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October 31, 2008

Posted by Coonsey in Politics.
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What Will Happen If Obama Loses on Tuesday?

What if John McCain wins the November 4th election?  What happens if he wins by just one state as in the previous presidential elections?  What happens if Barack Obama wins the popular vote but loses the electoral vote?  Exactly how will Americans react to yet another unforeseen result on their Election Day?

Let’s take a quick look at what the polls are telling Americans today.  According to Realclearpolitics.com, there is not one national poll that shows Senator John McCain ahead.  When it comes to the usual battleground states (Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina and Indiana) not one poll has John McCain ahead as of 4 days away from Election Day.

Let’s look at how Americans feel about President George W. Bush and his administration’s actions over the past 8 years.  Bush currently has about a 30% approval rating.  According to a CBS poll, 81% of Americans feel the country is headed in the wrong direction.  McCain’s approval ratings are around 52% and Obama’s is 64% according to an ABC poll.

Now let’s compare the rallies that Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain appear at.  According to the media stories, it is Barack Obama that gets 10’s of thousands of voters to show up, where as John McCain is lucky to get a few thousand (unless he has Governor Sarah Palin with him, then there’s more – but nothing compared to Obama’s rallies).

Let’s also look at who from the other side is supporting the enemy sort of speak.  John McCain has gained Independent Joe Lieberman and a speech writer named Wendy Button from the Democrat side.  Senator Obama has Jim Leach, Lincoln Chafee, Douglas W. Kmiec, Jackson Andrews, John Martin, Francis Fukuyama and Colin Powell just to name a few.

What Republicans have had favorable comments about Obama; Peggy Noonan, George Will, Rich Lowry and William Bennett to name just a few.  These same folks had unfavorable comments toward McCain.

According to the media and political pundits, Barack Obama, barring any major development or scandal showing up, will win on Tuesday with anywhere from 280-320 electoral votes.

Going back to the original question, how will supporters of Barack Obama feel if he loses narrowly?  What will they do about it, if anything?  I’m afraid to say it but because of previous losses and they way they were supposedly ‘lost’, and because of the things Obama’s supporters have been told for the past two months where things stood in the election, I’m almost certain there will be riots and people getting hurt.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating violence; I’m afraid of it happening.

It won’t just be ‘just’ another political loss.  Voters will feel cheated in a huge way.  They will feel lied to by the media, the political pundits and the ‘other side’.   They will not believe any so-called ‘facts’ that are later reported.

Those ‘newly’ registered voters that actually voted will most likely refuse to ever vote again.  They won’t trust the system.  I know I won’t and I’ve been voting for 40 years now.

If Obama’s losing, I sure hope polls start showing that BEFORE Election Day instead of once again getting voter’s hopes up and then just knocking them down once again.

October 31, 2008

Posted by Coonsey in Foreign Policy, Military, Politics.
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Iraq Opposes Clause Letting U.S. Stay Past 2011

Looks like Iraq is ready for us to leave about the same time as Barack Obama has planned for us leaving.

BAGHDAD (AFP) – Baghdad wants to delete any reference in a security pact with Washington to the possibility of US troops staying in Iraq after 2011, an MP close to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday.

The demand is one of five amendments proposed by Iraq, Ali al-Adib, a member of the Shiite Dawa party, told AFP.

“The Iraqi government wants to remove from the agreement any mention of a possible extension of the American presence in Iraq,” he said.

The controversial document, which negotiators have laboured over for months, is supposed to be in place by the end of the year to set new guidelines for US military operations in Iraq after the expiry of the present UN mandate…

Looks like Britain is ready to leave too.

British forces will have withdrawn from Basra airport by the end of 2009, defence secretary John Hutton pledged last night…

Poland has already left:

Warsaw – Poland marked the end of its mission in Iraq with a ceremony on Wednesday to welcome the last returning contingent of soldiers in the northwestern city of Szczecin.

Perhaps if Barack Obama wins on November 4th, our combat troops will also be leaving by the end of 2010.

Sad part is, they’ll be traveling to Afghanistan instead because the current administration failed to ‘finish the job’!

KABUL (AFP) – President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday violence had surged in Afghanistan, admitting his government’s internationally backed efforts to secure the country had failed.

Security had even deteriorated since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001, the US-backed leader said in an address to hundreds of women gathered from all over Afghanistan for a meeting in Kabul.

Since his government took power after the fall of the Taliban, “we have achieved major success”, Karzai told the gathering.

“But one of the nation’s biggest wishes was full security … which we have not brought. It has even dropped,” Karzai said.

“Our roads are not safe, you can’t go to Kandahar, to Herat. You can’t take the road from Kabul to Paktia,” he said, referring to key provinces outside of the capital.

October 31, 2008

Posted by Coonsey in Misc, Politics.
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A Bit of Thursday Morning Humor For Ya!

They’ve got the characters of Obama and McCain reversed (wrong) but for a laugh, I’ll accept this.

The truth would have Obama as the scarecrow because he’s got the brains, McCain as the tin man because he has no heart, Palin as the lion because she loves to chicken to give up her medical records and Biden as Dorthy because he always wants to head back home by train after a day at the office.

October 30, 2008

Posted by Coonsey in Politics.
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Barack Obama’s Infomercial – Here it is

I have to be honest.  Perhaps it’s because I know so much more about the guy that I felt he could have expressed more; but I thought the ad a bit boring at times.

I wasn’t crazy about the American families stories – I know what he was doing by telling Americans these stories, but it didn’t ‘do’ anything for me.  I got more choked up over his mom’s cancer story then all three of the family’s stories combined.  I would have liked to have seen more about his family and his life.  People know very little about ‘him’ — except for what his opponents keep pushing.

It was meant to make him appear presidential and a caring thoughtful man, because of that, I suppose it was successful.

I saw one thing that might come back to bite him and that’s his comment about taxcuts, “if you make less than 200,000 a year you will get a taxcut”.  That’s all fine and dandy but for most of the campaign and even after the infomercial his surrogates were saying the amount was 250,000 or less.  McCain caught Senator Biden saying another figure yesterday and commented about it.

They really need to clarify that better.  Maybe the $200,000 is for a single person and maybe the $250,000 is for a couple?

Anyway, I don’t have a clue how the voter that hasn’t been paying attention for the past 21 months will think about this infomercial; but I’m pretty sure they won’t hate him for it or not vote for himn – because of it.

October 30, 2008

Posted by Coonsey in Politics.
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A ‘Game’ Out Weighs Our Country – Senator McCain?

“He’s planned his first address to the nation — an infomercial. By the way, I will never delay the start of the World Series for an infomercial.”

Joke or not, this statement is outrageous!

Our economy is tanking, we are bailing out businesses and banks, we have two major wars going on, our dependence on oil has gone through the roof and our environment is getting worse every day.

Is Senator John McCain, the ‘want-to-be’ future President of United States, saying that a ballgame is more important then letting the American people know what he will do for them and their nation’s troubles?  A game is more important then letting Americans know that you know they are suffering and that you are planning on trying to help them?

A ‘game‘ out weighs “Our Country First“, Senator?

October 29, 2008

Posted by Coonsey in Misc, Politics.
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The Sarah Palin Love Affair Continues…

It appears that even big businesses love Sarah (must be hoping for those big business tax cuts).  And you thought Barack Obama was a celebrity?

Look at bottom left corner — recognize anybody?

Photo from Big Lots newspaper ad from today’s paper.

October 29, 2008

Posted by Coonsey in Politics.
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Obama’s 30 Minute Closing Argument – Tonight

WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama will use his prime-time half-hour infomercial on Wednesday night to make what is effectively a closing argument to a national audience of millions. At times he will speak directly into the camera about his 20-month campaign, at others he will highlight everyday voters, their everyday troubles, and his plans to address them….

The program is to be shown on NBC, CBS, Fox, Univision, MSNBC and two cable networks that cater to African-Americans, BET and TV One. Ross Perot, the last presidential candidate to run similar programming, broadcast eight long infomercials to an average of 13 million viewers, with one of them getting 16.5 million viewers…

Campaign aides promise a livelier show than when Ross Perot sat behind a desk for half an hour, the last time a presidential candidate bought a block of prime time television.

The infomercial will be aired 7 p.m. Central time tonight.  Hopefully it will be put on YouTube so I can place it on this site later for all to watch if you miss it.

I would like to point out that I wrote months ago a post here, on TPM and Dkos and on Obama’s sight suggesting that he create an infomercial or ad just as Ross Perot use to do.  I rather doubt he listened to me, but it’s nice to ‘make believe‘ that he did….LOL

Other Events for Obama:

He’ll be on The Daily Show tonight and on the Rachel Maddow show tomorrow night.

October 29, 2008

Posted by Coonsey in Politics.
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Rachel Maddow Will Interview Obama Thursday

(Sample of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC)

Rachel Maddow of MSNBC reported tonight that she will be one on one with Barack Obama this coming Thursday night.

Wahoo Rachel!

I was hoping you’d get that chance and that Obama would choose to come on your show.

All I ask is, don’t do anything that will hurt his chances next Tuesday.  I don’t think it would help the ratings of your show if you did something that blew this election wide open — so this late in the game.

Don’t get me wrong.  I know you can give a good report and interview.  I know you can get to the truth or I wouldn’t be watching your new show.  However, trying to trip Obama up some how, at this stage in the game, would most likely serve to ruin you as well as hurt him.

Good luck and have fun.

October 29, 2008

Posted by Coonsey in Domestic Policy, Politics.
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Is There a Recession or Depression Yet?

OR   

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The World Series won’t resume until Wednesday night at the earliest.

With rain still falling in Philadelphia, Major League Baseball decided not to attempt to complete Game 5 on Tuesday night.

The game, played in increasingly heavy rain, was suspended Monday following a 30-minute delay with the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays tied 2-2 after 5 1/2 innings. It was the first time a World Series game wasn’t played to completion on the same day…

———————————————————————————————————–

The overall confidence reading fell a whopping 23.4 points during the month, to 38 from 61.4. That’s the third biggest drop in the survey’s 41-year history. Fewer than 11% of consumers expect their incomes to increase in coming months, the smallest slice ever.

One way to tell if folks are truly hurting financially is to see the crowds dwindle at sporting events.  Anybody know if ticket sales have dropped over the past year?

I’m betting if they have, it’s because of gas prices being so high (until Election Day that is) and not because of fear of losing a job or lack of funds.

Have you avoided going to the show or to an event for lack of money or a job?  If not, then I’m betting you are doing about the same financially today as you were 6 months ago.  Am I wrong?

While I agree there are places that are really hurting — I think the media is overplaying this economic crisis story (I pray I’m right).  In fact, they may be ‘feeding’ it, making it worse then it otherwise would have been.

It’s just my silly opinion and observation but when the fun stops it’s time to start really worrying.

October 28, 2008

Posted by Coonsey in Politics.
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McCain Wanted to Redistribute the Wealth?

This is in response to the previous post about Obama comments on wealth.