Month: September 2012

Like Josh Marshall at TPM, I tend not to like Tracking polls, as their day to day polling samples are susceptible to instability and over or under sampling. Still, as of today, Obama has bounced up to a 5 point lead in Gallup, and a four point lead in Ipsos and Rasmussen. And the uniformity of the bounce across three polls is something to take note of. Meanwhile, campaign internals in Ohio from both sides show a 9 point Obama lead.

Check out this stump speech quote:

“That’s because all [the Republicans] got to offer is the same prescriptions that they’ve had for the last 30 years -- tax cuts, tax cuts, gut some regulations, oh, and more tax cuts. (Laughter.) Tax cuts when times are good; tax cuts when times are bad. Tax cuts to help you lose a few extra pounds. (Laughter.) Tax cuts to improve your love life. (Laughter.) It will cure anything, according to them.

Great right ? About f---ing time too. Let's mock the f-ck out of the stupid bastards currently calling themselves "conservative". They earned it. Let's teach children to point and laugh at Grover Norquist But...

If the Romney/Ryan campaign is an experiment in post-truth politics, it is also an avant guard performance art piece which explores the negative space created when absolutist claims of positive outcomes are made that are completely devoid of any details. In this act Romney/Ryan will not disclose what tax loop holes will create their budget surpluses. Also this weekend, they blew audiences away with, "Tax cuts for the wealthy will not reduce the tax burden of the wealthy. Trust us."

Television bombards us with a starkly brutal version of reality. There is an alarming focus on deviant behavior and the acts of the mentally deranged minority of society. So powerful an slick are the dramatic portrayals of the most revolting human biographies that society is methodically being transformed by example into a working model for losers.

The quote above is from New Castle County Council member Jea Street. In a August 9, 2012 News-Journal article about the City of Wilmington's impact on the New Castle County Executive's contest street implied that it is possible to win the City of Wilmington by such a large margin that the candidate could afford to lose suburban and rural New Castle County and still win. It sounds good, but how true is it? at Politics by the Numbers Tobin crunches the numbers and looks at a some races that put the lie to Street's axiom.

When I needed an abortion I was for it. Now that I don't need one, I'm against it. This is a verbatim grab from Delaware politics. I don't know who is making this statement, Anderson or Valenzuela, but I think it switches from Anderson speaking to Valenzuela after the first sentence.

Romney stunk up the joint, and limped out of the convention looking more shell shocked than John Voight in the last scene of Deliverance. Clint Eastwood obviously blew a lifetime of brand equity with his stupid bullshit, but for my money the GOP's biggest loser is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. ...

I'd like to see all pollsters change their wording. It would be much more honest to call "undecideds" something like, "don't cares" or even "the clueless". Then, when Democrats stop fretting over a bunch of dumb fuck "centrists" the country will be better off. Duncan Black, as usual, gets it:

I didn't quite catch who it was, but it was refreshing to hear someone NPR point out that "undecided voters" don't know or care much about politics. I feel like our entire campaign coverage is directed at mythical people who spend months with furrowed brows studying every little bit of trivia about the campaigns before finally making their decisions. Most of them are stupid about politics and are barely interested.