What’s news today?
Let’s start with this.
I had thought some of this would die down after Pres. Obama won re-election. It hasn’t, although the targets have changed from Romney, to anyone who disagrees with Obama’s policies. One need look no further than the treatment of the Papa John’s founder, his only crime being he can do math, and sees first hand the disaster Pres. Obama has layed on the already struggling economy. I won’t link it because it’s vile, but Twitchy has numerous examples. Left leaning Twitter users have gone from calling for riots and Romney’s death, to the same treatment of this man. Anyone successful is now the Enemy. The campaign rancor has shifted and there’s a coordinated reason for that. The same media is now being used for a new purpose.
From WhiteHouseDossier
“The White House is pulling a tactic out of its campaign playbook – and President Obama’s own community organizing past – using the organs of government to enlist average Americans to help Obama advocate for his priorities.
In an email sent to people who signed up to receive official updates from the White House, recipients are told to forward the message to their friends, asking them to help promote what is in effect White House propaganda. The White House email list, which government officials began compiling earlier in Obama’s term, is separate from the famed Obama campaign email list, but recipients are nonetheless being asked to engage in partisan political activity.”
“The email is part of a larger campaign by Obama to gin up support outside the Beltway for his position on cutting the deficit. According to several news outlets, Obama will travel outside Washington trying to convince Americans to back him.”
The Campaign continues.
Some say it’s time for Pres. Obama to reward supporters. Jesse “Why yes, my son is a corrupt politician” Jackson said so.
From CBSChicago
““We voted early, we voted long. Our votes won,” he said.
Rev. Jackson, who spoke longer, louder, and more forcefully than he has in some time at the Saturday morning Rainbow/PUSH meeting, asked the crowd, “What do we want? We want, we want, we want, we deserve, we deserve … a return on our investment.
“What’s good for us is good for everybody. What’s good for blacks is good for everybody.,” he said. “We bled too much, we died too young, we cried too much, we prayed too long, now we want a return on our investment.””
The White House seems to have obliged?
“President Obama intends to close “persistent gaps” between whites and minorities in everything from credit scores and homeownership to test scores and graduation rates.”
“Under this broad interpretation of civil-rights law, virtually any organization can be held liable for race bias if it maintains a policy that negatively impacts one racial group more than another — even if it has no racist motive and applies the policy evenly across all groups.
Equal Outcomes
This means that even race-neutral rules for mortgage underwriting and consumer credit scoring potentially can be deemed racist if prosecutors can produce statistics showing they tend to result in adverse outcomes for blacks or Latinos.”
So it’s Franny/Freddie loans for all, regardless whether you qualify or not, all over again. But in all financial areas affected by your credit score? Or we sue your racist butts.
Sure, why not? What could possibly go wrong?
Setting people up for failure financially, because of their skin color, isn’t exactly what I’d call a reward.
Other supportive groups will meet with the President Wednesday to discuss their demands.
From Politico
“•Mary Kay Henry, SEIU •Lee Saunders, AFSCME •Dennis Van Roekel, NEA •Rich Trumka, AFL-CIO •Neera Tanden, Center for American Progress •John Podesta, Center for American Progress •Bob Greenstein, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities •Laura Burton Capps, Common Purpose Project •Max Richtman, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare •Justin Ruben, MoveOn •Deepak Bhargava, Center for Community Change
This list hits many of the major unions and liberal organizations that are urging the president to hold firm on his commitment to end tax cuts for wealthier families and to protect major entitlement programs.”
And the Teacher’s Unions want their reward too. And I’m sure they’ll get it.
From HotAir
“It is easy to forget that teachers’ unions are private entities, with income, expenditures and bottom lines that ultimately determine their health and effectiveness. Their revenues, however, are almost the entirely the result of the dues payments of public employees. If unions increase dues, the onus is on the members. It is much better for them to increase the public education workforce, thereby bringing in new revenue and easing the burden on the existing rank-and-file.
It will be a high priority for the teachers’ unions to put a stop to layoffs and reignite the hiring binge that gave them the power they enjoy today. Teachers’ unions experienced decades of non-stop growth, and the recent economic downturn put them in an internal budget situation they were not used to dealing with. Whatever the effects of the November 2012 election on education policy, the larger issue is whether education policy will play second fiddle to the internal imperatives of the teachers’ unions – more members and less red ink.”
Here’s an interesting turn in the Benghazi incident.
Here’s a good summary from TheNYDailyNews
And this one we’ll call John F. Kerry, reporting for duty.
From the WaPo
“President Obama is considering asking Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) to serve as his next defense secretary, part of an extensive rearrangement of his national security team that will include a permanent replacement for former CIA director David H. Petraeus.
Although Kerry is thought to covet the job of secretary of state, senior administration officials familiar with the transition planning said that nomination will almost certainly go to Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.”
Did you know he was in Vietnam?
Maybe Kerry will act on this, since he’s a vet.
From TheGreenRoom
“It was one of the simplest, most poignant promises Barack Obama made in 2008 in his first campaign for the White House: He would fulfill “a sacred trust with our veterans” by significantly reducing the government’s lengthy backlog of pending claims for disability coverage. The goal: All veterans could get a decision on disability claims within 125 days.
The results:
Records obtained by the Washington Guardian show that as of Nov. 5, the day before Mr. Obama won re-election, 558,230 of the 820,106 veterans seeking disability coverage had their claims pending for more than the 125-day target. That’s 68.1 percent, or nearly double the 36 percent rate in the summer of 2010.
And there are tens of thousands more cases pending in various forms of appeal, where decisions can take months or years to resolve. For instance, the average time it takes to resolve a case before the Veterans Appeals Board is 883 days, or almost 2½ years.”
So what’s the weather like in Texas?
From theDailyCaller
“With more than 28,600 signatures collected since Nov. 9, a White House website petition from an Arlington, Texas man has attracted enough support to trigger an automatic review by the Obama administration.
Petitions submitted through the Obama White House’s “We the People” program “require a response” from the administration after they have attracted 25,000 signatures.
The Daily Caller reported Monday morning that since the day after President Barack Obama’s re-election, citizens from 20 states had submitted petitions asking for peaceful separations from the United States.”
It’s up to 25 states now. Heh.
🙂
UPDATE
It. Just. Gets. Worse.
From WaPo
“The FBI probe into the sex scandal that prompted CIA Director David Petraeus to resign has expanded to ensnare Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced early Tuesday.
According to a senior U.S. defense official, the FBI has uncovered between 20,000 and 30,000 pages of documents — most of them e-mails — that contain “potentially inappropriate” communication between Allen and Jill Kelley, the 37-year-old Tampa woman whose report of harassment by a person who turned out to be Petraeus’s mistress ultimately led to Petraeus’s downfall.
Allen, a Marine, succeeded Petraeus as the top allied commander in Afghanistan in July 2011. He also served as Petraeus’s deputy when both generals led the military’s Tampa-based Central Command from 2008 until 2010.”
Wandering Views 
AJ
On Story 1: Why should the President not go back to the people during the budget debate?
Story 2: yes interest groups ask for greater consideration when the side they supported wins an election. Happened with Bush as well. And?
Story 3: Hmph. I was kind of hoping to see someone like Michelle Flourney at Defense. And yes, the VA needs to improve.
Story 4: It’s not exactly States that have petitioned. It is people in States (as opposed to State governments). Conservative hero Justice Scalia has noted that the Constitutional question of secession was settled by the civil war — no right to secession. Besides aren’t these folks from the deep red states the ones who keep telling us how patriotic they are and how much they love America? So these guys love our republic so much that when elections are held that they dislike and disagree with they decide to leave? That’s some love of country … not.
AJ
a question for you — given how well served conservatives were by daily caller and hot air are you going to re-examine your sources of news?
LikeLike
Hobby Lobby has also been targeted for boycott because they joined the mandate suit. I recommend them. Their prices are higher on big items but they have good sales.
LikeLike
Re Point 4: Have you looked at the latest map of the states wanting seccesion? New York and New Jersey has joined them.
(As someone who lives in the Deep South, I remind you that I often tell you “Politics is for entertainment purposes only” and “In any election you only get as good as you pay for”. Then I also have to remind you that like KBells told us during her town’s mayoral election, sometimes you have no real choice, you have to either vote for the crook or the pedophile. (See note about it being for entertainment purposes only)
LikeLike
On story 1, I partially agree with CB. Reagan would appeal to the people during budget battles. The difference is that Reagan would propose comprehensive solutions. Raising taxes on the “rich” is not a comprehensive solution.
On story 4, thank you for using Texas as the example of secessionists. Right now, Oklahoma is more conservative than Texas, but since Texas has a coast, it is the most likely to secede. If Texas seceded, Oklahomans would have a difficult choice: Stay with the nation that is trying to destroy their values or join the state which they have always hated.
LikeLike
” Conservative hero Justice Scalia has noted that the Constitutional question of secession was settled by the civil war — no right to secession.”
The question was settled through force not through proper legal channels. What else can we settle that way?
Anyway I doubt they will really succeeded. They are just sending a message.
LikeLike
Kim, he wasn’t a pedophile, just (according to his opponent) a run of the mill perv. 🙂 Anyway. We got the crook.
LikeLike
Kim
I did not know that re: New York and New Jersey. Ty for the info
LikeLike
RickyWeaver, I am not opposed to living on Galveston. 🙂
My apologies KBells. Perv/Ped they both start with P. See how easy this slander thing is?
LikeLike
Kim, You are always welcome in Galveston. We now have a WWII sub like you do in Mobile. Although the Yankees captured Galveston in October, 1862, we liberated it three months later.
LikeLike
As a Vietnam Veteran, I can with certainty that John Kerry is no friend of the military fighting men and women. His lies that he spread while under oath before congress, became propaganda for the NVA and VC holding American Prisoners of War. Hanoi Jane should be ecstatic that Kerry might be Secretary of Defense.
I am rather curious AJ why you have not posted the news that Texas and Louisiana have obtained enough signatures on the whitehouse. gov website to ask for a peaceful secession from the Union.
LikeLike
CB,
Story 1. So your fine with it. Not surprising. But please show me where Bush and company supporters as part of this campaign to push an agenda, made death threats and threatened riots if they didn’t get their way. I don’t seem to recall that. And yes, the nonsense on Twitter is from the same people he’s contacted to push his agenda. This is how they’re doing what he asked. Are you also OK with the obvious demonization of their foes?
Story 2. Are you also OK with an expansion of the same policies that brought us the housing bubble and the resulting collapse? “Cuz that’s what this is, but on steroids. Doesn’t raise any red flags with you? Really?
And no, I have no plans to do so. They may have been wrong on the polling issues, but little else. Again, when there’s a better alternative, perhaps I will, but not until then. The MSM is still a joke, and that doesn’t look like it will change anytime soon. I’ll still take the alternative thanks.
And really, no comment on another secret CIA prison, although a small one this time, in a foreign country? I seem to recall you weren’t a fan of such things under Bush. Does Obama get a pass on that too? Or is it because you don’t trust Fox?
LikeLike
Okies do not hate Texas Ricky. They are just rivals in football. It is a lot like the Marine calling the Sailor a Squid and the Sailor calling the Marine a Jarhead.
LikeLike
Joe B.,
I did. It’s the last story in this post. It’s why I asked about the weather down in Texas. I hear Okla. is nice too! I’ll move to whichever seceeds (is that spelled right?) first.
LikeLike
You will like Oklahoma AJ, if you like it hot and dry. The winds usually come out of the south. The trees always are bent facing north. We do have our fair share of Violent weather like nasty hail storms and tornadoes but if you are old like me, the mild winters are great and warm weather with Prairie winds make the summers bearable.
LikeLike
Joe B,
I could live with that. I’ll just bring my air conditioners with me.
🙂
LikeLike
Drivesguy, It goes deeper than football. Texans are raised to think that Okies are subhumans and Okies know this.
LikeLike
Texas and Oklahoma are like Germany and Russia. Could those two unite to fight a common enemy? Possibly. Could Texas and Oklahoma unite against Obama? Probably. The farmers, oil and gas people, rodeo participants and country singers will probably lead the way.
LikeLike
Aj
Are you really comparing tweets to administration policy?
Housing/banking – bring back glass-steagall.
Secret prisons – still wrong. Doesn’t matter which administration is doing it. Though I seem to recall folks here not minding when Bush was doing it.
LikeLike
I just updated this post because the Patraeus story has now dragged Gen. Allen into the mud as well. Well, it looks like he was already in the mud, but now we know it.
LikeLike
And if anyone has any delusions about the idea that taxing the rich would help the deficit problem, the CBO has a message for you. It won’t.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/how-much-deficit-reduction-would-obamas-tax-on-the-rich-accomplish/article/2513252#.UKJJWoWhC-o
“But just how much deficit reduction would Obama’s tax hikes on the rich necessarily accomplish?
Nothing, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Letting tax rates rise to Clinton era levels for those families making over $250,000 a year would only raise $824 billion over ten years. That is not even enough revenue to undo the sequester that Obama promised “will not happen” during his final debate with Mitt Romney.
A chart breaking down the costs of the relevant fiscal cliff provisions is below.”
LikeLike
I was born and raised in Texas Ricky and I never felt that way about Oklahoma and the Okies here have never been unkind to me. I get teased alot and I tease them back some. But I have never seen or heard what you are describing. Here’s shocker. Most the Okie’s I have been talking to are supporting Texas in their dissent. So the way I figure it, Obama has managed to divide the nation and the energy producing states are the ones who are in revolt.
LikeLike
Aj, the Obama Administration has not contended that raising taxes on the wealthiest is the only solution and has said on numerous occassions that there also have to be cuts. The only folks I know of who claim raising revenue is the solution are the loons on both sides of the aisle.
LikeLike
CB,
And what exactly are those cuts we keep hearing about, but never seeing? Obama has already stated the ones to hit the Defense Dept “won’t happen”. So where are the cuts? It sounds like his energy solutions, and the “all of the above approach” meme. He talks about it, but little else besides talk. That ones garbage too.
It won’t be to entitlements, he and his supporters made that clear in the union meeting story above. I keep waiting, but all I hear are crickets.
LikeLike
Drivesguy, It is good to hear that the current emergency seems to have brought together old enemies. You seem to have been raised around a mild strain of Texans who were tolerant of Okies. I was taught to hold them in contempt, which came in handy as my sister was (through an act of gross child abuse) born north of the Red River.
LikeLike
Ricky, My uncle used to tease my wife, (a Buckeye), that the family in Texas referred to our marriage as a mixed marriage. Later on he told me that marrying Cindi was the best day’s work I ever did.
LikeLike
Drivesguy, It sounds like your wife did a good job of winning your uncle over.
LikeLike
Here in California, voters were strong armed into passing Proposition 30–raising our sales tax 1/4 percent to earn an estimated $6 billion–which was promised to education. (The same group that’s supposed to be getting all those giant lottery earnings).
Our government threatened college students that if they didn’t pass Prop 30, their tuition would go even more sky high. The UCs added $500 to everyone’s tuition and promised it would be refunded. I’m waiting to see if that happens.
Yesterday, the paper ran a front page story about how the treasurer’s phone rang off the hook the day after the election with folks looking for money for their pet projects–I mean, we just “got back” 1/3 of our projected deficit. The state is flush with cash, right?
To his credit, Governor Brown is resisting any attempts to do anything with those funds except direct them to education.
We’ll see if it works.
LikeLike
It’s easy to say something is for education. In North & South Carolina, there are “Education Lotteries”. What it does is designate that money for education and free up other funds for something else.
Money is fungible. Politicians do with it as they wish.
Don’t be surprised if you discover your politician is lying to you.
LikeLike
Michelle, I’m not optimistic. There’s a giant billboard (still up) near my vet’s office that has the word “CATASTROPHE” written on it as a warning to those who dared vote against Prop. 30. 😉
And this whole Patraeus affair is beginning to sound like a bad Lifetime movie (pathetic but weirdly entertaining).
But seriously, it’s just embarrassing & sad for everyone involved. The behavior of the 2 “other” women, meanwhile, remind me of a high school girl-feud.
Guess it’s always revealing to see high-placed and powerful people — supposedly smart and definitely in a better station of life than most of the rest of us will ever be — falling on their own swords.
But truly how sad for them and their families. Lots of people hurt in all of this on a personal level. 😦
LikeLike
And in other upbeat (financial) news …
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49802535
LikeLike
Victor Davis Hanson today has an excellent National Review Online article today, The Latino-Vote Obsession
The GOP is right to worry, but the wrong solution would be worse than none., including:
In the first place, why do Republicans think their conservative message is a natural one for the majority of contemporary Latinos/Hispanics — rubrics that strangely now include everyone from Cubans and upscale Argentinians to Oaxacan indigenous peoples and Hondurans? In truth, the vast majority of Latinos who vote overwhelmingly Democratic is made up of poorer immigrants from Central America and Mexico rather than Marco Rubio–like second-generation Cuban-Americans. De facto amnesty, generous entitlements, vast increases in public expenditures and hiring, and more taxes on the wealthy are understandably widely supported by both the Latino leadership and rank-and-file. Public employment is increasingly more attractive and more subject to affirmative action than the private sector, and, quite logically, its expansion is seen by poorer Latinos as a natural pathway into the middle class.
He essentially argues that we need to be civil in dealing with the Latino issue, though we need to keep our eyes open to the hard reality that many Latinos in this country, especially from Mexico and Central America, lack that voted for Obama lack the sort of strong work ethic, education, and cultural values that traditional America stands for.
LikeLike
Sails, My wife and mother-in-law are second and third generation Mexican immigrants. They are not descended from nobility. They retain a strong work ethic. They say that it is the Democrat/American welfare state that is turning their relatives into bums. This same system is also turning our poor whites into bums.
LikeLike
Hanson’s final paragraph as follows takes down both the Democrat and Republican racists who use the immigration issue for political advantage:
A final note. Republicans have convinced themselves that somehow they were insensitive and thus lost minority votes. In fact, for nearly four years the Obama administration and its surrogates worked to create a racialist divide — energized by talk of a new demographic future — that was never successfully countered. When the pastor who gave the benediction when Barack Obama was sworn into office brags that whites are going to Hell, or when a columnist like Colbert King likens Romney to Andrew Johnson, the wrecker of Reconstruction, or when Chris Matthews serially alleges racism on the part of Republicans, or when Attorney General Eric Holder refers to blacks as “my people” and others as “a nation of cowards” — and when these efforts are not countered or even addressed — then the stereotype of a racist establishment certainly takes hold. The success of the Obama campaign in capturing the minority vote was not due to a Republican failure to have minority voices (cf. the party’s multiracial convention), nor was it due to opposition to the DREAM Act, but rather to a moral failure on the part of Republicans (not even a mild rebuke to Joseph Lowery’s racist rant?) to demonstrate that those who were building racial divisions for political advantage were themselves the real racists. If Republicans do not believe in a society in which race is to be incidental, not essential to our characters, and if they cannot stand on such principles, then why should anyone else?
LikeLike
Ricky, I have had not a few business associates and friends with a Hispanic background who like your wife and Mother in law are aware that Latino immigrants are corrupted by the welfare state and loose American moral values. One of my college roommates was a Hispanic of quite high character and intelligence.
LikeLike
“…the cultural left is the political guardian of the depraved values of American popular culture.”
Denish D’Suza, The Enemy at Home, p.131
LikeLike
Sails
The day laborers, construction workers, janitors many od whom in my area are those central americans are pretty hard workers and that is why davis hanson et al don’t get it. Instead of labeling them as the takers maybe conservatives could try understanding them instead of insulting them.
LikeLike
CB, Hanson, a scholar and farmer in California, well knows Latino realities. Another bright scholar, Heather MacDonald recently wrote the following in an NRO article:
And a strong reason for that support for big government is that so many Hispanics use government programs. U.S.-born Hispanic households in California use welfare programs at twice the rate of native-born non-Hispanic households. And that is because nearly one-quarter of all Hispanics are poor in California, compared to a little over one-tenth of non-Hispanics. Nearly seven in ten poor children in the state are Hispanic, and one in three Hispanic children is poor, compared to less than one in six non-Hispanic children. One can see that disparity in classrooms across the state, which are chock full of social workers and teachers’ aides trying to boost Hispanic educational performance.
The idea of the “social issues” Hispanic voter is also a mirage. A majority of Hispanics now support gay marriage, a Pew Research Center poll from last month found. The Hispanic out-of-wedlock birth rate is 53 percent, about twice that of whites.
I understand your anecdotal view, though that doesn’t obviate statistical realities.
LikeLike
How far will this go? There were 2 stories on Fox’s online site about teachers and students getting into for making comments about Mr. Obama. The teacher was turning in the school by liberal parent’s base on the teacher’s private Facebook comments. The other story was about a far left group that has start to watch the Facebook pages of kids and when they make comments about Mr. Obama, (now the comments themselves were wrong) they get turn into the school. The School’s were looking at how they can reeducate these kids.
It seems we may be one steep away from a China / Soviet Union / you file the gap for the other group type of nation. The question must be asked how far is Mr. Obama and the far willing to take it?
We know the left are willing to stop Chrisitan’s from opening business in certain cities.
LikeLike
CB, I have read several articles by Hanson on the great valley of California. He knows his stuff.
It is not a matter of knowing or insulting poor Hispanic immigrants. My mother-in-law knows, works with and is related to poor Hispanic immigrants. At 72 she still works full time. The ones who retain their work ethic, she respects. The ones who become lazy and dependent on government aid, she knows, disrespects and insults. My wife does the same as she views the lazy ones as embarrassments. My wife and mother-in-law also viewed Hispanics who voted for Obama as embarrassments.
LikeLike
One thing I do not understand when people came here legal through New York around the turn of the Century. They want to fit in with the American Culture, so they learn English, did not demand services to be in their language, they did not demand to have a month to celebrate their Culture. They made our Nation stronger, they keep their culture, taught their kids their culture, open business based on their Culture.
Now, we have a new group of people coming here, who instead of wanting to fit in with the American Culture, and learn English, they demand services to be in their own language, instead of our nation promoting the American Culture, we must promote their culture to make them feel better. They have not made our Nation Stronger; they are promoting open boards, which are destroying our nation.
I my self welcome anyone who comes here legally, learn English, learn to fit into the American Culture. I reject those who reject our laws and our ways, and who desire to change America to fit their world views.
LikeLike
There are my two cent, take it, leave it, do as you want with it.
LikeLike
Lets try this again
1. How far will this go? There were 2 stories on Fox’s online site about teachers and students getting into TROUBLE for making comments about Mr. Obama. The teacher’s was turning in the school by liberal parent’s base on the teacher’s private Facebook comments.The other story was about a far left group that has start to watch the Facebook pages of kids and when they make comments about Mr. Obama, (now the comments themselves were wrong) they get turn into the school. The School’s were looking at how they can reeducate these kids.
It seems we may be one steep away from a China / Soviet Union / you file the gap for the other group type of nation. The question must be asked how far is Mr. Obama and the far left willing to take it?
We know the left are willing to stop Chrisitan’s from opening business in certain cities
LikeLike
I see. So the good hispanics are conservatives. And the lazy immoral ones ae liberal, is that what you are saying?
LikeLike
No, That’s what my wife and mother-in-law are saying.
LikeLike
Ricky
So 70 percent of hispanic Americans would by lazy immoral liberals? Perhaps you can see why this tone is not helpful to the conservative case?
LikeLike
CB, First, these are my wife’s and mother-in-law’s positions, not mine. Who am I to tell them what to think about their own people.
Second, 70% of the Hispanics who voted supported Obama. Voting rates among Hispanics are always low. At age 72, my mother-in-law has never voted. None of her siblings (and there are eight) have ever voted.
LikeLike
CB, you’re absurdly reducing a complex issue to that of a bunch of crude conservatives harshly and unfairly criticizing Latinos.
Actually, conservatives are able to understand and civilly discuss this issue, though they are aware of some hard truths related to the issue. Read Heather MacDonald above or Hanson’s cogent summary as follows:
In truth, the vast majority of Latinos who vote overwhelmingly Democratic is made up of poorer immigrants from Central America and Mexico rather than Marco Rubio–like second-generation Cuban-Americans. De facto amnesty, generous entitlements, vast increases in public expenditures and hiring, and more taxes on the wealthy are understandably widely supported by both the Latino leadership and rank-and-file.
You would do well to attempt serious refutation of these points as opposed to simply smearing conservatives.
LikeLike
Sails, It’s not CB’s fault. She is just responding to my recitation of what happened in my house after election day.
When my wife read the breakdown of voting results, she wanted to wear a button that said, “I did not vote for Obama, I have never voted for a Democrat and I believe people should work for a living.”
Interestingly, many of our poor whites are engaging in many of the same bad behaviors as our Hispanics. They are feigning disability, having illegitimate children, and going on food stamps. Fortunately, they haven’t yet stooped so low as to vote Democrat.
LikeLike
I’ve resisted the urge to post but I finally have some free time for some post-election musings.
POLLS: I predicted about 300 EVs for Obama, mainly by reading Nate Silver as opposed to RealClearPolitics. I was surprised RCP kept so many states in the toss up category including Penn. The only states I was unwilling to bet on were VA, FL and CO. Listening to conservatives predicting a Romney win over 300 EVs reminded me of Jon Stewart’s Bulls— Mountain commentary …. the right actually believed the rhetoric of skewed polls and lived in an alternate reality which brings up the next topic.
BLAME:Number one, Obama won because he had the better ground game. They had a strategy and carried it out — registering new voters, bringing to the poll and then motivating them to stay in line for hours. Second, Obama defined Romney. Romney was an okay candidate but Obama made sure the entire nation saw him as an uncaring businessman who made money industrializing the rust belt. And this all before the end of the summer. (The Canadian conservative party does this really well and has done it to the two previous liberal leaders and hence I saw this early and knew Romney would always be behind) The above is what Obama did right but given the US economy, Romney could still have won if not for Republican/Romney mistakes. First and above all they believed the echo chamber or what David Frum called the conservative entertainment complex. Discounting the media, they relied instead on what they told each other. When I saw Romney in Penn on election eve, I thought it was a hail mary but instead the team thought Ohio was theirs and they were hoping to add to the total. In order to think this way, his team had to discount almost all state polls which means they were guided by conservative talking heads. Not only did the conservative media guide their strategy, it also guided their talking points. This was in the best interest in media types who like to sell books but it doesn’t lead to winning elections. Romney’s own actions and past didn’t help. He skewed to the right during the primaries and then hesitated to move to the center until to late. Furthermore, in the internet age you can’t etch a sketch. The intangible was Hurricane Sandy. Karl Rove said the October Surprise was an act of God. I’m not sure if he meant God was supporting Obama but I do think it was responsible for the Florida win. However, Sandy did not tip the election.
LikeLike
Nice to see you, HRW.
LikeLike
Sails
You would do well to listen to what is being said and written. Statistics can be cited and characterized and may even have some validity. But the tone, no matter how an academic tries to cast it as an irrefutable analysis will continue to carry echoes that are heard by others as judgement and castigation. This tnal approach is neither the way to encourage changes in behaviour or voting, your party would do well to listen to its Bobby Jindals and eschew its Victor Davis Hansens.
LikeLike
In other California news, or more of the same, Governor Brown appeared at the California State University trustees meeting today and begged them not to raise tuition, since he had pledged if the students voted for Prop 30, the tuition would not go up.
(It was the student vote that passed this proposition).
The CSU board tabled the discussion. The UC Board of Regents refused to make any promises.
The hypocrisy happened faster than I expected. 😦
Only four quarters until my last child graduates . . .
LikeLike
LIBYA: The right was angry this “scandal” didn’t seem to catch fire but this situation was FUBAR and hence beyond the cable news cycle level of understanding and thus not of interest to the corporate media. FUBAR requires detailed explanations and thinking and that doesn’t produce ratings — hence Honey Boo-boo’s success.
MEDIA: The media coverage of the election was to be expected. Nate Silver predicted a 90% chance of an Obama win but the media kept saying it was too close to call, a horse race etc. They had hours of television planned and needed to sell it as a nail-biting television. However it was only in doubt for about two weeks post-Denver. As for favoring one candidate over an other, we start to think of false equivalency. If one is a liar and the other is not known to be one than its not favoring to call the former a liar and not the latter. In a more exaggerated sense, you don’t give equal consideration (positive/negative) to a serial killer and a saint.
This reminds me Megan Kelly (I believe that’s her name) asked Karl Rove; “Is this the math you like to believe as a Republican because it makes you feel good or is it actual math” Unintentional brilliance.
ARIZONA/FLORIDA: Two states run by Republicans which deliberately choose to fail at running elections. The third world runs elections better than these two states. A week later, half million votes are still not counted in Arizona, most of them belonging to Hispanics who registered to vote for the first time and then were left off the voting rolls and had to use provisional ballots.
LikeLike
PETREAUS: Perhaps this will provide the selling point the LIBYA “scandal” needs.
SECESSION: Honestly?? Is this excess similar to those who threaten to move to Canada after the Bush re-election? Give 45% of Texans voted for Obama, I really don’t see this going anywhere, other than an historical oddity much like the Jesusland maps one can goggle. I do think its ironic that the majority of the Texas Democratic votes occupy the same area of land Texas fought and won from Mexico — other than the urban areas.
FUTURE: Very few states are wholly red (OK, WV, UT) or blue (VT, RI, MASS). The real division in America (and in most democracies) is urban/rural. And as some states become more urban (VA, NC, GA), the Democratic platform will appeal to them. Of course as long as the “conservative entertainment complex” continues to talk about takers and mocks the Hispanic working class, they will also lose votes in growing Hispanic states (AZ, FL) . Thus, the Republicans have two problems which they refuse to confront — their lack of urban appeal and their inability to quit spouting cultural determinism. Of course, I should also throw in their inability to understand what is rape. The pro-life movement has won the debate (to an extent that contributes to legislative success) but they and especially the men in the pro-life movement have yet to learn any presentation skills.
AJ: CB asked a relevant question; given the complete failure of the right wing media, have you considered widening your source of information?
LikeLike
HRW!
Hello, and good to see you.
I answered that above. I’d kill for some unslanted news. But it’s like the dinosaurs, long gone. I have warmed up to CBS a little, and Reuters. But mostly, no. The MSM is a joke. And Honey Boo’s mom should be charged with negligence, corrupting the morals of a minor, and general stupidity. As should anyone who watches them.
And yes, I’m completely serious about that. These are the people who we allow to vote. There’s a huge part of the problem right there.
LikeLike
Thanks Michelle and AJ
Given that Nate Silver and by extension NYT were bang on with their analysis whereas the right wing echo chamber succeeded only in deluding themselves, you might consider moving on.
On the urging of some of my students, I watched a 30 second clip of honey-boo-boo. Allowing them to vote is one thing, allowing them to be parents is a greater concern. As many teachers say, if we need a license to drive a car we should require a license to parent.
LikeLike