News What are the Key Factors for Victory in the 2008 Presidential Election?

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The discussion centers on the electoral significance of Hispanic and Black voters in the upcoming Obama-McCain election, highlighting that New Mexico's 5 electoral votes may not be pivotal despite its Hispanic population. Eligible Hispanic voters total approximately 17 million, while Black voters are around 24 million, compared to 151 million White voters, indicating a demographic imbalance. Concerns are raised about the potential impact of a Hispanic vice-presidential candidate for Obama, with opinions divided on whether it would significantly sway Hispanic votes. The conversation also touches on the importance of the vice-presidential picks for both candidates, especially considering McCain's age and the historical context of racial tensions surrounding Obama. Overall, the thread emphasizes the need for informed discussions about voter demographics and electoral strategies as the election approaches.

Who will win the General Election?

  • Obama by over 15 Electoral Votes

    Votes: 16 50.0%

  • Obama by under 15 Electoral Votes

    Votes: 6 18.8%

  • McCain by over 15 Electoral Votes

    Votes: 4 12.5%

  • McCain by under 15 Electoral Votes

    Votes: 6 18.8%
  • Total voters
    32
  • #1,081
LowlyPion said:
As a kid I used to eat it. My Grandfather had a place at Kemah. Haven't had it much recently, so I guess that would be why then, eh?
LP, your grandfather was a fisherman (snapper), restauranteur, retailer, or just happened to live there. Evo's lived not too far from Kemah.

I used to go there on occasion.
 
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  • #1,082
Who Are The Undecided Voters?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96403104
. . . .
When voters are asked by pollsters why they remain undecided, their answers typically put them into three categories, Kohut says: the conflicted voters who feel torn between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama; the disengaged voters who have not been paying attention to the campaign; and the nonvoters.

"There's some real reason for these people to not being able to make up their mind," Kohut says, "in addition to the fact there's a component of them who are disengaged, who probably won't vote."

Among the undecided voters interviewed, some say they worry about Obama's qualifications or his ability to fix the economy, Kohut says; some say they have doubts about McCain's health care policy.

In the end, Kohut says, Pew's analysis shows that undecided voters are going to divide up fairly evenly — although they may be slightly more supportive of McCain than voters who have already made up their minds.
 
  • #1,083
Brain Trust: Who Will Advise The Next President?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96347446

. . . .
In broad stroke, the Herculean issues include a swerving economy, two wars and rumors of more out-of-control health care costs and a warming globe.

"I can't think of any other president who came into office with these multiple crises," says Joan Hoff, a former executive director of the Center for the Study of the Presidency. "Next year will be the messiest inheritance I can think of for any president who was elected and did not come into office accidentally."

Hoff, author of Nixon Reconsidered, says the present administration "has created problems that cannot be resolved easily, if at all, in four years. And so whoever is elected may be perceived to be a failure. All new presidents have to clean up a few things, but nothing like this."

What will the transition team look like? Will it be young or old? Open or guarded? And who will be in the brain trust that the new president assembles to help sort out all the sordid details? McCain, who calls everyone "my friend," is likely to rely on tried-and-true buddies. Obama may cast a wider net.

"If you're going to have a successful transition," says presidential historian Allan J. Lichtman, "the most important thing is to muster the brainpower needed to set policy and implement it." He adds that a new president must also summon an advisory group with seasoned experience and youthful exuberance.

. . . .
Something to think about.

I've noticed a lot of 'experts' and 'politicos' from various institutions writing memos and advice columns to the next president.

For example, Madeleine Albright's 'Memo To The President'
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95941657
Chapter 1: A mandate to lead

memorandum (personal and confidential)
To: The President Elect
From: Madeleine K. Albright
Date: Election Night, 2008

Congratulations on your success. Well done! You have won a great victory. But with that victory comes the responsibility to lead a divided nation in a world riven by conflict and inequity, wounded by hate, bewildered by change, and made anxious by the renewed specter of nuclear Armageddon.

In days to come, leaders you've never heard of, from countries you can barely locate, will assure you of their friendship and offer you assistance. My advice is to accept, for you will need help.

We Americans like to think of ourselves as exemplars of generosity and virtue, but to many people in many places, we are selfish, imperious, and violent. The voters will want you to transform this perception while also protecting us, defeating our enemies, and securing our economic future — in other words, to do as promised during your campaign.

The president of the United States has been compared to the ruler of the universe, a helmsman on a great sailing ship, the Mikado's Grand Poo-bah, a lonely figure immersed in "splendid misery" (Jefferson's description), and "the personal embodiment [of the] ... dignity and majesty of the American people" (William Howard Taft's).

Students of the office have identified an array of presidential roles: commander in chief, master diplomat, national spokesperson, head administrator, top legislator, party leader, patron of the arts, congratulator of athletic teams, and surrogate parent. Your political advisors will want you to focus on activities that will keep your poll numbers high and get you reelected. I urge you to concentrate on duties that will restore our country's reputation and keep us safe.

On January 20, 2009, you will place your hand on the Bible and, prompted by Chief Justice Roberts, swear in front of three hundred million Americans and six billion people worldwide to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Following George Washington's example, you will add a heartfelt "so help me God." The oath completed, you will become the world's most powerful person. It will no longer be happenstance when you enter a room and the band strikes up "Hail to the Chief." You have attained our nation's highest office; the question, not yet answered, is whether you have what it takes to excel in the job.

. . . .
Someone will need to send McCain a map. He recently made a comment about nations we have not discovered! Someone should inform him that we know all the nations and exactly where they are. Well - those of use who have not been disengaged for a lengthy period do. :rolleyes:


'This American Moment' As Peggy Noonan Sees It
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95243137
 
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  • #1,084
  • #1,085
Evo said:
Can you find another link to the video? Huffington Post is a one sided blog, therefor I can't allow links to the site. The video is fine though. I will let the link stay up for a bit, hopefully someone will find the direct link to the clip.

The link is only through Brightcove.com which doesn't allow for direct linking.

I considered that the HuffingtonPost was a biased site, but on the other hand this is merely a compilation of third party sourced material and is not the usual hyperbolics that can sometimes be found sourced from there.

I think a blanket rejection of anything from Huffington doesn't allow sufficient latitude and open-mindedness for some material that is sufficiently already mainstream.

For instance would a story about North Texas aftershocks be automatically censored because it wasn't reported elsewhere like AP first?

Would we not investigate x-ray emission from ripping masking tape if we only read about it in Pravda?
 
  • #1,086
There are a lot of progressives and liberals contributing to Huffington Post, but there are conservatives posting there, too, including (just yesterday, and still up) an anti-Obama diatribe by Lynn Forester de Rothschild. For those not in the know, she supported Hillary Clinton (and was a prolific fund-raiser) until Obama won the nomination. Then she jumped on the McCain bandwagon. As a billionaire, she takes exception to Obama's tax proposal, saying he will create new taxes to enlarge the country's welfare system.

It's possible to find a range of views on Huffington Post - like any source of political opinion, you just have to filter through the identities and biases of the authors. Plus, many Huffington stories are direct links to the New York Times, Washington Post, New York Post, etc, or video links to the major TV channels, including FOX news.
 
  • #1,087
  • #1,088
LowlyPion said:
I considered that the HuffingtonPost was a biased site, but on the other hand this is merely a compilation of third party sourced material and is not the usual hyperbolics that can sometimes be found sourced from there.
Which is why you aren't banned. :-p

I think a blanket rejection of anything from Huffington doesn't allow sufficient latitude and open-mindedness for some material that is sufficiently already mainstream.
I agree, many of the posts "by themselves" are ok. But all around the post are posts that are extremely biased and the uncensored blog and flaming isn't something we want to link to.

Unfortunately in order to have guidelines as to what is "over the top" or completely unacceptable, a line had to be drawn in the sand. If I allowed a link to a purely right wing blog that had an ok article but was surrounded by extremely slanted and rather nasty comments, that wouldn't be right either. To keep crackpot nonsense, conspiracy theories, and hate mongering from sneaking into the forum through links, I have to have the same rule for all sides.

As the Huffington Post becomes less one sided and filters some of the garbage posted by "commentors", I could see it becoming acceptable. It's not quite there yet.
 
  • #1,089
Evo said:
As the Huffington Post becomes less one sided and filters some of the garbage posted by "commentors", I could see it becoming acceptable. It's not quite there yet.

OK. I admit I never read down to the comments there. Speaking as someone reticent to express my own opinions absent foundation, in the off chance that I should even express them in the first place, I wouldn't want to see much seepage from ill thought out or unsubstantiated rhetoric.

In that spirit then I have removed the post, despite the spirit of good will with which I originally thought to share it here for its entertainment value.
 
  • #1,090
LowlyPion said:
OK. I admit I never read down to the comments there. Speaking as someone reticent to express my own opinions absent foundation, in the off chance that I should even express them in the first place, I wouldn't want to see much seepage from ill thought out or unsubstantiated rhetoric.

In that spirit then I have removed the post, despite the spirit of good will with which I originally thought to share it here for its entertainment value.
Those comments weren't bad at all on that page. I've read some that singed my nose hairs though.
 
  • #1,091
Ivan Seeking said:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/04/Dr_Pepper_types.jpg/800px-

Thanks, Ivan. I don't think I have ever seen that DP can.
 
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  • #1,092
Math Is Hard said:
Thanks, Ivan. I don't think I have ever seen that DP can.

It used to be on the bottles.

Also there is a poker variant called Dr. Pepper where the 10's, 2's and 4's are wild. (Hint: If you're just drawing to an unsuited straight - fold.)
 
  • #1,094
Apparently, Cheney didn't get the memo.

 
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  • #1,095
turbo-1 said:
Apparently, Cheney didn't get the memo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NyjxJTWWTQ

I guess the old Ventriloquist in Chief just couldn't help himself. Like he thinks that anyone could give a wet whistle to what he endorses after 8 years of leading the country to the precipice and now lending his shoulder still to push it over the edge.
 
  • #1,096
LowlyPion said:
the old Ventriloquist in Chief

:smile::smile::smile::smile::smile: Did you come up with that one? That is a classic!
 
  • #1,097
Astronuc said:
All you need now is a rotating spiral. :biggrin:

Like this?

http://home.earthlink.net/~jparvey/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/hypno2.gif
 
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  • #1,098
Ivan Seeking said:
:smile::smile::smile::smile::smile: Did you come up with that one? That is a classic!

I suppose so. I did a search for it just now and there are 5 Google references, but they are none of them a site I've visited.

I guess it's a case of spontaneous parallel invention.
 
  • #1,099
Janus said:
Like this?

http://home.earthlink.net/~jparvey/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/hypno2.gif


Darn! I tried it, but I guess images won't work in signatures.
 
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  • #1,100
If Elizabeth Dole loses in NC, this will be the first time in fifty years that we haven't had a Bush or Dole in office.
 
  • #1,101
Why does McCain keep pulling this stuff?
McCain says he has always had faith in his country

By BETH FOUHY
Associated Press Writer
SPRINGFIELD, Va. (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Saturday criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama's comment that his victory in Iowa's caucuses last winter had "vindicated" his faith in the American people.

"My country has never had to prove anything to me, my friends," McCain said while campaigning in the Washington suburbs in northern Virginia. "I've always had faith in it and I've been humbled and honored to serve it."

McCain was referring to a remark Obama made at a campaign stop in Des Moines on Friday. "My faith in the American people was vindicated and what you started here in Iowa swept the nation," Obama said.

In response to McCain's remarks, the Obama campaign called the criticism "pathetic" as well as a distortion aimed at attacking the Democrat's patriotism.

"Sadly, this is what we've come to expect from a desperate, dishonorable campaign that will say anything in a failed attempt to win this election," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MCCAIN?SITE=ALMON&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
 
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  • #1,102
McCain had a rally yesterday in Desert Storm Park, Phoenix, AZ. Somehow in his home state, in the 5th largest city in the US, he only got about 200 attendees, and about a quarter of those were journalists. He should have bused in a few thousand school-kids.
 
  • #1,103
There will be a MAJORITY dem. congress and a dem. senate.
They will put the campaign promisses on the back burner as they try to deal with reality.
It does not matter who gets in. Majority rules.
 
  • #1,104
turbo-1 said:
McCain had a rally yesterday in Desert Storm Park, Phoenix, AZ. Somehow in his home state, in the 5th largest city in the US, he only got about 200 attendees, and about a quarter of those were journalists. He should have bused in a few thousand school-kids.

My girlfriend goes to Univ. Missouri, Columbia. Columbia has a population of about 150,000. The Obama rally there on Thursday drew between 35,000 and 40,000 people. It is a college town, but nearly a third of a city's population is an impressive figure to draw to a rally.
 
  • #1,105
Can I get a clarification on Socialism?
Is Palin a socialist for taking money from the oil companies and giving it to the people of Alaska?
As a bonus, a residential address in Alaska would entitle you to no state income tax
because the state gets all of financial needs from taxing the oil companies.
Is Palin a socialist for advocation raising the child care benefit? She would have to take the money from a few and give it to all.

Is Palin a socialist for advocating giving the right of parent of special needs kids to choose the school of their choosing and funded by the gov.
Would not the needs of those kids require that their parents be subsidized
to be able to live near their child?
If I was living in Alaska I would want to have my kid go to a school in Cal. so that I could get away from the cold winters.

I assume that all of those programs would require a bigger gov. to be able to administer all those programs.

Isn't capitalism sink or swim on your own?
The USA cannot have socialist programs like Europe, Canada, etc. because it would destroy the capitalist spirit of americans. hummmm!

Is the pot blacker than the kettle?
 
  • #1,106
jal said:
Can I get a clarification on Socialism?
Is Palin a socialist for taking money from the oil companies and giving it to the people of Alaska?

No. She is a Patriot. An Alaskan Patriot.
It's free enterprise.
She's merely charging a toll to remove resources from their state.
(Never you mind that those resources are no more the state's than the state seems to think that it is not belonging to those that discovered them.)

Isn't it clever the way she has managed to balance their budget?
 
  • #1,107
(Never you mind that those resources are no more the state's than the state seems to think that it is not belonging to those that discovered them.)

Mineral rights belong first to the nation, or to the state if the federal government transferred or assigned those rights explicity, or to individuals who own the land if those rights are transferred to the individual by the federal government or state. One has to pay careful attention to the deed of the property one is buying. If the original deed does not contain mineral rights, or if a successive deed transfers or reassigns the mineral rights, then one does not have ownership of the minerals under one's land. It as simple as that.

West of the Mississippi River, most of the mineral rights were retained by the US government, to be later assigned to whomever expressed interest in developing the minerals. Most people probably are not aware of that - but that is why oil and gas, or minerals exploration companies can come onto one's land to drill or mine, and one has little recourse to prevent that.


BTW - in the US, it's only socialism if the other guy is doing it. :biggrin:
 
  • #1,108
Astronuc said:
Mineral rights belong first to the nation, ...

Only because they make the laws. They are no more one person's than the other.

They are on the planet.

And we are here.

That's about as far as I would concede.

(Where's my copy of the Communist Manifesto again? ...hmmm)
 
  • #1,109
jal said:
Can I get a clarification on Socialism?
Is Palin a socialist for taking money from the oil companies and giving it to the people of Alaska?

Isn't capitalism sink or swim on your own?

Is the pot blacker than the kettle?

Silly foreigners...

Socialist and Communist are now used as curse words in America, based upon the difference in tax hikes/cuts on various economic demographics proposed by the heretofore non-mentioned opponent, and have no relation to their original meanings.

Examples:

Communist: One who would impose an annual wealth tax of 0.25% on those worth more than $100,000,000
Socialist: One who would raise the taxes on those that make more than $250,000 by 2%
Right-wing neo-fascist conservative: One who would impose a flat tax and sales tax on everyone

You see?

We don't use the word capitalist except in a good way.
For most everyone is one. And I don't just mean Americans.
For instance, we generally never call someone a stinkin capitalist pinko.

That would be like my mother calling me a "Stupid little SOB".
 
  • #1,110
No other state governor has succeeded in nationalising (killing the capitalist drive) as much as Palin.
Are there any Republican readers that would like to correct Palin's record?
 

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