The Official United States of America Presidential Race Thread

oabma beingblack is an advantage more than disadvantage, you know in the clinton/obama thing around 90% of black americans who voted voted for obama?

 

To tell the truth, I have never heard Americans talk about Obama in the blunt racial/racist terms used in the last 20 posts in this thread. Perhaps I lead a sheltered life? In the auto shops of the inland empire?

Obama's color only deters a few racists who wouldn't vote for Democrats because Lincoln was a Democrat. Who cares about them? The racist vote is meaningless and would likely be disavowed by those getting it.

Obama's color is energizing for a lot of people who may not have voted but who lean Democrat. That is likely to mean a lot more votes FOR OBAMA that would have typically sat on the sidelines unenfranchised.
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afanof hit the nail on the head with why the teen pregnancy story is going to shred McCain. It has to do with morality and hypocrisy. Remember when Clinton got a BJ in the Oval Office? Seems like most non-Americans said 'so what?', but Americans were quite outraged.

The fact that the 'vetting' committee FAILED to identify the potential controversy says McCain and his handlers are asleep at the wheel. That is the kind of mistake Bush NEVER would have made. His handlers are too draconian in their methods for that rookie mistake.

Also it also is happening simultaneous to the Republican National Convention, which has already been overshadowed by the near miss that was hurricane Gustav. Boring dull old McCain NEEDS this convention to be a ratings success to get attention and the 'bounce' a candidate typically gets to gain momentum. He may not get either. Terrible start for the last stretch of a Presidential run.
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fan, Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the House. The Speaker leads the party in the majority in the House of Representatives, the lower house of our bicameral legislature. The House decides how the money gets spent for the most part. The Speaker is considered the leader of all the in the Majority Party. It's sort of a field marshal position, like Gen. Eisenhower. Think of Howard Dean as the Gen. George Marshall of the Democrats. Obama of course is the FDR figure. Bush is Hitler, and McCain is Admiral Doenitz. I loved typing that.

Each party's goal is to have a majority in both the House and the Senate. It doesn't happen very often, and subconsciously the voters do not want that either. They typically vote a majority to one or the other legislatures to the opposite of the presidency. The Republicans had both houses for a while under Bush (I think) and the idiots typically take it as 'mandate' to get their worst least productive policies through which REALLY pisses people off.

 

So fitzy, are you saying that the fact that this pregnancy was overlooked by the vetting process is more telling than the actual pregnancy?

 

Whilst being fully aware of the importance of the position of the man in the oval office..

why oh why, oh bloody why does it take such a stupid long time to select a US president?
This seems to be dragging out for an enternity and surely even the candidates are fed up with it by now (probably why they spend most of the time slating each other)

and while i'm on one..

If these are the most important people in world politics..then why does so much of the focus fall on what they are like, instead of what they can do?
The whole thing seems to be mainly about personality and very little about policy.

They might as well put Arnie in there and be done with it..then he can make Pamela Anderson his press secretary and Donald Duck his cheif advisor!

 

Your second question has been answered in the thread earlier.

Your first question on why it takes so long is that we have a huge geography to cover and we use old school methods because the new school ones don't work as well. In truth, the head to head presidential election is only from the Convention NOW to November, a very short time. The securing of a nomination to be the candidate for the party takes a long time. Started in February and just ended...

 

who was in charge of Gilligan's Island? he should be president!

 

Sherwood Schwartz would probably have made for a better Commander-in-Chief than most.

 

Is this really going to help him? But anyway, WTF?

Democrat Joe Leiberman, AL Gore's running mate 8 years ago, virtually endorses McCain at the Republican National Convention.

This is like if Graham Simpson asked the Watford Board to replace Aidy Boothroyd with Mick Harwood.


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Before this is all over, you might see the lovely but rather screwed up Sarah Palin replaced by Leiberman...who should have been McCain's choice in the first place to shake up some 'change' mongers of his own.

I'd still like to get drunk with her at a party and see what happens.
Cue Joboxers' "Just Got Lucky"

 

It seems to me that elections in the USA these days are fought on religious grounds. It doesn't really matter matter what your foreign policy is or what plans you have for the economy as long as you go to church. Would an atheist even bother standing?

 

I would imagine the South would rise again.

They would get a few votes from a few metropolitans, but that would be about it.

 

Religious voters and their beliefs play an important role regularly. Way too important in 2004...oddly enough, Bush is the most atheistic president we've had in a long time.

He's just done his political homework to get the vote he wanted.

I'd say the actualy religious interest of the two candidates is typical, but they don't seem to be courting the religious vote as hard this year for some reason. Really not sure why.

Who knows what the God Squad's impact will be in the end though...they kind of pooped up out of nowhere in '04.

 

so she used to be part of an alaskan seperatist movement and tried to ban some books from a public library. i knew mccain was maverick, but this is kerrrrazy!

 

Caption ready...
"Give me your baby! My lifeforce is draining away and needs replenishment!"

 

Time of the month. Nuclear button.


Not a clever mix.

 

To go kind of off topic and start something else.


which country do you think is more democratic Britain or America?

i would say America myself


what do you guys think?

 

germany

 

I take it they still use proportion representation the system that worked for the Nazi's. How could anyone beat that.

 

it's still democracy amigo!

 

the nazi's had one hell of a campaign, obama could learn from them.

 

I'm quietly endorsing Obama for President.

 

well thats the thing isnt it..

Because of the importance of the position we (the rest of the world) get to see the process from..if i may use an American term here.....the get go.
I guess the election process of other countries takes just as long but we are only subjected to the final run in.


In the UK the ball usualy starts rolling when some retired major kicks the bucket in somewhere like Chipping Sodbury and the consequent by-election is used by the media as a barrowmeter for public opinion. These occasions are normally brightened up no end by the running of several eccentric candidates.. such as the infamous Monster Raving Loony Party and other assorted nutcases.

I wonder if America gets to see that? :]]

 

Speaking for the all of us, ahem, we don't pay attention to politics outside the US.

The information is there, sadly most Americans do not at all care to follow it. Reminding you that most Americans couldn't locate your country on a map, and many can't locate themselves on it.

We tend to get the story only if there is an interesting hook. 'Scotsman to Run Britain' comes to mind. We do take interest, albeit to a tiny degree, in Russian or Chinese leaders that retire and get replaced.

Most Americans cannot name the Canadian PM or Mexican President. Most Americans cannot name their own Senators, the governor of any neighboring state, or the Speaker of the House.

It's amazing things get done at all.

 

'Scotsman to run Britain'? That's hardly a huge story.

 

That's how it, to quote afanof quoting American political reporters, "plays in Peoria". Typical Americans don't understand the United Kingdom thingy. Most see Scotland as being as different from England as Canada is from the US.

Trust me, most here have no idea.
Still, it is more interesting than the usual 'Random pasty white dude to run Britain' story.

I shall heretofore refer to the average ordinary typical American as 'Joe Six-Pack' to make it easier.

 

Arnie = Austrian-born American, therefore ineleigible to stand for Pres. due to foreign birth.
Pamela = Canadian. Period.
Donald Duck = Red White & Blue cartoon! I would choose him over certain other candidates.

 

Joe Six-Pack? Is that an accurate assesment of the major proportion of yanks?

 

poland

 

It's an indicator of the thing most are interested in, something we can all agree on, so to speak.

 

Does six pack have the same connotation there as here? Are we thinking more Bart Simpson than muscle toned Adonis?

The Canadians may be about to show the USA how to do an election.

 

fitzo, how well did the mccain for change speech go down? i'd imagine most people would be perplexed but then again maybe some would applaud him for stealing obama's line. as this thread has made me all too aware, the british press are pretty bad at getting across the pulse of the american nation. i think they might all be accurate in saying it was massively boring though?

my next question is that kerrys military background when the iraq thing was ramping up did him no favours. how is mccains excessivly militaristic aura going down now things in iraq are ramping down?

 

You'll find Joe Six-pack at Nascar events, not the gym.

 

For some reason, it's OK to be Republican and a military vet, not Democrat and a military vet. The Republicans lay claim to being the party of the military. It's one of the reasons I dislike their politics. So McCain's service and history garner him honor while Kerry's got him 'swiftboated'.

I didn't hear the McCain speech and I haven't been out of the house to see any Joe six-pack's yet, so I can't say personally how it is 'playing in Peoria'. My guess is it mobilised his base, but the question is did it mobilise anybody else?

 

Oh. So it's as in the beer rather as the physique?

Oh and this:

Was excruciating to watch.

 

Agree with that 100% - the audience were rolling around laughing hysterically at a crappy joke that has probably graced Xmas crackers over there.

 

Eh?

So you can't be president if you are foreign born, but a US citizen?

Surely that negates the whole idea of being a US citizen?