McCain suspends campaign

[Still216]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-tr ... erman.html

McCain is using the economic crisis as an excuse to suspend his campaign, attempting to delay his debate with Obama and (probably the crucial point) the Palin v. Biden debate.

I might listen to Limbaugh today just to see how he'll spin this one.

McCain also cancelled his Letterman appearance as a result of the "suspension". Letterman's choicest line in response: "What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We've got a guy like that now!"

[eumaas]

Letterman is a sad-elite-little man. I stopped watching him. He is NOT funny anymore.

Glenn Beck, "ARGUMENTS WITH IDIOTS, IDIOTS!

I LOL, libs are SO funny!

Financially...

McCain-Palin = A SOLID America

Barry-OBiden = Socialism and crooks.

I pay my bills.

Posted by: RESPONSIBLE WOMAN REPUBLICAN

[Dr. Medulla]

This would be the same McCain who admits that he's a bozo on the economy and hasn't made a Senate vote since April. Is this a variation of getting religion in a crisis?

[IkarisOne]

He's mondo sick. He'll probably drop out. Then watch things get wacky.

[Spiff]

This would be the same McCain who admits that he's a bozo on the economy and hasn't made a Senate vote since April. Is this a variation of getting religion in a crisis?

So true.

But if Obama says as much, he'd be called all "uppity" and such.

It's a fine line he must walk, and so far he's doing it well.

But I think his strategy is to slowly, but respectfully, mock McCain. By that I mean using respectful words, but words that put his feet in the fire, and doing so continuously until he explodes.

I can't wait to see that.

[eumaas]

so wait... I've spent the past few days being intoxicated by a woman to notice--so the debates are off? we're having an election without debates?

[Dr. Medulla]

This would be the same McCain who admits that he's a bozo on the economy and hasn't made a Senate vote since April. Is this a variation of getting religion in a crisis?

So true.

But if Obama says as much, he'd be called all "uppity" and such.

It's a fine line he must walk, and so far he's doing it well.

But I think his strategy is to slowly, but respectfully, mock McCain. By that I mean using respectful words, but words that put his feet in the fire, and doing so continuously until he explodes.

I can't wait to see that.

Seeing Letterman's very quick snark made me think about LBJ and the observation that "once you've lost Cronkite, you've lost the country." The meme that McCain is a liar and will do and say anything for political gain is achieving a certain concreteness, and once it's solidified there's nothing he can do to break it. As is, the McCain campaign is basically in reactive mode and has been since St. Paul. They aren't controlling the narrative at all. Biden's made several dumb statements of late, but it gets little coverage at this point because the narrative is almost completely set now.

[Wolter]

This would be the same McCain who admits that he's a bozo on the economy and hasn't made a Senate vote since April. Is this a variation of getting religion in a crisis?

So true.

But if Obama says as much, he'd be called all "uppity" and such.

It's a fine line he must walk, and so far he's doing it well.

But I think his strategy is to slowly, but respectfully, mock McCain. By that I mean using respectful words, but words that put his feet in the fire, and doing so continuously until he explodes.

I can't wait to see that.

Seeing Letterman's very quick snark made me think about LBJ and the observation that "once you've lost Cronkite, you've lost the country." The meme that McCain is a liar and will do and say anything for political gain is achieving a certain concreteness, and once it's solidified there's nothing he can do to break it. As is, the McCain campaign is basically in reactive mode and has been since St. Paul. They aren't controlling the narrative at all. Biden's made several dumb statements of late, but it gets little coverage at this point because the narrative is almost completely set now.

Hey now, I thought I was the one who made countless meme references? Or has the meme for meme theory gained a foothold?

[Dr. Medulla]

This would be the same McCain who admits that he's a bozo on the economy and hasn't made a Senate vote since April. Is this a variation of getting religion in a crisis?

So true.

But if Obama says as much, he'd be called all "uppity" and such.

It's a fine line he must walk, and so far he's doing it well.

But I think his strategy is to slowly, but respectfully, mock McCain. By that I mean using respectful words, but words that put his feet in the fire, and doing so continuously until he explodes.

I can't wait to see that.

Seeing Letterman's very quick snark made me think about LBJ and the observation that "once you've lost Cronkite, you've lost the country." The meme that McCain is a liar and will do and say anything for political gain is achieving a certain concreteness, and once it's solidified there's nothing he can do to break it. As is, the McCain campaign is basically in reactive mode and has been since St. Paul. They aren't controlling the narrative at all. Biden's made several dumb statements of late, but it gets little coverage at this point because the narrative is almost completely set now.

Hey now, I thought I was the one who made countless meme references? Or has the meme for meme theory gained a foothold?

Meme seems to have surpassed narrative as le mot du jour. I first picked up the word in a non-biological frame in Douglas Rushkoff's Media Virus!. Whether he's responsible for the transplanting, I don't know.

[Wolter]

This would be the same McCain who admits that he's a bozo on the economy and hasn't made a Senate vote since April. Is this a variation of getting religion in a crisis?

So true.

But if Obama says as much, he'd be called all "uppity" and such.

It's a fine line he must walk, and so far he's doing it well.

But I think his strategy is to slowly, but respectfully, mock McCain. By that I mean using respectful words, but words that put his feet in the fire, and doing so continuously until he explodes.

I can't wait to see that.

Seeing Letterman's very quick snark made me think about LBJ and the observation that "once you've lost Cronkite, you've lost the country." The meme that McCain is a liar and will do and say anything for political gain is achieving a certain concreteness, and once it's solidified there's nothing he can do to break it. As is, the McCain campaign is basically in reactive mode and has been since St. Paul. They aren't controlling the narrative at all. Biden's made several dumb statements of late, but it gets little coverage at this point because the narrative is almost completely set now.

Hey now, I thought I was the one who made countless meme references? Or has the meme for meme theory gained a foothold?

Meme seems to have surpassed narrative as le mot du jour. I first picked up the word in a non-biological frame in Douglas Rushkoff's Media Virus!. Whether he's responsible for the transplanting, I don't know.

I actually learned it straight from the source, by total coincidence.

[eumaas]

I first heard about memes from Rosenfelder:
http://zompist.com/memes.html

[Dr. Medulla]

So true.

But if Obama says as much, he'd be called all "uppity" and such.

It's a fine line he must walk, and so far he's doing it well.

But I think his strategy is to slowly, but respectfully, mock McCain. By that I mean using respectful words, but words that put his feet in the fire, and doing so continuously until he explodes.

I can't wait to see that.

Seeing Letterman's very quick snark made me think about LBJ and the observation that "once you've lost Cronkite, you've lost the country." The meme that McCain is a liar and will do and say anything for political gain is achieving a certain concreteness, and once it's solidified there's nothing he can do to break it. As is, the McCain campaign is basically in reactive mode and has been since St. Paul. They aren't controlling the narrative at all. Biden's made several dumb statements of late, but it gets little coverage at this point because the narrative is almost completely set now.

Hey now, I thought I was the one who made countless meme references? Or has the meme for meme theory gained a foothold?

Meme seems to have surpassed narrative as le mot du jour. I first picked up the word in a non-biological frame in Douglas Rushkoff's Media Virus!. Whether he's responsible for the transplanting, I don't know.

I actually learned it straight from the source, by total coincidence.

You mean from Dawkins? I haven't read The Selfish Gene, but does he take it beyond the biological?

[Wolter]

I first heard about memes from Rosenfelder:
http://zompist.com/memes.html

Meme theory is a great analytical tool when used properly to get a perspective...but it's easy to misuse. And it's cetainly not something that is an all-encompassing social explanation. From what I skimmed in that review, a lot of people have glommed on to the term without realizing how rigorous they must be with their metaphors for so-called "memetics" to make sense.

Re: Dr. M's query: He does to an extent, and he is certainly enamoured of the idea of memetics. But, as a scientist, he is a lot more conscious of the testing and intellectual rigor needed to insure that the concept isn't corrupted. From what I recall, Dawkins is dismissive of the vast majority of people that have championed meme theory as missing the point.

Meme theory, taken down to its essence, is the acknowledgement that Darwinian natural selection can work in any system where any unit (a gene, an idea, a picture, a book) is replicated in almost perfect copies where the differences affect each copy's chances of further replication. That was a weird way of puting it, I know. But basically, the real premise is simply that ideas are replicated and transferred just like genes (or better yet, viruses - which have the advantage for comparison of being essentially random DNA), and the ones that are the best at replicating themselves faithfully, spreading rapidly, and of driving out competing ideas tend to survive, whether they are good or bad for their "host bodies."

Anything further added to meme theory is largely dross.

[tepista]

McCain also cancelled his Letterman appearance as a result of the "suspension". Letterman's choicest line in response: "What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We've got a guy like that now!"

http://www.instantrimshot.com/

[Dr. Medulla]

Meme theory, taken down to its essence, is the acknowledgement that Darwinian natural selection can work in any system where any unit (a gene, an idea, a picture, a book) is replicated in almost perfect copies where the differences affect each copy's chances of further replication. That was a weird way of puting it, I know. But basically, the real premise is simply that ideas are replicated and transferred just like genes (or better yet, viruses - which have the advantage for comparison of being essentially random DNA), and the ones that are the best at replicating themselves faithfully, spreading rapidly, and of driving out competing ideas tend to survive, whether they are good or bad for their "host bodies."

It's been a good ten years since I've read Media Virus! but that does seem to be how Rushkoff was utilizing the term—it's about replicating a narrative and taking over to the exclusion of other narratives. Gradually, all events are interpreted in the frame of that idea until a "better" meme comes along or the current one hits an event that it can't successfully explain.