(no subject)

[avevale_intelligencer]

Someone really ought to have told John McCain that during a televised presidential debate is not the time to pull funny faces. (Making Light, I believe, has the picture. I'm not going to link to it, because it's irrelevant and a cheap shot.) Does anyone remember anything else about the debate?

You know, it occurred to me, thinking about that phrase "presidential debate"...once the candidates are chosen, the president can only be one of them. So, in the persons of Obama and McCain and whatever other serious candidates there may be, you have a sort of quantum indeterminate "Schrödinger's president," narrowed down from billions of people to a number between two and maybe ten. (Unfortunately, they're not in a sealed box, with or without a poison pellet. The experiment isn't perfected yet.) Most of the work is thus already done, and you can tell a lot about what the next presidential term is going to be like from studying the candidates and ruling out anything that neither/none of them would countenance.

I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not...

Anyway. I need to rest my brain and eat something.

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Sure. Several things, in fact. I was listening on radio, and so only saw the faces and gestures later.

I remember McCain calling Obama "Senator Government" and then quickly correcting himself. I'd like to think it was accidental, but am not completely convinced.

I remember McCain saying that he'd nominate judges who were "competent" to the Supreme Court, and that he has no litmus test. Then, in his next breath, he acknowledged that a willingness to overturn Roe v. Wade was a prerequisite for "competence".

I remember McCain using every opportunity to attack Obama, whether on reasonable grounds or the spurious ones his campaign's been pushing. And I remember Obama defusing every single one of them. (There are several cases in which I -- and various fact-checkers online -- caught Obama stretching the truth, too. Still, I tend to believe that the man who was consistently speaking untruths was doing so deliberately, while the other was probably not.)

Hope you're better rested than I.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

"Schrödinger's president" ... Unfortunately, they're not in a sealed box, with or without a poison pellet. The experiment isn't perfected yet.

Thank you for that! It's just the image I needed with current news coverage...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

If McCain wasn't off his meds, then he should have his doctor adjust them, now. The entire "Joe, you're rich!" spiel was incoherent. Most of his answers were incoherent, a number of them off-topic, and the impatience with and vitriol for Obama were palpable. He contradicted himself a number of times, as with the SCOTUS answer, and when accusing Obama of having never gone "south of our border" when he just picked Sarah Palin to be his Veep. He just seemed off-balance the whole night, easily flustered, and kinda scary, actually.

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

Have I ever mentioned that I love the way you think?! "Schrodinger's president"!!! Bwahahahahaha!

[hurdle1gal.livejournal.com]

Didn't watch the debate really, except for the last 5 minutes of it. And during that time, McCain blinked about 1000 times. I guess he needs sunglasses because Obama didn't nearly blink that many times. Also, my fiancee asked about a weird smurk McCain had on his face at one point while Barack was talking...

But honestly, I don't froddin' care anymore. Just let us vote already and end this froddin' thing. The only one who are benefitting from this torturously long campaigning period are the comedians of late night and witty bloggers (not intended as an insult to comedians or wits, since it's the only thing that is interesting about the process anymore).

Ok, I've gone off-roading... and I'm about to fall off a cliff as a result... byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

(thud)

[howeird]

One thing which makes me very nervous about Obama is how very careful he is to look Presidential 24/7. Even his sense of humor is halting and scripted.

Whenever I think of Schrödinger I automatically merge in Heisenberg. I love your analogy, and will apply mine like this:

When you try to measure the momentum of Obama or McCain campaigns, you can't discover their positions. If you know their positions, you can't figure out which one has the most momentum. But when we open the box on Nov. 4, there will be two cats inside, only one's campaign will be dead.