US Presidential Elections 2008 (4 Viewers)

[magnetize]

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

 

[Mormon Nailer]

Camile Paglia's Salon column

WOW!

[FONT=times new roman, times, serif]Palin has made the biggest step forward in feminism since Madonna channeled the dominatrix persona of high-glam Marlene Dietrich and rammed pro-sex, pro-beauty feminism down the throats of the prissy, victim-mongering, philistine feminist
establishment.

[/FONT][FONT=times new roman, times, serif]On the other hand, I support the death penalty for atrocious crimes (such as rape-murder or the murder of children). I have never understood the standard Democratic combo of support for abortion and yet opposition to the death penalty. Surely it is the guilty rather than the innocent who deserve execution? [/FONT][FONT=times new roman, times, serif]
[/FONT]

 

[Buzzo]

Here's a super post on the Cedar Lounge Revolution about the polls n shit

It’s the Electoral College stupid… or why the post Convention McCain Palin bounce tells us nothing we didn’t already know. Exciting stuff in the Irish Time. As noted in the Letters page yesterday, this is the paper which told us last week breathlessly and without any apparent trace of irony that the Convention and Sarah Palin’s speech were… ‘“…remarkable achievement in a week which saw the convention nearly called off because of Hurricane Gustav and then consumed with worries over whether selecting Ms Palin was the right decision. Her remarkably confident speech to delegates dispelled all such doubts.”. Well, I hate to rain on this particular parade but… I think not. And consider the simple fact that she has been sequestered in the intervening time by the McCain team in order to get her up to speed for press exposure and questioning. That’s right, the best part of a week. This is not to suggest that she’s not a formidable opponent, but that there is a fair bit of running to stand still intrinsic to this campaign yet.
But we also read yesterday that:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain got a bounce in opinion polls from his convention and now runs even or slightly ahead of Democratic rival Barack Obama with eight weeks to go in the White House race.
Mr McCain’s surprise choice of conservative Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate also sparked a burst of grass-roots Republican enthusiasm, polls showed, an encouraging sign for party strategists worried about turnout in the November 4th election.
​

Yay! Go team Palin/McCain, I’m sorry - I do, of course, mean McCain/Palin.

“The change in enthusiasm is huge, that’s what wins these things,” Republican consultant Rich Galen said. “Given the political atmosphere, Mr Obama did not want to be coming out of these conventions tied - he needed to come out with a lead.”
Three polls taken since the Republican convention ended on Thursday show Mr McCain with a lead of 1 to 4 percentage points - within the margin of error - and two others show the race dead even.
Another poll released yesterday, by the Washington Post/ABC News, gave Obama a 1-point edge among registered voters and McCain a 2-point edge among likely voters - both within the margin of error.
​

And note that:

Heading into the conventions - Mr Obama and Democrats met the week before Mr McCain and the Republicans - the two candidates had been running even or Obama held a small lead in most polls.
Conventions typically give a candidate a short-term bounce, but this year’s back-to-back gatherings appeared to cut short the benefit for Mr Obama and gave Mr McCain a slightly bigger boost. Democrats said the new round of polls was not a cause for alarm.
​

But wait. Obama actually saw his ’small lead’ increase by up to 5% or more after the Democratic Convention. What this week has done has been to marginally firm up McCain’s support on the national stage.
The Irish Times suggests that:

State-by-state polls show Mr Obama with a lead in more states than Mr McCain, although about 10 remain toss-ups and neither candidate has a clear edge in accumulating the 270 electoral votes needed to claim the White House.
​

Which is - without a doubt - nice if you happen to be John McCain, but hardly the stuff of legend. Except, it’s not entirely accurate. First, let’s not pretend there’s no volatility out there. There clearly is, but not to the degree that should necessarily have the Obama camp sweating or the McCain camp breaking out the champagne (question, is Sarah Palin teetotal?).
Secondly, for a read of the polls that matter, and I suspect will continue to matter even if the race remains tight at national level go to here to see Slate’s running total of state polling data and the consequent numbers of votes in the Electoral College. So far so good for Obama who still has a strong and cohesive lead. And while it is true that if the McCain figures maintained, say, a 3 - 5 % lead over the next number of weeks that might lead to an attrition in Obama’s figures that seems, from the dynamic so far in the campaign to be unlikely. Of course the debates will be crucial, but remember - a week so far and counting for Palin to appear before the press. And McCain is, at best, a wooden speaker (although the Slate Gabfest suggested he was ‘dignified’). They’re going to have to whip up a real storm to pull Obama’s state polling figures down.
Most interesting in all this is the way the media no longer seems to play against the respective campaigns, but against itself. So if it tips too far one week, as with some critiques of the coverage of the Democratic Convention and then after that the focus on Palin, it then attempts to rectify this by tipping too far the other the following week. I find it enormously telling that our home-grown media should pick up on this and essentially reflect it rather than giving a more coolly dispassionate view. But - I guess - whatever sells a newspaper.
I don’t expect massive detail. Those days where we might see that in our own media are long gone now, replaced by near-pointless op-ed pieces that tell us little more than the political leanings of those writing them. Nor am I suggesting that Obama is a shoo-in. Far from it. Yet, McCain bounce and all it is Obama who retains a substantial lead in the polls which reflect the contests which matter. When he doesn’t then the Irish Times can get back to me.
It would be great, just for once, if there was some effort to analyse this process - whatever its shortcomings from a leftist perspective - with some acknowledgement of the complexity of the campaigns rather than scurrying after the most immediate and most immediately shallow talking points. Wouldn’t it?

 

[Unicron]

Anyone heard this "lipstick on a pig" supposed "gaff" that Obama made? Really clutching at straws to beat him with there.

 

[magicbastarder]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/09/obama-attacks-gop-tickets-mantra-of-change/

obama is a fucking idiot. he's playing right into the GOP's hands.

 

[the strange guy]

Holy shit, that's real?
I thought Unicron was taking the piss!

 

[Unicron]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/09/obama-attacks-gop-tickets-mantra-of-change/

obama is a fucking idiot. he's playing right into the GOP's hands.

He's not calling her a pig, it's a fairly common expression.

 

[Vinnie]

All he has to do is laugh this one off. It's an absolute joke of an attack

 

[magicbastarder]

He's not calling her a pig

immaterial. it's a fucking stupid thing to say.
he's turning palin into a victim.

 

[Unicron]

immaterial. it's a fucking stupid thing to say.
he's turning palin into a victim.

I really don't think he is. His comments were related to the fallacy that the GOP have been pushing since the convention last week that they're they ones to bring change to the presidency when McCain the "maverick" has backed Bush 90% of the time. Why aren't people reaching for his fish comment and saying that that's sexist too?

 

[magicbastarder]

because the comment about lipstick was a clear reference to palin, or will be seen as such. and he tied a pig to it.

 

[Moods For Mallards]

immaterial. it's a fucking stupid thing to say.
he's turning palin into a victim.

No he's not. The Republican campaign is. It's all so petty.
If you language has to be constrained to that extent I'm not sure he can ever really get at the McCain campaign in the same way that they happily criticise him.

 

[magicbastarder]

this is great:

John McCain: Reformed Maverick | The Daily Show | Comedy Central

 

[Vinnie]

The Smalltown Values piece that follows is amazing too

this is great:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184113&title=john-mccain-reformed-maverick

 

[broken arm]

lads and ladies. the pig comment is fairly common.

Mr. McCain also criticized the Democratic plans, but his comments were more in passing and were far less barbed.

But when asked about Mrs. Clinton his speech, he said her proposal was “eerily” similar to the plan she came up with in 1993, when she headed a health care reorganization effort during her husband’s administration. “I think they put some lipstick on a pig,” he said, “but it’s still a pig.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/us/politics/12health.html?_r=1&fta=y&oref=slogin

and

After all, McCain's former press secretary, Torie Clarke, wrote a book called "Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era."

Elizabeth Edwards told some health journalists that McCain's health care plan was like “painting lipstick on a pig.”

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/a-piggish-debat.html

 

[magicbastarder]

lads and ladies. the pig comment is fairly common.

yes, but in politics, if you have to explain, you've lost. he made a comment which appears to refer to palin, and a simple reading of what he said would cast palin as the pig. he's cleverer than that, it was a stupid mistake.

 

[billygannon]

I think by calling Palin a pig, he's basically saying she's definitely not Lieberman. But by saying painting lipstick on this "pig", he's saying that Lieberman actually does put on lipstick, therefore making him a transvestite. And by suggesting Palin, being the sidekick of McCain, is a pig he is ultimately suggesting that McCain is Irish.

Ultimately by saying painting lipstick on a pig, he alienates himself from the Irish, Jewish, Transgendered, Non-Irish, Non-Jewish and Statically Gendered voters.

Pig Lipsticking might be quite common in Haiti. Why Obama would want to subtley introduce this practice in to the campaign now suggests that he may want to introduce other heinous practices that might happen in Haiti such as Monkey Wanking, Goat Sacrificing and Reading.

 

[Diddles]

She is a pig though.

 

[broken arm]

yes, but in politics, if you have to explain, you've lost.

So, the election is over because of a throwaway remark that is probably misunderstood by most people? Nevermind the fact it is a similar remark that has been made by McCain about Ms Clinton not so long ago.....

 

[billygannon]

She is a pig though.

Pigs and humans are the only animals that get sunburnt.
This means she has empathy with us when it comes to global warming.