QOD
What has this democratic nomination process taught you about people, including but not limited to the media, voters, democrats, republicans?
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I think the media got to the very outside limit of their stupidity during this race.
Mathews was muted and rational all of last night and it was a refreshing change of pace. I also liked htis recognition:
I have to offer a Keith-style special comment on that. Anyone who voted to screw up the political system of this country with the purpose of mischief should carry that with them the rest their lives.What a ridiculous way to use the vote for which people fought and died, to use that vote to make mischief. I hope you’re proud of yourself.
I have learned that people are stupid. Several professional types have told me “ya’ know he’s a muslim” or “she’s a lesbian.”
I’m feeling hopeful this morning. IN and NC did something the media wasn’t capable of doing… they didn’t focus or vote on flag pins, Rev Wright or the gas tax holiday.
I think this is good news come November.
Politicians will pander. The media will continue to act as a herd. Voters will vote party line with a tiny margin as the exception. Everyone hates the process.
Last night, I counted 7 times Nora O’Donnell said “Reverend Wright” in 15 seconds!
They can’t get enough…
I’m sure the next meme will be “Is Barack Blacka-Blacka-Blacka-Enough-For-Ya?”
I learned that the media still wants to guide the story rather than reporting it.
I learned that creating an overly complicated method of selecting a presidential nominee will always come back to bite you in the ass.
I learned that people now see Bubba and his wife as opportunistic self-aggrandizing politicians, but cannot make the connection (nor credit) the people who saw them both that way in the 1990s.
I learned that Barack Obama has studied the best methods of Reagan in the 1980s and Clinton in the 1990s, which–when combined with a savvy understanding of the current media climate–will propel to the nomination if not the presidency.
Perhaps it’s my Italian genetics, but meatball is correct. The last 9 months confirmed that most US citizens are intellectually deficient.
BHO is muslim, he’s a terrorist, he’s the anti-christ, he’s not black enough, whoops, kooky reverand, now he’s too black. HRC is gay, she’s mean. Suspend the gas tax… stupid idea!
Steve, good assessment.
Here is the big thing I have learned:
There aren’t very many people who have the moral fortitude to do what is right in their brain and heart. I mean seriously, if you look at posts being made across the web, not only after yesterday’s primaries, but before then as well, people are saying fuck it if their candidate doesn’t win.
“I’m voting McCain if HRC doesn’t get the nod,” “If my guy isn’t the nomination, I’m not voting!”
This is not limited to the uneducated masses either. Right here, in our very own Delaware Blogosphere, you have bloggers voting straight along party lines, jumping ship if their candidate isn’t the nominee, and straight up crying out loud when things do not go their way. It is fucking depressing.
I have only recently started to post, mainly because I am tired of the lack of guts… (my macbook thesaurus says “balls,” but their may be ladies in the room), coming from the media and masses. That is what I have learned. No one will vote for their candidate unless they are the nominee. For fuck’s sake, write them in. That is the beauty of democracy…you don’t have to vote for them because a national convention of old people (Besides the loser that Jason Jones interviewed on the Daily Show…seriously look this shit up) said so.
So let’s see, what happens when we let two parties hand pick candidates to be presented to us in the form of a “choice”? We get fucked.
I am not saying that you should not vote for HRC, Obama, or McCain because they are in the two big parties. What I am saying is that if you feel one of them best represents your views, stop being such a clown and write them in in November.
Most of all, I have learned that it is the duty and responsibility of those with the means to encourage the public to be educated on the issues. If we fail to do that, we fail our futures.
Dorian, I disagree.
You are confusing ethereal voices upon our media, with actual US citizenry.
As an intellectual exercise only , try to watch our Boob tube coverage as coming from a hostile media, say Axis, Communist, or Muslim propaganda………
One can still get the news from such sources if he is wise in his contemplation……..
(I’m not implying any correlation, just saying that watching in this way, makes it again great fun to watch TV news ) !
I point all of us back to an observation made by Duffy. Duffy called it early….. The voters despite the tack of the media, have made a choice that should give us a decent general election campaign between two moderates……
The distinction I wish to make, is that despite the voice of stupidity being spoon fed to us by our media, the majority of voters themselves, are not stupid….
It will be Obama versus McCain, and the media is forced to sit on the sidelines and report it……..
FYI (My link to Duffy jumped my last comment into moderation……..)
fixed
Call It.
John Danello just got passed in Delaware Senate, a bill to ban such “write in” candidates……
Our Democratic Senate is asleep at the wheel……
Carney where are you?
excellent link. One of Duffy’s best posts, ever.
Cripe, kavips, with the frequency of your commenting, we may have to start referring to you as Kavips Foraker. Of course, your intellect is higher. I hate to say it, but Rob Foraker may be more interesting. You know, you can’t take your eyes off of a trainwreck. That sort of thing.
Prediction: Rob finds his name in a search engine and deposits two or three comments.
kavips…
I am completely astonished if that is the case. I just googled it and could not find anything….link please?
I heard it on WDEL yesterday, also.
Here it is.
kavips…I believe that will prevent an individual from conducting an “official” campaign as a write-in, a la O’Donnell in 2006. There is nothing to prevent anyone from receiving write-in votes or even having “others” do a campaign in that person’s name, a la new Democrat John Atkins in 2007.
Either way, it’s meddling.
You know I can’t resist…
Our Democratic Senate is asleep at the wheel……
You have got to freaking kidding me. I think there may be only one, and on occassion two, D Senators that have the nerve and desire to tell Danello to go F himself. The one I’d count on is Petersen. The one I think does it most of the time is Bunting. The others either love their Danello too much or quake in his presence.
Basically, if you aren’t a registered “write-in” candidate, votes cast for you are not counted. In you are a registered “write-in” candidate, you are subject to finance laws.
LG,
Thanks, just read it. What a fucking fraud. This, in my own opinion, is the biggest mockery of the democratic process of my life time. I am flush with shame right now…
Then the constitutionality needs to be checked. Who can properly vet that? I’m sure there is a knee-jerk reaction to think it’s in violation (of which I am a part of that camp), but it should probably be checked.
Follow-up: I did some quick searches on Delaware’s constitution and found nothing. Hate it as much as you want (and I do), but it appears nothing legal can block it.
I agree… I am in the process of writing Senator Blevins (she was the primary sponsor), an email. I began to write that it was a violation of my rights but figured I should check that first.
What do you have to do to declare yourself as a write-in candidate? If it is easy (as in just fill out this form), it seems that it would be fun to test the limits of the Dept of Elections office by having a massive registration.
Cassandra,
I think the design behind the bill is to stop someone from running for office without filing the proper fees and reporting their finances. For example, LG could post here that he wants to run for governor and for us to write him in. He could have a massive online driven campaign and do some serious damage. That is what the bill is designed to curb in my opinion. It is fucking sick.
And on another note, maybe I am just bitter right now, but “testing the limits” of our election office would do the same thing Rush Limbaugh wanted to do in Operation Chaos…. Make a mockery of the process.
Fuck, I am so pissed right now.
Call It, I think Cassandra was suggesting that we break their system by having thousands of applications for write-in candidacies filed. They claim that there is no cost to this law, but we could certainly add costs that would make this a foolish rule.
Oh, and welcome to Delaware Liberal. We’re glad you’re here.
Yeah…
I am just so incredibly angry right now. I have yet to decide on who I will ultimately vote for, but there is still a chance that person may not be on the ballot. And I am not just talking about the presidency…it goes all the way down the ballot. So this idea that no matter who I decide on, I would still be able to vote for (write in) who I thought best represented me, has brought me a lot of fucking comfort in this excruciatingly long democratic process. I am in fucking shock right now.
Thanks for the welcome too Since I began reading a while back, you guys have given me some nice daily thoughts to ponder over.
Welcome Call It!
LG did have my thoughts on this — could we get a couple of hundred folks to file the paperwork (if there are no fees) in the last week of filing to gum up th system? Just some basic monkey wrenching. No campaigning necessary.
But you are right, this is crazy — having to file before a write-in campaign defeats the purpose, I think.
OK, I am wondering…can there be a law that prevents someone from running because they don’t have the money? I know there are filing fees, but aren’t they party-mandated? I thought being a write-in was a way for Joe Shmoe, who is dirt-poor, to run.
I admit I am pulling that out of my arse, but I thought that was the case. If so, this could be an angle in. If not, well, crap!
Devil’s advocate here, maybe it is kind of good to prevent secretly funded write-in candidacies from becoming prevalent.
Can you imagine if Bill Lee declined the nomination, but in September you began seeing huge bill b0ards, nonstop radio ads and glossy campaign mailers – funded by God knows who – all urging you to write in “Bill Lee?”
Even a moron can spell Bill Lee!
I don’t like the idea of a law that says my vote won’t be counted. That’s gotta be illegal somewhere somehow.
Thanks cassandra
I just emailed Senator Blevins, which I am going to assume will most likely lead to a bullshit response or no response at all. I am going to email the NJ (a lot of good that’ll do) and hopefully you all can get some press out there about this. It may not seem very important, but it is. It is just another liberty that is being taken away from us by elected officials.
Fuck them, we can do this!
anon
I agree with what you are saying. When I read the bill it is easy to understand what the reasoning behind it is. They want to be able to keep someone from having a funded campaign without paying all the fees and yadda yadda. I am just curious what brought on this bill? I could see if there was some semi-successful write-in campaign, but there hasn’t been one, and I doubt there ever will be. This law smells of two parties keeping the masses under their wings. It is completely fucked.
Hey, this write-in bill passed the Senate but is sitting in a House committee right now…
Paging Dave Burris!!
Calling Charlie Copeland!!
Anybody???
The write-in bill passed the Senate yesterday. All of the Senate Republicans voted against it.
And the reasoning behind it is baloney. Even John Atkins had to disclose the independent expenditures that funded his write-in effort.
Senator Gary Simpson (R-Milford) said “If it was proven a month before an election that I had committed an heinous crime against society, my constituents absolutely should have the right and the mechanism to elect a person of their choice via the write-in ballot, even if that person did not meet some arbitrary deadline for ‘declaring’ a certain number of days ahead of time.”
On the positive side, Senator Colin Bonini (R-Dover South) said “What if, a month before an election, people learn that one of their neighbors has provided some remarkable service to the community and decide that person is the very best choice to represent them as their next Senator. They should have the right to vote for that person by write-in and to have their vote counted. This bill is ‘anti-democratic’, taking basic rights away from voters that should stay in their hands. In America, government should not be in the business of telling people who they can vote for.”
Finally, the bill actually got voted on once and failed before they brought it back and passed it.