2008 General Election Discussion Thread

[HuskyCaucasian]

MASSIVE early voting numbers:

More than twelve million voters have already cast ballots in the presidential contest, according to one estimate, and new data from the Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll shows these voters breaking Democratic by a wide margin.

 

Among those who said they have already voted at an early voting location or sent in an absentee ballot, Barack Obama picked up 60 percent of the vote in the new poll to John McCain's 39 percent.

 

These voters make up 9 percent of "likely" voters in the track.

 

These early voting numbers are a near mirror-image of those from the last two elections: A paper using the National Annenberg Election Study reports that George W. Bush scored 62 percent of early voters in 2000 and 60 percent of them in 2004.

[Cknolls]

But I do tell you that if the Democrats win and have substantial majorities, Congress of the United States will be more bipartisan," said Pelosi.

 

 

Who writes her stuff, GWB?

[BigSqwert]

Kudos to the Onion. Hilarious!

 

 

'I Would Make A Bad President,' Obama Says In Huge Campaign Blunder

 

October 28, 2008 | Issue 44•44

 

 

TALLAHASSEE, FL—In a campaign gaffe that could potentially jeopardize Sen. Barack Obama's White House bid, the Democratic presidential nominee told nearly 8,000 supporters Tuesday that, if elected, he would be a terrible president.

 

The blunder, captured by all major media outlets and broadcast live on CNN, occurred when the typically polished Obama fielded a question about his health care policy. Obama answered by saying he would give small business owners a tax credit to help them provide health care for their employees, and then added, "Now, I'm not completely certain that my plan would work because, overall, I think I would make a bad president."

 

According to sources, before those on hand could fully process what Obama had said, the Illinois senator continued to stumble, claiming that, were he to win the general election, he'd have absolutely no idea what to do.

 

"My youth and inexperience would definitely make me an awful president," said Obama, whose seven-minute misstep was further exacerbated when he called himself "no expert" on the economy. "To be perfectly honest, I'd be worried about putting me in charge of the most powerful military in the world because I'm not any good when it comes to making important decisions. Also, I'm not sure how much I care about keeping this great nation of ours safe."

 

"I'm an elitist, I hate Israel, and I want to lose the war in Iraq," Obama concluded, and then, seemingly unaware of the magnitude of his blunder, smiled, gave a thumbs-up to the stunned crowd, and urged his supporters to get out and vote on Nov. 4.

 

Immediately following the speech, Obama campaign officials released a written statement alleging that their candidate's comments had been taken out of context. In addition, Obama's top adviser David Axelrod claimed that the senator was quoting former president Abraham Lincoln when he said, "I am not the guy to head the executive branch of the United States government. Trust me. I'm really not."

 

Beltway observers agreed that the gaffe could come back to haunt Obama on Election Day.

 

"This might very well be the sound bite voters have in their heads when they step inside that booth on Tuesday," ABC political analyst George Stephanopoulos said. "It's just not the message you want to send to voters when you are up in the polls. Saying that you would make a bad president, especially when your entire campaign has been built around the idea that you would make a good president, doesn't play well with independent and undecided voters."

 

"Also, swing states like Ohio and Florida have historically leaned toward the nominee who thinks he'd be a good president, rather than the nominee who thinks he'd 'probably just screw everything up worse,'" Stephanopoulos added.

 

An analysis of historical documents supports Stephanopoulos' claim, and confirms that the past 55 winning presidential candidates—with the exception of a dying Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944—all strongly maintained they would be good or great presidents throughout their campaigns, and never hinted otherwise.

 

"I think Sen. Obama may have opened up a slight window for John McCain here," New York Times reporter David Sanger said during Wednesday's taping of Charlie Rose. "If the McCain camp can find some way to exploit this miscue, it could have the potential to be a real game-changer."

 

However, a CNN poll taken moments after Obama's speech revealed that the candidate's misstep may have simply gotten lost amid the 24-hour news cycle. Though most citizens said they would prefer a candidate who thinks he'd be a good president, 23 percent said they would still vote for someone who thinks he would make an okay president. Furthermore, 35 percent of citizens said they would vote for a nominee who promised to be a serviceable, or even a so-so, president.

 

Forty-two percent of citizens polled said that, at this point, a "just plain bad" president would also be good enough.

 

"I am more certain than ever that I will vote for Obama," Windham, NH resident James Kilner said. "This is the first time I have really connected with a candidate, mainly because I think I would make a pretty bad president, too."

 

As of press time, the McCain camp has yet to respond to the potentially damaging blunder. However, many feel this is exactly what the Arizona senator needed following a mistake he made earlier in the week when he said that "a vote for McCain is a vote for mass genocide."

[longshot7]

But I do tell you that if the Democrats win and have substantial majorities, Congress of the United States will be more bipartisan," said Pelosi.

 

 

Who writes her stuff, GWB?

 

I think Jon Stewart said "Why is bipartisan a good thing? The Republicans screwed everything up. If you want anything good done, why would you include them on the process?"

 

That's a good point. Let's be as partisan as we can if we have big majorities. Screw them.

[StrangeSox]

I think Jon Stewart said "Why is bipartisan a good thing? The Republicans screwed everything up. If you want anything good done, why would you include them on the process?"

 

That's a good point. Let's be as partisan as we can if we have big majorities. Screw them.

 

My opinion would be that the Democrats are just as likely to screw everything up, and they still need to represent the millions of Americans who are not Democrats.

[mr_genius]

But I do tell you that if the Democrats win and have substantial majorities, Congress of the United States will be more bipartisan," said Pelosi.

 

 

Who writes her stuff, GWB?

 

just means they can slam through bad legislation like the stuff that led to the banking collapse.

[Balta1701]

just means they can slam through bad legislation like the stuff that led to the banking collapse.

Because all that happened under so many Democratic Congresses.

[mr_genius]

Because all that happened under so many Democratic Congresses.

 

Republicans didn't do enough to stop it, thats for sure. I'm sure they received enough bribes to look the other way.

[Soxbadger]

Completely random but I love that my polling place is my apartment building.

[Cknolls]

FWIW:

 

 

First exit poll of actual American votes from Israel shows big McCain win [Tom Gross]

 

 

Within the last hour, the first exit poll of 817 Americans in Israel, who attended U.S. election voting events in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening to vote by absentee ballot, has been released.

 

A startling 76 percent of those polled said that they had voted for John McCain. This contrasts sharply with pre-election polls of American Jews in the U.S., which indicate a strong preference for Obama.

 

The exit poll findings of American voters in Israel are all the more surprising because less than one in four were registered Republicans, and 46% of registered Democrats living in Israel said they had crossed party lines to vote McCain. By contrast, the Republican crossover to Obama was minimal – just 2%.

 

The votes are significant as almost half of the 42,000 registered U.S. voters living in Israel come from key swing states including Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

 

In the 2000 and 2004 elections, Israel had the third-largest group of American voters abroad, after Canada and Britain.

 

The exit poll was commissioned by Votefromisrael.org, an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting voter registration and participation amongst American citizens living in Israel.

 

SARKOZY: OBAMA’S STANCE ON IRAN IS “UTTERLY IMMATURE”

 

More than half of the respondents listed foreign policy (including Israel and Iran policy) as the most important factor influencing their vote.

 

Separately, in a poll for the country’s largest newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, most Israelis in general (not just Americans living in Israel) said they would prefer McCain because they are concerned about the anti-Israeli positions of many of the people Barack Obama has appointed to advise him on foreign policy, and because – in the words of French President Nicolas Sarkozy as quoted in Tuesday’s Ha’aretz newspaper – Obama’s stance on Iran is “utterly immature” and comprised of “formulations empty of all content.”

 

In most countries, according to opinion polls, if the local populations had a vote in next week’s American elections, they would choose Obama over McCain.

 

Among the exceptions (where McCain would win) are Israel, Iraq, Georgia and the Philippines (all countries that have had to cope with terrorism).

 

[Cknolls]

So How Many Voters Can ACORN Sign Up When They Play by the Rules? [Greg Pollowitz]

 

The Seattle Times answers that very question:

 

After King County Elections officials uncovered what would later be described as the most egregious instance of voter-registration fraud in state history, John Jones was summoned to the office of then-King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng.

 

It was early last year and Maleng's office was preparing to file charges against six canvassers who had filled out nearly 1,800 voter-registration cards the previous fall with names they made up using phone directories and books of baby names. Jones' organization, the state chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — commonly known as ACORN — had paid the workers $8 an hour to sign up low-income voters in King and Pierce counties.

 

Maleng, King County's Republican prosecutor who died in May 2007, pulled Jones aside for a man-to-man talk. Maleng told Jones that as a community leader, it wasn't enough for him to admit fault and take responsibility for it: Jones must make sure the mistakes made in fall 2006 never, ever happen again.

 

Last week — as Republican presidential candidate John McCain continued to question the validity of the 1.3 million new voters ACORN has registered nationally for the November election — Jones said Maleng's words are forever burned into his memory.

 

Maleng "said he respected the good work ACORN does but he made it clear that if there were any more problems [with voter registrations], we'd be having a very different conversation," Jones said.

 

Since signing a settlement agreement with King County in summer 2007, the local ACORN chapter has remained under a microscope. For now, it has eliminated its mass voter-registration drives, registering only 500 voters this year compared with the 37,000 it registered for the last presidential election in 2004.

 

Still, Jones said — and state and county officials confirmed — that Washington ACORN hasn't made a single mistake in adding its newest voters to county rolls.

 

"No problems have been associated with ACORN [this year], but you can bet people are watching. They're on a short leash," said David Ammons, a spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed.

 

37,000 in 2004. 500 in 2008.

 

 

 

Amazing what happens when you play by the rules.

[maggsmaggs]

Going to see Obama tonight as he will speak at the University of Missouri at 9:30 p.m. It's crazy already out there with all the trucks and volunteers working and putting up stages. This is my first time posting in the politics thread and I don't really follow politics too much, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I extremely excited, especially since I voted for him. Should be an exciting night, even if I do have to wait outside to hear him speak for 3-4 hours.

[Balta1701]

FWIW:

 

 

First exit poll of actual American votes from Israel shows big McCain win [Tom Gross]

I wonder what percentage of them are actually employees of the current administration working there?

[Texsox]

Amazing what happens when you play by the rules.

 

The rules are in most places, if you put the form in front of people and they sign, you have to turn it in. There are people who suck at their jobs in every organization, it's a shame when they cause such problems that the good work of an organization is over shadowed.

[southsider2k5]

This is the kind of stuff that the McCain campaign missed the boat on. they waited too long to hit Obama on taxes, and the spending stuff was in front of them the whole time. From the promises Obama is making, his budget looks more like a Bush expansion of spending than the guy he has been calling George W Bush derisively since Day one of the Presidential campaign.

 

http://www.ntu.org/main/press.php?PressID=...p;org_name=NTUF

 

Study Exposes Obama's "Net Spending Cutter" Claim as Misleading

 

(Alexandria, VA) -- As Presidential contenders Barack Obama and John McCain prepare to square off in tonight's third and final debate, new research by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) shows that Senator Obama's release of further details on his spending plan raises more questions than it answers. According to NTUF's analysis, Obama's recent claim that his proposals would result in a net cut in federal spending is dubious at best.

 

In NTUF Issue Brief 158, Senior Policy Analyst Demian Brady compares Obama's statement with the Foundation's extensive research on the true cost of Presidential campaign promises. "Senator Obama can say he's cutting more than he's spending, but neutral cost estimates surrounding his agenda tell a different story," Brady said. "Obama's words don't match the reality of what he is proposing, unless you believe that raising spending only slightly less than raising taxes is actually a budget cut."

 

Brady continues, "Obama has now outlined 18 proposals, six of which have been verified with budget or other third-party sources, to cut spending for an annual savings of $91.7 billion. Most of these savings are the result of withdrawing troops from Iraq. Obama also claims unverifiable savings in seven areas for a total of $93.5 billion a year. The savings of the six remaining proposals are unknown. Even if the unverified savings were immediately realized, they would not come close to offsetting the cost of the new spending programs he has proposed, which total $383.7 billion. Subtracting the savings we were able to quantify still leaves a net increase in outlays of $292 billion -- and that doesn't include dozens of programs with unknown costs that Obama has supported. His plans would clearly result in an enormous increase in new government spending."

 

NTUF's latest analyses of Senator Obama's plans include cost calculations based on hard data for more than 200 proposals that would impact the federal budget -- many of which have unknown fiscal effects. NTUF assumed the most conservative estimates based on a variety of sources, including the candidate's own projections; summaries from the Congressional Budget Office, Congressional Research Service, and the White House Office of Management and Budget; and results from equivalent legislation from NTUF's BillTally cost-accounting system. NTUF has also researched the agendas of McCain, who would increase spending by $92.4 billion annually, and Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, who would reduce the yearly federal budget by $200.9 billion.

 

"Anybody who would raise annual outlays by more than 10 percent, or about $2,600 per household, cannot credibly tell the American people he's cutting more than he's spending," Brady concluded. "Neither Obama nor McCain has offered sufficient detail in their platforms to earn the title of 'net spending cutter.'"

 

NTUF is the nonpartisan research and educational arm of the National Taxpayers Union, a citizen group founded in 1969. Note: For the full text of NTUF Issue Brief 158 or more information on the candidate cost analysis project, visit www.ntu.org.

 

 

 

[Reddy]

haha oops! man, this campaign has just completely unraveled.

 

October 30, 2008

Joe the no show

Posted: 01:11 PM ET

 

From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Joe Wurzelbacher did show up to a Palin event Wednesday.

 

 

(CNN) — Joe Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, has become an integral part of John McCain's presidential bid, but it appears the Arizona senator's campaign and the now-famous Toledo plumber need to work on their communication skills.

 

McCain aides told CNN's Dana Bash Wurzelbacher would appear with the Republican presidential candidate at his first campaign event in Defiance, Ohio. But in what was a slightly awkward moment for McCain, Wurzelbacher was nowhere to be seen when the Arizona senator called out for him.

 

A campaign aide later said Wurzelbacher had "decided not to come" and may join McCain later in the day.

 

But reached at his home by CNN's Mary Snow, Wurzelbacher said it was "news to him" that he was supposed to be at the McCain rally. Wurzelbacher said nobody from the McCain campaign confirmed he was attending the event and called the incident a "miscommunication."

 

Wurzelbacher also said he is headed to Philadelphia for a charity event unrelated to the campaign and has no plans to meet up with McCain today.

 

UPDATE: Contacted by CNN a second time, Wurzelbacher said the campaign only called him to confirm after the event in question already took place. He will now try to meet up with McCain later in the day.

 

Wurzelbacher also said he had gotten an initial call about coming to the morning rally, "but no one called back to confirm," and was "not happy" that McCain had called out his name and he wasn't there.

[HuskyCaucasian]

First Palin was the Diva, now Wurzelbacher. His ego is growing by the day. First there were rumors he was going to run for COngress in 2010, now he's hired an agent and may be going after a country music recording contract.

[Steff]

haha oops! man, this campaign has just completely unraveled.

 

 

Why are they still using this guy? He owes back taxes, isn't a licensed plumber, and is in no position to own his own business - which is his claim to fame concern, no? And isn't he related to someone connected to McCain also or was that bs?

[Harry Chappas]

First Palin was the Diva, now Wurzelbacher. His ego is growing by the day. First there were rumors he was going to run for COngress in 2010, now he's hired an agent and may be going after a country music recording contract.

 

They keep running him out there and when Obama calls him out as fraud he is being too negative.

[HuskyCaucasian]

They keep running him out there and when Obama calls him out as fraud he is being too negative.

no no. McCain doesnt say Obama is being negative. He says how dare Obama attack this average citizen..... which is being used as a political prop by the McCain Campaign. Hypocracy if you ask me. "We'll exploit the hell out of him... name a campaign tour after him.. but dont investigate him. He's off limits".

Edited October 30, 2008 by Athomeboy_2000

[longshot7]

My mother waited 90 minutes to vote early in Bolingbrook this morning. Is it just because they don't have enough poll workers to handle the early voters, or are there really that many new people voting?

[longshot7]

FWIW:

 

 

First exit poll of actual American votes from Israel shows big McCain win [Tom Gross]

 

 

Within the last hour, the first exit poll of 817 Americans in Israel, who attended U.S. election voting events in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening to vote by absentee ballot, has been released.

 

A startling 76 percent of those polled said that they had voted for John McCain. This contrasts sharply with pre-election polls of American Jews in the U.S., which indicate a strong preference for Obama.

 

The exit poll findings of American voters in Israel are all the more surprising because less than one in four were registered Republicans, and 46% of registered Democrats living in Israel said they had crossed party lines to vote McCain. By contrast, the Republican crossover to Obama was minimal – just 2%.

 

The votes are significant as almost half of the 42,000 registered U.S. voters living in Israel come from key swing states including Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

 

In the 2000 and 2004 elections, Israel had the third-largest group of American voters abroad, after Canada and Britain.

 

The exit poll was commissioned by Votefromisrael.org, an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting voter registration and participation amongst American citizens living in Israel.

 

SARKOZY: OBAMA’S STANCE ON IRAN IS “UTTERLY IMMATURE”

 

More than half of the respondents listed foreign policy (including Israel and Iran policy) as the most important factor influencing their vote.

 

Separately, in a poll for the country’s largest newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, most Israelis in general (not just Americans living in Israel) said they would prefer McCain because they are concerned about the anti-Israeli positions of many of the people Barack Obama has appointed to advise him on foreign policy, and because – in the words of French President Nicolas Sarkozy as quoted in Tuesday’s Ha’aretz newspaper – Obama’s stance on Iran is “utterly immature” and comprised of “formulations empty of all content.”

 

In most countries, according to opinion polls, if the local populations had a vote in next week’s American elections, they would choose Obama over McCain.

 

Among the exceptions (where McCain would win) are Israel, Iraq, Georgia and the Philippines (all countries that have had to cope with terrorism).

 

The drummer from my band is from Iran and he says all his relatives still over there want McCain to win because they think he'll invade and liberate them. Yikes.

 

[HuskyCaucasian]

The grade school / Jr High I work for is holding a school wide presidential election today. I'll post the results when I find out. I remember doing this when I was in school here. Kinda cool.

[HuskyCaucasian]

The drummer from my band is from Iran

oh... so you have links to terrorism.

That's what McCain would say.

[BigSqwert]

The Economist endorses Obama.