(no subject)

[prog]

I "accidentally" read this Free Republic post and its attendant comments, following a link from Daily Kos. It's... blog-bizarro world, really. Almost all of the comments seem just as dumb as the dumbest 50% of the dKos comments, while expressing the exact opposite viewpoint (in both cases, usually something to do with considering the opposite party to be akin to an organized crime syndicate), except with far more freeform grammar, spelling and punctuation. (Normally something I don't stoop to observe, but the difference is appreciable.) (And the relatively ugly page styling doesn't help much, either.)

And this is saying nothing about the article itself, which is about how the wicked and cowardly Democrats hope to steal the election through massive voter-registration efforts. Um... whuh... huh?

It really is an entirely different world, over there 'mongst the Reds.

---

I am nervous about the debates. I posted this confident ruh-ruh thing last week, but have since learned that the conventional wisdom stacks things mightily in Bush's favor; he has, they say, won every debate he's participated in. Kerry himself has said this.

GWB oozes with camera-friendly charisma, and will have a lot of soothing words for Themerican People, and a lot of winking smirks for his opponent, who I understood was almost late for the debate because he kept having to return to his office to put on a different color tie, wink, smirk, say no more.

A big difference between this and his previous debates, though, is that forty-five percent of his audience is guaranteed to meet his mugging with vein-popping rage. I don't know how or if this will affect that precious middle ten percent, them who's in the purple states. I pray that they can see though the smirking. I can't say. Very nervous.

---

Yes, I should be in bed now. Good night.

Comments

[uhusted.livejournal.com]

Good grief. I should be in bed as well, but... it really is a different world for them. Stealing the election indeed.

Wisconsin

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

Actually there has been a massive voter registration effort here in Wisconsin -- the key is that the effort is concentrated in the areas which have the greatest concentration of Kerry supporters (i.e. Madison and Milwaukee). For the most part the rest of the state usually votes Republican -- oddly enough just these two cities is enough to balance out the rest of the state so it's a tough call either way.

By the way ... Since you've pointed to it earlier http://www.electoral-vote.com currently has Wisconsin as a 'Strong Bush' state (52% Bush, 38% Kerry, 4% Nader) -- I don't believe these numbers for a minute. Previous polls had this number MUCH closer (and usually in favor of Kerry) and I find it hard to believe opinion has shifted that much ... unless Kerry pissed Wisconsinites more than I thought by calling Lambeau Field (home of the Green Bay Packers) 'Lambert Field' during a speech he made in the state.

Nader, by the way, will NOT be on the Wisconsin ballot this year. I do expect a number of write-ins though, which will kinda suck because they're annoying to process at the end of the night (yes, I'm going to be a poll-worker at this election).

Re: Wisconsin

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

The thing I don't understand is why they're calling this a 'Secret Plan' -- it's about as secret as an 'intentional walk'.

Re: Wisconsin

[prog.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not so naive to think that get-out-the-vote efforts run buy a particular party will lack an agenda. But the difference between me and the "freepers" is that I don't automatically conclude that this means that every vote cast as a result of these efforts will be bought, coerced, or phony somehow. Blah.

Good going on the poll-working. I think I might do something like that myself, in the not-to-distant future. Lately I've been having the urge to get my hands a little dirtier with politics...

[pseudomanitou.livejournal.com]

Everything I've seen suggests that Bush never actually won a debate in his life - but that no one has the stomach to watch the debate, and so they wait for the media to say who 'won', and the media have always favored Bush.

Still you have every right to be worried. My research shows that Bush could do exactly as you are suggesting - but more so - he could be completely undeserving of any positive result after the debate - making this all even far less "fair and balanced"...

Oh... and 45% of those in the debates will not be full of rage - last I read, it will be some Bush supporters, and mostly undecided voters (who could arguable be labeled the slowest SOBs on the face of the earth).

[wrog]

Check out yesterday's DailyHowler.

Gore utterly wiped the floor with Bush in that first debate, at least by any actual debating standard. I listened to a good part of it on the radio and remember thinking so at the time.
What I didn't know at the time was that the immediate audience polls agreed as well.

Our reception cut out about 2/3 of the way through (we were travelling on the far side of the Cascades at the time), so I missed the end and the initial punditry (which apparently was also pronouncing Gore the winner).

But by the time we got back the next morning, the media had gotten their act together and settled on the narrative about how Bush did "surprisingly well" and how Gore's sighing outraged people.

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

don't you think part of the "whoa, bush is a master debator!" is hype, so that when we watch him, we will have high expectations that he can never meet because the man is an idiot?

personally, i don't think he is going to come off as well as expected. he's not so much a thinking on the spot kind of guy.

[jadelennox]

I'm pretty sure it's hype, because I'm getting email from both sides, and they're both saying "Whoa, the other guy will win, because he's a Master 'bater."

It's all about the expectations.

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

i was going to leave off the 'de' in my first post, but i was keeping it clean since this isn't my LJ. the gloves are off, now, jadelennox.

so the counterpart is:

"he is so good because he mass-debates!"