The Last Last Election Thread II about the Last Election

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Is it the German in me who falls for great speakers (obvious historical reference)

Don't let DaShi see this, or you'll never hear the end of it.

[Ecthy]

It seems he's been using the motive in quite a number of speeches.

One post can change a thread. If it can change a thread, then it can change a forum. If it can change a forum, then it can change a website. And if it can change a website, then it can change the internet!

[MrFun]

So when do polls start becoming available for the 2012 election?

[Lancer]

Gordon Smith up 7000ish.

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by MrFun
So when do polls start becoming available for the 2012 election?

One poster can spoil the fun! And if he can spoil the fun, he can spoil the day!

[Imran Siddiqui]

An absolutely facinating article on the "Secrets" of the election by Newsweek:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167581

The computer systems of both the Obama and McCain campaigns were victims of a sophisticated cyberattack by an unknown "foreign entity," prompting a federal investigation, NEWSWEEK reports today.

NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy

According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill.

On the Sunday night before the last debate, McCain's core group of advisers—Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, adman Fred Davis, strategist Greg Strimple, pollster Bill McInturff and strategy director Sarah Simmons—met to decide whether to tell McCain that the race was effectively over, that he no longer had a chance to win. The consensus in the room was no, not yet, not while he still had "a pulse."

Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.

McCain also was reluctant to use Obama's incendiary pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as a campaign issue. The Republican had set firm boundaries: no Jeremiah Wright; no attacking Michelle Obama; no attacking Obama for not serving in the military. McCain balked at an ad using images of children that suggested that Obama might not protect them from terrorism. Schmidt vetoed ads suggesting that Obama was soft on crime (no Willie Hortons). And before word even got to McCain, Schmidt and Salter scuttled a "celebrity" ad of Obama dancing with talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres (the sight of a black man dancing with a lesbian was deemed too provocative).

McCain, on the other hand, was relieved to face Sen. Joe Biden as the veep choice, and not Hillary Clinton, whom the McCain camp had truly feared.

On the night she officially lost the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton enjoyed a long and friendly phone conversation with McCain. Clinton was actually on better terms with McCain than she was with Obama. Clinton and McCain had downed shots together on Senate junkets; they regarded each other as grizzled veterans of the political wars and shared a certain disdain for Obama as flashy and callow.

At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys' club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. "I'll be just a minute," she said.

A few things we kinda knew (Palin going rogue, Hillary & McCain on very good terms), but this adds much more detail and it seems as well that McCain was resisting some in his campaign who wanted to go all full out in order to win (even though they thought it was lost before the 3rd debate). Oh, and I wonder if Schmidt and Salter carried cameras into the room when they were going to meet Palin after that

[The Emperor Fabulous]

Four years ago, Bob "Jabba" Novak said that Bush had a mandate at 51-49.

With Obama at 52-46, Bob "KrispyKreme" Novak says Obama has no mandate.

Some key excerpts:

The national election Tuesday was not only historic for the election of the first African-American president in the nation's historybut also for how little the avalanche of Democratic votes changed the political alignment in Congress.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt won his second term for president in 1936, the defeated Republican candidate, Gov. Alf Landon of Kansas, won only two states, Maine and Vermont, and Democrats controlled both houses of Congress by wide margins.

But Obama's win was nothing like that. He may have opened the door to enactment of the long-deferred liberal agenda, but he neither received a broad mandate from the public nor the needed large congressional majorities.

EDIT: Here's Bobby 4 years ago:

(CNN's Capital Gang, 11/6/04):

MARK SHIELDS: Bob Novak, is 51 percent of the vote really a mandate?

BOB NOVAK: Of course it is. It's a 3.5 million vote margin. But the people who are saying that it isn't a mandate are the same people who were predicting that John Kerry would win.

http://www.fair.org/blog/2008/11/05/bob-novak-and-mandates-then-and-now/

[Guynemer]

I'll check out that Newsweek article later.

I wonder if McCain was against using Wright because Wright himself is a veteran.

[chequita guevara]

Check out Condi Rice. She's so happy she can barely contain it.



BTW, did anyone else know that as a child, she was friends with one of the four little girls who were blown up in that church in Birmingham?

[Aeson]

Well, we got a D elected in (significant) part due to an issue where the D voted the same way as the R on the incumbent R's proposal (along with most all the other D's).

/shrug

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

McCain also was reluctant to use Obama's incendiary pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as a campaign issue. The Republican had set firm boundaries: no Jeremiah Wright;

Oh dude I totally called that:

Originally posted by Darius871
Speaking of that, it really became clear watching the gem below the other day; it keeps being characterized as being "caught" not having a second example, but from the way he said "I think we both know who I'm talking about here" it was obvious he meant Wright (maybe both Wright and Farrakhan, but at least Wright).

The fact that he went out of his way not to utter Wright's name, to the point of even making an ass out of himself, suggested to me that there are marching orders within the campaign not to raise the Wright issue except through surrogates until the last few days. There's no other explanation why he would be so tight-lipped about "who we're talking about here."

(skip to around 5:35)


http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...85#post5454185

[Lancer]

Black friend of Dolores's cousin is all happy about Obama because now "I won't have to pay my credit card."

She's got a wake up call coming methinks.

[Donegeal]

I still think the Bush administration should leave cotton balls all over the white house so Obama's first act as President would be to pick cotton.

[chequita guevara]

That is beyond crass.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It's kinda funny though (then again, I love tasteless jokes)