately to dig her way out of her embarrassing comments about being proud of her country for the first time:
Michelle Obama is proud. Yes, she is.
At an event today at Cleveland State University, the wife of Barack Obama talked about the breadth of support her husband's campaign has seen across the country, saying it was a testament to the power of hope.
"When was the last time we've had a presidential candidate of any gender or race or political party who pull together wins in places like Idaho and Utah and Louisiana and Georgia and Maine and Alaska and Missouri, and Illinois?" she said. "What we've been seeing over the course of this year is that folks are hungry for change. ... We've learned that in this nation with a little bit of hope and inspiration people do want to take hold of their destinies and move it in a different place. So yes, I am proud."
Obama took some heat over the last few days for saying during a recent campaign event that she is proud of her country for the first time in her adult life.
OK. Let's get in the way-back machine and travel back in time to the last time a politician captured the remarkable combination of states like "Idaho and Utah and Louisiana and Georgia and Maine and Alaska and Missouri, and Illinois."
Set the clock for . . . 1988! That's right, folks. The last candidate to approach the incredible unity and power of Barack Obama was George HW Bush.
Behold the power:
And the elder Bush managed this amazing feat in an actual general election not just in a primary. I am sure Papa Bush appreciates the compliment.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
And if Obama manages to repeat the feat of putting together victories in those states come November he will deserve the victory that will be his.
Pardon me if I seriously doubt that the Obasm will be quite so unifying in the fall.
Heh.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
can unite the country like Dukakis did!
___________________________________
Two thirds of the world is covered by water,
the other third is covered by Champ Bailey.
at some of these Ivy League schools.
Fighting for conservatism one day at a time.
If that is her standard, she must have been really proud of how unified we were in 1984.
---
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
it's Yes, WE can." One cannot forget that in the collectivist mindset of the Obama hive there are no individuals. There is no "I" in Obama.
"Glory is not a conceit. It is not a decoration for valor. Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely and who rely on you in return."-Senator McCain
1984 electoral map
1972 electoral map
While not necessarily occurring in her adult years, these triumphs of hopeful unity were hopefully within the purview of her adult knowledge.
soli Deo gloria
1984 electoral map
1972 electoral map
soli Deo gloria
Proves Reagan Conservatism can win without a Reagan, though not by as wide a margin.
And wherever men are fighting against barbarism, tyranny, and massacre, for freedom, law, and honour, let them remember that the fame of their deeds, even though they may be exterminated, may perhaps be celebrated as long as the world rolls round. ~ Winston Churchill
BTW, if I remember correctly, that map is incorrectly color coded. Back then, the Republican states were "blue" and the Democratic states were "red". I don't know actually when the change occurred, but I suspect the reason for it was that the Democrats didn't want the "red" association, as that linked them to communists.
It was typically red and blue maps, but which color went with which party varied between networks (and between elections for a given network). I'm not sure when the colors became fixed for each party. Was it 2000?
...wants their damn Red back just as badly as we want our comforting Reagan Blue.
Blame the freaking media on this one.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
If it were up to me RS would never have gotten this name, heh. I try never to use red for Republicans when making my own maps.
HTML Help for Red Staters
"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
"I suspect the reason for it was that the Democrats didn't want the "red" association, as that linked them to communists."
Given their current campaign rhetoric, does this mean they'll be requesting to change back soon??
HTML Help for Red Staters
"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
Actually, the networks official policy was to alternate the colors for the incumbent party every cycle. Some of the networks used red and white back in the day (probably because it was easier to do). But given the way that elections went down, that pretty much meant that Democrats almost always got red. Carter (incumbent) in 1980, in 1984 red belonged to the challengers (Mondale), in 1988 we got red (hence that map), in 1992 it again belonged to the challenger (Clinton), in 1996 red was the incumbent (Clinton), in 2000 it belonged to the challenger (GWB). Because of the nature of that election it may have stuck, but 2004 in the pattern was an incumbent=red year. We'll see if they stick to red state/blue state or if they stick to the pattern this year - which would dictate that we return to blue and the Democrats take red again.
It wasn't as if one color was associated with one party in a particular election. I recall switching between different networks' election coverage in past years, and they did not have the same colors - Red for Democrats on some networks, Red for Republicans on others.
The first time I heard "Red" and "Blue" used to denote Republican and Democratic was in the long Florida aftermath of the 2000 election, when we spent weeks seeing the electoral map on TV instead of just election night. That still left me wondering why all the networks had the same color scheme in 2000. Wikipedia offers an explanation, which isn't well documented but sounds plausible
As late as 1996, there was still no universal association of one color with one party. ... But in 2000, for the first time, all major electronic media outlets used the same colors for each party, most likely as a result of the official colors for the presidential candidates, with Gore's campaign using blue lawn signs and imagery and Bush's using red.
If it's true, that's one more thing to gripe about regarding Bush - why did his campaign have to choose red for it's signs? ;-)
...who have never been sat down and had it patiently explained to them that sometimes the things that they say aren't brilliant simply because it's them doing the saying.
Or, for that matter, that in this country people above a certain status level live in what's effectively a fishbowl. You'd be amazed how long it takes to sink in, for some.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
it's not what they don't know, it's what they know that isn't so.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
John Kerry did the exact same thing last time.
The last person to do this was...the last person to win the nomination.
To be fair, I've heard some variant on this where she says South Carolina, which would then disqualify Kerry.
No one of good character leaves behind a wasted life - John McCain
... in a general election?
n/t