Wednesday, April 7, 2010
We're Moving
Effective immediately, the Armchair Election Analyst will be moving to its new site, http://electionanalyst.wordpress.com. See you there!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Back in the Saddle
It's been awhile since I've updated this blog, and I've got a lot of cleanup to do. Meanwhile, check out my other political blog for more other political talk that's less-directly election-related.
A lot has happened since President Obama's inauguration (I admit, I didn't see that coming back in December 2007), not the least of which was a complete shift to the Democrat aisle in Congress (including a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate) followed by a subsequent loss of that same majority and an emerging shift back to the right.
The latest shocker is that Indiana Democrat Evan Bayh has announced his retirement from the Senate at the end of this term. Given that the latest polls give him an 18-20 point advantage over either of the favored GOP candidates, this is stunning news. I'm going to have to mull this over for a bit before I analyze, but it makes things very difficult for Hoosier Democrats: the filing deadline for the Indiana primaries is approaching very rapidly.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
What's with this mindset?
I had a conversation with someone yesterday (who shall remain nameless) who stated, in as many words, that McCain's selection of Palin was an insult to women. The implication was, of course, that McCain's team's thought process was something along the lines of "there are lots of women voters who will vote for whichever female is on the ballot, so I'll steal Hillary's backers!" So because of the implication that McCain's team used this as their primary motivation, the selection of Palin is suddenly insulting to women.
The more I think about it, the more irritated this attitude makes me. It's a very simplistic view that reeks more of cop-out propaganda than it does of well-reasoned argument (something I would have expected from my co-conversant.) The implication there is that only the Democrats are allowed to nominate women (and, by extension, minorities.) When the Democrats put a woman and a black on the ballot, it's "historic" and "unprecedented." When the Republicans put a woman on the ballot, it's "insulting" (never mind that Palin is showing some of the politics that put her on the ticket, while Mondale's selection of Geraldine Ferraro was obviously and overtly pandering to women.)
I respect well-reasoned political arguments, and I can accept support of or opposition to candidates based on a variety of valid reasons. But this opinion fails on so many levels, it's not funny. It's like this person - a very intelligent, well-educated and experienced person - suddenly lost all sense of perspective and decided to regurgitate the garbage put out by the Daily Kos and Moveon.org without passing through any sort of intellectual filter. God gave you a brain. Use it.
The more I think about it, the more irritated this attitude makes me. It's a very simplistic view that reeks more of cop-out propaganda than it does of well-reasoned argument (something I would have expected from my co-conversant.) The implication there is that only the Democrats are allowed to nominate women (and, by extension, minorities.) When the Democrats put a woman and a black on the ballot, it's "historic" and "unprecedented." When the Republicans put a woman on the ballot, it's "insulting" (never mind that Palin is showing some of the politics that put her on the ticket, while Mondale's selection of Geraldine Ferraro was obviously and overtly pandering to women.)
I respect well-reasoned political arguments, and I can accept support of or opposition to candidates based on a variety of valid reasons. But this opinion fails on so many levels, it's not funny. It's like this person - a very intelligent, well-educated and experienced person - suddenly lost all sense of perspective and decided to regurgitate the garbage put out by the Daily Kos and Moveon.org without passing through any sort of intellectual filter. God gave you a brain. Use it.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Lots to report
It occurs to me it's been awhile since I've written anything here. So the tickets are Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin. I don't like the Biden pick at all. It's Senator - former Senator, which is very bad for the experience factor, even though Biden is an old veteran. It also weakens Obama's Washington Outsider card.
The Palin pick, on the other hand, is sheer genius, I think (media notwithstanding.) She's not very experienced (which hurts that argument, but McCain's played that out), but she does have executive experience and she's very much got that reformer/Washington outsider thing going. I've got a lot of intelligent stuff to say about this whole dealie, but I need time to collect my thoughts. So instead, I'm going to rant a bit.
Chris turned on the TV this morning and Good Morning America was on. Merideth Viera was "interviewing" a McCain spokesperson about the fact that Palin's 17-year-old daughter got herself knocked up, and how dare they not bring that to light during Palin's introduction as the VP candidate (WTF??) and why did they wait so long to announce this. Because, you know, from Friday to Monday is an eternity. How dare they wait 3 whole days? What a scandal! What a cover-up! And then she lit into another GOP spokesperson, ripping her for essentially the same thing, and boy did they do a bad job of vetting the candidate, etc. Never mind that everyone in Alaska pretty much knew the deal.
And the real tragedy? Her family's personal life was laid out bare because some Obamanite bloggers decided to spread rumors that her infant with Down Syndrome was actually this same daughter's. (I'm going to be rude and presume these are the same bloggers who cried "for shame" when conservative bloggers ripped Michele Obama for not being patriotic enough.)
The Palin pick, on the other hand, is sheer genius, I think (media notwithstanding.) She's not very experienced (which hurts that argument, but McCain's played that out), but she does have executive experience and she's very much got that reformer/Washington outsider thing going. I've got a lot of intelligent stuff to say about this whole dealie, but I need time to collect my thoughts. So instead, I'm going to rant a bit.
Chris turned on the TV this morning and Good Morning America was on. Merideth Viera was "interviewing" a McCain spokesperson about the fact that Palin's 17-year-old daughter got herself knocked up, and how dare they not bring that to light during Palin's introduction as the VP candidate (WTF??) and why did they wait so long to announce this. Because, you know, from Friday to Monday is an eternity. How dare they wait 3 whole days? What a scandal! What a cover-up! And then she lit into another GOP spokesperson, ripping her for essentially the same thing, and boy did they do a bad job of vetting the candidate, etc. Never mind that everyone in Alaska pretty much knew the deal.
And the real tragedy? Her family's personal life was laid out bare because some Obamanite bloggers decided to spread rumors that her infant with Down Syndrome was actually this same daughter's. (I'm going to be rude and presume these are the same bloggers who cried "for shame" when conservative bloggers ripped Michele Obama for not being patriotic enough.)
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