A promised link

YouTube - Voting for Bush

Tonight my sister was in town, and we met at our mom and dad's place for a little chat, much of which involved political matters. When I argue politics with my old man, I refer to it as poking a stick into an ant bed since both endeavors are equally productive. My mom and dad are among those aging white folks whose televisions are almost permanently tuned to Fox News Channel, since they seek a fair and balanced presentation of current events.

A few days ago I saw the YouTube video at the link, and it made an impression on me. I mentioned it to sis and told her that if I could track it down, I'd post the link on one of my blogs. She's cool and I'm pretty sure she'd dig it. So check it out, sis, and see what Barry's up against.

Added 10:40 am, Sunday 16 November -

I've been reading the Sunday newspapers online, and as usual, I checked the letters to the editor on the various editorial pages. One thing comes across very clearly - the conservatives, who didn't seem too disturbed by the waste, recklessness, and destruction of eight bush years are now cowering in the corners over the prospects of an Obama administration. Really, it would be hard to find a wimpier, wussier bunch of people than today's Republican voters.

The problem seems to stem from how the election campaign developed. Ace couldn't run on a record of GOP accomplishment, promising a continuation of peace and prosperity. He tried to run on the issue of experience, but that was rendered null and void when Wasilla Wondermom jumped into the race. Eventually, Ace's only remaining avenue to victory was convincing a majority of voters that Obama was the greatest threat to the American way of life anyone could imagine and trying to scare his way into the White House.

Republican voters, always described as "older, lower income, and less educated," are astonishingly gullible as well as wimpy. Once they're bombarded with a storyline every day by talk radio and Fox News, they accept it as truth and reality and never look back.

As for me, I have no idea how Obama's presidency will work out. My gut feeling is that the deck is stacked against him, considering the incredible mess W is leaving in his wake, so I won't be surprised if Barry leaves office with most people believing he was a disappointment. I hope he'll be successful but I'm realistic enough to understand that he'll likely have limited success at best. One thing I'm not is afraid of him. To those who are, I say grow up and get a clue.

Feeling their pain

The enjoyment will soon wear off, but for the moment I'm getting a kick out of reading conservative blogs and experiencing some "been there, done that" moments. Conservatives are going through the same stages of misery as Democrats did after the Florida recount struggle ended in 2000. How could this happen ? Where did things go wrong ? Why us ? What now ? Last night, I watched "The McLaughlin Group" for the final time; I promised myself I would if Obama won the election. The blonde bimbo, Monica Crowley, kept coming back to one point - the 57 million people who voted against Obama, as though Speedo's 46 percent of the popular vote mitigated the results of the election. I felt the same way about Gore's share in 2000, but in that election W actually lost the popular vote.

At any rate, the conservatives are suffering and I understand how they feel. They're about to get a four year dose of what I've been going through for the last eight years.

According to Bob Novak's WP column, Newt Gingrich may compete for the GOP nomination in 2012. So far, that makes three possibles we know about: Trig's mom, Willard, and Newt. It's just like the Repubs to recycle the same old faces, trying to recapture their glory days. The Gingrich revolution of '94 would certainly qualify as a Repub high point.

The best part of Barry's press conference yesterday, of which I saw less than half, was his remark that the new family dog would probably be "a mutt like me." How cool is that ? I'll probably eventually start referring to Barry as "Mutt."

Thursday's scary thought

The theme I'll be pursuing, boiled down to one sentence: It took eight years of President George W. Bush to make President Barack Obama possible.

I got an email from my bro in Houston tossing out something to consider: Ted Stevens wins the Alaska Senate seat, but as a convicted felon is cast out by the Senate, leaving a vacancy to be filled by appointment. As governor, Trig's mom appoints herself to fill the seat. In 2012, with experience at both the gubernatorial and senatorial levels, she emerges as a formidable candidate for the GOP nomination. A big gulp.

On the blogs I follow routinely, the topic of Trig's mom is already being hotly debated in terms of her role in Ace's epic fail and her future as leader of the party.

As I replied to my bro, I heard something on one of the political talk shows that is worth considering. Since the Nixon years, candidates for vice president on losing tickets have never come back to win the presidency. They usually can't even capture their party's nomination - the two who did (Bob Dole-loser 1976 and Walter Mondale-loser 1980) were soundly defeated in 1984 and 1996. Dan Quayle, Joe Lieberman, and John Edwards couldn't make it out of the primaries. Ferraro, Bentsen and Kemp never ran again.

So history would appear to be working against the possibility of President Sweet Pea. But history was also working against President Barack Hussein Obama, and look where we are today. For that reason alone, Trig's mom will hold my attention for the next four years. I still believe that any appeal Pea had beyond the looniest of the conservative evangelunicals was based on raw T&A appeal. How much of her horny bubba support she can sustain with four more hard years on her remains to be seen.

ADDED 12:44 pm:

According to an article in USA Today, Obama won in North Carolina. I noticed that Bob Barr got 25,421 votes that would've handed the state to Speedbump if he'd received them. What if the election had come down to North Carolina and Obama won the EC because Bob Barr stole enough votes from McCain to cost him the state ? That's the kind of hypothetical I've lived with since November 2000. The petty, vindictive side of me would love to see Limbaugh and Hannity forced to swallow that turd for four years.

Just wait a darned minute...

It started last night during the television postgame analysis, and it's continuing at the RW blogs today. The conservative message being pushed is that Speedo did much better than he had any right to expect, considering W's job approval rating and the economic meltdown.

Let's take a deep breath here: Speedo was running against a black dude whose middle name is Hussein, for crying out loud. The miracle is not that Speedo got his share of the vote, it's that Obama got his. The national BSR * going into the election was 49.28 percent, meaning that Speedo only needed to pick up about two percent to win at least the popular vote, and probably the whole thing.

* Basic Stupidity Rate