America tried to give us a real race, and we turned it into a bag of shit, just in the nick of time

[Orwellian_Ghost]

How Trivial Can the Media Make the Presidential Race?
By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com. Posted January 16, 2008.

Corporate media are turning one of the most exciting primary seasons in history into a trivia contest.
...

Robotic cheers as the kids hurl shirts in every direction. Last time I saw this act, it was New Jersey Nets mascot Sly the Silver Fox shooting tees with a slingshot to "Who Let the Dogs Out" during halftime at the Meadowlands. This time, the soundtrack is Tom Petty's nauseatingly Hillary-specific "American Girl." Some reporters are rolling their eyes, but every camera is dutifully following each flying T-shirt.

....

And when Hillary finally arrives, her speech turns out to be the same maddeningly nonspecific, platitude-filled verbal oatmeal that every candidate has spent the last year slinging in all directions -- complete with the same vague promises for "change" we've heard from every last coached-up dog in this presidential hunt, from Barack Obama to Mitt Romney.

....

In a vacuum, of course, this is the most meaningless kind of computer-generated horseshit, the type of thing you would expect to hear coming out of the mouth of a $200-an-hour inspirational speaker at a suburban sales conference. But in this tightest of presidential races, Hillary attacking "hope" amounts to a major rhetorical offensive. "Hope," after all, is Barack Obama's own personal spoonful of oatmeal, and by disparaging it, Hillary has given this gym full of political hacks tomorrow's sports headline.
....

Reading all of this crap the next day, I'm amazed. Here we are, the world's lone superpower, holding elections at a time when we're engaged in a catastrophic war in Iraq, facing a burgeoning nuclear crisis in Pakistan, dealing with all sorts of horrible stuff. And at the crucial moment, the presidential race turns into something from the cutting-room floor of Truly Tasteless Jokes #50: "Three change-promisers walk into a bar ...."

I mean, is this a joke, or what? What the hell is the difference between "working for change" and "demanding change"? And why can't we hope for change and work for it? Are these presidential candidates or six-year-olds?

...

http://www.alternet.org/story/73727/

[MadHound]

1. No, sadly it's no joke.

It is a corporate controlled dog and pony show to keep the masses pacified and thinking that they're actually making a difference. That became obvious when you had a sitting Congressman, running for the Democratic nomination, calling for impeachment and all the talking head could do was bring up UFO's.

But it keeps people fooled, rooting for Corporate Candidate A over Corporate Candidate B, thinking that this will actually make a difference as this country continues to rotate around that corporate drain.

[Selatius]

2. Maybe he should move to France or Germany to find politics of substance instead of style.

This is America. We do it half-assed because that's the American way.

[midnight]

3. I'm watching the debates at an athletic club. I'm not sold on

cable. Anyways everyone around me is watching different things. Later on in the locker room a T.V. blaring, and someone asks about if anyone is watching the debates. The response was lovely. "Anyone who watches that stuff needs to get a life". The questioner said, "in the meantime your watching fat people on a scale. Looks like you the one without a life."

[Selatius]

4. That's the best zinger to an apathetic answer I've heard in a while.

Thanks for the laugh!

:rofl:

[Angela Shelley]

5. Oh, those threads about "the world´s lone superpower"

... how nostalgic, romantic, sweet.

[shadowknows69]

6. IMO our three best choices for President this time were

Kucinich, Biden and Dodd. Not necessarily in that order.