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

continuing resolution

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/25/1448502.aspx

For Chinese, U.S. election is 'entertaining'
Posted: Friday, September 26, 2008 7:03 AM
Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer

‘It’s just for fun’
"Many people pay attention to the election but with different motivations," said Professor Jin Canrong, Associate Dean at the School of International Studies. According to Jin, interest in China is broken down into three broad categories: official (government), intellectual (academics and policy analysts), and laobaixing (ordinary people).

---

"We noticed some differences in their policy towards China," said Jin. "For John McCain, he will pay more attention to the so-called military build-up of China, the religious freedoms, and Taiwan…. For Obama, we have some concern about the possible trade protectionism, some dispute around climate change, human rights, especially the human rights issue relating to Tibet."

But because the policy differences at this stage seem minute or elusive to most Chinese, they focus instead on the candidates’ personalities. "McCain, he’s a veteran, he’s very patriotic, and he’s 70. He’s got all this old stuff going on," said Annie Gong, a 20-year old college junior. "Obama, of course, he’s young, cute…but I think he’s kind of lacking in experience."

lol "For intellectual communities, they want to learn something from the process and try to improve China’s approach of governance," said Jin. "But for the average people, especially young people, it’s just for fun."

cnn poll, via tpm

Regardless of which candidate you happen to support, who do you think did the best job in the debate -- Barack Obama or John McCain?
Obama 51%
McCain 38%

Did _______ do a better or worse job than you expected?
Obama: Better 57%, Worse 20%, Same 23%
McCain: Better 60%, Worse 20%, Same 18%

Next, regardless of which presidential candidate you support, please tell me if you think Barack Obama or John McCain would better handle each of the following issues:

• The war in Iraq: Obama 52%, McCain 47%

• Terrorism: McCain 49%, Obama 45%

• The economy: Obama 58%, McCain 37%

• The current financial crisis: Obama 54%, McCain 36%

Thinking about the following characteristics and qualities, please say whether you think each one better described Barack Obama or John McCain during tonight's debate:

• Was more intelligent: Obama 55%, McCain 30%

• Expressed his views more clearly: Obama 53%, McCain 36%

• Spent more time attacking his opponent: McCain 60%, Obama 23%

• Was more sincere and authentic: Obama 46%, McCain 38%

• Seemed to be the stronger leader: Obama 49%, McCain 43%

• Was more likeable: Obama 61%, McCain 26%

• Was more in touch with the needs and problems of people like you: Obama 62%, McCain 32%

Based on what _______ said and did in tonight's debate, do you think he would be able to handle the job of president if he is elected?
Obama 69%-29%
McCain 68%-30%

The drinking game dark horse word was 'general petraeus'

yeah that is the reason I wound up smashed

gin rum pabst gay bus

haha so true xp

...

that took some sack, posting ellipses on the drinking thread

whoops not the drining thread
WHERE AM I?
ANDROID ARMY? WHAT?

Based on what _______ said and did in tonight's debate, do you think he would be able to handle the job of president if he is elected?
Obama 69%-29%
McCain 68%-30%

?

based on what and what said and did

he said fuck and he did shit

Still doesn't add up to me, but maybe that's just a large margin of error.

was this already posted?

Sen. Barack Obama stopped by his Senate office before heading over to the White House this afternoon for the big bipartisan meeting on the financial meltdown.

Met at the door by a few reporters, he answered a key question -- at least for his generation.

Beatles or Stones? asked a Congressional Quarterly reporter.

"Stones," Obama replied.

http://cdn.stereogum.com/img/joannanewsom_ys.jpg

Trufax: Obama's favorite show is The Wire

Which makes up for his Stones choice

I KNEW he was a Stones guy. Like him more every day.

"Stones," Obama replied.

<3<3<3

shoulda said Stooges tho.

Obama's favorite show is The Wire

more inclined to vote for candidate on this fact alone.

obama is high on REALNESS

"The CBS poll of undecideds has more confirmatory detail. Obama went from a +18 on "understanding your needs and problems" before the debate to a +56 (!) afterward. And he went from a -9 on "prepared to be president" to a +21."

If all you watched was the first 10 minutes of the debate, Obama won it going away

i guess i don't understand anyone who thought McCain won because I'm trained to see these things as confidence/macho contests, and Obama has always had the evident advantage there. Like I said beforehand, it was gonna be a big deal when the public finally got to see them in the same room together.

When are we gonna start hearing that McCain couldn't look at Obama because he was a POW?

i see we did this on the other thread

(tho i wonder if some in the media are raising the 'curiousity' of the issue to start getting at the question of why he has - as of recent? - such a droopy left eye, and whether he's suffered mini-strokes, and when his medical records are gonna drop already)

Met at the door by a few reporters, he answered a key question -- at least for his generation.

that's not a key question for his generation (or maybe they meant for the reporter's generation)

Pok-Ee-Stahn [John Hood]

I guess Obama thinks he's being clever by pronouncing the name of the country as "Pok-ee-stahn" rather than the standard English pronunciation. But he's not. He's not even being consistent within his own sentences, because he pronounces Afghanistan in the usual manner. Nor is it likely that he's going to try to emulate native pronunciations of France, Deutchland, Eire, etc. Basically, he sounds snooty and perhaps even vaguely appeasing of a foreign power. Viewers will be put off by his verbal tick.

Back in college, while spending a semester in DC, I dated a young lady from Pakistan. She used to laugh at the way Americans pronounced the name of her country. I said that since her version of the "United States" was heavily accented, I thought it might be a good rule for her to learn how to pronounce the proper name country she was visiting before complaining about Americans speaking English rather than Urdu.

The relationship didn't last.

Wow, what a dick.

"vaguely appeasing"

Chandler: What if I already found the right one, but i dumped her because she pronounces it 'supposably'?

I was curious about the missile defense bit but the Obama website isn't very illuminating

National Missile Defense: An Obama-Biden administration will support missile defense, but ensure that it is developed in a way that is pragmatic and cost-effective; and, most importantly, does not divert resources from other national security priorities until we are positive the technology will protect the American public.

might be one of those things where "supporting it" means "cutting the program down to next to nothing" .... some post on the Corner mentioned that Obama DOESN'T favor missile defense

Missile defense is one of those things that appeals to the uninformed.

Missiles are the very devil to defend against and every defensive technology under consideration is vulnerable to relatively simple, low-cost counter-measures. Plowing large sums into deploying a weak technology is just stupid.

I grant that it is probably worth keeping a research program going, looking for a breakthrough, because missiles are so pervasive in technological warfare that an effective anti-missile weapon would allow the posessor to leapfrog everyone else in the world and achieve a new level of defensive capability. But until a genuinely effective technology is discovered, there's nothing to deploy.

the standard English pronunciation.

Oh? How do the English pronounce it?

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/zero_ad

Narrative time, narrative time!. One of the things I like agree with this John Cole bit is the observation whatever the vibe people take away from the first debate, the (probable) SNL sketch tonight will probably lock it in.

two things stuck out for me (well lots of things stuck out but these two are interesting to me right now): 1, McCain said yes he would vote for the bailout. I'm not sure he understood that's what he was being asked, but he absolutely said "yes yes" when asked that by lehrer. 2, he said he would veto any spending on ANYTHING except defense. does anyone seriously believe that? I don't, but I also don't see how claiming you're doing to do that is a good move politically at all, when dams are crumbling and education is in the shitter. I've never seen a politician say they won't invest a dime in ANYTHING.

he said he would freeze spending on anything except defense, veterans' benefits, and at least some entitlement programs (social security and medicare)

(maybe)

would consider freezing

"inside baseball"

"david eisenhower"

that john hood post is incredible

did you mean john cole post

2, he said he would veto any spending on ANYTHING except defense. does anyone seriously believe that? I don't, but I also don't see how claiming you're doing to do that is a good move politically at all, when dams are crumbling and education is in the shitter. I've never seen a politician say they won't invest a dime in ANYTHING.

i've got a grandfather who'd follow a politician who said something like this to the ends of the earth :/

I thought "John knows that doesn't go through my sub-committee, but that's Senate inside baseball. The real issue here is..." was a really strong way to deflect that attack.

trying to play gotcha with obama by raising arcane procedural aspects of government was a pretty bad tactic (strategy?), it made mccain seem like a bureaucratic fussbudget and obama parried it pretty deftly

made him look disingenuous let's not be charitable here

2, he said he would veto any spending on ANYTHING except defense. does anyone seriously believe that?

this was the wtf moment, besides mccain dropping russkie names like bam pow. i think he said defense and entitlements. contrary to what someone said upthread, i thought the philosophical contrasts were foregrounded pretty well, and through no special effort by, say, obama to frame and steer the conversation which is a bonus. it helps that deregulation and other relative abstractions have been dragged into the light of day, obama's got a lot of clay to work with.