2008 U.S. Presidential Campaign Discussion Thread-Part 10.

[Dreadsox]

Thank god the right judges are there to protect Democracy

[financeguy]

Originally Posted by Strongbow

Those post were simply economic facts from the years they were in office. You can argue all you want about what produced a certain unemployment level, or poverty level during a given administration or a given year, but thats what the average American was dealing with in that year or administration regardless if you think the current President was responsible for that, or some President from decades earlier.

More importantly, numbers on unemployment, GDP growth, Debt as a percentage of GDP, inflation rate, and the poverty rate are the statistics that are usually used determine how well the economy is doing or if the economy is in a recession or a depression. The Stockmarket can impact these statistics, but is not generally used to determine the true economic performance of the country.


Here are the Bush years VS. The Clinton years on the important economic statistics of average annual GDP growth per year, debt as a percentage of GDP per year, inflation rate per year, poverty rate per year, and the unemployment rate per year:

The Average National Federal Debt as a percentage of GDP:

Clinton Years 64.5%

Bush Years 61.9%




Average GDP growth rate:

Clinton Years 5.4%

Bush Years 4.8%





Average Annual Poverty Rate:

Clinton Years 13.3%

Bush Years 12.3%





Average Annual Inflation Rate:

Clinton Years 2.60%

Bush Years 2.69%

Average Annual Unemployment Rate:

Clinton Years 5.21%

Bush Years 5.20%

The average annual poverty rate under W. is the 3rd lowest of any Presidential administration in US history!

It was all built on debt. Private debt doesn't show up in the government debt figures, don't forget.

[JOFO]

Looks like Anti- American George Bush is up to his old tricks


Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Greg Palast


Don’t worry about Mickey Mouse or ACORN stealing the election. According to an investigative report out today in Rolling Stone magazine, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Greg Palast, after a year-long investigation, reveal a systematic program of "GOP vote tampering" on a massive scale. - Republican Secretaries of State of swing-state Colorado have quietly purged one in six names from their voter rolls. Over several months, the GOP politicos in Colorado stonewalled every attempt by Rolling Stone to get an answer to the massive purge - ten times the average state's rate of removal. - While Obama dreams of riding to the White House on a wave of new voters, more then 2.7 million have had their registrations REJECTED under new procedures signed into law by George Bush. Kennedy, a voting rights lawyer, charges this is a resurgence of 'Jim Crow' tactics to wrongly block Black and Hispanic voters. - A fired US prosecutor levels new charges - accusing leaders of his own party, Republicans, with criminal acts in an attempt to block legal voters as "fraudulent." - Digging through government records, the Kennedy-Palast team discovered that, in 2004, a GOP scheme called "caging” ultimately took away the rights of 1.1 million voters. The Rolling Stone duo predict that, this November 4, it will be far worse. There's more: - Since the last presidential race, "States used dubious 'list management' rules to scrub at least 10 million voters from their rolls." Among those was Paul Maez of Las Vegas, New Mexico - a victim of an unreported but devastating purge of voters in that state that left as many as one in nine Democrats without a vote. For Maez, the state's purging his registration was particularly shocking - he's the county elections supervisor. The Kennedy-Palast revelations go far beyond the sum of questionably purged voters recently reported by the New York Times. "Republican operatives - the party's elite commandos of bare-knuckle politics," report Kennedy and Palast, under the cover of fighting fraudulent voting, are "systematically disenfranchis[ing] Democrats." The investigators level a deadly serious charge: "If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat McCain at the polls - they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering." Block the Vote by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. & Greg Palast in the current issue (#1064) of Rolling Stone. [Media enquiries - Dave Falkenstein, Sunshine Sachs & Assoc, via interviews@gregpalast.com.] Note - Kennedy and Palast are releasing, simultaneously with the Rolling Stone investigative report what they call, the vote-theft 'antidote': a 24-page full-color comic book, Steal Back Your Vote, which can be downloaded or obtained in print from their non-partisan website, StealBackYourVote.org For updates and video reports, go to RollingStone.com, " + title + " and StealBackYourVote.org.

Source: : Rolling Stone

[Varitek]

from fivethirtyeight.com

So a canvasser goes to a woman's door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she's planning to vote for. She isn't sure, has to ask her husband who she's voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, "We're votin' for the n***er!"

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: "We're voting for the n***er."

In this economy, racism is officially a luxury.

[martha]

Voters say they were duped into registering as Republicans - Los Angeles Times

Dozens of newly minted Republican voters say they were duped into joining the party by a GOP contractor with a trail of fraud complaints stretching across the country.

Some said they were told that they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law.

The firm hired by the California Republican Party -- a small company called Young Political Majors, or YPM, which operates in several states -- has been accused of using the tactic across the country.

I guess the Republicans can do it too!!!11!!!

McCain's silence on this speaks volumes.

[Vincent Vega]

Is this really the greatest democracy we have on earth?

[VintagePunk]

What is the purpose of even registering by party affiliation? Is it because of voting in the the primaries?

It makes little sense to me, and it seems that if this method of registering were eliminated, so too would be all these instances of registration/purging registrants fraud that seem to run rampant in the US every four years.

Here, when we're registered to vote, no one is asked for their political affiliation. Of course, we're free to officially become a member of any party we want, for a small fee, if I remember correctly, but that has nothing to do with voter registration, or any government records kept. The vast majority of people don't, though.

[anitram]

Jimmy Carter should show up with international observers.

[Vincent Vega]

I don't get the reason for the whole registration at all. Too much potential for fraud on any side.
In Germany, you turn 18, are legal to vote on the federal level (locally from 16 on) and for every election you get a voter's card. On the day of election you show up, hand in your blue card and make your crosses on the ballot. That's it.
No one is excluded, given the person is German and of legal age.

[cydewaze]

Some states have closed primaries, and a it's common for the opposing party to register as the opposite party for the purpose of voting for the weaker candidate to give themselves a weaker opponent. I don't think it's ever very effective though.

But in the case above, I don't see what difference it makes, because the general election is open.

[onebloodonelife]

Originally Posted by anitram

Jimmy Carter should show up with international observers.

...it's kinda true though...

[Utoo]

100,000 turn out to see Obama in St. Louis.

Awe-fucking-some.

[VintagePunk]

Originally Posted by Utoo

100,000 turn out to see Obama in St. Louis.

Awe-fucking-some.

Holy shit, that's impressive. It even looks impressive.

[anitram]

People in north Virginia, you too have now joined San Francisco and New York. Congratulations!!!

On the same day that John McCain appeared in Woodbridge, Va. - in the heart of of the state's fast-growing Washington exurbs -- one of his advisers appeared on TV to say that the region was not "real Virginia."

Given a chance to immediately walk back her statement, Nancy Pfotenauer declined.

[ntalwar]

That sounds similar to what Sen. George Allen said to the Webb guy - "Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." And he lost. I think McCain will lose Va. (and I get to help make it happen ).

[Diemen]

I have the sneaking suspicion that their definition of "real" is "pro-McCain."

Exactly who is being elitist again?

[cydewaze]

Originally Posted by Utoo

100,000 turn out to see Obama in St. Louis.

Awe-fucking-some.

Photoshopped!


Just kidding.

[U2democrat]

As someone who lives in RoVA (rest of virginia), Northern Virginia is actually VERY different culturally. Home is central virginia and I go to school in tidewater virginia, and most of my classmates are from NOVA (northern virginia). It really is different, but hey they help Virginia get democrats elected

I was out in the mountains in western Virginia today, generally a deep red region, but the McCain v. Obama signs were about 50-50

[U2Fanatic4ever]

Originally Posted by U2democrat

As someone who lives in RoVA (rest of virginia), Northern Virginia is actually VERY different culturally. Home is central virginia and I go to school in tidewater virginia, and most of my classmates are from NOVA (northern virginia). It really is different, but hey they help Virginia get democrats elected

I was out in the mountains in western Virginia today, generally a deep red region, but the McCain v. Obama signs were about 50-50

yeah, i am out here in hillville, va cuz we went to visit our breeder today to pick out our chocolate lab, they live in laurel fork, va (a 5 hr drive from our house in md). We drove thru the country for quite a bit of the way to their house and I would say it was 60-40 McCain slightly over Obama in regards to signs on lawns that I saw.

[ntalwar]

Va. will have 2 Democratic Senators + a Democratic governor as of a couple of weeks from now. So, I think Obama is almost a lock for Va.