SurveyUSA Indiana General Election

• John McCain 48% (50%)
• Barack Obama 45% (44%)

Survey of 687 likely voters was conducted September 28-29. The margin of error is +/- 3.8 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted August 16-18 are in parentheses.

(more…)

SurveyUSA Ohio General Election

• John McCain 49% (49%)
• Barack Obama 48% (45%)

Survey of 693 likely voters was conducted September 28-29. The margin of error is +/- 3.8 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted September 12-14 are in parentheses.

(more…)

Q: Wow, you’re bringing back this format? You must really be hurting for ideas.

A: Now don’t get snippy.

Q: When was the last time you used this format anyway? Wasn’t it back when you were savaged for predicting that George Allen would lose? Do you really think that you can resort to your charm and wit every time someone gets mad at you?

A: It works for Barack Obama.

Q: Fair enough. So who do you think would win this election if we were voting today?

A: Barack Obama.

Q: Traitor! I mean, okay. So would it at least be close?

A: No. Obama would win all of the blue states, plus Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina, and at least a few of Florida, Ohio, Nevada, Indiana, and Missouri. It would look a lot like one of Bill Clinton’s victories actually.

Q: Well that’s depressing. So why is Obama ahead?

A: You’ve heard it all before. Americans want to vote Democrat this year, Obama comes across as intelligent, sane, and reasonable, and Obama is actually addressing the economic concerns of the angry American middle class, while McCain is not because he doesn’t know how. This isn’t rocket science.

Q: So that’s it? The election is over?

A: It’s not over until the votes are counted.

Q: So McCain could still win?

A: Anything can happen, but in order for McCain to win, he’s going to have to dramatically change the way he is running his campaign.

Q: What should he do?

A: First, McCain needs to understand that Americans want to vote Democrat because of their economic concerns. For the past forty years, Americans have elected Republicans in 7 out of 10 presidential elections. In that time, our nation has grown much more prosperous, crime has decreased, and America’s nation-state enemies have been defeated. But now, the median-income American worker is beginning to feel that despite all the wealth that has been created in this country over the past four decades, it actually seems harder to live a middle class life today than in the ’60s. Americans take out two or three mortgages and end up paying on their home until retirement. They have a job that eliminates their health plan and that doesn’t give them a raise, which they can’t even afford to go to because of gas prices, and which requires an advanced degree that they’ll be paying off at least until they start to pay their kids’ tuition bills. And let’s not even get started with the cost of health care. Americans are starting to wonder whether this era of Republicanism has given them a raw deal, hence their willingness to consider a truly liberal Democrat.

Q: That’s all good and well I guess, but you still haven’t told me what McCain can DO to beat Obama.

A: Please phrase all inquiries in the form of a question. Now, what McCain can do is transform himself into someone who will fight for the middle class and who will bring change superior to Barack Obama’s. In so doing, he has to actually explain things like, say, his health plan. And he also has to convince Americans that his health plan is preferable to Obama’s health plan. Talking about pork isn’t going to cut it.

Q: Can’t McCain just say we’re not in a recession and tell everyone to stop whining?

A: The last time someone did that in similar circumstances, there was a nifty event called the French Revolution.

Q: Not familiar with it.

A: You would’ve liked it.

Q: Okay, so how can McCain convince Americans to trust him on health care more than Barack Obama?

A: McCain should explain that under his plan, everyone will get a $5,000 voucher to buy basic health insurance. That’s right, a voucher, because that’s what a refundable tax credit is, since you get it even if you don’t pay taxes. That way, McCain can say, the lower income Americans who need health care the most will be able to buy a plan. Meanwhile, McCain can point out that while Obama’s plan seems more enticing, it’s also the first step toward a UK-style medical system, where the profit motive has been removed from the industry and patients have to settle for decades-old technology due to the lack of an incentive to provide state of the art treatment.

Q: Wow. So that’s all McCain has to do to win?

A: No. He has to apply the same framework to each of his economic proposals, and he has to do it early and often. McCain would have to spend the next five weeks doing nothing but aggressively selling his economic proposals to the middle class. No more talk about the surge. No more talk about pork. Just middle class economics.

Q: Why doesn’t McCain do this?

A: I don’t know. I can only speculate that McCain either doesn’t realize that this is what people are concerned about, or he doesn’t know how to sell his plans on economics and so won’t even try, or he is too stubborn to focus on something that doesn’t interest him, or some combination of those things.

Q: Do you see any evidence that McCain realizes what has to be done to win?

A: No. I’ll let you know if that changes.

Q: What do you think of Sarah Palin?

A: An interesting bit of misdirection that backfired because of misuse by Team McCain.

Q: Should John McCain suspend his campaign again?

A: Not unless he wants to lose. He’s going to have to get schooled on economics, even if that’s worse than eating vegetables to the senator. No more gimmicks. Either prove to America that you can turn around the economy, Sen. McCain, or lose the election.

Either the left are doing this to antagonize most sane people, or they are truly going off the deep end, as more videos of children singing their worship to The One start to emerge. (Note: To see newer videos, click this link- 1. I’m not going to post more videos of children singing about their parents’ political leanings on this site, as I refuse to exploit these videos. If you want to see them, you can find them at the links)

What disturbs me so much is the fact that these kids are obviously being used to promote a political candidate. It’s not like they researched the issues and then decided to support Obama because of his position on abortion, gun control, Iranian diplomacy, etc… It’s the fact that they are being used for political purposes. What the Hell do these kids really know about the Dalai Lama?

What would the left say if we had a group of children singing their praises of President George W. Bush? Olberman would have a field day, playing the clip over and over on his show.

See the striking similarities to these classic tunes?

North Korea:

Of course, my all time favorite propaganda film: The Fall of Berlin. The most blatantly ridiculous rewriting of history I have ever seen. Nothing better for a good (albeit sickening) laugh than Papa Bear Stalin, himself!

InsiderAdvantage/Poll Position Ohio General Election

• Barack Obama 47% (46%)
• John McCain 45% (46%)

Survey of 512 likely voters was conducted September 29. The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted September 22 are in parentheses.

InsiderAdvantage/Poll Position Virginia General Election

• Barack Obama 51% (46%)
• John McCain 45% (48%)

Survey of 436 likely voters was conducted September 29. The margin of error is +/- 5 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted September 17 are in parentheses.

ABC News/Washington Post General Election

• Barack Obama 50% (52%)
• John McCain 46% (43%)

(more…)

_________________________________________________________

Hey Stevie,

I am certainly guilty of procrastination.  Please forgive me for taking so long to drop you a line (well, in fact we have never met before, chatted via Email, text messaged, or corresponded via carrier pigeon).  I figured I would take the opportunity to provide some objurgatory talking points for Governor Palin, prior to the debate with that hoddypeak from Delaware.  The last thing we desire is for Governor Palin to laocoon her way through the foreign policy portion of the debate Thursday evening.

Steve, You might be surprised to learn that we have much in common.  I loved the movie Twins, you helped to re-elect the films male lead as Governor of California, many years after the release.  You deny working for Mr. Rove, I have never worked for him.   You have removed the New York Times from your mailing list, I have never been on a mailing list.  I have studied Governor Palin for the last 12 months, you studied her for 12 hours.  Can you not sense the karma?

Now that I have established our kismet, let me share the above-mentioned talking points.   I’ll CC’ Charlie and Rick, as I know they have been looking for tasks to keep themselves occupied, since you took over the campaign operations.  Do not worry, I do not expect immediate reward, just keep me in mind on November 5th when you go to work for one of DC’s finest social networking firms.  I am not much of a lobbyist, but I adore chit-chatting with elected officials over wine and couscous on Friday evenings.

Now seriously, I noticed that prior to the recent economic crisis, foreign policy discussion and debate seemed to have removed itself from the campaign trail.   In fact, the only mention of foreign policy occurred when ogrous members of the Democratic party and MSM attacked Governor Palin’s experience.

Although I support the arguments made by the campaign to defend Governor Palin, specific to Alaska’s proximity to Russia (ANG first response and understanding the regional issue, both defense and trade related), there are many more effective arguments to utilize when defending Governor Palin’s foreign policy experience.  Yes, Governor Palin has not successfully negotiated an armistice with North Korea, or brought peace to the middle east, but neither has President Clinton, President Bush, Secretary of State Rice, Secretary of State Powell or Secretary of State Albright, and they have numerous cross-walks, lecture rooms and tug boats named after them.  Governor Palin can meet the expectations set by those before her;

• On March 3, 2008 Governor Palin concluded negotiations with Premier Frentie of the Yukon and renewed the Alaska-Yukon accord. The premise of this accord was to encourage security cooperation, increase trade and partner on environmental issues.  The negotiations included foreign travel to the capital of the Yukon.  Governor Palin understands that the Yukon territory is a foreign jurisdiction, unlike Senator Obama, who considers the Yukon as one of the 57 states in the Union.
• In June of this year, Governor Palin concluded negotiations with Canada’s Minister of the Environment, for the re-population of Bison to Alaska. Who else is better qualified to save Washington DC’s only endangered species, the mysterious and chameleon like House Republican.  Beginning in 2010, Vice President Palin could begin negotiations with Republican leaders in all 50 states, to locate and recruit actual conservative candidates for Congressional elections.  I would recommend that Governor Palin disqualify candidates who once were, would like to be, are married to, employed by, or had an affair with a lobbyist, or any member of the singing Senators for that fact.
• Earlier this year, Governor Palin participated in the negotiations and signed the Pacific Coast Collaborative agreement.  Honestly, I have no idea why this is important, or if this will actually benefit America, but reading “90,000 kilometres of coastline” in the press release looked impressive.  Keep this point in mind for Thursday when Joe Biden talks for 90,000 seconds straight.

Stevie, I hope that my analysis and talking points will benefit Governor Palin at the debate.  I understand you have had her locked in a room for days, providing her with talking points, coaching her on voice tone and mannerisms, and having her fall asleep while listening to the policy cassette tapes of Douglas Holtz-Eakin.  You have very little time to re-program our lady of the north.

On second thought, if you find yourself without adequate time to prepare Governor Palin, you have a second and more efficient option?  YOU COULD ALWAYS TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER PALATE AND ALLOW HER TO BE THE WITTY, CHARMING, SOPHISITICATED, DRIVEN, CONSERVATIVE REBEL FROM THE NORTH THAT I FELL IN LOVE WITH!

Either way, good luck, let me know how it goes.  I’ll write again.

My last post on the Dear Leader’s Video, at least until after dinner.

Apparently, the producers and defenders of the video in question have been claiming that this is a “grassroots” campaign for Obama.

Here’s what constitutes the Hollywood definition of grassroots.

Production Credits “Sing for Obama”:

(more…)

I don’t know whether John McCain will win this election. I know he should win this election and there is no reason to risk the rule of Obama.

I’ve seen a lot of defeatism on here lately and it has been disappointing. You may compromise in moments of negotiations. You never surrender in the heat of combat, especially when you have opponents that want to destroy you.

In 1948 the media in this nation had turned on a sitting President and tried to elect a foggy-headed politician full of generalities and feel-good slogans.

In 2008 we have: “We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

In 1948 we had: “You know that your future is still ahead of you.”

In that election Truman fought and won.

McCain can win this election without the media if he fights the unpopular do-nothing Democratic Congress and stands up for the working man. Here online we need to stop navel gazing and whining. We need to focus on attacking the Messiah™ and his corrupt lackeys in Congress and back in Chicago.

So for you whining defeatists, I’m going to ask you to show some guts. We don’t need another post or comment wondering if electing Obama is really acceptable. We need posts and comments that rip that lying scoundrel up one side and down the other.

January 21, 2009- The future airwaves of American Radio

After spending the last few weeks feeling very pessimistic about the upcoming election, this video, as posted here by Jason Bonham, is all it took to fire me up.

Come to find out, one of the heads of NBC/Universal, Jeff Zucker, is one of the bigwigs behind it. From the Drudge siren scoop:

The likes of Jeff Zucker, Holly Schiffer, Peter Rosenfeld, Darin Moran, Jean Martin, Andy Blumenthal, and Nick Phoenix rearranged schedules to participate. Holly Schiffer was able to get three High Definition cameras (Panasonic HVX250’s), and an AVID editing facility. When Jeff Zucker went to pick up the camera package, Ted Schilowitz happened to be there and offered a RED camera set up on a Steadi Cam.

It would’ve been really classic if, back in 1993, some yahoo had tried to pull one of these children videos praising W.J. Clinton.

Update: The brainwashing continues! From the sundries blog:

The Cult of Obama continues.

A Pittsburgh district has put up what they call an “inspirational mural” to the One. An actress from ER unveiled it, saying that it’s part of the beautification process for the neighborhood.
HILL DISTRICT (KDKA) ? An inspirational mural was unveiled today in the Hill District.

The Hope Mural, located at the corner of Wylie Avenue and Kirkpatrick Street, is of Sen. Barack Obama and reads: “We are the change we seek.”

Gloria Rueben, an actress on “ER,” was on hand for the event.

The project is aimed at beautifying the neighborhood and promoting team building.

Artist Ray Gerard designed it and members of the community donated the supplies.

Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, a Pittsburgh native, helped kick off the project last week.

I understand honoring people in death. We all need heroes. But for a person like me, with my historical background, this mural of a living person for whatever reason is scarily close to those cult of personality “Dear Leader” murals. They feel me with dread.

Mark Levin has a must-read piece on the bailout over at NRO:

I have read the posts here and elsewhere. Sometimes these things are made to look more complicated than they really are. From an economic perspective, if the problem is liquidity and credit, there simply is no need for the federal government to assume massive amounts of debt on its book by assuming loans in anticipation that their holders or borrowers will default. This seems to me like a brand new expanse of government power that is not justified (if it ever is) by the arguments made on its behalf. The government controls monetary policy through supply and interest rates, among other things. It can further ease money supply and credit, thereby increasing the flow of capital. The government controls tax policy. It can increase liquidity and the flow of new money into the economy both from within the country and from foreign sources by eliminating the corporate income tax and the capital gains tax even on a mid-term basis. No matter what is done, some financial institutions will fail, as they did in the 1981-82 recession and have since. And the Fed and Treasury and other instrumentalities of government will have to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether to intervene and how to intervene. They will also have to determine whether other policies require modifying, such as the McCain proposal today, in which he suggests increasing federal insurance for individual depositors from $100,000 to $250,000. Other smart suggestions include modifying the mark-to-market rule requiring financial institutions to downgrade the valuation of assets. If the goal is to prevent panic in the economy by investors and depositors, then increase credit, liquidity, and the flow of capital, and deal with problem institutions that are significant enough in size that their demise could resonate to the wider economy. But the Soviet-style, top-down five year plan a la Paulson’s proposal, and to a significant extent the proposal that was voted down yesterday, could easily do more damage to both the economy and our governmental structure. So, in this respect, I must depart from NRO’s editorial.

Also, count me among those few here who want to thank the House Republicans for taking a bold stand against what had been a stampede on a scale I have never before witnessed on matters of huge consequence. Conservatism is more than a quaint belief-system to be embraced and debated over donuts at Starbucks. It is more than a list of talking points. It is the foundation of the civil society. The liberal uses crises, real or manufactured, to expand the power of government at the expense of the individual and private property. He has spent, in earnest, 70 years evading the Constitution’s limits on governmental power. If conservatives don’t stand up to this, who will? If they don’t offer serious alternatives that address the current circumstances AND defend the founding principles, who will? The House Republicans have done both. And I, for one, thank them.

Incidentally, if you want to buy a home or car today you can. And if your credit is decent, you can get loans at a good rate. Last week we were told that if a deal was not struck by last Friday, our economy would collapse. It has not. That is not to say the evidence of economic troubles or worse should be ignored. It is to say that now is a time for reasoned decisions based on tried and true principles, not for abandoning them. I notice that the socialist, who, for the last 30 years, has insisted that private institutions make risky loans based on non-economic factors, still has not abandoned his policies. Socialism does not work. We shouldn’t support more of it.

It’s been 24 hours since the bailout failed and still no Hoovervilles. Someone on this site who understands economics needs to seriously explain to me why this thing is even needed, and why what Levin is proposing regarding liquidity and credit won’t suffice. Because to my untrained economic eye, it seems that the bailout panic has a lot to do with a few people trying to get the rest of us to bail them out of bad risks they took, and very little to do with the health of our national or global economy. Sorry Wall Street, but I’m not paying for your mistakes unless you pay for mine, and trust me, nobody’s paying for mine.

If no bailout goes through and the economy doesn’t crash, then the attempt to add a trillion dollars to the national debt to bail out the few will be downright sinful, and in a more civilized society would have resulted in folks going to the guillotine.

Where am I wrong? Tell me in the comments section.

Count the Parallels to the Obama’s Youth Video I posted earlier:

h/t: Reader “Jeff”

Update: Jonah Goldberg leads us to the source of this video here. The Obama website actually lists the email of the lady in charge in case you are interested in helping out. I was so impressed with her collaborative music skills I sent her an email congratulating her for a job well done:

Kathy,

I really enjoyed your Obama’s Youth Video.

You might consider this YouTube to see what other great leaders much like Obama have done in this regard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dC2aDHtEqk

Cheers!

–
Jason Bonham

GW/Battleground Tracking Poll

• Barack Obama 48%
• John McCain 46%

Survey of 800 likely voters was conducted September 24-25, 28-29.

Gallup Daily General Election Tracking (9/30)

• Barack Obama 49%
• John McCain 43%

Survey of 2,729 registered voters was conducted September 27-29. The margin of error is ±2 percentage points.

(more…)

PPP (D) Florida General Election

• Barack Obama 49% (45%)
• John McCain 46% (50%)

(more…)

Thank God! This is exactly the kind of ad that I have been begging the campaign to run since this crisis began.

We need more of these ads run on TV, on radio, etc… We need this point to be driven home, over, and over again until election day. This is the exact media blitz that will reverse the course this election is on.

Diageo/Hotline Daily Tracker Poll

• Barack Obama/Joe Biden 47%
• John McCain/Sarah Palin 41%

Survey of 901 registered voters was conducted September 27-29. The margin of error is +/- 3.3 percentage points.

Rasmussen Daily National General Election Tracking Poll

• Barack Obama 51%
• John McCain 45%

(more…)

SurveyUSA New Jersey General Election

• Barack Obama 52%
• John McCain 42%

Survey of 611 likely voters was conducted September 27-28. The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points.

PPP (D) North Carolina General Election

• Barack Obama 47% (46%)
• John McCain 45% (46%)

(more…)

Rasmussen Virginia General Election

• Barack Obama 50% (50%)
• John McCain 47% (45%)

(more…)

Rasmussen Ohio General Election

• John McCain 48% (47%)
• Barack Obama 47% (46%)

(more…)

Rasmussen Pennsylvania General Election

• Barack Obama 50% (49%)
• John McCain 42% (45%)

(more…)

Rasmussen Florida General Election

• John McCain 47% (48%)
• Barack Obama 47% (47%)

(more…)

Rasmussen Colorado General Election

• Barack Obama 49% (50%)
• John McCain 48% (47%)

(more…)

You own the defeat of the bailout bill. For better or for worse you own it. The American people will view it as your doing because (a) many of them believe you still control Congress and (b) the American people think of Republicans more than Democrats as the party that doesn’t like bigger government.

Your response today was the absolute worst one imaginable. The finger-pointing and lame excuses about partisan speeches from the House Speaker are the worst possible reason, for a public that is very tired of finger-pointing and lame excuses. In the end the bill failed for one reason: People were pissed off about government spending $750 BILLION to bail out Wall Street. Your rank-and-file figured this out, as did much of the Democratic rank-and-file. We are in a populist moment. But populism (as opposed to progressivism) contains TWO great dislikes: Wall Street and Congress. This bill was seen as an unholy alliance of the two.

You now need to claim ownership of this defeat, which is already assigned to you. The argument is simple: “We are not going to vote for the $750 BILLION in spending of taxpayer dollars for Wall Street, the one proposed by President Bush and Nancy Pelosi.” You need to do the reverse of what President Clinton did — they need to triangulate against the President and the House Democratic leadership. Neither of them is very popular, and McCain is increasingly unlikely to win. Drop them and run against them. If Pelosi brings up a bill farther to the left, 190 Republicans need to vote against it.

You own this. The American people think you stopped this bill. They want to know why. There is an argument for why which will resonate with them. You need to start making that argument, before the Democrats and the press start making it for you, while you keep arguing that you don’t own this defeat.

That might kill the economy. But that die has already been cast, long ago. I think the bailout bill might have helped, but not stopped this. But there were also helpful signs today — increased liquidity from the fed, the buyouts, rather than bailouts, of WaMu. The Dow fell 7% today, a lot, but far less than the 23% it fell in October of 1987. Maybe, just maybe, we can weather this storm.

I think today was a political mistake, but I think the worst thing the GOP could do is to be perceived as weak, and trying to deny what is obvious to many Americans. For better or worse, you now own this defeat, and it is time to take a stand on whatever it is you own.