32 posts tagged “election”
Imagine you have little money and you are renting a room in a house. You pay most of your income to rent, but the people who own the house are not good with money. The people that own the house get 3 months behind on the mortgage and the house is in foreclosure. They suddenly get an offer for a credit card that will cover a part of the mortgage and save the house you are living in at least for a while longer. They decide to ask you if they should get the card to save the house and inform you that if they use this to save the house, they will have to raise the rent and if they do not they will lose the house and you will be evicted. WHAT CHOICE CAN YOU MAKE? You cannot afford more rent, you cannot be homeless, and you cannot imagine them suddenly getting any better with money even if they save the house and you will probably be in the same boat soon anyway.
This is how I see today’s vote in California. It is a lose, lose proposition with doom and gloom being preached by both sides of the argument. We are doomed if we vote yes, we are doomed if we vote no, and we are doomed if we don’t vote.
The only thing that is clear is that the government in California as it is has absolutely no ability to fix the problems here and the people are so divided that at either extreme that it will be this way for a long time.
I am about to vote, but what a crock all of this is. Vote yes and they get the credit card that will cover some of the debt, but also makes more and inevitably robs from something else to pay for it. This also means raised taxes in several areas.
Vote no and it’s the end of the world for our economy in California and we will be without fire fighters, and police etc. (according to the commercials).
We all must vote and have our voice, but what a choice.
The end is near!!! The end of this horrible election and here comes the storm before the calm. Has everyone lost their minds collectively?
There is a letter with the state logo of Virginia (boy have Virginia Republicans been in the negative news recently) on it that is trying to tell Republicans to vote on day and Democrats to vote on another. The day noted for Republicans is election day and the day for Democratic voters is a day late. Apparently assuming that Senator Obama supporters may not be as educated and informed about the voting process (ideas often associated with minority voters who area registering in droves to vote this election).
In Philadelphia a letter (clearly targeting the same demographic) says that if you have unpaid tickets or outstanding warrants. Many in the minority communities don’t trust our legal system and would be fearful of such threats even if not guilty of any crimes.
What about the videos warning of he evils of Muslims (hinting to the made up rumors of a mentally unstable gentleman who got rich writing an attacking book with nothing to support what he said) that were sent all over the country.
The problem is that there is a Muslim population in our country that feels as American as anybody else and hates the terrorists just like anyone else. At least they felt as American as anyone else until this election. I suppose that racist or bigoted remarks such as the hinting that Senator Obama could not be qualified for president if he were a Muslim might pass us by as okay if you ignore this fact, but they offend a group of patriotic Americans who have every right not to bear the brunt of the attacks of this campaign as anyone else.
The First Amendment allows for freedom of speech, but I also have the freedom to vote. As these stories come out the candidate that seems to be suffering the most is the candidate that most of these things seems to be attempting to help. It would seem that many are offended by such tactics especially when we are all struggling to make ends meet.
The Republican Party (much of it is the membership and not the leadership, but there have been egregious acts performed by the leadership of the party also) playbook seems to be to make one segment of the nation scared to vote for Senator Obama and the other segments (mostly minorities) afraid to vote or not to vote. The Democrats just want to flood the media with campaign pitches (which would normally be annoying), but relative to what we have been seeing from the Republican party this suddenly doesn’t seem so bad.
The fact that Senator Obama can make a half an hour presentation with no attacks on his opponent and no offensive statements clearly shows shy a person so far to the Left (in voting record) can get so many middle and Right Wing votes (at least in the polls). I have said it again and again it is about how terrible the McCain campaign is being run compounded by the fact that the party has done so much craziness in the name of it’s candidate that is a testament to how shaky Senator Obama’s support is that it is not a landslide in his favor.
Senator Obama is not winning Senator McCain is losing with the help of the crazies he and Governor Palin have rallied into a frenzy at the campaign rallies.
The good news is that if the Republican’s lose as much as the polls indicate they will this election we might see the end of the Republican party as it is today and will get to see the dawning of a new day for the party. Hopefully a better and stronger Republican party that will not stand for such things at any cost.
Apparently the Republicageddon will be televised in a half-hour infomercial paid for by contributions to the Obama campaign.
The Presidential race is rolling on, the economy is in the tank, we are still at war in two places and there are several places that we could be at war with at any minute and what happens next seems to rest on the shoulders of some folks known as independent voters. Who are these people?
Here is how I have been shown the basic makeup of our political system…
Social &..................... Economic..........................Economic..................Social &
Economic...................Conservatives......................Liberals.....................Economic
Liberals.......................Social...............................Social........................Conservatives
...................................Liberals.............................Conservatives...............................
LEFT <------------------------------------{*}--------------------------------------> RIGHT
Democrats ..............(Libertarians)........................................................... Republicans
The key to understanding the middle is the two groups located near the middle of this chart. The assumption in many people’s estimation is that we all neatly fit into either extreme or we are somehow not as educated or understanding of politics for some reason. In reality what you have is a difference of opinion on what is truly important from either extreme.
Because we tend to view American politics as a two party system the groups near the middle tend to not associate themselves to a party fully bet most often vote to the side that they appear on above. The social aspects of our society and thee social viewpoints of the voter, tend to drive the side they choose when voting on an issue or for a candidate. Thus, Social Liberals tend to the left and Social Conservatives tend to the right.
The truth is however that the groups near the middle always feel that they have sacrificed some ideal for another one in the interest of the greater good no matter how they decide to vote.
The problem comes when a subject such as the economy plays a big role in the picture. Now these people near the middle have to look to the other side of the chart to satisfy their feelings on the economy while attempting to close their eyes to what is normally their main concern, the social agenda.
Why is all of this important to this election? I think this might demonstrate a very simple reason behind why the pools are so slanted in Senator Obama’s favor. The Republican Presidential and Vice-presidential candidates have been speaking the language of Social and Economic Conservatives (also known as Republicans) with a fervor seldom seen in campaigns.
They have basically ignored the group (really groups) that all along have been described as the ones that will make or break this election year and may have alienated the “Economic Liberals Social Conservatives” group in manner that may have them leaning to left for a while to come.
The Obama Campaign has done a good job of finding ways to appeal to these middle groups and to unify the more left leaning voters. The key being that a candidate does not have to satisfy everything a person in one of the groups in the middle wants just whatever those groups find to be the most important at the time.
The only surprise in all of this is that the “Economic Conservatives Social Liberals” group is not gravitating to the right with Senator McCain. I would have to say that the tying of Senator McCain to the largely unpopular Bush administration coupled with the dislike a person who is a social liberal would have for many of the campaign tactics and attacks of the McCain camp have driven these people to stay with the group that they tend to run with anyhow.
I am an Economic Liberal Social Conservative type of guy and would normally be a McCain supporter, but have been driven away by the terrible nature of the campaign and the insanity that is Republican politics in 2008. I am not sure there is time left for the Republican ticket, but I am absolutely convinced that the damage to the republican party (particularly with voters in these middle groups) is massive and will be lasting. I hope Republicans can look at this and regroup or we will be stuck with a one-sided, left-leaning government for years until things get so out of hand that the pendulum swings the other direction.
I have just viewed the last debate and watched the polls. I was very impressed by Senator McCain’s performance and was overtaken with interest by the fact that some issues actually were addressed.
Senator John McCain came on strong but started to seem a little cheap and gimmicky to me with this “Joe Plumber” nonsense. The first half of the debate almost unanimously all agree was a win for McCain and probably the high point of his campaign. I was kind of surprised at how good his performance was but on the other hand thought it was about time considering all of his experience. Senator Obama seemed to be sticking to the plan of any candidate with that big of a lead at this point: Just don’t mess up.
Then we hit the Acorn and Ayers conversation which seemed to energize Senator Obama and to scramble Senator McCain’s footing. From there he seemed angry and actually kind of grumpy from that point until his (very strong) close.
I do not agree with the polls I have seen in that I think it was either a tie or a very close win for Senator Obama. The pools all gave a landslide victory to Senator Obama.
I was pondering why and was confronting the reality. Senator McCain needed a huge game changer and did not even come close to getting it and I am not sure that he (or those in his campaign) has any idea how to do that at this point. The polls probably already reflect the reality of how the voters are leaning. The most important statistic I saw was the over fifty percent of the independent voters that gave the debate to Senator Obama. That may be the backbreaker.
I do have one insight to offer. I noticed in the previous debates that Senator McCain seemed to be focused on the message of I am good and Obama is bad while Senator Obama was able to make similar statements seemed to have a message that said I am thinking about you out there watching on television. That alone will adjust the statistics and give people the feeling that there is a better connection with Senator Obama. That might explain the polls where people seem to be trusting Senator Obama on things that nobody thought anyone would trust him on. I think there was less of that this time, but far more of Senator McCain’s temper which seemed to be barely held at bay for much of the second half of the debate. One channel was keeping the camera on both men when one was speaking and his reactions were almost disturbing at times.
What do you do now if you are John McCain and there is nineteen days left, you have just lost three debates in a row, the polls are beginning to pummel you, and the CNN map thing says Senator Obama already has enough electoral votes to win the election?
First, you stop the attack campaign; there have rarely been worse results for any campaign tactic as we have seen for this over that past few weeks.
Next, I would have my economic advisors working night and day for some earth shattering plans and solutions for the economy that I could introduce by this weekend that would make economists say “Wow, what a plan!”
I would educate Governor Sarah Palin on the new plan and have her talk about it and how it is better than Senator Obama’s plan.
The biggest thing to do is to study the tapes of this debate and do more of whatever he did in the first half of the debate and less of (if not stop altogether) whatever he did in the second half of the debate.
There is still time, but if the campaign stays on the same course I fear watching the McCain campaign might be a bit like watching the Titanic sink in slow motion. Then of course there is still the outside chance that Senator Obama could make some terrible mistake and blow the whole deal.
All said, this was a bit better of a debate, but I fear that again Senator McCain did not come close to doing enough and may have missed any chance of winning (plus I have to admit he looked like a case study in beginning anger management).
Maybe he should make friends with Chris Buckley and possibly get him his job back at his father’s paper.
“A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.”
“A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”
“Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.”
“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.”
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
“It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.”
“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.”
“The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.”
“The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.”
‘When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer "Present" or "Not guilty."’
“THE THINGS THAT WILL DESTROY AMERICA ARE PROSPERITY-AT-ANY-PRICE, PEACE-AT-ANY-PRICE, SAFETY-FIRST INSTEAD OF DUTY-FIRST, THE LOVE OF SOFT LIVING, AND THE GET-RICH-QUICK THEORY OF LIFE.”
The person quoted here is my favorite president of all time…Theodore Roosevelt. Strength, intelligence and straight forward, while also a man of honor and integrity and decency. (the decency is the biggest thing missing from all of the presidential campaigns of recent years.
Why are people and the media portraying the Republicans as the crazies or giving more positive press time to the Democrats? Is it possible that the Republican party has had such a string of ridiculous, over the top antics that those of us who are not diehard Republicans actually are beginning to view the party that way and the media is actually simply reflecting what people are starting to believe.
Here is an example. On the Sacramento (capitol of California) GOP website there has been this page tiring to tie Senator Obama to Osama Bin Laden and going so far as to talk about waterboarding Senator Obama. There are people like this guy in Virginia I wrote about the other day making repeated comments about race and that person who prayed the other day and tried to convince us the a victory for Barack Obama would somehow show the world that God is weak.
Of course, there is this Sarah Palin person who keeps crying about Liberal media not wanting her to speak and only taking interviews with the most right wing media possible. Then we have the people at the political rallies yelling out racial epithets and “kill him” etc.
I am an independent voter although I cannot remember the last time I voted for a Democrat for President and I was and remain a big fan of Ronald Reagan. Yet, the more I see of this campaign, the more I am beginning to sound like a far left wing liberal.
Think back to high school and homecoming. I was lucky enough to play football for a school that was relatively dominant in football so our homecoming rallies and games were pretty crazy. But, I always remember paying attention to the other mood of the people in the schools we were playing against.
When we had games at other schools and it was their homecoming (often schools we knew we could easily beat) they had the same kind of pep rallies, and just as much energy. People always had these (so called) “facts” that demonstrated that clearly they had the better team. They would argue and scream how their team was better. They would boo when we arrived and throw things at us. We even had people attack our team coming on to the field.
Then when we would score a symphony of boos and excuses would fly. Their cheerleaders would break into a cheer of “it’s alright, it’s okay, we’re gonna beat you anyway!” A few scores later the crowd would still be riled up and a little more angry. When we would leave (in victory) we left to boos and people talking about how we cheated and did this and that.
This is not my personality. If I know my team is terrible I will say “My team is terrible!” My response to having a terrible team is not to ratchet up the attacks on the other team and throw things at them call them names and so on. (I know that sounds absolutely crazy coming from a Raiders fan – and by the way MY TEAM IS TERRIBLE)
This is how the Republican party seems to me. Their team is doing terrible and it is looking like they may lose (Emphasis on the word may. There is still lots of time). Rather than focus on how to win, the McCain campaign is having pep rallies and bad mouthing the opposition and getting the supporters in an uproar. Now the supporters scream angry things even when the opposition is mentioned. They may throw things and threaten the other team and so on.
I if anyone understand the mentality. The problem for those of us who are not diehard Republicans is that we have a pretty good idea that people like this are not the kind we want running our government. We are in a time that demands leadership that is deeply grounded in reality and we are getting this partisan nonsense. In part the McCain campaign is doing this, but it would seem relatively normal if the rest of the party wasn’t going so far over the top.
That is the difference as to why the general population is developing a far better view of the Democrats as opposed to the Republicans. When people who support Senator Obama go crazy, the campaign goes out of it’s way to denounce the action and then steer completely clear of what was stated.
The McCain camp has been silent on many of these egregious acts including the ones the occur publically at their rallies. Even having manipulative prayers opening a rally right when it seemed that Senator McCain might be trying to calm things down. Then the bloodthirsty fans of this whole thing (in spite of the evidence that this will cause them to loose) is steadily calling for more attacks and such.
The truth is the attempts to scare the American population about Senator Obama do have that effect. The problem is that the way the Republican party acts in trying to get us scared of Senator Obama is actually more scary.
It’s like having a guy with a chainsaw wearing a “Leatherface” mask (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) screaming at me telling me to be scared of the “boogie man” that might be in my closet.
I desperately want to have two choices for president but this sort of behavior only can leave us with one choice unless you are a diehard Republican. I sincerely wish the McCain camp would do something to stop all of this madness.
I received a strange message from someone trying to describe Senator Barack Obama's position on abortion and i was not even sure why I received this message.
I am sure the person who sent it had good intentions and wanted to help
me understand something I did not know. This person has set up their
profile in a way that it cannot accept return messages so I decided to
post my response here and I hope it clears up whatever misunderstanding
seems to have been formed.
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I think whatever our stand on this topic is, it is absolutely still not
the hill I want to die on. There are so much bigger fish to fry right
now that arguing over the possibility of one having an abortion should
be put aside for a moment and the real issues at hand need to be
addressed.
People are so angry and polarized over this one issue that all common
sense has been thrown out of the window and our government has become
absolutely paralyzed.
It would be so nice if our whole nation could put this whole thing on
hold and deal with the families that are alive right now loosing their
homes, starving themselves to be able to afford gasoline, hit by
disasters all over the country with no help in site (even from the
insurance companies they paid to help in these circumstances), living
adults (that are somebodies children) that are being killed all over
the planet because they volunteered to serve, fight, and die for us to
even be able to have this discussion. I think whether or not a person
has the right to do something that some believe to be evil and some do
not is an important discussion to have, just not right now.
I am not convinced that I want to sacrifice the lives of any of the
above named people or groups of people to win on this one issue. It is
a prevalent focus on both sides of the party lines that seems to be
setting principles above the lives of the people we have here with us
and seems to serve no master except whatever one is seeking to divide
and conquer our nation (on several different levels).
I cannot help but feel I received this message in response to one post
or another that you may not have read fully from beginning to end.
Plus if you are under the assumption I support either one of these candidates, you have definitely missed the point that "I
thoroughly think that both of the 'serious' candidates for president we
have are absolutely terrible choices and I am simply trying to figure
out which apocalypse I will be more comfortable living through" (which is the lesser evil in the broader sense).
The idea of voting for on or the other candidate on this one issue can
only leave me feeling that a person has a deep hurt of some kind that
has not been healed or that someone has led that person to believe that
is the biggest issue in politics and our current world and a simple
stepping out of the emotional content of all of this would make that
clear.
I have huge questions (particularly related to voting records) on both
candidate's stands on abortion, particularly relative to how I feel
about it, but again there are far more pressing issues. I am not
willing to sacrifice the lives of my children by picking a terrible
candidate just because we agree on this one issue. I am not willing to
sacrifice the lives of the men and women who I served in the military
with just to win a war of principles. I am not willing to sacrifice
the entire nation on this one issue.
If a person shows him or herself to be a good candidate for the job and
agrees with me on this issue that is another point in their favor.
But, if this person is terrible and all we have to agree on is this one
issue, only those suicidally committed to ideology would still vote for
this person. I just find it selfish to want to martyr the rest of us
in that pursuit.
Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin is still sticking to her focus on unifying the Republican Party. She stood up and took a courageous stand for what she believes in today. I am not sure it was the best political move in support of Senator John McCain, but it does energize the party and I think it does serve her future well.
Governor Palin came out and made a stand about her pro-life stance and did not beat around the bush about it.
This issue of abortion is for me a strange issue. I have my fairly strong feelings about this issue, but I am not convinced that this is the hill I want to die on.
What do I mean when I say this is not the hill I want to die on? Let’s step back and take a look at this issue. The entire nation has become completely polarized by this issue. If you want to see and angry exchange get people from either side of this issue together to discuss it. There have been fights, shootings, bombings, and won and lost elections over this one issue. I also have to wonder if people have been elected who would never have seemed qualified for whatever office it is if it were not for this issue.
I have had more than a few people tell me I would never vote for a person who is “for” or who is “against” abortion. I find this befuddling. Not the issue of abortion, but the fact that for this one issue, a person who would call themselves having the best interests of our nation in mind would absolutely ignore everything else about the candidates and vote for someone who may in fact not otherwise be a good candidate for the position.
During this election I have noticed that this issue has become so ridiculous that if Adolph Hitler were cloned and ran for president if he:
- Said he was “pro-choice” the Democrats would vote for him and rally around him.
- Said he was “pro-life” the Republicans would vote for him and rally around him.
I know this may seem like an extravagant exaggeration but is it? If you are one side of this debate you have probably noticed people from the other side who had some candidate that did or said something that clearly demonstrates that person is absolutely not qualified for the job and yet the person recites the quotes from the candidate and defends the person as if their very life depended upon it. Well guess what there are millions of people on both sides arguing and voting like this across the nation.
We are in a terrible recession, we are at war in two countries, some of the nations that are the scariest in the world are working on building nuclear weapons, the politicians that are supposed to be leading our nation are so polarized that they can hardly stand each other much less agree on anything, we have witnessed the first attack on the continental united states Pancho Villa, and the only issue many of us can see is if a person is for or against the possibility of a person having an abortion.
I am not trying to say this is not an important issue, but I am not willing to sacrifice my home, my children, our country, the lives of people in our military, and so on just to win on this one issue. That is exactly what someone is doing if this is the only issue or the main issue that determines who you vote for. The idea is ridiculous!
Neither side has a monopoly on idiots or liars. There are plenty of idiots and liars on both sides of this argument. If this becomes the main driving force behind why a person gets elected to any office we may in fact elect one of these idiots or liars to office without even looking at if that person is really qualified.
This is an important issue, but is absolutely not the biggest fish we have to fry right now!
What Sarah Palin has done is good, because it is an honest stand. The problem is how much impact her stand on this one issue alone will have on one group of people.
This in fact is the hill many are willing to die on. The problem is they might take the rest of us with them.
I posted this as a response to a thread of comments on a blog and felt that I wanted to share this response with all who read my blogs, because I think this shares the struggle I have within myself. I suppose I am saying, in the words of that great american philosopher, Rodney King (kidding of course), "Cant we all just get along?"
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Not to put anybody down, but we all have to find a way to take the
intensity of the partisanship down several notches. The strength of
this nation has always been the ability to come together in the fact of
great challenges. Since about a year after 911 (and in reality since
the sixties) the American public and especially those involved in
politics (even those of us who blog) has decided to split ourselves
into two terrible extremes.
In the past the nation has come together and even when we had made
terrible mistakes in some knee-jerk reaction we simply made the best of
what we had all committed to do.
In the last year and a half the country has become the most divided
racially, politically, in terms of class, and any other demographic
that one could come up with since the late sixties/early seventies.
Now that we are near to our political civil war how do we intend to
overcome anything else in the world including terrorists, Russian
invasions of allies, Iranian nuclear bombs, and so on. Our current
politicians can't even unite their own parties unless they play on the
hatred that the people of their party have for the other party.
I am astonished how people do not see that terrorism in twenty first
century is not about guns and bombs. The war is fought with fought with
video cameras, cellphone videos, websites, and the battlefield is the
television in our living rooms.
In this kind of "Gorillavision Warfare" we seem to be very poorly
equipped and poorly trained. This is where we are loosing in Iraq (no
matter what happens to the insurgents the whole planet now thinks we
are this crazy and reckless empire) and in Afghanistan (the rest of the
planet is beginning to think of us as the crazy Americans who kill
woman and children and don't respect the boundaries of sovereign
nations). The reason we are doing so poorly is our absolute inability
to present a united front. If the goal of those seeking to destroy us
is to use the tacktic of "divide and conquer" we are in desperate
trouble!!!!!
The whole rock star status of Senator Barack Obama is proven true. He may not be the most qualified candidate ever, but he is definitely popular in many places.
I am a bit confused however about how the votes from Brazil count in the presidential election of the United States.
Brazil must count, because the name of Barack Obama is on the ballots of eight or more local elections in Brazil.
The truth is candidates can put any name they want to on the ballot as their name as long as it is not offensive. The name Barack Obama seems to be a popular one this year and several people apparently seem to think that this name alone is all that is needed to get elected.
That was the way many felt here until the Republican National Convention and the Sara Palin meteor that seems to have crashed into our atmosphere at a million miles an hour in a spectacular display and now seems to be burning out in a fiery explosion of media scrutiny.
The question that I see here again is, why people “like” or “vote for” the candidates they vote for. These candidates in Brazil seem to think that a popular name is all that is needed to get elected. I wonder if this is not at least in part the truth.
For a week straight we heard no mention of John McCain unless it was tied to the name Sarah Palin. Many people suddenly decided Senator McCain was qualified to be president because they either liked Sarah Palin or liked the fact she was a woman.
Need I even say why many of the voters who like Barack Obama are voting for him…
If only there was a way to just get the relevant facts about candidates and not know who they were until after we voted, the world would be so much more logical. But then, what would all of the bloggers have to write about?
