Politicana

I’ve got some for you right here.  From a myDD diarist, a list of historical points  you might be hearing form the  talking heads Election Night when it becomes clear Obama has won (though i thought Carter just won over 50% of the Popular Vote– can anyone help me with that?):

Assuming Obama wins, the networks will offer you some facts about him as president-elect right after they declare him the winner.  Here are some they may include:
*America’s first African-American/biracial president (duh)
*First African-American/biracial person to lead a majority white nation
*First Democrat to win 50% of the popular vote since 1964 (LBJ)
*First senator elected president since 1960 (JFK)
*First Northern Democrat to be president since 1960
*First Midwestern president since Gerald Ford (MI)
*First Midwestern president elected since 1948 (Truman-MO)
*Voter turnout is likely to be the highest in over 40 years–young, new and black voters will be key.
*4th youngest president (47; after Bill Clinton at 46, John F. Kennedy at 43, and Teddy Roosevelt at 42)
*First Democrat to win NC since 1976, and/or IN, ND, and/or VA since 1964.

I’m feeling a little bad about that last downer of a post… so for a nice antidote, click here.

I wish I could import some of the great photos from this moving 2 minute slide show that accompanies Obama’s speech yesterday in Richmond.

Wow– so much going on and so much to comment on.  It’s hard to identify the most disgusting comment a McCain surrogate has made to the media, but here’s my nomination for today.    I don’t know who this fucker is, but he claims the real outrage is not Palin’s $150K spending spree, but Obama taking a 767 jet to fly back to Hawaii to see his dying grandmother.   No, I am not making that up.  God, 11/4 can’t come soon enough.

[From TPM's "The Day in 100 Seconds".  It's at about 1:05]

[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!:

I just wanted to share this info from DeanDemocrat on kos, in case it falls off the recommended list before the end of the day.  I remember him doing a series of really superb posts before the 2004 debates about what to look for, and they were very interesting (so much more so than 99% of diaries).   Before you debate party this Friday, you will really want to take a look at these clips of previous McCain debate performances and what to look for…

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/23/0592/84768/1013/607155

After the jump, some sample analysis:

Continue reading Great pre-debate info…

If anyone has more economics background than I (Econ 101 in 1989), I’d love to hear your thoughts about today’s Treasury Dept. bailout plan. I’ve read Krugman, but am still a bit fuzzy on the details. What does seem clear is that a fight is brewing as the administration fights for a blank check (and they really — they *do* deserve free reign of things, given how responsibly they have run things so far in 7.5 years) and the Dems who are going to fight for more accountability and the inclusion of an economic stimulus package for citizens (not just corporations). I’ve heard Obama already come out this morning in support of a plan that does more than what Treasury has so far proposed. According to gsadamb on dKos,

Obama’s speech included six specific stipulations for any bailout that happens.

1.) No blank check: Americans are going to be on the hook for almost $1,000,000,000,000. It’s taxation without representation to just write blank checks without being accountable to taxpayers.

2.) Taxpayer money should not be paid to reward CEOs. Period.

3.) Taxpayers are incurring a great amount of cost and risk. The investments should be protected, and they should be able to eventually recoup the losses.

4.) THERE MUST BE A PLAN TO HELP HOMEOWNERS STAY IN THEIR HOME.

5.) Obama pointed out that this is a global crisis, and that other nations need to step in to help secure the financial market.

6.) REGULATE. REGULATE. REGULATE.

Obama’s official statement is here.

I think Obama will welcome the opportunity to demonstrate his differences from the current president, casting himself in the role of protecting ordinary Americans rather than CEOs. What I really wonder, is will McCain also jump at the chance to break from Bush in a high-profile way and likewise not endorse the current Treasury Dept. proposal? I suspect he will. It will give him some anti-”more of the same” ammo prior to the debates. We’ll know soon enough.

It looks like it’s not just the lefty blogs that are reporting the decline of the Palin <whatever>.  SFgate is reporting that she is energizing the base, but failing to woo any independents to speak of.  She is just rehashing that convention speech (and the bridge lie), while being ensconced away from the press for the most part, cancelling appearances while preparing for the VP debate.

Continue reading Campaign idea…

According to the NYTimes, viewership of Night 1 of the Dem’s Convention was up– from 18 million in ‘04 to about 24 million in ‘08.  Good news–  the more people that saw Michelle Obama and her children, the better imho.  Listening to her speech, watching her bio video about her working class roots, and seeing her family members, i had a “good, god, could this country really be so dumb as to NOT elect this family over McCain” moment– I’m sure I’ll have many many more.  Especially after McC picks Romney.

Some interesting numbers:

The broadcast networks NBC, ABC and CBS attracted an audience of 12 million, with NBC leading the pack with 4.7 million viewers. (”Deal or No Deal,” at 8 p.m. on NBC, averaged 11 million viewers.) In another sign of the increasing popularity of cable channels for news coverage, CNN attracted more viewers — 4.2 million — than ABC or CBS for the hour. ABC drew 4.17 million and CBS averaged 3.46 million at the same hour.

On cable news, the Fox News Channel had an average of 2.92 million viewers for the hour, while MSNBC averaged 2.1 million. CNN, usually the second place cable network behind Fox News, was also top-rated during the Democratic convention in 2004.

The combined audience was a few million shy of NBC’s prime time average during the Olympics this month.