Obama Wins 303 : 206

[Raydeus]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

Unrelated to the election, but David Patraeus resigned...due to an extramarital affair.

Did he bang the first lady so he had to quit before Obama sent the assassins or something? Because I'm also not seeing how one thing leads to the other. o_O

[Feba]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

Don't you know it's illegal to have nonprocreative sex if you have any power in American society?

I mean, in reality, there's probably one of three reasons he's actually resigning, in roughly this order:

1- He personally doesn't want all of the media attention on his personal life, and would rather just quit while he's ahead.
2- The administration found out, and wants him to get the hell out before it becomes a big scandal that makes the rest of them look bad too.
3- Keep in mind, CIA director. If he has a personal scandal, and incentive to keep it out of the public (or his wife's) eye, he also would be a national security threat. It wouldn't be the first time the Chinese have discovered someone is having an affair, and used that information as leverage to gain access to state secrets. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a matter of "You told the Chinese what? Okay, you're getting the fuck out, and we're going to try to keep this quiet so at least it's only Beijing that knows about it, and not Tehran.", or at least prevention of that sort of scenario.

EDIT: Besides, even if it weren't for the media and the national security aspects, you know the GOP would make a huge stink about how this was "hidden" from voters, and how he must resign, and how this is another attack on American Family Valuesâ„¢

[Taskmage]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

There's also the fact that adultery in the military is (sortof technically) illegal.

Adultery in the Military

I'm not opposed to a designated political thread. I'd want to merge Melody's alliterative thread since so much of it has taken place there.

[Etra]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

Alright. New discussion.

Who would have sex with Paul Ryan? Raise your hand.

{raises all five}

He so sexy.

[Taskmage]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

You got a land with five hands?

[Raydeus]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

You actually had to ask didn't ya? XD

[Etra]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

I'll take Ray as a yes.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

Not the kind of guy I turn to for editorial, but he's right.

Is the GOP headed for the boneyard?

[Ketaru]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

The GOP can probably pick up from this if they just get the Tea Party off the reigns and just step aside from the issues that obviously aren't very popular with the minority voters.

That is if they learn their lesson from this election. It appears some Republicans are still slow to learn though.

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie: Not my fault that Mitt Romney lost! - NY Daily News

Glad some people would have preferred us freezing and starving than accepting help from a Democratic president.

[Icemage]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

The GOP can probably pick up from this if they just get the Tea Party off the reigns and just step aside from the issues that obviously aren't very popular with the minority voters.

That is if they learn their lesson from this election. It appears some Republicans are still slow to learn though.

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie: Not my fault that Mitt Romney lost! - NY Daily News

Glad some people would have preferred us freezing and starving than accepting help from a Democratic president.

It's not Christie's fault, really. The only vote where Christie's activity would have maaaybe moved the needle is right here in my home state of Florida. Hurricanes, flooding, power loss and storm damage are no strangers to those of us who live in Florida, and there is a tendency here in FL to instantly sympathize with anyone who is hit by them, so seeing a rare spot of bipartisanship probably did change at least a few viewpoints. On the other hand, Florida's 29 electoral votes don't actually matter in the final tally because the margin was so high anyway, so anyone looking to blame Chris Christie for Romney losing any state other than Florida is walking on very thin ice.

---

There's an echo chamber in effect right now in US politics on both sides. People have their choice of many different flavors of "information", ranging (right to left) from very biased conservative (Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh) to moderately biased conservative (Fox News, Wall Street Journal) to relatively neutral but sensationalist (CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS) to moderately liberal (Huffington Post, Daily Show, MSNBC), to very biased liberal (Daily Kos).

There's something of a key difference between the two extremes though. The people on the right side of the spectrum have started drinking their own Kool-Aid, to the point where they just automatically shun anything that doesn't conform to their expectations. I mentioned previously that even the smart pundits on the right got their predictions horribly wrong in this election. From conversations with people in the past few weeks, many of my conservative-leaning acquaintances were certain that Romney would win. Not just "hoping". Certain. Even in the face of mass polling data that indicated otherwise. The reaction from my more left-leaning acquaintances, on the other hand, was more realistic and nervous.

I don't know if this is because the left-leaning media and blogosphere are simply less willing to lie to themselves, or whether the right-leaning outlets are simply so unprincipled that they'd rather construct a very large and elaborate false reality than risk losing audience share by telling people the truth. Maybe both?


Icemage

[Ketaru]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

Oh no. It isn't Christie's fault at all. New Jersey is, after all, a very left-leaning state to begin with. Even before his reaching across the aisle moment with President Obama, I thought he handled the situation with Hurricane Sandy as best as he could. As much as he has done things I disagree with, I have always felt he was a politician who didn't play political games. Blaming him for President Obama being re-elected is just sensationalist whining.

Blaming him for the election is just part of the overall personality of the Republican party this time around that probably cost them the election.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

I still like Christie, I don't believe for a second he was doing a political favor for Obama or as some crazies on the right claim, doing it to get aid. Its very rare for the north east to get smacked around like they have - of course they're going to get aid.

Sandy was interesting. The batshit right blames same sex marriage for it. The treehumping environmental left swears up and down that a carbon tax is needed to make sure this never happens again - I don't believe they've been to the east coast states before. Buffalo, New York might as well be the smog capital of the world, it makes LA look like a lightweight.

[Malacite]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

It's not Christie's fault, really. The only vote where Christie's activity would have maaaybe moved the needle is right here in my home state of Florida. Hurricanes, flooding, power loss and storm damage are no strangers to those of us who live in Florida, and there is a tendency here in FL to instantly sympathize with anyone who is hit by them, so seeing a rare spot of bipartisanship probably did change at least a few viewpoints. On the other hand, Florida's 29 electoral votes don't actually matter in the final tally because the margin was so high anyway, so anyone looking to blame Chris Christie for Romney losing any state other than Florida is walking on very thin ice.

In part of his opening bit I believe it was on Wed night, Jon Stewart took aim at this and I loved it 'cause he's right - to paraphrase, he basically said Florida's shenanigans didn't matter at all for once and so we didn't have to deal with any of the headaches that follow as a result. That whole episode was terrific really.


EDIT: I like Christie too, even though I don't agree with him on several things and find him to be a tad boorish at times, I can respect a Politician who's honest & speaks his mind - even if they're crazy (Ron Paul :D )

[Icemage]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206

Incidentally, I did some quick math and calculated what happens to the electoral map if the Republicans don't do something to win back the Hispanic vote. If the Hispanic vote stays in the 70%+ range, this is what the electoral map might look like 10-15 years from now (affected states: NM, AZ, NV, CO, FL, and also TX at some point in time)



The blue states add up to 282 electoral votes (probably more after the next census in 2020).


Icemage

[Jarre]

Re: Obama Wins 303 : 206