[Manmademan]

Just a sign of how whipped the media is not only to manufacture a compelling story, but go above and beyond logic in order to appear "balanced." Saying Obama is ahead does not make you in the tank for Obama - even Rove admits Obama is leading on a pure EV scale right now

I was thinking about this- and I'm kind of split on the "why" of why this is happening.

i figure it's either:

1.) the MSM is reluctant to appear "in the tank" for obama and called out as biased by the right wing noise machine

OR

2.) portraying the race as "neck and neck" for as long as possible is frankly just better for ratings, and presidential races are the news organization's bread and butter. A lopsided contest means less viewers tuning in to see talking heads and poll results.

it's probably some combination of 1 and 2, but the cynic in me is leaning more towards 2.

Delegates could vote for who they want in subsequent votes? What would force such secondary votes?

a secondary vote would happen if mitt fails to gain enough "bound" delegates to win the nomination outright. At this point it's a foregone conclusion. He wins every single state going forward in a walk. The Ron Paul nonsense is just that. Nonsense.

[makingmusic476]

Is it agreed that if Romney can't take Ohio, be is megafucked?

Every map I make on 270toWin has Bams taking like 290 or more EVs.

[GhaleonEB]

my thoughts exactly. The media is just so worthless. how did this happen?

They get more viewers/hits when the race is close than when the outcome is expected, so they will do their best to portray a close race until the end. I mean, I figure you know that, but it's the answer to the question.

Remember how Chuck Todd's Surface thingy in the 2008 election never managed to put Obama over 270, ever? They had to make exceptions to their own polling methodology to keep enough states in the tossup column to keep him under the mark. They're going to do it again.

[cartoon_soldier]

Is it agreed that if Romney can't take Ohio, be is megafucked? Every map I make on 270toWin has Bams taking like 290 or more EVs.

Yes, Romney has to absolutely must win Ohio

[Manmademan]

Is it agreed that if Romney can't take Ohio, be is megafucked? Every map I make on 270toWin has Bams taking like 290 or more EVs.

Romney needs to take nearly EVERY swing state in play to win the election. All of them. Indiana (which is definitely happening), North Carolina, Arizona, Virginia, Ohio, Florida, and either Iowa or New Hampshire.

Romney has literally *a* Map that allows him to win the nomination. Lose any of these and he's out. On the other hand, Obama has about 5 or 6 different scenarios that allow him to plausibly lose and win a combination of states and win the election.

[Hop]

Romney has literally *a* Map that allows him to win the nomination. Lose any of these and he's out. On the other hand, Obama has about 5 or 6 different scenarios that allow him to plausibly lose and win a combination of states and win the election.

And for that matter, a number of scenarios that allow him to implausibly lose and win and still win the election.

[PhoenixPause]

They get more viewers/hits when the race is close than when the outcome is expected, so they will do their best to portray a close race until the end. I mean, I figure you know that, but it's the answer to the question. Remember how Chuck Todd's Surface thingy in the 2008 election never managed to put Obama over 270, ever? They had to make exceptions to their own polling methodology to keep enough states in the tossup column to keep him under the mark. They're going to do it again.

Honestly, they cover politics like some type of infamous criminal trial. Those work on television because there are an infinite number of things the media can trumpet - whether they're facts or not - to stimulate attention while waiting for a jury to make a decision. Basically it's a period where no one can officially be "wrong" so all hell breaks loose, every tiny thing is obsessed over, and a new side story can be created on the fly. I watched maybe three minutes of Casey Anthony talk and was surprised at how much it looked like a political circus

[Measley]

Ohio (I see Obama having more issues with white voters in Ohio too)

Romney's on record supporting Senate Bill 5 and opposing the auto bailouts, the latter of which was a big reason Ohio's economy turned around. We also have a rapidly growing minority population in Columbus and Cleveland.

I would be SHOCKED if he took Ohio in November.

[eBay Huckster]

Romney's on record supporting Senate Bill 5 and opposing the auto bailouts, the latter of which was a big reason Ohio's economy turned around. We also have a rapidly growing minority population in Columbus and Cleveland. I would be SHOCKED if he took Ohio in November.

Yeah, there was a bit of talk in this thread about Obama's rally at OSU yesterday not meeting attendance expectations, but looking through the audience there seemed to be a lot more minority presence there than I've seen in one place in Columbus in a long time... and Cleveland already has rather significant black/Asian populations.

He ain't losin' this state this time even if Cincinnati swings back.

[Diablos]

Romney's on record supporting Senate Bill 5 and opposing the auto bailouts, the latter of which was a big reason Ohio's economy turned around. We also have a rapidly growing minority population in Columbus and Cleveland. I would be SHOCKED if he took Ohio in November.

None of this matters if the economy plummets.

Wall Street will be doing everything they can to fuck with Obama's chances; they know he's already been way to nice of a guy to them.

I still think things are looking fairly good for Barry, but, let's not get overconfident.

Don't forget about the tax break and budget cut battles that will be going down towards the end of the year. It's going to be a complete shitstorm.

[RustyNails]

Romney needs to take nearly EVERY swing state in play to win the election. All of them. Indiana (which is definitely happening), North Carolina, Arizona, Virginia, Ohio, Florida, and either Iowa or New Hampshire. Romney has literally *a* Map that allows him to win the nomination. Lose any of these and he's out. On the other hand, Obama has about 5 or 6 different scenarios that allow him to plausibly lose and win a combination of states and win the election.

I hope its like this every election moving forward

[Dr. Pangloss]

I wonder if the Republicans would consider eliminating the electoral college and going with a popular vote system if they begin to lose consistently. If they can never win Penn, then those 40% of the population that do vote for them don't matter in the results column. I think it would be to their benefit. Just look at 2008:



It would also be funny to see Tea Party Congressmen undoing something the Framers actually put into the Constitution itself.

[Aaron Strife]

Democrats definitely have a stronger baseline for the electoral college. The Gore-Kerry-Obama states haven't really changed and get them well over 200 votes.

I believe some analyst said Romney could win the popular vote by 2%, and there would still a plausible scenario Obama wins the EC. Swing states like NM and CO are sarting to lock firmly into the Democratic category, and formerly red states like Virginia and North Carolina are becoming the new swing states.

To put it in perspective: The four biggest states are CA, NY, TX, FL. CA and NY are solid blue, Texas is safe R for now (could change in 2016/2020), and all of Romney's paths to victory run through Florida, a toss-up state. Obama doesn't even need Florida, but he'll probably win it if he wins the election at all.

[empty vessel]

WTF?!?!? Reagan, Bush, BushW1, and BushW2 RAN UP MOST OF THE DEBT!

Who cares about the debt? It's just a national bank. What they did was spend money, which was good for the economy, even if where they spent the money was on rich people.

The deficit came down during Clinton's term.

And caused a recession...

Obama's deficits have been large but they are at least holding steady to the size of deficit that Bush had when he left office.

Unfortunately. Obama's deficits should be much larger. You only give into conservative ideology by talking about the debt and deficit as if they are bad things. They aren't. The debt is a pure choice. We don't have to issue bonds to spend money. We do it to give the financial industry a risk-free investment. And the deficit is how the government injects more financial assets into the economy, which is necessary for the economy to grow. When a conservative points to the Obama administration deficits, you should say, "I know, if only that fucker had spent more we'd all be better off!" Because it's true. Talking about deficits as though they were a bad thing only reinforces bullshit conservative propaganda.

[jp_zer0]

I wrote a paper in my philosophy class on how much I hate leftism and he is now butthurt because it was so sound. It's kind of awkward now, what should I do?

[GaimeGuy]

I wrote a paper in my philosophy class on how much I hate leftism and he is now butthurt because it was so sound. It's kind of awkward now, what should I do?

You accidentally the whole paper?


Who the hell is he?

What the hell are you talking about? Who are you talking to?

[Manmademan]

I wrote a paper in my philosophy class on how much I hate leftism and he is now butthurt because it was so sound. It's kind of awkward now, what should I do?

try not to let the door hit you in the ass on the way out of the thread?

[Chumly]

I wrote a paper in my philosophy class on how much I hate leftism and he is now butthurt because it was so sound. It's kind of awkward now, what should I do?

wat

[thatbox]

I wrote a paper in my philosophy class on how much I hate leftism and he is now butthurt because it was so sound. It's kind of awkward now, what should I do?

You should post it here!

[Frank the Great]

I wrote a paper in my philosophy class on how much I hate leftism and he is now butthurt because it was so sound. It's kind of awkward now, what should I do?

wtf is "leftism." and who is "he."

[NullPointer]

wtf is "leftism." and who is "he."

I don't think we'll find the answer to that question from this paper. And I'm guessing the "he" is the philosophy teacher?

[GaimeGuy]

This is jp_zer0's story.

[Tim-E]

This is what I think the electoral map looks like for now. The 3 new dem states in the west are safe for Obama, I think. Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida are the only swing states. Florida is one where I don't feel too confident about for Obama, but the others are very much doable. It's still very possible for Romney to win, but he's got a really tough electoral path.

[speculawyer]

Who cares about the debt? It's just a national bank. What they did was spend money, which was good for the economy, even if where they spent the money was on rich people. And caused a recession...

You miss the point. They lie in their ads, that is my point.

And no, Clinton bringing the deficit down did not cause a recession. That recession was merely a pull-back from dot-com mania where we had over-investment in things that made no sense. Like pets.com Fed Exing dog food to people's houses. You can't build castles in the clouds and expect it to work.

Unfortunately. Obama's deficits should be much larger. You only give into conservative ideology by talking about the debt and deficit as if they are bad things. They aren't. The debt is a pure choice. We don't have to issue bonds to spend money. We do it to give the financial industry a risk-free investment. And the deficit is how the government injects more financial assets into the economy, which is necessary for the economy to grow. When a conservative points to the Obama administration deficits, you should say, "I know, if only that fucker had spent more we'd all be better off!" Because it's true. Talking about deficits as though they were a bad thing only reinforces bullshit conservative propaganda.

No. Money has to be spent on useful things. Just paying people to dig ditches and fill them back in can help a tiny bit but only to the degree that the wages you pay those people get spent on productive things. If everyone just digs ditches & fills them in you get nation of starving ditch-diggers.

I'm just not going to buy into the Magic Money Theory.

And besides . . . in a world of globalization, so much government stimulus leaks and stimulates the economies of Brazil, China, Japan, Canada, and other places where we get supplies, raw materials, components, etc.

[Chichikov]

I wrote a paper in my philosophy class on how much I hate leftism and he is now butthurt because it was so sound. It's kind of awkward now, what should I do?

This reflects badly on you and your musical taste, Leftism was fucking awesome.

p.s.
You're philosophy class sounds unorthodox.

[RDreamer]

No. Money has to be spent on useful things. Just paying people to dig ditches and fill them back in can help a tiny bit but only to the degree that the wages you pay those people get spent on productive things. If everyone just digs ditches & fills them in you get nation of starving ditch-diggers.

If you can't think of enough useful things for less than 10% of the population that's unemployed to do, well then you're just not very creative at all. And you're possibly blind.

I'm just not going to buy into the Magic Money Theory.

That's ok. You don't have to buy into it for it to still be true :p

[Oblivion]

Am I correct in asking that the reason that Republicans can say that medicare and social security are going "bankrupt" because they have a trust fund, where money is supposed to be collected to eventually be paid out, but other parts of the don't have these things (like the Pentagon, who can simply just ask the government to spend more money on them)?

[TacticalFox88]

This is jp_zer0's story.

That is the most epic image/story ever. BRAVO!

[Aaron Strife]

This is jp_zer0's story.

My favorite thing about this is that there are totally guys like this at my community college. The guys who come into a philosophy class because it fulfills Goal Area 6, pick a fight with the professor over some conservative bullshit (and get smacked down), then later gripe about their liberal atheist agenda or whatever. And they always aspire to join the army, or have already (the latter is much rarer).

They also share images like that on facebook and tag them with "97% of you aren't brave enough to repost this!" Yup, being openly Christian is now a sign of valor in the United States, where your beliefs are being suppressed EVERY DAY by the political leaders who are overwhelmingly Christian (the exceptions being the small percentage of Catholics and Jews).

Look, I'm not saying you can't take pride in your religious beliefs, but there's a sense of irony that always gets lost here.

[Cyan]

I wrote a paper in my philosophy class on how much I hate leftism and he is now butthurt because it was so sound. It's kind of awkward now, what should I do?

Sorry, are you saying you turned in a polisci paper in your philosophy class, and the prof didn't like it?

What a jerk.

[jaxword]

This is jp_zer0's story.

The only plausible part of this is God himself turning up to fix the tax rate, because that's the only way that's going to happen.

[fallagin]

This is jp_zer0's story.

This is amazing. When 4chan decides to be actually funny they produce gold encrusted gems.

[SouthernDragon]

My favorite thing about this is that there are totally guys like this at my community college. The guys who come into a philosophy class because it fulfills Goal Area 6, pick a fight with the professor over some conservative bullshit (and get smacked down), then later gripe about their liberal atheist agenda or whatever. And they always aspire to join the army, or have already (the latter is much rarer). They also share images like that on facebook and tag them with "97% of you aren't brave enough to repost this!" Yup, being openly Christian is now a sign of valor in the United States, where your beliefs are being suppressed EVERY DAY by the political leaders who are overwhelmingly Christian (the exceptions being the small percentage of Catholics and Jews). Look, I'm not saying you can't take pride in your religious beliefs, but there's a sense of irony that always gets lost here.

It's false courage. Like the woman standing up against gun owner discrimination when it doesn't exist.

[Averon]

This is jp_zer0's story.

Oh man. That "story" puts a smile on my face every time I read it.

[jp_zer0]

This reflects badly on you and your musical taste, Leftism was fucking awesome. p.s. You're philosophy class sounds unorthodox.

that is a pretty cool song.

Its a trash heap of liberal center of the world community college in Portland Oregon, and I don't like it one bit. I can dig some "left" economic policy, and I somewhat consider myself post-Keynesian, but I don't like left morality at all... for reasons I wont say on this site because I would probably be banned.

[GhaleonEB]

This is what I think the electoral map looks like for now. The 3 new dem states in the west are safe for Obama, I think. Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida are the only swing states. Florida is one where I don't feel too confident about for Obama, but the others are very much doable. It's still very possible for Romney to win, but he's got a really tough electoral path.

Agree, that's a fair map. Obama leads by good margins in VA, but I think it will tighten up as things go on. I still think he takes it, and with it, the election. Romney has no path of Obama does.

[Cyan]

...I don't like left morality at all... for reasons I wont say on this site because I would probably be banned.

I love it when people vaguely hint at their appalling victimization like this. It's kind of fun to try to guess what their oh-so-dangerous opinions might be. Pro-austerity? Anti-abortion? Homophobia?

In case it's not clear, I'm not actually asking you. You're safe for now. ;)

[Plumbob]

He's probably against gay abortionist welfare queens taking taxpayer money at gunpoint.

[speculawyer]

that is a pretty cool song. Its a trash heap of liberal center of the world community college in Portland Oregon, and I don't like it one bit. I can dig some "left" economic policy, and I somewhat consider myself post-Keynesian, but I don't like left morality at all... for reasons I wont say on this site because I would probably be banned.

I don't think there is such a thing as left or right morality. Both sides agree the theft, murder, rape, etc. are immoral. The only thing that I can see as a quasi-"moral" issue is homosexuality. But I don't view it as a moral issue, it is a religious issue that the left says should not be discriminated by government.

I guess how the poor are treated can be viewed somewhat as a moral issue.

Edit: Ah abortion. I guess that is another one where I view it as a religious issue not a moral one.

[DeathbyVolcano]

that is a pretty cool song. Its a trash heap of liberal center of the world community college in Portland Oregon, and I don't like it one bit. I can dig some "left" economic policy, and I somewhat consider myself post-Keynesian, but I don't like left morality at all... for reasons I wont say on this site because I would probably be banned.

And yet, you have a MLP avatar. Move along, folks.

[speculawyer]

This is what I think the electoral map looks like for now. The 3 new dem states in the west are safe for Obama, I think. Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida are the only swing states. Florida is one where I don't feel too confident about for Obama, but the others are very much doable. It's still very possible for Romney to win, but he's got a really tough electoral path.

Nevada? Isn't that a heavily Mormon state and also has a high-unemployment rate? That may not be so easy for Obama. But, the critical block for Obama may be the Latinos that could help him win there.

[Hobbestetrician]

Nevada? Isn't that a heavily Mormon state and also has a high-unemployment rate? That may not be so easy for Obama. But, the critical block for Obama may be the Latinos that could help him win there.

RCP has Nevada as lean-Obama and even Rasmussen's last poll had Obama up 8 points. That will most certainly decrease but right now it is looking good.

[Averon]

That EV map puts into prospective how fucked Romney (and the GOP a a whole really) is in get 270. VA has a very good chance of going blue again, and Obama is in good shape in OH as well. Even NC and FL are reasonable pickups. The fact is, Obama needs only one of those states yet several of them have a good chance of going blue. The southwest treading blue really screwed the GOP electorally. VA and NC turning blue and purple, respectively, only makes matters worse for them.

[TacticalFox88]

That EV map puts into prospective how fucked Romney (and the GOP a a whole really) is in get 270. VA has a very good chance of going blue again, and Obama is in good shape in OH as well. Even NC and FL are reasonable pickups. The fact is, Obama needs only one of those states yet several of them have a good chance of going blue. The southwest treading blue really screwed the GOP electorally. VA and NC turning blue and purple, respectively, only makes matters worse for them.

And considering that they're going to go further right when Obama wins....lol. The party has fucked itself so hard it's ridiculous.

[stressboy]

And yet, you have a MLP avatar. Move along, folks.

His post history also shows that he is a birther.

[Oblivion]

So I just read about that tea bagger neo-nazi who killed his wife and 15 month old daughter, then killed himself. As expected, the righties are claiming that this dude was a rabid Marx-o-phile:

http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/36980.html#more-36980

[Chumly]

that is a pretty cool song. Its a trash heap of liberal center of the world community college in Portland Oregon, and I don't like it one bit. I can dig some "left" economic policy, and I somewhat consider myself post-Keynesian, but I don't like left morality at all... for reasons I wont say on this site because I would probably be banned.

Ah so your racist and bigoted. Makes sense why you can't post those views.

[RustyNails]

We don't have to issue bonds to spend money.

Sorry for being noob, but why not?

[jaxword]

that is a pretty cool song. Its a trash heap of liberal center of the world community college in Portland Oregon, and I don't like it one bit. I can dig some "left" economic policy, and I somewhat consider myself post-Keynesian, but I don't like left morality at all... for reasons I wont say on this site because I would probably be banned.

That's a total lie.

You wouldn't be banned for having an opinion.

You'd be banned if you're completely obnoxious about it and refuse to discuss it rationally or civilly.

So unless your opinion is some racist/bigoted garbage, you're just playing a cheap persecution card. Which already tells a lot about your opinions.

[Wolfgunblood Garopa]

His post history also shows that he is a birther.

A birther brony, great.