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JVO
03-03-2008, 07:26 PM
So I am very frightened about tomorrow's primaries. I really think Sen. Clinton is going to win both Texas and Ohio. I think she may win Ohio by as many as 15 points and that she will win Texas by 5+. Because the Democratic Party is run by a bunch of idiots, the Texas Primary is an open primary in which anybody can vote. Because of this, a number of Conservative politicians and pundits are asking Republicans to vote for Hillary in the Democratic primary because they feel they have a much better chance of beating her than Obama, and if nothing else they can extend the democratic mudslinging for another couple of months while John McCain has a free pass through the convention. If Clinton wins both of these states, it will represent a huge momentum shift with very few states remaining that actually matter. Pennsylvania would be the next one, and if Hillary wins Ohio there is no reason to think she won't win Pennsylvania. I really hope I am wrong and am just having last minute jitters.

(stop reading now, as the rest of this is just a meaningless rant on my part)

Also, something very interesting happened on the Rush Limbaugh radio show today. Rush was busy lambasting Obama and calling for Texas Republicans to vote for Hillary. Then this lady called and proceeded to ream Obama a new one by stating that he has no experience and that he is playing on people’s emotions in a religious fervor that is absent of substance (I love it when conservatives compare Obama to religion that has no substance!). Basically this is the same old crap that they have been saying about Obama for awhile now. Anyway at the end of the call she said that her 10 year old daughter saw Obama talking on TV and pointed out how much he looks like Curious George, so now her entire family refers to him as Curious George and not as Sen. Obama. Rush thanked her for her call and then they went to a break. Now honestly I didn’t think anything about the call, after all it is the Rush Limbaugh show so per usual I pretty much discredit everything everybody (especially callers) say, but when Rush returned from break the first thing that he did was apologize to Sen. Obama for letting that comment air and that if he had known who Curious George was he would have condemned that lady immediately for that comment and told his listeners that, that type of behavior would not be tolerated on his show. He said there were a multitude of legitimate reasons to attack Obama, and that he planned to attack him on each and every one of them, but he would never make nor tolerate any racial attacks against him. So then after about 15 minutes of apologizing he went back to the phone lines. About 20 minutes later another lady called and absolutely went off on Rush. She said that Rush had planned that phone call so that he could subliminally call Obama a monkey and that his excuse that he didn’t know who Curious George was, was completely impossible to believe and that he should be ashamed of himself and that he represents all of worst of the institutional racism that is prevalent in the Republican Party.

Now I have to tell you that phone call really pissed me off for a number of reasons. It made me very sorry, and come to the defense of freaking Rush Limbaugh, which is reason enough to really piss me off. I have no doubt that Rush didn’t know who Curious George was. He has never had any kids, and probably was never much of a kid himself even when he was a kid. I have heard of Curious George before, but there are all sorts of things that I totally know nothing about that seem to be common knowledge for my generation. I have never once read or had any desire to read a comic book. I don’t read comic strips in the news paper (in fact comic strips piss me off because it is just more crap shoved in a newspaper that should be reserved for news. I think that all movies based on comic books or old toys from the 80’s are a complete waste of celluloid. I didn’t collect Star Wars memorabilia; I honestly didn’t even like the Star Wars movies with the exception of Empire. I am the youngest of 6 kids so I virtually ignored all kid things my entire childhood because I was hanging out with people 7-11 years older than me. My entire life as a child revolved around getting good grades, playing sports, and listening to music. The only point for me sharing any of that is just to state, that I completely believe that Rush didn’t know who Curious George was because a vast majority of times that I have conversations with Slam or Matty about the 80’s, I don’t understand any of the topics that were important to them. Before the movies came out I couldn’t name you a single X-man (or X person), I didn’t know the difference between Marvel Comics and DC comics, with the exception of Bugs Bunny I didn’t watch any cartoons, I had never even heard of Transformers before, basically I didn’t give a damn about any of that stuff (and honestly I still don’t). I certainly don’t think there is anything wrong with enjoying those things, and some of the smartest people I have ever know were fans of all of those things, it just turns out that I wasn’t. So I honestly thought that Rush did exactly the right thing and handled the situation in a surprisingly tactful and honest way, and to hear him condemned for that really made me mad.

Ok disregard all but the first paragraph.

zero2056
03-03-2008, 08:19 PM
I'm rooting against ya on this one JVO. I think Hilary is the best out of all 3 choices, and I believe that Republican plan would backfire on them.

As for the Rush Limbaugh stuff, what a moron... even if he wasn't in tune who Curious George is, he should have had the sense to ask what she meant rather than play along.

Smells like bullshit to me.

slam
03-03-2008, 08:29 PM
it's funny, jvo. i've heard a lot of the radio conservative heads (like hannity) urging their listeners to vote for obama in the texas and ohio primaries, because they hate clinton so much.

the only thing the conservative community seems to agree on is that obama is a pretty likable guy who is so totally liberal that they feel comfortable attacking him on his principles. which is interesting. but that rush story is a perfect example, i believe, of why they all have their gloves on with obama; they're scared to death of being labeled as racists. we all remember what happened to imus.

i'm pretty certain clinton won't win both states tomorrow. i'm looking forward to a concession speech tomorrow night. i'll pop popcorn.

shrimpdip
03-03-2008, 09:54 PM
I can't count how many times I've seen, or heard, Bush being compared to a monkey. Funny how nobody ever seems to think that's inappropriate.

JVO
03-04-2008, 01:56 PM
it's funny, jvo. i've heard a lot of the radio conservative heads (like hannity) urging their listeners to vote for obama in the texas and ohio primaries, because they hate clinton so much.



That is weird. When did you hear that? I watched Hannity and Colmes last night and he (Hannity) was definitely talking about how good for the Republicans it would be if Hillary won both Ohio and Texas. Laura Ingram was on Bill O'Reilly and she was also urging Republicans to vote for Hillary, and Rush has dedicated his last two shows to getting the Hillary vote out in Texas. I don't think any of them really want Hillary to be the nominee (although I bet they think they stand a better chance against Hillary), but they know that if the Democratic race is not decided soon, than Super Delegates, Florida, and Michigan are all going to become very important again. Needless to say that would be very bad for the dems.

slam
03-04-2008, 02:43 PM
That is weird. When did you hear that?

about a week ago. maybe the Dark Forces have Aligned themselves and are now speaking with One Voice.

zero2056
03-05-2008, 01:18 PM
I haven't seen an official delegate vote count, but it seems that Obama/Hilary are going to be close to tied, to Obama leading by about 50 or so delegates (not a huge margin).

I don't see how either of them are going to win the required 2024 delegates (like McCain did with his parties 1191 or whatever the number was), even if they "win out", due to the way that Dem's count votes (appears they need to look at this format again).

The Rep's have it down right (IMO) with most contests going as a "winner take all". This allows somebody to take an actual lead, and forces candidates out. It seems, the dems have their setup in a fashion that they expect most races to go to the convention if there are two equally matched candidates running. You can't build a big enough lead even if you win a state, because a 51-49% split on a state, means Obama gets 5 delegates and Hilary gets 4 delegates (or whatever the count maybe).

I'm not certain if all Dem states are "Pro rata" in delegates. Some maybe winner take all.

The Texas caucus is another hair brained idea.

JVO
03-05-2008, 01:34 PM
So I am very frightened about tomorrow's primaries. I really think Sen. Clinton is going to win both Texas and Ohio.

Yuck, sometimes I hate being right.

Yeah zero we won't have a nominee until right before the convention (if we are lucky), and now I really think that Hillary is going to get a lot of her super delegates back. Nobody is going to do what McCain did and win the nomination based of votes alone, because of the horrible system the Democrats have. With the exception of Illinois, Clinton has won every single major blue state that Dems will need to win in order to beat McCain. It seems like the entire Super Delegate system is in place to ensure that the party has a candidate that has a legitimate chance of winning the general, even if they don't win the nomination by popular vote. Seems custom made for the type of arguement that Hillary is going to use. Plus, we all know there is nobody more connected with the party elites than her and her husband. And don't forget Florida and Michigan.


I completely blame Saturday Night Live and the Daily Show for Clinton's success. I don't know if any of you saw the skits from SNL on their first show back after the writer's strike about how the media has coddled Obama. It was both hilarious and completely accurate. I think there are a lot of young people who saw that and decided either to not vote, or to vote for Clinton because of how unfair the coverage has been. There is an old political joke that has been around since the 60's: Question: What do you call a candidate that relys on young people? Answer: Loser. Obama is trying to change all of that, but younsters are a fickle bunch, and I am very worried that this old joke will ring true again.


Damn you SNL!!!!

At least now we will see what Obama is made of. I don't think the media is going to kiss his ass any more. If he can come back and win the nomination it will only make him stronger in the general.

slam
03-05-2008, 02:13 PM
Yuck, sometimes I hate being right.

i blame you for hillary's wins.

With the exception of Illinois, Clinton has won every single major blue state that Dems will need to win in order to beat McCain.

yeah, but i don't understand that line of thinking... i mean, california and new york would probably go with obama in the general, too, right? but with obama, you bring into play a lot more states that might be more likely to swing to obama than they would to hilary.

ah well, time to bunker down and see where this all takes us!

I completely blame Saturday Night Live and the Daily Show for Clinton's success.

people watch SNL? young people?

apparently, one of my roommate's buddies has been a campaign videographer for obama for the last year or so. he's one of obama's employees 'on the plane'. he came by and watched the returns last night with us, which was fun.

while laina swooned just to be in the presence of someone so close to His Holiness Obama (did i mention she has a small crush on 'bama?), i tried to find out some details about the candidate that we don't get through the media.

such as: what kind of music does he listen to? stevie wonder, lots of motown, 70's funk

what's he like in person: he and michelle are nerds. cool nerds, but nerds.

it was just interesting hearing his comments about the video work during the night (why does the camera always bump around during those rally speeches? because all the press are arranged on bleachers in the back that bounce around when people walk)

JVO
03-05-2008, 03:07 PM
yeah, but i don't understand that line of thinking... i mean, california and new york would probably go with obama in the general, too, right? but with obama, you bring into play a lot more states that might be more likely to swing to obama than they would to hilary.

Normally I would agree with you, but McCain changes everything. If you look at the states that he is strong in, they are all states that normally go with Democrats. I think McCain will be able to make a major play for both California and New York. I am sure the Governator will campaign like a crazy person for McCain in California and Bloomburg and Rudy will be campaigning in New York. Plus Lieberman will be a huge assest to McCain in New England. Most of the southern and midwestern states that Obama is winning, are going to go to the Republicans no matter who they are running against. I do think Obama has a much better chance of winning key southern states than Hillary does, but even that is up in the air.





people watch SNL? young people?)

I think the fact that it was the first SNL after the writer's strike is the reason why it had such an impact. And not only did it impact young people, but I think it had a major impact on the mainstream media who were basically painted as unobjective giddy school girls. I noticed their coverage of Obama changed radically after that SNL, and many of them even acknowledged that the SNL skit hit a little too close to home. I didn't actually see SNL, but I did see the clip about 20 times on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. The fact that all of these news channels kept running it over and over is the type of free positive publicity, that Hillary could only have dreamed of.


apparently, one of my roommate's buddies has been a campaign videographer for obama for the last year or so. he's one of obama's employees 'on the plane'. he came by and watched the returns last night with us, which was fun.?

That sounds really cool!

I am going to see Mike Huckabee next week. I am really excited.

JVO
03-05-2008, 04:04 PM
The Clinton campaign has begun to darken Obama's skin tone in her commericals ala O.J. Simpson: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/04/obama-skin-tone-darker-in_n_89829.html

Also I just heard on the news that 35% of the total voters in Texas were Republicans and that Clinton won a vast majority of those votes. They didn't have numbers yet, but they said the difference was significant.

slam
03-05-2008, 04:46 PM
The Clinton campaign has begun to darken Obama's skin tone in her commericals ala O.J. Simpson: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/04/obama-skin-tone-darker-in_n_89829.html


there was actually something about that on digg the other day. one guy in the comments (who seemed pretty knowledgeable about video) basically came to the conclusion that this was not done on purpose, it was an effect of the way they compressed the video for web. the aspect ratio is also off in exactly the right way to support his theory.

it has something to do with incorrect gamma levels, or something like that that i don't fully understand.

JVO
03-05-2008, 06:15 PM
I think the fact that it was the first SNL after the writer's strike is the reason why it had such an impact. And not only did it impact young people, but I think it had a major impact on the mainstream media who were basically painted as unobjective giddy school girls. I noticed their coverage of Obama changed radically after that SNL, and many of them even acknowledged that the SNL skit hit a little too close to home. I didn't actually see SNL, but I did see the clip about 20 times on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. The fact that all of these news channels kept running it over and over is the type of free positive publicity, that Hillary could only have dreamed of.



http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/television/826423,obamasnl030508.article