Has Obama ever articulated what he is 'hoping' for, other than to be elected president?

I'm voting for Alan Keyes in 2008
Independent Candidate

http://www.AlanKeyes.com

Of course, I was referring to facts, anjin-san. Not opinions, or even better, feelings.

Facts. You mean like the deficit, the resurgence of the Taliban, Bin Laden still at large, the economy going south, the Katrina fiasco.

Those kind of facts?

And you used to actually have rational arguments back in the day, Boyd... Ex post facto reasoning about winning a divided vote in a court is creative, I'll give you that.

You were the one who drew the parallel with the 2000 race.

Only in that "elect a grownup" has obvious parallels to the 2000 race - hey, even angry conservatives have figured this one out.

"my opponent just got out of diapers yesterday."

Interesting framing, and top marks for the spin. However, "out of diapers" when you're 46 is something that I doubt most would agree with. And if you think that highlighting the fact that McCain would be the oldest dude to be a first term president... well, I think you're insane, but you campaign with the slogans you have, not the slogans you wish you had.

There's a whole lot of difference between the two messages beyond the similar label of being "adults."

Perhaps, but good slogans have multiple interpretations which synergetically reinforce each other. This one, as far as I can tell, has multiple interpretations which *do* reinforce each other but reinforce the one thing that I thought McCain's campaign was trying to run away from and downplay.

Obama might be "just out of diapers", but McCain looks like he's back in them - using Depends. Perhaps the whole "diapers" thing needs a bit of calibration.

Let me know how that all works out.

Wasn't that what Bob Dole said in 1996?

Good luck with it.

“Change” and “Hope” continue to strike me as an incredibly weak platform on which to seek the presidency

::

They continue to strike me as an incredibly powerful platform. Especially the hope part. I'd never underestimate the power of hope. For many, it's about all they've got left.

As for McCain's message: he's not exactly a grown-up. Being a septuagenarian doesn't make one grown.

Whatever the Bush campaign theme was back then, it appears to have worked.

Well it worked for Bush. Did not work out so well for America, or the rest of the world...

He has flipped-flopped on Social Security, oil drilling, campaign financing, the use of torture, the GI Bill, immigration, abortion, gun control, President Bush’s tax cut appeasing the religious right...

If I recall correctly, 2000 resulted in the popular vote going for Gore and the Supreme court deciding the Florida vote in favor of Bush.

So, characterizing the strategy as having "worked" seems to be stretching the definition considerably.

In this context, it would seem that the campaign strategy "working" would end up with winning the election (which, you may recall, doesn't depend on the popular vote). Bush is President, so it sure looks to me like it "worked" without stretching any definition.

George W Bush and Al Gore anything like the current race between McCain and Obama?

Well, if I was McCain, I wouldn't want to bring back any comparisons or bind myself even casually in people's minds with Mr. 25% approval.

Now you're stretching, Hal. You were the one who drew the parallel with the 2000 race.

My point is that quite a few conservatives thought that Bush was going to bring back dignity to the office and put the adults back in charge.

Touché. But that was "they were irresponsible, we'll fix that" (which they actually did, in certain areas that matter more to people like me than they do to people like you) as opposed to "my opponent just got out of diapers yesterday." There's a whole lot of difference between the two messages beyond the similar label of being "adults."

And while "I'm not the other guy" is often a typical campaign strategy it is one that generally fails.

McCain spry...

It's all relative; 1 is infinitely greater than 0.

McCain has looked far more spry and tireless.

Wow.

McCain spry...

No... no, I don;t even know where to begin. Just "Wow."

If I recall correctly, 2000 resulted in the popular vote going for Gore and the Supreme court deciding the Florida vote in favor of Bush.

So, characterizing the strategy as having "worked" seems to be stretching the definition considerably.

George W Bush and Al Gore anything like the current race between McCain and Obama?

Well, if I was McCain, I wouldn't want to bring back any comparisons or bind myself even casually in people's minds with Mr. 25% approval.

My point is that quite a few conservatives thought that Bush was going to bring back dignity to the office and put the adults back in charge. Given the torture, constitutional violations, horrific domestic "policies", massive inflation of the government, two war fiascoes, and the general agreement of a completely dysfunctional, infighting cabinet, etc, all except the most ardent wing nuts have basically given up on even the pretense that the adults were put back in charge.

So, the quote from Eastwood - "do you feel lucky" - would probably be running through most people's mind when one thinks about electing another republican to the office on the platform of "electing a grownup". Especially since the only thing he can come up with as a reason is his experience as a POW a couple of decades ago.