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Post by matilda on Mar 10, 2008 6:10:29 GMT -5
It is so unboring. It is fantastic.
Tks!!!!
M
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Post by Eyphur on Mar 10, 2008 17:37:05 GMT -5
A sort of funny story:
A couple of weeks ago I was wondering how the primary election process worked. I asked my Grandpa (who is the family politician) and he told me "you go in there and tell them you want to vote Democrat. Come November you can vote for anybody you want but right now you have to vote Democrat". So he didn't really answer my question but his response did make me laugh.
I was thinking "well duh, of course I want to vote for the Democrats because there are hardly any republicans running (one candidate if any for most offices, where there are as many as 5 democrats seeking the nomination for the same office and I was interesting in more of those candidates.
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Post by mlm828 on Mar 31, 2008 16:17:16 GMT -5
We haven't talked much about politics recently, and I'm wondering why. It seems to me we are starting to return to the toxic politics we've seen so much in recent years, and which has turned off so many people. Case in point: the continuing attention to the admittedly over-the-top and intemperate statements by Obama's now-retired pastor. If he is the nominee, I confidently predict we will see endless attack ads featuring Rev. Wright. And are the Dems going to shoot themselves in the foot and once again lose an election they should win easily? I hope I'm wrong.
I happened to watch the beginning of last night's baseball game in Washington. When the Shrub was introduced to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, the boos were louder than the applause. It was a striking demonstration, I thought, of the depth and breadth of the dissatisfaction with the Shrub that people would boo him at a baseball game. Well done, Nats' fans!
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Post by housemouse on Apr 26, 2008 15:09:24 GMT -5
Hoosier! All eyes are Indiana! How cool for you! When was the last time your humble state played such a huge roll in picking a presidential candidate?
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Post by hoosier on Apr 26, 2008 16:45:34 GMT -5
Hoosier! All eyes are Indiana! How cool for you! When was the last time your humble state played such a huge roll in picking a presidential candidate? It was 40 years ago when Bobby Kennedy was making his bid for the White House! Hillary and Obama are neck and neck according to the polls. They, or a member of their family, have been from one end of the state to the other almost every day. When Obama was in Terre Haute recently, they ran out of tickets in less than 10 minutes. Even where I live (a very small town where the African-American population is too small to even register on the national census) there are people gearing up in support of Obama. Unemployment seems to be the biggest factor, coupled with the movement of businesses out of the state. Even the powers that be in the political arena here are split; Bayh supports Hillary, Hamilton is for Obama etc. Some pundits say they are seeing a shift beginning to take place, a movement away from business as usual (Republican politics) but the Democrats are as conservative. Change seems to be the keyword this time around but Hoosiers don't want it to be too fast or too all-encompassing. I don't think you have much of a chance of winning here if you are seen as too liberal or too radical. |
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Post by hoosier on Apr 28, 2008 18:50:41 GMT -5
Its been reported that 200,000 new voters have registered this year and 50,000 have already voted absentee. Wow! And the US Supreme Court just upheld the state's voter ID law which I hadn't realized is the strictest in the country. I, personally, see nothing wrong with it and if it cuts down on voter fraud etc., more power to it. One of my sisters does not drive but all she had to do was go to the DMV and get a free photo ID. The first time we had to show ID was funny because the one I had to show it to was a gal I had gone to school with!
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Post by hoosier on May 7, 2008 18:34:04 GMT -5
The primary has come and gone and by a narrow margin Hillary won Indiana after waiting forever for Lake County to get its votes counted. What is with them anyway? We had yet another new voting machine setup. Last time we had the touch screen and this time it was the fill in the dot and feed it into the machine kind. So nice of them to let us know they were changing again. One man was so upset he was going to write a letter to the election board to complain--more about the cost of changing than the change itself.
I heard this morning that 50% of those who voted for Hillary would not vote for Obama if he is the nominee while 35% of those who backed Obama would not vote for Hillary.
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Post by doobrah on May 8, 2008 13:13:51 GMT -5
I heard this morning that 50% of those who voted for Hillary would not vote for Obama if he is the nominee while 35% of those who backed Obama would not vote for Hillary. Yup, and I'm one of those. I like Obama ok, but just don't think he's seasoned enough. If Hil isn't the nominee, I'm writing her name in, despite her recent pandering for votes by proposing to eliminate the fuel tax for the summer. D'oh! |
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Post by mlm828 on May 8, 2008 17:45:13 GMT -5
I heard this morning that 50% of those who voted for Hillary would not vote for Obama if he is the nominee while 35% of those who backed Obama would not vote for Hillary. Yup, and I'm one of those. I like Obama ok, but just don't think he's seasoned enough. If Hil isn't the nominee, I'm writing her name in, despite her recent pandering for votes by proposing to eliminate the fuel tax for the summer. D'oh! I certainly hope people are just speaking in the heat of the moment and won't follow through in November. If they want to hand the election to McCain, that's the way to do it - in fact, it may be the only way he can win. Personally, I think "seasoning" is overrated. I remember people saying the same thing about JFK. I also remember the Cuban missile crisis. I would prefer to have a President - "seasoned" or not - who is smart enough to show restraint in a time of crisis, instead of the guy who sang "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" to the tune of "Barbara Ann." |
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Post by maggiethecat on May 8, 2008 18:10:01 GMT -5
I heard this morning that 50% of those who voted for Hillary would not vote for Obama if he is the nominee while 35% of those who backed Obama would not vote for Hillary. Yup, and I'm one of those. I like Obama ok, but just don't think he's seasoned enough. If Hil isn't the nominee, I'm writing her name in, despite her recent pandering for votes by proposing to eliminate the fuel tax for the summer. D'oh! Doobrah, doobrah, doobrah, you're killin' me here!  A write-in vote is a vote wasted; you might as well stay home on election day, in which case, say I, you have to zip your lips for the next four years. (Presidential voting is really a quadrennial renewal of your bitching rights.) As I see it, the only thing that matters now is NOT electing another Republican, especially one who endorses Shrubbie-Pooh's catastrophic and uninformed policy that we stay in Iraq for the forseeable future, racking up the wounded totals and sending home more and more men and women amputated in limb and in spirit. Hey, I think Hillary os one kick-@ss female. She's smart, she's dedicated, and she's given her entire life to the game/cause. But the prevailing wisdom seems to be that the math just ain't gonna work. She is not going to roll into the convention with the magic number of delegates, even if she keeps the Super-delegates she has at present, which seems unlikely. And I do believe, firmly, that if she can't clinch the nomination, she will be gracious and supportive and -- through gritted teeth -- endorse Obama. I guess what it boils down to is that she's a candidate and he's a movement. It took me a long time to come around to this way of thinking (just look back through this thread), but in the end it's about Us versus Them. I've lived through Nixon, Reagan and his trickle-down crap (not to mention the Bitburg fiasco), Poppy Bush . . . and Shrub, who scares the crap out of me as none have. To quote James Wolcott in the current issue of Vanity Fair, "After two terms of George W. Bush, which only seemed like a scarred eternity, American voters [are] pining for a Democratic recapture of the White House and a return to competency as a novel change of pace." Amen. We cannot survive another Republican administration, even one headed by as nice and seemingly benign a man as John McCain. Bottom line? Whoever the Dems endorse, we have to be there. We can't afford to do anything else. |
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Post by mlm828 on May 8, 2008 18:54:31 GMT -5
What mags said.
For the record, I voted for Obama in my state's primary in February, after being on the fence until just before Election Day. But if Hillary is the nominee, I will support her enthusiastically.
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Post by maggiethecat on May 9, 2008 7:53:03 GMT -5
You know, whenever anyone talks about writing in their vote, I remember a wonderful story from the Clinton v. Dole election: A radio disk jockey in, I believe, Ohio, started a write-in campaign for FDR, who, he said, would be a better president dead than either of the two candidates alive. And in that part of Ohio, Frankin Delano Roosevelt got something like 2,000 votes. ;D Of course, you can afford to make that sort of statement with your vote in an election where the outcome is pretty much a forgone conclusion. But that was before we had something I never thought I'd see in this country: a coup d'etat and rampant and egregious voter fraud at a national level. You know, how come no one ever talks any more about the fact that when the 2000 Florida votes were finally counted, Gore won the popular vote? I still can't believe he threw in the towel -- if he hadn't been such a noble wuss we wouldn't have been saddled with a man who has the same approximate IQ as a rhododendron.  |
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Post by doobrah on May 9, 2008 8:20:15 GMT -5
Thank you Mags and MLM for your comments -- really!
It's killing me that I have real reservations about Obama. I am a Democrat. I want to support the nominee.
At the risk of escalating this, and I'm just saying it as a metaphor, not comparing Obama to him..... but a certain German party in the 1930s was a movement too. Movements have their place but are not always indicative of progress.
Where are Obama's ideas? He's a nice guy. I get that. I agree. But when did elitist become criminal? What's wrong with drinking wine and driving a Volvo? I want someone smart and brilliant and elitist in the White House. I want the brilliance of Hillary (that she seems intent upon hiding).
Mags, I've considered the Ralph Nader effect of a write-in vote. I have voted in EVERY election I have been eligible for since I became of age. I don't want my vote wasted.
But what am I supposed to do? Hold my nose and cast my vote? Obama has about as much experience as shrub did when he came into office. At least Obama hasn't left a bunch of failed businesses in his wake. And I know (I KNOW!!) he wouldn't -- he couldn't -- be that bad. But conversely, Hillary has come a long way since elected to the Senate, building cross-party coalitions and becoming a "seasoned" legislator and politician. I don't think I need to convince anyone that she's fit for duty.
I've got a long six months or so to wrestle with this.
(Holding my breath, hit "post", AAAAHHHH!!!)
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Post by doobrah on May 9, 2008 8:23:10 GMT -5
You know, how come no one ever talks any more about the fact that when the 2000 Florida votes were finally counted, Gore won the popular vote? I still can't believe he threw in the towel -- if he hadn't been such a noble wuss we wouldn't have been saddled with a man who has the same approximate IQ as a rhododendron. Mags, my rhododendrons and their cousins, the azaleas, take umbrage at your analogy. ;D |
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Post by maggiethecat on May 9, 2008 9:40:12 GMT -5
Ooh, doobrah, welcome back and welcome to the fray. And . . . um . . . how about the IQ of an air fern?  Of course you've voted in every election, since I know you're the best kind of voter: one who pays attention, does her homework, and weighs the issues. But I can also think back to any number of elections, both at the national and local level, when I "held my nose" as I pulled the lever because the Democratic Party platform was not only worth supporting, but the last best hope. I will accept your 1930s movement analogy -- and God knows the last thing we need to do in this country is vote according to crowd psychology -- if you will consider this: When Abraham Lincoln was elected President, his "seasoning" consisted of two terms in the Illinois state legislature, experience as a lawyer and community organizer, and a reputation as a brilliant orator.I'm just sayin . . . |
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