Is There A BETTER Day to Start the New Politics Thread?

by **pacino** » Sat May 01, 2010 19:34:04

oh god, Sestak is terrible at this. Also, I didn't realize he was for the troop 'surge' in Afghanistan. Well, that makes my vote easy now. Specter time. Make that my 15th switch between the two. edit: wow, this guy must be on opium or something. Is he reading off cue cards? Weird that liberals chose this guy to attack Specter. He's great until he speaks or you find out he actually wanted to escalate the war.

dajafi - Wouldn't you say that Specter broke with his party a lot, too? Probably more than McCain.

by **pacino** » Sat May 01, 2010 19:42:52

Alright, I'm done with that. Specter's closing remark there was so damn sensible and to the point it's scary. Specter switching parties didn't potentially hurt Democrats, it brought in a guy who basically just started voting up every damn bill that came across his desk. Sestak running took a seat in the House from locked up to up in the air. Smart, real smart. And this guy has NO shot against Pat Toomey, from what I can tell. Voters will not pick this guy over a more polished guy like Toomey, despite their records.

by **dajafi** » Sat May 01, 2010 19:52:50

pacino wrote:oh god, Sestak is terrible at this. Also, I didn't realize he was for the troop 'surge' in Afghanistan. Well, that makes my vote easy now. Specter time. Make that my 15th switch between the two. edit: wow, this guy must be on opium or something. Is he reading off cue cards? Weird that liberals chose this guy to attack Specter. He's great until he speaks or you find out he actually wanted to escalate the war.

dajafi - Wouldn't you say that Specter broke with his party a lot, too? Probably more than McCain.

Definitely you could argue that. But--and this is all subjective--I never felt the same barely muted glee at sticking it to "his" party from Specter that I did from McCain or Lieberman.

by **jerseyhoya** » Sat May 01, 2010 20:24:20

pacino wrote:Then what is he? It seems like the stuff he's not 'conservative' about are BS items that have been made issues over time and somehow become political.

Question for you JH. Are you a conservative?

I don't think I'm a conservative, but I am to the right of Crist.

by **allentown** » Sat May 01, 2010 20:58:27

pacino wrote:Oh, and I think people underestimate the positives of running moderates for president or governor or whatever. They are usually more appealing to the general electorate and they still nominate party-line people to become judges, to fill out their cabinet,etc Look how well it went in Virginia...he appeared to run as though he were a moderate and then BOOM, he lays the smack down on all the liburrls once he gets in office.

hmm, i have to go to another room to watch it. oh well, can't make one-liners in this thread while i watch

one last thing: I think of Bob Casey. Democrats went with him and liberals weren't too happy with it. He handily won and now basically has a seat locked for however long he wants. The man has voted as a liberal on everything except choice. And really, that issue is settled, so what does it matter? The only thing at this point that matters is stopping restriction of it. Every other issue, Casey seems to line up with the Democratic Party line. And liberals didn't want him in there because they thought he was too moderate. How shortsighted, in my view (and thus why I voted for him in the primary and then for senate).

I think you nailed it with regard to moderates for Governor or President. These are executive offices where the official has to be able to perform, or the voters will suffer. Being able to perform takes ability, pragmatism, and a willingness to work with the other side. For Congress and Senate, voters are more willing to vote fringy guys based on a stand on one or two of their pet issues. They just want their side of the issue to prevail and don't see the particular Congressman or Senator as very vital to governance. In this regard, it was VERY hard to convince liberal Dems to support Casey. The initial reaction of many was to take their ball and go home in the general election, refraining from voting to teach the party not to nominate a guy like that again.

by **Werthless** » Sat May 01, 2010 21:36:10

jerseyhoya wrote:A billionaire real estate mogul who made a half billion dollars is challenging Meek for the Dem Sen nod in FL. This is officially the most fascinating non presidential race in American politics since...the California recall? Even longer than that?

Mike Tyson was the best man at his wedding. Really?

by **jerseyhoya** » Sat May 01, 2010 22:40:30

If what I'm seeing on teh twitter is true, Obama killed it at the Correspondent's dinner. Looking forward to seeing it on Youtube.

by **jerseyhoya** » Sun May 02, 2010 15:23:56

Polling out today shows the GOP picking up that Hawaii House district in the special in two weeks. Crazy freaking electoral system and stupid, stubborn Democrats giving us a chance to win a seat with 35-40% of the vote.

by **traderdave** » Sun May 02, 2010 15:25:35

pacino wrote:oh god, Sestak is terrible at this. Also, I didn't realize he was for the troop 'surge' in Afghanistan. Well, that makes my vote easy now. Specter time. Make that my 15th switch between the two. edit: wow, this guy must be on opium or something. Is he reading off cue cards? Weird that liberals chose this guy to attack Specter. He's great until he speaks or you find out he actually wanted to escalate the war.

dajafi - Wouldn't you say that Specter broke with his party a lot, too? Probably more than McCain.

Your comment is interesting, Pacino, because most people (not including you and probably a number of people here) have no idea just how difficult it is to truly debate with somebody. A real debate between two worthy foes is something to behold. And debates can really turn the tide. I remember a few years back a friend of mine was running in a local election as an incumbent (I know, hardly comparable to national politics but still...) and participated in a debate with four other candidates. She performed pretty badly and had her butt handed to her in the election.

by **jerseyhoya** » Sun May 02, 2010 17:00:32

It would be nice to be able to tell those Greek protesters to go fuck themselves and let their country fail. Damn you interconnectedness.

by **TenuredVulture** » Sun May 02, 2010 19:21:48

Like the Great Billy Joel once sang in a completely unrelated context--we will all go down together.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZHnfH_3Vxw[/youtube]

by **swishnicholson** » Sun May 02, 2010 19:30:08

jerseyhoya wrote:If what I'm seeing on teh twitter is true, Obama killed it at the Correspondent's dinner. Looking forward to seeing it on Youtube.

Only heard the one line he stole from Utley.

by **swishnicholson** » Sun May 02, 2010 19:41:36

swishnicholson wrote:
jerseyhoya wrote:If what I'm seeing on teh twitter is true, Obama killed it at the Correspondent's dinner. Looking forward to seeing it on Youtube.

Only heard the one line he stole from Utley.

This is edited, but there are definitely some good lines:

http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1005/obama_tops_leno.html

by **drsmooth** » Mon May 03, 2010 09:26:36

swishnicholson wrote:
jerseyhoya wrote:If what I'm seeing on teh twitter is true, Obama killed it at the Correspondent's dinner. Looking forward to seeing it on Youtube.

Only heard the one line he stole from Utley.

but Utley only has one famous line.

wait, you don't mean - ?!

:shock:

by **Werthless** » Mon May 03, 2010 10:52:14

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYsGwLWqWI4[/youtube]

by **Bucky** » Mon May 03, 2010 12:09:49

ouch I'M embarrased for Leno. he was god awful. Maybe woulda helped if we could see his videos, but not much.

Pathetic.

by **Werthless** » Mon May 03, 2010 12:45:33

Yeah, it was lame that he had the pre-taped videos give half his punchlines.

by **gpicaro** » Tue May 04, 2010 08:53:37

Apparently, Christie is not alone.

More than 80% of U.S. school districts are expected to eliminate jobs and more than half will likely freeze hiring during the upcoming school year, an education organization said Tuesday.

Based on a survey of school administrators from 49 states, a total of 275,000 education jobs are expected to be cut in 2011, according to the American Association of School Administrators.

"Faced with continued budgetary constraints, school leaders across the nation are forced to consider an unprecedented level of layoffs that would negatively impact economic recovery and deal a devastating blow to public education," said AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech.

Link

by **TenuredVulture** » Tue May 04, 2010 09:22:26

I'd start with vice principals and assistant superintendents rather than class room teachers.

by **CalvinBall** » Tue May 04, 2010 09:24:33

uhhh that sucks. i cant find a job as it is.

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Is There A BETTER Day to Start the New Politics Thread?