Search






Jeff's Amazon.com Wish List

Archive Calendar

November 2024
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  

Archives

2012 Presidential election open thread

Start here and then I’ll keep an open thread tomorrow, as well.

But since Obama and Romney are going to be “interviewed” by the hyper-liberal Chris Berman at half time of the Saints-Eagles game — Obama’s years of missing intel meetings so he could catch SportsCenter may actually come in handy here, provided no one asks him to throw a baseball — I figure it’s a good place to begin the final stages of the election “coverage.”

176 Replies to “2012 Presidential election open thread”

  1. McGehee says:

    First! In honor of which, I predict Romney gets more than just one EV from Maine.

  2. newrouter says:

    The president who famously embraced the “Occupy” movement, closed his re-election campaign this weekend by sneering at the Tea Party.

    After failing to mention the Tea Party by name on the stump in 2012, President Barack Obama mentioned the movement during at least five stump speeches on Thursday and Friday.

    Noted Politico: At three events Thursday and two on Friday, Obama said that Romney is “pledging to rubber-stamp the tea party agenda in Congress.”

    “That’s not change,” he added at a high school gymnasium here. “That’s what we need to change.”

    Perhaps this explains the president’s comment to admirers that “voting “is the best revenge.” He might have been referring to the Tea Party, since they have obviously been much on his mind.

    And understandably so.

    link

  3. Pellegri says:

    Finished my vote-by-mail ballot. I think I left one of the items unchecked because I honestly couldn’t figure out how to vote.

    meh.

  4. Alec Leamas says:

    I have my fingers crossed for tomorrow. Of course we’d like to see a rebuke of Obama and his ideology, but also of that creepy personality cult as well. It was, at best, an embarrassment, but always pointing to a more sinister subterranean reality that marked a sea change in the way we do politics in the United States. May we never live to see it again.

    http://www.humanevents.com/2012/09/20/the-creepy-obama-cult/

  5. newrouter says:

    Coincidentally, I’m working on a pro-death penalty video featuring four-year-olds entitled, “Throw the Switch.” Exit question for moms: You’re not really going to vote for Mitt Romney tomorrow and deny your daughter the chance to deny you a granddaughter, are you?

    link

  6. serr8d says:

    We’ll see. Twitchy says Nate Silver doubles down, gives Zero a 91% chance to re-up.

    Surely this Republic is not that far gone? If so, we’re watching from the foredeck, and the band plays on.

  7. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Does Obama have any events scheduled for tomorrow, or does he pack it in after Des Moines tonight?

  8. leigh says:

    He’s shooting hoops with Reggie tomorrow, last I read Ernst.

  9. newrouter says:

    it’d be fun to see scott brown and mittens tues. nite on the same victory stage. harvard smackdown.

  10. pdbuttons says:

    Who the..Hell is Bruce Spring steen appealling to? i just don’t get it?
    I saw him…Darkness tour/stadium and he was great ,but..I dunno.. t hat was $ 40 years ago..wtf/ I’m missing something. The only way young kids can dance to him is they put him on a pyre and burn him and pretend their at ‘ burning Man’
    I got in an argument in line at a store tnight..small counter talk /She[?] I never met her/ started ‘ Romneys a liar blah blah” very vocal…I was with a guy,a Veteran
    he went off on her! Oh my! crazy times!

  11. palaeomerus says:

    I expect mild panic attacks to start off. Should be a fun day. Four years of spring winding and time to see it all loosed. Hoping for more of that 2010 spirit and none of that fake “let’s keep the Republicans from bringing back slavery and drying up the oceans something something carbon is a poison and we should all ride bikes and by we I mean you” shit.

  12. Jeff G. says:

    If Silver and others are holding steady, this is about providing cover for legal challenges.

    To me, it feels like it should be a Romney landslide. But our own Roddy B is calling it for O, so maybe we’re just trapped in a bubble here and most of America hasn’t awakened, or if they have, they’re more fearful of what Mitt and Ryan might do to their vaginas, or what the teabaggers might burn on their lawns, than they are with no jobs, high gas, food, and clothing prices, a bad housing market, and the empty promises of 4 years that played out emptily right before their eyes.

  13. palaeomerus says:

    “Who the..Hell is Bruce Spring steen appealling to? i just don’t get it?”

    Well, he’s like a safer substitute for Madonna who won’t try to flash you with 50 year old modified tits that are headed off into the local gravity well. It’s sad. Shit, even Drew Barrymore and Wynona Ryder have figured it out and moved on to play “older” parts. Why the hell can’t $#@#ing Madonna?

  14. pdbuttons says:

    This chick..lady..mmmmlate 30’s. early 40’s..thin…hatchet face..reminded me of Eleanor[Rigby] Clift]
    she started it..it was rage..in public!
    Now…is it Obamas emotional appeal that makes women c krazy?
    She was certifiable c Krazy

  15. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Four years ago, Obama was in Indiana on election day to make sure Indiana flipped. It did

    Romney is in Pittsburgh and then Cleveland(?) (Ohio at any rate) tomorrow.

    Now maybe I’m succumbing to wishful thinking here, but given how flat the Obama crowds have been for the last several days (Teh Won can’t even muster a cheer anymore, let alone a swooning devotee), I’m choosing to read that as an admission that they’re going to lose and there’s nothing they can do about it anymore, except hope to keep it close enough to cheat.

  16. newrouter says:

    watching baracky at his “final” stop in iowa is painful

  17. palaeomerus says:

    I think Obama should have become a news Anchorman. Reading stuff for five minute stretches is about all he’s really good at.

    I morbidly wonder who Paula Dean is voting for.

  18. leigh says:

    O is in Chi tonight. No word on the missus and the spawn, but I guess they are there as well. Most likely they flew seperately.

    I agree that they know they are going to lose. Romney is in Ohio, then Pittsburgh and then to Boston tomorrow.

  19. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I expect mild panic attacks to start off. Should be a fun day. Four years of spring winding and time to see it all loosed.

    I expect the exit polls to be as bad as 2004, and quite possibly some erroneous early calls like in 2000. Don’t expect to see swing states called early —at least not PA, OH, maybe VA and FL. Expect a lot of “too close to call” and “Obama leading narrowly but still too close to call”

  20. pdbuttons says:

    Exactly..thats why this weird exchange haunts me…She was a c krazy loco mouth foaming irrational person/she just happened to be a woman
    but me and my veteran friend just laughed at her! It was very disturbing..except for making the fun of her. I might be[we] be in a bubble
    she was spastic w rage

  21. leigh says:

    I either heard or read that they (you know them) are going to try that ploy.

  22. Ernst Schreiber says:

    O and M are in Des Moines right now.

  23. leigh says:

    Thanks. I shut off the teevee as I can only take so much punishment.

  24. bh says:

    One wonders why O and M are in Iowa right now.

    Well, not really.

  25. newrouter says:

    the ed show: 3 white guys bowing to the muslim/slave dude

  26. newrouter says:

    mslsd: all dhimmi all the time

  27. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Trying to get to 272?

  28. bh says:

    Here’s the thing: look at the actions and not the polls.

    Both sides wouldn’t have been where they’ve been if they thought the popular reporting was correct. Nothing explains that but a different view entirely.

  29. Ernst Schreiber says:

    B..bu..but… flailing desperately for votes because Ohio is gone and shoring up the firewall

    I heard it on teh newz!

  30. leigh says:

    Brit Hume, re the polls: Something is very wrong.

  31. bh says:

    Rearguard action, that’s what we’re looking at now.

  32. newrouter says:

    cleveland/pittsburgh here we eff baracky

  33. pdbuttons says:

    lily Led better can suck my big hate crime dick

  34. palaeomerus says:

    I felt braver in 2010. I’m not sure why 2012 seems different. Maybe the pressure wore me down. Maybe it’s the “I don’t see you” + ” OMG binder full of women” act from the press. Maybe it’s the lack of Tea Party events in the news, the crazy “let the middle east burn” attitudes, or the “fuck you” the non-existent GOP establishment gave a chunk of its base in the primaries. I don’t know if I’m under the glamour or out of it. At least one of these sides is wrong though. Everything feels surreal and wild card. I don’t know which stream of “clues” to believe any more. My fears and my hopes about tomorrow and what it means both seem to be valid. I have Glenn beck and Ed Schultz on my shoulders a shoutin’ in my ears and I can’t focus on one or the other or decide which one is more likely to be a sad crazy little shit and who is a cold smug victorious herald for the direction of the next four years or longer.

  35. bh says:

    If PA comes home I’ll root for the Steelers this year, nr.

  36. McGehee says:

    What’s wrong with the polls now is what was wrong with the exit polls in Ohio in 2004.

    Dey b bull schist.

  37. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Well, we know what happens to the rearguard, don’t we?

  38. bh says:

    Dey b bull schist.

    Yep.

  39. palaeomerus says:

    If PA goes red state then I will eat a cheese steak on Wednesday. A fancy one from delaware Subs or Dave and Busters! But I’m gonna do it without onions or peppers.

    If Wisconsin goes red I will buy a Liver wurst or a summer sausage if I can’t find a liverwurst.

    If Ohio goes red, I will….I …really don’t know much of anything about Ohio to tell the truth.

    If Florida goes red I will get some Cuban food this weekend.

    If Iowa goes red I will buy some Chex. Or something. Corn flakes? I like corn flakes too. Maybe that.

    If Ted Cruz Wins, enchiladas. Yes I know that his dad was Cuban but I’d rather eat enchiladas. Preferably at Chuy’s.

    If Todd Akin wins… if we take the senate and keep the house…whoo boy.

    And if we lose then I might just wall up my front door and become a Canterville ghost of sorts.

  40. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I’m sanguine about tomorrow.

    In the sense that Sarah Connor was sanguine about the future.

  41. bh says:

    I’ve heard that the devil often takes the hindmost, Ernst.

    Couldn’t happen to a nicer hindmost if you ask me.

  42. bh says:

    In the sense that Sarah Connor was sanguine about the future.

    “No fate but what we make,” said Sarah Connor.

  43. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Poor Barry. Destroyed by the racists who elected him just so they could destroy him.

    What’s the matter with white people?

  44. pdbuttons says:

    Please kill me..my mute button[buttons!] doesn’t work and I got msnlsd on
    and it’s so foreign to me/propaganda..okmjoe..I blow u long time-fine
    but a whole…I want to say hour..but..is this constant? I don’t want 2 say lies but omg they are so far from my reality
    wow!
    I’m looking forward to the new Bond movie

  45. palaeomerus says:

    I though she was kind of choleric myself at least in the movies. TV version varied a lot. I wish I could manage phlegmatic right about now. Of course If it goes pear shaped I’ll be melancholic and choleric alternately.

  46. palaeomerus says:

    “What’s the matter with white people?”

    I guess we just like having jobs, low prices, lights and AC that works, a real constitution limiting government authority over us, and real news way too much. And guns. And 32 oz. soft drinks. And cars that look like proper mid size sedans.

  47. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Good point. But that was John Connor to Sarah Connor by way of Kyle Reese wasn’t it?

    I was thinking more of the line in T2 where she tells the shrink that she thinks they’re all dead already and they know she believes it, so he’d damn well better unlock that door before she shoots the guard’s carotid full of poison.

  48. palaeomerus says:

    “I’ve heard that the devil often takes the hindmost, Ernst.”

    No, I’m pretty sure that he/she hitched a ride back to the puppeteer ‘fleet of worlds’ in cryo with a Kzin or Terran explorer ship, after Louis Wu installed the new ghoul protector in the southern control center. TANJ.

  49. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I’m looking forward to the new Bond movie

    working on booking a babysitter for next weekend.

  50. bh says:

    She carved it into the table, I think, Ernst.

    If you hadn’t gone with her I probably would have defaulted to Epicurus. Tertium quid? My Latin is deplorable.

  51. bh says:

    I will always find that joke funny. Always.

  52. bh says:

    Sdferr would have chuckled.

  53. Ernst Schreiber says:

    After she carves it into the table, John explains that it was a message from the future him passed to her by his father. As I recall. Haven’t seen the movie in years and years.

  54. bh says:

    Wow. I had no idea. I stand corrected. Good memory, man. [Probably haven’t seen it since ’98 maybe?]

  55. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I probably haven’t seen it in a longer time. The frau‘s not much of a sci-fi or a fantasy fan.

  56. pdbuttons says:

    Aside
    Underworld-Awakenings
    if u want to see a sexy girl dressed in black leather
    who can fly? float? with a big Clint Eastwood coat[duster]black/leather who kicks butt w a nice haircut
    screw aliens t2
    this movie is..on par[ I wouldn’t say much better but..}
    Emma Peel…with guns/who can fly/float
    Kate Beckinsdale Is her name

  57. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I don’t do vampire/werewolf movies, generally.

    Except Bram Stoker’s Dracula

    and then only because Wynona Rider had nice tits back in the day.

  58. cranky-d says:

    I was at the local bar, watching the football game, and every now and then commenting on the election tomorrow with my like-minded friend, in between commenting about the nature of the game we were watching.

    I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Some here think Mittens will win handily. Others, like me, are not as sure. We think he should win, given the facts on the ground, but still, we have the variability of the people.

    I don’t trust my fellow citizens. Too many of them don’t bother to think much about politics, but instead emote about them. The left wins when you emote. The arguments from a classical liberal position, which has somehow become a right position, are apparently too hard to condense into sound bites, and even if it could be done well, we have too many big-government types muddying the waters around us.

    Tomorrow will mean something, perhaps a profound something, but we won’t know what it means until after tomorrow comes to a close.

  59. Ernst Schreiber says:

    The arguments from a classical liberal position, which has somehow become a right position, are apparently too hard to condense into sound bites, and even if it could be done well, we have too many big-government types muddying the waters around us.

    Jonah Goldberg has an argument about that (at least the firt part). Something about the free market being counter-intuitive.

  60. palaeomerus says:

    I never could figure out Underworld. The hybridization of Lycan(werewolf) and Vampire must NEVER EVER happen, (except it turns out that it already did and quite early) because such a creature would be unstoppable. And once it happens, the head vampire contemptuously beats the crap out of the hybrid, and is about to kill him when he gets quick killed by Selene who is just a vampire thug sent out to hunt Lycans. So I guess Selene is more dangerous than her boss who was woken up early to prevent the hybrid who is like the weakest monster. Then the hybrid gets his but kicked by ANOTHER hyrbid who was the brother of a crazy super-wolf who were the children of the first infected. The later on the hybrid gets shot and breed s daughter with selene who I guess would be 3/4 vampire and 1/4 lycan but is just a hybrid and SHE mostly gets her butt kicked too, and then they use her blood to make giant silver proof werewolves that Selene once again kills with a hand grenade. So if there is one thing I learned it’s that street vampires can beat ancient royalty vampires, hybrids are mostly docile and wimpy and only good for sprucing up werewolves, or storing in vaults for long periods and hiding, and Selene can kill anything.

    I liked ‘Priest’ a bit better than the Underworld stuff.

  61. bh says:

    I tend to think that we don’t live on any particularly interesting part of the timeline. That’s sensible, isn’t it?

    Heliocentricism wasn’t so much about astronomy and physics and more about understanding that we shouldn’t pretend that our particular place or time is unique, right? [Yeah, I changed the analogy for no particular reason.]

    That’s what we’re looking at here. History isn’t ending. The same things that used to sink incumbents will most likely keep sinking incumbents. Fickle discontent with the status quo doesn’t only exist during (R) terms.

    Things don’t really change. New things probably won’t be under the sun tomorrow either.

  62. Ernst Schreiber says:

    But Kate B. gives buttons a funny feeling in his pants. And isn’t that what sells movie tickets?

  63. pdbuttons says:

    Geez..its just a hot chick in leather who floats with guns and kills a buncha people thats what i got outta it

  64. pdbuttons says:

    i got it from the library 4 free but yesI like Kate Beckinsdale

  65. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Heliocentricism wasn’t so much about astronomy and physics and more about understanding that we shouldn’t pretend that our particular place or time is unique, right? [Yeah, I changed the analogy for no particular reason.]

    The consequences, yeah, I guess I’d agree to that. In part.

    Heliocentrism also undid (or led to the undoing of) The Great Chain of Being. So The Planet Ceased to be the center of the Cosmos, but on the upside, we moved from the middle to the head of the line.

    With all the consequences that have flown from the infliction our godlike powers on our fellow men.

  66. cranky-d says:

    Is there any part of the timeline that is interesting? If so, do we have any reason to believe that time is now? Conversely, why not assume that these are, in fact, interesting times?

    If no part of the timeline is actually interesting, then what happens probably doesn’t matter in the long run.

  67. bh says:

    You’ve always been strangely entertaining to talk with, Ernst. You just busted out an argument I haven’t heard for years and years and years.

    In a Catholic draft, I’d pick you in the top five.

  68. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Jeff was bitching about Christie playing kissy-face with Obama a day or two ago. This should cheer him up, since it looks like fatso is busy doing a Bloomberg on his future political aspirations.

    (found on Instapundit, naturally)

  69. BigBangHunter says:

    – Speaking of signs, I’m reasonably at peace with things. My future self, seeminhly my alter ego in all the important ways, has sent me no sign as of yet, and just as he seems to revele in disappointing me at every possible turn week after week by denying me the lottery numbers with wicked glee and cynical intent, I have not a doubt if Romney was going to come up short, Mr Alter-future-me would have made it the highest priority to take the opportunity to gloat.

    – Of course, on occasion he’s been known to just keep me guessing simply because he’s a snot. So I’ll just go with my gut and predict that Sandy was a profound sign it will be cold this winter.

  70. Ernst Schreiber says:

    You and my (well not mine my) Parish priest. But I’ve got a pretty vicious Calvinist monkey on my back.

    He bites and everything!

  71. geoffb says:

    Chicago Source Tells Author Brad Thor: Obama Campaign Planning to Proclaim Early Victory to ‘Demoralize Romney Supporters’

    Typical Obama, take the normal Dem strategy and crank it to 13.

  72. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Is there any part of the timeline that is interesting? If so, do we have any reason to believe that time is now? Conversely, why not assume that these are, in fact, interesting times?
    If no part of the timeline is actually interesting, then what happens probably doesn’t matter in the long run.

    Leopold Von Ranke said that all ages were equally dear to God.

    And who am I, of all people, to argue with a Prussian?

  73. bh says:

    You do hear what I’m saying, right, cranky?

  74. geoffb says:

    I was thinking more of the line in T2 where she tells the shrink that she thinks they’re all dead already and they know she believes it, so he’d damn well better unlock that door before she shoots the guard’s carotid full of poison.

    Switch guard and doctor. Doc has the needle in him.

    I kinda like a little further back.

    Dr. Silberman: You broke my arm!
    Sarah Connor: There’s 215 bones in the human body. That’s one.

  75. BigBangHunter says:

    – I’ve always viewed Heliocentricism as one of those moments in history when a great wrong was finally corrected on the human time line.

    – Something that was ordained to happen by all that is good, holy, and scientific.

    – A current example would be if Nancy Pelosi’s entire face finally obeys the laws of gravity and ends up on her stomach.

  76. Ernst Schreiber says:

    If no part of the timeline is actually interesting, then what happens probably doesn’t matter in the long run.

    The problem of living in a present-tense culture is that if everything is a history-defining moment, nothing is ever truly history-making.

  77. geoffb says:

    I think it is built in that we will think of our own time as the most important one. Then we grow up and learn about the extent of the world, the universe in space and time and have to struggle with the cognitive dissonance of being both most important and trivially not.

  78. sdferr says:

    Somehow circles lost a piece of their magical power too, while ellipses stood to gain some. And the idea we walk backward into the future seems to have slipped away too, where now people face forward into the void.

  79. Ernst Schreiber says:

    If it’s wrong to think that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, I don’t want to be right.

  80. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I think it is built in that we will think of our own time as the most important one.

    That’s actually a modern phenomenon. There’s some quote about we more miserable than our parents, our children more miserable than us, but I don’t recall it exactly. Another oft repeated one about seeing further because we dwarves are perches on the shoulders of giants applies as well.

    [T]he idea we walk backward into the future seems to have slipped away too, where now people face forward into the void.

    When they’re not peering into the abyss, that is, all the while dreading and hoping that the abyss will peer back.

  81. geoffb says:

    Some poetry for the eve, illustrated for these days.

  82. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I had another poem in mind Geoff.

    That’s it for me.

    Like the man said, “Keep Calm and Finish Him.”

  83. BigBangHunter says:

    – Just out of curiosity, and because I generally like hedge my bets, I tried the old quetion ball…..

    Q: Sooooo, what are Romneys chances tomorrow?

    A: You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.

    …..?

    Q: Nooo, I mean will he win or not?

    A: Every hands a winner and every hands a loser.

    …..Oh for petes sake I….

    Q: Look sport, just tell me, does he win?

    A: You can’t put too much faith in your choice.

    ….?????

    ……Crap……I definately need a new question ball.

  84. sdferr says:

    Keep Calm and . . . Mind the Gap makes for decent diversion.

  85. Ernst Schreiber says:

    You can’t put too much faith in your choice.

    Why would you get rid of so prescient a question ball?

    (g’night)

  86. cranky-d says:

    If you have to ask, bh, then the answer is probably no.

  87. bh says:

    I didn’t have to ask. I just wanted to because I wasn’t sure if you were playing with my line of thinking or objecting to it.

    Ehhh. Possibly that sort of question doesn’t translate very well in comments as compared to conversation. It takes forever to communicate this way. Poorly.

    It’s slow and it doesn’t work very well.

    Yay, future.

  88. Pablo says:

    OT, and yet most certainly not: Why The Ambassador Died

    But the United States overthrew Qaddafi without knowing quite what it was getting into, and then as the dangerous consequences gradually became more clear, it failed to take the precautions that the new situation demanded. That is the real reason why Ambassador Stevens and his team died alone, under fire, and without help from the country they were there to serve.

    There is one person and one only who is responsible for that state of affairs. Hint: it isn’t the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense or the Director of the CIA.

    Ambassador Stevens didn’t die because the White House had a bad night. He died because the White House has bungled North Africa.

  89. Jrez says:

    Warren County, OH. Precinct 169. Voter #6.

    Romney/Ryan FTW!

  90. happyfeet says:

    when romney wins people are saying benghazi is gonna be less of a thing but I bet fox keeps working it right up to the inauguration

  91. Alec Leamas says:

    Another oft repeated one about seeing further because we dwarves are perches on the shoulders of giants applies as well.

    Bernard of Chartres?

  92. happyfeet says:

    Underworlds 1 and 4 were a lot of fun…

    Ultraviolet was kinda fun too

    I wanted to like priest more than I did

  93. serr8d says:

    Hey, any Gary Johnson, Ron Paul voters today needs pick up some shoe covers.

    (smile! I did! )

  94. McGehee says:

    Remain calm and finish him.

  95. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Yeah, Alec, somebody like that. But he in turn lifted it from some Roman author.

    I may have to run that down while I’m busy ignoring the news tonight.

  96. Roddy Boyd says:

    Everyone vote! Be a pain to your neighbors, friends and make sure they do too. My neighborhood is ~75-25 GOP, so there’s that.

    I have fought off my profound dislike for Romney–I have sincere admiration for Gary Johnson and agree with 90% of what he says–but this is not a time for ideals. I can say that I’ll vote for him in a few hours.

    Funny: I spent election eve 2008 on here, come to think of it.

    Maybe this is 2010 where a GOP butt-whipping emerges from the plains and slays the experts. But not likely: Much more plausible is a semi-drubbing. The numbers look really bad.

  97. palaeomerus says:

    The GOP should not expect votes from people they marginalized, mocked, opposed, and alienated through their words, history, and deeds. I do recommend voting for Romney given the circumstances of a president who thinks that not being Bush is a coherent foreign policy and that we desperately need artificially higher energy prices. ut I am very sympathetic to arguments that 1.) he doesn’t deserve it, 2.) the GOP doesn’t deserve it and 3.) that it will not likely lead to a smaller government because of the whole ‘reach across the isle -north eastern- weathervane who distrusts the political desires of the people he wants to vote for him’ thing.

    I would not blame the voter for choosing this moment to jump off. I would encourage them not to, but the voter has every right to, and has been provoked. Jerking the leash NOW after the bullshit of the primary and the whole ‘let’s run 2008 over again and spit on the people who brought us 2010’ is a hell of a dick move. The GOP deserves to lose almost as much as the democrats do.

    I understand and cannot condemn. The GOP used Obama as an excuse not to make the changes they needed to make. If they fail then a huge portion of the blame is on them.

  98. Ernst Schreiber says:

    What numbers?

    It’s too early for real numbers.

  99. Ernst Schreiber says:

    The Democrats deserve to lose. The GOP doesn’t deserve to win.

    Important difference there I think.

  100. missfixit says:

    Jrez says November 6, 2012 at 5:01 am

    Warren County, OH. Precinct 169. Voter #6.

    Romney/Ryan FTW!

    wow I’m from Warren county – small (online) world! what’s the bumper sticker situation like there? ;P

  101. palaeomerus says:

    I still think they both deserve to lose. This is lesser of two evils stuff with us in the middle. A lot of betrayal and bamboozlin’ poisons the well. I just think if Obama wins this will be solvable only with knuckles, and if Romney wins this will only be solvable with crowds taking their money from the GOP and letting it starve while they directly support candidates and form new distribution channels that do not run through the DC and a cocktail party full of Rockefeller types.

  102. Car in says:

    Warren County, OH. Precinct 169. Voter #6.

    Romney/Ryan FTW!

    I was number 144 – voted at about 8:30

    Smallish town, divided into 2 precincts at my polling location… so there was probably 300 voters by then.

    People were ALL business.

  103. missfixit says:

    of course they both deserve to lose.

    we’re down to the situation we are always in – lesser of two evils. This is the last time I will hold my nose and vote for R. If they don’t take this seriously and start reigning in the government, I will vote third party from here unto eternity, and they can suck it.

  104. Car in says:

    ut our own Roddy B is calling it for O, so maybe we’re just trapped in a bubble here and most of America hasn’t awakened, or if they have, they’re more fearful of what Mitt and Ryan might do to their vaginas, or what the teabaggers might burn on their lawns, than they are with no jobs, high gas, food, and clothing prices, a bad housing market, and the empty promises of 4 years that played out emptily right before their eyes.

    My bubble must be pretty fricken big, then.

    Last night some busser kid started arguing with me about how Clinton balanced the budget … bla bla bla, so that’s why he’s voting for Obama.

    Obama has the completely stupid vote locked. And there are a lot of stupid people, but I don’t know if there is enough.

    I mean, even a lot of people less informed than those here can tell the country is going to shit and have switched teams.

  105. McGehee says:

    Today we kick O to the curb.

    Tomorrow morning we wake up with Romney and wonder just how drunk did we get yesterday.

  106. Pablo says:

    I was third in line. I was in and out in about 5 minutes, here in the bluest state in the country.

  107. Pablo says:

    Tomorrow morning we wake up with Romney and wonder just how drunk did we get yesterday.

    Tomorrow night we light the fire we’ll hold his feet to.

  108. happyfeet says:

    he’s already made it clear that he’s seeking a mandate for compromise and bipartisanism

    more than anything that’s what an affirmative vote for romney represents

  109. missfixit says:

    he’s already made it clear that he’s seeking a mandate for compromise and bipartisanism

    and just like that, my weak drive to go vote has dissipated. thanks

  110. happyfeet says:

    it’s good to have clear eyes about this sort of thing is all

  111. Benedick says:

    Just voted in a very liberal college neighborhood of Pittsburgh. It’s a new polling center for me, since I moved last year, but the worker told me turnout is the highest she’s seen. Of course, maybe the quiet conservatives (or usual non-voters who hate hate hate Obama) are waking up. Who knows. Also, my liberal Facebook peeps are showing no sign of a lack of enthusiasm for four more years of Suck. I am wary. Wary indeed.

  112. Benedick says:

    Also, this: http://washingtonexaminer.com/philly-gop-poll-inspectors-being-ousted-for-dems/article/2512714

    How the fuck do they get away with this, you ask? I’ve volunteered as a GOP lawyer on election day in the past (2000 and 2004). It’s because judges (mostly liberals) refuse to enforce the law. Until people start going to prison for this kind of thing, we will never have integrity in our election process.

  113. Pablo says:

    The poll watchers have been ordered back in. There had better be prosecutions. Meanwhile, the Black Panthers are apparently meeting some new people, SEAL Team November 6.

  114. McGehee says:

    The lady in line behind me to vote said she’s never had to wait in line there before — it was my first time at the new precinct so I wouldn’t know.

    From walking in to walking out I figure 30-40 minutes. The place has about 20 or 25 parking places and people were parking in the road.

    Just imagine after 5:00 there.

  115. Benedick says:

    The damage was already done. The Democrats conspired to remove GOP monitors from numerous polling places. They knew the GOP would get an injunction. They knew they’d only have a limited time during which they would have unfettered control over the voter rolls and voting machines. Whatever they planned to do during that window of time, it’s done. They pulled it off. All we can hope for now is consequences. If Tom Corbett doesn’t press this issue, I will make it my mission to replace his ass.

  116. Jeff G. says:

    Maybe this is 2010 where a GOP butt-whipping emerges from the plains and slays the experts. But not likely: Much more plausible is a semi-drubbing. The numbers look really bad.

    This is totally bumming me out.

    Because if true, our country is gone — and we’re the generation responsible for it.

    Not sure I’ll ever be able to look my kids in the eye again.

  117. sdferr says:

    The numbers is a peculiar term. That is, as a term it is utterly decontextualized, yet modified by the happy value judgment “bad”. It is to laugh.

  118. Pablo says:

    I just don’t see the numbers looking that bad. The toplines are bullshit of the sort we’ve seen before. Dems are supposed to carry the early vote in a big way, but their turnout is down in a big way and the GOP’s is up. Romney’s got a huge edge with Independents. Romney winning EV in OH is huge, it seems to me.

    I’m wary, but optimistic.

  119. missfixit says:

    well Tim Tebow says on Twitter that Obama will be leading until the Republicans all get off work.

    so let’s think positive! (ignore that our hopes are in Romney)

  120. Jeff G. says:

    Pablo —

    Claim that EV in OH numbers on Drudge were fraudulent.

  121. cranky-d says:

    I thought, bh, that you meant that we don’t live in interesting times. My intent was to bracket that by pointing out we might not be able to tell whether or not the times are interesting, or that there may not actually be any interesting times at all, ever.

  122. geoffb says:

    Some information on Colorado Dem poll tactics at Ace. Also see comments 67, 77, 79, 81, and especially 193.

  123. Pablo says:

    Well, that’s weird.

  124. Ernst Schreiber says:

    he’s already made it clear that he’s seeking a mandate for compromise and bipartisanism

    more than anything that’s what an affirmative vote for romney represents

    Then it’s a good thing I’m voting against Obama.

    Romney and the GOP Establishment better damn well understand the difference. Or there in for an education in ’14.

  125. BigBangHunter says:

    DIXVILLE NOTCH, NH –
    In the tiny town of Dixville Notch, N.H., the presidential vote ended in a historical first.

    In a tradition that started more than 40 years ago, the town of 10 registered voters all cast their ballots right after midnight on Election Day, and the results are tallied immediately.

    This year, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney each received five votes from Dixville Notch.

    The tie is a historical first for the midnight vote.

  126. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Early voting totals (Not, actual votes, btw) down 4% in Obama/Kerry counties; up 14% in McCain counties.

    I heard it on Rush, so it must be true!

  127. BigBangHunter says:

    – The 5 Romney voters celebrated by throwing an election day party at the towns only pub, while the Obama voters celebrated by cashing their EBT and unemployment checks at the general store.

  128. Slartibartfast says:

    Last night some busser kid started arguing with me about how Clinton balanced the budget

    I had somebody make that claim last night on Facebook, and one of the other commenters threw in an actual link to Factcheck.org that confirmed it.

    I tossed out a link to the actual OMB spreadsheets that show that gross federal debt increased in every single year in the Clinton administration, as well as in many years before and after. There are only about six years out of the last 70 where the federal debt went down, and Clinton’s administration did not include any of them.

    I haven’t heard a peep from them since.

  129. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Those early voter numbers are for OH, which I neglected to mention.

  130. bh says:

    Gotta run out the door but wanted to say I saw your comment, cranky.

    Too rushed and addle-brained to reply at the moment.

  131. Jeff G. says:

    More fantastic news! “Romney seems to have given up on Ohio and is now banking on Pennsylvania… http://pwire.at/PB4YA5

    Is it really possible the country is gone? Really? Is it?

  132. missfixit says:

    Jeff, it is possible. Was it Franklin that said “once the people know they can vote themselves money, the republic is lost”? (something along those lines?)

    The question is what do we do when we know the country is lost, and we are facing serious decline? There are no more continents to flee to. And with half the country on the dole, it would be hard to have a real revolution.

  133. Roddy Boyd says:

    JG: Entirely so

    Pa. and, I suspect Va., will be the next states for Romney to “bank on.”

    A 10:30 pm concession call is my hunch.

    PS Very good and orderly turnout here in coastal NC. Traditionally Southern, heavy ex-Military and lots of engineers from GE/Corning, Romney will do 65% plus in a university town more than 20% black.

  134. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Keep your shit together man! (He said in a “be of good cheer, stout fellow” sort of way)

    That’s ABC fucking news –which means that whoever reported that is parroting what he or she’s been told by Democrat sources.

  135. Jeff G. says:

    I’m keeping my shit together by tweeting my “Evidence ROmney may take CO” series.

    Nobody else is laughing, but I am.

  136. Pablo says:

    More fantastic news! “Romney seems to have given up on Ohio and is now banking on Pennsylvania… http://pwire.at/PB4YA5”

    Nonsense. He and Ryan are in Cleveland right now.

  137. cranky-d says:

    No worries, bh. I imagine we’ll be moving on to more concrete things later in the day.

  138. cranky-d says:

    There is going to be a lot of opposition reporting today that will not be true.

  139. Slartibartfast says:

    Well, we’re replaying the Panic of 1819 and the Tariff of Abominations; is there anything else the Great Divider can throw at us? What would the Missouri Compromise map onto, in current times?

  140. Pablo says:

    Eight years ago at this time, Kerry had it in the bag. All the “smart” people said so.

  141. Slartibartfast says:

    Oh, goody. I can add politicalwire to the list of people who are so caught up in the storyness of it all that they no longer have to pay attention to what’s happening.

  142. sdferr says:

    Congress could pass an ironic bi-partisan “National Day of Anxiety Resolution”, paste it on election day.

  143. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Look. All the polls that have it tied have Democrats turning out at the same level or higher levels than in 2008 and all that does is barely get Obama over the line .

    What’s changed in the last two years to make the 2008 model more likely than the 2010 model?

    All our lives, we’ve been told it’s all about the independedts, which Romney is winning anywhere from 3-2 to 2-1 (my rhetorical guestimate). Now independents don’t matter?

    There aren’t enough minorities, dependents and limousine liberals to put Obama over the top.

  144. Slartibartfast says:

    At this point I’d do the modern equivalent of electing Old Hickory, even knowing he’d screw the pooch.

  145. Silver Whistle says:

    There aren’t enough minorities, dependents and limousine liberals to put Obama over the top.

    You are forgetting the Lazarus Effect, Ernst. Never doubt the ability of the dead to walk again and vote in D controlled wards.

  146. John Bradley says:

    My sanity check: the bastard won 53-47 in 2008. Against an only semi-energized Republican base.

    Since then, he’s pissed off any number of people who voted for him (idiot republicans who thought he’d be the Black Bill Clinton, Military types, anyone who works in oil/coal, the anti-war crowd, anyone who thought they were buying a post-racial America, college students who were expecting a job when they graduated, etc.)

    Who has he added? Is there anyone who didn’t vote for him in 2008 that is going to vote for him in 2012? In a nation of 300+ million, sure — but it’s very hard to imagine that there’s any significant gain to offset the non-trivial “ex-Obama voter” contingent.

    I just don’t see any way he wins, other than outright Hugo Chavez level fraud. And I’d like to think that that would be impossible, as Republicans control the state-level politics in most of the relevant swing states.

  147. Ernst Schreiber says:

    fair point

  148. Silver Whistle says:

    Also not to be discounted is the Franken Factor, a phenomenon whereby just enough ballots to put a D over the top are mysteriously discovered, uncounted, in a random location.

  149. Ernst Schreiber says:

    That only becomes a factor if the polls are right and Democrats enjoy an 8 pt. or more turnout advantage. I don’t believe they do. Not in enough swing states to drag his skinny black ass over the finish line.

    Maybe I’m wrong. But there’s no point in sweating bullets over it.

  150. Silver Whistle says:

    Neither there is, Ernst. A refreshing pint of dark brown ale, and the election will take care of itself.

  151. leigh says:

    I just don’t see any way he wins, other than outright Hugo Chavez level fraud. And I’d like to think that that would be impossible, as Republicans control the state-level politics in most of the relevant swing states.

    The only people I know who are voting for dems live in hipster communities and, honestly a great number of them can’t be bothered to vote because it’s a hassle. All that standing in line with the riff-raff and all.

  152. BigBangHunter says:

    – Ok, vetoed Obama, Now for some lunch. Subway tuna on wheat.

  153. Ernst Schreiber says:

    That’s because you live in Oklahoma leigh, not because the only people voting for Obama are hipster douches and minority/dependents (although that, along with radical chic limousine libs, is his base).

  154. leigh says:

    Oh, I know Ernst. I’m talking about my relatives who live in Austin and friends in Marin County, CA.

    My San Joaquin Valley and Santa Ynez Valley relatives are all voting against the One. No that it matters in Californistan.

  155. BigBangHunter says:

    – We’ll know if CaliforniaStan is coming to its senses and continuing 2010 based on the proposition results. I don’t think Moonbeam is going to be a happy camper come sunrise.

  156. leigh says:

    From your keyboard to God’s ears, BBH.

    I loved living in San Diego. Surrounded by republicans and men in uniform. *sigh* It was a dream come true for little old single me.

  157. palaeomerus says:

    Austin hipsters don’t vote often. It’s the trust fund kids and the Tarrytown crowd and the retirees down south on manchaca and convict hill that get out and vote. And pretty much only them. I doubt even 150,000 out of 900,000 will vote today. Austin isn’t blue so much as the people who vote here are blue. Austin is mostly grey. It doesn’t give a damn.

    I voted my big fat red vote back on the 23. I voted against all of the local propositions(be the tax and spend via ad valorum rate raises, or borrow and spend via issuance of more muni bonds). I bet all of them will pass. They almost always do.

    Sadly, my only real contribution (the part of my vote that will count) is a vote for Ted Cruz for the senate. Romney will probably get Texas easily due to Dallas and Houston. Austin and San Antonio will vote for Obama but it doesn’t matter.

  158. leigh says:

    My brother in Houston is voting against the One. Brother in Austin is meh about voting. Niece in San Antonio? Who knows?

  159. BigBangHunter says:

    – Weeeelllllll – *wink*

    – BTW, turnout in my area is definately up. I went at aeound 10:30 to beat the lunch crowd and all booths were filled, a few waiting in line that continued for the time I was there. Two precioncts back to back in a school, about 30 voting stations. Both sides the same.

  160. BigBangHunter says:

    – I heart San Diego ladies…..just sayin.

  161. Squid says:

    …just enough ballots to put a D over the top are mysteriously discovered, uncounted, in a random location.

    Random location? A Dem election judge’s car is random?!

  162. John Bradley says:

    BBH: So what interesting props are up on CA’s ballot this year?

    So we can have a glimmer of hope when they win handily, before the SC strikes them down for whatever contrived reasons seem appropriate.

  163. cranky-d says:

    I see we’re reliving some of Minnesota’s shame.

  164. Silver Whistle says:

    Too facetious, Squid?

  165. Silver Whistle says:

    Minnesota’s shame = Al Franken. Very apposite.

  166. palaeomerus says:

    Well Franken’s awful, but Jesse Ventura wasn’t exactly the sharpest prime rib on the lunch menu either.

  167. Silver Whistle says:

    I thought the way Jesse carted that minigun around the jungle was nothing less than magnificent, palaeo.

  168. leigh says:

    It’s unfortunate that the lad is dumb as a stump.

  169. leigh says:

    BBH, you say that to all the girls.

  170. BigBangHunter says:

    – Yeh, but the words only get an added wink with a special one – :)

  171. leigh says:

    Aww.

Comments are closed.