Author Topic: Humorless Politics Thread  (Read 853721 times)

Turf Out

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Come on, Jason

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #196 on: September 09, 2008, 04:58:03 PM »
Palin Billed State for 312 Days Spent at Home

That's it, I wanna be a Governor.

Stan

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #197 on: September 09, 2008, 05:03:38 PM »
Palin Billed State for 312 Days Spent at Home

That's it, I wanna be a Governor.

 Just imagine, you would be the dungeon master of an entire state.
                                 "This must be where buffcoat left his pants."

Omar

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #198 on: September 09, 2008, 07:33:51 PM »
I'm supporting a Bill Haverchuck/Carlos the Dwarf ticket this year.

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cutout

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #199 on: September 09, 2008, 10:45:12 PM »
Quote
Obama is viewed as a weenie by some, but I'd say the general perception is that he's a stoic leader, Kennedy-style.

There doesn't seem to be any 'general' perception, or else there wouldn't be a 50/50 split between McCain and Obama currently. Among Democrats, Obama may be seen as Kennedy-like. Among conservatives, he's a classic elitist type, which they have stated loudly this past year, putting him squarely in column B.

Martin

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #200 on: September 10, 2008, 11:53:11 AM »


<<<<<

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #201 on: September 10, 2008, 01:07:12 PM »
There doesn't seem to be any 'general' perception, or else there wouldn't be a 50/50 split between McCain and Obama currently.

It's simply incomprehensible to me that we have sat at a clean 50/50% split of public opinion between two parties for a decade.  Not to be all conspiracy theorist, but doesn't that just seem mindboggling to anyone else?

Beth

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #202 on: September 10, 2008, 01:18:54 PM »



That will be burned on the inside of my eyelids forever and ever.

Martin

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #203 on: September 10, 2008, 04:21:17 PM »
I know I'm an outsider looking in on this American politics thing, but I frequently enjoy reading The Rude Pundit's thoughts on the campaign, etc. Like today:

Quote
The truly aggravating thing is watching opportunity after opportunity pass by the Obama campaign. Here's some advice to them: you are not living in subtle times. You are living in an era in our nation where people only react if you use a fucking mallet, not a stiletto, to get your point across. The choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate was a brilliant read of the national zeitgeist. She's like the winner of America's Next Top Model, not a qualified politician, and as such, idiot America thinks they relate.

The rest.

Trembling Eagle

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #204 on: September 10, 2008, 04:37:16 PM »
There doesn't seem to be any 'general' perception, or else there wouldn't be a 50/50 split between McCain and Obama currently.

It's simply incomprehensible to me that we have sat at a clean 50/50% split of public opinion between two parties for a decade.  Not to be all conspiracy theorist, but doesn't that just seem mindboggling to anyone else?

I think Americas' unique pedigree accounts for some of it, a puritanical streak
mixed with founders that were rebel/intellectuals add some slavery voila! If America were a person what would she look like?

yesno

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #205 on: September 10, 2008, 04:52:17 PM »
When one of the parties starts to pull ahead, the one that's behind just adopts enough of the other's ideas in order to bring things back into balance.  Notice that Republicans are now the party of big spending-- it wins votes!  And notice how Obama goes on about "tax relief," not to mention Clintonian centrism.

Also any party that has been in power long enough begins to be seen as (and to actually be) a lot more corrupt, and the party out of power brands itself as the party of "reform" or "change."  So they trade back and forth on that, too.  Basically both the parties are too smart and agile to let history pass them by, and as long as we have a "first past the post" electoral system, we will only ever have two parties.

cutout

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #206 on: September 10, 2008, 05:42:26 PM »
Quote
If America were a person what would she look like?


Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #207 on: September 10, 2008, 06:00:08 PM »
When one of the parties starts to pull ahead, the one that's behind just adopts enough of the other's ideas in order to bring things back into balance.  Notice that Republicans are now the party of big spending-- it wins votes!  And notice how Obama goes on about "tax relief," not to mention Clintonian centrism.

Also any party that has been in power long enough begins to be seen as (and to actually be) a lot more corrupt, and the party out of power brands itself as the party of "reform" or "change."  So they trade back and forth on that, too.  Basically both the parties are too smart and agile to let history pass them by, and as long as we have a "first past the post" electoral system, we will only ever have two parties.

There was also a law passed in 1948 - the name escapes me now, but it was named after a couple of congressmen - that makes it virtually impossible for third parties to get any real traction.  The performance of third-party like Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, or Ross Perot was more of a historical blip than, say, the impressive performance of Teddy Roosevelt in 1918 or whenever it was he ran in the Bull Moose Party.  If you look at the electoral map in that year, the GOP only won 2 states.

I'm like if your history teacher had brain damage!
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

yesno

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #208 on: September 10, 2008, 06:11:07 PM »
I definitely believe that a third party can emerge and eventually replace a currently existing party as a dominant party, I just don't think that a 3 party situation would be stable given our electoral system.  Though I didn't take too many poli sci courses, I seem to recall that first-past-the-post/plurality systems tend to generate two party systems, and that multi party systems tend to need proportionality.  Not that I think that the parliamentary model of, say, an Italy is to be emulated.

I keep expecting/hoping the Huckabee evangelical/anti-capitalism faction will split from the Rs but it hasn't happened.

Gilly

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #209 on: September 10, 2008, 06:37:23 PM »
I keep expecting/hoping the Huckabee evangelical/anti-capitalism faction will split from the Rs but it hasn't happened.

It would be interesting to see if the Bible Belt would go with them or stick with their traditional Republican. Neo-Cons would then be able to run pro-choice leaving them as the true middle ground and they might end up taking enough Democratic votes away to make up for the ones they lost to the Evangelicals. In the end, people would go back to the Republican party and we'd be back to square one.

How many votes do you think Obama would lose if he ran on a strong pro-life ticket while keeping everything else the same? I think he'd gain more than he'd lose... I think the only 3rd party that could really take off is a pro-life/Democratic ideals party because they'd take a lot of votes away from both sides if they ran a strong candidate.