CNN has a running poll of "persuadable" voters which shows up as a sort of red, green and blue ekg on the bottom of the screen--though only, I'm told, for those who are viewing in HD. It's completely mesmerizing. So far I've learned: McCain talking about Iraq is not popular (though mostly that's "persuadable" Democrats dragging down the average). But McCain bashing Iran is like one of those third world dictators who win with 99.4% of the vote.
Conclusion: "persuadable" voters are crazy people who don't like the war we have, but want to start another one just in case that one's more fun.
Update: Now the Dems are dinging him for struggling to pronounce Ahmadinejad. Actually, I thought it was rather charming, since his facial expression indicated that he found the struggle humorous. And this is petty. I'm willing to bet that none of the people panning his pronounciation could, themselves, pronounce it better than he did.
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My read is that almost everyone wants to punish Iran (and, more to the point, don't really regret punishing Iraq in 2003); it's the whole throwing a trillion down the drain in a misguided nation-building exercise part of the Iraq war that is unpopular.
Your point in the update is kind of irrelevant. Whether or not someone (I don't have any trouble with the guy's name, incidentally) can pronounce Mahmoud's name is not the point. The point is that the incident showed poor acumen on the part of McCain.
People aren't stupid--they know the guy has a brutal last name. It was the flippancy coupled with the mispronunciation that got folks riled.
Your conclusion gave me a good chuckle.
"I'm willing to bet that none of the people panning his pronounciation could, themselves, pronounce it better than he did."
And I'm willing to bet none of them is running for President.
Now I understand why conservatives like Palin.
"I'm willing to bet that none of the people panning his pronounciation could, themselves, pronounce it better than he did."
I just said it out loud and got it in one. I'll take that bet.
He sounded moronic and nervous. You're in the tank.
Hey, Rorgg,
Say it again, so we can HEAR you........and then repeat it three times, really really fast......
C'mon, how many of those "persuabables" are really undecided voters......I mean, REALLY.
Why don't we call them what they really are...."people who get a thrill about lying to pollsters"
Miss McArdle,
1. It is too late to invade Iran. The Iranian government may be nearly as fragile as Sadam; but the Iranian people have noted that they can fight, that the US Army is over-stretched, and that the USA knows it would institute free elections; at which the Iranians might very well re-elect Ahmadinejad.
2. However an attempt to invade Iran would provide a real challenge to Shia-hating Al Queda. Could they recruit supporters amongst people they would really like to kill as heretics? (Of course, they might try to recruit them as suicide bombers.)
3. Perhaps you watched this debate from the wrong place? Would watching the next debate from the headquarters of the UnReason Movement make it all more intelligible?
Dina Dina Jad
Obviously you are right - about him and the other one too.
I am sure McCain knows how to correctly pronounce Ahmadinejad's name. I have heard him do it properly before. Still, let's not kid ourselves. It isn't such a terribly difficult challenge to pronounce Ahmadinejad's name with the proper English pronunciation that those mocking McCain would universally fail. I bet they also couldn't manage to pick lettuce for a whole season for $50 an hour as well.
The best part about this debate & the election itself is watching the right-wingers like McCardle trying to pretend with a straight face that McCain hasn't lost the election tonight (if he ever had a chance to win after his "chicken-with-it's-head-cut-off" week).
One of the funniest examples is this post, where McCardle says "It is petty" to fault McCain for mispronounciation, and in the very next post she writes that Obama won't have tea with the iranian leader, but "maybe coffee?"
She is obviously an expert on petty. that's all she's got left, petty insults that her diehard lunatic followers will laugh at, while the "republican revolution" goes down in flames.
Listen closely, though, and you hear Obama offering, "That's a tough one." Time after time, he's just a good guy, whose instinct is not to pounce on something so silly. Kind of reminds of the Richardson moment in the primaries. (In a whisper: "Katrina! The questions was about Katrina!")
Assuming that McCain didn't know how to pronounce Ahmadinejad's name, it implies something startling (well, at least to me, again he could be making another poor joke, along the lines of Bomb Iran).
He doesn't discuss the Iran or it's President with other people.
How can you tell?
Well, you learn how to pronounce words by listening to other people say the word and trying to say the word yourself. If you aren't talking and listening to other people, chances are you won't be able to pronounce the word.
So, chances are good McCain isn't seriously discussing Iran if he can't pronounce the nominal leader's name.
Someone who doesn't discuss Iran? Not a deal-breaker for President, but it helps build a picture of McCain as a close-minded man and that is a deal-breaker. This is especially damning for McCain, because he vaunts himself as the foreign policy expert.
The reason people don't like McCain talking about Iraq, but like the bluster about Iran:
Lots of moderate voters want a president who is tough, and not afraid to use military force, but think that Iraq was very badly mismanaged. A lot of these folks probably think Iraq would have been a great war if it had been handled competently, like the first Gulf War was.
Regarding the pronunciation of Ahmadinejad, I really don't care and think it is a trivial cheap shot. I'm curious though; there are plenty of equally dumb cheap shots coming from the Republican side. How come you aren't talking about them? At least the Democrats haven't tried to make a TV add out of this, like the Republicans did.
Their first add from the dabate shows a bunch of clips of Obama agreeing with McCain, and then at the end they say "is he ready to lead"? Well, clearly not if he thinks McCain is right about anything.
If the Republicans can't put together a more competent TV add than that, how can we trust them to manage anything else? Oh, wait a minute....
You know Megan, McCain mispronouncing Ahmedinejad was not funny. This after this ditty on bombing Iran and woeful ignorance of what or who Sunnis and Shias are.
It just goes to show that he does not know or care to find out squat about the countries he is eager to attack. And just as in the case of Bush he will be excused for it since it is some damn foreigner's name after all.
This is the kind of 'frog in a well' xenophobic attitude that has America in its current mess.
Every time McCain started talking, the independent "worm" took a dive.
BTW, I don't consider Ahmedinajad's name even close to difficult to pronounce. But then, I'm not senile. Or you.