US Presidential Elections 2008 (1 Viewer)

[Mormon Nailer]

Paddy Power is going to regret paying out on those bets now.

The security agents look a bit uncomfortable without their normal MIB attire.

I wonder is it the Obama campaign that gave then a no tie rule.

 

[pete]

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced Sunday that he will be voting for Sen. Barack Obama. "He has both style and substance. I think he is a transformational figure," Powell said on NBC's Meet the Press.

"Obama displayed a steadiness. Showed intellectual vigor. He has a definitive way of doing business that will do us well," Powell said.


Powell said he questioned Sen. John McCain's judgment in picking Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate because he doesn't think she is ready to be president.
He also said he was disappointed with some of McCain's campaign tactics, such as bringing up Obama's ties to former 1960s radical Bill Ayers.


Following the interview, Powell told reporters outside NBC's Washington studio: "I think that Senator Obama brings a fresh set of eyes, fresh set of ideas to the table. I think that Senator McCain, as gifted as he is, is essentially going to execute the Republican agenda, the orthodoxy of the Republican agenda with a new face and a maverick approach to it, and he'd be quite good at it, but i think we need more than that."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/19/colin-powell-endorses-oba_n_135895.html

 

[flashback]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7678984.stm

its pretty funny how Americans are terrified of the word socialist.
It used to be Communist, but now presumably Communist==Terrst.

 

[mr pharmacist!!!!1]

[ame="http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1884021"]McCain Drums - CollegeHumor video[/ame]

 

[Mormon Nailer]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7678984.stm

its pretty funny how Americans are terrified of the word socialist.
It used to be Communist, but now presumably Communist==Terrst.

It's nuts isn't it.
Poor Colin - could have been him.

 

[Lefty Frizzell]

I can't believe that Colin Powell is 71. He doesn't look much older than 50.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

McCain - national punchbag for crisis the Democrats created

Obama's rise is a cause for concern but voters are too busy being angry at the Republicans, says Ruth Dudley Edwards


Sunday October 19 2008

'The fact that we're in the race at all, within striking distance with a five per cent right track, is a miracle", said one of Senator John McCain's key advisers on Friday, "because the environment is so bad and the headwind is so strong." What he didn't add was that McCain's problems were compounded by his failure to raise his game sufficiently in the last presidential debate.
He scored some hits but no knockout blows and some of his facial expressions were unattractive (grimacing, condescending smiles, even an eye roll), culminating in a terrible photo of him when he almost missed the exit route off stage with his tongue out looking old and deranged. As usual, Obama was cool and intellectually lofty, looked good and made no mistakes.
Because he's so unqualified for the job, and such an unknown quantity, Obama could still be defeated. But voters are blaming President Bush and the whole Republican party for the economic collapse and their anger is being taken out on McCain. The irony is they should be blaming the Democrats: the mystery is why McCain has failed to make that clear.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the economic hell that the world is now experiencing began with the determination of Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party to force mortgage providers to help the poor - particularly those from ethnic minorities - to become home owners.
Clinton became alarmed at the rampant success of his policy enforcers, but his attempt to introduce regulation of the sub-prime market was shot down in Congress by his own party, who were in thrall to the powerful Congressional Black Caucus who attacked prudence as racism.
George W Bush's several attempts to rein back mortgage providers were similarly sabotaged. "The Democrats are our family," said the head of Freddie Mac to the meeting of the Black Caucus in 2004 at which Obama was welcomed into the group: "You are our conscience."
There are hundreds of thousands of poor people, black, white and Hispanic, who are now homeless because the Democratic Party allowed itself to be bullied by that caucus. And Obama's failure to question the group's activities is all of a piece with his political record. He talks of change but - unlike McCain, who is an instinctive and brave reformer - as a politician he has never questioned the institutions of which he has been part.
As a state senator for eight years, he never challenged corruption in the Democratic political sewer that is Chicago. On the contrary, he sucked up to the power-brokers and wheeler-dealers and chose as his friends people who could help him extend his political base.
When he came on the scene I liked the intelligent, charming, eloquent Obama who beguiled us all with his message of transcending race. My concern then was how little I knew about his political record and I wondered at an arrogance that made him think himself fit for presidential office when he had not even served one full term in the US Senate.
He now alarms me. I've been following the campaign intently for months and I still don't know what makes Obama tick. Is he an attention-seeker like Tony Blair, wanting to be centre stage but not knowing what to do with power when he wins it? Or is he - as his voting record and his choice of associates suggest - a radical left-winger who wants to suck a nation of can-do, self-reliant people into the kind of dependency culture we bemoan in Europe and appease enemies abroad? With the help of a Democratic Congress, will he impose on a largely conservative nation the social legislation cherished by a liberal elite? On abortion, his stance is that of radical feminism.
Of course you have to be ruthless to get to the top of politics. But there's something unnerving about Obama's combination of hope-and-change language and merciless destruction of political opponents: he had every other Democratic candidate in his first senatorial election disqualified by having aides find minute, technical flaws in their nomination papers.
While eschewing the politics of race, he has used it to his advantage. John McCain, who has an adopted black daughter, was put on the defensive when accused of having racist supporters. Yet no one has the guts to point out that Obama has played so successfully to the ethnic lobby that polls suggest he will get 95 per cent of the black vote. The newspapers are full of liberal fears that there will be enough racist whites to tilt the election McCain's way, yet it is accepted as legitimate that blacks will vote for Obama because he's black.
The skeletons in McCain's closet are in public view: those in Obama's are neatly packed away. Will any tumble out during the next couple of weeks? I certainly hope so.


- Ruth Dudley Edwards



Where to start!
Fruit Dudley Edwards.

 

[Vinnie]

Why do newspapers still give her nuance-free streams of unconciousness a national platform? She is not very smart and she is not a very good writer.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

Why do newspapers still give her nuance-free streams of unconciousness a national platform? She is not very smart and she is not a very good writer.

You have to be a bit mad to somehow believe that Clinton is to blame for 30 years of Reganism and all of trickle down, free markets are great, eat the poor type shite.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

..

In the past two weeks [Palin] has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn't, really, understand. This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine. She could reinspire and reinspirit; she chooses merely to excite. She doesn't seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.


No news conferences? Interviews now only with friendly journalists? You can't be president or vice president and govern in that style, as a sequestered figure. This has been Mr. Bush's style the past few years, and see where it got us. You must address America in its entirety, not as a sliver or a series of slivers but as a full and whole entity, a great nation trying to hold together. When you don't, when you play only to your little piece, you contribute to its fracturing.


In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism.
​

 

[Jill Hives]

How I love David Sedaris

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/10/27/081027sh_shouts_sedaris

I don’t know that it was always this way, but, for as long as I can remember, just as we move into the final weeks of the Presidential campaign the focus shifts to the undecided voters. “Who are they?” the news anchors ask. “And how might they determine the outcome of this election?”

Then you’ll see this man or woman— someone, I always think, who looks very happy to be on TV. “Well, Charlie,” they say, “I’ve gone back and forth on the issues and whatnot, but I just can’t seem to make up my mind!” Some insist that there’s very little difference between candidate A and candidate B. Others claim that they’re with A on defense and health care but are leaning toward B when it comes to the economy.

I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?
To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.
I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?
When doubting that anyone could not know whom they’re voting for, I inevitably think back to November, 1968. Hubert Humphrey was running against Richard Nixon, and when my mother couldn’t choose between them she had me do it for her. It was crazy. One minute I was eating potato chips in front of the TV, and the next I was at the fire station, waiting with people whose kids I went to school with. When it was our turn, we were led by a woman wearing a sash to one of a half-dozen booths, the curtain of which closed after we entered.
“Go ahead,” my mother said. “Flick a switch, any switch.”
I looked at the panel in front of me.
“Start on the judges or whatever and we’ll be here all day, so just pick a President and make it fast. We’ve wasted enough time already.”
“Which one do you think is best?” I asked.
“I don’t have an opinion,” she told me. “That’s why I’m letting you do it. Come on, now, vote.”
I put my finger on Hubert Humphrey and then on Richard Nixon, neither of whom meant anything to me. What I most liked about democracy, at least so far, was the booth—its quiet civility, its atmosphere of importance. “Hmm,” I said, wondering how long we could stay before someone came and kicked us out.

Ideally, my mother would have waited outside, but, as she said, there was no way an unescorted eleven-year-old would be allowed to vote, or even hang out, seeing as the lines were long and the polls were open for only one day. “Will you please hurry it up?” she hissed.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to have something like this in our living room?” I asked. “Maybe we could use the same curtains we have on the windows.”

“All right, that’s it.” My mother reached for Humphrey but I beat her to it, and cast our vote for Richard Nixon, who had the same last name as a man at our church. I assumed that the two were related, and only discovered afterward that I was wrong. Richard Nixon had always been Nixon, while the man at my church had shortened his name from something funnier but considerably less poster-friendly—Nickapopapopolis, maybe.

“Oh, well,” I said.
We drove back home, and when asked by my father whom she had voted for, my mother said that it was none of his business.
“What do you mean, ‘none of my business’?” he said. “I told you to vote Republican.”
“Well, maybe I did and maybe I didn’t.”
“You’re not telling me you voted for Humphrey.” He said this as if she had marched through the streets with a pan on her head.
“No,” she said. “I’m not telling you that. I’m not telling you anything. It’s private—all right? My political opinions are none of your concern.”
“What political opinions?” he said. “I’m the one who took you down to register. You didn’t even know there was an election until I told you.”
“Well, thanks for telling me.”


She turned to open a can of mushroom soup. This would be poured over pork chops and noodles and served as our dinner, casserole style. Once we’d taken our seats at the table, my parents would stop fighting directly, and continue their argument through my sisters and me. Lisa might tell a story about her day at school and, if my father said it was interesting, my mother would laugh.
“What’s so funny?” he’d say.
“Nothing. It’s just that, well, I suppose everyone has a different standard. That’s all.”
When told by my father that I was holding my fork wrong, my mother would say that I was holding it right, or right in “certain circles.”
“We don’t know how people eat the world over,” she’d say, not to him but to the buffet or the picture window, as if the statement had nothing to do with any of us.
I wasn’t looking forward to that kind of evening, and so I told my father that I had voted. “She let me,” I said. “And I picked Nixon.”
“Well, at least someone in the family has some brains.” He patted me on the shoulder and as my mother turned away I understood that I had chosen the wrong person.

I didn’t vote again until 1976, when I was nineteen and legally registered. Because I was at college out of state, I sent my ballot through the mail. The choice that year was between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. Most of my friends were going for Carter, but, as an art major, I identified myself as a maverick. “That means an original,” I told my roommate. “Someone who lets the chips fall where they may.” Because I made my own rules and didn’t give a damn what anyone else thought of them, I decided to write in the name of Jerry Brown, who, it was rumored, liked to smoke pot. This was an issue very close to my heart—too close, obviously, as it amounted to a complete waste. Still, though, it taught me a valuable lesson: calling yourself a maverick is a sure sign that you’re not one.

I wonder if, in the end, the undecideds aren’t the biggest pessimists of all. Here they could order the airline chicken, but, then again, hmm. “Isn’t that adding an extra step?” they ask themselves. “If it’s all going to be chewed up and swallowed, why not cut to the chase, and go with the platter of shit?”

Ah, though, that’s where the broken glass comes in. ♦

 

[pete]

Bill Maher is a giant cunting dickhead. He makes my skin crawl. Because he's 'liberal' I feel like I should like him, but I don't. He's a vacuous idiot and his jokes are crap.

http://www.omglists.com/article/104052/8-inauspicious-early-roles-for-famous-actors/

 

[pete]

http://www.americannewsproject.com/videos/158

 

[pissypants]

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[egg_]

I will pray for him. He knows what the right decision is.

Meanwhile God is whispering to him "Why did you marry this crazy bitch?".

 

[Vinnie]

Meanwhile God is whispering to him "Why did you marry this crazy bitch?".

Im not sure God would whisper. I mean, if I was God my whispering days would be long behind me. Booming voice only.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/20/keith-olbermann-special-c_n_136385.html

 

[Vinnie]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/20/keith-olbermann-special-c_n_136385.html

Similarly....

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/20/hayes-liberals-hate/

Rep. Hayes: ‘Liberals Hate Real Americans That Work And Achieve And Believe In God’»

On Saturday, Republican North Carolina Reps. Patrick McHenry and Robin Hayes warmed up the crowd at a rally for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) by throwing red meat to the right-wing audience. McHenry called the event the “biggest crowd John McCain has gotten in North Carolina” and said that voters had a critical choice between McCain and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) this election. Someone in the audience yelled out, “It’s like black and white” to loud laughter. McHenry let the remark pass.
When it was his turn to speak, Hayes accused liberals of hating “real Americans”:

He [McHenry] yielded the microphone to Representative Robin Hayes, who prefaced his comments by saying it was important to “make sure we don’t say something stupid, make sure we don’t say something we don’t mean.” Republicans, he reminded the crowd, were kind people. Plus, he added, the liberal media had shown itself eager to distort such remarks. With the crowd duly chastened and put on best behavior, he accused Obama of “inciting class warfare” and said that “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.”
​

This meme has been picking up steam amongst the right wing in recent weeks. Most prominently, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) exploded on Friday and said that liberals were “anti-American.” The McCain campaign and its conservative allies have also been blasting progressive ideas as “socialist” or “Marxist.”
Note that Hayes is the same congressman who, in 2006, said:

Stability in Iraq ultimately depends on spreading the message of Jesus Christ, the message of peace on earth, good will towards men. Everything depends on everyone learning about the birth of the Savior.
​

In 2005, he also insisted that “Saddam Hussein and people like him were very much involved in 9/11.” When he was told that no investigation found any link between Saddam and 9/11, Hayes responded, “I’m sorry, but you must have looked in the wrong places.”
UpdatePolitico spoke with Hayes's spokesperson, who denied that the congressman ever made the statements. NY Observer reporter Jason Horowitz, who originally reported on Hayes's comments, stands behind his story: "I was there. That’s what I heard. I was taking notes while he was talking."

 

[Froog]

nice article on the electoral college voting system.

http://www.welt.de/english-news/article2605119/How-the-U-S-A-elects-its-President.html

 

[flashback]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7684782.stm

Should there be, God forbid, an actual terrorist attack between now and the election, all bets are off.

Jesus.

I'm starting to get edgy about this election now though.
Two weeks is an awful long time.

And then there's this:

Given her popularity with the base, Palin could conceivably ride that rage to the top of the primary pile. Of all the possible 2012ers, she clearly has the largest, most ardent following

Deep breath.