Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[shorebird]

DAMMITT!! I went against my own advice.

[shorebird]

"The other guy".

[shorebird]

Americans are stupid. We don't deserve an election. We should have a dictatorship. That would open some eyes.

[ice grillin you]

I don't get that either Geo.  Both debates were essentially a tie (no gaffes, nothing groundbreaking, and the same repeated rhetoric over and over), tey the public is all over Obama.

Either a) that means the Repubs are that far out of touch with the American public, which is a decided possibility, or b) people are enamored by a man that can deliver eloquent responses to questions, thus thinking they are more fit to be a leader. 

Personally, I think it's more B than A, and that scares the living shtein out of me.  That means that people are so unintelligent and uneducated that they (we) think a great performance means a man is prepared to lead America through the roughest period in almost 100 years.  I thought we gave out Academy Awards for that, not Presidential elections.

mccain is a mean old decrepit bastich who called obama "that one" last night...he is horrible on almost every issue there is right now has lost all credibility with the american public and most importantly he has an incompetant buffoon behind him

the palin nomination changed this entire election...it will go down as one of the all time worst campaign decisions ever...if not for her we are still within the margin of error

the republicans have a horrendous candidate that no one likes...not even republicans...for the most part the only people voting for john mccain at this point are the republican base and racists

a lot of republicans arent voting at all in fact...hes that bad

[rjs246]

I read an article this week about the Republican party and how throughout the mid-20th century the general public thought of them as nothing but advocates for the wealthy until they adopted southern racism into their platform and started appealing to southern whites who equated government involvement with desegregation.

The article was decidedly and exaggeratedly left-wing, but it was interesting.

[SD_Eagle5]

link? sounds interesting

[Diomedes]

I skipped this debate figuring that it would be a repeat of the first.  Good move on my part, clearly.  These two are not going to slip up and make news during a debate.  They are both too polished, intelligent, and professional to let that happen.

I agree with whoever said (Demon?) that these things are a waste of time, that no one changes their mind based on them.  That is, none of the "answers" given by candidates sway voters.  I do think the way the candidates respond, the tone and body language and that kind of thing, makes some kind of personal impression on people though, and I'm not sure that impression doesn't influence some voters. 

Regarding "undecided" voters...I thought the accepted figure was 9% of likely voters, not 3%?

I also agree with vigy that Palin is the disaster in the McCain campaign.  All the news reports and commentary I've heard blame McCain's precipitous decline on his ineptitude regarding the economic situation.  No mention of the fact that Palin is no more ready to be the country's back up quarterback than Munron.  That pick really will go down--assuming McCain fails of course--as a turning point.  They also don't mention his ludicrous "suspend the campaign" stunt.  That was erratic by definition and did not inspire confidence in anyone.  When you're president, you have to deal with several crises at once..you can't just quit on those to deal with these, as it were.

Finally...shore,  I don't know which is more pathetic, that you persisted with your assinine trolling jag so long thinking it was fun or funny, or that your general grasp of these issues is usually so poor that most of us believed you.  In fact, I'm not convinced you were in fact trolling.  Read some books please.

[Wingspan]

I'm convinced that the debate method is a huge waste of time, resources, and attention.  No matter what is said, no one is changing their votes based on the debates.  I have a hard time believing that there are more that 3% of the population that is undecided at this point.  I also believe that people hear exactly what they want to hear, and watch or listen to the debates so that when their candidate says something they agree with, they can nod their head in agreement and say "That's what I'm talking about."  Dems can point at sound bites and say Republicans (or people that side with Republicans, thank you very much Todd) are ignorant idiots.  Republicans can listen for sound bites and nod in agreement and say "Exactly! That's exactly right!" when the Repub candidate says something they agree with.

Waste.  Of. Time.

I am actually still undecided. And I agree with you...no debate will change my mind...I stopped watching after about 45 minutes, it was the same crap spewed by both sides as debate #1...and the ads that followed.

[shorebird]

Finally...shore,  I don't know which is more pathetic, that you persisted with your assinine[sp. asinnine] trolling jag so long thinking it was fun or funny, or that your general grasp of these issues is usually so poor that most of us believed you.  In fact, I'm not convinced you were in fact trolling.  Read some books please.

Oh, there are plenty of articles out there that talk about there being no connection between Iraq and 9-11. I choose not to believe everything I read. And your right to a certain extent, I wasn't all trolling. I feel Al Qaeda was behind 9-11, and to think that there is no Al Qaeda in Iraq is just plain naive. Check out this article from your own Washington Post last week. The Al Qaeda are intertwined all over the middle east, and are all connected one way or the other. All intelligence up until the attacks pointed to the fact that the center of all Al Qaeda operations was in Iraq. But, suddenly after 9-11, there is no connection. Osama wasn't even in Iraq. Maybe he wasn't, but if so he hadn't been long leaving and going into hiding, possibly knowing what the United States reaction would be.

And as far as my grasp of the issues being poor, thats just the general way the majority around here likes to think about anyone who doesn't share their liberal views, and is the one reason I don't post a lot of my views. Yet, even with the fact that I don't post much in this thread, you in all your wisdom seem to know that my grasp of the issues is not up there with you and the rest of your liberal buddies. You have no tolerance for anyone who doesn't share your views, and feel the need to denounce them as ignorant. That proves nothing but a closed minded, bigoted, partisan view point. Actually, if anyone outside the CF world came here and read some of your post, you would be deemed insane, or in the least a very radical leftist.    

It makes me laugh how most of you think that the only smart people in this country are the ones in your own little message board world here at CF. You want to talk about how I'm ignorant of the issues, but yet 99% of all commentary or posting in this thread, yours included, has been nothing but personal attacks on the Republican candidates, and nothing about the issues. If I wanted info on any of the issues such as taxes, health care, gas prices, or anything else, the last place to look would be here.

The only thing we might agree on is that the debate last night was just a repeat of the previous one. I thought it might be different with the public format. Still, I can't agree with the answers being "spewed" out as some have called them as being crap. They are what they are, policy, and really can't be said enough if that is what a candidate believes and is what he will do when in office.

[Seabiscuit36]

Wing is right, the commercials after the debate were despicable by Mccain. 

[Cerevant]

McCain had his last shot before the first debate: he could have opposed the bail-out.  That would have been a game changer (for good or ill) but it would have helped separate him from Bush, and clearly establish him as the Maverick he pretends to be.  He probably would have picked up a good number of independents in the process.

His other option was to step up and challenge Obama in the debates.  Instead of directly addressing Obama and putting him on the spot, he keeps trotting out the same tired stump speeches.  Obama is playing it safe because he has the lead.  McCain is playing it safe because..?

Game.  Set.   Match.  Stick a fork in it, its done.



(averages/projections from fivethirtyeight.com)

[phattymatty]

turn it off and put on the World Series of Poker...you'll thank me

ha, thats what i ended up doing after a while.  watching that little bitch hellmuth whine for 45 min. ended up being easier to take.

[phattymatty]

When McCain said to the black guy "you probably didn't even know who Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were" was a huge mistake.

Yep, I really wanted Obama to say something about that.  Nothing blatantly calling McCain a racist or anything but something simple like, "Oliver, I'm going to assume that you have heard of Freddie and Fannie before last week."  I'm sure McCain regretted it the second he said it, and Obama should have been nailed for it at the time. 

[Seabiscuit36]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI0iIOqPGak

So mature by McCain, dont shake my hand Negro

[shorebird]

Looked to me like they both have equal disdain for the other.