Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

This fight is for everything.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

I really should read my own blog.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Mid-day Open Thread

Mid-day Open Thread

by | 61 Comments

This post is in: ,

Yes, most of the polls and the three most reliable poll aggregates show President Obama on track to a 300+ EV victory next Tuesday.

http://polltracker.talkingpointsmemo.com/

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/

Home

We’re going to keep the Senate.  Truly, these are good times.  Yay us.  But it’s not over yet. Let’s run the score up on the bastards.

I don’t know shit about phone banking via cell phone, but many of you do.  I know that’s DougJ’s bag, so maybe he’ll post something about it here shortly.  Those of you who do should please put some information down in this thread.

Also, if you haven’t given before, or haven’t given a lot, consider donating a year of double mochachino half-caf lattes to our Act Blue account:

Goal Thermometer

And down-ticket, here’s a link to the PEC High Leverage targets: https://secure.actblue.com/page/pec2012

And last, but absolutely not least, here’s a link to the American Red Cross, where you can donate cash, and not pull a Romney, to disaster relief.  If you can’t afford money for this, donate blood.

 

Reader Interactions

61Comments

  2. 2.

    Chat Noir

    Here in Illinois, I voted last Wednesday and the husband unit voted yesterday. It was good to vote for Barack Obama in his home state this time (we were in Michigan in 2008). I’m going to work a data entry shift on Tuesday at Obama for America’s Illinois HQ in Chicago. I donated as much $ as I could to Team O this year.

  3. 3.

    karl

    “consider donating a year of double mochachino half-caf lattes”

    Coffee-drinking elitists are destroying America.

  4. 4.

    Mark

    My last call of the night to Nevada was ridiculous last night. 44-year old white male, small business owner. Registered Dem, but tells me he’s not too sure about Obama. He had the following complaints:

    – Obamacare will mean that his kids won’t make a lot of money when they’re doctors
    – Taxing millionaires is a bad idea because they create jobs
    – We shouldn’t cut military spending because the military creates jobs
    – Unemployment insurance is bad because people just cash their checks and sit on the couch and drink beer (same with welfare, etc)
    – Food Aid to North Korea is bad because we shouldn’t be helping the North Koreans
    – Romney will fix the deficit and debt in four years
    – Didn’t real care about gay marriage but didn’t like that Obama changed his mind

    I’m sure there was more. I started the call just before the call system times out (8:30 pm) and talked to him for 36 minutes in total. Thanks to this blog (I swear to god) I had an answer for everything. Eventually he said he was voting for Obama.

    Of course, his closest early voting place was closed 11/1 and 11/2, the last two days of early voting. But he said he’s get out and vote.

  5. 5.

    amk

    Why not the congress too ? Did the teabaggers win in ’10 with razor thin margins with poor dem turnout ? Why won’t these seats flip now ?

  6. 6.

    elmo

    Still scared, but that’s just a genetic flaw. I’ll be scared until it’s over.

    And speed the day, too, because this election has NOT been good for my emotional health. I live 2500 miles away from my brother, and I’m close to de-friending him on FB because of “Benghazi” bullshit posts.

    In September of 2001, it was not only tasteless, and crass, but *unpatriotic* to criticize GWB on account of 9/11 intel failures. It was beyond the pale, suitable only for fringes and cranks. It was treated as beneath contempt.

    And these people *dare* accuse the Obama admin of a coverup?

  7. 7.

    Violet

    @elmo: Isn’t there a way to filter out posts on Facebook but not block people entirely? Like it would be okay to see their post on their kids Halloween costumes, but not okay to see a post on the election or Benghazi or whatever. Is that sort of filtering not available on Facebook? Seems like it would be really useful.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    For some giggles, take a look at the Unskewed Polls prediction map. I’m pretty sure that hallucinogens of the potency required to produce that map aren’t legal. This is the icing on the cake:

    This projection is expected to be spot-on accurate for predicting the outcome in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and close to the actual popular vote.

  9. 9.

    Violet

    @amk: More Democrats will vote but more Republicans will also vote. It’s a Presidential election so turnout is always higher.

  11. 11.

    Svensker

    @elmo:

    Are you me?

    My 2500-mile-away-brother is doing the Benghazi crap dance, too.

    Oy.

    Also, I’m very happy that O seems to be doing well in the polls and momentum seems to be going his way but EVERYBODY, please, please, please GO KNOCK ON WOOD right now because you are tempting the gods by getting too confident and talking about it. Do not do this. I am married to a Greek and I know about this stuff. KNOCK ON WOOD…..NAOW!!! Then speak humbly.

  12. 12.

    Soonergrunt

    @amk: It is exceedingly unlikely that we will flip the House.
    In the unlikely event that happens I will find some very risque and rather humiliating way to publicly celebrate.

  13. 13.

    Democrat Partisan Asshole

    Isn’t there a way to filter out posts on Facebook but not block people entirely?

    @Violet: No, but the kinds of people who are posting shit about Benghazi post twenty of those for every pic of the kids, and if you really need to see the spawn that badly, you can just go directly to their profile and look at their pictures.

    Since most of my FB peeps are lifelong friends, I already know their opinions, and shockingly, we’re all pretty much in agreement anyway. The ones that aren’t, and have decided to commit suicide by GOP, are blocked and I doubt I’m missing anything.

  14. 14.

    JR

    I’m all for “running up the score,” but we’re not there yet. We’re a few days of bad weather from losing, and that’s what the story will be until the votes are counted.

    Seriously, a few points in about eight or nine states go the other way, and we lose. That’s a GOTV margin. Don’t let anyone be lulled by the EV count. Run hard for five more days, get the lawyers on the ground (greetings from Florida!), and make this happen, because it won’t unless you do.

  17. 17.

    Comrade Mary

    OMG THIS IS A GAMECHANGER!

    THE ECONOMIST KINDA SORTA WITH A POUTY FACE ENDORSES OBAMA!

    Mr Obama’s shortcomings have left ample room for a pragmatic Republican, especially one who could balance the books and overhaul government. Such a candidate briefly flickered across television screens in the first presidential debate. This newspaper would vote for that Mitt Romney, just as it would for the Romney who ran Democratic Massachusetts in a bipartisan way (even pioneering the blueprint for Obamacare). The problem is that there are a lot of Romneys and they have committed themselves to a lot of dangerous things.
    …
    As a result, this election offers American voters an unedifying choice. Many of The Economist’s readers, especially those who run businesses in America, may well conclude that nothing could be worse than another four years of Mr Obama. We beg to differ. For all his businesslike intentions, Mr Romney has an economic plan that works only if you don’t believe most of what he says. That is not a convincing pitch for a chief executive. And for all his shortcomings, Mr Obama has dragged America’s economy back from the brink of disaster, and has made a decent fist of foreign policy. So this newspaper would stick with the devil it knows, and re-elect him.

    SUCK IT LIBS!

  20. 20.

    Democrat Partisan Asshole

    For some giggles, take a look at the Unskewed Polls prediction map.

    @dmsilev: I’m tempted to do a WHOIS lookup on them, because I’m 90% sure I’m going to find the owner is one DougJ.

  21. 21.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    I would like to know how the house races are doing? Is it close? My district is the new 10th congressional district(WA) more likely it will be Democratic Seat (Denny Heck), the nearby 6th home of the retiring Norm Dicks (D-military Industrial Complex) will likely stay Democratic also, despite the millionaire candidate who is trying to convince everybody he is not Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock or John Koster.

  22. 22.

    Elie

    @Democrat Partisan Asshole:

    Just curious but why were they your friends to begin with?

    I have some really long term friends who are politically way more conservative (to put it more euphemistically). We fight sometimes but like family, we just know this is an aread we don’t agree on — though we do try to convert each other from time to time. I would hate to lose their friendship after a lifetime. Like I said — like family — my own which I usually have had to overlook a few things to get along with them…

  25. 25.

    Brachiator

    My mother and sister, back in Texas, did the early vote thing over the weekend.

    I’ll have to wait until election day (and am taking the day off so I can vote early comfortably), but am soooo looking forward to it. Don’t know if I will go to a party to watch the results, or watch a movie, get drunk, and go to bed early.

    And as a reminder, the spirit of Frank Tanabe reminds everyone that there is no freaking excuse for not voting.

    WWII vet dies at 93 after casting last ballot in Hawaii

    A World War II veteran whose effort to vote from his deathbed inspired thousands has died a week after casting his final ballot.
    __
    Frank Tanabe passed away peacefully Wednesday at the Honolulu home of his daughter, where he’s been in hospice treatment for the past few weeks after being diagnosed with an inoperable cancer tumor in his liver. He was 93….
    __
    Honolulu elections officials say Frank Tanabe’s vote will be counted unless they receive his death certificate before the Nov. 6 election and they’re able to find his ballot from among the tens of thousands of ballots mailed in.

  26. 26.

    Schlemizel

    made a couple hundred calls into Wisconsin for POTUS over the last couple of weeks. But, as I posted before I am bone tired. Most of the calls ended OK. I got yelled at by a small handful because they are getting a lot of calls (can’t say I blame them). Ran into an equal number of morans and they have sucked the life out of me. They didn’t have any numbers for me yesterday and I am glad.

    I wouldn’t mind if the inflamed assholes and brain dead shit piles took the whole country down the toilet except it means they are taking us down with them. FUck them all sideways with a rusty ford pickup truck.

    FSM – blessed be His name – be praised I believe we will hold the WH, add a couple of seats in the Senate and greatly narrow the lead in the House. It will have to be good enough for now

  28. 28.

    Schlemizel

    @Brachiator:

    If he lived here in Minnesota his ballot would have to be thrown out. The SoS says election officials comb the obits every week before election day & toss dead voters absentee ballots

  31. 31.

    catclub

    @Violet: “Seems like it would be really useful.”

    This is what Unix people hate about the rest of the world.
    The need to re-invent something that has already been done in Unix (also in DEC, but I’m trying to stay in this century), or in Pine,
    or in Usenet readers.

    If having useful filters does not help make money for FB, it is not happening in FB. Next thing you’ll be asking for ad blocking.

  34. 34.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    @catclub:
    I’ve been waiting over 10 years for discussion group webcode that has half the speed and features of the old NNTP/USENET readers. (I used to use trn but I’d be happy with rn).

    It will never happen. USENET was optimized for the low-bandwidth networks and slow end-user machines of the day. But now, if it’s on the web, then by definition it’s all about the ad-clicks. Your time just isn’t that precious anymore, and it’s no longer considered a sin to push multi-megs of data over the pipe just because you hit ‘reload’

    (Geek out.)

  36. 36.

    hep kitty

    Romney supporter: Keep the federal gubmint out of my life!

    Sandy: Well hi there! Please enjoy my stellar efforts to provide you with an excellent opportunity to demonstrate how very much you do not need the federal government in your life! Bask in the “liberty” to sit in your living room in several inches of water with no power for an indeterminate period of time! I’m especially proud of those downed trees in your backyard and the hole in your roof!

    You’re welcome.

  38. 38.

    The Red Pen

    One thing I love about Freepers is their anecdotes. They actually believe they sound realistic. Example:

    I talked to an Obama supporter yesterday. He is giddy about an Obama victory. “Now Obama can move to a police state to force sharing and Communism on America. Once we have achieved equality, the police state will be disbanded.”
    ..
    What an a—hole!!!!!!

    And the the Obama supporter rode off on his unicorn!

  39. 39.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    David Frum, Principled Centrist, will vote Romney.

    This delicious tidbit:

    don’t want to see Obamacare repealed. I don’t believe it will be, not even if the Republicans retake the Senate, which I don’t expect either. Precisely since the universal healthcare law will remain in place, I want to see it implemented by people who see cost control as the first priority – who will grant maximum flexibility to the states – and who will recognize how dangerous it is to finance Obamacare with taxes only on the rich

    So, vote Mitt “I will repeal Obamacare on the first day!” Romney, because He Doesn’t Really Mean What He Says.

    Riiiiiiight.

  40. 40.

    Yurpean

    Paging DougJ!

    The Economist has endorsed the President, however in the course of their endorsement they include the two sentences:

    The obstructive Republicans in Congress have certainly been a convenient excuse for many of the president’s failures, but he must also shoulder some blame. Mr Obama spends regrettably little time buttering up people who disagree with him; of the 104 rounds of golf the president has played in office, only one was with a Republican congressman.

    See, both sides are to blame.

  41. 41.

    Jay C

    @Comrade Mary:

    For all his businesslike intentions, Mr Romney has an economic plan that works only if you don’t believe most of what he says. That is not a convincing pitch for a chief executive.

    Wow, that’s cold. Cold and harsh.

    GOOD!!

  42. 42.

    dww44

    Soonergrunt, this is why your posts always always make me feel so upbeat. And from a Red State resident, too from a Red State resident as well.

    Truly, these are good times. Yay us. But it’s not over yet. Let’s run the score up on the bastards.

    Thanks for the winning attitude.

  44. 44.

    JustAnotherBob

    @Schlemizel:

    The SoS says election officials comb the obits every week before election day & toss dead voters absentee ballots

    I suspect that favors Democrats. Oldest folks skew Republican, do they not?

    And then there’s the “Hold my beer and watch this!!” voters….

  45. 45.

    LD50

    Are there any polls about whether Ryan might lose his Congressional seat in Wisconsin? That would be unimaginably sweet.

  46. 46.

    Brachiator

    @Yurpean:

    See, both sides are to blame.

    No, it is that Obama may not be a good political tactician. Many politicians are like little kids. They like to be given little toys for their co-operation. Even Gramps McCain hinted that he might have been more helpful had Obama schmoozed him more with stuff like an invite to the White House.

    People talk about LBJ as being a strong political operator. But he didn’t just strong arm friends and opponents. He used every trick in the book, from flattery to threats.

    @JustAnotherBob:

    RE: The SoS says election officials comb the obits every week before election day & toss dead voters absentee ballots

    I suspect that favors Democrats. Oldest folks skew Republican, do they not?

    No. Not in every state or district. And people don’t only die from old age.

  47. 47.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    @Soonergrunt:

    The one reason I want the GOP to hold the House is to see what happens to Boehner, and just how many times he gets knifed in the back by Cantor.

    That would be some popcorn-worthy entertainment right there.

  49. 49.

    Cris (without an H)

    @The Red Pen: I talked to an Obama supporter yesterday. He is giddy about an Obama victory. “Now Obama can move to a police state to force sharing and Communism on America. Once we have achieved equality, the police state will be disbanded.”

    Ha ha, that’s awesome. I bet that freeper really did have that conversation, but just didn’t realize he was being trolled like a motherfucker.

  50. 50.

    blingee

    We haven’t won ANYTHING yet. We do not know if we are going to keep the senate. Iran could pull some stunt in the next few days to provoke a war and then the neocons (and therefore Rmoney) wins.

    Talk of us winning or it’s in the bag yada yada is stupid. That got us into trouble when everyone was already high fiving themselves before the 1st debate.

    Then again no surprise from “hey here is another piece of crap to install on your computer to save you 1 mouse click” sonnergrunt.

  51. 51.

    NonyNony

    @The Red Pen:

    I talked to an Obama supporter yesterday. He is giddy about an Obama victory. “Now Obama can move to a police state to force sharing and Communism on America. Once we have achieved equality, the police state will be disbanded.”

    That might be my fault. I was totally mocking a freeper colleague the other day and I said something like that. Well not exactly like that – that last sentence wasn’t there. And I think I actually through the words “Kenyan” and “Socialist” in there as well.

    So probably not me. But quite likely another smartass messing with an idiot.

  53. 53.

    The Red Pen

    @NonyNony:

    So probably not me. But quite likely another smartass messing with an idiot.

    You never know. You might be secretly famous on Free Republic.

  54. 54.

    EconWatcher

    @Comrade Mary: ‘

    I’m pleasantly surprised that The Economist endorsed Obama (even tepidly). They tend to be contrarian (Dole in 1996, Bush in 2000, Kerry in 2004).

  55. 55.

    TaMara (BHF)

    @elmo: Until after the election, you can hide your brother’s posts. On his next post, there’s a little down button in the top right hand corner, open it and it will ask you if you want to hide this post, hide all posts by this person, or report as spam.

    After the election you can go in unhide his posts. Otherwise, just hide them and go to his profile page and look at what you want, ignore the rest.

    At least they won’t be in your feed anymore.

  56. 56.

    catclub

    @Jay C: C’mon Scientists do that too. Haven’t you seen that Cartoon that has “… then a miracle occurs.”

    Also, underpants gnomes.
    Also, ???, profit!

  59. 59.

    Brachiator

    @ruemara:

    He did do this. They chose to never attend or spurn invites. Is there a short term memory issue with Americans?

    No, McCain whined that Obama didn’t woo him enough.

    McCain was once seen as a potential ally of Obama. But far from becoming a partner — as the left hoped for and the right feared — McCain has turned into one of Obama’s thorniest adversaries.
    __
    “Let’s get real here,” McCain told The Hill. “There was never any outreach from President Obama or anyone in his administration to me.”
    __
    McCain, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, also said Obama failed to consult with him on national-security issues.
    __
    “He never asked for advice on national-security nominees,” McCain said.
    __
    Some Republicans thought the Arizona Republican would emerge as a bipartisan dealmaker who could help Obama achieve his goal of bringing Democrats and Republicans together to address major policy problems.
    __
    In a 2009 op-ed, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) described McCain as Obama’s “ace in the hole.”
    __
    Santorum’s analysis seemed prescient when Obama honored McCain at a candlelight dinner before taking the oath of office.
    __
    McCain, however, said the gesture was not backed up by actions.

    I think that Olympia Snowe made similar complaints.

    And the point here is not that Obama had to follow McCain’s advice. But the suggestion here is that Obama does not use one of the perks of the presidency to stroke the egos of Congresscritters. Yeah, this stuff is childish. But that’s part of the game of politics.

    And again, LBJ and others were adept at this.

  61. 61.

    proterozoic

    Mitch McConnell won his current term in 2008 by 6 points. He’s up in 2014.

    I don’t know what McConnell’s new #1 priority is going to be if Obama’s reelected… but I know the Dems are going to gun for his hide.

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