The official Democratic National Convention thread

[WinkWink]

Republicans are really really desperate...and hopeful:

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(CNN) — Joe Biden's off-the-cuff remarks on the trail have at times taken the Obama campaign off-message, but the Delaware senator's latest riff just may have landed him in hot water with voters — and die hard football fans — in a key battleground state.

Speaking to members of the University of Delaware football team Friday morning, the Democratic VP candidate said he thinks the Fightin Blue Hens (1-1 this season) could thrash a certain team from Ohio.

"I was out in Ohio," he said while fiddling with a football in his hands. "I told the folks in Ohio that we'd kick Ohio State's ass!" (It remains unclear if Biden actually ever told Ohio voters this.)

Biden, a proud University of Delaware alum, was clearly trying to rally his Division 1-AA team ahead of their match-up with Furman this weekend, but the comments couldn't have come at a worse time for faithful Buckeye fans who saw their team suffer a 35-3 trouncing at the hands of USC last weekend.

The comments also come as polls show the race in Ohio could hardly be tighter: A CNN poll of polls in the Buckeye state shows Obama holding a slim 1 point lead there. Close enough, presumably, that enough angry OSU fans could just make the difference — at least that's what Republicans are hoping.

The state GOP is already attacking the Democratic ticket over the comments, as well as his comments yesterday suggesting it was patriotic for some wealthier Americans to pay higher taxes.

"As if his comments about it being a patriotic duty for Ohioans to pay higher taxes weren't bad enough, now Biden is taking pot shots at the Buckeyes," GOP State chair Bob Bennett said. "Barack Obama and Joe Biden must really think they can win this election without Ohio, because they're doing their best to lose it with stupid comments like these. Keep talking, Joe."

David Wade, a spokesman for Biden said, “I think this episode explains exactly why we’ll win Ohio: Joe Biden is loyal to his home team, and John McCain is loyal to President Bush."

"We forgive the Republicans on this one, though," he added. "After watching John McCain flip flop on everything from taxes to torture, they’re just mystified by someone who takes a position and sticks with it.”

 

[nugz]

^^^

omg, thats so lame. seriously? that taxes quote was taken sooo out of context. I heard him say that originally. then heard both Palin and McCain take his words out of context yesterday and then this morning a coworker was like "omg, Biden said the dumbest thing yesterday." im like "thats not what he said!!" gahhh. so then I said to this coworker "well uhhh, McCain doesnt know who the leader of Spain is, THAT's dumb." he says "so what? I dont know who the leader of Spain is either." : *sighhhhh*

 

[Cassius]

There's a porno site called Impalin Palin!

 

[WinkWink]

I hate the Green Party, and I especially hate Ralph Nader. Both running. Nader is too much of an asshole to realize the harm he's done to this country buy helping Bush win in 2000. And the Green Party should just endorse Obama since he's the closest thing to a progressive--with a chance of winning. But they have their candidate. A nobody.

Swamp Politics carries a Mark Silva report which says that Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is polling at 1%, Bob Barr at 2%, and Ralph Nader at 4%.

 

[oye terence]

Obama is up by 5 in the latest gallup poll, that could be a sign of something good, but i feel it will go up and down,back and forth for the remaining weeks of the election.
and going by how things played out in the primaries,i think it really has to be a 10 point lead or so going into election day for Obama to win, many times during the primaries he would go into the vote and his poll numbers always seemed to be off by 5 percentage points or so.

 

[Corrissey]

Obama is up by 5 in the latest gallup poll, that could be a sign of something good, but i feel it will go up and down,back and forth for the remaining weeks of the election.
and going by how things played out in the primaries,i think it really has to be a 10 point lead or so going into election day for Obama to win, many times during the primaries he would go into the vote and his poll numbers always seemed to be off by 5 percentage points or so.

5 is good, 10 is better GO O!

 

[Corrissey]

http://www.impalinpalin.com/ ****giggle****

bwuahahahahaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!

 

[Corrissey]

now we know why Mr Buzzetta doesn't 'cum' here so often

*snicker*

For being 'sick of politics' (yes, I know that's another thread), I'm encouraged by all the talk/debates about it on solo. I can only hope others in the real world are there are as passionate about the candidates/election...AND as SMART as we are here (i.e. not voting for Palin cuz she's hot )

 

[Sir Alec]

http://www.orgasmforobama.com/

 

[Sir Alec]

I hate the Green Party, and I especially hate Ralph Nader. Both running. Nader is too much of an asshole to realize the harm he's done to this country buy helping Bush win in 2000. And the Green Party should just endorse Obama since he's the closest thing to a progressive--with a chance of winning. But they have their candidate. A nobody.

I don't think that you can blame Ralph Nader for running as a third party candidate. Not everyone likes the two party system, so they should be allowed other options. I've always supported democrats, but their attacks on Nader seem to be bitter and cruel. Get over it already! Nader didn't lose the election for the dems, it was the democrats themselves. You can't blame a candidate for the votes he or she gets. And before you criticize Nader you should look at all the great things he has done for consumers during his long career.

 

[WinkWink]

I don't think that you can blame Ralph Nader for running as a third party candidate. Not everyone likes the two party system, so they should be allowed other options. I've always supported democrats, but their attacks on Nader seem to be bitter and cruel. Get over it already! Nader didn't lose the election for the dems, it was the democrats themselves. You can't blame a candidate for the votes he or she gets. And before you criticize Nader you should look at all the great things he has done for consumers during his long career.

It's called George Bush.

 

[WinkWink]

sad...


Poll: Lingering racism may hurt Obama
One-third of polled white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks
The Associated Press
updated 11:04 a.m. ET, Sat., Sept. 20, 2008

WASHINGTON - Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them "lazy," "violent" or responsible for their own troubles.

The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 — about two and one-half percentage points.

Certainly, Republican John McCain has his own obstacles: He's an ally of an unpopular president and would be the nation's oldest first-term president. But Obama faces this: 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents.

'Less likely to vote for Obama'
More than a third of all white Democrats and independents — voters Obama can't win the White House without — agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don't have such views.

Such numbers are a harsh dose of reality in a campaign for the history books. Obama, the first black candidate with a serious shot at the presidency, accepted the Democratic nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, a seminal moment for a nation that enshrined slavery in its Constitution.

"There are a lot fewer bigots than there were 50 years ago, but that doesn't mean there's only a few bigots," said Stanford political scientist Paul Sniderman who helped analyze the exhaustive survey.

The pollsters set out to determine why Obama is locked in a close race with McCain even as the political landscape seems to favor Democrats. President Bush's unpopularity, the Iraq war and a national sense of economic hard times cut against GOP candidates, as does that fact that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans.

Issue among Democrats
The findings suggest that Obama's problem is close to home — among his fellow Democrats, particularly non-Hispanic white voters. Just seven in 10 people who call themselves Democrats support Obama, compared to the 85 percent of self-identified Republicans who back McCain.

The survey also focused on the racial attitudes of independent voters because they are likely to decide the election.

Lots of Republicans harbor prejudices, too, but the survey found they weren't voting against Obama because of his race. Most Republicans wouldn't vote for any Democrat for president — white, black or brown.

Not all whites are prejudiced. Indeed, more whites say good things about blacks than say bad things, the poll shows. And many whites who see blacks in a negative light are still willing or even eager to vote for Obama.

On the other side of the racial question, the Illinois Democrat is drawing almost unanimous support from blacks, the poll shows, though that probably wouldn't be enough to counter the negative effect of some whites' views.

Race is not the biggest factor driving Democrats and independents away from Obama. Doubts about his competency loom even larger, the poll indicates. More than a quarter of all Democrats expressed doubt that Obama can bring about the change they want, and they are likely to vote against him because of that.

Three in 10 of those Democrats who don't trust Obama's change-making credentials say they plan to vote for McCain.

Still, the effects of whites' racial views are apparent in the polling.

Statistical models derived from the poll suggest that Obama's support would be as much as 6 percentage points higher if there were no white racial prejudice.

But in an election without precedent, it's hard to know if such models take into account all the possible factors at play.

The AP-Yahoo poll used the unique methodology of Knowledge Networks, a Menlo Park, Calif., firm that interviews people online after randomly selecting and screening them over telephone. Numerous studies have shown that people are more likely to report embarrassing behavior and unpopular opinions when answering questions on a computer rather than talking to a stranger.

Other techniques used in the poll included recording people's responses to black or white faces flashed on a computer screen, asking participants to rate how well certain adjectives apply to blacks, measuring whether people believe blacks' troubles are their own fault, and simply asking people how much they like or dislike blacks.

"We still don't like black people," said John Clouse, 57, reflecting the sentiments of his pals gathered at a coffee shop in Somerset, Ohio.

Word association
Given a choice of several positive and negative adjectives that might describe blacks, 20 percent of all whites said the word "violent" strongly applied. Among other words, 22 percent agreed with "boastful," 29 percent "complaining," 13 percent "lazy" and 11 percent "irresponsible." When asked about positive adjectives, whites were more likely to stay on the fence than give a strongly positive assessment.

Among white Democrats, one-third cited a negative adjective and, of those, 58 percent said they planned to back Obama.

The poll sought to measure latent prejudices among whites by asking about factors contributing to the state of black America. One finding: More than a quarter of white Democrats agree that "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites."

Those who agreed with that statement were much less likely to back Obama than those who didn't.

Among white independents, racial stereotyping is not uncommon. For example, while about 20 percent of independent voters called blacks "intelligent" or "smart," more than one third latched on the adjective "complaining" and 24 percent said blacks were "violent."

Nearly four in 10 white independents agreed that blacks would be better off if they "try harder."

The survey broke ground by incorporating images of black and white faces to measure implicit racial attitudes, or prejudices that are so deeply rooted that people may not realize they have them. That test suggested the incidence of racial prejudice is even higher, with more than half of whites revealing more negative feelings toward blacks than whites.

The Clinton factor
Researchers used mathematical modeling to sort out the relative impact of a huge swath of variables that might have an impact on people's votes — including race, ideology, party identification, the hunger for change and the sentiments of Sen. Hillary Clinton's backers.

Just 59 percent of her white Democratic supporters said they wanted Obama to be president. Nearly 17 percent of Clinton's white backers plan to vote for McCain.

Among white Democrats, Clinton supporters were nearly twice as likely as Obama backers to say at least one negative adjective described blacks well, a finding that suggests many of her supporters in the primaries — particularly whites with high school education or less — were motivated in part by racial attitudes.

The survey of 2,227 adults was conducted Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

[WinkWink]

Very good news. now if only Ohio and/or Florida does the same (not sure about their polls), then Obama is in the White House.

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An average of the latest polls in Michigan shows why the state continues to be a battleground in the fight for the presidency.

A new CNN poll of polls in Michigan, compiled Saturday, suggests Senator Barack Obama has a five point lead over Senator John McCain, 47 percent to 42 percent, with 11 percent of voters undecided.

Seventeen electoral votes are up for grabs in Michigan.

It seems the current financial crisis from Wall Street to Main Street will be a major factor in Michigan.

"The struggling economy could be Obama's trump card," noted CNN Senior Political Researcher Alan Silverleib. "Obama is doing slightly better in our Michigan poll of polls than in our national poll of polls in large part because Michigan is ground zero when it comes to the country's current economic hardship. The unsettling news from Wall Street over the last few days should play to Obama's advantage, especially in the Rust Belt."

Michigan's voted for the Democratic candidate in the last four presidential elections, but it was quite close last time around, with Senator John Kerry beating President Bush there by just three points.

The latest CNN poll of polls is an average of the three most recent surveys in Michigan. They are a Big Ten Batttleground poll conducted September 14-17, an EPIC/MRA survey taken on the same days, and a Marist poll conducted September 16-17.

 

[WinkWink]

Time for the daily Gallup update. And notice that despite McCain releasing his economic plan a couple of days ago, it did not help him:

 

[oye terence]

Time for the daily Gallup update. And notice that despite McCain releasing his economic plan a couple of days ago, it did not help him:

that is good, but i really do think he has to be at least 9 or t10 points up in the national to win, remember in all the primaries, his numbers would always be off.

 

[nugz]

in response to the racism article Wink posted:

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

By Tim Wise (ZSpace: Sep 13, 2008)

"For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "f___in' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their f___in' a**," and talk about how you like to "shoot sh**" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all p**s on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates
America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem."

 

[dothewatusi]

in response to the racism article Wink posted:

Whoa, reading this makes you stop and think...and catch your breath. Thanks, nugz.

 

[nugz]

Whoa, reading this makes you stop and think...and catch your breath. Thanks, nugz.

oh you're very welcome. it does make you stop and think. it's so true it's depressing.

edit: just wanted to point out that I told my mom about Bristol Palin's b/fs myspace, and what it said. she said she hadnt heard about it. exactly. cuz the mainstream media doesnt cover things like that. like that article said, if the kid was black Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly would be having a field day with it. thats why i call BULLSHIT on the fact that the mainstream media is in favor of Obama or "liberal."

 

[this_tired_heart]

I hate the Green Party, and I especially hate Ralph Nader. Both running. Nader is too much of an asshole to realize the harm he's done to this country buy helping Bush win in 2000. And the Green Party should just endorse Obama since he's the closest thing to a progressive--with a chance of winning. But they have their candidate. A nobody.

Nader responds:

 

[Jane Birkin]

Have you seen this?
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