Goombah, it is absolutely infuriating to think of how desperately people are trying to hold onto their homes, and yet millions and millions have been spent on this race.

As an outsider in US, I get the impression that people are very open about their political affiliation here. Everyday at my work some of my colleagues discuss politics. I work for a large corporation and I would have guessed that there would be some ethics/harassment policy that would prevent employees from talking politics at workplace. But apparently not. Also we have a TV at the break room, where people can set the channel. Most of the times it shows either CNN or Fox. It is not uncommon to hear people commenting on Obama or Palin or someone else very openly. Lot of people have bumper stickers proclaiming their support for a given candidate. As I mentioned in some other thread, my (republican) neighbor has a full blown Halloween decoration on her door with Obama(trick) or McCain(treat)! I guess that kind of open support comes from general tolerance for expressing one's affiliation without fear. That is a nice thing here. I don't know if it is true throughout the country, but if it works in Texas, I guess it should work everywhere

Sure, fill in the blanks of how much better use the wasted funds could be used toward: education, poverty, police protection, rebuilding New Orleans, research for cancer, AIDS, and other diseases.

svsg was pretty accurate. The election is commonly discussed. But at the same time it is considered rude and in bad taste to ask someone bluntly whom they are voting for. This is information one shouldn't solicit, especially in the work place. It is actually illegal for an employer to ask a prospective employee his or her party affiliation or voting record.

I've heard many political discussions over the past year, some thought provoking, some silly. Two parents at a youth sporting event engaged in a spirited discourse over the candidates a few weeks ago. It was entertaining for its comedic value.

The Democrat was trying to convince the Republican that McCain's military service and survival in a brutal POW camp for years had nothing to do with character.

The Republican was arguing that Obama was racist because he mentions in his autobiography that police and security guards had treated him suspiciously because of his race.

Obama's new ad: "His Choice"
Pictures speak louder than words.

This is seriously hilarious. You MUST try this out. It is a customizable video. I won't spoil it for you. Try it out with your own name and email:

http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/taf.shtml?id=&nid=Py8ZvMJBa91iNA13BAT8uDI3NzEzODc-

It's pretty clear what to look for.

East coast polls close at 7PM EST. Exit poll results should be available within two hours or so or by about 9PM EST. Depending on how comfortable the networks are with the quality of the exit polls, Electoral College projections should be available by then. If Obama takes Virginia, and/or Florida, and/or (maybe) N.Carolina, then you can go to bed figuring that Obama will reach the 270. If he doesn's accomplish the foregoing, then you may want to stay up at least until the CST exit polling data becomes available and is broadcast.

The east coast polls close at different times. Here's the times for every state.

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G08/closing.phtml?format=aa

A speechwriter for Obama, Edwards, and Clinton on why she’s voting McCain.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-10-28/so-long-obama/1/

Interesting. Her views seem incoherent. She doesn't really lay out a reason to vote for McCain other than some supposed media sexism against Clinton or Palin. Obama's health plan is friendlier to private interests than Clinton's or Edwards would have been, as Paul Krugman pointed out over and over, and she's going to vote for McCain, who intends to tax health benefits? Obama's tax policies are not that different from Edward's or Clinton's.

There was a Supreme Court decision, Ledbetter vs. Goodyear, in which the Court held that employees only have 180 days to sue after the initial act of discrimination, even if the act continues to the current day and even if the worker just found out about it. The plaintiff in the case was a woman.

McCain's response? He opposed legislation to overturn the 180 day limit and said women just need more education and job training.

Needless to say Lily Ledbetter didn't really appreciate that comment.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/24/ledbetter-education/

It sounds as if Ms. Button has more personal reasons to vote against Obama but somehow doesn't fully explain them in her essay. To argue that we're going back to the era of huge government when Obama is only proposing restoring tax rates as existed under President Clinton is really reaching IMO.

As far as "Joe the Plumber" he sort of opened the door for questions into his finances when it turned out that he didn't own a business, was late on paying his taxes and earned nowhere near $250,000.

FC, I would have liked to read that, but the link doesn't work for me. Could you please post the article? Thanks.

I'll sum it up for you:

"The Democratic party left me because they didn't choose a woman to run for Prez or VP. I used to write speeches for democrats and once handed Obama a Grey Poupon packet. Obama will raise taxes and he's not a woman so I can't vote for him or his outdated party."

That prime-time special tonight was a well-produced infomercial of propaganda, but I have ONE problem with it.

Obama should have placed some Republican/Conservative supporters of his on the special, to highlight in visuals that he is the one to unite the nation for a new epoch or whatever.

Why not Chafee (only GOP senator to vote against the Iraq War) or former Massachusetts Governor William Weld or Goldwater's granddaughter or Chris Buckley or something?

Anyway, good special. Don't know what ultimately it'll accomplish for the Obama campaign, but at the least it STEALS another daily cycle that McCain needs as he is running out of them.

EDIT - Speaking of which, anyone see McCain's response campaign ad?

Am I the only one who thinks "Not Ready...Yet" as a slogan self-defeats the purpose?

Lilo,
Whether it's here discussing the campaign, or talking about the Godfather films or the novel, you are quite knowledgeable. Your posts are always quite intelligent and well thought-out. I've been meaning to compliment you, and I apologize for not doing so before this.

That said, who watched Obama's prime time special?? I thought it was quite good. His use of people he's met on the campaign trail who are struggling with the every day stuff - kids, homes, healthcare, retirement - without demeaning them by giving them cute little nicknames, was an excellent concept.

What I noted was the terminology that Obama using. If he's elected, he'll probably be our most liberal President in over 40 years, and yet he repeatedly said "no payouts" and that people should be responsible economically and in raising their children.

Folks, those three points are usually associated with social conservatism. Notice the connection when the next possible First Lady talked about reading with the children those HARRY POTTER books, and then later they showed that Ford plant family, with the father reading to his kid.

I'll add to my analysis of the infomercial that it may have been also an attempt to reassure folks that Obama may be a liberal, but not a Ted Kennedy/Walter Mondale liberal of old.

THEN McCain campaign airs its response ad after the special on MSNBC, and notice the difference between the two approaches.

Obama's special was intended to be warm, colorful, optimistic, fuzzy-gooey, feel good, while McCain's ad-response was greay, bleak, depressing, arguing how things are awful now and things will get worse if Obama is elected.

Whoever decided on that specific ad in response to the special should BE FIRED.

I mean what the hell? Look at 1980 when Carter/Reagan had their own infomercials. Carter's was focused on how times are rough and so on, while REagan's was more upbeat and well, feel good with the babies, flag-waving, flying Bald Eagle, etc.

When the two choices are between feeling good and feeling bad, its like picking between a summer blockbuster where the heroes win, and a downbeat arthouse Oscar-bait where the villains win.

Which option will most people pick?

I really wasn't sure what this was going to be to tell you the truth. It was an infomercial for sure, but yet very well done.

I think many people sort of missed the first go-around regarding Obama's life, during the primary. They were supporting whomever their candidate was and Obama just was too new and to "ify". I thnk most thought he'd never make it this far.

It was good that he showed everyday people, and I still enjoy hearing about his life and upbringing, not to mention his family life, going back and forth showed how "alike" he as to these other people. Chris Mathews,who has really bugged the shit out of me lately, had it right tonight when he said (paraphrasing) referring to prejudices and rumors about him; "Whether you vote for him or not,Look at him; he did everything right. Went to college, has a good family, is a decent guy, etc." Anyway, it had a "feel-good" down home feeling for me.

As far as adding Republicans to the film, yea Coln Powell would have been a great asset.

Anyway, I did see McCain's ad right after..and again as Mathews pointed out, did you notice at the end of the ad McCain says "he's not ready to be President......YET!"


TIS

If you don't have the energy to read the whole thing...just scroll down to quote in the final paragraph. That pretty much says it all.

******************************
Expect the Worst From an Obama Administration
October 29, 2008
By: John LeBoutillier

If Barack Obama wins this election, what will the next 4 years be like in this country?

Obama and the Dem supermajority in Congress, led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, will certainly move to the extreme left. There will be no one to check their most liberal instincts, and that will be reflected in the types of new programs we will see.

They will try to move the nation to Western European-style socialism...This means heavier federal involvement in healthcare; perhaps the federal gov't will eventually take this over and nationalize it.

All aspects of our lives will be affected by federal programs — from schools to energy subsidies to doctors’ salaries to regulation of hospital costs to corporate governance to federal mandates on states and municipalities to a federal takeover of many pension funds.

Yes, these unrestrained liberals, drunk with power, will impose the incorrectly named Fairness Doctrine to nail Limbaugh and Hannity and Savage and their local acolytes. The left sees talk radio as the one bastion of the media they can’t penetrate, so they’ll simply neutralize it with this doctrine.

They will cut defense spending — perhaps by up to 25% — as a quick way to move money into social programs.

They will create massive new gov't spending programs, supposedly to rebuild our “crumbling infrastructure,” but as a payoff to their labor pals...For the first year or two, the so-called mainstream media will remain totally in Obama's pocket, shilling for this leftist agenda. Some writer will coin a phrase, i.e. the "Square Deal," the "Real Deal," or the "Great Society," which will describe what Obama is trying to do.

The idea of sending U.S. troops to hot spots such as Darfur and Kenya will come up soon after the inauguration.

Michelle Obama will quickly become the most unpopular first lady ever. Some people will almost miss the days of Hillary. Stories will abound about how she is hurting her husband’s political standing. His staff will try to muzzle her, and stories will then surface that there is a war between the Obamas inside the White House.

Pakistan will deteriorate and almost fracture, and Obama will be more aggressive toward al-Qaida and the Taliban than Bush.

Obama will tilt pro-Palestinian, and his relations with Israel will deteriorate. No American president will have had such bad relations with our staunchest ally.

By the Fall of 2009, Obama’s approval rating will be down to 42 percent; his disapproval rating will be 45; the nation will — again — be divided.

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will not be frequent visitors to the Obama White House; the savvy Obama staff will try not to allow the Obama administration to be tainted by the two...

Iran will smell weakness in Obama and make a move of some sort, perhaps in Lebanon. Or, possibly, Tehran and Obama will make peace first and have a summit, and then Iran will take advantage of a weak Obama.

Leftists of all stripes will emerge as new "stars" in the Obama era...All sorts of crazy ideas will surface, from nationalizing certain companies and industries to God knows what.

Capitalism will be seen as an evil; the anti-capitalistic nonsense taught in our colleges and universities will rear its ugly head in statements, confirmation hearings, and interviews with new administration figures.

Congress will try to free hundreds of thousands of prison inmates who are serving time for drug and non-violent offenses; and then they’ll try to register them to vote for the Democrats in the 2010 mid-term elections.

Most of G.W. Bush’s executive orders regarding family planning, stem-cell research, and foreign aid, coupled with family planning, will be reversed.

Obama and the Democrats will grant amnesty to the 12 to 30 million illegals already here, and the border fence will never be completed. Millions of new illegals will continue to stream into our nation, and the Dems will try to register these new voters as Democrats, of course, and that will alter all our politics for years to come.

The Obama-Democratic congressional axis will nominate and confirm the most left-leaning federal judges in our history ... Watch out — some real whackos are coming onto the bench.

The Obama years will be the culmination of the last 40 years of horrendously biased education coupled with a climate of liberal guilt and political correctness.

Here's a quote from the Oct. 14 British Spectator that sums it up perfectly:

"You have to pinch yourself — a Marxist radical who all his life has been mentored by, sat at the feet of, worshiped with, befriended, endorsed the philosophy of, funded and been in turn funded, politically promoted and supported by a nexus comprising black power anti-white racists, Jew-haters, revolutionary Marxists, unrepentant former terrorists and Chicago mobsters, is on the verge of becoming President of the United States. And apparently it's considered impolite to say so."

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Apple, It's all a plan for the muslim pinko commie bastards to turn us into socialists and even worse yet - liberals!

Damn SB, I really wanted to watch it,but I completely forgot about it.

Thanks for sharing that, Apple. That's GREAT news!!

What I liked most about Obama's special is that not one millisecond of it was "dumbed down". There were no Joe Six Packs or any other of the iconic "common folks" that the Republicans have embraced and run with in the past few months. There were hard-working Americans who were sick and tired of working so hard and having so little. I felt like I could identify with all of them.

Wow. You're now using gibberish from outside the U.S. to make a point?

Well please forgive me I have more important things to do than spend 99.9% of my time posting in this thread.

Good thing Obama recently racked up: Colin Powell, Ken Adelman, William Weld, Arne Carlson, Scott McClellan, C.C. Goldwater, Charles Fried, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Susan Eisenhower, and Christopher Buckley, etc. Otherwise, losing 'Wendy Button' could have been fatal.

Obviously you have the time to post sarcasm and disrespect.

Wasn't Wendy one of the PUMA chicks???? Their woman (Hillary) lost and they can't handle it, so they went for McCain out of spite. What's funny is they thought they'd bring Obama down (especially since he didn't pick Hillary for his running mate). Win or lose, I think Obama has proven he does just fine without Hillary (disappointing the PUMAs of course)


TIS

TIS, What is a PUMA chick?

How great a name is Wendy Button, especially on a board devoted to The Godfather!

He sure did :

Rev. Jeremiah A Wright - Senator Obama's pastor who baptised the Obama children. A radical man who repeatedly denounced the Untied States Of America from the pulpit while Senator Obama was a member of his congregation.


Tony Rezko - One of the people on Obama's U.S. Senate campaign finance committee who was found guilty of six counts of wire fraud, six counts of mail fraud, two counts of corrupt solicitation, and two counts of money laundering.

Rashid Khalidi - Invited Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia University. His wife was president of a Chicago-based nonprofit organization where Barack Obama was a board member of for 3 years along with William C. Ayers, who was a member of a terrorist group which wanted to overthrow of the U.S. government and took responsibility for bombing the U.S. Capitol in 1971.

Allison S. Davis - A former boss of Senator Obama's who once approached the Woods fund looking for monies to develop and build housing for low-income familes in Chicago. Turns out that at the time Davis approached the Woods fund, he was partners in developing another apartment building with Obama friend and fundraiser....... convicted felon Tony Rezko!


It's all documented fact. And it scares me because the more I research and the more I learn about Senator Obama's background, the more I am having my doubts about him.

John LeBoutillier from NEWSMAX? I always suspected that you were a subscriber to their talking points.

In response, I could post something from HUFFINGTON POST or DAILY KOS, but I never learn anything substantial that makes me wiser in politics from those ideological fringe blogs.

Mig,

There were many many women's libbers (50 plus women) who were devasted that Hillary lost the pimary. Now, I'm from the woman's lib era myself and am all for woman' rights.Yet these ladies wanted Hillary and Hillary only. I think, just because she was a woman. To me though, I figure we have come a long way and are far past he bra burning days. Now's not the time to be "libbers."

They absolutely hated that Obama won, all the bloggers and otherwise were talking about creating havoc at the Dem primary. Some went to McCain rallies and still insist they'll vote for McCain out of spite.(I'm sure some will too). Their idea was simply to make Obama lose. As far as PUMA.....remember when everyone was calling for party unity within the Dem Party. The Dems of course didn't want discourse. These ladies were so pissed off that they called themselves PUMAS (Party Unity My Ass).

They were genuinely disappointed without a doubt, but they also were bitter sore losers. Now that I think about it, thy sort of faded in the woodwork.


TIS