Politicana

Hey all you swing-staters,

If you need some info that you can send along to undecided friends who are troubled by this ACORN nonsense (it should be called A-PORN the way the Republicans are creaming all over it), check out georgia10’s excellent post on the Daily Kos today (click on the hyperlink and scroll down). 

Especially pass along this link to FactCheck.org: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/acorn_accusations.html

Or this video (available on YouTube under the title “CNN Fact Checks Right Wing Claims Against Acorn“):

You can judge how “fair and balanced” Fox News is for yourself…..

So, the last debate is over and, as I’m sure you call know, most viewers have considered Obama the decisive winner of all three debates.  According to the CNN/ORC poll, it breaks down like this: Continue reading A Preemptive Post…

If you haven’t done so yet, please take this small poll.

Dan again, with another article I found linked from Andrew Sullivan this time. It’s by Ezra Klein, and it argues that we know very little about undecided voters –estimating their numbers is an imprecise exercise at best. But undecided voters, by definition, fall into the broader category of swing voters (those with weak leanings, at least initially), and Klein describes a study that asserts that in the last 50 years, only in 1976 did swing voters prove critical to the outcome of a presidential election.

What does this mean?

The outcomes [of elections] are structural — they are decided by events and party identification and satisfaction with the incumbent and other predictable indicators.

Steady … steady.

Check out this article, “A Conservative for Obama,” by former National Review publisher and friend of Bill Buckley, Wick Allison.  Here is a sample”

Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers.

Also, be sure to check out readers’ comments.  If this does not give you a sense of how much trouble Camp McCalin is in (and the whole GOP in general), I don’t know what will.

[Troy posting] Check out this cool video of CBS news coverage of election night 1980. I got it from sgilman on kos tonight. As he said,

Compare the analysis that starts about 1 min in with today. Just replace Carter with McCain, Obama with Regan and the economy with the hostages.

I guess to finish that analogy out, we should expect to see the Dow climb back over 11,000 on Inaugaration day as Obama is beeing sworn in. Maybe they’ll do a split screen.

I’ll just add that the 1980 election room is quite a different animal in terms of graphic design and newsroom pizazz. No John King iPhone mapping, but you will likely get a kick out of seeing a young Stahl, Rather and Schieffer (and an old Cronkite). Oh– and I finally have video proof of what I’ve been saying forever– that in my childhood, the election maps had *Dems* red and the *GOP* as blue. Vindicated!:

In their desperation to win the election, McCalin has now turned like dogs to their own vomit, not only attacking Obama themselves but also egging on their most rabid supporters to do the same.

In an earlier post, I addressed concerns that racism might effect the outcome of this election.  I am now more convinced than ever that it won’t.  The racists don’t need to pretend to vote for Obama, they have plenty of people giving voice to their hatred (repressed or otherwise).  Check out this video that I just watched on Kagro X’s Kos diary:

I predict this thing is going to explode in the national media over the next few days.  McCain and Palin will have to scramble to distance themselves from this type of supporter and the campaign will take aggressive steps to shut them up at rallies.  Meanwhile, the average American will react VERY negatively to the story and McCain’s numbers will drop further.   I think this will innoculate Obama from the Ayers attack and, on some level, limit Team McCalin from using similar advertising in the future.

However, if this vitriol can’t be contained, things could get really ugly.  These hatemongers aren’t used to losing (most of them are young enough to have never lost a presidential election– they believe it is their right).  I am not worried we will lose the election but I am beginning to worry about what might happen after we win.  Apparently, McCain is willing to lose a life (Obama’s) in order to win an election.

I am Dan, and I am linking this blog post by Steven M. Teles, on the Reality-Based Community, because I like it, I agree with it, and I think you should read it.

Short: now is the time for the government to spend like crazy on all kinds of worthwhile infrastructural projects, because no one else is going to invest in this economic climate. So why is Obama talking like a budget hawk?

“Hey Sarah Palin do you tell them in Wasilla that 4,000 year ago we roamed the planet with Godzilla?”