2008 USP(G)ET pt. II: counting the days to 2012 primary thread 1

why we didn't want Mittmentum (like i said)

The Republican party would be nowhere without evangelicals. McCain was either going to win by pandering to them or get killed without them.

Picking Palin was post-nomination is what I meant, Shakey.

Regardless, I just want every independent/center leaning Repub I know to feel abandoned by his campaign and either demoralized enough to stay home or angry enough to vote elsewhere.

thinking he could win the presidency by appealling to the middle/independents/Democrats was totally fucking delusional as well.

I think everyone wants that.

Well everyone other than Dr Morbius, maybe.

Michael, McCain has either lied about or misstated his positions routinely for at least the last decade. See each thrilling installment of "An Affair to Remember":

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh092208.shtml
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh092308.shtml
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh092408.shtml

The issues he flipped on or lied about, or both:

- abortion
- prescription drugs
- his own tax plan
- health care
- school vouchers
- iraq

I can sympathize with the softly softly approach necessary with Certain Relatives, though.

Tracer, it's not like I've been drinking the Kool-Aid on McCain, it's just that I remember a time when he used to spout off about how 'independent' he was and how he would work with the other side for 'America's best interest'. He's basically not saying that much any more.

??!?! Um he said that a bunch of times during his convention speech.

I think he still thinks of himself as a crazy rebel too. HESGONNASHAKETHINGSUPS!

man you guys bored huh

"hey california man I dunno about you but maybe you didn't realize john mccain was ALWAYS a dick"

"no, I knew that, but he used to pretend not to be"

"ALWAYS. TOTAL DICK."

And now we're all caught up.

IF WASTING TIME ON THE INTERNET IS A FIRING OFFENSE THEN SACK ME NOW

WAIT I DIDN'T MEAN THAT

??!?! Um he said that a bunch of times during his convention speech.

So he did but he didn't follow that up with anything but base-rousing rhetoric and he hasn't since.

During vinyl sifting over the weekend, I found a record called The Voice Of Barry Goldwater which was his 1964 Republican campaign 33 1/3rd. (hey Obama, where's your 2008 campaign vinyl??!) Side A was all pretty much "we must protect ourselves from Communists and Cuba, etc. etc." which is not surprising at all for any campaign in 1964. But Side B? It was a mission statement by Goldwater on how to be "Free Men". He then goes on to list all the things to do fiscally that the Republicans have done the *complete opposite* since Nixon basically, but especially Reagan, Bush I, and of course GWB, down to the events just days ago.

Most of us know Goldwater as the O.G. Libertarian Republican (or back in 1964, a Republican), but the pain of the GWB administration really hurts when I read the liner notes on the Side B part. I plan to take pictures of this record and transcribe the liner notes in a few days. I hope to digitize Side B soon after.

Please send me mail or email saying "POST THE GOLDWATER SHIT". Seriously. This is something I can't sleep on.

Goldwater was infamous for penning irritated letters to Republican presidents whenever they failed in their devotion to fiscal conservatism and common sense.

lol. Amazon has it for sale

I should post a customer review.

Dear Mr. President

gold color vinyl?!?

"This Administration deserves to be trusted because it has kept us safe from terrorist attack since 9/11, has fought and won two wars, has presided over eight years of economic growth, has appointed two stellar justices to the Supreme Court, and has even learned how to do Louisiana’s job of protecting that state from hurricanes. The day will come, and not before long, when Americans will wish that George Bush was still president," - Steven Calabresi, professor of law at the Northwestern University Law School.

I saw that on Sully's blog. "The day will come" - lol

http://www.flashreport.org/images/Bizarro.jpg

What I'm really getting at, Tom, is the extent to which the Republican party continues in its current trajectory towards flat-earth evangelicals, culture war Neanderthals, and 'free-trade' ideologues. McCain, at one point posed as an alternative to that, of sorts. 'Liberal' and center-leaning Republicanism is increasingly rare, whihc is dangerous to the country as it is to the party's future, methinks. As a famous Republican once put it, "You can fool all of the people sometimes and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." The evangelicals have placed themselves in the way of scientific progress in everything from global warming to stem cell research and have to cling to objectively lowered scholastic standards to make sure their kids aren't seduced by the Devil, the culture warriors are jingoistic, often racist, and will get us into trouble abroad and needless, intolerant strife at home, and anybody from a libertarian to a business type who thinks the Repubs are the free-trade party is smoking some seriously high grade crack considering the cronyism of the party BOTH in Congress and the Administration and the incredible power-hungry nature of the Administration, recently seen in Paulson asking for one of the Republic's largest ever concessions of power to the executive, all in the name of corporate socialism (once known as fascism) in nationalizing debt while keeping profit free - hardly a mainstay of the Chicago School or the Rand-lovers or the usual the-market-is-more-efficient apologists of capitalism.

'Liberal' and center-leaning Republicanism is increasingly rare

yeah, this was my grandfather. fiscal conservative, small government-type but with a social conscience/deeply held Xtian belief in ministering to the needs of the less fortunate. He's not around anymore, and neither is the Republican party he used to belong to.

It's not an *if* regarding the inevitable facelift and/or death of the Republican party in our lifetime. It's when.

It will most likely be a face-lift, and it will have to be more Libertarian leaning for the Republican party to survive. I truly believe McCain wanted this, but he wasn't going to win this year on that idea, apparently. Hence Palin.

The Republicans' most loyal voting block is literally dying off, yet they continue to pander to the old. The problem for the Republicans here is: now the Baby Boomers are the New Old.. and Baby Boomers are seemingly less Republican than their previous generation.

Shakey, I always liked debating them, 'cause the center of their political sense was solidly 'conservative' in an anti-utopian, pragmatic way and they tended to eschew hard-ideology.

and Baby Boomers are seemingly less Republican than their previous generation.

except for this guy:

http://www.kentuckyderby.info/images/dennis-hopper.jpg

The country needs a sensible 'liberal' (in the original sense) party for balance but I don't really see it anywhere. The Libertarians are too purist, The Republicans talk a C- talk, but when it come down to it, they just want corporate donations from a corporate class who is as scared of genuinely free-trade as they probably should be and the image of the Democratic party's attatchment to free-speech/civil rights has been marred by much of their going along too easily in the 'War on Terror' and things like H. R. Clinton's co-sponsoring a bill to ban flag-burning.

My boss put it nicely at the Dem Convention: there are Pat Roberts Republicans, and Pat Robertson Republicans. We can work with the former, not so much the latter.

My Pat Roberts Republican in-laws in MI are voting Obama; their Pat Roberts Republican friends are organizing for Obama in MI.

"why-im-voting-4-obama-790983.JPG"
http://aquabotic.com/uploaded_images/why-im-voting-4-obama-790983.JPG

ok i need to know the genesis of that photo

god made it

My dad is a liberal Republican who has been championing Obama since the primaries; he's been regularly donating money to his campaign since its inception.

(He also hasn't voted for a Republican candidate since 1988 but that's just a detail.)

R2000: O 48-44
Rasmussen: O 49-47
Diageo: O 48-42
Gallup: O 47-44

"Palin: America Could Be Headed to Another “Depression” Without Economic Solution"

perceptive

well, now what? the polling seems to have stabilized into a narrow but substantial Obama win. i'm betting on six more weeks of alternating ridiculousness and boredom and faux-outrage but not much poll movement.

i was way wrong about Palin, btw. if anyone remembers.

Not even Secretary Paulson says the $700bn is certain to solve the problem. It seems to be a number they plucked out of the air, based on vague hope, political calculation and WAG-work.

xpost

goole, remind us

Gabb, just out of curiosity, how's McCain polling in Arizona?

i thought she would be a joke w/in 48 hours. it took a little longer, but they got a shitload of money and base excitement out of it.

http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo_StoryLevel/080317/080317-bernanke-hmed-11a.hmedium.jpg

pssst whats a number thats like a trillion but doesnt really sound thaaat big?

uh i dunno... seven hundred billion?

http://www.pollster.com/polls/az/08-az-pres-ge-mvo.php

it's possible AZ would be competitive if McCain were not from there. in another cycle or two, it may be.

goole, we have debates and october surprises to go

i didn't expect McCain to get as much of a bounce as he did from Palin/the convention, but my prognostication that she would do nothing to help, and a little to harm, in particular given that she does nothing to convince people that McCain is going to help the economy, seems to have been borne out in the longer-term, if aided a bit by the market

i wonder how mccain would be performing given the current economic sitch if he had chosen mittmentum

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Bill_Clinton_Will_respect_Jewish_holidays_then_hustle_up__cracker_vote_in_Florida.html?showall

It's a damned if they do or don't think with Palin.

Palin's going to be a boring ninja-of-the-obvious from here on out. I think the Biden/Palin debate will be far more boring and less exciting than people and the press anticipate.

People should really be geared up for this Friday's debate though. That's the more interesting and obviously more important event.