Are there any more Republican debates scheduled? It would be interesting to see if the relationship between McCain and Huckabee would change now that they are the only two (apologies to Ron Paul) candidates left in the race. Up to now they've been kind of a tag team, but now they are technically competitors.Originally Posted by Harlan Huckleby
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen
It will be the Mutt 'n' Jeff Show. These guys genuinely like each other, and Huckabee can't possibly dream of catching McCain. Even if he harbors irrational ambitions, doing a Dr Jeckle and turning on McCAin ain't gonna do anything for him. Expect a lovefest.
Huckabee's best shot is if McCain's ticker seizes up.
BTW, I laughed when McCain's mother told an interviewer that she expected that Republicans would hold their noses and vote for her son.
Debate scheduled February 28. I wonder if they will let Ron Paul in. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...n-the-horizon/
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen
just saw a convincing argument on Charlie Rose show that the Dems are headed for brokered convention. Its unlikely either candidate can pull ahead.
Yuk! Worst possible result.
Crap. David Brooks thinks its gonna be a brokered convention too.
This is terrible if he is right.
Questions for Dr. Retail
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: February 8, 2008
QUESTION: Dr. Retail, now that the Democratic presidential race has entered its long, bloody slog phase, I figured it was time to get a fresh perspective. Can you explain to me what it’s all about?
DR. RETAIL: Why do you bother me with simple problems? Listen, the essential competition in many consumer sectors is between commodity providers and experience providers, the companies that just deliver product and the companies that deliver a sensation, too. There’s Safeway, and then there is Whole Foods. There’s the PC, and then there’s the Mac. There are Holiday Inns, and there are W Hotels. There’s Walgreens, and there’s The Body Shop.
Hillary Clinton is a classic commodity provider. She caters to the less-educated, less-pretentious consumer. As Ron Brownstein of The National Journal pointed out on Wednesday, she won the non-college-educated voters by 22 points in California, 32 points in Massachusetts and 54 points in Arkansas. She offers voters no frills, just commodities: tax credits, federal subsidies and scholarships. She’s got good programs at good prices.
Barack Obama is an experience provider. He attracts the educated consumer. In the last Pew Research national survey, he led among people with college degrees by 22 points. Educated people get all emotional when they shop and vote. They want an uplifting experience so they can persuade themselves that they’re not engaging in a grubby self-interested transaction. They fall for all that zero-carbon footprint, locally grown, community-enhancing Third Place hype. They want cultural signifiers that enrich their lives with meaning.
Obama offers to defeat cynicism with hope. Apparently he’s going to turn politics into a form of sharing. Have you noticed that he’s actually carried into his rallies by a flock of cherubs while the heavens open up with the Hallelujah Chorus? I wonder how he does that.
QUESTION: But why would Democratic votes break down so starkly along educational lines?
DR. RETAIL: The consumer marketplace has been bifurcating for years! It’s happening because the educated and uneducated lead different sorts of lives. Educated people are not only growing richer than less-educated people, but their lifestyles are diverging as well. A generation ago, educated families and less-educated families looked the same, but now high school graduates divorce at twice the rate of college graduates. High school grads are much more likely to have kids out of wedlock. High school grads are much more likely to be obese. They’re much more likely to smoke and to die younger.
Their attitudes are different. High school grads are much less optimistic than college grads. They express less social trust. They feel less safe in public. They report having fewer friends and lower aspirations. The less educated speak the dialect of struggle; the more educated, the dialect of self-fulfillment
Did you hear the message of Clinton’s speech Tuesday night? It’s a rotten world out there. Regular folks are getting the shaft. They need someone who’ll fight tougher, work harder and put loyalty over independence.
Then did you see the Hopemeister’s speech? His schtick makes sense if you’ve got a basic level of security in your life, if you’re looking up, not down. Meanwhile, Obama’s people are so taken with their messiah that soon they’ll be selling flowers at airports and arranging mass weddings. There’s a “Yes We Can” video floating around YouTube in which a bunch of celebrities like Scarlett Johansson and the guy from the Black Eyed Peas are singing the words to an Obama speech in escalating states of righteousness and ecstacy. If that video doesn’t creep out normal working-class voters, then nothing will.
QUESTION: Your cynicism is really interfering with my vibe. I don’t think you’re feeling the fierce urgency of now.
DR. RETAIL: Believe me, those of us who bill by the hour completely feel the fierce urgency of now. As John Edwards would say, this is personal with me.
QUESTION: So does this mean the Democrats are fundamentally divided?
DR. RETAIL: Why do you political people always think in either/or terms? No. Safeway and Whole Foods people shop in each other’s stores. They just feel less at home.
QUESTION: So who’s going to win?
DR. RETAIL: Observe the marketplace. The next states on the primary calendar have tons of college-educated Obamaphile voters. Maryland is 5th among the 50 states, Virginia is 6th. But later on, we get the Hillary-friendly states. Ohio is 40th in college education. Pennsylvania is 32nd.
But it’ll still be tied after all that. The superdelegates will pick the nominee — the party honchos, the deal-makers, the donors, the machine. Swinging those people takes a level of cynicism even Dr. Retail can’t pretend to understand. That’s Tammany Hall. That’s the court at Versailles under Louis XIV.
How can anyone support the democratic candidates?!?
I simply do not understand it. I'm all for equality to all, but I am NOT all for over taxation and hand outs. That's why libertarian candidates like Dr. Paul are appealing to me.
Personally, I am all for FairTax. It would force people to live within their means. Ever walk through the ghetto and see a bunch of people with 20" rims and designer clothing? Yeah, me too. It's ridiculous. These people are a drain on society and get handout after handout. That has to end in my opinion because all they do is take. The only thing they give back is bullets to the chest (4 good friends of mine have had guns held to their heads outside their house at market) and annoying me by begging for cash every night in the summer.
Plus, Fairtax would force the illegal immigrants to pay taxes.
I recently read something about a series of CEOs meeting and ranking the best and worst places to run a business from. Milwaukee ranked as one of the worst where as someplace like Texas ranked as the best.
How can this sit well with anyone? It is sickening how many of my peers are supporting all the Dems because of the social issues like Aborton and such. That is just dumb to me because all of that will be irrelevant when the taxes force all the jobs out of Wisconsin!!!!!!!
I meant opportunist as in, Will say or do anything if she believes she can improve her own position by doing so. Obama running for Pres with 3 years as Senator: yes, he's seizing an opportunity by recognizing that other Dem candidates have signficant weaknesses. But I see no reason to assume that he's doing it for purely selfish or base motives.opportunist? What could be more opportunist than running for president with only 3 years of national experience?
That may be. I know there's some evidence that Hillary's plan is better thought out and more likely to make a meaningful difference than is Obama's. If the elections were primarily about differences in health care policy I'd be much more inclined to support Hillary.
I'm not sure what they knew or didn't know. But I am convinced that many of them voted the way they did because of real or perceived pressure, and for fear of looking weak in a time of national crisis, and not because they felt it was right in their heart of hearts. Admittedly that's speculation on my part. But if they did truly believe Bush's evidence (which, as we know now, was based on cherry-picking from a mishmash of intelligence that, when viewed all together, was very ambiguous about existence of WMDs), then I'd say they were dupes.So you believe that the 77 Senators who voted to authorize did so knowing the evidence was based on half truths & lies.
I believe you've accepted an irrational argument as a salve to your anger.
Remember, just because 77 out of 100 US Senators vote a certain way doesn't necessarily mean they're not lemmings. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin.
It occurs to me that the Wisconsin Primary is just a little over a week away. I've got to start thinking about who I'm gonna vote for. Any suggestions?
HOFer
Because you happen to know someone who encountered a violent situation you think that all impoverished people who need financial assistance are violent? Quite a jump there. And why are you making the assumption that because people live in a ghetto that they are necessarily taking handouts from the government? Maybe they scrimped and saved from the minimum wage they work their asses off for just to get the rims they always wanted. Maybe those designer duds are second hand. And I thought Wisconsin had a system in place where you don't get the handout unless you're either working on getting educated or getting employed...? That was the big deal when I left.
And do you really think that if you eliminate those programs designed to assist and educate the people who hang out on the streetcorners that they're what, going to go away and stop annoying you? What precisely do you think they're going to do instead? There will be more of them because if they can't get the "handouts" that they're living their lives for, even more of them will be forced to beg to survive and annoy you. Pretty easy position for a rich white kid to have.
"Greatness is not an act... but a habit.Greatness is not an act... but a habit." -Greg Jennings
I find that the vast majority of these people are thugs. Sure, a few middle classes might get helped. But it is mostly thuggish ruggish peeps.
Fair Tax will make people sink or swim on their own. That's the way it should be.
HOFer
Are those thuggish roguish peeps on welfare? Cause if they're getting money any other way besides welfare, then cutting welfare does absolutely no good. And most middle class people are not on government assistance. You seem a little biased against people who have it worse than you.
"Greatness is not an act... but a habit.Greatness is not an act... but a habit." -Greg Jennings
Thought you were already voting for Billary.
It's almost a guarantee Huck.
The way the Dems do their primaries, it basically guarantees a brokered convention if you have two very popular strong candidates...because unless one candidate wins more than 60% of the popular vote (which isn't happening often...more 45-55 splits), the delegates all get split pretty evenly regardless.
Even if someone does win the nomination before the convention for the Dems, it won't come until one of the very last primaries...which will still be a large disadvantage now that the GOP nomination is locked up for McCain.
My signature has NUDITY in it...whatcha gonna do?
People that are working hard to make it I am ok with. The thus of Milwaukee I am not. We pay all this tax money and for what? Our streets aren't plowed, its not safe to walk around after 9pm even in a group, your house gets broken into, you get hit up daily by the homeless for money, etc.Are those thuggish roguish peeps on welfare? Cause if they're getting money any other way besides welfare, then cutting welfare does absolutely no good. And most middle class people are not on government assistance. You seem a little biased against people who have it worse than you.
These poor people and the illegal don't pay any taxes yet they're in financial trouble because they live outside their means.
Ron Paul
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