<p>Could it be like the Voldemort thing?</p>
<p>Actually, I use the full name Barack Hussein Obama just because it so clearly gets under the skin of The One and his supporters. I don’t understand why. </p>
<p>So what if it’s a Muslim-sounding name and his father was a Muslim? We know that Barack Hussein Obama is a disciple of Black Liberation Theology, not Islam.</p>
<p>^I just saw The One ad on YouTube. That was hilarious!</p>
<p>“Barack Hussein Obama! Get down here this instant! Mrs. Peterson says you and your friends hit a baseball through her window!”</p>
<p>Honestly, using someone’s full name is reserved for angry mothers and graduations. There’s no need to actively get under people’s skin, unless you’re dodging around an actual debate on the merits on the candidate.</p>
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<p>Not to worry. I’m sure little Barack Hussein Obama successfully blamed it on somebody else by throwing a close friend or relative under the bus.</p>
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<p>When was the last time you bothered to use Sidney?</p>
<p>^^^ Wait. John McCain is Australian? </p>
<p>Too scary for me, I’m voting for the other guy!</p>
<p>How come it’s not called the “race card” when people make statements with clear racial connotations to attack? It wasn’t called “race card” when Hillary Clinton said that she had the support of “hard working Americans, white Americans” (as if blacks are not true Americans and do not work); it wasn’t called a “race card” when Fox news called Michelle by the ghetto slang term “baby mama” – but Obama tells a 98% white audience in a white town, essentially: don’t let them scare you away from voting for me because I’ve got dark skin and a Muslim-sounding name – now its a “race card”?</p>
<p>I think “race card” is a term invented by white people to try to bully black people into not discussing race. It is patently obvious that a significant number of people will not vote for Obama for reasons of racial prejudice or mistrust – how significant a number that is, we don’t know. But to deny that it exists is silly; and the statement “don’t be afraid of me because of my race” is not playing any “card”. It’s stating the truth in a matter of fact way.</p>
<p>^The reverse seems to be true. I suggest we drop it all together and argue the merits of the candidates.</p>
<p>Can we drop it all together after I make one point –</p>
<p>My mom always votes for the underdog. She voted for Jesse Jackson in a primary decades ago, for goodness sake. This year she was just THRILLED beyond belief that either Clinton or Obama would be the nominee – how far we’ve come as a nation since the 60s, when she was young and being locked out of the house for dating a black man (my dad). So regardless of BO’s or JM’s merits, she’ll be voting for BO. </p>
<p>Do the former hippies outnumber the rednecks?</p>
<p>I’m a former hippy! 
:D</p>
<p>Remember how horrible we thought the world was as former hippies? Compare that to what you think of the world now.</p>
<p>Well, it WAS pretty bad back in the day. We were submerged in an unpopular war. … We had a sorry excuse for a president. … Actually, not much has changed! :)</p>
<p>I remember now as being much worse than then. And the most interesting part of now versus then is that the younger generation is much less involved now, and the ones I know don’t have the same level of concern.</p>
<p>Interesting to hear another hippies take on today!</p>
<p>I think the “celeb” ad backfires horribly. The McCain folks are attempting to mock Obama, but what they are doing is mocking the people who like Obama. It’s one thing to make fun of Britney and Paris, but it’s another (somewhat petty) thing to skewer their audiences for enjoying their entertainment (nobody who likes Britney or Paris takes themselves that seriously, folks.) I also think it serves to point out – again! – how old McCain is. I think his campaign really goofed on this ad.</p>
<p>Interesting article on television advertising here:
[Selling</a> It Short | The American Prospect](<a href=“http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=selling_it_short]Selling”>http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=selling_it_short)</p>
<p>(For a real laugh, check the old JFK ad with the musical jingle).</p>
<p>The “celeb” ad has **1.5 million views **on YouTube, the most viewed video of the week in only three days.</p>
<p>That’s good for Obama’s campaign! Glad to hear it. :)</p>
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<p>I think young people of the 60s/early 70s were more involved largely because of the draft. If kids today really thought they’d be forced to fight and die in an immoral war, I’ll betcha they’d be gathering in angry mobs in the street, burning draft cards, marching on Washington, moving to Canada. When your life’s on the line, you’ll activate pretty fast! … The majority of American kids (and adults) today really don’t care much about Iraq, because it doesn’t affect them at all. Just my humble theory. ;)</p>
<p>Maybe you guys just don’t know the right kids. I am in absolute awe over what my kids and some of their friends are doing. It is way, way beyond what I was doing in college (though in all fairness, the instant communications of the internet & cell phones opens up a lot of options that didn’t exist when I was a kid).</p>