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Terminator: Salvation storyline unravelled

I think I know what the storyline of Terminator: Salvation is. At it’s core, it’s Aeschylus’s myth of ‘Prometheus’, as the movie’s director McG unveiled here some time ago. But there’s a twist: instead of using the Greek Aeschylus’s original, the writers have turned to the version of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and likely also threw in parts from ‘Frankenstein’, written by Mary Shelley, Percy’s wife. Be aware, though: what follows, probably contains spoilers.

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Yes, Palin is a danger – to McCain

The pick of Alaska governor Sarah Palin to the veep-slot of John McCain is what you might call a “gamble”. Republicans, of course, relieved that finally McCain’s campaign has gotten some positive mojo in the media for 48 hours straight, are calling Palin’s pick “fantastic”, “briliant”, “excellent”, etcetera. Team Obama has been remarkably careful in its initial response, and so has Hillary Clinton. They seem to be careful not to attack Palin too hard, as independent older women form one of the demographic groups that this year will decide the election.

Yet there’s enough to make those women growl about Palin.

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James Carville is right. Pounce!

I never thought very highly of James Carville. The Democratic strategist and ‘political critic’ in my view boasts a big Cajun mouth, but he never really achieved that much. The Bill Clinton presidency? If Ross Perot hadn’t taken in all those Bush-votes in ’92, Clinton would very likely still have been governor of Arkansas. And Carville knows this. But he has for the past 48 hours been bashing the Democratic Convention in Denver for not rolling out a Central Message. And he’s dead on.

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The Pope of Hope is losing

Back from my holidays in Morocco and Spain (it was fun, thank you – we sorta followed the ‘Moorish Trail’), and lo and behold! Barack Obama no longer seems to be in the lead. As the electoral college polls over at the (pro-GOP) Realclearpolitics.com and (more neutral) Fivethirtyeight.com websites show, John McCain has closed the gap. Obama needs to get worried.

The reasons why Obama is losing? It ain’t rocket science:

  1. He has not been able to convince voters that he’s made of the right stuff.
  2. People doubt him.
  3. He’s black. (Well, sorta.) Which doesn’t help, not in the USA anyway.
  4. They’re Americans; they can’t handle the truth!

In short, the four reasons that have been toiling in the back of my head ever since Obama became the Democratic candidate-in-waiting.

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Closing the deal

Yesterday, I wrote an article called ‘Deconstructing Obama’. In it, I gave a very short rundown of the only strategy that seems to be left to McCain: go personal. The reason being that Obama has had the initiative since day one, it seems.

But perhaps I was wrong. The tracking polls are starting to show dents in Obama’s armour. Over at Real Clear Politics (I’m always careful with these guys as they’re clearly pro-GOP), the latest rundown of tracking polls shows that although Obama is still leading, the margins seem to be getting smaller, not bigger.

That spells trouble for Obama. Of course, Americans being Americans, I would not be surprised if they once again elect someone who will tear their country even further apart. Because that’s what Republicans do: they pretend to be all Christian morals, but before you know it, they’re out with TV-ads calling people traitors and sodomizing your 3-year-old.

Either way, Obama has not yet been able to close the deal and I’m afraid that that’s because people are still very doubtful of him. Of course, American pigheads being American pigheads, they keep noticing that Obama is black. Perhaps that’s it. It can’t be because of ideological reasons. Because how many average Americans read candidate platforms these days?

I‘ve said from day one, so even before the primaries, that Americans were very capable of electing a carbon copy of George W Bush into office. I also predicted that the election would be very close.

When the new King of Expectation beat the Oracle of Chappaqua, I said I was convinced that any generic Republican would win the election. Now, I’m going back to that position. I’ll be keeping it until Obama truly starts improving his poll numbers and significantly moves away from McCain.

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Deconstructing Obama

John McCain is on the offensive, and for all the wrong reasons. He has to find a way to dent Obama’s armor. For all intents and purposes, Obama is able to keep the initiative, constantly forcing his adversary to react and take on a defensive position. He is almost constantly asked by the media to respond to new Obama ploys.

In an effort to break that spell, McCain seems to have started a new offensive, directly attacking Obama’s persona. That puts him right where team Obama wants him. Unless something odd happens: if this continues, Obama will win the election.

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John Nichols, Obama and Afghanistan

John Nichols of thenation.com is getting a bit infatuated with Barack Obama. That’s fine, a lot of journalists are being sucked in. John McCain should stop bitching about it – he was yesterday’s sweetheart for a long time, but that’s what he is. Yesterday’s news, just like Hillary Clinton was.

So it was refreshing to see Nichols criticizing Obama for a change in an article pasted here, but unfortunately, Nichols missed the mark. He was right to criticize Obama, but for the wrong reason.

Both Barack Obama and John McCain are right: more troops are needed in Afghanistan, but with one unifying mandate, not two different ones that cancel each other out. As is currently the case.

So I wrote Mr Nichols an email. To which he didn’t respond, of course.

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Keeping up appearances: the US economy

“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” shouted John Lydon, singer of The Sex Pistols, at the end of their last (real) gig. One can only wonder how many Americans wake up each morning, and feel that somehow they’ve been cheated as well. Millions of them grew up with mom and dad telling them they work, and work hard, they could make quite a decent living for themselves. What are the moms and dads of today telling their kids as they load up the U-Haul trailers, to move away from the house they can no longer afford?

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GeenStijl heeft het wéér eens mis

GeenStijl heeft ook eens plaatjes gekeken in de Oude Media en geconcludeerd dat de Franse president, Nicolas Sarkozy (dus niet NiCHolas, ongeletterde SUKKELS!), wil dat de pliesie met de harde lat gaat regeren in de banlieueus van Frankrijk. Dat zou leiden tot minder problemen in die wijken.

Gut. Laat nou juist die aanpak de afgelopen 30 jaar mislukt zijn. Laat nou juist die aanpak hebben geleid tot het beschieten van politieagenten, zonder verder enige oplossing. Nee: leuker is dat de Fransen juist bij de Nederlanders komen koekeloeren voor een oplossing.

En dit op befehl van Sarkozy zelf.

Want wij doen het hier best goed. Niet dat die hoeren van GeenStijl willen dat u dat weet, natuurlijk. De waarheid – dat het in Nederland allemaal best goed gaat, op incidenten na – houden ze, uit puur commerciële overwegingen,  namelijk het liefst stil.

Gewoon doorlopen, mensen, er is niets aan de hand…

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‘Slecht voor het land, goed voor de krant!’

Nederlandse parlementaire journalisten worden door veel nieuwskijkers en politieke junkies bewonderd om hun standvastigheid, kennis van zaken en hun vermogen om heel ingewikkelde zaken terug te brengen tot de essentie. Dat is in ieder geval het beeld dat veel mensen delen. Echter, de buitenlandse journalist die de journalistieke Haagse kaasstolp oplicht zal direct bijna bedwelmd raken door de valse meur die eronder vandaan komt. Nederlandse parlementaire journalisten lijken niet veel interesse in eventuele kennis van zaken te hebben en met dat vermogen om zaken terug te brengen tot ‘de essentie’ valt het ook wel mee; de journalisten lijken namelijk maar één essentie te kennen, en dat is kijken of ze ruzie kunnen stoken.

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