It's time for a New Election Thread

[austrya]

We have a really conservative deacon at our church and although he is very pro-life and his homilies are often about abortion, abstinence, and other moral issues, he even says you have to look at the whole picture. I'm pretty sure he's a republican anyways.

[Sir Stewart]

The whole Joe put his foot in his mouth is really not accurate. Staunch republican and McCain supporter Joe Lieberman said the same thing not too long ago. Of course he was saying it in terms of mccain being better able to handle the test, but the same thing has been said on both sides fo the line.

 

Did Huckleberry Joe really say something like this?:

[Spawn's dad]

We have a really conservative deacon at our church and although he is very pro-life and his homilies are often about abortion, abstinence, and other moral issues, he even says you have to look at the whole picture. I'm pretty sure he's a republican anyways.

 

 

Don't sweat it. There's no god so the joke is going to be on him.

[ih8music]

Someone asked recently why Obama isn't running away with the election.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4wQfQtpDAc

 

I kept waiting for the laugh track to kick in, or for Amy Poehler to appear... but no, this woman is authentic.

[John Smith]

Joe said it in the context of spreading fear

[jff]

It is amazing to me; so many people have been swayed by this one issue and their candidate has been helpless to deliver the goods (thankfully in my eyes).

 

Most politicians on the right would prefer that the status of abortion rights remain unchanged so that it can be used as a wedge issue in as many election cycles as possible.

 

Same with gay marriage, although that issue has mostly been ignored this year.

[quarter23cd]

You must be from the Communist section of VA.

Sometimes I long for my childhood days in Fake Virginia!

[MattZ]

I dont see what the big deal is about Biden's quote.

[kwall]

Don't sweat it. There's no god so the joke is going to be on him.

[watch me fall]

Someone asked recently why Obama isn't running away with the election.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4wQfQtpDAc

 

I kept waiting for the laugh track to kick in, or for Amy Poehler to appear... but no, this woman is authentic.

 

Half the people in my state agree with her.

[Sir Stewart]

I dont see what the big deal is about Biden's quote.

 

"And the kind of help he

[Winston Legthigh]

I dont see what the big deal is about Biden's quote.

I think it's supposed to play like: someone actually listening to Biden will have an epiphany and shout "By Gum, he's right!" and then will be afraid to vote for Obama because of his inexperience.

[kwall]

I dont see what the big deal is about Biden's quote.

"And he's going to need help . . . to stand with him. Because it's not going to be apparent initially; it's not going to be apparent that we're right."

 

what does this mean, exactly?

[MattZ]

The bolded is what bugs me - wtf is he talking about, exactly? It comes across as though he's talking about something specific that maybe he didn't mean to get into.

 

I have no idea what he's talking about, but I dont think it's a stretch to say that a president will be challenged early and often. I took the quote to mean that we can't possibly know the what or the when, but that we know there will be something. It struck me more as the standard plain vanilla call for bi-partisanship cliche.

 

This country is so polarized that anything that Obama does as president could play as not being "right" to half the country. And he wants people to come together to support the president.

 

Maybe I am misreading it. Has certainly happened before.

[Analogman]

McCain reminds Biden he's been tested in crisis

 

By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer Glen Johnson, Associated Press Writer

 

HARRISBURG, Pa.

[MattZ]

"And he's going to need help . . . to stand with him. Because it's not going to be apparent initially; it's not going to be apparent that we're right."

 

what does this mean, exactly?

 

If you assume for a minute that a portion of this country hates Obama or thinks he's a terrorist sympathizer or Muslim, or whatever... I think his point is that we need to come together. Obama will be forced (perhaps) to respond in ways that some people won't like. But that we need to stand together as a country. That's how I took it.

 

Also, not sure if anyone else saw this.

 

From the NYPost:

 

BENSALEM, PA.

[Sir Stewart]

McCain should really not be reminding people he was in active service when most potential voters probably weren't even born.

[Analogman]

McCain should really not be reminding people he was in active service when most potential voters probably weren't even born.

 

That was my first thought.

[John Smith]

Most politicians on the right would prefer that the status of abortion rights remain unchanged so that it can be used as a wedge issue in as many election cycles as possible.

 

Same with gay marriage, although that issue has mostly been ignored this year.

 

I've been saying this for twenty years now and the last eight have borne this notion out more than at any other period in time. Those people runing our government during this adminsitration have been able to get all sorts of unsavory laws passed through congress, and what they did not get through congress they managed to circumvent via presidential order or signing statement, yet not one attempt was made on abortion by this adminsitration or the republican congresses who eagerly dry humped Bush and his whims. They made no efforts, none, and that right there shoudl tell the anti-choice anti-privacy crowd something.

 

McCain should really not be reminding people he was in active service when most potential voters probably weren't even born.

 

McCain is also confusing being a trigger puller with being a decision maker. He did not make the decision to be ready tobomb cuba, he was following orders, he had no choice. Of course the masses will generally not be able to make that distinction, or maybe they will not care.

[mfwahl]

During the ALCS, Palin compared their ticket to the Rays when in Florida and the Sox when in New England. Saying they were both underdogs. so whatevs. At least Obama repeated his love for the White Sox before making any of these localisms.

 

It was pretty cool down here yesterday, Obama was joined on stage by 6 Rays. He was introduced by rookie David Price and Fernando Perez. Also present were Carl Crawford, Cliff Floyd, Edwin Jackson, and Jonny Gomes (gotta have one white guy i guess).

[Party @ the Moontower]

If I could, I'd buy all you Obama supporters this for Christmas.

 

I'll Pm you my address. Thanks!

[Sir Stewart]

McCain is also confusing being a trigger puller with being a decision maker. He did not make the decision to be ready tobomb cuba, he was following orders, he had no choice. Of course the masses will generally not be able to make that distinction, or maybe they will not care.

Good point.

[Analogman]

Obama, McCain Battle for Florida as Hispanics Warm to Democrats

 

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- In Little Havana, once the heart of Miami's Cuban exile community and a reliable bloc of Republican voters, it's easy to see the changing face of Florida's Hispanic population.

 

At storefronts that wire money, newer immigrants line up to send cash to Guatemala and Honduras. At Miami food kiosks, Colombian and Venezuelan arepa corn patties are as popular as Cuban pork sandwiches.

 

The Hispanic vote in Florida -- the fourth-largest U.S. state with 27 electoral votes -- is one of the biggest prizes in the presidential contest. In past elections, these voters, dominated by Cuban-Americans, have usually backed Republicans; this year, they may not. For the first time, Cubans no longer are the majority of Hispanics in the state, and some younger and less well-off members of the community are more likely to consider voting Democratic than their elders.

 

That spells trouble for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who is lagging in overall state polls and who needs to capture Florida to win the White House.

 

`Economic Issues'

 

``What we're seeing is the domination of economic issues leading'' Hispanics to vote more Democratic this year, said Dario Moreno, director of the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University in Miami. ``The question is: Is the economy bad enough, is Obama different enough and compelling enough of a candidate to get these newly registered people to vote for him.''

 

Hispanic voters are 12 percent of Florida's electorate, and for the first time since the state started reporting registration by race or ethnicity, Democrats now outnumber Republicans among them by almost 68,000 registered voters, according to figures released Oct. 19 by Florida's secretary of state. Almost one in three Florida Hispanics aren't registered with either major party.

 

Four years ago, President George W. Bush won Florida's Hispanic vote 56 percent to 44 percent, helping him to carry the state.

 

This year, several recent polls show the Hispanic vote in Florida in a statistical tie, with a slight advantage for McCain, according Steven Ochoa, vice president of research at the William C. Velasquez Institute, a Los Angeles-based Hispanic public policy organization. An Oct. 5 Mason-Dixon Poll, for example, had McCain leading Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama 49 to 44 percent among Florida Hispanics, within the margin of error.

 

Obama Advantage

 

Mexican-Americans in California, Texas and New Mexico and Puerto Ricans in New York largely vote Democratic, and surveys, including a Zogby Poll released yesterday, show Hispanics nationwide favor Obama by a 2-to-1 margin. Florida has always been an anomaly.

 

Yet the state is changing. At a Dominican barber shop in Miami's working-class Allapattah neighborhood, posters of Obama emblazoned with ``Cambio'' -- ``Change'' -- adorn the window. The manager, Michael Avila, 33, said he identifies with the Illinois senator because ``he comes from a single-parent family, he had to work hard, he's multiracial like many Dominicans.''

 

Avila said he hasn't voted in the past, though he will this year because ``the economy is a mess.''

 

Many of Florida's Hispanics remain conservatives, however. They include longtime Cuban exiles, evangelical Christians, entrepreneurs who fled leftist governments in Venezuela and Nicaragua or Marxist guerrilla movements in Colombia and Peru. Many are turned off by Obama's stated willingness to talk to Cuban leaders Fidel and Raul Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. They also don't like the Democrat's opposition to Latin American free-trade deals.

 

McCain's Appeal

 

Arizona Senator McCain, who bucked his party by pushing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, has impressed many Florida Hispanics. In June, he visited Colombia and Mexico to show his support for free trade and cooperation against drug trafficking. Obama, 47, hasn't visited Latin America since becoming a politician.

 

``John McCain at great political risk tried to achieve comprehensive immigration reform,'' said Hessy Fernandez, McCain's national Hispanic media spokeswoman. ``Where was Barack Obama?''

 

Among elderly Cuban exiles, the group that most strongly supports McCain, 72, there is palpable vitriol against Obama.

 

`Communist'

 

``I have to fight the communist who is Obama,'' said Odelia Montesinos, 79, a retired office worker who fled Castro's Cuba when she was 32, and now volunteers at McCain headquarters in Miami.

 

Republicans are confident that Cuban-Americans, still at least 40 percent of registered Hispanics in the state, will vote in far higher numbers than the new Democrats.

 

``The real issue is turnout, and the Republicans turn out more than Democrats in Florida,'' said Katie Gordon, press secretary for the Florida Republican Party.

 

She said she wasn't worried about Obama's gains in Florida because registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the last few elections in the state, yet ``we've elected President Bush twice, Governor Jeb Bush twice and Governor Charlie Crist,'' she said. Republicans hold the majority in the state House and Senate.

 

Still, even in the Cuban community that provided the winning edge for Republicans in the past, that support is slipping.

 

Ruben Granda, a former Republican from Little Havana, was born in Miami after his parents fled Cuba. He voted twice for Ronald Reagan and twice for George H.W. Bush. Yet on every issue that is important to him now -- from foreign policy to the economy -- Granda, 48, said Obama is aligned with his principles. He has seen a similar openness among other voters when he canvasses for the Democrat.

 

Switching Parties

 

``I got a lot of people switching parties from Republican to Democrat, and a lot were Cubans,'' he said.

 

Obama's campaign has allocated $20 million to Hispanic outreach nationally, including advertisements and Spanish- speaking field organizers, said Temo Figueroa, national Latino vote director for Obama. That's aside from $39 million invested in Florida for the general election -- close to half the amount McCain has available to spend nationwide. Figueroa said Obama is spending twice as much as McCain on Spanish-language television ads and triple the amount on Spanish radio ads in Florida.

 

Obama's message is getting through, said William Fuentes, 37, an electrician from Cuba who lives in Little Havana.

 

``No one's selling houses, there's no jobs,'' he said. ``I'm going to vote for Obama.''

[KevinG]

You know I fail to see how sitting in the cockpit of a fighter jet getting ready to attack Cuba, makes a person "tested." If the call came down from his superior officers to attack Cuba he would of done it. If he had a choice or some decision that is another matter. He was nothing more then a you flight jock awaiting his orders. That story really proves nothing about McCain's experience and readiness if he is tested as President. In fact it makes me worried that without orders from someone would McCain know what to do?

[Party @ the Moontower]

I love the "calm down" stuff by folks who continue to try and stir the pot.

 

 

Hey, calm down now. Step away from the board....and just calm down.