he was commenting on the picture i posted in terms of the inaccuracies of polling for presidential elections
Lebezniatnikov
My greatest worry is what happens after the election. This financial crisis has boiled over at a time when we are very vulnerable to a lot of things. We have a lame duck President incapable any longer of acting strongly even when in the right. And we have a presidential election that is increasingly getting out of control.
It's no secret that McCain loathes Obama. And that sentiment has clearly spilled over. At a McCain rally this week, he insinuated that Obama is not like ordinary Americans, and is somehow nefarious in his foreign-ness. In response, an adoring McCain supporter yelled "terrorist!" That same day at a Palin rally, a supporter yelled "traitor!" when Palin gave her nefarious claim that Obama "pals around with terrorists who want to attack their own country."
We have four weeks to go. Is there a bottom to how far they'll go to sour the American political scene?
McCain's only lingering chance is to ignite a cultural war. By casting Obama as different - not white enough, not mainstream enough, and not trustworthy enough - McCain could regain some footing. That's his only chance. Today he sent out his WIFE(!) to launch a scathing attack on Obama hating the troops in Iraq! The Republican campaign shows no dedication to truth or class, and as a result, the Democrats are about to hit back.
So here's how I see this playing out from here:
We're going to see increasingly rabid attacks from the Republican campaign. They're going to go after Obama's character in increasingly blatant ways. They don't want to focus on the economy - Obama's dominating on issues. They want to make him seem dangerous. Nefarious. Untrustworthy.
It's going to get ugly. And the Democrats won't sit idly by. Counter-attacks will get vicious as well. Biden is already hitting back hard on how McCain's attacks show that he is unfit to assume an honorable office. He's right to warn of a slippery slope of devastating political fallout. We're there already.
The relationship between Republicans and Democrats is souring at precisely the moment we need them to come together. The politicization by the McCain campaign of the bailout process shows that when McCain can divide people for political gain, he will damn the consequences and make the attempt. Because the House Republicans wanted a piece of the pie and got their feelings hurt, we delayed passage of this financial rescue package by nearly a week! Accusations and attacks are flying back and forth for the delay, and we are already paying the price.
The market is still in turmoil, international creditors are harder and harder to find, and we have an American political system completely incapable of getting anything done in a constructive manner.
Does this change in January with an Obama win? I fear not.
As emotions rise and relationships sour, do we really expect some sort of political reconciliation with an Obama win? Republicans are going to be pissed. McCain won't go down without a fight, and he's hell-bent on dragging Obama into the mud with him. Republicans are not looking forward to working with a President Obama.
Do they have to? Well, no.
One of the by-products of this landslide presidential campaign is that it trickles down to congressional races. In the House and the Senate, the Democrats are going to gain. And gain big. We may have the potential for 58-60 seats in the Senate.
Theoretically, this makes it very easy to get legislation through Congress and put some of the President's top choices for appointees in office throughout government.
However, it also sets the expectations very high. Too high. Unbelievably high.
There is already a sentiment that an Obama presidency, coupled with a Democratic congress, can fix things.
But we're headed into a deep recession. It's ludicrous to think things might get better before getting worse. Obama is irrelevant here - the crisis will deepen into the first term of the next administration regardless of who is in office.
The tasks are enormous, and you can bet that the Republicans will be willing to pounce when things don't immediately change for the better.
The Democrats may win this election in grand fashion... but they could be in a world of trouble in the long-term as a result of an increasingly alienated conservative base and the enormity of responsibilities that they are about to assume.
Lebezniatnikov
quote:
Originally posted by cmay119
Cool ass video. The editing was done really well for that. Never really got into 'The West Wing', but after seeing that I might have to give it a chance. That show has ended now, correct?
The West Wing was the greatest thing ever put on television. Unfortunately in the midst of filming Season 7, one of the leading actors of the series passed away. He was in large respect the heart of the show, and all of the creative minds behind it determined it was pointless to continue after his death.
So alas, The West Wing is no more, but it remains (and always will be) the greatest television series of all time.
I strongly recommend catching it from the beginning of Season 1 through to the end. It's not all dramatic either - Aaron Sorkin was a master of wit and sarcasm as well.
Capitalizt
Looks like Mccain is having flashbacks.. He says "my fellow prisoners" instead of my fellow Americans.. That senile dementia must be kicking in..
woscar99
quote:
Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov
Oh, they're out there.
Derek Vinyard, anyone?
:nervous:
Sunsnail
quote:
Originally posted by Capitalizt
Looks like Mccain is having flashbacks.. He says "my fellow prisoners" instead of my fellow Americans.. That senile dementia must be kicking in..
lol
I don't like watching videos like this. it makes me uncomfortable
OK, let me get this straight: The central axiom of conservative Republicanism is that government is inherently corrupt and can't do anything right.
Over many years of ascendancy, conservative Republicans have filled government agencies with conservative Republicans and proceeded to enact the conservative Republican policy wish list -- tax cuts, deregulation, privatization, outsourcing federal work, and so on.
[The Tilting Yard] AP
And as a consequence of these policies our conservative Republican government has bungled most of the big tasks that have fallen to it. The rescue and recovery of the Gulf Coast was a disaster. The reconstruction of Iraq was a disaster. The regulatory agencies became so dumb they didn't even see the disasters they were set up to prevent. And each disaster was attributable to the conservative philosophy of government.
Yet now we are supposed to vote for more conservative Republicans because we learned from the last bunch of conservative Republicans that government just doesn't work.
That is the advice of Sarah Palin, Republican vice-presidential nominee, in last week's debate with her Democratic counterpart, discussing the dread prospect of universal health care: "Unless you're pleased with the way the federal government has been running anything lately, I don't think that it's going to be real pleasing for Americans to consider health care being taken over by the feds."
Conservative misrule, prompted by conservative disdain for government, proves that government cannot be trusted -- and that the only answer is to elect another round of government-denouncing conservatives.
"Cynicism" seems too small a word for this circular kind of political fraud. One reaches instead for images of grosser malevolence. It's like suggesting that the best way to recover from pneumonia is to stand in the rain for three hours. It's like arguing that the way to solve nuclear proliferation is by handing out weapons-grade plutonium to everyone who asks for it.
Consider also the perverse incentives that such a logic would establish. If we validate Mrs. Palin's thoughts on federal bungling by electing her to the high office she seeks, we are encouraging her to bungle everything that comes her way. After all, by her thinking, such bungling will not discredit her doctrines but rather confirm them, demonstrate the need for more Sarah Palins down the road. We will be asking for it, and it's not much of a stretch to predict that we will get it.
In the three-ring circus of conservative blame-evasion, however, that's only one act. Over in the House of Representatives, a new breed of Republican idealists spent last week dazzling the faithful by taking a bold stand against the Wall Street bailout. The administration's plan was a "slippery slope to socialism," declared their leader, Jeb Hensarling of Texas.
One might have admired their pluck but for the breathtaking opportunism of their own counterproposal, the "Free Market Protection Act," which is described on the Web site of the Republican Study Committee. True, it is not a "slippery slope." It is a headlong stampede over a precipice, a running leap out a skyscraper window.
It starts by calling for "voluntary private capital" to solve the problem of bad mortgage-backed securities (MBS). Several sentences later it asks for a "mandatory" fee to be levied on all MBS, good or bad, and apparently without regard for whether it's held here or overseas, where American law doesn't apply. I asked William Black, the University of Missouri-Kansas City professor of economics and law whom I quoted last week, what he thought of this scheme. He replied, "This is significantly insane as a matter of finance -- and unconstitutional as a matter of law. This clause would cause a world-wide financial panic were it implemented."
Back at the study committee's Web site, I see conservatives call to "Suspend 'Mark to Market' Accounting." Suddenly our "free-market protection" gang has decided it's unfair to make companies value their MBSs at . . . the market price. Somehow the all-seeing market has gone irrational, and so companies must be allowed "to mark these assets to their true economic value," meaning, one might say, to mark them however they please, a practice that, to put it shortly, is what got us into this mess in the first place.
Space prevents me from discussing the plan's provisions to temporarily suspend capital gains taxes and repeal the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act. But I will note that, in discussing the derring-do of Mr. Hensarling and his hard-core colleagues, the New York Times chose to refer to them as "populists" -- friends of the common people. As an indicator of the confused state of our political discourse, the signals don't flash any brighter than this.
Years ago, conservatives realized that to destroy the legitimacy of your adversary's concepts is to destroy your adversary. Today we are surrounded by the wreckage. Much depends on our success in rebuilding.
noikeee
quote:
Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov
The West Wing was the greatest thing ever put on television. Unfortunately in the midst of filming Season 7, one of the leading actors of the series passed away. He was in large respect the heart of the show, and all of the creative minds behind it determined it was pointless to continue after his death.
So alas, The West Wing is no more, but it remains (and always will be) the greatest television series of all time.
I strongly recommend catching it from the beginning of Season 1 through to the end. It's not all dramatic either - Aaron Sorkin was a master of wit and sarcasm as well.
It's a very well made show, but you need to be really, really into politics to enjoy it that much. I think it's too slow and boring for most people.
Abercrombie
Lebezniatnikov
quote:
Originally posted by noikeee
It's a very well made show, but you need to be really, really into politics to enjoy it that much. I think it's too slow and boring for most people.
:wtf:
Slow and boring? Aaron Sorkin was known for his dynamic writing.
I dunno, I was never into politics before watching The West Wing... there's no way it became the most-watched show on NBC by appealing to an exclusive niche.
