marceline

Is it "Trot Out Crazy Clergy Time" again already? Should I post the numerous videos of Catholic priests saying that voting for Obama means eternal damnation? Or should I stick with the classics of Bryan Fischer, Pat Robertson and John Hagee? Yes, but there's also that de rigeur mention of Benghazi so I give points for keeping it fresh and sticking to the script.

I hope he doesn't. I haven't seen any additional benefits to him for signing up with NYTimes. Frankly I think the Times uses FiveThrityEight as a way of luring people over the paywall.

The more I see about the thinking of the American populace, the more comfortable I am in saying that they simply don't think that deeply. I've seen some of the most asinine, flawed, primitive thinking when it comes to this election. "Obama didn't fix the economy in three years." (How on earth was anybody supposed to fix the economy in three years? Even if the Congress had cooperated?) Obama didn't bring about hope and change. (Please articulate to me specifically what you thought "hope and change" would look like. Because if you can't describe it don't blame the man for not doing it.) And my favorite, “I’m tired of the Republicans blaming all the debt on Democrats, so let them take over and see what they do.” (Yes. Someone actually said that. What the [!@#$%^&*]?!) I've seen people complaining that the power isn't back on in NYC and NJ. Who in their right mind thinks you can recover from a hurricane in three days?! We've genuinely become a country of thoughtless, simple-minded infants with absolutely no understanding of the process it takes to get anything accomplished. That's why we have birthers and truthers and people who think the BLS cooked the books last month. As a culture we've completely lost the skill of critical thinking. And don't get me started on undecided voters.

The truth is that for better or worse the American people don't really care about Libya. No matter how much Fox tries to talk about it nobody cares. We can have a debate about whether that's a good or bad thing but the reality is that Americans don't really care about foreign affairs. What's ironic is that the same people shouting about Libya were the ones previously saying that the economy is the most important issue. Americans don't care about what happens abroad unless it affects the economy, like China. Americans have been dying overseas for more than a decade and not only did the GOP not care, they blocked efforts to help our veterans. Their outrage over Libya is impossible to take seriously and for them to still be trying to make that an issue when half the Eastern seaboard just got hit with a hurricane makes them look like the desperate, tone-deaf haters they are. Do you think someone worried about friends or family in New Jersey gives the tiniest damn about Hannity's faux outrage? Part of me is kind of glad they keep beating that drum. It makes them that much easier to ignore.

You know that you're doing something right when the right wing questions your sexual orientation.

You're missing my point. Even if a polling firm is correct, that doesn't change the fact that they can't have INDIVIDUAL POLLS that are flawed. That's true whether the poll is about the presidential election or what type of soda is most popular. If the only firm you trust is Gallup, so be it, but even Gallup is vulnerable to outlier results. That's not political, it's statistical. I'm going to stick with Nate Silver. He's looking at all the polls and not cherry picking. There have been plenty of times in the last few months he's said something that didn't make me feel good but I respect and trust his commitment to the data. It doesn't make sense to choose Gallup (one polling firm) over FiveThirtyEight which runs close to 40,000 simulations a day based on multiple polls including the very ones you cite.

Lord knows I would never try to speak for Vee. Really. Never. But, I think it's important to remember that the term "outlier" traditionally doesn't refer to POLLSTERS it refers to specific POLLS. Gallup and Rassmussen may be "the two most experienced and established pollsters." (Although I contest that description for Rasmussen.) but that doesn't mean that they aren't capable of having the occasional flawed poll for whatever reason: sampling error, poorly written questions, technical/geographic issues, etc... No pollster is immune to outliers. I just stick with Nate Silver when it comes to crunching polls. He's a slave to the numbers and nothing else. Dude's practically a Vulcan.

That ad was a BIG mistake on his part because it forced the CEO of Chrysler to publicly refute it. Not a good turn of events for someone who touts himself as business friendly. There is nothing Romney can do to win on the subject of the auto bailout. Not here in Ohio. NOTHING. It's a serious mis-calculation for him to keep trying because it keeps that subject in the spotlight. It's like him standing in the middle of town screaming, "Hey moderates and independents! Let me show you just how much I suck." I'll be honest. I haven't seen it on TV here in Cleveland. I'm not sure where his ad buy for that was. I see superPAC ads going after Obama and a flurry of ads for local races but not much from the official Romney Campaign anymore.

Pretty much. Between the advertising and the increased ad views, the media has every reason to want to keep the horse race narrative up to the very last second. That doesn't mean that the race isn't close but it explains why they do things like report on one poll at a time no matter how much of an outlier. Because the "We have new numbers on the election!" angle is financially good for them.

I've never needed an ID to get prescription drugs so I can't address that. Perhaps someone else can. As for withdrawing money, does Sweden not have ATMs/bank machines? (Honest question) because that's how i withdraw cash. The only thing I've had to show my ID for in years was to buy alcohol and that's only because certain stores require their clerks to ask for ID whenever someone purchases booze. They made that decision long before 2008. Nixon garnered 36 percent of the black vote. Romney polled at 0. The GOP chose to stick with the Southern Strategy because they thought white men would always be the most powerful group. Now that decision has cost them.

Alicia who? I kid! I kid! Good for her.

There have been plenty of stories of elderly people not having their ID and the cost involved in getting that ID. The bottom line is that there is no voter fraud so the voter ID laws are pointless bureaucracy designed to keep Democratic voters (minorities, the elderly, the poor and students) from the polls and there are plenty of stories of people in all those groups being disenfranchised. Of course it's easier to say "well that's wrong but if only black people were perfect then it wouldn't matter." I see this reasoning used on women all the time. "Yeah it's unpleasant for a political candidate to say some girls are easy to rape. But isn't it true? Not us of course but those other lesser women who make bad decisions. They make the rest of us look so bad."

I disagree. These remarks come from the "angry white men" that the GOP tries to cultivate. These are the people who look at the very near future and see themselves becoming the minority which makes them utterly and completely hysterical. Sununu plays the "all blacks stick together" card because it taps into the fear of these white men that they will be treated the same way they have treated racial minorities, women and LGBT people. Sununu deriding Colin Powell was the same as the way Bryan Fischer campaigned for Mitt Romney to fire his gay staffer (whose name escapes me at the moment). It's the same message: don't let the blanks get power because if they do they will discriminate against you. It's an epic form of projection.

Exactly. It's just the modern version of the Southern Strategy. "Black people are bad. They'll always stick together. You don't want them in power." What's amazing is that the same people who claim Powell only endorsed Obama because of race will then turn around and berate black voters for not supporting Herman Cain, Allen West or Artur Davis. All these people care about is hating on black voters who look out for their own interests.

It all comes back to the fact that for all the talk of a liberal media, the truth is that the media is owned by corporations who want Romney to win. I feel like Nate Silver needs to go into hiding after the election.

Can you point me to the source saying that Romney might be pulling out of Ohio because I'd love to see that in writing. From what I can see here on the ground, Romney has approximately 40 campaign offices here while Obama has at least twice that. Obama's last rally here on Thursday pulled about 4,000 people. Romney's rallies are pulling hundreds BUT Romney's strategy seems to be to do his events in the rural-ishparts of the state between the urban areas of Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo and to do private events for big donors which doesn't surprise me. However I am surprised to see that he's not trying harder in Cincinnati. That's John Boehner territory and politically is closer to Kentucky and West Virginia. All of this is obviously just my impression but I just thought I'd share. It looks like we may be getting a real October Surprise in the form of Hurricane Sandy. It will screw with the news cycle and turnout.

I can't think of a group more pathetic than the Log Cabin Republicans.

While Sarah Palin remains notably silent. When it was Rahm Emanuel she couldn't be outraged fast enough.

That didn't exactly work out so well for John McCain did it?

It does seem like the Romney/Ryan campaign has lost faith in Paul Ryan. When he got picked we kept hearing how he was going to be some game-changing rock star. Now he basically treated like the boyfriend you bring to your friend's wedding only because you haven't officially broken-up with him and people expect him to be your plus one.

My problem with the Akins and the Mourdocks and the Ryans and the Santorums isn't just their opinion on abortion but it's their trivialization of rape. Is it any wonder that so many rapes go unreported when you have people running for office who basically think rape is just sex? That's what all of this comes back to: they don't see rape as violence or an assault, it's just inconvenient sex and the baby is some sort of prize. They claim to be law and order types on every crime except rape then they seem singularly devoted to making sure every rapist gets to be a father. It's demented. All the time and energy trying to reclassify rape makes me wonder exactly how many women these men have abused in their past.

Cue the crazy racism. Soon they'll be claiming Powell was born in Kenya too.

Mussolini is to the left of the mainstream Republican party

What's tiresome for me is for people who didn't believe in "hope and change" and actively worked against it to be acting like they're all butthurt because it didn't happen. Spare me. Just once I'd like to see the people complaining about how hope and change didn't happen, to list specifically what they thought that meant. Because all I see are people looking at Obama and saying, "Waaahhh! I'm pissed off because I voted for you and I'm still ME!" assuming any of the people bitching actually did vote for Obama.

I'm glad we're getting them too except I fear for their safety. We already have election officials threatening them. http://www.forbes.co...their-distance/ These people are now moving into full-blown fascism.