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Obama for VP

I am no psephologist, but as the owner of one of those V-thingies, I have had a particular interest in the women in this election. Sadly, with one exception, they have shamed my gender and behaved in general as if they have one of those P-thingies instead.

Hillary – the Great White hope. Before this election got interesting I hoped and assumed that Hillary would trounce the republicans and we would see a woman in the White House. As an avowed feminist this was pleasing indeed and seemed to make this election a trailblazer for that reason alone. Anything to see the end of George the Imbecile, and what better way to turn the tables on neo-conservatism than to see a democrat woman as POTUS.

She is charismatic, confident, assured and knowledgeable. It turns out she is also rabidly ambitious and prepared to play dirty to that end. I was amazed at some of the stunts she pulled , the fake accents, the lies about her foreign affairs experience and worse, her preparedness to smear Obama when the Primary race got tight. Hillary believed that she had an entitlement to be back in The White House and she dragged it out to the bitter end, which was damaging for the party, and ultimately herself.

Then there’s the Stepford wives. Cindy McCain who has behaved like a handbag: an attractive accessory (if you like plastic), with not much content. She has conducted herself like all good wives from the 50’s should – well groomed, and silently supporting her man. Who knows what she really thinks? She represents a thankfully bygone era where a woman’s only public role was to be seen to support her man. Even when he has publicly humiliated her and called her a “Stupid C-nt”. If she had divorced him and spoken out against abuse of women she would be deserving of admiration. Instead she relies on his success for her identity. Not the kind of role model I want for my daughters.

And the First Lady – Laura . I actually feel sorry for her – after all she sleeps with George every night, so she is punished enough and in an act of sisterly solidarity I shall harm her no more.

My favourite anti-hero of this election is of course Sarah Palin. Not much I can say that hasn’t been said, and nothing anyone can say that betters Tina Fey. She will become a symbol of all that is loathed about the American Character – an arrogant, brash, ignorant, fundamentalist who does not have the intelligence to know that she isn’t. But she is also frightening – a juxtaposed “I can do anything” feminist persona overlaying a basic narrowness that is determined to undo some of the rights that women have fought and even died for – most particularly the right to choose whether to proceed with an unplanned pregnancy. This in my view makes her one of the most dangerous female politicians in the public arena today. Whatever your personal view on abortion is, it is not her right to impose hers on all American women. It’s bad enough that she’s doing it to Bristol.

Then onto the stage strides Michelle Obama. A woman of intelligence and style. A woman who clearly supports her husband but has her own views on matters of public policy. A mother and partner who has a successful career. A woman who can talk and think for herself. And an African American who must know first hand what it means to live in a country which has not reached it’s potential, but may in fact be about to. This is a role model for my daughters, and for all of us who aspire to see women in public life reflect the best of us.

Frankly – I wish she was VP.

1,370 replies on “Obama for VP”

Out of interest, can anyone come up with even ONE scenario where the Repugs could win this thing?

1201 jen I suspect anything they come up with will be dismissed as Republicans dirty tricks, and it will backfire badly!

All news services will be an the watch out for it. Whether it is true or not it will get the thumbs down.

GhostWhoVotes @ 1206

It would do Governor Gerry proud – my high school teacher of American History said that the may of original “gerrymandered” electorate looked like a fish (I wonder if that is actually true).

ChrisB – I mean ANYTHING- not just political stunts.
National/ internationl/ global events- anything , no matter how awful that could see a turn around back to the GOP.

“Out of interest, can anyone come up with even ONE scenario where the Repugs could win this thing?”

After deep and meaningful consideration, jen, only “ONE”, but just 4 U!

After a hard day on the campaign trail, a GOPper fifth columnist who has infiltrated Obi’s inner circle, slips The Kid a Mickey Finn; a cocktail of elephant tranquilizer, crack and ibogaine.
The Candidate goes stir crazy a la Incredible Hulk and has brutal and repetitive carnal knowledge of a large barnyard animal despite the frezied pleadings of his wife and daughters whose attempts to physically restrain the Democratic Nominee prove fruitless.
The Judas guy captures “sensitive moments” of the unseemly spectacle on his cell and relays them instantly to Matt Drudge.

Failing that, jen, The Kid’s gonna bolt in! So kick back a little, relax and enjoy the spectacle as the GOPpers rend themselves asunder.
🙂

1206

From Wikipedia:

The word “gerrymander” is named for the Governor of Massachusetts Elbridge Gerry (July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814), and is a blend (or portmanteau) of his name with the word “salamander,” used to describe the shape of a tortuous electoral district pressed through the Massachusetts legislature in 1812. Jeffersonian democrats devised the boundaries —and Gerry reluctantly signed the district into law — to reduce competition by their electoral opponents in the upcoming senatorial election.

A picture from 1812 depicting the district as a dragon.

So Ferny – according to Peggy he could just about do it IF all the elderly and infirm voted on the day, if Obama didn’t perform well on election day (!- like what- he doesn’t get out of bed?), and the financial crisis fades (yah)- McCain might pull it off.
Oh and if a special Democrat voter-only strain of the ebola virus kills off all his supporters of course. 🙄
Seriously deluded.

Ecky!! :mrgreen:
Did NOT think of carnal knowledge of a barnyard animal (better still an elephant, just to complete the symbolism for the photos.)

1208 jen I am really sorry jen I can’t think of anything to stuff the election, unless the Jehova’s day of atonement is due before then or the Appocolypse, but other than that. Nah!

No Chris- not if Michelle was on Fox sobbing and rueing the day she married an elephant-fcker. 😈

I can see the net 10 days degenerating into some very unseemly discussions if we’re not careful. It’s the pheromones kicking in.
Perhaps we should borrow Willim’s new Snip policy (appears to be working wonders I must say).

1221
The elephant is seriously fucked….by the ass.
Cough….Splutter….Spray…..buggered keyboard!! :mrgreen:

1222
…er….donkey

Damn……There goes the monitor as well.

Keep your bloody farmyard animals under control Ferny. 🙂

1211 EC

That might reduce it to say….320 EV or something lol

Seriously the only thing that could help the Republican Party is a friggin time machine.

burning money…..this is from nakedcapitalism…..the tumultous end of Bretton Woods II…..get your fear and trembling online….this makes the subprime fiasco seem like losing your lunch money…

“…..the analysis penned by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is what really caught my eye. He makes the case for us to worry about a full-scale currency crisis worse than the 1931 currency crisis of the Great Depression. The link: Bank credit. You can think of Sweden in the Baltics, Austria in Central Europe, Spain in Latin America — and you begin to picture the interconnectedness that will imperil Europe’s banking system much more than either Japan’s or America’s:
The financial crisis spreading like wildfire across the former Soviet bloc threatens to set off a second and more dangerous banking crisis in Western Europe, tipping the whole Continent into a fully-fledged economic slump…

Experts fear the mayhem may soon trigger a chain reaction within the eurozone itself. The risk is a surge in capital flight from Austria – the country, as it happens, that set off the global banking collapse of May 1931 when Credit-Anstalt went down – and from a string of Club Med countries that rely on foreign funding to cover huge current account deficits.

The latest data from the Bank for International Settlements shows that Western European banks hold almost all the exposure to the emerging market bubble, now busting with spectacular effect.

They account for three-quarters of the total $4.7 trillion £2.96 trillion) in cross-border bank loans to Eastern Europe, Latin America and emerging Asia extended during the global credit boom – a sum that vastly exceeds the scale of both the US sub-prime and Alt-A debacles.

Europe has already had its first foretaste of what this may mean. Iceland’s demise has left them nursing likely losses of $74bn (£47bn). The Germans have lost $22bn.

Stephen Jen, currency chief at Morgan Stanley, says the emerging market crash is a vastly underestimated risk. It threatens to become “the second epicentre of the global financial crisis”, this time unfolding in Europe rather than America.

Austria’s bank exposure to emerging markets is equal to 85pc of GDP – with a heavy concentration in Hungary, Ukraine, and Serbia – all now queuing up (with Belarus) for rescue packages from the International Monetary Fund.

Exposure is 50pc of GDP for Switzerland, 25pc for Sweden, 24pc for the UK, and 23pc for Spain. The US figure is just 4pc. America is the staid old lady in this drama.

Amazingly, Spanish banks alone have lent $316bn to Latin America, almost twice the lending by all US banks combined ($172bn) to what was once the US backyard. Hence the growing doubts about the health of Spain’s financial system – already under stress from its own property crash – as Argentina spirals towards another default, and Brazil’s currency, bonds and stocks all go into freefall.

Broadly speaking, the US and Japan sat out the emerging market credit boom. The lending spree has been a European play – often using dollar balance sheets, adding another ugly twist as global “deleveraging” causes the dollar to rocket. Nowhere has this been more extreme than in the ex-Soviet bloc.

The region has borrowed $1.6 trillion in dollars, euros, and Swiss francs. A few dare-devil homeowners in Hungary and Latvia took out mortgages in Japanese yen. They have just suffered a 40pc rise in their debt since July. Nobody warned them what happens when the Japanese carry trade goes into brutal reverse, as it does when the cycle turns.
When the markets open on Monday, I expect the crisis in Emerging markets to take top priority. Iceland was the first victim of this crisis. The dreadful events there should be a warning to policy makers to address this now or else we could see some awful writedowns at European institutions in the very near future — not to mention the potential economic destruction this turmoil could cause.

1226
blindoptimist

And Alan Greenspan now considers he’s found, after carefully noticing the implosion of the US mortgage then financial markets, a little ‘flaw’ in his previous thinking! LOL

The carnage out of the US subprime is the classic example of chaos theory and the butterfly flapping in the Brazillian rainforest cascading into a hurricane in the Caribbean. US subprime mortgages were the butterflies to this cataclysmic collapse of a world bloated on derivatives with no counterparties remaining solvent enough to pay out.

It’s really financial Armageddon, and as you point out, we’re in for a pretty rough ride. There’s nowhere on the planet to hide from this perfect storm.

1227 Wakefield Yeah, did you see the joke though? It’s because McCain is talking about the economy!

Well how’s that for synchronicity? I’ve just read this:

John Lonski, the chief economist at Moody’s Investors Service in New York, said: “It’s the old cliché of a butterfly flipping its wings somewhere in Africa and eventually changing the air pressure so that we get a nasty hurricane in North America. It is hard to argue that if the developed economies, which are the principle markets for their products, slow sharply, emerging market countries won’t be adversely affected.”

…we really ARE all connected, in more ways than one.

1226
Well blindoptimist, that’s the second time today you’ve laid out the scenario of what could be worse than a Republican victory.
A total economic meltdown.
Unfortunately, it’s much more likely than a McCain victory. 🙁
I really hope the G20 and the IMF can get their game together toot sweet.
The world doesn’t really have the time to wait till Jan 20.

The leaked story about Bush not knowing what the G 20 was when talking to Rudd on the phone on Oct 10th is fairly worrying.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24549090-5013871,00.html

Mind you, the Bush administration’s economic illiteracy is hardly a secret. It’s just the sheer level of incompetence that’s remarkable.
Sort of hurricane Katrina, but for finance and extending around the world. 🙁

Electoral-Vote.com: House Republicans Were Right on the Bailout

House Republicans voted down the first bailout bill because they were afraid it would become just another government boondoggle. But after it was loaded up with more pork than all the pigs in Iowa, they changed their minds. Guess what? It has become just another government boondoggle. Sec. Henry Paulson’s idea was to buy up all the toxic mortgages to get them off the banks’ books. He long since shelved that plan. His next idea was to buy stock in the banks so they would have fresh capital and could start making loans again. However, instead of making loans, some banks are using the money to pay dividends, give executives bonuses, and buy other banks. For example, PNC Financial Services received $7.7 billion in government money and promptly spent $5.6 billion of it to buy National City Corp. Lawmakers are protesting but they should hardly be surprised since they gave Paulson unlimited authority to spend the money any way he wanted to, with hardly an supervision and no restrictions on what the recipients did with the money. In addition, Paulson hired the Bank of New York Mellon to run the program. On the same day Bank of New York Mellon received $3 billion itself, apparently deciding that it could use some cash. Hardly anyone noticed.

I just saw the best confirmation that this is gonna be a landslide.

Fox News just put up a poll result they just ran.

Q: How are you going to vote this year?

A) In Person
B) Absentee
C) I forget what this option was
D) NOT VOTING AT ALL = 48%

That’s right…48% of Fox News viewers AREN”T GOING TO VOTE.

The Republican Party and the McCain/Palin campaign has self destructed.

If nearly half the Fox watching wingnuts aren’t going to vote then this is gonna be a tidal wave.

Hat tip to ChrisB

Moning, Gang,

E-Day minus 9 and the pillars of GOPperdom are crumbling fast.

Having already begun to eat their own, the feast continues with cannibalistic abandon……..

“SEE WHAT YOU MADE THEM DO!?”

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=QDWYQ9nQeHs&eurl=http://thinkprogress.org/

The prototypical psychopath has deficits or deviances in several areas: interpersonal relationships, emotion, and self-control. Psychopaths lack a sense of guilt or remorse for any harm they may have caused others, instead rationalizing the behavior, blaming someone else, or denying it outright.[65] Psychopaths also lack empathy towards others in general, resulting in tactlessness, insensitivity, and contemptuousness. All of this belies their tendency to make a good, likable first impression. Psychopaths have a superficial charm about them, enabled by a willingness to say anything without concern for accuracy or truth.
This extends into their pathological lying and willingness to con and manipulate others for personal gain or amusement. The prototypical psychopath’s emotions are described as a shallow affect, meaning their overall way of relating is characterized by mere displays of friendliness and other emotion for personal gain; the displayed emotion need not correlate with felt emotion, in other words.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy

Said, by some, to be the most powerful presidential advisor in a century. Said, by more, to be the chief instigator of dirty tricks and character assassination campaigns against those who challenge the policies of the Bush administration. He earned his stripes first as an apprentice of Richard Nixon’s dirty trickster, Donald Segretti. Rove then went on to hone and refine his duplicitous craft under Republican National Committee chairmen George H. W. Bush, Lee Atwater, and, finally, George W. Bush

Fellow PNAC member, Wialliam Kristol has said of Rove: “I believe Karl is Bush. They’re not separate, each of them freestanding, with distinct agendas, as some people say. Karl thinks X. Bush thinks X. Clearly, it’s a very complicated relationship.”

http://www.oldamericancentury.org/karl_rove.htm

William Kristol is Co-Founder and Chairman of Project for a New American Century(PNAC).

Karl Rove is a foundation member.

That’s fantatsic HarryH – 40 percent of Americans can’t quite bring themselves to vote fro the Black Guy (” I’m not racist but…”) so they’re going to stay home and sulk. 😆

It’s sad to watch the conservative commentator David Brooks squirming in his seat as he writes about what a good president McCain would make if only his party was not totally out of touch with reality! LOL

McCain? Good president? If his campaign has not made it abundantly clear, even to partisans like Brooks, that McCain is NOT even capable of running a coherent chook raffle, then they’re simply incapable of rational thought.

1236
Progressive

Nice numbers Prog. The kid is on a roll all the way to Pennsylvannia Avenue, and even a 1000pt rally on the Dow (which will NOT happen this week, BTW) cannot change that.

1234
EC
I was only two sentences in to the first half of that post and was already picturing The Fence standing up to the mike and saying;
“I resemble that statement”,
you betcha.

Wonder what the good Christians (fundamentalists and others) think when McCain says that Obama’s statement saying sharing the wealth around is a good thing is proof that he is a dangerous leftist. My understanding of the Christian Bible is that is is fairly supportive of such views. I call for McCain and Bible Barbie to prove that they have read and understood their Bibles. Otherwise they could be in for some well deserved time out to improve their comprehension.

Gosh, things are definitely going to get ugly for the Repuglies after Nov. 4, especially when Sarah Palin is being hailed as not just the new messiah for the party, but as the next Ronald Reagan:

“Jim Nuzzo, a White House aide to the first President Bush, believes this election is not a re-run of the 1980 Reagan revolution but of 1976, when an ageing Gerald Ford lost a close contest and then ceded the leadership of the Republican Party to Mr Reagan. He said: “Win or lose, there is a ready made conservative candidate waiting in the wings. Sarah Palin is not the new Iain Duncan Smith, she is the new Ronald Reagan.””

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/3260074/Republican-fears-of-historic-Obama-landslide-unleash-civil-war-for-the-future-of-the-party.html

McFuckwit is even struggling to win his home state!
A new poll shows Obama is only 2 points behind in Arizona
43 McSlime
41 Obama

I note also that pollster.com has just put Georgia into the tossup column!

Kirribilli: Hey Buddy! Only one week to go until the forces of good triumph – fingers and toes all crossed! The Republican Party deserves nothing else but total electoral obliteration!

Note the contrast!
Obama gets 45,000 to his rally in New Mexico yesterday
McCain holds a rally in the same state, on the same day, and draws a crowd of 1,000
LMFAO

1243
Progressive

There will be dancing in the streets, all around the world too!

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14951.html

[‘Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he can “guarantee” a win on Nov. 4 in a squeaker victory that won’t be clear until late that night.

McCain spoke amid signs of a tightening race, and reports of renewed determination among his staff, which is badly outgunned in both money and manpower.

“I guarantee you that two weeks from now, you will see this has been a very close race, and I believe that I’m going to win it,” McCain told interim “Meet” moderator Tom Brokaw. “We’re going to do well in this campaign, my friend. We’re going to win it, and it’s going to be tight, and we’re going to be up late.”’]

Well at least McCain will have a good shot at the role of Iraqi Information Minister when this is all over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Saeed_al-Sahaf
[‘His last public appearance as Information Minister was on April 8, 2003, when he said that the Americans “are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks. They will surrender, it is they who will surrender”.’]

asanque…everyone will be up late alright…celebrating the annihilation of the GOP! LOL

I often hear people say that the Republicans are up against it – no Republican could win, because of the financial crisis, and peole’s general loathing of Bush.

I’m having none of this crap. Sure, the financial crisis has focused attention on how badly the Republicans have damaged the economy, but Obama is simply the best candidate, and he’s run an amazing campaign. But also, McCain’s been a poor candidate, and has run an embarrassingly bad campaign.

I like this blog on Daily Kos…

Something struck me, the other day, and I continue to be impressed by it. Despite all predictions, this election is not, in fact, about President Bush. He’s a non-entity in it all.

That’s fairly remarkable. Aagainst the odds, the McCain/Palin campaign has managed to suck entirely on its own. Sure, the Democrats wanted to paint McCain (accurately, when it comes to nearly all actual policy positions) as the second coming of Bush. But McCain resisted the label, and instead found ways to suck that were completely independent of his ties to Bush….
So… congratulations to McCain, I guess. He managed to do the seemingly impossible — be trailing in the election not because people were deathly tired of George W. Bush and didn’t want anything to do with his party, but because people are deathly tired of John McCain, as well.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/26/25411/444/269/642493

Dick Morris must have some money swinging on this election and the stock market bailout. He wants McCain to win by attacking Obama on his capital gain tax increase, Rev Wright and impending socialist takeover.
But independent groups who want to prevent a leftist takeover of the government should not let liberal organs dictate their campaign tactics or their message.
By stressing the tax issue and the potential of an Obama regime to subvert our free enterprise system, McCain can harness the crisis and warn voters of the impact of a decision to elect the most radical candidate for president in our nation’s history.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10252008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/the_truman_show_135232.htm?page=0
And this is the man who did his best to give prostitutes a bad name.

They’re drowning in their own bile, Wakefield. And when they disappear beneath the surface and their last bubbles of air pop into nothingness…
Then I will rejoice.
Pass the champers!

Endorsements: Anchorage paper picks Obama.

The Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News endorsed Obama on Oct. 25, 2008:

Gov. Palin’s nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency — but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation.

and more here..
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hr5hmYnjJMz50Swp8ech-tpt4zoAD942E6H80

Some analysts see Dems winning filibuster-proof majority of 60.

How hostile is the political environment for Senate Republicans this year?

In Oregon, embattled GOP incumbent Sen. Gordon Smith has aired commercials praising Barack Obama, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy — everybody, it seems, but Republican standard-bearer John McCain.

In Minnesota, endangered Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, who once described President Bush as the answer to his prayers, is now mimicking Obama instead with a “Hope Express” bus tour.

Even deep in the heart of Dixie, appointed Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker crows on his campaign home page about leading the opposition to Bush Medicare policies.

“I don’t think that anybody realized it was going to be this tough of a cycle,” said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. “We’re dealing with an unpopular president. We have a financial crisis. Republicans get a lot more of the blame than Democrats do.”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/6078415.html

U.S. Senate race in Kentucky now national title fight.

The battle for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky has suddenly become the nation’s marquee congressional race.

The outcome of the contest between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, and Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford could determine whether a Democratic majority will enjoy virtually unfettered power in the Senate.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20081026/NEWS0106/810260461/1008/NEWS01

A crowd of 100,000.

Democrat Barack Obama sharpened his criticism of rival John McCain on Sunday, warning a record crowd of more than 100,000 supporters that a McCain White House would mean four more years of failed Republican policies and broken politics.

The Illinois senator, concluding a two-day swing through the Western battlegrounds of Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, renewed his favorite theme — that McCain represents four more years of the policies of Republican President George W. Bush.

“We’re not going to let George Bush pass the torch to John McCain,” Obama told the biggest crowd in his record-setting campaign.

The thunderous crowd, which exceeded the 100,000 who saw Obama at a recent rally in St. Louis, jammed a downtown Denver park and filled the steps of the Colorado state capital building.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE49P2U520081026

With the Obama campaign showing seven TV advertisements to one at the moment. The full effect of this advertising won’t show up in the final polls. It will show up on election day.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE WARS
Obama’s Huge Haul Should End This Fight.

On Wednesday night, Sen. Barack Obama plans to air a half-hour campaign commercial in prime time on at least three television networks. Whether people click right past it or blame the campaign for a slightly delayed World Series Game 6 or interfering with an episode of “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” the ads — said to cost at least $1 million per network — are an imposing show of the financial strength of the Obama campaign, which has raised more than $600 million for the primaries and general election combined.

Registration may be needed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102302077.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Ironical isn’t it?

Don’t expect those misguided efforts to change the system to end here, though. While Obama is benefiting from a fundraising advantage this year, in most elections since the 1960s, Republicans have held a spending advantage. Democrats always complained that that was unfair. Where are they now? Meanwhile, don’t be surprised if some Republicans suddenly become champions of “reform” after this election.

Registration may be needed.
Same article as above.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102302077.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

From the same article again.

In fact, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, groups supporting the Democratic candidate have spent more than groups opposing him, while groups supporting McCain have been outspent by groups opposing him. In other words, “outside” groups only tip the scales further in Obama’s favor.

All Obama’s groups have mastered the Internet. The Internet is the greatest socialist invention ever!

Registration may be needed.
Same article as above.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102302077.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Barack Obama has vaulted to a 15-point lead over John McCain in New Hampshire, according to a new Boston Globe poll, a significant gap in a state that McCain considers his second political home and has long been a swing state in the race for the White House.

Financial distress has clearly driven voters from McCain to Obama, who was trailing his Republican rival by 2 percentage points in September – a 17-point swing in just one month. Nearly half of those surveyed cited the economy and jobs as their top concerns, and they overwhelmingly saw Obama as the candidate best equipped to address them.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/10/globe_poll_obam.html

Catrina, as the top blogger on this site, I think it is only fair that you should send me on an all expenses paid trip to cover this event for Politic 101. 😈

And last week the BBC unveiled its own plans for an election extravaganza, flying 125 employees out to join its 50 staff already on the ground. David Dimbleby, who in 2000 described presidential elections as “unbelievably boring to cover because nothing ever happens”, will be live on air until 6am, broadcasting simulcast on BBC1, BBC World and News 24, with correspondents beaming in from key states. Question Time, The Politics Show, Radio 4 and Radio 5 will all be stationed in Washington, while Times Square in New York will host a frenzy of bloggers.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/tv-throws-the-highdefinition-kitchen-sink-at-the-us-election-973508.html

Senate Democrats eye ‘magic 60’.

Sens. Mitch McConnell and Elizabeth Dole are two top Republicans lawmakers who find themselves fighting to hold on to their Senate seats.
They’re also two reasons why Democrats are talking 60 — the number of seats needed to secure filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

“We are feeling really good that we are going to pick up a successful amount of the larger number of seats and have a successful election. As for 60? It is possible,” said New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who runs campaign operations for the Senate Democrats.

Winning what’s commonly called the “magic 60” would maximize the Democrats’ ability to push through a Democratic agenda and would virtually prevent Republicans from blocking legislation on the Senate floor.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/26/senate.majority/?iref=mpstoryview

100,000 Greet Obama in Denver.

Barack Obama drew a crowd of 100,000, according to police estimates, in his third visit to Colorado since the Democratic Convention. Speaking at Civic Center Park in downtown Denver, Obama appeared to be stunned by the sea of supporters.

“Goodness gracious! Who are those folks way at the top of the capitol over there? Unbelievable!” he said to cheers.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/26/politics/fromtheroad/entry4546324.shtml

No one is calling Todd Palin cheap or anything, but Todd…. 35 bucks for a wedding ring?
This on the Christian Science Monitor.

Sarah Palin threw her husband under the bus today and emboldened cheap husbands and boyfriends everywhere by announcing her wedding ring cost $35. Note that there are no commas in that figure. Those two numbers stand together. A three followed by a five. Then a period. 35 bucks.

On top of this, she announced that Todd didn’t even buy it. She bought it herself. Maybe this is why the Anchorage Daily News endorsed Barack Obama today.

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/10/26/palin-wardrobe-controversy-heightens-todd-is-a-cheapo/

Republicans fear the loss of their only weapon left: the filibuster.

It is the about the last, the most overblown but perhaps the most potent argument John McCain has left. Elect me, he tells voters, or watch the Democrats gain a hammerlock on Congress and plunge the country into socialism.

A week tomorrow, not one but 471 elections of national importance are held in the US. Americans are choosing not only a president but also all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 senators. And the factors sweeping Barack Obama towards victory may also put the Democrats in a more powerful position on Capitol Hill than any party in a generation.

If he wins, not only would they control the White House, but also both houses of Congress, and by expanded margins. Most important, in the Senate they might reach the magic number of 60 seats required to override a filibuster and thus deprive Republicans of their one remaining weapon, their ability to talk to death legislation they oppose.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/republicans-fear-the-loss-of-their-only-weapon-left-the-filibuster-974412.html

McStupid waffling at his ultimate best on meet the press. video!

McCain Totally Losing It: Palin Is Qualified To Be President Because She’s Married To An Oil Facilities Worker:

Total meltdown for McSame on “Meet the Press” this morning. Watch how defensive he gets when Brokaw’s cites poll after poll that indicates people don’t think Palin is qualified to be Vice President. “Because?! Not qualified…because?!” he snaps.

Then, after some creepy, nervous giggles about the Veep debate, McSame starts ticking off the reasons Palin is qualified to be President and gets completely lost in the bullshit.

http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/26/mccain-totally-losing-it-palin-is-qualified-to-be-president-because-shes-married-to-an-oil-facilities-worker/

This from the same article in 1274

The problem, for Mr McCain is that, in this moment of real crisis, strong unified government may be what Americans want. A Washington Post poll found that, by a 50-30 margin, voters would now prefer one party (ie, the Democrats) to control both the executive and legislative branches.

And as America, by its standards, moves to the left, maybe “socialism” is exactly what they are looking for: a more activist government, higher taxes for the rich and a stronger social safety net for the poor, more regulations on financial markets and something that approximates to universal health care.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/republicans-fear-the-loss-of-their-only-weapon-left-the-filibuster-974412.html

Is it true that McCain went to New Hampshire, unleashed the ol’ fella (that is, the ol’ fella’s ol’ fella) and proceeded to piss in the cornflakes of the entire state??

I mean, shit! He’s 15 points behind in NH and only those with a bizarre taste for ol’ fella juice are voting for him!!!

How else do you explain it???

Gay Groups Use Donations to Become a Force in Elections.

The city of Rochester and its suburbs along Lake Ontario may seem an unlikely focal point for the national gay rights movement.

But many of the philanthropists who have bankrolled gay and lesbian causes throughout the country have poured tens of thousands of dollars in the past month into the State Senate campaign of Rick Dollinger, a Democrat and ally of the gay community. Mr. Dollinger is challenging a Republican incumbent, Joseph E. Robach, whose district includes Rochester.

May need registation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/nyregion/26gays.html?em

Gaffers- not that I’m counting 😉
It’s my Inner Hillary coming out again. As much as ChrisB and I are on the same team did you know that he once went to a church where the preacher said that AndrewBolt’s site was the true way???

Greensborough Growler
Posted Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 10:26 pm | Permalink
SNIP: Tedious bickering/offensive language deleted – The Management.

The snips are working well there at least. It can be applied to all the Green Grinch’s posts 😛

William Bowe has predicted 375 EV’s for Obama.
Same as Catrina.
And same as my prediction just put up today.

The Alaska and Oregon races could be filibuster busters.

The fierce struggle over the 60-vote barrier in the U.S. Senate could be decided by a third-party candidate in Oregon.

For the first time since 1954, Pacific Northwest races could be critical in how the U.S. Senate is organized in January. Democrats have an assured majority — they didn’t in 1954 — but they will need upsets in Alaska and Oregon to reach 60 seats, the number needed to halt Republican filibusters.

They’re all claiming their state as the filibuster breaker.
http://crosscut.com/2008/10/26/2008-election/18595/

1278 Chris B
“And as America, by its standards, moves to the left, maybe “socialism” is exactly what they are looking for: a more activist government, higher taxes for the rich and a stronger social safety net for the poor, more regulations on financial markets and something that approximates to universal health care.”

I agree. I believe the U.S. (and Australia) has been shifting incrementally leftwards for at least a couple of years now. The conservative peak is over. So when McCain tries to attack Obama for wanting to “spread the wealth around”, he is actually do him a favour. This is exactly what an increasing number of Americans are wanting today. They are sick of neoconservative favouritism of the wealthy.

This shift leftwards is also what skewered predictions that Obama would not be able to beat Hillary and then would not be able to beat McCain. Many assumed the U.S. was still operating at its conservative peak, so drew on conventional wisdom that pretty much said that if you are a conservative and you appeal to base-level conservative instincts like racism, war-mongering, etc., you would have the recipe for winning. But the political landscape is changing, it’s moving leftwards, and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future.

So is it any wonder that McCain is losing worse than expected after he shifted to the right while the majority of the U.S. shifted to the left??

Howard did exactly the same thing here in Australia with WorkChoices and other policies while Australia took a little step to the left.

When Obama becomes president, expect a further shift to the left in the U.S. and here in the next couple of years.

Palin’s latest is spreading the false report that Obama has already written his inaugural address. Even for Repugs, their willinglness to freely spout lies is astonishing. Makes Johhnie Howard seem honest!

Obama Ties McCain to Republican Philosophy.

With the final week of campaigning ahead, Senator Barack Obama redoubled his efforts to tie Senator John McCain to the Bush administration by seizing on Mr. McCain’s remark Sunday that he shared a “common philosophy” with the president.
“I guess that was John McCain finally giving us a little straight talk, and owning up to the fact that he and George Bush actually have a whole lot in common,” Mr. Obama said at a rally here. “Here’s the thing, we know what the Bush-McCain philosophy looks like. It’s a philosophy that says we should give more and more to millionaires and billionaires and hope that it trickles down on everyone else.”

May need registering
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/us/politics/26cnd-campaign.html?hp

Judge dismisses juror in Sen. Stevens case.

A federal judge on Sunday dismissed one of the jurors at Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens’ corruption trial after losing contact with the woman following her father’s death.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan plans to seat an alternate juror Monday morning and order the jury to start their deliberations over from the beginning, a setback for Stevens’ attempt to get a verdict before Alaskans vote on Election Day.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5je6Pw1sViz24JRo9F0PNhoqMtzTwD942G1O80

Andrew @ 1288

Check out the response from Obama camp 😆

A complaint by Senator McCain that his rival has “already written his inaugural address” was dismissed by the Democrats at the weekend.

“While this charge is completely false and there is no draft of an inaugural address for Senator Obama, the last thing we need is a candidate like John McCain, who just plans on re-reading George Bush’s,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.

right at the end of this article.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/us-election-2008/republicans-fear-historic-landslide-defeat-20081026-58zs.html?page=-1

So lemme get this straight, John:
You can GUARANTEE:
* The fundamentals of the economy are sound; and
* Sarah Palin is ready to be president; and
* you’re gonna win this election.

Cool. Now gimme some of that weed you’re smokin’.

1287 Noocat

Nice post.

I haven’t seen McDickhead on MTP yet but i read that he was creepily giggling about Obama wanting to “spread the wealth” and “wanting fairness”.

Yep…he sat there and said Obama is for “fairness” and implied that is a bad thing and he wouldn’t stand for it.

I agree with you that the drift back to the centre from the hard right has been under way for a while now.

1296
HarryH

That’s ‘spreading the wealth’ from the few percent who earn 30% of total income to the other 95% who get the crumbs, and in no way resembles the spreading of the ‘wealth’ that Wall Street has engineered for the nation and the world! LOL

And, um, I’d just like to thank my family for all their support throughout my blogging life, and especially Obama fro providing me with the inspiration to try an dovercome my typing disability (with limited success I admit). And Sarah for being such an amazing pain in the arse that it prompted me to finally post on Politics 101.
and of course, I want to thank The Lord Jesus for allowing me this great honour . I did it for him.

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