What Could Have Been

The defunct John McCain campaign has sold much of its used electronics recently and continuing in their tradition of perceived technological incompetence, some of the Blackberries they sold to the public contained phone numbers of Republican party officials as well as some official e-mails and e-mail addresses. They didn't delete them!

They also sold laptops which may or may not have had all of their files deleted but as most people know deleted files on a laptop are pretty easily recovered by someone who knows how to do that.

This group could have been in charge starting this January 20th.

Write-In President

The following received one write-in vote each for President in the great state of Florida.

Abstain, Against All, Alfred E. Newman, Bill Clinton, Bill O'Riely, Bill Richardson, Bobby Bowden, Bugs Bunny, May the best man win, Me, Morgan Freeman, Mr. Bill, Newt Gingwrich, None (Anarchy), Oprah, Pat Buchannan, Ralph Nader, Hilary Bush, Homer Simpson, Jay Plotkin, Jimmy Carter, Joe the Plumber, John Doe, Lieberman, Theodore Roosevelt, They Both Suck '08, Tiger Woods, Tommy Chong, Truman, Weird Al Yancovic, William Crosby and Willie Nelson

My favorite is "May the best man win".

Hillary Clinton got the most write-in votes, God got 6, and four people apparently just wrote-in "Obama".

(via Ben Smith)

Center What?

There's been a lot of talk from Republicans that the country is center-right leaning and Obama should be aware and govern appropriately. Lets take a quick analytical look at this, based on the past few elections.

1992
Clinton/Gore - 44,909,806 votes
Bush/Quayle - 39,104,550
Perot/Old Guy - 19,743,821
Libertarian - 290,087

If you add Bush to the Libertarians you get less than you get for Clinton, Perot was populous, with both traditional liberal and conservative idealogies. So, at best this is sort of a wash. I would say it depicts a center-left sentiment, especially considering Clinton was portrayed as a pot-smoking draft dodger.

1996
Clinton - 47,400,125
Dole - 39,198,755
Perot - 8,085,402
Nader - 685,297
Libertarian - 485,798

Again, lets say you consider all Perot voters to be "center" which is not true because they are a mish-mash of both more liberal and more conservative types. Add 'em up Clinton + Nader > Dole + Perot + Libertarian.

2000
Gore - 51,003,926
Bush - 50,460,110
Nader - 2,883,105
Libertarian - 384,516
Pat Buchanan - 449,225

Again Gore + Nader (thanks Ralph) > Bush + Libertarian + Buchanan.

2004
Bush - 62,040,610
Kerry - 59,028,439

Here is the exception, and remember, incumbent President, two wars, and most of the country didn't hate Bush yet.

2008
Obama - 66,760,924
McCain - 58,279,894

Hello! Not close. Plus, Obama was portrayed as a socialist, militant, terrorist sympathizer not to mention a LIBERAL!!!!! :-0

Looks pretty center-left to me, at least over the last 16 years. Oh and what about the 35 to 45 percent who just don't vote? Think those were Republicans? By the way if you made it to the end of this, get a life.

Heh...Yep!

From Ben Smith

Hate 2008

The Secret Service, in mid-October, warned the Obama family that death threats had increased as an apparent result of the increased character attacks on Barack Obama by VP nominee Sarah Palin. Looks like Palin's words were taken to heart by some of our dear fellow citizens/bigots prone to violence.

According to the report Michelle Obama asked, "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Good question. Somebody ask Ms. (not so) smarty-pants-Alaska please.

NYPD Hates Change and Hope

The NYPD was dispatched to Williamsburg in Brooklyn on election night and SURPRISE they got violent. Crowds gathered all over NYC on Tuesday night, Brooklyn, in particular was ecstatic. Apparently, there were no other problems any where else. Check out the videos of these overzealous assholes.



and this one of one guy getting arrested and another guy getting abused...



more videos and info (including pro-McCain conversation down at the police station) here

Also, on happier note, here's a link to a bunch of Brooklyn Obama celebrations.

Yes we almost did!

Sadly it looks like my state of residence is going to be red when everything is said and done. The margin is very narrow (approximately 5,000 votes out of about 3 million).

The map is very unsurprising. The two major cities (St. Louis and KC) are fairly progressive and racially diverse. All of the stuff in the middle is mostly rural and very white. Interestingly, this is also how the Democratic primary map looked - Clinton took the red counties and Obama took the blue counties and St. Louis city. Based on this fact, and the fact that a white Democrat (not an incumbent) just won the race for governor by 18 percentage points, it seems fairly logical to conclude that race played a big role in this errrr... race.


We came close, and I'm not sure much else could have been done in the areas that went for Obama. The Obama campaign did a superlative job getting the vote out.

The Man in the Middle

Get Your Vote On! No more Obama love fest after this week, I promise.

Middle America for Obama

As the only plasticblog contributor (I believe) blogging from a swing state, I would like to offer up my own endorsement of Senator Obama for POTUS. Oh, who am I kidding... I just wanted an excuse to post this funny picture of Obama in a cowboy hat.

The Shocking Plasticblog Endorsement

VOTE TOMORROW!

What Do They Know?

Sarah Palin has said a few dumb things since she began her run for Vice President. For example, citing Russian proximity to Alaska as foreign policy experience, claiming she reads everything when asked which magazines and newspapers she reads, saying she is unsure whether abortion clinic bombers are terrorists, just to name a few. But, two particular things she has said are particularly unsettling and should disqualify her for an Executive position.

First, she twice failed horribly trying to explain what her job as Vice President would entail. The first time was in the VP debate when she said she was thankful that the Constitution gave extra powers to the VP to get legislation through the Senate. In actuality the VPs role (besides taking over for a dead or incapacitated President) is to serve as the President of the Senate which means they preside over the Senate when it is in session. In reality, someone else almost always fills in and performs this duty because the Senate is in session a lot and the VP has a lot of useless stuff to do, and believe me if Sarah Palin becomes the VP she won't be doing much for John McCain. Also, the Vice President casts a tie-breaking vote in the Senate if necessary.

Then she said it again, in an answer to a 3rd graders question about what the VP does. This time she claimed the VP was the head of the Senate. Wrong twice. Not good.

Most recently, today in fact, she claimed that the press was threatening her First Amendment Rights by pointing out and criticizing her negative attacks on Barack Obama. She clearly has no idea what the First Amendment is all about. She is a public figure so anyone can basically say anything they want about her, including the press. Also, her complaints about the press are actually more of a threat to the First Amendment than the bullshit threats she is creating in her own mind. The Constitution says, about the press, that

"Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of...the press"

So, Sarah Palin is complaining about what the press is saying about what she says.

THAT'S WHAT THE PRESS DOES GODDAMN IT!

They take news (for example things newsworthy people say about other newsworthy people in Presidential campaigns) and they report on it (you know describe it, maybe try to figure out what the hell dumb people be talking bout).

So, how could the press be stopped? Well, maybe a law could be passed to prevent them from criticizing Sarah Palin or any other candidate...oh wait, lets look at that pesky Amendment again,

"Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of...the press"

One Week To Go

McCain Campaign's Role In Race Baiting Hoax

According to Talkingpointsmemo.com the McCain campaign's communication director for the state of Pennsylvania told reporters that the "B" Ms. Todd said was carved into her face by a tall black man who had just robbed her, sexually assaulted her, and punched her in the face stood for Barack. Get that? The campaign spokesman said the "B" stood for Barack. This didn't come from the police. Now, maybe it came from the woman herself, but the point is the McCain campaign saw this story and immediately thought they could use it to their advantage.

This whole saga (there are probably more details to come) fits right into the classically disgusting meme that black men are a physical and sexual threat to white women. It has its roots in slavery when black men were often beaten (and worse) for even looking at white women. There are also a few relatively recent national news stories in which white women have made up similar tales blaming black men for violence in order to cover up their own actions. Susan Smith comes to mind. She let her car roll in to a lake resulting in the drowning of her children. She first claimed the car was stolen by a black male, with the kids inside.

So, the beat goes on.

Little Racist Liar

You may have heard about this McCain campaign volunteer who claimed that she was robbed and beaten by a black man who then saw she had a McCain bumper sticker on her car, got extra angry, and carved the letter "B" on her face, presumably to signify his support for Barack Obama.

She made it up.

Her name is Ashley Todd.

She is fucking awful.

Why would someone do this? I suppose it's a combination of being a little crazy and having that little craziness ignited by the sanctioned craziness coming from the McCain-Palin campaign and the shitbags orbiting around their quickly sinking campaign.

Turns out the "B" carved on her face was backwards as though it had been carved on to her face using a mirror (by her). She's admittd she made the whole thing up. Oh, and McCain and Palin made personal phone calls to her and the campaign alerted the media to the story in the first place (before it was exposed as a lie).

Scary F***in Stupid

got this via email from a friend.

Q. Is Obama a terrorist?
A. He's got the blood lines.
From blogger interrupted.

Here We Go

During recent and separate McCain and Palin rallies Obama has been called a terrorist, accused of being treasonous, and his murder has been called for by audience members. Up until now the McCain campaign has not denounced or even acknowledged the comments.

The Secret Service is investigating the "Kill Him!" threat per MSNBC.

...and there's been other awful stuff.

Oh, and this shit makes it on FOX News:

Oh, FOX News

Check out this video from FOX News from a diner in PA.



The reporter asks the patrons to raise their hands if they are voting for McCain and then for Obama. Everyone we see in the shot raises their hand for Obama. Still, the reporter calls it a "split". You can then hear someone in the background say, "Split?" and everybody laughs.

VP Debate...An Open Thread

Vs.

This is an open thread of sorts. What was your favorite part? Who won? How drunk are you? Or just leave a comment. Talk to each other, all 8 of you.

Oops!?

Nature Magazine recently put out an issue with these images on the back and the front of the magazine respectively. Nature says it was an accident.

This is Not Good

Not sure if Charlie Gibson will get accused of being too hard on her, but this next "video" is definitely sexist.



In all seriousness, Palin's answers to basically every substantive question was clearly a scripted answer to a general topic. Israel, Russia, Foreign Policy experience all had prepared responses that she went to over and over despite the actual details of the question. Oh, and you can actually see Russia from some parts of Alaska!