owlmoose | More election spam

As you might expect, the election has been much on my mind lately. Despite promising myself I wouldn't go crazy with poll tracking, I find myself at Five Thirty-Eight at least once a day, as well as Slate, and the New York Times map (although that one is surprisingly slow to update -- they haven't changed it since October 3rd). I know way more about various Senate races than ever before, and watching the swing states (and not so swing states, hello Indiana!) slowly grow more and more blue has been quite cheering, although I'm not officially optimistic yet. I've seen too many Democrats yank defeat from the jaws of victory to really let myself be too hopeful.

Closer to home, I'm more worried. Not about any particular candidates -- no Senate or Governor's races this year, and I live in Nancy Pelosi's district, which is just about as blue as it gets. No, my worry is in the realm of propositions. Proposition 8, to be exact: the proposition that would un-do the legalization of same-sex marriage in California. It's been down in the polls for a month, but the Yes on 8 team has a huge war chest, and they're starting to run ads -- nasty ads, ads full of lies, but despite that (or perhaps because of it) powerful ads. And so the measure is starting to gain. Not above 50% yet, but close. In comparison, the No on 8 ads are fairly bland, presumably in hopes of offending as few people as possible, but I'm not sure they're at all effective. Especially not in comparison to this one by an independent group:

Now, who knows; maybe this approach would turn off the moderates, the people who aren't so convinced this gay marriage thing isn't just a little bit icky. But maybe it would make them laugh, and then it would make them think. An approach worth trying? Maybe. No matter what, it's gonna be a nailbiter.

In other political news, I recently learned that John Hodgman has a blog, which does make the world seem a little brighter.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

To cheer you, although they will probably squeak through, Mich Michonell (sp?)) is having a scare as are Libby Dole and Saxby Chambliss (the disgusting sack of slime in Georgia). I love watching them sweat. I cannot imagine you Californians will vote for the Neanderthal position on gay marriage, so be of good heart.

Have you noticed how the Palin rallies are coming to resemble those of the German National Socialists in 1939 or so? That is beginning to frighten me for the health and safety of Obama. This is a replay of the early twentieth century in too many ways.

Dole is in serious trouble, actually, and FiveThirtyEight pointed to the Georgia Senate race as one with significant movement:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/senate-projections-109.html

I won't get my hopes up too much, but how wonderful would it be to get rid of Chambliss? I am hard pressed to think of many people in the political realm for whom I have less respect. What do you think of his opponent?

Palin and McCain's rallies are getting more and more scary and disgusting, although if there's a bright side to them, it's that they're likely to turn off the moderates. Still, it's a far and sad fall for a man for whom I once had a great deal of respect.

There is no such thing as a liberal or even moderate politician in Georgia, however anything - even a porch dog - would be better than Chambliss. I shall never forgive him for what he did to Max Cleveland.

I agree about McCain. At one time I thought him to be a man of honour. I mourn for his loss and think he will come to grieve for it as well.

I can't figure McCain out anymore.

He keeps saying "which is the real Obama?" but that I think I know. Whereas McCain has been honorable at times -- even if I don't agree with him -- and then at other times there's the Keating Five mess (where he was played for a dupe by Charles Keating, but if he learned his lesson, why does he keep hiring those same kinds of people as his advisors: cf Phil Gramm and Rick Davis?), plus the Lewinksy-phase during his first marriage which I should be ignoring, since it's politically irrelevant, except it seems to me a greater level of callousness than I expected from him.

It's weird. I used to think of McCain as a bit like Colin Powell: I respected him and felt that he had reasoned judgment for arriving at his views, which happen to be more conservative than mine. At this point McCain and "reason" seem to be having a feud.

I'm the same way - I voted for McCain in the 2000 presidential primaries because I felt he was the best option. Now I look at what he's doing and it just makes me sad, because I did used to respect him a great deal, but I think he's lost sight of who he used to be and is falling deeper into his party's grip, which is. Um. Not really a great thing.

Holy cow. While checking some of

owlmoose's links I came across the Rolling Stone article on McCain (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23316912/makebelieve_maverick/print). One has to take info from such a source with heavy grains of salt, but I had run into most of the information in that article before while looking up the Keating Five and McCain's deregulation vs. regulation record. Also I'd hit a British press bio piece on his first wife, the forgotten Ms. McCain. So the RS article isn't new info -- it's just putting it together into a coherent pattern that I hadn't quite seen, since my impression of McCain was formed in the last election when he seemed to me the more reasonable Republican candidate.

After reading that, I'm not so sure.

Augh.

It really just...makes me sad.

I know that I'm probably going to vote for Obama, but I am really concerned about how he's going to fund all these pretty programs he keeps suggesting, which makes my head hurt given the current size of the national debt.

I'm getting sick of voting against instead of voting for.

I suspect some of Obama's hopes for health care reform and infrastructure will die a sad death on the rocks of pragmatism, and people will accuse him of flipflopping when he can't accomplish all that he promised.

But he is well aware that the debt and deficit are a major, major problem. And the man has brains. I think he will see that some things may have to be put on hold until the economy's stabilized and the deficit is trimmed.

Edited 2008-10-11 05:06 (UTC)

I think you're probably right. Hence, my vote :)

Rolling Stone actually has been responsible for some quite credible political reporting over the years; I wouldn't dismiss them as a source at all.

I haven't read this one yet but thanks for the pointer! I'll have to look at it.

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