Balta1701

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 09:42 PM) Well then I really hope he met her more than once before this occasion. I believe it was 2-3 times.

You want to know the scary thing? This is the defense of the McCain camp.

Quite simply, politically, I am who I am because of George W. Bush. I really wasn't a fan of the Clinton years during them. I grew up during those years, started college fall of 99. So I grew up watching how the Clintons governed, how their administration was hamstrung for so many years because of scandal, and the whole Clenis thing was just the topper. Hated how the government was running at that point. Just to prove my point, and I'm neither kidding nor trying to brag, but in 1999 I gave the valedictorian speech at my high school and actually included a series of lines bashing Clinton and threw in a statement about how hopefully he'd taught us to vote Republican. If Indiana had been this swingy in 00, man would I regret that line. Anyway, then I watched the rise up of this absolute monster from Texas. A guy I simply couldn't stand from the moment I first saw him. I found him insulting to everything that this country stood for. He was an embarrassment. Every time he advocated a policy I found it to be a horrible idea. All his proposals for drilling, that's just silly. A tax cut? When we have a $5 trillion debt already built up and the Social Security generation about to retire? That's a terrible idea. And on and on. Just watching how he raked in the money from so many really wealthy donors, all of whom would benefit from his plans while I'd be exactly the kind of person who would suffer, that was awful. I had some hope for McCain. I actually liked the 2000 version of McCain. He seemed to at least have his head on straight. Perhaps most importantly, the people dumping money in to Bush's campaign, the people I felt were just trying to buy the whole thing to make themselves rich, hated him. Hated him with a passion that only his illegitimate African American daughter could understand. I would have voted for him in the primary if the race had made it that far. Might well have voted for him in the General, I'd have at least been a swing voter, because I didn't really trust Vice President Gore after all his fundraising shenanigoats. But Bush knocked out McCain early, and that was that. I watched Bush humiliate himself in one campaign event after another. One that really bothered me was that he made an issue of the 2000 census, the data which is really important for the country to get, and he told people not to fill it out. That was just idiotic. One flub after another. The guy didn't know anything about the world. He wanted to dump a bunch of money in to activating a missile defense shield that was a decade or more away. You name it, I couldn't stand the guy. In January, 2001, I was at the University of Illinois for a Quiz Bowl event, saw a hard print copy of the issue of the Onion with the headline "Bush promises 'our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over'". I still have that paper, since I just had to pick one up. It just seemed like it was going to be 100% right based on my evaluation of the man. I am a George W. Bush Democrat.

John McCain is 23 years older than the state of Alaska. (H/t)

In case you missed it, the Daily Show tends to do an introductory video for the candidates each election year IIRC. Here's Obama's.

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 05:41 PM) at least we know for sure that javy should be nowhere near the start our rotation if we face these guys in the playoffs Who do you want, Broadway or Richard?

So, FWIW, our good friends at TPMedia (our meaning...well...you know) have a summary of the Palin firing scandal case and where things currently sit. They've actually been following it for a while, so they at least know who the players are. Perhaps the key point...the Alaska legislature is actually scheduled to give a report on the case at the beginning of November. Even if it's an "exonerating" type report, that's not exactly the message you'd want to close on. "Not guilty!"

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 04:37 PM) Let me propose this. Crede's range on diving plays is a more helpful trait than anything Uribe provides. Offense or Defense. If Joe didn't keep botching the easy plays and easy throws, I might agree.

QUOTE (LosMediasBlancas @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 01:26 PM) I'm about 20 mins. from the San Andreas fault. When is 'the big one' gonna hit us? Within the next 100 years almost certainly, within the next 50 years more than likely, with a good chance of one happening at any time.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 04:09 PM) John McCain said based on her experience as a very small town mayor and gov of one of the smallest states in the union she is indeed ready to be president. You know what? Frankly, I have no problem believing that, because I don't exactly buy that "Experience" is a valid qualification for the White House. I don't think you get better at dealing with foreign leaders or the Congress by practicing in a state when they know you're not the top dog anyway. And I'm not sure there's really any position short of being the President that truly prepares you to be the President. If you just look at the last century, there's really no correlation between how good of a President a person was and where they served beforehand. Johnson got us stuck in a terrible war and he came from the Senate. Bush got us stuck in a terrible war and he came from a governor's chair. Kennedy had a brief stint in the Senate and is still a legendary figure. Teddy Roosevelt bounced around like a crazy man because no one seemed to want him, he wound up briefly serving as a Governor because a couple of the bosses liked him, and he wound up being a surprisingly good president. Tell me you know how the system works, tell me you know something about government, and tell me you're not going to be a complete embarassment for the country. That's all that the experience part does...and frankly, if you can get through a campaign and survive, that's about as much as you can learn on experience anyway. The reason all the Obama supporters are bringing up experience isn't that we all don't think she's ready. Or at least it isn't for me. She's had an excellent rise through the system and the McCain campaign seems to think she'd be useful. I can live with a former governor as VP even if she was only a brief one. The reason why we're bringing up the experience thing is because the same people who are going to vote for McCain have been spending the last few months talking about how much of a novice Senator Obama is. How he's not experienced, how he's not ready, how he's only been in the Senate for 4 years, whatever. If you're going to apply that standard to Senator Obama, then you have to apply it to the other side. I can understand an argument that Senator Obama might be ready and she might not be. It's a narrow one, but he's clearly done more in his years politically than she has. But until this morning, Obama's experience level was a supposed negative for him. Now, anyone who dares say that better be voting for Bob Barr, because the person a McCain heartbeat away from the Presidency probably has less.

Link. I wonder if that counts online streaming people also, I was one of those.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 01:37 PM) I don't think that's completely true. Regarding your Hispanic vote comment, McCain may have attracted their vote by picking a (hypothetical) Hispanic running-mate. Similarly, I think that Palin could garner votes from a number of soccer-mom moderates. Especially when Clinton surrogates are actively working to undermine Obama. I have no idea how many moderates Palin will sway, but she has a possibility to impact the election. I think the biggest way she may be able to do so is that she's a potential trap for Joe Biden in the debate. He's clearly head and shoulders above her in experience, stature, foreign policy knowledge, you name it...but the risk for him is he could over-do it and come off as condescending towards a woman.

Oh...Joy....

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 01:16 PM) Sarah Palin aside, I'd like to comment on Obama's "experience." While it's not "executive experience" running a Presidential campaign is probably as close as you can get. Running what is essentially a countrywide infrastructure of supporters, raising and handling millions of dollars, having to answer every and any question, and all under the spotlight of the national media for months on end. That's a proving ground if you ask me. And a good test to see if that individual has what it takes to stand up for the country in the international arena. If "Executive experience" is the goal here, then our 2 Presidential candiates have exactly the same amount of it.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 09:39 AM) So? What's wrong with that? The "evangelicals" will go ballistic? Screw them anyway. Why would the evangelicals go ballistic? That's exactly what they want. That's her endorsing teaching creintelligent designation in the classroom.

Link.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 09:04 AM) Gallup is now showing a 49-41 lead, making a 10 point bounce for the convention. Presumably that poll wouldn't show anything officially related to BO's speech. As a telemarketer myself...last night wasn't very good for calling. The official definition I think is the Monday-Monday definition.

Link. PTBNL.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 09:01 AM) Typically yes. But there has been an argument made in recent elections that the candidates should announce their cabinet before we elect them so we know the full package. The problem is...by most readings, it's actually illegal for a president to name his cabinet before the election in any official way, because the Law prohibits people from offering up their support for a candidate in exchange for anything tangible, like a position in the government. You can endorse someone, and you can casually let it leak out that you'll appoint Colin Powell as SecState as happened in 2000, but there can't be an official statement of that.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 06:20 AM) Is there a legal point where they have to hold the convention? It would seem that holding off benefits McCain (as well as being the right thing to do). That post convention bump is always nice and getting it later would seem pretty damn nice. I'd love to see candidates and their parties tripping over each other helping. Actually I think the answer is "Yes". Many states have legal limits as to exactly when your nominating convention has to be held in order for you to get on the ballot. They're easily skirted, but Bush ran in to a bit of trouble with that in 04.

QUOTE (jasonxctf @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 09:30 AM) How does a 1 1/2 year govenor from one of the smallest states in the country play with working folks in WV, OH, PA, MI, IN, etc??? I think that it probably doesn't play poorly esp. if she holds her ground in the VP debate, but I can't fathom how the McCain campaign could ever bring up experience as a negative again. They'll try, but yeesh. Btw, is it worth noting that AK was actually looking quite swingy before this move, and this might well actually help McCain in a state?

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 09:24 AM) I'll say this -- just from this moment McCain and Palin don't seem to have good chemistry. It's just odd looking at them standing next to each other. Like two people who have never met one another. Honestly, they probably really haven't met more than a handful of times.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Aug 28, 2008 -> 07:16 PM) The visuals on this were absolutely amazing. Yeah, the Parthenon...hehehehe... Seriously, I think they played Drudge for a fool on that again. Because it certainly didn't look like what he posted it was going to look like.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Aug 28, 2008 -> 07:07 PM) Booo. What a boring week with all this bad weather. Don't worry. Next week's bad weather is shaping up to be much more exciting.

The 3 posts that have appeared on my huffington post feed in the last hour: Obama Biography Video At Democratic Convention Hilary Duff's Dad Arrested David Duchovny In Rehab For Sex Addiction Somehow I just found that fascinating.