Peas in a pod.

Well, considering how so many “progressives” have slammed the mainstream media for its lack of investigative coverage on Dubya and his policies for the past 7 years, it’s surprising that these same “progressives” have allowed themselves to get sucked into the mainstream media’s lovefest for Obama.
Have all of you forgotten how the media (in 2004) were responsible for the Dean “meltdown” (amazing how a little overenthusiasm gets turned into “crazy”)? Now, since the same media have been non-stop anti-Hillary (hell, since she announced her campaign, the media have been against Hillary, and became Obama’s lapdogs since Iowa) and the “progressives” haven’t found ANY cause for concern with that. Noooooo. On the contrary, the same “progressives” have CONVENIENTLY ignored the fact that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have had IDENTICAL voting records since Obama entered the Senate in 2005. And, on the big issue of the Iraq war–the one which Obama always brings up that he wouldn’t have voted for–Obama is the one who said (in 2004) that he believed Dubya was handling the war in much the same way that he would do. Obama is also the one who has suggested that he would invade (and bomb) Pakistan. Obama has also implied (rather recently in fact) that his claim that he wouldn’t have voted to authorize the war against Iraq might have changed if he’d had the same information that other members of the Senate had (and let’s none of us forget that Presidential candidate John Kerry DID vote FOR the authorization just as Hillary did).
But to the Obama lovefest going on in the progressive community (despite the fact the man’s actual voting record is NO BETTER on the whole than Hillary’s), that’s not important. Just ask yourselves, though, if Obama REALLY were as progressive as everyone “hopes” he is, why then has he not done more to actually END the effin’ war? This is the man who’s had TWO top campaign officials screw up with regard to Iraq–Samantha Power said that Obama wouldn’t be held to what he says in his campaigns once in the Oval Office and Colin Kahl, Obama’s day-to-day coordinator on Iraq policy, actually wrote that “the US should aim to transition to a sustainable over-watch posture (of perhaps 60,000-80,000 forces) by the end of 2010″ (Kahl and Obama have claimed this isn’t the “official” campaign position, but it’s odd that when one of Hillary’s advisors goes “off message”, he has to quit, but one of Barack’s get his ass covered–not simply by Obama but the whole of the Obama-loving media).

Having lived in Minnesota for close to 20 years, I can say that calling it up for grabs is sheer hallucination. Minnesota is the only state in the union that Reagan lost twice, and one of the few that Bush lost twice. McCain is far too close to Bush to do well in Minnesota.

Well, that double loss by Reagan has to be put into perspective. Walter Mondale (running as Carter’s VP in 1980 and for President in 1984) was a “native son” of Minnesota, and in NEITHER election was he able to win even 50% of the state’s vote. Consider that the 1980 election included 2 serious 3rd party candidates–John Anderson as an “Independent” and Ed Clark as a “Libertarian”–and the “native son” couldn’t deliver his state to his party (Carter took Georgia with an outright majority and both Republican candidates took their states, California and Texas, with outright majorities, while the Democrats took less than 47% of the Minnesota popular vote). In 1984, fewer than 4000 votes (out of more than 2 MILLION cast) allowed Mondale to win the state. By contrast, the Dukakis/Bentsen ticket (MA/TX) in 1988 won Minnesota by more than 147,000 votes out of less than 2.1 million cast. In 1992, Clinton had an 11 percentage point lead over Bush I (and nearly 20 percentage points over Perot) with a popular vote lead of more than 273,000 votes over Bush I and more than 458,000 votes over Perot (out of more than 2.3 million votes). In 1996, Clinton became the first presidential candidate since Carter in 1976 (Carter/Mondale may have been hurt more by John Anderson in 1980 since the combined vote percentages of the Carter and Anderson tickets approximated the Carter percentage in 1976) to take Minnesota with an absolute win (out of 2.1 million votes, Clinton had 1.1 million; Dole got 766,000 and Perot took 257,000).
In 2000, most likely because of Ralph Nader, Al Gore only led Dubya by a little over 58,000 votes out of more than 2.4 million cast (Nader got nearly 127,000 votes, more than double the Gore lead over Dubya). In 2004, Kerry won the state by an outright majority (51.15% of more than 2.8 million votes); however, Kerry only won the state by a little more than 98,000 votes (an improvement of 40,000 over Gore in 2000 but not astoundingly great). This also marked the first time in decades (going only back to 1972) that the winner of an absolute majority of the Minnesota popular vote lost the national election (only Carter in 1976 and Clinton in 1996 won both the MN popular vote majority and the national election). Minnesota is also responsible for an electoral vote split in 2004 when one elector voted for John Edwards as President (actually, the vote went to John Ewards, but it was certified for Edwards); of course, that didn’t make a difference in the final Electoral College vote.
Given the overall closeness in the Presidential votes for the past 30 years, it’s not entirely out of the question that the state COULD go to the Republicans this year–don’t forget that the late Paul Wellstone (one of the most liberal members of the Senate) could only take 50% of the vote in his first and second Senate races (it’s worth speculating whether or not Wellstone would have actually done much better in 2002; his replacement for the Democratic nomination, Mondale, only lost by 50,000 votes–or just 38,000 if you factor in that Wellstone still received nearly 12,000 votes–in spite of all the GOP-led hype about the “politicization” of the Wellstone “funeral”). I’m not saying that anything’s guaranteed but most Presidential elections since 1976 have typically seen less than a 5 percentage point margin of difference between the Dem and Rep candidates in Minnesota. By Rove standards, that’s practically a GOP “win”.

it sounds like a STINK TANK…like those who wrote to every paper in the country to promote SUVs…a lot of people don’t know they dedicate stink(think) tanks to every last issue out there.

So, I’m sure we’ll hear more of the same. We need to keep up in this Brave New Whirled.

Be glad you hadn’t, and hopefully you never will again. Unless you like tragi-comedy.

thanks.. I was “running out of breath” as it were. The list is as long as the arm I might not have if it were blown off in Iraq protecting freedoms, or the arm it would cost me $400 for a doctor to look at, the one I can’t get insured and so on.

Peas in a pod.

Well. I very much doubt Ron Paul’s ability to milk the netnuts went unnoticed.

The climate very much supports zealots of all stripes, unfortunately. And with all the talk of Bloomberg and Hagel, and all the uncritical support the antiwar “purists” gives the thugs like Hagel who came into power via voting machines he OWNED which gave him a victory of “historic” proportions (uh-huh, like 90% of the black vote against a popular Democratic incumbent) I will not be surprised to see a full field of contestants going for the restless and the meme-susceptible.

Cleiberman/Barr 08!
.

Freedom Rebel Says:
In the State of Ohio, I believe we won’t see that ever happening again. I agree with you. People were so outraged they wanted answers. No more waiting at voting booths for 11 hours anymore.

By the way, Good Morning. I hope you have a great Sunday. It is sunny and beautiful in Ohio. Anyone who knows Ohio, we don’t take these days for granted.

Good morning to you too Freedom Rebel. Sunshine in my red state of okla too. We have beautiful weather in the spring and fall but the summers and winters are extreme. The politics here have always been oil and religion controlled right wing extremists.

We are however seeing many who have always voted republican deciding that they are more moderate than the republicans and I have actually heard people speaking out against the war and the bush admin in public places……that did not happen a year ago…..

5th Estate Says:
…if only there were some burning issue out there (apart from the healthcare crisis, Iraq, Global Climate Change, low wages, unemployment, the cost of living, torture, warrant-less spying, the housing crisis, the credit crisis, the banking crisis, the devaluation of the dollar, the military crisis…) that people actually CARED about

Failed education system, neglected infrastructure(bridges, etc), international relations, corporations being favored over the well being of the citizens, blatent evidence that de-regulation and lowered taxes of corportations is a failed policy(although this has been proven before), and the list goes on doesn’t it.

The 50% of Americans who actually vote are however better informed and the GOP’s inability to censure the internet will allow us to communicate between communities and keep the truth out there despite their propagana media outlets….

In the State of Ohio, I believe we won’t see that ever happening again. I agree with you. People were so outraged they wanted answers. No more waiting at voting booths for 11 hours anymore.

By the way, Good Morning. I hope you have a great Sunday. It is sunny and beautiful in Ohio. Anyone who knows Ohio, we don’t take these days for granted.

“I don’t think it’s gonna be just McCain vs Dem vs Nader this time…I’m going to guess at least two other candidates (who get major media coverage…I know there are often other ignored candidates”

Speaking of ignored “other candidates” I thought I’d see how Unicorn08–excuse me–Unity08 is doing:

“First, however, it’s important to reflect upon what we – together – have accomplished in shaping the current political discussion and building a sense of what is possible in this crucial election year.”

…because building a sense of what’s impossible hasn’t worked out the way we planned.

“Two of our core ideas – the importance of a centrist, bi-partisan approach to the solving of our nation’s problems and the possibility of an independent, unity ticket for the presidency have already gone from far-out to mainstream”

…that is, the main stream where it has now drowned in less than a foot of water.

“So in a larger sense, we have accomplished a major portion of what we set out to do.”

…which was to have our own website.

But in the specifics and logistics, we have fallen short.

…If it weren’t for those meddling specifics and logistics we’d have gotten away with it too!

“The past year has taught us that it’s tough to rally millions to a process as opposed to a candidate or an issue”.

…which is weird because McKinley’s “How to Assemble a Stereopticon” campaign was wildly popular!

“In the past, third party movements that have broken through the monopoly of the established parties have always been based on a person (Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 or Ross Perot in the last decade)…”

..instead of an idea, like Feng Shui or space-elevators. If only we’d had more examples of third party candidates to draw from we might have noticed that the electoral process we wanted to change requires a so-called “person” to get into power to then change the process!

“…or a burning issue (slavery in the case of the insurgent Republican party in 1860).”

…if only there were some burning issue out there (apart from the healthcare crisis, Iraq, Global Climate Change, low wages, unemployment, the cost of living, torture, warrant-less spying, the housing crisis, the credit crisis, the banking crisis, the devaluation of the dollar, the military crisis…) that people actually CARED about

“Stirring people and moving them to action about a process change – replacing the quirky primary system that tends to drive candidates to the extremes with something more inclusive and sensible – has proven to be a lot harder than we expected.”

…Who would have thought that a country where only 50% of the population ever votes during a general election based on who they want to have a beer with would have no interest in changing the entire political system? Not us, obviously. I wonder why?

“Our website will become less interactive (it takes staff to answer hundreds of e-mails a day). Please know that you have already made a difference and are at the forefront of a movement that may yet save the country.”

A “movement” that has no money, no candidate, and a “less interactive” website that is nothing more than a page of text. I guess backwards is still movement.

shhhh… let’s not wake him up…

i believe the word O B F U S C A T E covers it well enough…
or, confuse, cover up, hide, conceal, etc, etc, etc…

remember, he’s talkin to idjits… they’ll buy anything…

The war, the economy, health care. Those are the issues that will decide this election. Mccain and all republicans are on the wrong side of all of those issues.

Mccain cannot possibly win unless the democratic party is split in such a way that we just can’t work together to defeat the republicans. I don’t see that happening.

It is the only real danger we face. I don’t think they can even get away with fixing the elections in the ways they have become notorious for doing. Much of the framework for that kind of illegal activity has worn thin and been eradicated….such as fredom rebel mentions in post 18….the republicans loss of people like Blackwell will help to maintain a legitimate election.

We have already seen the MSM crown McCain as the “straight” talking, principled Maverick and war hero. We have seen Obama tarred in every possible manner by his opponent. Clinton undermines her own viability against McCain with exaggerating her “war” experience and failing to vet medical horror stories.

McCain will be seen as the one candidate who can lead the United States even though he embraces the policies of the failed Bush administration, flip-flops endlessly and never really follows through with his rebellion against conservative Republican positions. What more would you expect?

Karl Rove, liar/idiot/delusions of grandeur, yes, yes and yes!