Obama vs McCain - the 2008 US presidential election campaign

Yes it is my last day! Perhaps I should have said Tuesday was a better day for me to finish on as I had commitments already arranged for Wednesday

An election party sounds VERY tempting!

 

I'm working lates at the moment so it means I'll be able to watch them come in in the evening at work and then watch the rest at home and still have a lie in before work!

 

just tell them you have a clinic appt on the Weds and you're not sure what time you'll be in, so it would make sense to finish on the Tuesday :smoke:

 

The Personel lady is actually trying to find out if I'm owed any holiday and if I am then I'll take a half day on Wednesday!

 

OMG. I'm owed one whole day of holiday and I'm gonna be allowed to take it on the Wednesday! Means I finish my job on Tuesday and can STAY UP ALL NIGHT! WOO!

 

YAY stay at mine

 

I know how fab!

DEAL.

Although I've been invited by one of the public affairs Directors who works here and runs a huge public affairs website to an election night party hosted by PRWeek magazine and US PR firm Ketchum. DECISIONS.

 

The winner will definitely not be announced until after 11 pm EST (4am UK), because California, Oregon, Washington etc. polls close at 8pm and they are 8 hours behind the UK.

 

That's true... but I think there may be a pretty definitive picture if, as I said before, Obama is projected early wins in the east: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina.

But anyway, I'm gonna be up all night now so it doesn't matter!

 

What is the state to be looking out for this year?

 

Hmmm well difficult to say as John McCain is in a really bad place and Obama is winning polls in all of the swing states at the moment. Ohio is important as it is every election. Obama looks like he's gonna win by some margin in Pennsylvania, which will be a big blow to the McCain campaign. If that happened, Ohio I think would be the deciding factor - If Obama wins both Pennsylvania and Ohio it's game over for McCain.

Saying that, a good indicator would be the results in Virginia and North Carolina - both typically Republican but will be a bellwether for how far Obama has made in-roads with independents and dissatified Republicans. If results come through early from one of those states and Obama has won either or both, again I think that's a sign it's game over for McCain.

 

Unless the Nazi in this thread is right, I'd say it's game over already...

Can I just say I don't recall anything as ridiculous as the Republican campaign this year. Truly hilarious. Against the (to the untrained eye) smooth mechanism that is Obama and the Democrats, it's all the more shocking...

 

McCain has had terrible luck though. The protracted battle against Hillary meant the headlines and voter registrations went the Democrat's way all year long.

And the financial crisis would probably have defeated the incumbent party in any election.

 

But McCain is really fucking odd as well... On one hand he's saying all kinds of mental shit and the next he's being calm, controlled and quite a reasonable guy...

 

I guess the moral of the story is being able to crash a plane several times does not make you qualified to be president.

 

My american friend voted today

 

Apparently the Republicans have been this aggressive for the past couple decades now. If you think about it the basis of their campaign recently is just attacking Obama and trying to take focus OFF the economy, which made many voters sway to Obama in the first place. While Obama has actively defended himself and threw some dirt on McCain, he has seemed quite classy and likable in the process...McCain just comes off as a bit of an old cunt to independents, regardless of whether you like his policies or not.

This is off topic, but I was talking to one of my hardcore republican friends, and he says the reason he won't be voting for Obama is because he's a communist. Now I've heard socialist before, but COMMUNISM? Especially when McCain agreed with the socialist-esque bailout.

 

McCain doesn't want a massive expansion of health insurance subsidised by the tax payer. It's not the most traditionally American policy ever.

 

There's a reason for that. A free-health care system is expensive and people who want it don't realize how expensive it can get. Most Americans don't want higher taxes and I don't think congress will agree when it comes to Universal health care. On the bright side, at least American's will pay taxes for health care instead of war.

 

totally. although less reasonable and more mental as time goes on - he basically can't handle pressure. The twitching and false smiling in the final debate convinced me of that. I reckon part of it is to do with the internal battles within his party throughout the campaign, which are probably even bigger than we are led to believe. He didn't want the GOP's strategy, he didn't want Palin, he didn't want to be saying a lot of what he is being forced to say.

Because some people will believe anything they read Ridiculous though, it's the equivalent of calling McCain a Nazi, and let's be fair here, his supporters are for more extreme on average than Democrats are.

I reckon the Republicans just took one look at the results from last time and thought (quite rightly), we beat Kerry by going negative, so they said (quite wrongly) let's do that again... as though Obama was the same kind of candidate as Kerry

They completely underestimated the mood of America...

 

I think the difference with the attacks this year as opposed to 2004 is that firstly Obama has been quick to counter any attack - Kerry was a too nice a guy, he didn't want to get involved in that kind of politics and delayed his responses until it was too late. Secondly the attacks have been quite harsh - as in the tactics went too far, and the only people they really rallied were the Republican faithful and not independents, who have seen them as unfair. Thirdly, the desperation of McCain's attacks has been obvious - they are attacks that are made on a whim on in a quick response to an opinion poll, and again independents can see straight through those.

 

I agree.

Also - in relation to what States to be watching... I think it's all about Florida, again.

Also, there are some interesting telltale states that won't necessarily swing the result but will tell a story... North Carolina, North Dakota and Virgina, specifically. Also I love how Arizona is now considered "in play" as opposed to safe I mean McCain won't lose his home state for sure, but the fact that he's now having to put ad money into a State that Obama isn't even TOUCHING is rather AMUSING

 

Didn't I hear North Carolina was now swinging a lot in the favour of Obama?

GOOD

 

it's too close to call but yes it's shifting slowly but steadily

 

Could we please have the result of your exit poll Emma?

So far we are

Obama-Biden: 4
McCain-Palin: 0

 

I don't know about Florida - the key is Pennsylvania as I said before - if he wins there and then gets Ohio or Florida then he's pretty much got it in the bag. He can still loose Florida as long as he gets Ohio and the other way round (I think).

North Carolina is close, that's for sure - which means Obama has already done very well in such a traditonal and staunchly Republican state. Some pollsters are putting it in the Obama column and if he does win it, the signs are there that a landslide might ensue.

The current average of polls in NC put Obama at 49.1% and McCain at 46.9%. Basically a 2% lead.

 

thing is, I think he already has Pennsylvania. If McCain scores a bit of a Bush (ie misleading campaign polling) and takes Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina and the other key swing states that were looking risky for him, it'll all be down to Florida, which has had such crazy polling it's impossible to predict. 2 weeks ago Obama was up by about 9%, last week it was tied with some putting McCain up by 1%. This week it seems to have swung back to Obama about 4%

Florida is frustratingly and excitingly unpredictable...

 

Ah yes I got kinda confused, I think the report I read was suggesting that democratic voting was up several fold from 2004, and wasn't suggesting such a large opinion poll lead.

I'm rather excited by this next Tuesday, I'll be getting the Harbio and wine out.

 

Is that a good combination? I'm more partial to M&S Percy Pigs.

 

Well I love Haribo Superkids Mix and I find it really does go with anything!

I'm just glad i'm not in Uni next wednesday until 12

 

I still stand by what I said about McCain will win the presidency, probably by not a lot maybe 1-2% but people are heavily underestimating the Bradley Effect, Obama's skin colour will make a difference on polling day and quite a big one too despite all these fancy poll leads

Obama's skin colour is not a concern to me couldn't care less whether he is white, black or pink with blue spots what I don't like and don't trust about him are his policies, a tax and spend socialist is not the man to get America out of a recession, I don't personally for one sec believe that he has the money to deliver a tax cut for middle America it is going to be the equivalent of Bush's "read my lips no more taxes" and taxes will rise for middle class Americans be it income tax or stealth taxes

Even if taxes for ordinary Americans don't rise Obama is living in a fantasy world if he thinks that putting up tax for large corporations won't lead to MASSIVE job losses

 

I wonder how long it took to come up with that gem of a username. I bet you thought Bliar was the very PINNACLE OF WIT too...

 

OR

Maybe *you're* just a BLATANT RACIST, and the VAST MAJORITY of America has moved on from the EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. I'm sure you own some SLAVES too.

 

can someone please change Barack's IRRITATING username

 

Jeez get over it man its a username, just a play on words

The idea I am a racist/nazi or whatever is far more offensive than some name

 

I used to debate with JonHawk and Madison and others on Cool Clarity and I always have believed and always will believe in calling it how I see it, if you don't like it then tough, get me banned if you like but so long as I am here I will tell it as it is

 

Should have guessed... you must have been Dubya on CC? WASTE. OF. SPACE.

 

Oh you won't be banned, it's much more fun to RIDICULE you...

 

LOL I am a lot smarter and more intelligent than Dubya, that is such an insult

Think Eastenders ;)

 

I'm not gonna play any guessing games with you. I don't need to guess you are a complete FUCKWIT - that much is obvious.