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Obama, for the win. (pg. 95)
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| Sushipunk |
| quote: | Originally posted by LazFX
and I found this at it made me lol
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Kinda reminds me of...
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| Ang ' ela_ie |
| I have no doubt that McCain's camp is looking to get as many racist SOBs to the polls as possible. |
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| iammesol |
That teddybear thing picture is cool when listening to druggy techno.
edit: Where were you last night Angie?!1 :( :mad: :p |
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| Ang ' ela_ie |
| quote: | Originally posted by iammesol
edit: Where were you last night Angie?!1 :( :mad: :p |
My dad was in town. :) |
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| iammesol |
| You are excused. :p |
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| Alex |
| McCain will veto every single BEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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| Lira |
Linguist explains Obama's appeal
| quote: | Since his emergence as a best-selling political theorist almost 10 years ago, linguist George Lakoff has consistently argued that Democrats are hopeless at communicating their ideas - and their values - in a compelling, persuasive way.
Republicans, on the other hand, have become masters of what Lakoff calls framing - presenting political ideas as emotionally engaging narratives that appeal to our deepest values.
Enter Barack Obama.
The 46-year-old Democrat, the party's presumptive nominee for president, comes as close as anyone to being Lakoff's ideal politician.
Obama has an intuitive grasp of how rival parties can frame the same issues in radically different ways, says Lakoff, who will discuss his new book, The Political Mind, at the Free Library, 19th and Vine Streets, tonight at 7. And, Lakoff adds, Obama deftly avoids the obsessive policy talk that many a candidate spouts, instead explaining his political position in terms of fundamental moral values.
Politicos have bandied about the term framing since Lakoff's 2004 best-seller, Don't Think of an Elephant!, became required reading for Democratic strategists.
But Lakoff, who teaches at the University of California-Berkeley, maintains that most journalists and pundits have misunderstood the term since Day One.
The problem is that framing describes two different, if intimately linked, activities.
On the one hand, it's an unconscious process that helps us understand objects and events by providing a context - or background story - against which the phenomena make sense.
Framing allows most American kids to recognize automatically the meaning of the word Christmas, including all the emotional, religious, musical and social associations that go with the word.
Framing is also the name Lakoff gives to the conscious activity of trying to influence how others understand an idea or word by manipulating the sort of background story the given word evokes.
Take the word liberal. Lakoff argues that through decades of deliberate misuse by conservatives, liberal has become virtually an epithet. Call someone a liberal today, and you're probably implying that he or she is weak, indecisive and unpatriotic. But this is the meaning of the term only as defined according to a conservative frame.
Lakoff says Americans have come to accept the conservative interpretation of key words as their sole - objective - meaning.
Since they control the terms of the argument, conservatives can prevail in most debates, Lakoff said. He insisted that Democrats' only chance is to learn how to argue their case by appealing to a progressive frame.
Lakoff credits Ronald Reagan's strategy guru, Richard Wirthlin, with unleashing the framing revolution. In a 1980 poll, Wirthlin discovered that a high percentage of voters who did not agree with Reagan's policies still said they would vote for him because they prized his values - strength, honesty, integrity, steadfastness.
It became apparent that voters don't vote on issues, but on their perception of candidates' virtues - in other words, on candidates' ability to frame the debate in terms of their values.
Lakoff asserts that over the last 30 years, conservatives took this lesson to heart to the point of "fraudulently framing" political concepts. He says he particularly deplores how the word war has been used to describe our military engagement in Iraq.
"That frame [the war in Iraq] brings with it words like victory, defeat, surrender. But these uses of language are not proper," Lakoff insists. After all, he asks, what would a victory entail in Iraq?
"I would call it an invasion and occupation," he says. "You can't win an occupation."
Another famous label, tax and spend, implies that Democrats heartlessly shake down ordinary people for money that they then throw away on useless programs. If you try to argue your way out - say, by assuring people that tax increases will be minimal - you've already lost the debate, Lakoff says.
"In the conservative frame, taxes are inherently punitive and undesirable," Lakoff explains, "so any phrase that includes the word - other than tax break - will load the dice against Democrats." He said that according to the progressive frame, taxes represent each citizen's responsibility to help form a community in which no one is left behind. Put in terms of these positive values, taxes no longer seem inherently bad.
Lakoff says he's impressed by Obama's ability to reframe his opponents' argument. He cited a recent exchange that resulted when Obama was spotted not wearing a flag lapel pin. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper confronted Obama with an accusation by some Republicans that he was unpatriotic. He asked Obama whether the senator defined "patriotism differently than, say, John McCain?"
Obama asked why the term patriotism is used only "as a cudgel in politics."
"The core of patriotism," he said, comes down to the questions, "Are we caring for each other? Are we upholding the values of our founders? Are we willing to sacrifice on behalf of future generations?"
Obama's reply reframes the idea of patriotism in line with a set of moral values that is central to his political vision, Lakoff says. For Obama, morality - and politics - must be based on compassion and the conviction that helping others must come before self-interest.
"Obama's campaign comes down to empathy," Lakoff says, citing four recent speeches in which the candidate restated his commitment to a politics of compassion.
(Asked by Ann Curry, news anchor on the Today show, to name the most important thing his mother had taught him, Obama said it was "putting myself in someone else's shoes.")
For Lakoff, empathy is one of the moral values that help define the progressive frame. (Others are responsibility, fairness, community and cooperation.)
Obama's conviction that the nation's politics should spring from empathy contrasts sharply with the accepted theory that self-interest motivates political action. Given this, Obama's candidacy has the potential to radically alter how we think of politics.
"Take foreign policy," Lakoff said. "Diplomacy is usually defined as the attempt to maximize the self-interest of two or more nations.
"Obama's doctrine is based on human dignity at the level of the human person."
Isn't that pie-in-the-sky?
No, said Lakoff. He suggested that skeptics imagine how a politics of empathy would affect American response to drought, starvation or genocide.
Is political action based entirely on compassion possible in the long term? It depends on how you frame it. |
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/maga...a_s_appeal.html
What do you think? |
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| RJT |
Question: Do you all think that because of the obvious potential for Obama to have assassination attemps (Secret Service has already guarded him like they did David Palmer in the first season of 24), who he picks to run as his VP is a more important decision in this election than in most others?
:conf:
Thinking about that, I really think I want Edwards in there. |
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| Clovis |
| quote: | Originally posted by RJT
Question: Do you all think that because of the obvious potential for Obama to have assassination attemps (Secret Service has already guarded him like they did David Palmer in the first season of 24), who he picks to run as his VP is a more important decision in this election than in most others?
:conf:
Thinking about that, I really think I want Edwards in there. |
I don't want to base my thinking on the assumption that he actually will be assassinated. |
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| Lilith |
| quote: | Originally posted by LazFX
Clinton supporters in Appalachia ready to vote for McCain due to their concern about Obama enslaving white people. Really
You can't make this up... |
...heck I'd vote for him if he'd give me some pet whiteys. |
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| RJT |
| quote: | Originally posted by Clovis
I don't want to base my thinking on the assumption that he actually will be assassinated. |
How was I doing that (and how does that even answer or relate to the hypothetical I posted)?
:conf:
The only reason I brought it up is because of the real possibility of the VP becoming the president. I think you'd be a fool to deny the real possibility that some crazy racist nutter pops a shot off at Obama at one point or another, and doesn't that make the VP choice that much more interesting this year? |
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| RJT |
This is the very definition of "well played":
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/...red-from-stage/
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Updated Shimaa Abdelfadeel and Hebba Aref, the two Muslim women who were asked not to sit where they could be photographed behind Senator Barack Obama because they were wearing traditional religious head coverings, received a call from the candidate himself today to follow up on his campaign’s initial apology. They released a statement about it to The New York Times:
| quote: |
At the rally for Senator Obama in Detroit on Monday, June 16, two volunteers denied us seating behind the stage the Senator would soon take. The volunteers informed us that we were not allowed to sit in that area due to the hijab, the headscarf that each of us was wearing.
This incident was unfortunate and extremely disappointing. Senator Obama has called us each to personally convey his deepest apologies and acknowledge that this was inexcusable. We both immensely appreciate the Senator’s phone call and his commitment to remedy this issue. We commend him for displaying qualities befitting an effective President. We acknowledge that this injustice has been taken seriously and that Senator Obama does not tolerate discrimination against Arabs, Muslims or any community. We are assured that he and his staff are committed to upholding the principles of justice for all peoples and bringing about change we can believe in. The infringement on our rights occurred and has been addressed; now we are ready to move forward. We will continue to support Senator Obama in his campaign and wish him the best as the race continues.
Regards,
Shimaa Abdelfadeel
Hebba Aref
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Update: Mr. Obama’s released the following statement:
| quote: |
I reached out to Ms. Aref and Ms. Abdelfadeel this afternoon. I spoke with Ms. Abdelfadeel, and expressed my deepest apologies for the incident that occurred with volunteers at the event in Detroit. The actions of these volunteers were unacceptable and in no way reflect any policy of my campaign. I take deepest offense to and will continue to fight against discrimination against people of any religious group or background. Our campaign is about bringing people together, and I’m grateful that Ms. Abdelfadeel accepted our apology and I hope Ms. Aref and any who were offended accept my apology as well.
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Whoever he has calling the shots for his campaign looks brilliant right now.  |
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