So- did the infomercial make you want to vote Obama?- Page 2

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 11:51am

EDIT: And your comment about fat people not really being poor was vile. That's like saying, "See? Those little children with the big bellies in those third-world countries don't need food. They're already fat around the middle, so they must be getting all the food they need!"

Oh, please Besty. Seriously? That's what I was saying?

As for his totally positive campaign, you must not be watching him in Sarasota right now.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 11:55am

"Oh, please Besty. Seriously? That's what I was saying?"

Yeah, pretty much. It was just as clueless about why people are overweight.

You can get fat on very little money per day. Just check the specials at the fast food joints. You can also get fat due to illness or disease, or the medications used to prevent them. Many reasons.

Why would weight have anything to do with their annual income?

It was just an insult hurled in ignorance.

So, yeah, that's exactly what you were saying.

Updated On: 10/30/08 at 11:55 AM

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 12:39pm

I honestly could CARE LESS if every single person in that video was an actor.

Those stories are rampant all over this damn country. Yes we are all well off in comparison to the rest of the world. The people that produced that video needed to nail it for the demo that would watch and they did.

They could go in ANY direction, if Obama wanted to show poor, starving, and seriously ill he could have. He could have shown schools that are falling apart, war torn maimed soldiers. He didn't.

Instead he showed us people that have lived better than the last 8 years and have HOPE of better times ahead. It's gold. Pure gold.

It was compelling, accurate and poignant, almost too Oprah. When I first heard he was doing it I thought he was going overboard. It is kind of a stretch but everyone knows unless it's on television it's not real. That was real enough for me.

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 12:48pm

"He's not going to be able to do the things he says."

So what?


"Most of his claims are extremely unlikely to ever happen."

So what?

"He the candidate for people who like to think of themselves as victims."

While I would agree every American IS a victim of a George Bush OIL WAR, Obama is the ONLY candidate telling people they have a stake in this future too.

"He keeps telling us how horrible out lives are."

So does the newspaper, our bank accounts, our president, McCain, the television, the supermarket, the stock market, the weather, the gas. All signs our lives are on the decline.

"Who's life is that horrible?"

You have time? Go meet those kids that were dropped off in Nebraska. Come meet some homeless vets in NYC. Go visit the people that have lost their HOMES because they couldn't pay medical bills. Go meet kids forced into "bad schools." Go meet a military that was sent to war on a lie and come back with massive head wound. [Google:
Raising Roberto (Again)] Visit the 5000 families destroyed by news of the death of their sons, daughters, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers.


"But keep drinking the Kool-Aid."

It tastes a whole helluva lot better than the feces Bush has been feeding us for the last 8 years.


"but to actually believe anything he says, is just silly."

Do you understand American politics at all?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 1:35pm

You know what that half hour was? It was baseball. It was the art of the game, it was balletic beauty, it was a promise of success if we work together as a team. It's the game in which you use your head. It was America.

That half hour was baseball in a metier that has been dominated by football since the campaign to elect The Gipper in 1980. Football, with roiling testosterone and shouts of "attack! kill!" the other team and a template that's nothing but a war game. Football, with its foam rubber "We're #1" fingers and men who behave like steamrollers.

America needs baseball a helluva lot more than it needs anymore football right now.

[jasonf]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 1:36pm

I am 100% supporting Obama, but I did have a question about that infomercial...for weeks now we've been hearing "no one who makes under $250,00 is going to pay more taxes" -- in the infomercial that number suddenly came down to $200,00. I don't make anywhere near that (just a simple teacher here) so it doesn't really have an effect on me right now (can always hope for a change), but why the change, and how is it that the Republicans haven't jumped on that?

Keep in mind, I'm asking this as a concerned Democrat who will most likely cry openly if we have four more years of Republican rule...

[DBillyP]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 1:38pm

jason, I think the distinction is that those making less than $200,000 a year will pay less in taxes, while taxes for those making between $200,001 and $250,000 will not change.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 1:39pm

He said that families making under $200K will receive a tax cut in the informercial.

[kelzama]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 1:47pm

As I understand it, Obama's plan basically raises taxes for married couples filing jointly at $250K; individual at $200K.
Additionally, Biden mentioned a hike that happens at $150K, but I don't recall specifics.

[artscallion]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 2:04pm

From what I've heard, Biden didn't mention a hike that happens at $150K. He used the example of someone who makes $150K as someone who gets a tax cut, as in, "so Joe the Bartender, who makes $150K, gets a break..." He didn't say that $150K was any kind of cutoff amount. McCain is just spinning it that way.

[DAME]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 2:07pm

I already voted. I am so happy.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 2:14pm

I love all of this newly minted blue collar concern for those folks who earn above 200 or 250 thousand a year being penalized unduly.

In an Orwellian world were many fail to vote their own interests, we have a bizarre economic codependency from the bottom up, struggling people without health coverage or a mortgage, some without hope of every having medical insurance or a home they own, being persuaded to fear 3% more taxes being paid by a sliver of the population who have superb coverage and McMansions. It's simply mind-numbing.

Updated On: 10/30/08 at 02:14 PM

[jasonf]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 2:38pm

Honestly, if I made 250 or 200 or hell, even 100,000 I'd be HAPPY to pay my fair share in taxes above whatever those making less make. When I'm struggling to make ends meet on a teacher's salary, the prissy whining from the elite about paying more in taxes really gets to me.

I was just concerned about what I saw as a change in what was being said and how that might cause controversy. Guess I just misunderstood the point...

[lildogs]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 3:13pm

When I saw the waving wheat I thought, "Oh, it's going to be like this."

But even though it was a tad sentimental, I thought it was very moving and it fired me up like nobody's business!

I cried, I cheered, it was better than CATS!

[DBillyP]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 3:24pm

For JB2, and others, from msnbc.com:
Surprise: Lean times may actually make you fat

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 3:24pm

"You know what that half hour was? It was baseball. It was the art of the game, it was balletic beauty, it was a promise of success if we work together as a team. It's the game in which you use your head. It was America.

That half hour was baseball in a metier that has been dominated by football since the campaign to elect The Gipper in 1980. Football, with roiling testosterone and shouts of "attack! kill!" the other team and a template that's nothing but a war game. Football, with its foam rubber "We're #1" fingers and men who behave like steamrollers.

America needs baseball a helluva lot more than it needs anymore football right now."



Excellent analogy, Namo!

[lildogs]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 3:28pm

JB2--You should post a pic so we can see how in-shape and gorgeous you are...you must be smoking hot to be typing noise about how other people look.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 3:45pm

I'm so sick of this whole "Obama is pretending he's Superman" narrative those who dislike Obama keep pushing. When you're running for president, you tell people you're going to try to help them. That's why, hopefully, you run for president.

Second, as far as I've seen, Obama has spent this entire race telling us that we need to work together and start taking more responsibility for our families, for the people around us, and stop the cavalier attitude that's divided and isolated our country and gotten us into this mess.

It's been his theme since 2004. I think that's a valuable message. I think people need to stop freaking out about having to pay the same taxes they paid eight years ago (still low as far as the history of this country goes).

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 3:53pm

Republican arguments just don't hold water any longer. The days of single-minded all or nothing are fading. We've had time to see what ultimate conservative control can do. The Republican agenda has failed in every single gambit it sought out to change.

Apparently they are not going to ban gay marriage, or abortion or keep us safe or stabilize the economy. The only thing I've seen is the rich get richer and the decriminalization of semi-automatic handguns.


Obama came at the right time. He has the message we need. Ask not what your country can do for you, but what YOU can do for your country.

[NGD2225]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 3:56pm

2 staunch Republican teachers at my school have accepted that Obama will win. One is now even voting for him, unless McCain can pull something amazing out of his ass.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 4:05pm

geraghty said it a long time ago - all of obama's statements come with an expiration date. all of them. you just have to wait for it. i'm betting that the $250k number will go out the window before the end of 2009. taxes are going up on everybody except those that pay no taxes. don't believe me? let's talk in a year.

now, that said, many people here (and on the left as a whole) think that is fine and dandy and believe that everyone ought to be paying much more than they are. but make no mistake, taxes are going up on everyone.

to those of you who throw around the 90's? check with your candidate because he was not real impressed with them. want to know what the country's gonna look like? look to the late 70's.

that was fun right? right?

[lildogs]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 4:17pm

Well! If GERAGHTY said it!

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 4:22pm

Uh nobody said this is going to be a walk in the park. Not everyone can attain the almighty and illegal power of Cheney/Bush.


The solution from the Right is MORE OF THE SAME. The 70s? THEY SURE BEAT THE 30s!!!

John McCain wants to "win" this war in Iraq. What the fu$k could he mean by that? He also wouldn't mind getting into another war with Iran. Yes because our pocket-books could use another raping.

His energy solution is the same one we have now. Pretend we are going drill here and now. Instead do none of that because that's not what the oil companies want.

What takes the cake with someone who has said he knows nothing of economics is he picked a runningmate that can't tie her shoes! What kind of executive decision was that? Sarah Palin president? Is that what the right really wants?


Cher in 1999 "George Bush will have your grandparents eating dog food."

She was right then and she is right now. Papa you were wrong about Obama then and you are now. He will win and we are going to begin to repair this sinking ship.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 4:32pm

no, i'm right and if there's one thing i do have confidence in about ol' brother bammy is that should he manage to win, he'll prove me right in all of this and be run out of office after four years in disgrace. the irony of watching him chased out will almost offset the economic and foreign policy devestation his marxism will inflict on those stupid enough to think he's anything but hugo chavez's well spoken and thinner twin.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 4:35pm

"but make no mistake, taxes are going up on everyone."

I don't think it's right say this while leaving out the fact that there is a helluva deficit to make up thanks to the cut-taxes-but-spendmore-than-ever neocon agenda of the past 12 years. You remember, W's war?

Do you realize there was a much smaller gap between the health of black US citizens and whites in the late 70s compared to the enormous gaps today? I'm just pulling this as an example, but the Iran hostage crisis casts such a shadow over the late-70s and people's recollection of them, that there were a lot of things that were actually much better, if you can imagine using health indicators as a measure of a country's success as a whole. Which I realize most people do not. But it IS an indicator.

To pick one example that makes a salient point across several issues: tuberculosis was almost completely eliminated in the United States by the late-'70s. Syphilis too. But then The Gipper was elected because the white male elite in this country learned how to manipulate the white male non-elite and convinced them that Reagan was going to reattach their penises after theocrats in Iran emasculated them (symbolically, of course) by taking Americans hostage.

The Gipper, of course, systematically set out to dismantle a fairly successful public health infrastructure in this country, not limited to but including the public health nurses who made sure that people with tuberculosis took their medicine EVERY DAY for a year. Yes, that's expensive, but cheaper than the health care burden of an exploding tuberculosis epidemic. Which is of course what we got after said public health care system was decimated.

When you add in the exploding homeless population during Reagan's "I got mine, I don't care about you, greed is good, selfishness is normative" era you have a perfect storm for the resurgence of TB. Syphilis too.

So basically, when you elect people who hate government to the job of government, they will make sure it fails. (Most recently with Katrina and the great flu shot shortage of a couple years ago).

I don't mind paying more taxes if it means better healthy birthrates, the systematic work to eliminate communicable diseases, or any of the myriad things good government can do to help its citizens live healthier (which means more productive) lives.

I have a hard time listening to ardent Republicans complain about taxes when Dick Cheney's puppet and their circle of friends have run up the biggest deficit in history. We ALL have to pay that bill. And it's YOUR GUY who ran it up.