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Referendum on Obama ?

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been noticing a reoccurring phrase from the talking heads in the US media.

This election is a referendum on Obama.

Give me a break! If this was a referendum on Obama it would be suggesting that all of those dumb white lazy Americans were actually thinking about voting for Obama instead of cleaning guns and beating the women folk with their bibles.

Reality is that white Americans are not dumb, the majority are not cleaning their guns, only a very small percentage are beating their womenfolk, and this election is not a referendum. However, looking at the situation from the media perspective, they do need a narrative that will last out the election season, and we have some of the ducks lined up. Obama is representing a substantially new series of policies and an attitudinal shift, he is popular, knows how to motivate an audience, knows how to construct sentences, and according to people who know him a lot better than we do, actually knows how to speak with a lot more depth than he chooses to deliver on the campaign trail. McCain in contrast is building on a familiar landscape, a national reverence for anything and anyone military, and an somewhat old-boy, beer on the balcony, best mate persona, his foreign affairs acumen established as a prisoner of war, and that ‘Rodger RamJet: Hero of our Nation’ thing.

Roger Ramjet is a patriotic and highly moral but not too bright superhero (kind of a jet age Dudley Do-Right), who is typically out to save the world, with help from his Proton Energy Pills (“PEP”), which give him “the strength of twenty atom bombs for a period of twenty seconds”. The World is invariably saved by dispensing violence towards the various recurring criminals who are traditional characters in this form of entertainment.

But, it gets worse … doesn’t the following quote sound a lot like General Petraeus, John McCain, and the McCain Campaign crew?

On government missions assigned by General G.I. Brassbottom, Ramjet encounters various nemeses during his missions. Typically he is caught, and must be rescued by his crew of sidekicks, the American Eagles (named Yank, Doodle, Dan and Dee – a play on “Yankee Doodle Dandy”.) Although his Eagles appear to be children, each of them, except for Dee, flies his own individual ramjet aircraft expertly, along with being obviously much more savvy than their leader.

I’m going out on a limb here and I’m suggesting that the media have already figured out that a ‘national referendum on Obama’ is just what is needed to create a multitude of interesting talking points, and justify a media bias to cover attention of the more interesting candidate. Think of the alternative – repeats of a kid’s TV animation series from the 1960s? After all, there are still 24 days to the Convention, 95 days (or 2,280 of those 24×7 media hours) to fill before this election is done and dusted (excluding recounts and associated supreme court rulings) and 173 days until the Inauguration.

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Content referencing Roger RamJet courtesy of Wikipedia.

611 replies on “Referendum on Obama ?”

Or, as my seven year old loudly sang out in our local public pool one day, to the Roger Ramjet theme (Yankee Doodle Dandy, (and it was a shock to me too!):

Yankee Doodle flew to Mars,
He also flew to Venus,
He shot a rocket up his bum
and paralysed his penis!

No doubt it’s a postmodern critique of the self-inflicted punishment of starting wars and it’s ultimate crippling effect on the nation’s virility, but then again, maybe it’s a just clever way to pack some rude words into a well known tune?

Ah, the ambiguity of popular verse!

Bibles at 4

Find out what drives Obama and why we may only be witnessing the beginning of his career.

From the bottom of my heart, I hope you are profoundly wrong.

I would suggest to you that there is a very real and significant difference between ‘a blind religion’ and a ‘reasoned faith’. Everything I have seen to-date about Obama suggests to me someone who is ready, willing and able to apply reason and objectivity to the question of faith and religion. I will accept that perhaps I am casting too much of my own faith/religion/reason thinking into my assumptions about Obama’s own position. But I remain confident that Obama is not into ‘Signs’, ‘Mighty works‘, or ‘Wonders’ – but instead is much more analytical in that he is considering the machinery of political institutions, the power of the people, his own ability to change the status quo, and not least of all – the reality on the ground in America and the world in this time, this context, and this moment.

Oh McCain, you’ve done it again:

Senator John McCain’s campaign accused Barack Obama of playing “the race card’’ on Thursday, citing his remarks that Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing out he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.’’

NYTimes

…doesn’t that just take the cake eh?

As for Obama being the new Messiah….nah, he’s just a VERY naughty boy! LOL

3 codger

Probably the old nudge nudge, wink wink…but they tend not to reappear in writing. So that one will sink like a stone I’d bet.

It’s not that the US doesn’t massage the numbers (wanna read some books about it? LOL), but it’s usual practice to update previous GDP readings as hard numbers come in:

Fourth quarter growth, initially posted at 0.6% of GDP, was revised down to -0.25 today and first quarter to 0.9% from 1.0%.

NakecCapitalism

…so expect more downward revisions as we move on, and yes, remember if these numbers were inflation corrected, they’d be much deeper under water. (GDP is on dollar turnover, but in the REAL world….)

It’s inescapable and it’s crushing them slowly and inevitably.

And if we were hoping things may improve some time soon

with Obama, “Bipartisan Lovefest with Bankers” seems to

put the kybosh lid on that lot…

“both of our leading presidential candidates are scrambling to enlist not only the big-dollar contributions but, more frighteningly, the “expertise” of the very folks who advocated the financial industry deregulations at the heart of this meltdown. “…..

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080804/scheer2

Catrina-
thanks again. Only you have very much unsettled me as I must confess that I have a real soft spot Roger Ramjet – He reminds me of so many men I have known 😥

megan- I wonder whoTF they can turn to for advice. It appears everybody from evey level of finacial management and policy is implict in creating this disastor.
Who are the pundits that were sticking thier necks out and voicing objection to the decisions taken . Kirri for one of course…
But once again, as with Gittmo, Iraq, carbon emissions… the list goes on-we are all like lemmings. It happened here too under Howard.
Some kind of soporiphic state takes over and we slumber away while our leaders f@#k us over.
Never again.

Bush’s cronies are getting closer to having their sorry asses dragged before the House Judiciary Committee:

“The executive’s current claim of absolute immunity from compelled Congressional process for senior presidential aides is without any support in the case law,” Judge John D. Bates ruled in United States District Court.

NYT

…so they were claiming a non-existant bit of legal immunity? How quaint!

But no longer by the looks of it.

One minute McCain is calling Obama elitist, the next he is being compared to Paris and Britany. So Paris & Britany are elitist?

U.S. judge says Congress can subpoena Bush aides.

A federal judge ruled on Thursday that Congress in its fight with the Bush administration can subpoena current and former top White House aides in its investigation over the firing of U.S. attorneys.

U.S. District Judge John Bates, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, rejected the administration’s arguments that the aides were immune from such subpoenas and that Congress cannot force them to testify or turn over certain documents.

Got em.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKN3135420520080731

If it is a slim majority, then it does not qualify as a major issue. McCain can run with it as much as he likes. He is wasting his energy.

Slim majority supports offshore drilling.

As gas prices remain above $4 a gallon in most of the Bay Area, Californians are more open to the idea of offshore drilling for oil than they have been in the past.

A slim majority – 51 percent to 45 percent – approve of offshore drilling, according to a survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. It’s the first time since the institute began asking the question in 2003 that more residents favor drilling than oppose it. A year ago, 41 percent favored drilling.

Still, the issue appears driven by partisan inclinations. More than three-quarters – 77 percent – of Republicans support offshore oil drilling, up from 60 percent a year ago. Only 35 percent of Democrats approve of drilling, but that’s up, from 29 percent a year ago. Less than half of independents – 44 percent – are in favor, up from 33 percent last year.

http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_10058259

Here is a good idea, highlight your own parties incompetencies.

McCain Should Run Against Stevens.

Senator Ted Stevens’ seven-count indictment looks like it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Republican Party, which is already in mid-soul search.

But in every crisis there is opportunity – and for John McCain this latest congressional Republican scandal offers an opportunity to revive his reputation as an independent reformer. It has the added advantage of being brand consistent.

John McCain has been a constant critic of the unprecedented levels of pork barrel spending that took hold of the Republican Congress during the Bush Administration. And there is no better symbol of that excess then Senator Ted Stevens’ infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” the $398 million dollar boondoggle to an island in Alaska where less than 10,000 people lived.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/07/mccain_should_run_against_stev.html

That bodes extremely well for Obama. Expect a whole series of ads highlighting these issues. Especially from MoveOn.org.

The Washington Post’s blogs are unmoderated. As you can imagine it’s develops into a slanging match, the same as what we were familiar with until Catrina came along. The 3 Amigoes would be very comfortable there. The abuse is much stronger on the Washington Post.

the brittany/paris comparison would be so funny if it wasnt a serious campaign ad. As we have discussed before, ads like this only work if they reinforce existing perceptions. That fact the Obama is in fact popular is hardly a problem.

Its a great sign for Obama- if THIS is the best that McCain can come up with, then Obama has got this stitched up. Perhaps the bruising democrat battle aired all the laundry that was there to be aired.

Why Obama Should Pick Hillary.

Picking a vice president is obviously Barack Obama’s decision to make. He must be comfortable with who he picks. Comfort level between a president and vice president may be the most important factor of all.

So I can only offer my argument, based on some facts and subjective impressions, as to why I believe it would be in Sen. Obama’s personal and political interest to select Hillary Rodham Clinton as his vice presidential running mate. Not just to enhance his chances of winning — but, more important, to help him be a more effective president.

Let’s start with one undisputable fact: Sen. Clinton is the only Democrat who gives Sen. Obama a statistically significant boost in any national poll results.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121745984626098717.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

20 Andrew

yeah, it’s pretty desperate and tacky stuff from McCain’s great team, eh? If this is the quality of his minder’s total brain power then Macca is truly up sh!t creek.

What next? Obama’s too graceful to be president? His ears are too big?

My god, McCain is making a fool of himself, and should perhaps just withdraw now rather continuing this farce of a campaign.

#21 Great article, but I needed no convincing. Further to that, I suspect that if Obama didn’t pick Hillary it would cause problems in the Democrats. We don’t need that.

22 Kirribilli Removals. No, no, no. We don’t want a competent person to take his place.

Zogby: GOP Set to Lose 3 Key U.S. Senate Seats.

The Zogby Interactive analysis of five key Senate races finds New Mexico, Virginia and Oregon trending to Democrats. The Democrats are in real danger of losing a seat in Louisiana. The fifth state, Colorado, is now tied.

Here is a synopsis of Zogby’s analysis in these five states based on online surveys conducted in those states from June 11-30, 2008:

New Mexico: Independent, moderate and Hispanic voters are putting Democrat Tom Udall in position to take the seat being vacated by Republican Pete Domenici. Udall leads Republican Steve Pearce, 49%-41%.

Thats not taking into account Alaska.

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/zogby_senate_seats/2008/07/31/117886.html

Here is the Fox news headline.

Poll: McCain Shrinks Obama’s Lead in Three Battleground States.

My headline would be: Florida no longer safe for McCain.

Candidates are statistically tied; Obama has 46 percent compared with McCain’s 44 percent, but likely independent voters in Florida have shifted toward McCain. Forty-six percent support him compared with 41 percent who prefer Obama. In the same poll taken last month, Obama led among independents, 47 percent to 37 percent.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/31/poll-mccain-shrinks-obamas-lead-in-three-battleground-states/

Where did Barack Obama’s mojo go?

Something’s going on. Or some things.

A new CNN/Opinion Research poll out Wednesday shows that despite nine solid days of blanket media coverage from overseas with Barack Obama cheered by adoring throngs of Germans and parlez-vousing with the French, making a three-point shot in the Middle East and standing outside No. 10 Downing Street, the freshman Illinois Democratic presidential nominee to be Senator Barack Obama of Illinois stayed static in the polls despite his well-covered long foreign tripsenator is stuck right where he was in the polls before he left.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/07/obama-mccain-po.html

re: your title Catrina – I would suggest it is in fact a referendum on Bush. And he is going to get it in the neck -or his party will- as the voters boot out the mob that have pretty well brought their country , and the rest of us along with them , to their knees. Not just financially, but morally, legally, and in their standing in the world.
As I’ve said before – it’s great that Obaa is such an impressive man and will bring so much that is new and timely to the political scene, but honestly, anyone would be better than the mob they’ve had.

Don’t Forget Arizona and Florida .

Florida and Arizona are also facing ballot initiatives to ban same-sex marriage in their constitutions. Barbara McCullough-Jones of Equality Arizona wrote an article called, “Will Arizona be abandoned?” She is concerned that all the attention and money are going to the California initiative.

Now there’s something I didn’t take into account, the demographics of the gay vote. Considering the gay population is roughly 10%, some states would it would be higher and some states it would be lower. I have no idea of the demographics but it would be very interesting to see.
I suspect there would be some states the demographics would have an effect, Florida maybe?

http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19881339&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568857&rfi=6

The New Normal: McCain’s Desperate Ad Hours.

The McCain campaign had adopted an ad strategy that has been dubbed “desperate” by Time Magazine political columnist Joe Klein. Klein was writing in response to this latest ad from McCain’s new ad/communications honcho Steve Schmidt.

What the McCain campaign doesn’t want people to know, according to one GOP strategist I spoke with over the weekend, is that they had an ad script ready to go if Obama had visited the wounded troops saying that Obama was…wait for it…using wounded troops as campaign props. So, no matter which way Obama turned, McCain had an Obama bashing ad ready to launch. I guess that’s political hardball. But another word for it is the one word that most politicians are loathe to use about their opponents—a lie.

This is a very good article, showing how the Republicans continually use Karl Rove tactics to get there message across. Will it work? I doubt it, the media is continually picking it up and using it in articles like this one.

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2008/07/the_new_normal.html

Cat,

Great analogy. Besides the party politics,wonder

whether there isn’t also a grudging jealousy of Obama the

man,who not only has brains,is debonair,athletic, youthful,

easy on the eye and popular to boot.

What some stick-in-the-muds would refer to as a show

pony, eloquent,everything his critics aren’t, and ofcourse of

real interest to the young and ‘non rusted-ons’.

Kirri,

Am thoroughly amused by your 7yr old’s ditty….times like

that you envy the freedom of childhood 😆 Am saving it

for when I can safely sing it in the car on my onesome!

Chris@19,

Really think blogging is the perfect medium for sociopaths

and other sick puppies as they can hide behind their

anonymity while gaining satisfaction from their bullying

ways.

McCain used to call the press “my base,” but if he came back to shoot the breeze with the reporters who cover him now, he’d face a million unhelpful questions that would shake him off his message of the day: Why has Barack Obama got his goat? What does he think of the indictment of Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican colleague with whom he has often tangled, on seven counts related to the kind of sloppy pork-barrel politics for which McCain has long had contempt? Does he worry that the biopsy of what turned out to be a benign little bit of his cheek this week will make voters recall that he is a cancer survivor, and about to turn 72 years old? How does he square his current support for offshore oil-drilling with his past opposition to it, and doesn’t he risk alienating the independent and swing voters who have been the mother’s milk of his political life?

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/07/the-saddest-sight-on-straight.html

sorry to refer to That Other Place megan, but check out some of the posts re gays and CC.
They must be trolls… I hope.

34 Megan. Exactly, although I have still not seen anyone who matches this guy from the genealogy groups. He spends his time going around world wide groups abusing people. The only people that have him under control are the Australian and NZ group.

Will Roger Ramjet save Obi from the evil cybercrook voting machines as he trades his cyberrocket machine for a pen and pencil and a paper dart!

Doctor Strangevote saves mankind with Luddite voting recipe;

When it comes to elections, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen opts for blander, more traditional technologies, and that preference is helping her sleep better at night.

Speaking Wednesday at the Usenix Security Symposium in San Jose, California, the state’s top elections official laid out a decidedly low-tech approach for ensuring that each voter’s ballot is recorded as cast. It involves the use of ink pens to record votes on old-fashioned paper. An optical scanner records the information, and to make sure votes are counted correctly, ballots are randomly selected and compared with what’s been tallied.

And it looks like they are joining a few more dots in Georgia!

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Documents_reveal_Georgia_was_warned_of_0730.html

Jen@36,

Yes, have noticed.

Unfortunately some people are too
entrenched/comfortable in their prejudices.

Suspect it has a lot to do with personality type-those that are happy with the status quo and those of us who seek improvement.

Unfortunately, O’s lead is clearly down in the latest national polls. This is making me feel a bit depressed.

The main campaign won’t start till after the Olympics. It is better to be in Obama’ place than McCain’s. All the other signs for Obama are extremely good, especially the demographics. Refer to our links on the right hand side up the top.

The top 10 issues Obama is leading 9 to 1. Obama leads about 10 to one in the money stakes. No one takes in to account the individual candidates money MoveOn.org money and the senate money. Combine all that and WOW. Bobs your uncle. Also new voter registration. Now I’ve convinced myself too.

Chris i love your enthusiasm. You are so far up the gum tree i am concerned for you that if the diebold machines turn in to husqvanas, then hit the trunk of your tree and take it from under, you will be so hurt man.

I am confident he will win but until i see some hard core evidence that they have got rid of those f*#king machines that turn a 14% poll lead into a 7% election loss overnight i will only be leaning against the gum tree.

I am not trying to be a concern troll by the way.

Keep the good oil coming.

Codger@3,

So is this the same Richard Holbrooke , Assistant Secretary

of State in 1977, who also met Suharto and told him he

welcomed the steps Indonesia had taken to open East

Timor to the West after tens of thousands of East Timorese

had been slaughtered by the Indonesians ??

The neocon Repugb*ggery aren’t the only ones to make my

blood run cold.

It’s way too soon to be worrying too much about polls.
Wait until both parties have announced their VP picks and held their conventions!
Of course the U.S media are going to be pro McCain and take every opportunity to bag Obama, especially Fox and CNN. Why is that a surprise to some people?

47 Gaffhook Thanks for your concern, I’ll take a vallium and have a good lie down. I call it as I see it. I put up the facts, if you have other facts that are counter, I’m all ears.

Gaffhook@47,

Agree! The Diebold shadow is there,and power doesn’t give up without a fight.
Everything is in place to hijack this election again.
Unfortunately.

And they have the gall to call it democracy.

47 Gaffhook. The one thing I missed in the 2004 election was the Republicans getting out the Christian vote. As a result I believe I have learnt a lot about how the Christian demographics work over the past four years. I am trying to apply the same skills to the African American vote, the Latino vote and the new voters. That doesn’t mean I won’t miss something else though. So I’ll try to keep my eyes wide open.

53 Chris B So far as the Christian vote goes, the Republicans are failing to touch on the same issues as last time. They also failed to do what they said they would do. They are lacking in enthusiasm for McCain and the Republicans, especially on moral and corruption issues. But there is still time.

Diebold question. What if Obama had a huge lead in all the polls, in the last week, say 10-15%. (Don’t laugh). Wouldn’t people get very suspicious?

But Chris,

It won’t matter who or how many vote if the Dieboldians are going to adjust the numbers after the voting has been done.
It is the computer whizzes behind the scenes who can adjust the results in their favour in a few seconds with no paper trails to verify the original voter intentions.

(Times like this I wish I understood computer technology as it sounded so interesting when I read the article some time ago……:) )

Why Harriet’s Got What the HJC Wants.

Now that we have a partial decision on House Judiciary Committee v. Harriet Miers et al. , maybe it’s a good time for a little refresher on why the HJC wanted White House documents and Miers’ testimony in the first place.

Miers name came up repeatedly over the course of congressional investigations into the U.S. attorney firing scandal, over her communications with former Chief of Staff to the Attorney General, Kyle Sampson.

Those communications revealed that Sampson and Miers began exchanging emails discussing the dismissal of U.S. attorneys, almost two years before those attorneys were purged from the department in December 2007. In March 2006, Sampson famously sent an email to Miers, ranking all of the sitting U.S. attorneys in order of “loyalty to the Attorney General.”

Though Miers initially suggested that all 93 U.S. attorneys be dismissed, Sampson vetoed that idea, with the approval of the Attorney General, and arranged for limited dismissals, ultimately providing Miers with a seven person list of targeted candidates to be considered for removal.

The best time to run this would be after the Olympics. But it maybe tied in with when congress has to finish. That along with Ted Stevens, it is going to be a great run up to the election.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/harriets_got_what_the_hjc_want.php

Voting machines won’t make any difference if it’s not an absolute cliffhanger anyway. That’s one thing you shouldn’t worry about.

On Mon our time O had a 9-pt lead in Gallup; today he’s got only a 1-pt lead. That’s an 8-pt loss in 4 days, and is definitely cause for concern.

62
And if they are programmed right they can easily make it look like a cliffhanger.

is it just me or does Obi’s sudden drop in the polls that Lord D (hope it’s not THAT one btw) is referring to seem odd?
Either McBush’s Britney / Paris ad is resonating – but then I would have thought that the kind of people who would believe that twaddle would see it as a compliment for Obi to be compared to those 2 twits – or the MSM needs to keep the contest close to keep people interested and watching them.

hmmmmmmmmm….

Catrina-
I read that too. Holy fck!
The planes aren’t safe , the buses are full of psychpaths and GWB is POTUS.
The world’s gone mad.
Thank heavens for our little sanctuary here.

jen at 69

Thank heavens for our little sanctuary here.

But wait – I have this rather largish 14 inch (i.e. bigger than anything gaffhook could muster) knife in my kitchen, and it’s really sharp.

👿

30 jen “you are talking about Republicans Chris. Not possible”. Sorry rephrase that, better than McCain.

63 Lord D He has a 7 point lead on CNN, Pew has him up by 5 points. Your concern is unwarranted. There will always be a poll out of whack.

The U.S. presidential campaign has taken a nasty tone and crossed into the political no-man’s land of American politics, as Republican John McCain accused Democrat Barack Obama — who would be the country’s first black president — of playing racial politics.

After first unleashing television attack ads that accused Obama of playing politics over wounded Iraq war veterans and of being an empty celebrity, Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, said on Thursday: “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.”

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/01/america/NA-POL-US-Elections.php

Chris at 72

I don’t think the poll is out of whack. Look at the graph – there is a downward trend over the last 6 days. That trend coincides with a lot of negative attacks coming from the McCain campaign. On the other hand, I don’t think going negative this early is a winning proposition unless the McCain Campaign plan on John McCain firing them all three weeks ahead of the election as a point of principal and calling himself the golden boy of 2000. But I don’t see the Karl Rove apprentices (a.k.a. American Eagles) shooting themselves in the foot just to get John in power. I.e. I’m not too surprised, but I don’t get the McCain logic either.

(apologies to jen for my inappropriate reference to the American Eagles).

74 Catrina

McCain’s really jumped the shark with this “Obama is playing the race card” stunt.

We all expected some dumbarse stuff from his ragbag team, but this is truly lame, and quite bizarre.

Polls?

All over the shop, which tells you how reliably focused the voters are at the moment. It’s still summer and the election a long way off.

Macca is providing a good side show though! LOL

Anyone who thinks not having Hillary as VP won’t cause problems read this.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a rousing call to thousands of union workers in San Francisco on Thursday to put Sen. Barack Obama in the White House come fall – but it was a bittersweet moment for some of her most loyal supporters, particularly women, who said they are still deeply pained she’s not the Democratic candidate.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/31/MN1O122TU5.DTL&type=politics

Catrina- re the knife,.
Put it down quietly and put your hands up in the air …

and don’t worry about the eagles reference – it’s Roger I’ve got a soft spot for. (Like I said, he remids me of men i have known – a complete deadshit.:lol:)

The Olympics advertisements should give Obama another lift. Maybe MCain is being forced to spend money early, to make it look like he’s not going to be slaughtered.

Republican faithful have grumbled in recent weeks about the lack of a consistent message from John McCain’s campaign on key issues, leading observers to wonder what McCain’s top advisers are thinking.

The answer, it turns out, could be part of the problem.

Some of McCain’s most visible and engaged advisers have advanced positions that appear to conflict with the Arizona senator’s stances on hot-button topics ranging from climate change and oil drilling to tax cuts, contraception and education.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/12193.html

Chris at 78

The Gallup Poll (as far as I understand) is polling against a relatively stable base and as such you can (or I do) put a reasonable level of faith into the trends over time. This is not the same a saying its right or wrong (personally I think its out of whack in terms of absolute values but that’s another topic). In fact I don’t give any of the national polls much credence in terms of absolute values, but I do take trends within a given pollster to heart.

But, really, I need Possum to write up a post here at the US Edition explaining why I’m right.

🙂

55 CHRIS

It is ok to be suspicious but these power hungry cretins stop at nothing to retain that power.
They would just look at you and say, Hey man that’s what the machine said, and that there machine don’t lie!

This is one of the many articles written about the New Hampshire primaries between Obi and Billary.
Obi went into the vote with the Zogby poll counting a 42-29 lead over Billary. Edwards was on 17 and the rest of the dems and the repugs were whatever.
The votes were on paper but scanned and counted by a “diebold” machine.

Whilst the diebold machine per’se may be a very good machine at what it is designed to do, it is that old saying about computers from way back when.
The information you get out of them is only as good as the information that is put into them.

If it was programmed to count the votes and not interfered with it would probably do that.
I do not make any claims to being a computer whiz but i know enough to tell me that it would not take much for a whiz to write and enter a programme to say that if the counting looks like “this” then thats ok but if it looks like “that”, make a few minor adjustments so that it comes out looking like “this” and not “that”. Oh and by the way do not leave a trail.
All the votes for the others after the count were almost dead on what the polls said but Billary had a massive last night turnaround and won it 39-36 with edwards getting 17.

Of course every one is suspicious but what can be done without a copy of the software they may use or actually catching them in the act.

This election was regarded as do-or-die for Clinton, after most in the media had already written her off after her “thumpin'” in Iowa. But Tim Russert just agreed with Brokaw and Matthews that “this was the most stunning upset in the history of politics.”

Without the evidence what else can they say other than holy f#%k what an upset. We didn’t see that comin!

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5530

If you want to read more articles about it just Google;

clinton primaries diebold vote counting machine

If Obi goes in with a 14 poit lead in the polls and gets done i reckon they will not only be suspicious but there will probably be an upmarket version of “the south and everywhere else is gunna rise again”. I reckon they have had enough of being taken for a “loan” so to speak

Chris

I am not inferring in 83 that Billary had anything to do with it.
IMHO The Repugs wanted to run against Billary not Obi and the vote counting machine owners/manufacturers i believe are sympathetic to the Imbeciles camp.

70
Cat

The only way that i could muster something like that would be fold me hook in half.
😎 😈
👿 😀 😆

Gaffhook at 85

It’s official – you now have the distinct honor of claiming the Pollbludger 2008 US Edition All Time Bragging Rights. Nobody can do it quite like you do!

I’m off in about half an hour to friends for what I know will be an astounding dinner (she outdoes me every time). Moderation, de-spamming, and general editorial control will rest in the hands of inimitable EC and Megan.

Completely off topic. They have just invented an excise pill, they tested it on mice. Normal mice it improves them 44% Fit mice it improve them 68% I have to ask the obvious question, what happens if you combine it with Viagra?

The more unobtrusive it looks the better. It’ll keep environmentalists happy, and make sure neocons don’t run a campaign in the guise fake green parties.

Barack Obama collected more than $1.5 million in campaign funding Thursday night in two Houston neighborhoods built by oil and natural gas profits while telling his audiences that America needs to liberate itself from those fuels.

Picture this: Standing on a platform just above the water level of a lighted indoor pool at a Memorial home, Obama said the nation needs to develop wind and solar energy and other alternative sources. He spoke to about 55 paying guests at candlelit, round dinner tables under skylights in the 18,000-square-foot home of John Thrash, chief of a natural gas infrastructure company, and wife Becca Cason Thrash. County appraisal district records list the home’s market value at about $5.5 million.

“Our energy policy is essentially nonexistent, which looks like it’s been pretty good to Houston,” he said. “But even those in the energy business here in Houston will tell you it’s not sustainable over the long run,” the Democratic presidential contender added.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/5918755.html

The two candidates have run a combined total of 100,000 TV advertisements till now. As opposed to a total of 70,000 in 2004.

In need of campaign cash, and facing seat losses to the Democrats in Senate elections this November, Nevada Sen. John Ensign is challenging his Republican colleagues to boost the treasury of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). That’s the campaign organization of the 49-Republican minority that Ensign is heading in what is one of the most challenging election years for his party in recent memory.

This article gets right into the campaign finances in the senate. It also gives you a look at who’s coming up in the 2010 election.

The 19 Republican senators whose seats are up in 2010 cumulatively have $39.5 million in their campaign accounts — basically matching the $39.6 million of the 15 Democratic senators who would face the voters in the next election cycle.

Will they drain their 2010 accounts to save their mates in 2008. Leaving themselves vulnerable in 2010?

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000002931844

Football is on gotta go.

The clever little Repugs will not have to worry too much about rigging the vote counters if this is correct.
There won’t be anyone left on the rolls to vote.

In swing-state Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State conducted the biggest purge of voters in history, dumping a fifth of all registrations. Guess their color.

In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives – overwhelming Black voters.

In swing state New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor.

http://www.gregpalast.com/

Gaffhook@97,

That article is truly sickening!

It seems even worse than the last election , when the systematic disenfranchisement of black voters became evident.

Am a great admirer of Greg Palast,one of the best investigative journos in the business.

Let’s hope this hits the fan in the main stream media, though I wouldn’t hold my breath.

98
Megan

Thats what they are up against.

It aint gonna be easy for Obi.

The MSM here will follow that trick shortly. Any bad news about the Liebrals and you will have to buy airtime to get it on while those other cretins keep bashing Kev07.

Evenin’, All, good to see growing awareness at PoBUS of the filthy spectre of Diebold and associates.
There is much volatility in the polls after Barry’s tour. He’s going to have to strangle the MSM’s current meme about the election being a referendum about him. Like yesterday. Time for The Kid to move in close for a couple of rounds of strength-sapping “work to the body”. Footwork we’ve seen plenty already. Barry’s not Peter Costello, he knows nobody is gonna hand him the top job on a platter.

Thurs July 31:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/laloalcaraz;_ylt=ApVjmxXCD_wuyImCmadjsd4l6ysC

Thurs July 31: Terrible thing really, Senator McCain’s health being an issue ‘n’ all.
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/robertariail;_ylt=AlLpoqo2MdkWdGMoWogmb5ve.sgF

Fri Aug 1: But will McBombster get these people to the polling stations in sufficient numbers?
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/billday;_ylt=ApV4p4iox9yIR9fgIZh.wrzX.sgF
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Gee, megan, Mommie’s gone out and we’ve been left with “liberation duties”. Tonight I feel like Judge Roy Bean, hung a mess of innocent people did Roy but way they tell the story, he meant well.
How bout you?

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