Liberal Burblings

Archive for the ‘John McCain’ Category

Have a look at this (below). Notice anything? Nearly all the audience behind McCain are kids. That’s because 4,000 of them were bussed in to make up the numbers! And the other hoot is that McCain announces his hero Joe the Plumber and asks him to come up on stage and er……….er…………………….er………………….there’s no Joe the Plumber there!

I mean that in the card playing sense. (McCain is a keen craps player after all.) He is “betting the farm” on winning Pennsylvania. Just look at the state polling graph below (from Electoral-Vote.com) – you can drive a bus through Obama’s lead there. John Kerry won it by two points.

Votemaster explains:

McCain Concedes Colorado, Iowa, and New Mexico

CNN is reporting that McCain is making those tough decisions that politicians love to talk about. According to CNN, McCain is abandoning Colorado (9 EVs), Iowa (7 EVs) and New Mexico (5 Evs). If Obama wins these three he gets 21 EVs. Add these to the 252 EVs Kerry won and he has 273 and becomes President. McCain’s strategy at this point is to win Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Nevada, and–get this–Pennsylvania. The first six are arguably swing states, but our three-poll average puts Obama 12 points ahead in Pennsylvania. McCain is effectively betting the farm on a state which looks like an Obama landslide. It is a strange choice. Colorado looks a lot easier than Pennsylvania. James Carville once famously said that Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama sandwiched in between. Maybe McCain is going to go all out to win the white working class men in the Alabama section of Pennsylvania. McCain can’t possibly do it on the economy. What’s left? Maybe run against the Wright/Ayers ticket? Any way you look at it, this has to be a desperation move.

Those were the two main features of the third US Presidential debate, which I have now watched on CNN.

Not every network showed as much “split screen” as CNN. But McCain’s face was really odd. The split screen showed Obama as fairly normal while McCain looked just, well, weird. See below. He seems to think he has to smile all the time. It’s perfectly ridiculous. Almost frightening.

Dave Gergen put it very well. He said that the debate was an exercise in anger management for McCain.

As for Joe the plumber, he isn’t called Joe and he isn’t a licensed plumber. (McCain showed as much care in choosing his hero as he did in choosing his running mate). Votemaster summarises the facts that have been unearthed by some simple media enquiries:

(1) his name is Sam, not Joe, (2) he does not have a plumbing or contractor’s license, items required by city ordinance, (3) the taxable income from his plumbing business would qualify him for a tax cut under the Obama plan, not an increase, and (4) he has an outstanding lien for over $1000 in backtaxes he owes.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dncXi6i0fbU&hl=en&fs=1]

Those were the two main features of the third US Presidential debate, which I have now watched on CNN.

Not every network showed as much “split screen” as CNN. But McCain’s face was really odd. The split screen showed Obama as fairly normal while McCain looked just, well, weird. See below. He seems to think he has to smile all the time. It’s perfectly ridiculous. Almost frightening.

Dave Gergen put it very well. He said that the debate was an exercise in anger management for McCain.

As for Joe the plumber, he isn’t called Joe and he isn’t a licensed plumber. (McCain showed as much care in choosing his hero as he did in choosing his running mate). Votemaster summarises the facts that have been unearthed by some simple media enquiries:

(1) his name is Sam, not Joe, (2) he does not have a plumbing or contractor’s license, items required by city ordinance, (3) the taxable income from his plumbing business would qualify him for a tax cut under the Obama plan, not an increase, and (4) he has an outstanding lien for over $1000 in backtaxes he owes.

Here’s a bit of fun from You Tube, based on the various McCain facial contortions from last nighht’s final Presidential debate. As one commentator said, it’s “Grumpy Old Man” versus “Cool Hand Luke”:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGzfYOp34d8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1]

John McCain is behind in North Carolina, which would normally be a state which votes for the Republican candidate.

The McCain campaign has just recently started to really contest the race here, with the candidate making his first appearance in the state in five months yesterday. He has also ratcheted up his advertising, which seems to be having a mixed effect on his poll numbers. Independents, who may be turned off by the negativity of his campaign, have moved more toward Obama in the last week. What was a 46-40 lead with them is now a 52-37 advantage for the Democrat.