Frank Rich (New York Times the Op-Ed Columnist) gets into the subject of polling numbers and questions of popularity and in the process provides some salient historical facts.
No presidential candidate was breaking the 50 percent mark in mid-August polls in 2004 or 2000. Obama’s average lead of three to four points is marginally larger than both John Kerry’s and Al Gore’s leads then (each was winning by one point in Gallup surveys). Obama is also ahead of Ronald Reagan in mid-August 1980 (40 percent to Jimmy Carter’s 46). At Pollster.com, which aggregates polls and gauges the electoral count, Obama as of Friday stood at 284 electoral votes, McCain at 169. That means McCain could win all 85 electoral votes in current toss-up states and still lose the election.
Source: NYT: The Candidate We Still Don’t Know
With the Democratic Party Convention between the 25th. to the 28th. August, the Republican Party Convention between the 1st. to 4th. September, only then will the stage be set with just two months between the end of the Republican convention the 4th November (a.k.a. election day).
447 replies on “Polls don't matter (at least not yet)”
“The White House that wants to keep track of your emails can’t even keep track of their own.”
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hsG0My2Q3Eu9Sj2PSupnj4xeQXxAD92M9MB00
Interesting piece as seen through the eyes of a futurologist reflecting in 2016 on the 2008 election,suggesting Obama needs to avoid the ‘Goldilocks’ option.
http://www.truthout.org/article/apocalypse-later-a-futurologist-looks-back-2008
300 Ecky
But he framed himself in a bubble (his minders are dead-set dopes not to have primed him) so team Obi aim to prick it for him.
Aaaww, ain’t that just too bad”
…like I’ve been saying Ecky: it’s a bad case of asset deflation!
This proves it! LOL
And just to prove that Crikey is not defunct (mentally or otherwise) git ya mental masticators round this rip snorter little piece form Bernard Keane:
BCA climate report: falling for junk economics
Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:
The naivete of our mainstream media occasionally surprises.
“Rudd thrown an emissions time bomb!” shrieked The Australian today about the Business Council’s emissions trading submission. “Carbon plan a company killer!”
The AFR was at it as well — “BCA warns Rudd on carbon fix” and the SMH — “Pollution price will kill jobs” and The Age: “Carbon bill to backfire.” (The Telegraph fortunately was focussed on real stories: “$1m for Sophie to STRIP”).
So, for all those journalists inclined to believe whatever comes out under the cover of a consultant’s report, here’s a sort of methodological note. Back when I was a public servant, a favoured technique for reinforcing the case for something was to hire a consultant who would provide an “independent” report. You never directed the consultant on what you wanted, you didn’t have to — good consultants knew.
And it wasn’t just bureaucrats that did that — ministers would as well. External reports, with lots of graphs, tables, boxes, a glossy cover and a consultant’s logo, look much better than a boring minute from a public servant.
The private sector understands this. Businesses and peak bodies are forever commissioning “independent” reports that, strangely, demonstrate exactly what those who commissioned them want demonstrated. And the media falls for it every time. The AFR, in particular, is shocking at running reports on new studies blatantly serving the interests of the bodies that commissioned them. Even the ABC has a particular weakness for medical studies that demonstrate the need for new pills and products.
We’ve seen a procession of businesses and sectors coming forward to whinge about the Government’s lamentably weak emissions trading scheme. The LNG producers. The miners. The power generators. And now the BCA has come forward — only it has its own “independent” research, produced by consultants Port Jackson Partners.
It’s no different to any other commissioned research. It is junk economics, produced for the purposes of arguing for more and bigger handouts for businesses.
The report purports to be the first actual account of the impact of the Green Paper ETS on real businesses. Accepting for a moment than some of our major companies in areas like aluminium and cement production gave a consultant untrammeled access to raw financial information, the problem is that reports like this are only as good as the assumptions on which they’re founded. In fact, it’s the assumptions that are the levers that control what outcome you want. And the report’s assumptions are all totally skewed.
* The report assumes trade-exposed businesses have no capacity to pass on any increased costs. In sectors where currency movements can savage bottom lines or hand out massive windfalls, we’re expected to believe that our exporters or import-competing industries can pass on not a cent of ETS-related costs, and that ETS-related costs would swamp all other cost factors in their pricing decisions.
* The report assumes trade-exposed businesses will not be able to adjust their operations to reduce carbon emissions. The BCA laments that 7 out of the 14 companies considered in the report, in response to an ETS, “must reduce operating costs in some way.” Quelle horreur! Oh, hang on, wasn’t that the point of having a trading scheme? That it puts pressure on businesses and consumers to reduce their emissions because they will now have a cost? Since when did Australian businesses become so inflexible and incapable of innovation that they can’t do that?
* The report assumes a seamless capacity for trade-exposed industries to relocate to other jurisdictions where they don’t have this greenhouse abatement nonsense. In the real world, where supposedly this report is set, businesses don’t up and flee based on one cost factor — particularly if there’s no guarantee that the jurisdiction they’re shifting to won’t impose a carbon abatement scheme of its own five minutes after they’ve built the new cement factory. The capacity for carbon leakage is not 100%, nor is it 0% — it’s somewhere in between depending on each industry, each company and each country.
The report does make some useful criticisms of the Green Paper — in particular, it offers some sensible alternatives to the Government’s proposal to base compensation on emission thresholds that would actually create incentives for some industries to increase emissions. But its prescription for compensation is in essence an open-ended hand-out system that would provide free, uncapped permits as carbon-intense industries expanded — thereby defeating the entire point of the scheme.
Moreover, it would shift the burden of actually doing anything about reducing emissions to the rest of us — to businesses with lower carbon intensity, to domestic businesses, to households. And that burden would accelerate if we aimed for an emissions target lower than our current emissions level.
In short, like all rent-seekers, the BCA wants to impose costs on the rest of us for the advantage of a few.
The report also condemns the Government’s mandatory renewable energy targets. Here’s an interesting story, drawn to our attention by the ACF. On Monday, the Washington Post reported on what happened when Colorado imposed a 10% renewable energy requirement on its utilities. Gloom and doom were predicted by power companies and yet, oddly enough, once the requirement was imposed, it was met well ahead of schedule. In fact it was so successful they bumped it up to 20%.
Turns out businesses – even electricity generators – can innovate quickly and successfully when they have to. The BCA should be directing its energies into that sort of innovation, not pleading for handouts.
…in today’s Crikey.
Who said journalism is dead in Australia, eh?
http://www.electoral-vote.com
No doubt about it , Kirri, fine piece of journalism, that! As you’ll note below, in the corridors of Sep power things are a mite different:)
ChrisB, you expressed bewilderment at the MSM upthread. Glen Greenwald’s article lays out how easily the MSM are played my expert handlers.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/20/abramowitz/
Excuse me, Senator, I do believe you dropped these? (kos)
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/3467375/2/istockphoto_3467375_bunch_of_keys.jpg
http://demfromct.dailykos.com/
The 2 clips to from left of thick black frame are current.
Class act, Fiore.
http://www.markfiore.com/
306 Enemy Combatant
I’ll agree with that bit about you’re needing ‘expert handlers’.
Obviously a ‘by’ missing there, so how about it reads:”by my expert handlers”?
Ah, cat’s out of the bag! You have expert handlers, eh, Ecky?
I’ve been thinking this must be the case, for quite a while now! (LOL)
OK, just a Freudian keystroke if you want to hide under a Viennese footnote, but look here Herr Docktor, you’ve been playing this without ‘handlers’?
Huh? We aren’t that Green, Herr Docktor, not that green either! LOL
Kirri at 308: Freudian slip or Jungian leap, who knows?
Actually, it’s a yellow door with greenish hues:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcTHBOjnUss
————————
Obi’s gonna do him slowly with Homesgate:mrgreen:
Veep Biden announced today? Fargeddaboudit!
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/08/analysis_why_the_heated_home_d.html
———————-
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/57972
ECky
Maybe the fact that his missus is a beer barroness may mean that he is perpetually pissed and we do not know it because we have never seen him sober. That could account for a lot of his stuff ups.
Kirri 304
Funny how their junk economics is always – A half of two plus two is always two. It is never three.
Meanwhile,
Premier/Diebold has shifted ground on the issue of faulty machines:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/08/21/ohio_voting_machines_contained.html
An article on News Radio was saying the Obama Campaign is highly disciplined and will not be thrown off course or message at any cost. They have a plan and they will stick to it.
Apparently all the news services are waiting to see if Obama’s VP is named just prior to the evening news.
Update. News services have started, no announcement.
May require registration.
http://news.theage.com.au/world/obama-to-announce-vp-pick-in-hours-20080823-40id.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-stagecraft23-2008aug23,0,576205.story
Damn, we haven’t got a map that I can play with for this lot. 😆
http://www.gqrr.com/index.php?ID=2233
So does that make Britney the leader of this group?
What states would be influenced by a large turnout by this group? Will Texas finally turn blue from a large turnout of unmarried mothers? So many unanswered quests. What do you think David?
😈
“Pollsters have been productive in the week before the Democratic Convention. In the last 24 hours, they put out eight surveys from states that are rated toss-ups or lean, including polls from three of the big four (MI, FL, and PA). And after a week of worrisome results for Democrats, today’s survey should reassure them. Obama takes a solid lead in Minnesota for the first time in four polls, leads outside of the margin of error in Michigan and Pennsylvania as well as in Bush-state New Mexico, and he is within 2% in red Florida, North Carolina, Nevada.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-nichanian/polls-obama-pre-conventio_b_120560.html
315 Whoops unanswered questions.
Dave Stewart, formerly of the Eurythmics (if my memory serves me) has written an anthem for changes, entitled “American Prayer” and assembled some celebrities for it, including Forest Whitaker, Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, Cyndi Lauper, Barry Manilow, Joan Baez, Macy Gray and Joss Stone.
Barry Manilow??? What the???
Anyhoo, I’m a sucker for this stuff. MLK’s words are just so moving. You can read Dave Stewart’s words on why he wrote it and watch the video here…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-stewart/an-anthem-for-change_b_120514.html
And there’s a dedicated website here…
http://myamericanprayer.com/
316 KatieLou Good one KatieLou. It certainly starting to look like we had an outlier, that put Obama in a bad light. Everyone jumped on it. Still, the reaction was probably good to keep the Democrats on their toes.
…I should have said American Prayer is not a new song. It was written with Bono in 2002. But Dave Stewart has put together a new video of the song in support of the Obama campaign.
320 KatieLou Great song, if anyone wants to rate it and pass it on click on the Title at the top, and that will take you to You Tube to do it. I should have known MoveOn was behind it.
In spite of all the negative stuff over the past few days, everything seems to be back on track and feeling positive again. Yes!
Good morning Chris!
Latest on the VP announcement: apparently it’s not Bayh or Kaine, according to NBC News, so one would assume either Biden is Obama’s pick, or he’s going to surprise us with something out of left field.
Biden would be a rather predictable, boring choice, in my opinion!
Mornin’ Gang and welcome KatieLou,
I love the smell of branded maverick in the morning!!
Turns a man’s thoughts to Barbecued Bomb-Bomb.
Decision Dem-Veep has yet to be announced because Team Kid are milking McGaffegate Homes for all it is worth and ya know what?….It’s a gusher!
Obi’s gon’ surge on this baby all the way to E-Day. Bet yer blue booties on it.
Punters are drooling with Veep-Choice anticipation like a Broadway theatre crowd on opening night. The orchestra is tuned and Maestro has gestured the musos to ready their instruments. A nervous titter runs through the crowd (wait…wasn’t that Eliot Spitzer?!).
Seps love to be teased up a bit. Who doesn’t? All the fun of the fair; the hoop-la and razzle-dazzle are de rigeur. Programmes and peanuts and OF COURSE, pop corn, have been touted on the street front-of-house since the crack of dawn. After all, these people are Americans, the Showbizz progeny of P.T. Barnum and Cecil B. DeMille and every man Jack and woman Jacqueline of ‘em are gawking like ingénues, swarming like low cost locusts as they gaze starstruck at the contenders jostling for their close ups.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/08/22/convention_round_table/
Expect Biden tba today. (before midnight EST Oz)
KatieLou at 318
Welcome and thanks for the clip – I just love that sort of stuff!
🙂
Another Obama advert squeezing McCain on the number of houses.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1185304443/bctid1747186547
Meanwhile John McCain’s campaign has another go at Obama and the celebrity dysfunction disorder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHoUUEkQjTk
Aug 23 12:53 AM US/Eastern
By LIZ SIDOTI and NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writers
A similar storyline is coming out from the NYTs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/23/us/politics/23veep.html
hillary told shes not the vp pick as odds firm for biden
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/22/the-focus-narrows-on-him/
CNN talking heads are getting toey. Will The Candidate not lift his game?
Yes Suh! Obi messin’ wit’ prime-cut PROfessionals when he keep dem CNN shills and shillettes danglin’ an’ aswingin’ in da noos cycle breeze.
Tarnation! He shoulda kep’ his High Darktown ways ‘mongst his own kind. Das allus his trouble.
He uppity…….. da boy uppity!
http://www.236.com/news/2008/08/22/media_waiting_for_obama_vp_ano_8441.php
😆
Biden is official.
Right on, Wakefield. The Delaware is an election and a heartbeat away from the top job.
———————-
Sat Aug 23:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/bensargent;_ylt=AgbAqly40Y4059hZWSjRQZVW_b4F
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2008/08/19/tomo/
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/57988
Sat Aug 23:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/billschorr;_ylt=AkaYIVDBJWfdJ3kJJ6.cs_tW_b4F
Andrew de-spammed at 328.
Boring, uninspiring, a non-event, and it doesn’t help Obama carry any Republican states(Delaware is solidly blue).
I guess the only good thing is that Biden has the necessary foreign policy/national security credentials.
I’ve never heard the guy give a substantive speech, is he any good on the stump?
Progressive at 334
He is the guy that came up with the phrase …
Catrina, probably I’m being way too negative, I was hoping Obama might have picked Hillary. Oh well, let’s hope she gets a prominent role at the convention.
Let’s hope Biden doesn’t have any skeletons in his closet!
Very disappointing.
Oh come on guys – I’m happy!
🙂
Well, if it’s him I haven’t got my email yet.
Nope, only one person for that job.
Chris at 339
It’s 03:39 in New York – go figure!
People were going to be emailed, at the time.
Doesn’t make sense, the choice or the time. The timing was supposed to be before the major news services, for maximum impact.
So where is the announcement? Link please, I want to know whether I should be annoyed or not.
Still no email.
Nothing on News Radio.
It must be a false alarm.
But Catrina, where’s the electoral payoff for Obama? Does Biden help him win Ohio and the midwest?
The Northeast is already solidly blue, New Hampshire perhaps is only the state in that region where there’ll be a contest.
I’m frankly disappointed, I remain to be convinced Obama made the right decision.
Hillary or Gore or Kaine would have been my preferred picks.
Just got an email it’s Hillary!
Chris: it’s official, go over to Obama’s site!
Very bad decision. Got to go.
Progressive at 347
It’s not about territory – it’s about kicking back. Out of all of the candidates Biden is the one who can really stomp on McCain.
First bad decision they have made, I am really p1ssed off. Got to go out for tea now. See you.
Joe Biden : VP
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gG5sB7
Chris: cheers mate, see ya later!
I wonder who McCain will pick? Romney?
Probably.
MSNBC’s first take on the Biden selection.
The Least Amount of Drama
And the NYTs …
Obama Chooses Biden as Running Mate
TPM
Report: Obama Picks Biden
Huffington Post
Joe Biden Is Barack Obama’s Vice Presidential Running Mate
Wall Street Journal
Obama Names Sen. Joe Biden As Presidential Running Mate
Washington Post
Biden Is Obama’s Pick for VP
Or Tim Pawlenty of Minnesotta, although I doubt McCain has a prayer of winning that state.
One Gaffe, Eight Houses, Nine Cartoons.
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/57987
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/57990
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/57995
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/57996
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/57997
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/58003
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/58008
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/58017
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/57984
————————–
The Mittster’s a lock on the GOP Veep slot. Plenty of positives for Team Bomb-Bomb here, but the choice might spook a few of the the fundy base. Wonder how many would stay at home E-Day rather than vote for a Mormon?
Would have thought the evidence suggests that most VP candidates make little difference to voting. Their main task seems to be to avoid too much limelight, avoid scandal etc.
History would also suggest that a President without solid control in Congress has problems if they want to change things. If Biden can ensure that the Democrats who are in the grip of military industrial lobbyists or just conservative or useless can be pulled into line to support new Obama directions that would be useful. On the other hand giving power to more conservative Democrats can also be a problem.
There is clearly an ongoing struggle to get the Democrats to move from being just another arm of the establishment to being a progressive force for the majority of Americans and the rest of us.
Since Obama can’t overturn the current bunch of do-nothing Democrats overnight he and supporters need a strategy to do this over a few years. That is clearly part of the 50 State rhetoric – mobilising new forces into changing the Democratic Party.
The alternative of creating a left/progressive force outside the Democratic Party also needs to be pursued because for many people the machinations of the DP is just too much. Unions, community rganisations etc are key components of this.
What the Democrats needed was a healing process. A lot of people are going to br p1ssed off. Especially Hillary supporters. As a Hillary supporter, I didn’t mind Obama winning. But I sure don’t like him picking someone else as VP. It is very short sighted.
358 Enemy Combatant Good stuff, it gave me something to laugh at.
360 Chris B. I suppose some Hilary supporters will be upset but I would have thought it is more important to give Hilary some important jobs to do getting better policy through Congress in areas like health or being in a “Cabinet” position doing same rather than being in a pretty inconsequential position such as VP.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5496102&page=1
Exactly.
Instead of going for the kill, with Hillary they go for a nobody.
I am really starting to question whether the Democrats are keen to go for the throat. This decision probably cost them that extra bit.
http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/104/article_1399.asp
Senate poll on Votemaster, Franken 41 Coleman 40%
http://www.electoral-vote.com
What other decisions coming up that look pretty clear can they stuff up. It really makes me wonder. It should be quite obvious the direction the Democrats should be going, but after such a stuff up it really makes me wonder.
362 Wakefield If it’s so inconsequential, how come the Republican government for the lat 8 years has been run by the VP, Dick Cheney?
Time to have a Bex and a good lie down. See you tommorrow.
Just in case anyone didn’t pick it up, I’m a little bit annoyed at the choice of VP.
Chris B
Don’t know if you had a look at the first link in Cats’ 356.
I think it is very informative as to why Joe got the nod.
it appears that he has no, or little, swift boat cargo (as far as we know) as compared with the others and will cause the least sidetracking dramas for BO.
Maybe the MSM will come out with something like he pinched some oranges from his neighbours tree way back in the early fifties.
He certainly plugs the hole on FA where the GOP have been sniping at him.
From my point of view i do not really care who he picked as long as he wins in November rids the country of the trashers that are in charge now.
The research would have been pretty comprehensive for them to pick Joe ahead of the others
I would like him to name his Cabinet soon as someone suggested earlier with Hillary as Sec of Health.
I reckon it would do Bomb Bomd some serious damage if he named his Cabinet.
Chris B – Obama was never going to have Hillary as VP. As many of us on here argued months ago, Hillary would have resulted in a net loss because she is incongruent with Obama’s change and renewal message.
I think Biden is a good choice. It is a safe option. Biden doesn’t have much, if any, baggage (unlike Hillary) is not known too widely (unlike Hillary), which will allow Obama to remain firmly in the spotlight.
If Hillary were the VP candidate, then the election would all be about Hillary again. She has a way of sucking the oxygen out of the world around her, and Obama would be left fighting for the level of media attention required to win the presidency.
Hi again, the Valium worked well last night. Feel a lot better now. 😈
Got a lot of work to do, making a video to teach children to read much faster. Catch you later.
#372
[Hi again, the Valium worked well last night. Feel a lot better now.]
Let’s hope you won’t need the Valium again in the next couple of months. Hillary will be given a cabinet position, and she deserves one. I hope Obama announces what that will be before the election.
Noocat @ 371
I agree. Hilary as VP would have had more negatives than positives for Obama. The choice of Biden makes sense to me.
Hi Gang, glad you’re feeling better this morning, CB. Don’t worry about Biden, if he mainly sticks to stumping for the downscale white and tyke vote in the rust belt, he’ll do little damage to The Team. Remember that Baz is Big Boss Man and calls the shots. Biden is a cleanskin graftwise, looks good on telly, knows how to deliver a killer grab, has a compelling family history and because he’s Beltway up the wazoo, knows how to deal with the bastards who, short of a revolution, can’t be left out of things at this stage.
Some quicksilver analysis from Nifty Nate:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/08/can-biden-out-hillary-hillary.html
364
Chris B
I did something i have not done since last year sometime and that was switch on “hopalong” Cassidy Insiders. Swore i would not do it until the ABC got rid of some of the board.
It was almost like Rupert was conducting the orchestra as the three regular soldiers and Hopalong sailed in to the appointment of Joe as VP.
You guessed it the main topic of their combined knowlege was the fact that ‘Gee he talks a lot doesn’t he, and that could well be his downfall.
Aw shucks it is almost like Jarnut Alldullsen wrote the script for that session following on from reports in US media.
Really shows how shallow they are for criticism when they say he is verbose.
Suppose 500 coherent words from Joe are better than 20 incoherent ones from McHause.
Wandering over to the NYT site and I’m confronted with an entire page dedicated to news and analysis on the Obama/Biden ticket. Not a single article on McCain – if this is what the media mean when they talk about sucking oxygen, then this is one hell of an example.
A Philosophy of Diplomacy First, Force Last
A background on Joe Biden’s foreign policy leaning and the sort of person he is relative to geopolitical opinion.
A Senate Stalwart Who Bounced Back
Digging into his senate background, his priorities and focus.
In ‘Very Personal Decision,’ Aides Say Obama Chose a Partner in Leadership
This article is more about Obama’s rationale and the complementarity of the Obama/Biden ticket.
Obama Adds Foreign Expertise to Ticket
While this one goes more into the Biden foreign policy background.
Thanks gang. I was more concerned about absolutely obliterating the Repugs. Now, I guess we have to settle for obliterating them instead. 😆
And owning seven houses is not elitist?
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-assess24-2008aug24,0,7131971.story
Possum is hitting out next month and goin kickarse.
Check out his video announcement
http://possumcomitatus.wordpress.com/2008/08/24/major-announcement/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-23-biden-poll_N.htm
Gee, why am I not surprised? The Democrats have got themselves to blame.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/08/24/die_hard_clinton_supporters_to_air_grievances_outside_convention/
http://news.smh.com.au/national/obama-supporters-rally-in-sydney-20080824-4174.html
I will say there is a MASSIVE number of articles in the papers, I research. Blanket coverage. I have not seen anything like this anywhere. Even when Obama was in Europe.
Surveys show a tight presidential race in Indiana.
Two new polls show that Republican presidential candidate John McCain could win Indiana.
Or not.
A poll taken for Cincinnati and Louisville TV stations by Survey USA — an automated telephone survey conducted Aug. 16-18 of 645 likely voters in Indiana — showed McCain leading Democrat Barack Obama in Indiana, 50 percent to 44 percent.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080824/NEWS05/808240354
Couple of neato-keeno observations from Nate Man:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/08/is-there-clinton-backlash-how-about.html
Well lookee heah, Bruthers and System, we jes gon’ have ta wait and SEE what da girl DO when she cakewalk out all sassy and sanctified on dat CONvention floah Toosday.
Will she say,
“Ah want all you winnins git on board wit’ Obi!! He Da Man, Girlfriends, He da Man!”
or will she git all cute and damn da Dauphin wit’ faint praise?”
Senator Clinton’s performance will have major consequences. However fleetingly, on this last week in August she holds real power. It will be one of her biggest moments. Will it be about the world of Clintons past or will she reach out and sieze the future more for her Party than for herself?
Quite a few voters are expected to be viewing Her Moment in the Colorado bright lights.
Sun Aug 24:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/nonsequitur;_ylt=App8hlI6e9SykISCJm5o8BVL6ysC
Sun Aug 24:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/doonesbury;_ylt=ApL.OTsg_S39f2f7a6tIblcl6ysC
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/58027
Sun Aug 24:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/billday;_ylt=Ah6VcV.iTofzJiDF8f39zhxR_b4F
Sat Aug 23:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/mikeluckovich;_ylt=ArSKuJGWddZKPfisdENCTRhR_b4F
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/58004
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/58030
Was thqt the sound of hammering I heard in the wee small hours? A radio broadcast of Biden putting lots of big nails into an albatross called “george” or “surge”, and making sure the corpse of the bedraggled bird was never going to detach itself from John McCain’s neck.
Gosh, that rings a bell, it surely does!
390 KR – lets hope so. The capacity of the big corporations, including parts of media to control the agenda for debate is a worry but also reflects the lack of political understanding of many people. I would much prefer McCain to be getting the equal attention of media – the spotlight needs to be on McCain a lot more.
Ecky, this is the last call for Princess Hillary, and if she doesn’t pull a dastardly trick at the conference, it’s all over for her. Sure, the Republicans would be the only winners, but that’s never stopped her in the past. It must be hard having your earthly form inhabited by an Alien ego, just busting to burst out and terrify the adoring crowd.
Can Dr Obama ward off the Alien and divert catastrophe?
How many skeletons from the Senate and elsewhere can Joe Biden rustle up from the last thirty years to ride shotgun for Doc Obi? Can they head off the Alien horde at Dead Man’s Gulch before anyone knows it nearly all went catastrophically wrong?
Stay tuned folks for the exciting finale of the Democratic Primary 2008!
391 Wakefield
Yeah, it’s creepy the way old Macca has evaporated from the public discourse, like the election has already been and gone, and we’ve already forgotten the loser’s name.
But there’s also the more positive spin here too, in as much as Biden has a lot to say, and there’s a lot to say about him as Obama’s VP.
I think this should have Macca worried when his opponent’s VP can say, directly to Macc: hey, I respect you dude, but let’s face facts, you aren’t here to represent ‘change’, just four more years of Bush. You can’t tell us you don’t know much about economics and then try to tell us that things are better under Bush!
If this was a cartoon, then Macca would be taking the big “KAPOOW” hits with each of these.
If I was McCain, I’d be hiding out until these wunderkinds stopped for a milkshake, and try and make a VERY quiet get away! LOL
Salon.com:
The Obama vice-presidential talking points stress that Biden is not part of that derided species called “Washington insiders” because he takes the train home to Wilmington, Del., every night the Senate is in session. Rarely has a politician’s route home been such a political selling point, but in Biden’s case it speaks to a larger biographical truth.
Biden established this unorthodox routine to be with his two young sons after his wife and infant daughter were killed in a car crash just a month after his 1972 upset victory to the Senate. Biden’s oldest son, Beau, now the attorney general of Delaware, is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq with his National Guard unit in October. “When you think about Joe Biden, you think about family,” said longtime Delaware state Sen. Harris McDowell. “Everything starts with family with Joe.”
…which makes a contrast with McCain’s behaviour on that front, doesn’t it?
KR:
“If I was McCain, I’d be hiding out until these wunderkinds stopped for a milkshake, and try and make a VERY quiet get away! LOL”
Kirri, Barry and Joe are into soy.
Bubba’s the Bad Boy when it comes to milkshakes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxncrY2tfm8
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/58019
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/57991
http://cartoonbox.slate.com/static/160.html
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/22/fox-news-obama-documentary-in-one-minute/
Here’s a couple I found on desktop from last week.
Real men don’t do nuance.
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/57691
Bent GOPper Senator, Teddy “Fingers” Stevens, is trying to have his corruption charges heard in his home state of Alaska. Even with all the justice money can buy, Fingers has two chances of this occurring; Buckley’s and Bubkes. The transfer hearing has been set for late August.
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/57709
As it transpired, the judge told “Fingers” he could shove his transfer; as Chris B reported, the hearing will be in D.C.
ELECTION COUNTDOWN
1 day to the Democratic Convention
72 days to Election Day
149 days to Inauguration
The Republicans are running an ad using the fact that Hillary missed out on the VP position.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/24/18-year-old-delegate-still-pushes-for-clinton-to-be-no-2/
Obama Leads McCain by 49% to 43% in Washington Post-ABC Poll .
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama leads his Republican rival John McCain by 49 percent to 43 percent nationwide among registered voters, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aPfbo69bmO3g&refer=home