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Tetrachloride wrote:

[snip]
I can't decide if the Republicans made a mistake in scheduling their convention after the Dems.
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It's not a mistake: it's tradition. I don't know why it has been so, but this order has been so for as long as I have been politically aware.

BTW: your first site, pollster.com, has shifted New Mexico from "toss up" to "leaning to Democrats", so the number is now 260 for them.

I was erring on the side of caution in listing more swing states than other people do. 

This page  [url]http://www.270towin.com/2008_polls/mccain_obama/[url]also as South Dakota and Minnesota listed as swing states.

Swing States, State Legislatures and the Palin "Hail Mary". http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/1/ … 410/582341
:   a nice opinion piece saying that the Palin nomination is a ploy to shore up the right-wing voters.   

.....the so-called battlegrounds.  Yes, I realize that North Carolina is a stretch, but Ive kept it in there.  Of those 14 [swing states], only THREE have State legislatures solely controlled by Republicans.  In the states with full or split Legislative control by Democrats, the ability of Republicans to drive wedge issues onto the ballot to drive far-right turnout is limited to non-existent.

That is, the rising numbers of state governments controlled by Democrats limits the ability of Republicans to induce panic among the voters with abortion rights and gay rights.

Here's a very interesting way to look at things.

Tetrachloride wrote:

...the Palin nomination is a ploy to shore up the right-wing voters.

Of course it is.  And a ploy to suck away women who voted for Hillary in the primary who refuse to now support Obama. 

I think this was an excellent breakdown:

Sarah Palin Isn't Ready To Be Commander In Chief.

- She has been Governor for 18 months of a state that ranks 47th in population.  Only North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming have fewer people to govern than Alaska.
- Prior to that, she was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaka for 6 years and sat on Wasilla's City Council for 4 years.  Wasilla's 2005 population estimate is 8,471.
- Sarah Palin has no foreign policy experience.  Physical proximity of Alaska to Russia doesn't count.


Sarah Palin is woefully out of the mainstream in her views.

- She opposes abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.  Only 18% of Americans agree with her that it should be illegal in all cases (source).
- She opposes sex education in schools and is firmly behind abstinence-only programs (source). 69% of Americans think sex education in schools is very important, and 21% think its somewhat important (source - PDF, p. 6).
- She supports the idea of "school choice", or vouchers (source).  70% of Americans do NOT support vouchers when it means public school funding would be cut (source).
- She supports teaching creationism in science classes (source).
- She is skeptical of global warming and doesn't believe climate change is man-made (source).    85% of Americans believe the planet is warming and a full 70% believe that it is attributable to either BOTH nature and man (49%) or solely to humans (21%) (source).

Palin is hardly free of old-Washington influence and tactics.

- She was FOR the Bridge to Nowhere, before she was against it (source).
- She openly praises Hillary Clinton, but thinks Clinton is a "whiner" (source).
- She is under investigation for ethics abuses in the firing of Alaska's Public Safety Director (source - worth noting also that CNN just reported Palin has retained a lawyer on the same issue).
- She was director of Senator Ted Stevens' PAC (source).  It's worth noting here also that Stevens himself is under indictment for 7 felonious counts.

But she's younger and prettier.

Like all V.P. candidates, she was chosen to provide an advantage to the Presidential candidate. So all is to be expected.

zeitgeist wrote:

[snip]
I think this was an excellent breakdown:

Sarah Palin Isn't Ready To Be Commander In Chief.
[snip]
Sarah Palin is woefully out of the mainstream in her views.

- She opposes abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.  Only 18% of Americans agree with her that it should be illegal in all cases (source).

I think that this a mischaracterization of her position. While she does not make the exception for rape and incest, Palin does concede of the necessity for abortions when the mother's life is endangered should she carry the pregnancy to term.

Alien wrote:

You know, all this "commander in chief" bullsmurf makes the lot off you come off as a bunch of bloodthirsty warmongers.

Do you really elect your president mainly on the basis of his capability to execute military campaigns? Haven't you people got smurf at home that needs attending, fixing even? Do you care about anything besides bombing the middle east?

.tsooJ

Of course not. We elect our presidents based on whether we think they would make good drinking or bowling buddies. It helps if they sound like they are dumber than we are as well...

Alien wrote:

You know, all this "commander in chief" bullsmurf makes the lot off you come off as a bunch of bloodthirsty warmongers.

Do you really elect your president mainly on the basis of his capability to execute military campaigns? Haven't you people got smurf at home that needs attending, fixing even? Do you care about anything besides bombing the middle east?

.tsooJ

Come off it, Joost. You've been on this planet long enough to figure that one out.

Alien wrote:

You know, all this "commander in chief" bullsmurf makes the lot off you come off as a bunch of bloodthirsty warmongers.

If not bloodthirsty warmongers; then scared, insecure bullies with inferiority complexes.

I thought my phrasing was more insulting.

It really isn't surprising, given the text of our Constitution:

Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.