Monday, October 27, 2008

Eight days and counting

It's surprisingly close... in Arizona.
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I have volunteered for many campaigns. In each we were told either A. Do not talk to the press, or B. Let us know if anyone from the press talks to you. I understand the reasoning. The last thing a campaign needs is a volunteer or paid worker going off message. This youtube is unfortunate. 99% 90% of the people working in the McCain field offices are good people supporting their candidate. This guy needs to get some sleep.
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I'll repeat: If you are not reading the Hannity-insanity forums you should. You can find every stage of grief. I'll summarize for you:
1. Denial - "The polls are wrong. Nobody has polled me! All independents will go to McCain, the Bradley effect, the Bradley effect!" (The Bradley effect is the notion that people tell pollsters they'll vote for the black man but really vote for the white man. Unfortunately, Obama did better than his poll numbers in the majority of primaries - New Hampshire being the big exception. So if McCain cries between now and election day all bets are off.)
2. Anger. The Democrats are going to steal this election with the help of Acorn!
3. Bargaining. This is the best. If we all call four people today... and they call four people... well, hey we're so close to getting McCain/Palin elected. (This crowd loves Sarah, John not-so-much.)
4. Depression. This one is scary. One of the most popular threads on Hannity for the past couple of days was titled, "Today I purchased two handguns." Other threads discuss secession for the red states and "Will Obama make us pay reparations to the slaves?" Amazing, amazing stuff.
5. Acceptance. Here's a direct quote from an e-mail to me today from a Republican friend:
"All I hope is that people know what they are voting for. If they are in favor of this, then OK, but I just hope they know what they are getting....."
Specifically he cites an interview Obama did in 2001. I had read the text and didn't understand what Republicans found so incendiary. Ken forwarded me the Youtube of the interview. I listened... played it twice, actually. I guess I'm one of the Americans hypnotized by Obama because I heard nothing outrageous. In case you don't play the youtube here is the quote from Obama in 2001:
But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society. And to that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it’s been interpreted, and the Warren Court interpreted it in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties... And one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, because the civil rights movement became so court-focused, I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which to bring about redistributive change.
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Finally, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens has been found guilty. He's been on trial for weeks but was still running even in the polls. He demanded a speedy trial because he was sure he would be acquitted before election day. Alaska's new senator will be Mark Begich. Another name you will never need to remember.
Democrats can gloat, but we have our own scum. We picked Tim Mahoney to replace gay predator Mark Foley (you remember, he would send IM's to 17 year old pages asking, "So what are you wearing?"). Tim, proving he was straight, had an affair with a female staffer and fired her after she broke up with him. Realizing this would cost him dearly if she went public he promised to pay her $121,000. This is one House seat my side will be giving back to the Republicans.

2 comments:

  1. I can only take the Hannity-Insanity forums for about 2 minutes. I clicked on it tonight and one of the very first discussions was a sticky entitled something like: We will not allow discussions of assassinations of US political candidates.

    While I think that is probably a good rule - the fact that they had to SAY this scares the living daylights out of me. I just briefly scanned the first few sentences and apparently they had to close down a discussion where something like this was brought up.

    Another thread: No more tipping if Obama is President. Because apparently waiters/waitresses will get lower taxes and a higher minimum wage. Apparently the person posting has never relied on tips for an income before (as I once did!).

    Obama was referenced as "the Kenyan" in one thread and in the same thread there was talk of staging a military coup.

    I'm not sure I can read anymore - I've never seen anything so full of hatred.

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  2. The most recent polls I looked at show McCain to be up four points... in MONTANA (another poll showed him four points BEHIND Obama). This is within the margin of error, and I'm thinking since Obama is competitive in Montana, Georgia, North Carolina, Indiana and Missouri - if I were John McCain I would concede right now. I'm trying REALLY hard not to get over-excited and not to count my chickens - but this is looking pretty good for Obama at this time!

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