The media is building up to Wednesdays third and final Presidential debate as if everything rested on this. The different networks will gather groups of Republicans, Democrats, and “undecided voters.” Personally I doubt the existence of undecided voters in this country after a vicious and visual election season that has been going on for a full year.
Regardless, the news networks are preparing for the political Superbowl. They really should tell you that the election is over.
News broke today that Senator Barack Obama is ahead by ten points in the national poll, which may seem to be a steep hill, but still a doable task for Republicans. But that alone is still misleading.
As CNN’s John King portrayed last night, John McCain’s hole isn’t trying to dig his way out of a national poll, it’s trying to win all of the battle ground states. Because if he doesn’t win all of them he will lose the election.
In the event that John McCain is able to secure Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, Nevada and Colorado for himself, he might win the election by the narrowest possible margin. If he loses just one of those states– and he is currently trailing in all of those states– he won’t have the delegates to win, and Obama will be pushed over the edge.
That’s why the website fivethirtyeight.com, a site of statistical experts without political preference, have Obama’s chances for winning the election sitting at 93.8%. They have everything broken down on their site, and I highly recommend checking it out.
But there is another factor that pollsters admit cannot be factored in until after this election: young voters and the cell phone. Cell phone users can’t be polled, so the young vote has been basically left out of this elections political prediction process.
There has been a record number of people who have registered to vote for this election, and it has been predicted that 80% of them will vote Obama, and that, to quote Stephen Colbert, half of the new voters who plan to vote for McCain are doing so ironically.
Sometimes when a game is over, instead of playing hard until the end, the losing team becomes angry and does something regrettable. Currently, McCain and Palin are inciting mobs with their dangerous and bigoted rhetoric. They are going back to early American politics; insinuating that voting for their opponent could result in the downfall of America and possibly in your death.
These attacks will only divide a country that is already teeming with angry division. Let’s change that.
I agree, we need some thinking alright and I certainly do not support mindlessly following any government but….the current democratic opposition is like the pot calling the kettle black.
I also have to take issue with the generalizing statement of “Americas failed economic anything-goes extravganza…big business first Moron President”…..are harmful to America??? WOW!!! How did America get to be a superpower? On a “failed economy” or failed economic priciples right? That makes lots of sense. Why are most all the other economy and stock markets reeling when the USA has problems? Because many of their economies are based on the successes of the USA. Yet it is supposedly “failed”?? More pefect logic.
The fact of the matter is without businesses there are no meaningful jobs and without jobs there is no economy. Do a few over publicized greedy businessmen suddenly mean all business is bad? Ridiculous logic but total truth if you believe the anti-business media. The media is largely in favor of redistribution of wealth. Getting something for nothing is very appealing to those who are too lazy to work to earn their own. There are alot of “takers” who love that idea.
There are millions of successful businesses operating in the USA today. The vast majority of these businesses are generally honest and provide jobs to people to earn money which in turn allows people to have the choice to go start their own business if they so CHOOSE. Millions do. Economic freedom. Sure you have some highly publicized greedy corporate executives that take advantage. Do we really expect everyone to be perfect all the time? That is pretty PolyAnna.
I certainly do not support ANY party or President carte’ blanche’ but it does not take a rocket scientist to see the hypocrisy flowing from Obamas mouth. He can hardly be considered some great alternative for “change”. He represents a “change” to more socialism and not much else. Unfortunately McCain is not a much better alternative. He would only result in slightly less Socialism. Basically a case of dumb and dumber. The best thing that could happen to Washington DC is emptying nearly every existing elected official and starting over with term limits of 4-8 years. The sewage must be flushed away entirely to get the stink out but I fear we are stuck with the stench.
By: Rob Lawrence on October 13, 2008
at 4:46 pm
Wow. Long post. As to your first point, and probably the only one I’ll address, is that while America has become the superpower, I will absolutely call it’s policies failed. Our poverty level has risen, incomes for the middle class have dropped, while costs of health care, quality of public education and civil liberties have gone down the tubes.
Yes, our rich people are the richest, our athletes are the fastest, and we spend more on our military then the rest of the world combined. But I think that it’s time we stopped spending a million dollars an hour on killing and worried about the Americans at home.
That’s why I do say the policies are failures. I don’t care if big corporations are getting taxed more, and I also don’t expect or want to pay for people who choose to be lazy.
That’s the catch 22 of socialism vs. free market enterprise. With too much socialism, the fear is that people will leech off the system and want a free ride. With an unguarded free market system, we know the rich get richer and the poor and middle class bear the brunt with little to no benefit.
While it’s clear that neither would work on it’s own, and I don’t claim to understand the complexity of our financial systems, I do know that America has the lowest life expectancy of any first world nation. I know that we have the most capitalist system of any 1st world nation.
I think that we need to stop thinking that socialism has anything to do with Soviet Russia, and realize that we already have many socialized aspects in our lives (police, fire, military, schools, roads, libraries, etc…)
I am not pushing for communism. I am pushing for people to think. Now that I’m way off topic on our President, I’ll try to get back.
My point was that I can have real valid disagreements with the President; not to be cool or hip, but because I think he’s doing things wrong. That’s a freedom of America that many people try to take away in the name of America. That’s what my post was about.
By: 80cent on October 13, 2008
at 6:23 pm