2008 U.S. Election Thread
 

Figuring I don't want to contribute to a bunch of political threads crowding out the forum, I think we should just have one thread for those interested to talk about new developments and shit. Yay or nay?

Anyways, it seems that John McCain confused Spain for Mexico in a Spanish interview.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/217710.php

Oh yeah, and he also assumed the Spanish prime minister was a Latin American anti-U.S. commie terrorist.


(note: I figure bolding and enlarging new topic titles will help keep the new updates separated from fallout discussion of previous topics)

McSame is lolable.

WHY VOTE FOR A LESSER EVIL?



VOTE CTHULHU 2008

is bullshit.

vote for me

Vote for Suchfriends ... clearly.

Yes we all hate repukes, they are a bunch of shits, they are ruining this country, they are controled by a bunch of money-grubbing gun-toting bible-thumping yahoos who don't believe in science, they will be our destruction, and every day there is a new piece of shitty news about what a load of useless motherfuckers their leaders are... and yet, what are you doing in this election? Are you registered to vote? Are you trained to register voters? Are you calling people? Are you canvassing neighborhoods? Have you donated money or supplies to your campaign? What will you do on election day?

Elections are won by real people casting votes-- mostly, people in battleground states. Talking about it on the internet doesn't win elections.

http://pollster.com/

Right now: Nevada, Colorado, Montana, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, and New Hampshire are undecided.

Many other states are weak in their support of either candidate and could flip by election day.

I'm lucky to be in New Mexico where it's been a tossup until recenty, and the election is far from a secure win for Obama, so I'm working to ensure that the state goes blue in the election. But come on people. Time to get off our asses!

All of you who live in Florida could help win Florida. North Carolina and Missouri can still be won by Obama-Biden. Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania need to be firmly blue.

And then there's the congressional elections. We need to boot out those assholes who have supported backwards policies for decades.

DO NOT FORGET that the 2000 election was lost because 500 votes were miscounted. You cannot do that with impunity when there is a clear margin of victory. Do not expect that there will be any less shenanigans this time around. But things will not change unless we get off the internet & do something that gets real people casting votes. Yes I hate to paraphrase Le Tigre, but if you want to smash the right wing, I'll meet you in the street, blah blah blah. Seriously. We need to start taking action. Early voting starts in October, so the time to get involved is now.

no, that would be the equal bullshit, vote for yrself and take yr own initiative to go out and make the changes you demand one step at a time.. voting is a dead end.

if you really want to know the true meaning of futility, come to oklahoma and vote blue!

you're next to arkansas, which could turn blue.

i have a friend from new york who has spent some weekends canvassing new hampshire.

there's a bright idea...

I don't see why one can't take their own initiative as well as still have faith in the American political system.

But this thread isn't here for you to continue on in your quasi-revolutionary daydreaming. It's here to facilitate election discussion.

i'm not 18, but im tryin to talk all my friends who are to register and vote but they're all so fuckin lazy. i got a couple down, so i do feel like i accomplished something.

& im still lookin for a way to help out. what am i supposed to do? is there supposed to be like a local democrat 'headquarters' or something? sorry for my ignorance but i just dont know what the hell i can do.

I don't think I'm going to vote this year.
Oh and I think Obama is no better than McCain.
(I will not reply to this)

yeah, look for your local obama headquarters.

or you can sign up online:

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

you can canvass your family, your friends, your friend's parents, your older friends, relatives, etc.

the page i posted you above reads like this:

How do you want to get Involved?

Read through some of the most important ways that you can spread this movement now, and get started today. Election Day is only a few weeks away now, and it is critical that we do everything we can to be the change that we have been waiting for. Learn more by clicking on one of the options below to get involved.
I'll talk to anyone

• Use our online voter contact tool, Neighbor to Neighbor, to talk to people in your community.
• Volunteer with the official campaign organization in your area.
• Host a grassroots event.
• Read our Grassroots Action Guide to learn about more ways you can help.
• Register other people to vote.

I'll talk to my friends, family, and neighbors

• Create your own Personal Fundraising Page.
• Reach out to your community on Neighbor to Neighbor.
• Tell your personal and professional networks about our new online voter registration resource center, VoteForChange.com.
• Fight back against rumors and political attacks, and have your networks do the same on FightTheSmears.com.
• Make sure everyone you know is registered to vote.
• Share the latest campaign videos, emails and blog posts with your networks.
• Spread information: show your friends, family and neighbors Barack's policy stances.
• Visit our downloads section to get logos and graphics, make posters and dvds, and much more.

I want to help on my own

• Donate today.
• Make calls from home with Neighbor to Neighbor.
• Attend a grassroots event.
• Fight smear email campaigns by joining our Action Wire Team.
• Make sure you are Registered to Vote.
• Join our online community, My.BarackObama.com.
• Sign up to get information on official campaign events.
• Read HQ Blog or the Obama Bulletin to stay informed.

and that's it! they make it really easy on you.

GMKU, I'm looking @ you in North Carolina.

and to end my postings for the day, here's an email i got the other day from a friend, describing his experiences canvassing & more, i've anonymized it for the interwebs:
=====================
All right people, here's my feeling on this:
The last time we had a candidate running on a genuinely progressive platform with a real shot at winning was 1976. I don't want to wait another 32 years for this chance. The election is going to come down to the ground game. Who
gets out the vote. Arianna Huffington, Fox News, Maureen Dowd, the National Enquirer and Keith Olbermann are not going to decide this election. Because of our charming electoral college system, humans voting in swing states are
going to decide it. If you live in or near a swing state, here's a couple things you can do.

GET TO A SWING STATE
Canvassing is the Number 1 way to get people to vote. [ ] and i have been canvassing for Obama in New Hampshire, one of the crucial swing states (here's a link to more: http://www.pollster.com/) . The Obama campaign makes
it pretty easy. You sign up for one of their groups like Missouri for Obama or Teachers for Obama on their website. You can also search for the nearest field office on their website near you and contact them. Here is an example
of an email to see if I want to do a Pennsylvania cross border run.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/PABorder

FOR TEACHERS:
Make sure your students are registered. If they are from a swing state, they can vote at their parents' address. Here's a good place to start:
http://www.voteforchange.com/ I am also working to organize students at [ ] College for canvassing in NH. Every school has a student coordinator and you can contact them. So you are not pushing your politics on them, you can give your own students info about the McCain office to volunteer near
you as well as whatever you or an Obama student coordinator at your school are planning.

OUR EXPERIENCE
We drove into neighborhoods with NY plates, parking and walking, people were very nice. People are likely relieved you aren't religious nuts. You go with another person and if you are not comfortable someplace you don't go.
The campaign asks that you talk about why you are supporting Obama and they ask that you don't debate. So if they are for McCain you just thank them for
their time. Generally, the people they send you to are really (amazingly!!) undecided. The idea is to get people to move a little to the left: leaning mccain to undecided to leaning obama to strong obama to volunteer. The campaign gives you some talking points, but it's really important that you
just make contact, be nice and leave some info.

OTHER OPTIONS
There is also telephones, voter registration and other ways to help that are explained on the website and outside groups like http://www.moveon.org/
Anything involving human one to one contact is a good thing. Michael Moore organized a Bowling for Obama night in Michigan a couple weeks ago

WHEN
Early voting starts in October so soon is good

THE CAMPAIGN
The campaign is no frills man. If you're lucky they'll have some stale nachos and old coffee. All of their money is going to get out the vote. So follow up if they contact you. They will send emails but they are busy as hell.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/statepages

Feel free to pass this on or cut it up and add to it. This is not official.
I'm just trying to keep things moving.

====================

ps:

FLORIDA GROUPS:

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

!@#$%!, I live south of the border. I'm in South Carolina.

People keep telling me McCain is going to win. Democrats are telling me this. Are we fucked again?

mang i just came back to say

WE'RE ONLY FUCKED IF THE PEOPLE WHO CARE SIT ON THEIR ASSES COMPLAINING AND DOING NOTHING.

come on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS FOR YOU:

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

^^ JOIN ALREADY!

at worst, you might just meet some congenial people.

JOIN ALREADY!!

Okay, done.

If the election was today, who do you honestly think would win?

McCain. I'm sorry, but the numbers are showing that, I'm afraid.

Obviously I know far less about this than any of you, but from a purely outsider's perspective I'm not altogether sure how well McCain's current tactic of trying to move the debate towards issues of the economy (painting Obama as your typical high-taxing liberal) are gonna work. The collapse of major companies like Lehman Brothers hardly demonstrate his own party's competence when it comes to running an economy. I dunno, beyond just working on stereotypes I really can't see what points the Republicans can score if they draw the debate into strictly political waters. surely they're just better off laying low and hoping the Palin factor continues up till election day.

The public are idiots, they don't know what's good for them.

The R's game plan is to tell the people what they want to hear and paint the D's as doomsayers.

Apparently, Biden said that it should be a patriotic duty to pay taxes. Fox 'News' berated him for that.

OK, fair enough. So it's more a response to Biden's comment than McCain going in unprompted. That's what was confusing me slightly. I have to say, whatever Biden was meant to achieve, he's getting absolutely no coverage here in the UK. (not that this matters politically in terms of the election) It's interesting that Obama too figures very low in the news coverage ratings now, at least compared with Palin. Saying that, McCain has been, and remains, more or less invisible media-wise (which probably suits his campaign quite nicely). I'm sure if you asked the average person in Britain who they thought the election was between they'd say Sarah Palin and Obama.


I think this is true - not just of this election but of so many that are to come. The 'Left' (for want of a better word) is too easily put off by the thought of compromise. No government is realistically going to change things for the better that radically, but it's certainly true that some parties are going to be less intolerable than others. Besides, I've never understood why ordinary people can't enter into the official political process while at the same time continuing their work for more radical changes outside of that. It isn't an either-or situation. Obama wouldn't revolutionise the country, but even if you look at it in the most sceptical way he'd still be a slightly smaller step in the wrong direction than that taken by McCain. The fact is that whatever anyone's real political beliefs, either McCain or Obama will be president in just over a months time. And unless someone can honestly say that there really is no difference between the two (which there clearly is) then they simply have to choose one over the other.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/110473/Ga...McCain-44.aspx

WHAT??? yes I don't understand - r u saying that people should not vote for Barack??? FUK U 2 deth u dumb shit - um.. that is IF ur saying not 2 vote. Are U gonna let another 4 years of republican world eating take place because u don't want to take part in an ugly process of getting involved w/ the political system?????? Barack represents the 1st rays of hope for this country since Kennedy bro #2 was assassinated. Obama can breathe some new blood into this this dying cancer ridden machine that's sinking into the earth in D.C.PLEASE -Calif. will go obama, but every vote DUUUUZ make a differance. Obama is a gift, we can't turn the other way because the race is terrifying and ugly and immoral. This country will die if it has to endure 4 more years of Republican demolishuns. Money being poured into defense spending that will never be used for anything but making things worse & worse $ worse. Pleaase give Barack a chance to make USA a place to be happy about again. Remember Clinton? It felt good to have the repubicans deperately hold up a blow job as the horrible offense against this country - didn't it feel good to see the Repubs hold up a man getting a blowjob as a reason to impeach him -yeah it was sad, but at least it could be laughed at. I'm so fucking terrified that that kind of innocence will die inthis country. The repubs are killerz - Let Obama give us some hope again -GOD -I'm dyin' for it.
I think if McCain is elected I'll snap and put a chunk of leAD thru his noggin. God, y can't he just die now?:fuckyou::fuckyou:
2 many stupid hypnotized zombies out there that want to keep the war going, cuz it makes 'em feel righteous -oh god I've already spilled too much


JUST PLEASE VOTE--:confused::confused:

There's a 1 in 3 chance that McCain will kick the bucket within the next 4 years.
So you probably won't have to put a chunk of lead in his noggin.

Either way, you're pretty smart. Repped.

i was at the grocery store today and there was a truck in the parking lot with a friggin huge mccain/palin flag painted on the back. sry to the hippies out there.

Thanks, but McCain will already have his VP and cabinet set up by that time - too late. He need to ditchBEFORE he's elected. I know- dumb commentary cuz unless I really have the stones to take im out b4 the election it's pointless -if he wins, alot of things will become pointless is my point.

all of this talk sounds a lot like what was said when Bush was re-elected. did any of you fuckers actually move out of the country? did any of your lives get ruined? have the last 8 years been the worst years of your lives? i don't think alec baldwin moved, either, what a cunt. it's all talk

sure they could have. but they haven't been awful. i'm sure most everybody has maintained their quality of living or even improved it. the economy ain't great right now, but that happens. i'm just sick of all the people who think the world ends every time a republican gets elected. it doesn't, and all the people who talk drastic never end up doing anything or changing their lifestyles anyway.

i still see a ton of hummers near where i live. i think if someone wants it enough, he will buy it. gas is still cheap for us compared to europe/the rest of the world.


paltrow did move cuz of marriage i think, to that ugh, english man... an ugly and stupid one at that. but i read something where paltrow talks a lot of shit about america and the people, and thinks the english are god's gift to mankind. and what kind of bitch names their kid apple?

Yeah, but gas is high because Bush's friends are in the oil biz, and bush is in the oil biz and well y'know...teue, many people live waaayy out of there means and on credit cards and all of that. Me and my family live simply and we still are struggling. Times are harder than 8 yrs ago and that is a fact. I've had to adjust by riding my bike to work over driving. Thats 20 miles a day i ride and therefore around $300 in gas I save a month. Whatever...me riding my bike isn't the issue, the issue is that people have changed and will have to continue to change their lifestyles, just to keep up with everyday things. America in general still has a lot to learn about how the rest of the world works.

gas inflated when Carter was prez too.

But oil co.'s weren't turning in record profits.....

Don't guess what's in other people's hearts or minds - it's really immature. I've been so infuriated by what this administartion has done that it has affected the quality of my life.
For some it's not that big of a deal, but for me it sucks, and I am starting to really hate this country - and I also hate the people that say if you don't like it move away -the whole point of this country's supposed ideology is that if you don't like it, try to change it -and that IS exactly what I do my best to do - doesn't sound to me like you do, but then -I'm only guessing.

damn, you must be living a sheltered life. are you on a trust fund?

i know a lot of people out of work right now.



palm beach?

---

seriously man, the u.s. economy is not doing well-- wall street has been doing well based on the inflated valuation of worthless assets, but that is finally changing, and the markets will crash like the housing market crashed. credit cards are next-- mark my words. this is a fucking house of cards.

the real economy, i.e., where people live, eat, work, fuck, sleep, and draw a paycheck, has been stagnant or in decline for some time now. sure it's not the great depression, but the real purchasing power of wages has diminished, unemployment is high, the dollar is weak and the increase of exports is no magic bullet, bankruptcies are at an all-time high, science and high-tech have been moving elsewhere (like singapore), high paying jobs keep being exported and are being replaced with shitty service jobs that pay crap, unemployment has been going up since last year, and looks like it will keep going up, and while the rich can still play stock market games, buy treasury bonds or gold or whatever, the middle & working classes are going in reverse.