__
__
Since Nat Silver has a book to sell, Dan Amira at NYMag has a long interview about “the race for president, why he doesn’t play fantasy baseball anymore, and what makes Dick Morris so awful”:
…So, basically, barring an October surprise, Romney’s chances are more like nil?
Not nil, but slim. So the debates for example have proven to move the number by about 3 points in the past… The problem now is that there are a lot of ways that Romney could kick a field goal, but Obama seems to be ahead by a touchdown right now. So, I guess he could kick two field goals, to stretch the metaphor out. Or maybe if Romney did pretty well in the debates, and you had a couple of bad but not extraordinarily bad jobs reports, he could put two or three things together, and then they get a strong turnout. So that’s why you can’t quite say that he can’t come back organically, if you had a cluster of different medium-sized things happen, to get some momentum. But I’m not sure that, say, the debates alone are enough to move the numbers for him. I think he needs that and something else, or he needs some kind of acute crisis to develop….What do you make of Dick Morris? You mention him in your book, and he’s just the absolute least accurate pundit ever, and yet he still gets a platform.
I’ve been thinking about starting a hedge fund, just to invest in whatever Morris says won’t happen. You have to actually be quite skilled to be that bad.It’s amazing. He said the other day that Romney would win by 4 or 5 points.
I know, that would be my secret plan if I were the Romney campaign, to get Morris to make a prediction of an Obama landslide. I’d definitely lay some money on Romney at that point. I think it’s just, when you make that many poor predictions — and we’re not just teasing him for one, he really does have a terrible track record — are you deluding yourself? Or is it all a show to rally your base? With him I don’t really know, but, I see prediction as a way to judge whether you’re, frankly, in touch with reality or not. We all have our views, and we look at this information in a certain way, and you test that by means of an event that you don’t know the outcome to yet and seeing if your subjective point of view matches what unfolds. So I think a slightly impolite way to put it is that at best Dick Morris is detached from reality, and at worst I guess, he knows it and is just lying to people.
Yurpean
While Nate is great at the election stuff, it sounds like his climate change chapter is less successful:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/09/24/898561/fivethirtyeight-the-number-of-things-nate-silver-gets-wrong-about-climate-change/
Viva BrisVegas
I know this is would be of limited interest to most Juicers out there, but hell it’s an open thread and I’m open.
In a neat bit of arithmetic and geographical symmetry, yesterday Sydney won the Australian Rules Grand Final by 10 points, and today Melbourne won the Rugby League Grand Final by 10 points.
A Grand Final is the local equivalent of the World Series or Superbowl.
For those not in the know, there is a rivalry between the two cities. Melbourne is to AFL what Mecca is to muslims, and Sydney is to Rugby League what Rome is to christians.
Both winning teams were transplants into what would normally be regarded as foreign territory.
They were both good tight games, and if you happen to get the chance, watch them.
Kittehs to the rescue
Can anybody explain to me why nearly half the states of the USA are considered to be safe bets for Romney? Are these places inhabited by utter morons?
Then again, I just read an article in which a voter explained that he’d become a Republican because he’d learned in church that unborn babies have a soul and thus abortion needs to be eradicated and thus he’d become a Republican. Seriously? That guy looked at his crummy life and decided that the most important factor in deciding who gets to run his country is some fairytale nonsense? Is that really his biggest problem in life?
Suezboo
BrisVegas : I hate to burst your bubble but may I point out that the Really Big Game was played here this weekend and the Springboks BEAT the Wallabies.
Just having a small gloat.
c u n d gulag
Dick Morris has a long, long way to go to catch up to Bill Kristol in the “Never Ever Right” sweepstakes.
c u n d gulag
Kitteh’s,
To answer your questions.
One, the first – yes. They are inhabited my morons.
Also too, the second – Hating on the people who approve of choice is more churchilly (as opposed to politically) correct than hating on the Nigrahs, Sp*cs, Muslims, Beeotches, Atheists, Ch*nks, Red Injuns, F*gs, and D*kes.
It fits in well with the Movement Conservative reason for living: “We’re for anything Liberals are against, and against any and every thing they’re for. To be adjusted daily, hourly, or as needed. 180 degree turns are accepted – just don’t turn into a Whirling Dervish doing it.”
MikeJ
Wow. Face the Nation this morning will have Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich, and Marsha Blackburn or TN-7. I’ll let you guess her party affiliation.
John McCain will be on CNN, but you had probably guessed he was going to be on somewhere.
VodkaMuppet
Dammit. Stayed up way too late and now Heathers just came on. I haven’t watched this movie in 20 years and I’m totally getting sucked in. oh well, I’ll sleep after football.
Viva BrisVegas
@Suezboo:
I hate to burst yours, but you are talking about the fourth most popular form of football in Australia.
Which is to say, almost nobody noticed the Springboks game.
We haven’t taken Union seriously since 1908.
MikeJ
@Viva BrisVegas: Meh. The Ashes aren’t until next July. That’s the next time I’ll pay attention to Australian sport.
raven
GO DAWGS!
AxelFoley
@c u n d gulag:
ROFL, you didn’t forget anybody there, did ya? LOL
c u n d gulag
@AxelFoley:
Buddhists.
I forgot them. But, a lot of them are Ch*nks, and a lot are Injuns – just not OUR Red Injuns.
Otherwise, I think my list is pretty complete – now that a Mormon is the Republican Presidential candidate.
mikefromArlington
Frightening the poor judgement in character Clinton had to let this turd anywhere the WH.
TR
@Kittehs to the rescue:
It doesn’t make sense to many of us, but for many working class red-state conservative Christians, being prolife trumps everything else because — in their eyes — it means they are not looking out for their own selfish interests but are instead looking out for the defenseless unborn. It turns their perceived powerlessness to what they regard as a noble cause and allows them to do something significant with a life that often seems anything but. I disagree with that attitude and their politics but in some weird way I can respect it.
And frankly when liberals sneer “look at these dumb hicks worrying about babies instead of their wallets” it really doesn’t help. You sound like some rich Romneyite wondering why a stupid firefighter would waste his time on a menial public service job when there’s real money to be made elsewhere.
Applejinx
@c u n d gulag:
They’re no fun, they won’t hate back! Ignore ’em.
arguingwithsignposts
@c u n d gulag: I’m glad you caught that too.
MattF
Just maybe, Morris’ politics have something to do with his being wrong all the time. Silver is still not willing to say the magic words, “Politics Matters.”
Linda Featheringill
@TR:
Interesting point.
Do you think that perhaps improved economic conditions and better chances of making things better would help integrate them into the fold?
A little economic determinism?
TR
@Linda Featheringill:
Maybe. I think real proof that the government can help their lives economically might do it — many of them just don’t believe that it can help, so they turn to trying to stop the government from hurting — but even then it stays a selfish vs selfless dynamic only one In which the temptation for selfish gain is higher and therefore the righteousness of denying that selfish reward that much greater too.
Kirbster
Every new Dick Morris book should have a firm expiration date printed on the cover, so that after he is yet again proved wrong, the books can be withdrawn from bookstores and public libraries before they stink up the place like so many rancid dairy products.
Linda Featheringill
Something entirely different:
A spate of books and articles along the line of “The Rise of Women Has Turned Men Into Boys.”
I and my mother and both grandmothers would have to disagree.
There have always been a substantial fraction of male humans that was characterized by maturity, courage, intelligence, and sensitivity. Goddess love ’em. They’re great, aren’t they?
But a bunch of those guys then never matured past the chronological age of 13 to 14 and spent their lives trying to prove how manly they were. Challenges of all kinds sent them into inner conflicts and they worked off that tension with aggressiveness. They usually became loud and often became violent. But they were still little boys.
Fortunately for the human race, there was a large portion of the guys who were rather admirable sometimes and not too bad at other times. We sort of muddled along with them.
The only thing really different today, I think, is that your average guy leads a more sedentary, more intellectual life. Today’s man probably doesn’t have the muscle bulk his grandpa did. And the women know it and aren’t as afraid of male creatures in general.
I think my point is that a good portion of men always were boys, no matter how downtrodden the women were. Our liberation hasn’t changed that.
[In fairness, a lot of women are childish, too. I’ve often thought that some women marry for the sole reason of having someone to blame for everything. And don’t get me started on . . . ]
Love and kisses to you all.
TR
@Linda Featheringill:
As a man, I entirely agree. Those books are nothing but feminist-scapegoating and an attempt to blame women for men’s failings.
I’m married to a strong career woman, and it didn’t make me turn into a teenage douchebag.
Baud
@TR:
I agree with you.
Literalreddy
@TR:
If anything, when I married my wife, now getting her PHd, I became a better and stronger man. I had to because I needed to support her.
These man-boys that are out there don’t want to grow up and FSM forbid that it is their fault. It must be those nasty feminists stealing their balls.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@TR:
This analysis of red state Christians’ pro-life voting is accurate as far as I’ve experienced. I’d add one more thing: many of them are effectively fatalists. They don’t believe that voting has the power to change their lives and their fellow citizens’ in any significant way. They’re pretty much screwed or blessed either way, they feel, and this frees them up to use their vote for a symbolic gesture. This is one thing they have in common with certain Liberals and Libertarians.
It might also be more rational to disregard the revolutionary effects of a change of chief executive, as many uncontrollable things have more impact on their lives.
amk
That kenyan muslin usurper within 1% in friggin’ TN.
370+ EV and 10+ PV baybee.
Culture of Truth
Leave Dick Morris alone!!!
Schlemizel
Pearls Before Swine has a comic today that will certainly increase the blood pressure of our futball fans:
http://www.gocomics.com/comic/explore/1384359/5
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Schlemizel:
This one: http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine
bemused
Life has been so busy I was looking forward to today, a break in a crazy schedule, so I could read in leisure some blog pieces from yesterday,
booman’s “The Last Stand of the Modern GOP” w/ link to Chait “2012 or Never” in February
mahablog, “GOP: A Cult Looking for a Personality” citing billmon’s diary on daily kos, “Skewed polls and the paranoid style”.
mai naem
David Plouffe is a phenomenal campaign manager/advisor whatevah but he’s just not good on teevee as a surrogate. Chris Christie’s on MTP. Either it was the lighting and make up or he’s lost a little weight. He really must think Romney’s lost if he’s working on losing weight getting ready for 2016. Also too, he a lying SOS.
Schlemizel
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Thanks – I copied the wrong URL
TR
@Linda Featheringill:
On second thought, I think the key isn’t convincing them economics trumps religion — it’s convincing them their religion should make them Democrats. There’s a long history of Christian support for liberal causes, from the Social Gospel upholding the New Deal through MLK and civil rights and William Sloane Coffin, the Berrigans and antiwar protests.
There are seeds here — the “creation care” movement that’s making evangelicals into environmentalists, or the “least of these” politics that refocus Christuan energies on the poor, etc, and we should encourage them.
The key isn’t getting religious folks to abandon their Bibles. The key is getting them to read them and remember Jesus was a left-wing hippie.
Linda Featheringill
@amk:
Close presidential race in Tennessee:
Very nice! I’m sure that the Dems in TN are working very hard. Hats off to them.
[Yes, you can! Yes, you can! Yes, you can!]
Schlemizel
@mai naem:
We should expect Crusty to disappear for a couple of days while he has the lap band procedure any time now – heck he may already have done it. Like Huckleberry from Arkansas he will lose a couple of hundred pounds and appear more acceptable to the voting public.
Pasta save us if that sort of thing makes the New Jersey Jabba palatable to American voters.
Linda Featheringill
@TR:
Bill Clinton has a very moving speech that he’s given a few times on why he’s a Democrat. It’s full of theology, without using religious terms. He’s Christian but the speech would work just as well with any religion. Lots of Help Your Brother stuff. Some of the religious types might benefit from that speech.
piratedan
call me crazy, but I really believe that this “zinger” thang and the idea that Mitt needs to “win” the debate are perfect illustrations of how the Romney campaign still doesn’t get it. I gotta believe that anyone still actually torn or indifferent to the ideology of the two major parties is a very strange duck indeed but in a vain attempt at logic, someone who is still attempting to decide between these two candidates is likely looking for ideas/answers to the issues that matter to them. As has been repeated here, The Republicans are essentially devoid of ideas and answers. The ones they give wouldn’t pass muster with a scrupulous 5th grade civics teacher or 8th grade math when it comes to simply balancing a checkbook. Could be that the Dems have come to join them in the middle of ideas circa 1990 and the R’s are so shocked that they’ve denied they ever used to hold those positions. Since they’ve abandoned those positions, they don’t have much in the way of fallback.
Anya
Does everyone else hate MSNBC’s promotional ads featuring their hosts? I specially hate Chuck Todd’s crap where he proclaims that he will use his access to power “for good” and to get answers for the American people. Does the man watch himself at press conferences or the daily press briefings where he asks silly questions and often focuses on horse race bullshit and the bullshit controversy of the week?
Patricia Kayden
Perhaps Dick Morris knows in his heart of hearts that Romneybot is going to lose but wants to set up a post-election narrative for the Repubs/Faux News crowd that the Democrats stole the election. That’s the only thing that makes sense apart from him being massively delusional.
Violet
This column by Steven Pearlstein is a welcome take on things:
It goes on. I liked this observation:
It’s pointing out their greed and sense of entitlement in an Emperor Has No clothes style. I like it.
Lojasmo
@Schlemizel:
Flabby bag of wrinkles. Doubtful it will help.
Brian R.
@Linda Featheringill:
Exactly. Clinton’s a good example of how this can work, and Carter is too.
Violet
@Schlemizel:
When Huckabee appeared somewhere (was it the RNC?) I thought he’d looked like he’d gained weight again.
Schlemizel
@Lojasmo:
I think that too but it hasn’t been a problem for Rev. Huckleberry. Maybe he has had a little nip-n-tuck.
Crusties problem is not really the fat on the outside its the fat that goes all the way to his cerebral cortex. Its going to be hard to repair that ugly personality inside that very little man.
butler
@Anya: Ya, those spots are… not good. I can’t take serious the one with Mrs. Alan Greenspan. The one with Al Sharpton has a funny look, makes his head look way too big for his body.
There are a couple that Maddow does that I would like as PSAs (“Social Security is good, dammit!” and “you better vote because otherwise you cede power to people that hate you”) but the messages seem wasted as just same network advertising.
Ash Can
@TR:
@Linda Featheringill:
The fact is, I’m a Democrat/liberal because of my religion. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that it’s wrong to fuck with people, or to stand idly by while they suffer. It sickens me to see these basic tenets perverted so drastically by any religious leaders or followers.
Schlemizel
@Violet:
He certainly has. I have lost 50 pounds twice & the trick is keeping it off.
I know of 8 people who have undergone weight reduction surgery. 6 of them have severe health problems even years later, a couple have needed additional surgeries to correct problems. 7 of the 8 have gained back a lot of the weight. My experience is that its a disaster.
Schlemizel
@Ash Can:
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
Billy Shakespeare
Brian R.
@amk:
I’m from Tennessee, and I find that stunning. There’s no way that state votes for the Ni-Clang! but if they have to devote a few more resources there to keep it in their column, great.
We’ve got them pinned back on their own ten yard line. Let’s keep them there. Donate now and volunteer now.
Brian R.
@Violet:
Yep. I saw him in the Atlanta airport a few months ago, and he was HUGE.
kd bart
@Linda Featheringill:
The linked article and poll cited was from May 2012. Not exactly fresh and reliable.
Schlemizel
@Brian R.:
Since I believe he still really wants to be POTUS it raises two questions. Will he undergo the process again to lose weight? But then there is the deeper one, in today’s American can a morbidly obese person get elected? I don’t think so but wonder.
Ash Can
@Schlemizel: Yep. That Billy was a smart boy.
hep kitty
@Culture of Truth:
A national treasure, he is.
gf120581
My favorite description of Dick Morris, courtesy of Bill Maher:
It’s kind of a low blow, I know, but Morris is just an ugly, ugly man. If you want to get an idea what Napoleon and the other pigs looked like at the end of Animal Farm, just look at Morris.
quannlace
Forget Dick Morris’ appearances on Fox. They’d invite back a rabid possum if it’d parrot their propaganda. What amazes me is that Morris apparently makes a living as a political consultant. (He can’t make much from his awful books.) So the real question is, who the hell would hire him?
Schlemizel
@Ash Can:
He could turn a phrase a bit couldn’t he?
hep kitty
@Brian R.: Yes, he’s huge. Lost all that weight so he could sell the next of 65,756th books by some “celebrity” on weight loss. And now he’s knocking back Chik-Fil-A’s, fried hamhocks and Paula Deen Krispy Kreme cheeseburgers.
Narcissus
I don’t think Dick Morris gives two shits so long as the checks keep coming.
Violet
@Schlemizel: I don’t think a morbidly obese person can get elected president at this point. We’ve learned too much about obesity and how it damages health, so people think of morbidly obese people as unhealthy, whether that’s true or not in a specific case. Plus, obesity is portrayed in our popular culture as weakness–“Just eat less”, so a morbidly obese candidate carries “weak” around with them before they start.
And then there’s a physical side of things, because a presidential campaign is hard work. A morbidly obese person may have a hard time keeping up without looking exhausted, sweaty, winded, tired, whatever. Just one or two appearances like that and it confirms people’s biases that the candidate isn’t up to the job.
Maybe Christie or Huckabee could overcome all that. I don’t know. But Huckabee sure felt he had to lose the weight before he tried the first time.
gf120581
@Schlemizel: Personally, I don’t think so. The last fat man we had as President was Taft and he was long before TV and whatnot. Nowadays we expect our Presidents to at least look like they have the stamina and fitness for the job. We don’t want a President who looks like he’d drop dead of a heart attack in the middle of the inagural ball if the dancing gets too strenuous.
If Christie is dropping weight, it’s a sign he’s serious about 2016 (as if his “Look at me, look at me, look at me!” convention speech wasn’t blatant enough). If so, I’ll be curious to see what his plans are for next year. Will he run for reelection and risk losing to Cory Booker or someone else? Or will he pull a Romney and decline to run, focusing on a presidential race above everything else?
quannlace
Case in point:
Morris worked as a strategist for Christy Mihos, who sought the Republican nomination to run for Governor of Massachusetts in 2010 against incumbent Deval Patrick. Morris “oversaw strategy, polling, and advertising for Mihos”.[8] At the Republican state convention, Mihos lost to Charles D. Baker, Jr. by 89 percent to 11 percent; by failing to reach 15 percent, Mihos did not qualify for a primary against Baker.[21]
WaterGirl
@Violet:
That is an understatement.
Edit: I see that several people got there before I did. :-)
Brian R.
@hep kitty:
Literally. When I saw him at the airport, he and his wife were shoveling Chick-fil-A into their mouths like they’d been on a four day fast. They must’ve had a half dozen between them.
Violet
@WaterGirl: I think I only saw the clip on the The Daily Show, so that’s why I can’t remember very well where I saw him. I didn’t watch the RNC.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brian R.:
Jimmy Carter once said that Jerry Falwell could go to Hell “in the Christian sense.”
Falwell’s response was that he didn’t think a fellow brother in Christ would say such a thing.
Carter knew exactly what sort of “brother in Christ” Falwell was.
Schlemizel
@Violet: @gf120581:
Good points. I think “lookism” (gad I hate that term but it fits) would create a really high hurdle that would take someone really special to overcome. But I think the fact that many people think most people see fat as a personal failure & sign of weakness would make it insurmountable.
Violet
@Brian R.: And where was your cell phone video camera? Huh? HUH? (Kidding, kidding…sort of…)
Linda Featheringill
@Ash Can:
As far as I can tell, all religions teach compassion. All over the world, I’ve seen people that claim to be followers of gracious and wise Teachers and Prophets and yet have no compassion. I suspect people everywhere are as embarrassed as we are by the Religious Right.
hep kitty
@Ash Can: Not only that, Jesus had no problem with not only questioning but challenging immoral, exploitative authority, in very public and dangerous ways. It’s something that gets lost in the message a lot because there is so much emphasis on passivity. But there was a lot more to it than that. “The Politics of Jesus” – Jesus as Rebel, is not a bad read on this subject.
The entire foundation of Roman culture was based on exploitation of the weak and defenseless, to the point of death if necessary.
WaterGirl
@Violet: I just saw one clip, too. I think maybe it was when he was the only one defending Todd Akin?
WereBear
That’s been my impression, too. They work hard to keep the bad statistics out of the media.
If someone has an absorption disorder, can”t get enough nutrients, and starves their heart to the point of failure; it doesn’t get put down as a death related to their bariatric surgery.
Though it should.
Brian R.
@Violet:
I think the odds of electing a fat man are long, but we should remember for all the talk about how this or that ethnic group is growing demographically, the morbidly obese are growing at a good clip as well. Again, literally.
Brian R.
@Violet:
I thought about it, but I was running late for a connecting flight.
Also, I was afraid he might eat me.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: and final bit that appeals the pro-lifer/funndy crowed to them is they get to be an asshole and self righteous at the same time. All the delicious rage.
As others pointed out they could careless about the results of their votes and actions – that’s for the adults to deal with. That’s why Teabagger politicians instantly become RINOs the day after they are elected. Just as long as base can scream at someone else about how awful they are and fell good about it.
Anya
@gf120581: Even Sean Hannity is skeptical about Dick Morris’ election predictions. He deliberately feeds wingut delusions and he knows he’ll never lose money so who cares about credibility.
Violet
@Brian R.: Yeah, I thought about that too. Maybe the morbidly obese would see electing a morbidly obese person as a sign of solidarity or having “arrived” in the culture or proving being fat means nothing. Or something. I don’t really see “the morbidly obese” as a voting bloc, however.
hep kitty
Fuckabee. I don’t give a damn about his weight, or Christie’s weight, although I think assholes are fair game for any kind of smear they try to use against the other side (Al Gore, Michael Moore is fat) or for calling out closet gays who oppose gay rights.
Because they are just plain craven assholes. Bobby Jindal is a bean pole and he’s an asshole. Rick Scott is Skeletor, I could go on.
But of course, they’re not as popular as these two asswipes, the reason which escapes me.
And of course, I don’t give a fuck about Ryan’s abs.
bemused
@Violet:
“I am entitled to everything I have and more that I still deserve.”
This is the same attitude that small and very small Republican business owners have I know too. The fat cat job cremators are their idols. It doesn’t bother them one bit that the big biz boys are able to get outrageous subsidies and tax breaks, subvert regulations and treat employees as they please because they have the same sense of entitlement and drive to be wealthy at any cost to their community and employees.
Xecky Gilchrist
I keep wondering just what kind of October Surprise would help Romney, anyway.
Financial collapse in Europe? We’d better cut rich people’s taxes to zero and end Medicare! Get Romney in there!
Israel bombs Iran? Do whatever Netanyahu says! …and better cut rich people’s taxes to zero and end Medicare! Also, environmental regs are too burdensome, and half the country is slackers. Get Romney in there!
I mean, really. What kind of crisis is going to undo all the damage Romney has done to himself and Brand Republican?
Other than a big Obama scandal – and if there were one to find, the Republicans would have found it by now (or more likely Hillary Clinton would have found it in ’08.)
bemused
Christie is on the tv now and his body with his head looking like a nerf ball on top fills the whole damn screen!
hueyplong
As many varied and at times contradictory “scandals” as they’ve sent spam emails about over the last 4 years, I also have a hard time imagining just what kind of “discovery” would be seen as credible by the public at this point.
If we’re picking something to worry about, it’s still making sure that people who want to vote for Obama are allowed to do so and to have their votes counted.
The rest of this stuff is probably already “baked into the numbers.”
Anya
@butler: I actually snicker at Andrea Mitchell’s spot. What a tool.
quannlace
Well, they’ve been trying to whip up the Benghazi attack. Saw one with the headline ‘Worse Than Watergate !!”
Sure
WereBear
Television exaggerates a person’s weight. This makes an overweight candidate look even more hefty than they actually are.
Linda Featheringill
@Anya:
Morris doesn’t look like he’s lying. Maybe he believes what he’s saying, which doesn’t mean he’s right.
He is correct in saying that it all depends on who votes. But he doesn’t address trends that the polls are catching. Take for instance older people. Morris said that if you’re older, he can tell you how you’re going to vote. Traditionally, the over 65 crowd voted something like 60-40 in favor of the Republicans. But several polls, in several places, are showing the oldsters about evenly split at the present time.
How are the Republicans going to make up for shifts in opinion like that?
Check my arithmetic: If people over 65 make up about 22% of folks who vote and if 10% of those switch from R to D, that would make up 2.2% of the total vote and translate into a Democratic boost of 4.4 points. Yes?
Morris doesn’t address issues like that.
Linda Featheringill
@Linda Featheringill:
Actually, it would be a 2.2 point drop for the Rs and a 2.2 point increase for the Ds and so a 4.4 point difference in the spread, favoring the Dems.
Uncle Cosmo
@Ash Can: Anyone who tries to follow the actual teachings of Jesus almost has to be.
The fly in the ointment is that in US religious life, Christ has long been crowded out by the two other Cs: Calvin & Catholicism.
Calvin essentially twisted the meaning of the Crucifixion into a message from a bitchy Yahweh that goes I sacrificed my one&onliest Son in order to justify saving a minuscule number of you worthless shits, & I’ve already decided who–the rest of you are charbroiling for eternity. You can either toe the line & pray you have a winning ticket for the HigherPoweBall drawing, or do your own thing & prove to everyone else that you don’t. Meanwhile the One Holy Catholic & Apostolic Church has been doubling & redoubling down on the-hierarchy’s-way-or-the-highway since the Hapsburg emissaries got defenestrated into a dungheap outside Prague Castle in 1621. Neither group is Christian in any meaningful sense any longer–the Gospel is just a cover story for power tripping.
Schlemizel
@hep kitty:
All very true but if you think about it, winning the White House involves getting the majority of votes from people who can barely fog a mirror are motivated by appearance more than reality.
Sentient Puddle
@amk: Not as exciting a poll as it sounds. Read the article a little closer:
That’s all adults, not registered voters. So how did registered voters do?
They didn’t mention likely voters, but I bet if those were screened, the margin would be larger still.
Chris
@TR:
Sorry, but I’ll sneer at anyone who’s fucking stupid enough to fall for that garbage and hateful enough to want to impose it on women, gays, and anyone Not Them. And in my experience, most of those people ate middle class suburbanites, not working and poor people. In those demographics, even if you’re limiting yourself to white people, Democrats still don’t do that badly.
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
Much as he was a lunatic, I still love Goldwater for saying out loud that every good Christian ought to kick Jerry Falwell right in the ass.
Another face in the crowd
Still waiting for Morris to reprise Danny Divito’s role as “The Penguin” in the next Dark Knight movie. “I’m playing Sean Hannity like a harp from hell!!!”.
feebog
Well, if Crusty lost any weight it wasn’t much. He looked just as fat and jiggly to me on MTP today. The tell for Crusty will be if he runs again for Governer in 2013. If he doesn’t then he is running for President in 2016 for sure. No way he risks losing the Governer’s race if he is serious about running for President.
trollhattan
@Violet:
You so don’t have campaign strategist in your blood. Here’s me, simulating one:
“Governor, you’ll just campaign yourself into shape!”
What could possibly go wrong?
Also, too, “Ha-ha Algore is fat” rolls off every Republican ratfucker’s tongue at the slightest provocation. They’d have zero qualms about making candidate weight an issue, while the Dems wouldn’t touch it with a ten-meter pole.