Politics – If the Presidential election were held today, the Democratic candidate would be poised to win 284 Electoral Votes. That's 14 more than the minimum needed to capture the White House. The Republican candidate could expect to win 216 Electoral Votes while 38 more would be in the Toss-up category.
I saw a SUSA poll earlier this morning that showed Obama over McCain by 10 percentage points in Texas. Could Texas really go Democratic this fall? Poll also showed Obama doing good in Virginia against McCain - another red state.
Might have something to do with Obama technically being more conservative than McCain.
He's hard to call Obama a liberal when he doesn't have a position on anything.
He clearly wants the government to run healthcare...into the ground...and he wants to raise taxes. We know that much. Well, that and he wants to make Islam the state religion.
dkl,
Just a small question: Do you believe that healthcare to be a commodity that is traded on the stock market or do you believe that it should, at the very least, be available at a cost that every American can easily afford?
As far as there being a state religion, he couldn't do much worse than most of the candidates that have been pandering to the Evangelicals as has been so evident these last 28 years.
If Obama gets the nomination, he will be exposed for the inexperienced wealth-redistributing Marxist he is.
He is making promises of "hope" and "change" that he KNOWS he can't deliver.
Want "free" healthcare? Don't expect our best and brightest to go into the industry when they find out they won't get much of a return on their expensive educations!
Expect to wait in line to see a doctor that you are ASSIGNED to see WHEN the doctor will see you.
locky,
Would you care to answer the question I posed to dkl?
The problem with healthcare today is about the money publicly held corporations that run HMOs, hospital, insurance companies, and pharmaceuticals generate for themselves. Where there used to be not for profit health organizations years ago, has been replaced by corporations that sell shares of their companies. The question that needs to be asked of these corporations is, whom do they serve, their stockholders or the people they serve?
Please don't give me the usual diatribe about the marketplace the doctors work in. I have family members and friends who are doctors or directly involved in healthcare. There's nothing you can tell me about how doctors and hospitals work that I don't already know. And by the way, they all agree that it's the corporations that are ruining healthcare in this country. You're a no-nothing when it comes to this issue as you succinctly expressed in your opinion.
Profits are how new drugs are developed and new medical equipment comes to the market. Sorry to bust your anti-capitalist bubble but the market makes innovation possible. There is a great deal I could tell you about the management of government funds that you clearly don't already know. All Obama will get is an even bigger and even more mismanaged version of Medicaid.
dkl,
I'm not against making a profit. Pharmaceuticals are currently advertising to the public drugs that they can only obtain with a doctor's prescription. The cost of those ad campaigns is in the billions of dollars. Also, the same manufacturer sell these drugs in other countries for less cost than to the American consumer. Besides the fact that many pharmaceuticals make these drugs overseas.
So, are you telling me that the cost to the American consumer is fair given the financial factors I've outlined - adds to the public of a product they can't buy without permission and the low cost of manufacturing these drugs in cheaper labor countries? That type of market was once called gouging.
I believe that the market provides goods and services more efficiently than government. Proper oversight and regulation is all that is required. Since I've been employed in government program evaluation for nearly 11 years, I have audited enough similar government programs to back up that view. With $20 trillion missing from the Social Security Fund it is irresponsible to give the federal government an even larger pool of money to mismanage due to political considerations.
dkl,
That may well be true and it's not a phenomenon of government, it happens in most private industries with varying degrees of non-political consideration.
If you want to pick on government waste, don't stop with Social Security. The Pentagon has wasted more money than SS ever has, as it's the biggest sucker of the governmental tit. Do you suggest that Americans shouldn't support our defense programs just because of DoD's wasteful practices?
The answer to government waste is not to eliminate the programs it funds; it needs to put in better managerial controls, better accounting, and stop duplicity.
BTW, where's the answer to my questions?
As a 'Poll Junkie', another poll I watch is a unscientific poll - AOL STRAW POLL - its updated weekly and was updated again this morning. Prior to last week it pretty much showed Clinton up by 5 to 8 percentage points. At the end of Last weeks poll Obama led 50 to 49%. This week he is up by 8 percentage points but it is extremely early in the polling. The results is also by States which I also like.
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I like that poll also, but I have come to realize it cannot be too accurate other than to measure those people who can afford internet and are computer savvy. Poor people and especially poor black people who are not internet savvy and cannot vote, will come out in droves to vote this election. Too much is on the line for all of us. If the AOL poll shows Obama winning Texas right now amongst this demographic of voters, it will be a landslide in favor of O'bama during the primary. Many of those Hillary states shown in the straw poll are also susceptible to change for the same reason. Watch for upsets in Ohio and possibly Pennsylvania.
It is over. Swear Obama in as the 44th President so he can begin doing what he can, and only he can do. We need all those changes now, right now. What are they? I forget. Oh yes, he is carefully not saying what they are. I heard him say last night he is going to get rid of those Lobbyists. Does that mean his too? He is lying to his supporters, and they don't have sense enough to know it.
Of course the democrats are going to win. Why else are the only viable candidates a woman and an African American. They know fool well they are going to win against the republicans who have so efficiently screwed things up so bad that they may well be unable to recover from their mismanagement. This is the best possible scenario for getting either a woman or minority into the white house. The silent majority had better pay attention. The "mommy" state is on our doorstep. Socialism anyone?
News flash!
"Mommy" has been reading your mail and searching your room - and has spent all your allowance to boot!
"Mommy" works in the cathouse, throwing her legs in the air for every banker and corrupt businessman in the world.
Time to send "Mommy" to rehab, and remember that the people, WE the People, are sovereign here, and that it is our job to protect our country, and not our country's job to protect us.
Actually...you are backwards.
The purpose of government is to protect the people...read political theory sometime. Or ya know, the Constitution.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to...insure domestic Tranquility, PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON DEFENSE... and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
"provide for" does NOT mean 'provide'!
"Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty."
- George Washington
On the contrary, it is the responsibility of THE PEOPLE, to defend their country, and their own liberty!
The government should set the standards - the 'regulation' - and THE PEOPLE should provide the means. Allow the government to control the entire force, and tax for it's provision and upkeep and... well, look around you, and see what happens!
An O'bama/Clinton team would annihilate any Republican efforts to win the white house back. Very few states would be won by the Republicans. Their sure states would not be sure at all.
Clinton would be a heavy drag on candidate Obama. He needs to separate himself from the "politics of the past," and she is the leading symbol of their failure.
1-2Oscar
Obama needs to break with the past himself, last night except for the accent. he sounded like LBJ. Of course, to a lot of Americans, LBJ, might be something new. lol
There was something I had never heard from a Presidential candidate before, "I will take from the earners and redistribute to the poor". Not an exact quote but close.
He gets scarier and scarier.
When "executive" salaries are hundreds of times those of the production workers, and Wall Street shell game operators "earn" multi-million dollar bonuses while the companies they manage go bankrupt, perhaps it is time for a little "redistribution."
The plain fact is that we no longer reward people for excellent performance--earnings depend more on "who you know" and what "position" you hold than on any rational measure of merit.
Because of their methodology, this is WAY off. For example, Arkansas is listed as "Likely Republican", but Hillary leads McCain there. In Pennsylvania, McCain is within margin of error with Obama, yet it is listed as "Likely Democrat." In most polls, McCain has been ahead of both Hillary and Obama in Ohio, yet that is listed as "Leans Democrat."
Of course, none of this takes into account that McCain and Hillary are known quantities and Obama is a blank slate on which people can paint their desires. As soon as he is foced to take more concrete positions, some shrinkage must occur.
Ah, there's nothing like prognosticating to set the bookies scrambling!
Does anyone know if there's a line in Las Vegas? I know that London has one. If internet gambling were legal here it would make these polls more relevant. As it is it's all a calculated guess, but there are too many factors that influences the actual day to vote, weather being one of them.
I wonder what the line is on Hillary and Bill staying together if she doesn't win the nomination.
The Electoral College makes the game more interesting for the rest of us. There will be some surprises to come.
"The Electoral College makes the game more interesting for the rest of us."
I agree. The idea that a 5% margin in a national poll means much doesn't take into account the usual massive pluralities that Democrats have in NY and CA. If you win NY by 1.5M and CA by 2M, but lose TX, FL, OH, PA by a total of 1M, that 2.5M plurality still has you in an EC deficit.
There was a rumor that repubs were sponsoring a bill to change the voting age to 26. I don't know ...
simon,
It wouldn't surprise many Americans that they'd like to. If this election goes against them and the demographics show that 18-25 year olds overwhelmingly voted Democrat, say 85% plus, I'm sure that this idea would get some legs. It took FDR's 4 victories for the GOP to form a Constitutional amendment drive to limit presidential office holders to 2 terms, which was much to their chagrin in 88.
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I hope the GOP doesn't rig this election again ----- we can't afford it!!!
We'll leave that to the "Super Delegates"!
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You blame the GOP for rigging elections when you have Hillary trying to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan and trying to steal committed delegates from Obama? What are you Obama supporters going to do when Hillary steals this nomination? Fell in line and shout "YOU GO GIRL!!"
"To late engineer, I've spent all this last year tinkering around with the machines. LOL!"
The Diebold machines? Have ya been tinkering to "fix" the election or "access" 200 million bank accounts world wide?
When has Rasussen ever been wrong?
"I hope the GOP doesn't rig this election again ----- we can't afford it!!!"
I hope this time the Dems won't be so confused by paper punched card ballots where they are still used
I hope this time the Dems won't embarrass themselves by claiming they don't understand the "Electoral College"
I hope this time the Dems will educate them selves so they know the difference tween a Republic and a Democracy
I hope this time the Dems will finally figure out which one is the USA, a Democracy or a Republic.
I hope (feel free to add on)