Obama campaign polling flying blind? Plus some thoughts on the debate and campaign

Interesting post at RedState.  Admittedly, the piece is based on hearsay, but the gist of this post is that the Obama campaign is nervous about the effect Palin may be having.  They have no idea who she is drawing in, or how many conservatives and others she's bringing back into play, and her presence is a big X factor in their polls that they're having trouble gauging.  We've also heard about leaks of internal polls that show Obama isn't nearly as ahead as the media and pollsters say he is, and who knows if the traditional "Republican poll deficit" is being taken into account in those as well.

One thing is for damn sure, if the media has been using bogus polls to try and boost Obama or demoralize us, and it turns out that we win, the nutroots are gonna lose. their. shit.  They think they've got this thing, and they're gonna be damned ugly (even by their standards) the next morning if they're buying their own bullshit and McCain winning this thing.  Actually, Zombie has an interesting piece that seems to fit in with this dynamic(I'm still reading it), and thinks it's gonna be a big drag on the left.

I was kind of where Ace was on the question of reporting the polls, I thought you had to report them and face the fact that McCain was losing this thing, but not wallow in pessimism like Eeyorepundit.  I think I'm moving toward the Treach camp on the polling question, better to just ignore them and do our thing, I think things are significantly closer than what is being reported. 

At this stage I'm more worried that the endless drumbeat of negativity and propaganda people are getting bombarded with is going to wear them down. That's across the board, from hardcore activists who are pounding the pavement to the squish who doesn't know a fucking thing about anyfuckingthing about the issues, policies or the candidates.  The Moron-in-Chief has noted in the past that when the GOP is in power the media levies a Republican Tax on the economy by talking it down with an endless barrage of economic horror stories.  I don't think this is any different. 

As for the debate itself, I missed the first 30 minutes (late shift...yay) I think McCain did good from what I saw.  As per Ace's view, McCain needed to smack around Obama for his connections with the assorted corrupt subprime kingpins, and explain why Obama's policies would exacerbate the problem and lead to bigger disasters down the road.  He did much better tonight on that score than he has in the past, the Moron-in-Chief doesn't think he did enough.  He could have done better, but he's improved a lot, and he was finally getting under Obama's skin like he needed to.  He's going to have to continue building the case, and chipping away at Obama on a host of other issues.

Unless this issue was in the first 30 minutes that I missed, I didn't see one question about the Second Amendment, and haven't seen it brought up once in debate.  That isn't a mistake, the media is avoiding the Second Amendment issue like the plague.  They're too scared to bring it up because they know it loses elections for them.  McCain and especially Palin and pro-2nd activists need to hammer Obama hard on this issue, especially in pro-2nd swing states.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 02:56 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Presented without context

"If I was painting it today, I'd have the donkey on top," she said.

Despite the bizarre atmosphere, viewers clearly had a deep interest in the November 4 election, which they think Obama has still not sewn up, despite his current advantage.

"Right now, Obama's ahead. But what are people going actually to do once they're in the polling booth?" said Eileen Sharaga, 58, resolutely attempting to ignore an explicit instructional video on masturbation.

"I'm anxious, extremely anxious," she said.

Well, Eileen, who could blame you? I'd be anxious about giving a reporter my name in a room full of donkey sex paintings and instructional jerkoff videos, too. Oh, wait...you're anxious about the erec—um, that is—election. Gotcha.

Posted by: Sean M. at 02:01 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No, your aliases don't get extra votes

This story in the New York Post has it all...ACORN shenanigans, crime, and...tranny hookers?

An Ohio man who cast an illegal early ballot after being caught registering to vote several times with ACORN is a longtime scammer who was arrested last year for fraud - as a woman.

The bizarre tale of Darnell Nash - a k a Serina "Sexy Slay" Gibbs - came to light after Cuyahoga County officials accused him of voter fraud and this week turned him/her in to prosecutors.

It turns out Nash, 24, who has a criminal record as a man, is a transsexual escort who claims to make $150 an hour turning tricks as the self-proclaimed "Queen of Cleveland Gender Benders."

S/he was also busted last month for some kind of loan scam that targeted college kids. 

Normally, I'd make some kind of joke here, but this one has me stumped.  I mean, what else can you say about a transsexual Cleveland schemer?

Posted by: Sean M. at 01:32 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Horrible, Horrible, Horrible, Horrible, Horrible, Horrible Idea

Please don't install Gov. Palin as RNC Chairwoman if Obama is elected in November.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 12:11 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Live Chat - FINAL Presidential Debate for Morons

Surprise! We're hosting live chat again for the final presidential debate. I tried really hard to get the Huckabee Show's FNC band as entertainment to warm up our event but they were um, busy. Darn the bad luck.

So instead, I found the live stream of the debate from Hulu.com (it is below the fold). You can watch it here, while we chat.

The debate starts at 9:00 pm EDT (8:00 pm CDT).

*** Chat application and streaming debate removed ***

Thanks for hanging out with us!

Posted by: conservativebelle at 02:46 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Get used to the mass exodus by conservative commentators

Because it isn't going to stop if this piece in the American Thinker is anything to go on.  It also looks like something we should embrace as a great opportunity, but we should also prepare for the ugly divorce that'll come with it.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 12:18 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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First They Came For The Drunk Ponies, And I Said Nothing

Looks as though somebody thought it would be a good idea to let a pony get out, eat some fermented apples, and then get drunk. With awesome hilarity to follow.

Twelve-year-old Fat Boy stumbled across the garden, and fell into the outdoor swimming pool which was covered by tarpaulin.

Sarah Penhaligon, 28, owner of the bungalow in Newquay, Cornwall, was woken at night by a "huge" splash and found the Moorland Pony in the shallow end.

She said: "I looked outside, saw this massive animal in the dark, and thought the Beast of Bodmin was in the pool. I was terrified, but when I took a closer look I realised it was a horse.

"I didn't have a clue what to do next - who do you call when there's a horse stuck in your swimming pool?

"I dialled 999 and they asked which service I wanted and I said I didn't know, I just had a horse in my pool and needed help."

Fire crews spent two hours building a set of hay steps in the pool, and hoisted the animal out of the water at 5am with the help of several harnesses.

The pony had escaped from the nearby Trenance riding stables. A spokesman said horses were known to get 'punch drunk' from eating too many apples.

She said: "It looks like he was scrounging for apples in the garden and fell in when he trod on the tarpaulin over the pool.

"It's a good job he's got a lot of bulk, as it kept him warm while he was stuck in the water.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:01 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Strange bedfellows

Some of the folks at one Hillary!-centric blog are actually cheering us on, questioning the pollsters and the MSM, and cautioning against despair (ahem, Allahpundit).

We believe John McCain will win, though the media will use all the powers of Hell, if it has to, to swing this election to their favorite candidate. It’s going to be a long hard slog through the rest of this race — but all of this is made so much harder by you Eeyores.

Keep the negative rain cloud garbage to yourself — or even better, be smart enough to see through the propaganda and critically analyze everything that’s being said.

Stop being an Eeyore.

Or, if you can’t do that, at least stop spreading your rain clouds to others.

Because the only thing you are doing is helping Obama.

The people behind this blog seem to be as upset (if not more so) than we are about the prospect of "Obama and his gang of criminals coming to Washington to take over the government," and if that has something to do with the fact that they feel like they were strongarmed out of having their inevitable candidate take the reigns, well, so be it. I'm not super-pleased that we might have to join up with disaffected Clinton supporters to win, but if it takes a coalition like that to beat a guy who was weaned on Saul Alinsky, so be it.  Reagan Democrats, anyone?

(h/t)

Posted by: Sean M. at 04:39 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Some Canadian assumes you're racist

But the good news is that you're worried enough about the economy to vote for the most socialist major party presidential candidate in our history:

Barack Obama is beating John McCain because fear trumps fear. That is, the fear of many white voters for their jobs and their homes surpasses the fear some of them feel over electing a black man.

Yep, because there's no other reason people (white people, anyway) could possibly have for voting against Barack Obama. Nope. None at all. Hell, even if you're white and you're voting for Obama, you're probably a racially scared racist who's afraid of black people anyway.  So if you're white and you vote against Obama, you're probably a racist.  And if you're white and you vote for Obama?  Probably a racist, too, but maybe a more pragmatic racist.

Thanks for clearing that up for us, Hoser.

Posted by: Sean M. at 02:58 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Remember Steve Bartman?

Five years ago (shit! has it been that long?) he became a sports legend.

Bartman's infamy has Laurie Holmes wondering what her life might be like if she - and not Bartman - had deflected the ball, which she nearly did.

Holmes, a Chicago attorney, was sitting directly behind Bartman.

When the ball rocketed off Castillo's bat, it looked "like it was going foul behind us, and at the last minute the wind blew it forward," she said.

"Steve Bartman deflected it and it landed at my feet. One of the guys I was with picked up the ball. We're all high-fiving him and congratulating him and then we realized everyone is booing."

Holmes said it didn't take long for Bartman to realize that he was the target of the boos.

"He turned around and said, 'Do you think I did anything wrong?' We said, 'No.' He was just doing what everybody else in that place would have been doing," she said.

Holmes' friend, attorney Jim Staruck, eventually sold the ball to De Porter. Both Holmes and Staruck are glad they weren't the first ones to touch it.

"People ask me, 'Why didn't you stop him?' I say there was just no way to know what was going to happen. We were looking up at the ball," said Holmes, who is visible in photos of the play wearing a white coat and red scarf.

"We are definitely lucky for our sakes that Steve Bartman was in front us. Or I (might) have been the one vilified."

Then, reflecting on the Cubs' latest post-season collapse, Holmes offered perspective on the Bartman blame game.

"This year is proof that the Cubs don't need Steve Bartman to screw everything up."

Posted by: eddiebear at 11:31 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Mark Levin (once again) does my job for me

A few weeks ago I said that I had decided I needed to read Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals."  And yes, I have been way too lazy to actually do that. 

Well, on Mark Levin's show today, he read sections of "Rules for Radicals" and then presented them alongside statements by both Barack and Michelle Obama. 

That part occurs in the first hour, but the whole thing is worth a listen.  (The audio is here...it's the October 14, 2008 show.)

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 10:16 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Christopher Buckley hates you

See-Dub sends this along.  Any of you remember Buckley's NYT (of course!) piece reacting to conservative opposition to McCain in the primaries?

In response, let me offer a thoughtful, considered, carefully worded comment: Would you all please just...shut...up? (I’d insert an intensifier, but this is a family newspaper.)

See-Dub offered a constructive suggestion to that, of course.  I'd note this, Buckley's reaction to McCain's speech at CPAC,

I’d love to have been inside his brain — or to have had a mind-reading crawl run across the bottom of the TV screen — as he was offering his emollient words. I’m guessing it was something along the lines of, “All right, you blinking, high-maintenance idjits, if this is what it takes, I’m willing to do it, but honestly I’d rather be doing vodka shots with Hillary Clinton.” But then defiance — defiance of the gleeful kind — is a quality I’ve always associated with conservatism.

It isn't so much that Buckley is a liberal (he could be, I'm not sure if his recent actions are based on ideology or class), or that he likes Our Lord and Savior (though it is obvious he does), it's that he hates the popular conservative movement.  As you can see in this NYT piece, Buckley resented that McCain had to come grovel to us at CPAC. 

If Buckley hadn't already decided to support Obama or the Democrat when his NYT piece was written, I'm guessing McCain's selection of Palin or the reaction to David Brooks or Kathleen Parker's anti-Palin scrawlings were the last straw. 

Palin was a major coup for us, it was an admission by McCain that victory was beyond his grasp without our help.  That had to piss Buckley off, and I'm wondering if he would have simply voted Obama and kept it to himself or stayed with McCain had McCain not given in to conservative pressure.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:52 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Shocka: Lefty college professors support terrorist

Want to read a great big pile of crap sprinkled liberally (pun very intended) with weasel words and evasions? Well, look no further than this heaping helping of FAIL by one Jack Stripling at Inside Higher Ed:

William Ayers has been trashed by conservative pundits and labeled “an unrepentant domestic terrorist” by Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, but the University of Illinois at Chicago professor has garnered the support of a growing number of peers who admire his scholarship and see the attacks on him as an affront to academic freedom.

While I have no doubt that there's a raft of lefty college professors who admire Ayers' "scholarship" (among other things) let's cut the crap here, Jack. To say that he's been trashed" by conservatives is subjective, I guess, but that bit about him being "labeled" an unrepentant domestic terrorist (note the lack of scare quotes) is disingenuous at best, especially when one considers the famous interview he gave the NYT back in 2001. But moving on...

Ayers, who helped found a Vietnam-era protest group that was blamed for bombing government buildings, has been a faculty member at Illinois-Chicago since 1987. In a statement signed by faculty members across the country, professors have spoken out against “the demonization” of Ayers, whose alleged ties to the Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama have made headlines.

Oh, so they were "blamed" for bombing government buildings, Jack? That's funny. I kind of got the sense that they took, you know, credit for that shit. But I guess that's just me "trashing" respectable academics.

Now, for the statement:

“It’s true that Professor Ayers participated passionately in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, as did hundreds of thousands of Americans,” reads the statement, which was posted on www.supportbillayers.org. “His participation in political activity 40 years ago is history; what is most relevant now is his continued engagement in progressive causes, and his exemplary contribution — including publishing 16 books — to the field of education.”

I don't doubt that hundreds of thousands of people "participated passionately" in various causes in the sixties. It's just that, you know, most of them didn't blow shit up. And forgive me for being impertinent, but that's still relevant now thanks to the fact that we've got a presidential candidate whose only qualification seems to be his vaunted sense of judgment, but who didn't see anything wrong with working with and (at least on occasion) socializing with an unrepentant domestic terrorist. Oh, and as far as his "exemplary contribution" to education, let's not forget that we're dealing with somebody who has a "small-c communist" philosophy as far as that's concerned.

I'd tell you to read the rest (everybody's least favorite fake Indian makes an appearance) but it'll probably cause you to throw up a little in your mouth.

(h/t)

Posted by: Sean M. at 07:03 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Remember This The Next Time You Shop At A Convenience Store In St. Louis

The store owners may be up to some mischief.

Since 2000, the organization has profited from bank and wire fraud, receipt of stolen property and the purchasing and selling of contraband cigarettes, U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said.

The group allegedly used couriers who traveled from the United States to the Palestinian territories carrying cash, jewelry, cashiers checks, endorsed and unendorsed personal and business account checks, Hanaway said.

Hanaway said the Hamed organization, led by Bassam Hisham Hamed, 33, of Florissant, Mo., owned and operated convenience stores that were used to receive and sell stolen goods, including infant formula, computers, Global Positioning System devices and cigarettes.

The enterprise allegedly bought the stolen property at rates significantly below fair market retail value and sells the items through the convenience stores at a large profit.

Others indicted include: Ghandi Hisham Hamed 30; Said Jarabaa, 35; Suhail Jarabaa, 28; Mohammed Badwan, 33; Mazen Badwan, 36; Abdelkarim Badwan, 58; Nael Abdeljabbar, 48; Nayef Lutfeyyah, 66; Ayoub Hisham Hamed, 27; Mahmoud Ghannam, 46; Mahir Mohammad, 44; Shahrazad Ramadan, 55; and Rayqa Jarabaa, 58.

Wow. Sending GPS Systems to the Palestinian Territory seems to be more than just low level mob activity. And since the Palestinian Authority (now run by Hamas)undoubtedly gets a cut of any money or "stuff" flowing into their areas, I have a feeling this just isn't some guy sending extra cash back to his mother.

Posted by: eddiebear at 06:39 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Allah has been in NYC a little bit too long

Must we rehash this again?  It's not censorship when a private organization responds to the wishes of their users.  Nor does it chill First Amendment rights for editors of a political magazine to accept an unsolicited resignation from a writer who's endorsed a candidate diametrically opposed to every policy and agenda said magazine holds dear.

Bottom line: Christopher Buckely never should have been writing for National Review in the first place.  Nepotism is a bad thing, no matter what the source.  Other examples here, here, here and here.

DPUD's thoughts on Buckley's resignation are here.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 05:05 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Good riddance

Christopher Buckley has resigned from National Review.  Says Buckley,

When he offered his resignation to the magazine’s editors, “I was sort of hoping for, ‘Well, let’s think about it,’ ” Buckley said. “But to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me.”

How so?  You're the one that endorsed a Marxist, Chris, not Republicans.  Republicans don't endorse Marxists.  You left the Republican party Chris, be man enough to own it. 

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 01:56 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Some Grade A energy policy nuance from Nick Lampson

The people at Pete Olson's campaign have created a great site tracking the positions on Nick Lampson's (Texas-22) campaign page and comparing it to his record in Congress.  What they've found is that when Lampson say he support's something, it's a highly nuanced claim indeed. 

For example, while he told a constituent this summer that he had consistently voted for opening ANWR and the outer continental shelf for drilling, his record shows that he voted against both of these issues eleven times. 

The site even has audio of Rep. Lampson ranting against oil companies. 

So, if you're in Texas' 22nd Congressional District, or know someone who is, make sure they explore this site.  Lampson's constituents deserve to know Lampson's actual record in Congress, instead of the pretend record he posts on his website. 

Better yet, they deserve a Congressman who stays true to his word.  Help give them one by donating to Pete Olson's campaign.

**Cross-posted at Down the Ticket**

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 11:30 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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The Violent Left

Since the media is trying to repackage the "angry white male" of the 90s into "angry racist mobs," John Hawkins has put together a short list of choice quotes from various leftists, but of course, these are just emotional outbursts derived from the frustration over the war crimes and hate perpetrated by Republicans, they couldn't help themselves.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:36 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Does Barack Obama Like Pie?

 

Posted by: eddiebear at 08:15 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Heard any good jokes lately?

If you've heard any good ones or have come up with a good one of your own, leave it in the comments. I'll get the ball rolling with one I posted in Treacher's comments yesterday:

Q: Why did Bill Ayers cross the road?

A: RRRRRRRRAAAAAACISSSSST!!!

I know, I know, I said good jokes. But it's not like I'm getting paid for this shit.

Posted by: Sean M. at 12:53 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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