The More You Know...

I'm still processing everything from last night, but I am happy Obama won.  I am happy a lot of Dems won across the board, especially Tammy Baldwin, Tammy Duckworth, and Elizabeth Warren.  I am not happy that Mike Pence got elected Governor of Indiana along with the double whammy of Republican Supermajorites in both the House and Senate...... UGH!  More to come!

One question that popped in my head last night: What are the stats on a nominee losing his home state? Yes...I'm a nerd. Anyway, DailyKos.com printed the answer:

"The only presidential candidate to suffer a larger home state loss [than Romney] was the first-ever Republican nominee, John Frémont of California.

Frémont received only 18.8 percent of the vote in California in 1856, good for a distant third place behind Democrat James Buchanan and third party candidate and former president Millard Fillmore.

Four Democrats and two Republicans has also lost their home states by double digits. Democrats: Alton Parker of New York in 1904; Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey in 1916; James Cox of Ohio in 1920; Adlai Stevenson of Illinois in 1956. Republicans: William Taft of Ohio in 1912; Herbert Hoover of Iowa in 1932. Progressive nominee Teddy Roosevelt of New York also lost by double digits in 1912."

The more you know ;-)

 

Something to Ponder on Election Day...

Yes, I have been a horrible blogger as of late, but the weeks have been kind of crazy.  I will get back to it.  I promise.  :-)

Narrative Shenanigans - Reloaded

With the preparations for the final debate tonight, the media is in a tizzy over it being the "tiebreaker."  If you believe that Romney won the first and Obama won the second, then this makes a lot of sense, but I still have an extreme level of consternation over the fact that the media continues to bury the lede that Romney has been winning by lying through his teeth.

I am still bothered with the overall "drama" and sports metaphors being bandied about by the press.   I understand that this is a lot more interesting than if Obama was blowing Romney out of the water, but this trumpeting of the polls, which can easily be manipulated to make a point  I have certainly reached a point where all of this is done, but I am not looking forward to contested results, which I am sure the media is salivating for.  If Romney wins the popular vote (due to the extreme redness of the southern red states) and Obama wins the Electoral College (or vice versa),

It will be interesting to see how Bob Schieffer handles the constant interruptions from Romney.  He was quite patronizing to Candy Crowley, which I think has more to do with his patrician upbringing than anything else -- he doesn't support women, so why should he treat one as an equal?  Schieffer certainly seems more intellectually spry that Jim Lehrer, even though he is only 3 years younger.  Plus, I think the format of the two candidates sitting at the table with the moderator, will lead to a much more loose debate over all.

Oh well, it's the bottom of the ninth...

Mittens & the Binder of Women

Oh, Mittens...  You make it to easy.  You and your binder of women for political appointments is going to live on and on and on.   I helped the meme a little:

Narrative Masturbation

One part of blogging that challenges me on occasion is coming up with a good title.  I am pretty sure I have Adult Onset ADD (Squirrel!), but in my quiet times, usually when I am walking my 30 minutes to and from work, I set my mind out into the ether to figure things out.   I actually gathered the idea for this post a week or so ago, but I because of my busy week AND because of the lack of a title, I kept putting it off.  However, I've decided to just go with the original one I had, which you can see above...

Anyway, while I think this has always been an issue in elections, I just feel like it is much more blatant this  year, and I am talking about over-dramatizing by the media - that every machination is a turn of the dramatic screw.  Mitt Risks Everything at Convention!  Fails!  Obama's Convention is a Slam Dunk! Insurmountable Lead! Obama will Kick Romney's Ass in the First Debate!  Obama Fails!  Polls Drop!  Dead Heat!  Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah!  This is narrative masturbation at its finest.  The creation of drama for your entertainment and no one else... (though this is really untrue...I'm pretty entertained).

The press gets whipped up into such a fervor over the narrative that, unfortunately, they become the propulsion behind it.  All things being equal, Obama did have a much better convention experience than Romney, with a gigantic assist from Bill Clinton.  Obama got an awesome bounce out of this, which is pretty amazing when you think about it.  While Bill did outpace the NFL opening game, the ratings were still pretty paltry across the board.  So, the "bounce" can really only be attributed to the media buzz afterwards.  However, what the media giveth, they taketh away, and after Obama's lackluster debate performance, they pulled the rug out from under the coverage.  This not to say that Obama was not terrible. He really, truly was, but in the the building up of the plot point that Romney prevailed with his strong delivery and presence, the media neglected the fact that nearly everything he said was a reversal of a previous stance or a blatant lie.  Granted, Obama should have called him on it, but what does it say that we consider someone a winner for the utmost level of deception?  It is really quite ridiculous.

Which brings us to the debate tonight...  The story now is that Obama has been shamed, and while last time he was talking about how much of drag debate prep was, he has now turned into a happy warrior ready to reclaim the vim and vigor for which he is known.  Romney is the conquering hero, waiting to put the final nail his win over Obama.  Obviously, the media hope here is that Obama over-performs  so that the narrative tomorrow will be "Obama Overcomes Adversity to Beat Romney."  I can only hope this is how it happens, because I am really starting to feel like this is a goner for us.  Of course, this is what the media wants me to feel, even though there is empirical evidence to the contrary.  There is still that final debate, but I am sure in the media's "heart of hearts" they would want an Obama win here and a draw in the final.

I guess we will see how tonight turns out.  If nothing else, I suppose "Hillary will Come to the Rescue in 2016."  (And so it beings...)

Pants on Fire

Anyone who has followed this blog knows that I am political.  I was a political nerd in high school, majored in Political Science in College, was President of College Democrats, and interned at the Democratic National Committee during the second election of Bill Clinton in 1996.  So, obviously, I am for Mitt Romney.

That's a lie, but apparently lying through your teeth is what it takes to "win" a Presidential Debate.

I am a Clinton Democrat.  I've become more overtly liberal over the years mainly because I  believe in the government's role of helping people.  I was very much for Hillary in 2008, and I often consider "what might have been."  However, I am a strong supporter of President Obama, and while I think he has made some rookie errors, I think he has generally done a great job with the hand that has been dealt him (crippling economy, do nothing congress, etc.).  While I consider him an extremely intelligent man, I never considered the debates a slam dunk.  Obama becomes way too professorial during debates, and while it says more about the American people than anything else, it ends up looking smug.  He can also be quite sarcastic, which, obviously, I appreciate, but from the "You're nice enough" comment to Hillary in New Hampshire to some of the quips on Wednesday, I think it can sound rather abrasive.

If you want to go mainly on style points, then Romney comported himself well.  I personally hate his voice, and he gets this vacant look in his eyes when he speaks.  However, he "seemed" more on the ball than Obama, even though Romney made statements that would make Pinocchio blush, and this has lead to the widely considered notion that he "won."  He didn't.  It seems that Republicans do not realize the age we live in, where fact checking has become an art and can be done almost simultaneously.  Why would you lie so much?  Why would you contradict your own stances so much?  Do you think we wouldn't notice?

I just hope that the Obama Team, now that they know how Romney is going to play, comes back big in the second and third debate.  Obama will excel at the second debate town hall format with CNN's Candy Crowley, and I am sure Bob Schieffer will do a better job than Jim Lehrer for the final, foreign policy themed debate.  Let's face it, Romney has no foreign policy stances.  So, it is a great way to end up.  I have to say I am a little worried about the VP debate.  Hopefully, Biden will not say anything stupid, but that is a topic for another day...