Notes Tagged ‘obama’

You have to be kidding? Now they are attacking education.

September 3rd, 2009
725. 

So the latest meme in wingnut-ville is Obama’s stay-in-school speech = indoctrination = Hitler’s youth = what ever other negative imagery they can heap upon the Obama administration’s actions. Seriously, wtf?

According to Media Matters, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent a letter to schools on August 26th that described the focus of Obama’s upcoming September 8th speech to kids on education as “the importance of education and persisting and succeeding in school.” Sounds docile enough, right? I mean, pretty much every adult and family member tells kids the same exact thing during the school years!

But, if you expected no one to pick up on this mundane sounding speech, you’d be wrong. No such thing as rational thought from the likes of Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, and other conservative commentators.

Read the rest of this note »

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Birthers? Nutcases, more like…

August 3rd, 2009
695. 

Wow. So this is the Birthers’ leader Orly Taitz coming off as a complete wacko after she released an obviously forged Obama Kenyan birth certificate. Good luck with that Birthers. Maybe it’s time to pick up another wacky conspiracy theory? I heard the “Obama is a Muslim” theory is getting lonely.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Cost of the Stimulus

February 2nd, 2009
510. 

Personally, I am getting really sick of the negative commentary about Obama’s stimulus package. From calling it socialism or too expensive or talking about Keynesian economics as if only young children actually believe it… it’s all ridiculous. And it seems that most can’t really refute the numbers or economic models – they just fall back to the usual ‘tax cuts’ platform. You know the strategy Reagan and Bush used to pretty much destroy the middle class to the benefit of the top 1% of earners?

Dean Baker and Paul Krugman have thankfully started calling out these folks… starting with the Washington Post, who have categorized the stimulus as “staggering” and “breathtaking in size and scope.”

Baker was the first to comment on the Post:

It might be helpful to tell readers that the collapse of the housing industry has lead to a $450 billion falloff in the pace of annual residential construction, the loss of $8 trillion in housing wealth will reduce annual consumption by around $450 billion, with the loss of $8 trillion in stock wealth leading to a further decline in annual consumption of $250 billion. In addition, the collapse of the non-residential real estate bubble will likely reduce annual demand by another $200 billion. This gives us a total decline in annual demand of around $1350 billion or $2,700 billion over two years.

Next to a demand loss of $2,700 billion, an $825 billion stimulus package seems rather small. The Post might try to look for reporters who are better at arithmetic and more sure in their footing.

Krugman added to the discussion, comparing the “staggering” cost of the stimulus to Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, which will cost about $2 trillion over the course of a decade. Noting that the tax cut lacked “anything like the economic rationale for the stimulus.”

Krugman also pointed out that:

Dean (Baker) is quite right to point out that reasonable estimates of the shortfall in private demand are on the order of three times the $800 billion package. (Jan Hatzius at Goldman, using different methods, arrives at more or less the same number.)

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Run DC

January 19th, 2009
503. 

Combine one of hip hop’s groundbreaking acts with a groundbreaking politician and you get this:

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[Hat Tip: Boing Boing]

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Our New President

November 4th, 2008
468. 

Congrats Barack! Now lets get things done.

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Live Blogging – Election Night

November 4th, 2008
455. 

Exciting night! Results are starting to pour in, so let’s get to it…

8:30pm — MSNBC is showing 103 – 34 with a lot of pre-9pm states still not called. My projections are showing 66 safe electoral votes are pretty safe to call for McCain (WV, AL, KS, MS, TX, AR), so that would put McCain at 100 even. Obama only has 17 outstanding from the ‘safe’ category, so put him at 120. Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia and Missouri are still the big ones that could be called soon.

8:35pm — Looking ahead to the 9pm closing states, Obama has 55 ‘safe’ electoral votes waiting for him with Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. And Georgia was just called for McCain, so that knocks off Obama’s late push in that state.

8:40pm — Looking ahead, again, the 55 would put Obama at 158. Add Georgia into McCain and I’ll put him at 115. Add in the ‘safe’ 9pm McCain states (Louisiana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming), which will give him 20 more electoral votes to bring his total to 135. So at this point, called states plus outstanding ‘safe’ states (through 9pm close) put it at 158 – 135.

8:48pm — Looking ahead to the few 10pm and later states, Obama has a big group in his ‘safe’ category (Iowa, California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii) which will net him 84 electoral votes. That would put him at 242 when you look at called, plus ‘safe’ states. 28 electoral votes to win, with Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada left out there… Florida would clinch it, Virginia/Nevada/Colorado would do it, Ohio plus Colorado too. Anyway, lots of options for Obama. McCain, on the other hand, has 12 electoral votes in the after 10pm group, so that would put him at 147 in the called/’safe’ category.

9:02pm — NY, MN, WI and MI called for Obama. MSNBC has Obama at 175 to McCain’s 70.

9:09pm — Add in the safe 10pm states and you have 259 Obama. 11 EVs for a win!

9:12pm — And everyone on the West coast, please still keep voting! I want to see a staggering, no doubt win for Obama!

9:21pm — North Dakota and Arkansas for McCain. No surprises, there.

9:23pm — Seeing tweets over on Twitter than Fox News is calling Ohio for Obama. That’s the clincher folks. 259 + Ohio’s 20 = 279. Congrats to President-elect Obama!

9:30pm — All we need is CA, WA, OR, IA and HI to deliver their 84 electoral votes. Add to MSNBC’s 195 and you got the win. It’s over folks. No VA or FL. Plus MSNBC just called New Mexico to give him 200 even. It’s over folks. Call it!

9:44pm — read on Twitter, CNN called it for Obama citing it’s impossible for McCain to win. Only 21 or so minutes from the clinching Ohio win. Not too bad…

11pm — NBC/MSNBC called it for Obama. I’m packing it up and heading to bed. Too exciting, too much for words. A truly historic moment for Americans that I’m proud to have witnessed and supported. Go Obama!

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How things should shape up tomorrow night.

November 3rd, 2008
447. 

I took a look at the latest polls and projections on FiveThirtyEight.com and RealClearPolitics.com and mapped them out by when the polls close in each state to see how things should progress tomorrow night. All this assuming that states report fairly quickly and that the projections play out as expected.

By 8pm, the race should be almost even with the states closing before that time sending Obama 63 electoral votes to McCain’s 62 votes.

The polls closing in the eight o’clock hour should net Obama 117 electoral votes to bring him to 180, while McCain should pick up 90 to bring him to 152.  So by 9pm, Obama should have a +28 lead over McCain, with 206 electoral votes outstanding.

The nine o’clock hour should bring Obama 69 electoral votes to bring him up to 249, while McCain should pick up 33 votes to bring him to 185. Not a very exciting hour just looking at the total electoral votes divied out, however the bigger news is there are only 104 electoral votes left at this point, which means McCain is really running out of options to win.

If Obama can get to 186 electoral votes through the states that close before 10pm ET, he’ll be our next President. The safe states after 10pm are: Iowa, California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii, which equal 84 electoral votes. So, given he has 63 electorals to play with at this point, Obama could lose Florida, Ohio and Virginia and still win. 

Even looking at the safe states perespective, Obama has 130 “safe” (polling at least +10% difference over McCain) electoral votes before the 10pm states close, so Obama only needs to pick up 56 electorals from these states where he is currently polling ahead: Florida (27), Virginia (13), North Carolina (15), Ohio (20), New Hampshire (4), Pennsylvania (21), Colorado (9), Minnesota (10), New Mexico (5), and Wisconsin (10).  

Including the states that are polling between +8% and +10% difference for Obama (Wisconsin, New Mexico, Minnesota, new Hampshire) will give him 29 additional electoral to bring his total to 159 – leaving 27 votes needed from Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

Looking at that group, the next best options are Colorado and Pennsylvania, which are polling between +5% to +7% Obama, so those two would give him 30 more electorals to put him over the top.  Which means he can lose Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia and still win.

So with that, the best bet for an Obama win is a win in Pennsylvania and Colorado. However, with 243 electoral votes coming from states polling +7% or greater for Obama, there are a few other likely options that can put him over the 270 mark:

  • Ohio and Colorado
  • Colorado, Virginia and Nevada
  • Pennsylvania and Virginia
  • Florida

All those states are polling between +3% and +7% for Obama, with the exception of Florida. So keep an eye on those states tomorrow night. Virginia and Florida close at 7pm ET, Ohio at 7:30pm, Pennsylvania at 8pm, Colorado at 9pm and Nevada at 10pm ET. Those results will determine the election.

Update: Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight has an hour-by-hour breakdown of what to watch for tomorrow on Newsweek, in much greater (and better quality) detail than what I did here. He’s the master. Definitely check the article and his site as tomorrow unfolds.

Here’s the spreadsheet:

<iframe width=’520′ height=’600′ frameborder=’0′ src=’http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pE5z1z8tQQj8E1r5i9X14fA&output=html&gid=0&single=true&widget=true’></iframe>

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Obama: "All of us are in this together."

November 2nd, 2008
440. 

“We can’t afford the same political games and tactics that always pit us against one another. Make us afraid of one another. That’s the oldest trick in the book.”

Can’t wait for Tuesday.

Vote!

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F.U.D. vs Hope

October 30th, 2008
416. 

The election has boiled down to this, in my opinion: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (F.U.D.) versus Hope.

The McCain/Palin campaign and right wingers sling the F.U.D. better than anyone. Remember, when you go to the polls next Tuesday that Barack is: black, an Arab, a Muslim, a terrorist, a friend of terrorists, a communist, a socialist, not born in the U.S., a man of the streets, a druggy, a womanizer, Osama, a thug, naive, anti-Israel, the anti-christ, satan, foreign, an unknown, a racist, uppity, an elitist, not patriotic, anti-American, and a liberal. (I’ll spare the racist slurs.) And don’t forget, he’s going to re-write the Constitution, raise your taxes and redistribute wealth.

Contrast that with this:

Now I agree Obama is not perfect and he will be hard pressed to make most of his plans happen, but what does McCain offer that gives you hope for the future? Not much that I’ve seen. It’s almost entirely status quo – from economic policies to Iraq. I constantly ask McCain supporters (the few I do know) what does he offer you?, what excites you about him? I never really get any solid answers to those questions.

When it comes down to it, it’s the same as we’ve seen for the last 8 years (and all the Republican years of my life time.) Pro-corporate, pro-rich, pro-profits, trickle down, pro-war, faux compassionate, faux small government, fear mongering, divisive, vote supressing, huge deficit running, national debt growing B.S that is the Republican brand. And it has to end. It has destroyed the middle class, caused the current financial crisis, ruined our standing in the world, and it had it’s chance… and it doesn’t work. Time to move on to something progressive.

Country First, McCain? Please. More like Wealthy First, Evangelicals First, Identity Politics First, F.U.D. First. You were an honorable man, but the campaign you’ve run is shameful and goes against everything you used to stand for… remember what Bush did to you in 2000? Fast forward 8 years and you are Bush – in more ways than one, Mr. 90%.

I’m just glad Obama has stayed above the mud slinging. That alone shows the character I want in my President.

Vote Obama. But more importantly, vote!

Update: And consider this, from Talking Points Memo:

Obama can go on TV for 30 minutes and not mention John McCain even once.

No way would the reverse be true.

Update 2: And add this one: Barack is the son of Malcolm X. Seriously.

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Will McCain punk out?

September 26th, 2008
380. 

So the first presidential debate is tonight and McCain is threatening to not show up, in order to work on the financial crisis. He’s even “suspended his campaign” (or not.)

First off, I have to agree with Obama on this one: Presidents should be able to handle more than one major task at one AND what better time to hear from the two candidates than now? I think American deservcs and neeeds to hear from both of them on this issue (and many others). The debates need to happen.

Secondly, from all the reports I’ve read McCain really hasn’t done much to help the process so far. The big meeting he called for with Bush, Obama and top leaders? McCain sat quietly for most of the meeting. And:

spoke only at the end to raise doubts about the rough compromise that the White House and congressional leaders were nearing.

So, not sure it is because he doesn’t understand the economy or the crisis or maybe he’s using this entire thing as a political stunt. Either to look “presidential” (by calling the meeting and ‘suspending’ his campaign to focus on the issue – even though Obama contacted him first suggesting they work together) or maybe he’s keeping quiet so a proposal is agreed upon that he can later vote against and say wasn’t the right plan (too much socialism, not enough ‘whatever’) so he can distance himself from Bush and the Republican Congress? I’d think probably the latter, since that is McCain’s biggest issue right now. He’s tied too closely to Bush and the Republicans who have pretty much destroyed our country (or at the very least gave us a major setback) through the war and handling of the economy.

What else does he have to gain by pushing back the debate? The McCain camp suggested the new date be in place of the VP debate (which would also need to be pushed back or as even suggested, canceled!), meaning Palin either gets more time to be brainwashed (which isn’t working so well – see my previous post) or even off the hook. Given her poor performances in softball-type interviews, I can’t imagine she’s too excited to take part in a debate. So, with a delayed debate the McCain camp wins either way.

Word is, Obama will make it a townhall type event if McCain doesn’t show up, which I can’t imagine the McCain camp would be too thrilled about – so I am betting McCain shows up and debates.

Speaking of Palin, I’ve seen a lot of buzz centered around McCain replacing Palin. (Even at the conservative National Review ) If that does happen, I just wanted to make sure McCain knows I am still available.

Update: Apparently, McCain wasn’t all that familiar with the House Republican plan he briefly and vaguely mentioned at the White House, either. You know, the one that caused all the negotiation and work to fall apart? Thanks McCain!

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