2008 U.S. Presidential Election Political Discussion Thread

[Debra]

But four weeks before US presidential and congressional elections, a consensus is emerging among analysts in both main parties that 2008's tipping point was reached last week - and the Republicans were left up in the air with their legs dangling.

Such predictions are necessarily hedged around with numerous "ifs" and "buts". But daily tracking polls, nationally averaged polls, surveys in the 10 or so "battleground states", and internal party polling are all now pointing broadly the same way. On these projections, and barring major surprises, the Democrats will sweep the board in congressional races, gaining six to eight Senate seats and a dozen or more in the House of Representatives.

More importantly perhaps for a watching world, on these trends Barack Obama will be elected US president on November 4 with a clear mandate for change. If Republican candidate John McCain cannot quickly regain control of the agenda in the final 28 days, the outcome may not be even close.

Guardian

[skdadl]

The special counsel investigating Troopergate is submitting an interim report tomorrow -- which had better be published right away, or the blogosphere will erupt. We're pretty sure that it's going to be pretty damning. If he recommends sending the investigation to a grand jury, that will set an interesting precedent for a VP candidate during an election campaign.

In anticipation of that report, we think, someone (probably the McCain people) has released an affidavit from First Dude, explaining his role in all this, and it is so weird, I cannot tell you. Well, at some point I'll come back with details, but we have a story in there of two men a hundred miles out into the tundra on their motorskis, one stalking the other ... I mean, it is just weird. Old-time Republicans must be reading this and thinking WTF?

[brebis noire]

Why Palin lies

Palin is by the very nature of her beliefs a born, in fact eager, liar. She can do no other. She must lie or admit she is wrong, about just about everything she believes in, from a young earth, to dinosaurs roaming the planet alongside men, to the nature of global warming, to Israel's place of primacy in the prophetic "End Times" and, lately, as to the causes of the economic meltdown. Get inside Palin's head and you'll hear a little girl telling herself biblical stories where she's always the hero. Palin's fantasy world is about being "called" -- Esther-like -- to "save" her people. And lying for God is okay, in fact it's good. Her biblical heroes (King David, Samson, Queen Esther...) all lied for God when they needed to in order to defeat God's enemies.

Well, it's an interesting explanation. I'm sure there's more to it though.

[chester]

Why Palin lies

Palin is by the very nature of her beliefs a born, in fact eager, liar. She can do no other. She must lie or admit she is wrong, about just about everything she believes in, from a young earth, to dinosaurs roaming the planet alongside men, to the nature of global warming, to Israel's place of primacy in the prophetic "End Times" and, lately, as to the causes of the economic meltdown. Get inside Palin's head and you'll hear a little girl telling herself biblical stories where she's always the hero. Palin's fantasy world is about being "called" -- Esther-like -- to "save" her people. And lying for God is okay, in fact it's good. Her biblical heroes (King David, Samson, Queen Esther...) all lied for God when they needed to in order to defeat God's enemies.

Well, it's an interesting explanation. I'm sure there's more to it though.

Occam's Razor, surely.  Its not even lies, really, its the Truth to believers.

[Toedancer]

Betty White, straight talkin', straight shooting' Queen of the Yum Tarts.
http://www.acreativerevolution.ca/node/1393
Thanks Pale.

[Antonia]

That link is screwy, BTW.

And speaking of old ladies ... You can't beat these two!

[Debra]

To have a man in the White House who takes full responsibility as a committed single father is to hope women have an ally to make the workplace more amenable to working families, mothers and fathers.

Finally, I must mention choice. Biden has a strong record of defending a woman's right to choose, in spite of his strong Catholic faith (which is perhaps why he has a "mixed" record from Naral despite his support of pro-choice supreme court justices and pro-choice legislation). However, in these economically strangling time, reproductive choice is about much more than morality. It directly affects the health of the American family, as Nerdette writes:

Cif America
Joe Biden is the real women's candidate

[skdadl]

I've posted this link before somewhere, but for anyone who missed it, it's a not-bad conversation between Hillary and Joe about women's issues.

[skdadl]

emptywheel has assembled a collection of current warnings from all sides, including senior Republicans, about the dangerous tone that the McCain/Palin campaign has taken. All those quotes are worth reading; here is a sample, from a Republican:

   John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence.

    [snip]

    Stop! Think! Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs.

    John McCain, you're walking a perilous line. If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters when they scream out "Terrorist" or "Kill him," history will hold you responsible for all that follows.

    John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice, to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations.

    Change the atmosphere of your campaign. Talk about the issues at hand. Make your case. But stop stirring up the lunatic fringe of haters, or risk suffering the judgment of history and the loathing of the American people - forever.

    We will hold you responsible.

[Toedancer]

Unbelievable skdadl, thanks, I hope I get to read and catch up later today. It is not to be believed!

[skdadl]

Troopergate: it has taken a full working day (in Alaska), but the committee that has studied the special counsel's report (his name is Branchflower) just voted 12-0 or 11-1 to release the report to the public, which is gonna mean something. People don't believe they would have spent so long discussing today if there weren't, ah, difficulties for Sarah therein. And that's a committee with a majority of Republicans, too.

But you know how they are in Alaska. Mavericky.  :mrgreen:

[Debra]

Those are powerful words you quoted skdadl, too bad they will fall on such deaf ears.

troopergate may prove interesting but then for those that are described above it will just make them like her more.

[fern hill]

Gee, I hope this is the correct thread for this: Trooper-gate.

Quoting this para for the composition of the panel:

The report, which was commissioned and released by a bipartisan state legislative panel made up of 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats, said: “The evidence supports the conclusion that Governor Palin, at the least, engaged in ‘official action’ by her inaction if not her active participation or assistance to her husband in attempting to get Troooper Wooten fired [and there is evidence of her active participation].”

[Debra]

thread about US candidates --check

serious topic--check

Yep you're good.

Will be interesting to see how the repubs spin this into a good thing™

[brebis noire]

An open letter to John McCain from one of his former supporters

And I just read on the Huffington Post that McCain tried to tone down his campaign's hate speech by calling Obama "decent", but was received with boos. Maybe Sarah should give it a try?  :roll: