Take his ball and go home
I think I speak for all Democrats when I say that Joe Lieberman can go fuck himself.
excited
Well, we’re down to like 12 hours before the polls open, and it’s honestly like the night before Christmas. I’m getting kind of giddy with excitement.
Not that things can’t go wrong, Democrats have a long history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory [oops, got that backwards at first], but there seems to be a lot of reason for confidence, and there’s certainly a lot of reason for excitement. The mere possibility of an Obama victory is enough to fill even the most jaded political heart with a bit of song.
I’ve been listening to people debate the relative incompetence of the American people for the better part of eight years now, and I’m getting tired of defending them. I truly do not believe that Americans are, as a whole, stupid people. Shortsighted? Easily frightened? Generally disinterested in the nitty gritty of politics and world affairs? Sure. But when a case is presented to them, they will make a rational conclusion, and this is a case where I think that conclusion will be the right one.
Kerry made his case poorly in 2004. Al Gore won in 2000. We have a better candidate now than we did either time (Al Gore has since gotten better and Kerry, thank god, has virtually disappeared), and that candidate has run a remarkably tight, intelligent, positive campaign. Meanwhile, McCain has run a surprisingly incoherent and despicable campaign, so the wind is really at Obama’s back coming into the finish.
Very exciting times. It needs to end soon, though, ’cause it’s getting hard to work with my fingers crossed all the time.
In: politics, random internet awesomeness
another halloween wasted
Awesome costume ideas I won’t be able to act upon since I’ve been stuck at fucking work for the last week:
1) Whole Foods MILF
2) Creepy American Apparel-clad hipster (with short short gym shorts AND Members Only jacket)
3) Hunter S. Thompson
4) Phil Akka, a dude I work with. I actually considered shaving my head just to make this happen, since the rest of the costume is just Tevas and an Equinox shirt.
oh well. Maybe next year.
In: random internet awesomeness
sadly plausible
From Time’s Karen Tumulty:
But here’s a tantalyzing possibility: If Stevens were somehow to squeak through this election, and then be forced to resign after exhausting his appeals, might Sarah Palin decide to appoint … Sarah Palin?
You know, I wouldn’t be surprised, and that depresses me.
syria
Shooting war with Syria? Sweet.
It’s funny, Jon Stewart is always saying that Bush has one more crazy war left in him, invading Mexico or bombing Vancouver or something, who knew he’d actually be right?
predictions
I almost just wrote this down and taped it to my fridge, but anyone can say they predicted something, what I want is proof, later, that I’m as big an idiot as I claim to be after a few drinks.
So I’ve been playing around with CNN’s electoral vote calculator, spurred on by this post detailing the states McCain thinks they’ve lost vs. the states they think are still worth fighting in.
Offered a chance to respond to the suggestion that the McCain campaign is awash in defeatism, a McCain official delivered a decidedly measured appraisal: “We have a real chance in Pennsylvania. We are in trouble in Colorado, Nevada and Virginia. We have lost Iowa and New Mexico. We are OK in Missouri, Ohio and Florida. Our voter intensity is good, and we can match their buy dollar for dollar starting today till the election. It’s a long shot, but it’s worth fighting for.”
So here’s how I think it will break down, conservatively speaking, for Obama on Nov 4:
CA 55 – My people, nice work!
CO 9 – McCain’s guy says they’re “in trouble” in Colorado. I say the kids in Boulder will make this happen. Go hippies!
CT 7 – Where the New York elite have their weekend homes. Rich people that still care about other humans.
DC 3 – The people who work and live in Washington seem to know who they’d rather have running the place.
DE 3 – Well, duh. They like Biden.
HI 4 – This grandmother trip has to be helping. Freepers probably think it’s a staged campaign stunt.
IA 7 – McCain has straight up conceded Iowa. Weird, I know.
IL 21 – Easy to win with all the dead voters, I hear.
MA 12 – Bluest state in the country, God bless ‘em.
MD 10 – Basically still DC. See above.
ME 4 – So far north I think it’s illegal for them to lean right.
MI 17 – Not sure, but everybody’s called it for Obama.
MN 10 – Between Garrison Keillor and Canada, they’ve got a lot of positive reinforcement for their leftward views.
NH 4 – Leans left, but fairly solidly by current standards, and while Obama is trending down, it’s not a very steep line. Maybe if the election were held after Christmas, McCain could have a shot.
NJ 15 – Tony Soprano is a Democrat.
NM 5 – Again, McCain has given up on New Mexico.
NV 5 – They only admit to being in trouble in Nevada, at this point they’ll need to do better.
NY 31 – I moved here for a reason.
OH 20 – They seem to have given up on this one too, though it will be tight. I think Barry’s got it.
OR 7 – As long as they stop hugging trees and sipping coffee long enough to vote.
PA 21 – McCain’s anonymous staffer says they think they can take Pennsylvania. I disagree.
RI 4 – Is there a color bluer than blue?
VA 13 – Real America my ass.
VT 3 – It’s a well-known fact that Burton employees all vote Dem.
WA 11 – Not even a possibility that McCain will win here.
WI 10 – I’m surprised, given that everyone I know from Wisconsin is a Fox-breathing wingnut, but polling never lies, so there you go.
Now, notice that I didn’t give him Florida. I think McCain will take the land of giant bugs and voter disenfranchisement, but I’m happy to be wrong, and at any rate, there’s just no chance he gets Ohio AND Florida, so 27 or 20, but not both (47, you simpletons). Even without FL’s 27 (!) votes, Obama still gets 311 by my count, which makes me giggle with joy. I’ll happily/despondently compare my list to what happens in 10 days, but for now let’s just try and make this happen.
Oh, and by the way, even if Obama loses Missouri, Florida, AND Ohio, he still wins in my scenario, which is crazy to me, but oh well. Not cocky, just excited…
clearly somebody isn’t supersitious
I imagine atrios is getting some pretty crazy email about this one.
adorable
Just saw this on CNN.com:
I’m sure Mr. “3-way dead heat for 3rd place”‘s words come as great consolation to McCain.
debate numero tres
No one’s looking to me for a debate liveblog, but hopefully at some point someone will look at this and agree with me that John McCain isn’t making any fucking sense. It’s actually kind of embarrassing.
Oh well. Nice knowing you John.
articles are interesting
I have a habit of reflexively dismissing the creative output of people I personally dislike that both annoys me and makes me slightly, darkly proud. Mark Ebner is one of those people. I remember crossing paths with him on an AOL Hollywood chatroom in the mid 90′s, back when it really was possible for all the internet connected hollywood types to be in on a single chat at the same time. I think I annoyed him about something or other, he returned the favor, and a mutual friend attempted to relax me by explaining that Ebner was trying to become the “Hunter S. Thompson of the internet.”
Since then I’ve flipped past a few of his stories, one in particular about the downfall of actor/heroin hoover Peter Greene, and stubbornly refused to read them, but something about the story I just finished reading from Gawker’s Unspiked Files grabbed my attention and forced me to ignore my childish impulses and actually read the article. Well, scan it anyway.
Death of a Nethead is the story of an MIT superbrain and former Scientologist who killed himself by jumping from a 15th floor window at the age of 19. The piece is far from perfect. It lacks a coherent thesis and engages in many conceits, the random interjections of MIT bulletin board posts, the almost luridly detailed descriptions of scenes that Ebner could not have personally witnessed and for which he provides no attribution. It never really skewers Scientology the way the Gawker blurb implies it might, and the way Ebner clearly would like to, but it does perform one simple, heartbreaking service. It illuminates the life of a profoundly smart, profoundly depressed individual and touches on what a mess religion, particularly kooky religions, can make of a child’s life even after he shakes off all the conscious intellectual shackles previously imposed.
I once spent an entire summer eating Quiznos sandwiches and playing Splinter Cell, now I can’t play the game without tasting nasty meat and salad dressing, just like I will never be able to shake the reflexive warm feeling I get when I see George H.W. Bush, or the remaining, completely inexplicable kernel of distrust I have for weed, liberals, or anyone suggesting that man and dinosaur never co-existed. You can take the boy out of the intellectually repressive republican backwater, but you can never take the Orange County out of the boy!
Anyway, read the article, maybe you’ll see some dark nether region of your own personality in there too.
In: random internet awesomeness