The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Blame Bush, You Fools

Posted on | November 7, 2012 | 32 Comments

GAHANNA, Ohio
Just now waking up to the post-American era. A longtime reader e-mailed me this data from the Ohio exit polls: An outright majority of Ohio voters (51%-40% margin) consider Bush “more to blame for current economic problems” than the man who has been president for the past four years. And among the Bush-blamers, 87% voted for Obama, whereas 91% of the Obama-blamers voted for Romney. So that’s a 44%-36% differential right there.

One does not have to be an enthusiastic admirer of Bush’s economic policies to see this as evidence of how “brand damage” has hurt the Republican Party since the Bush-era peak 2002-04. This is understandably difficult for most Republicans to see (or admit), but the Democrats have ruthlessly exploited it.

Not ready to do a full round-up reaction yet, but I like this from The Lonely Conservative: “I Sure Hope Chris Christie Enjoyed That Call From Springsteen.”

Category: Election 2012, Fear. Loathing., Ohio, Polls, The Lonely Conservative

I Had Been Repeating That The Internet Changed Everything

Posted on | November 7, 2012 | 39 Comments

by Smitty

That notion was handed to me. Apparently, it has to get worse before it gets better. At least we won’t hear about how we should get rid of the electoral college for another four years.

A broader point that needs to sink home is that, given a choice between Party A and Party Mostly A, the country seems to be holding with Party A. The fundamental reform of taxation, entitlements, and the Federal Reserve that are truly required seem too radical for GOP candidates. If voters can’t tell the difference between candidates, it looks like they hold what they’ve got.

For my part, I don’t do despair. I served as a election officer, pulling close to an 18 hour day. I just don’t see where shenanigans could have occurred. My little 4.5k chunk of electorate went 2:1 Democrat, up and down the ticket, for the 55% of it we saw in person. Can’t speak for early voters and absentee ballots. Those who love liberty have got to be more involved, not less. Cede not the fray to the foe, or the whole effort is lost.

What I do is what Christians do: pray. Pray for wisdom, peace, guidance. Also, rest. I slept poorly on 05 November, and haven’t done well since dragging home. I’ll be going into semi-retirement from blogging, cutting way back on the amount of time I spend on all of these social network endeavors, and finding therapy in fiction. At least until I get hauled off to Room 101.

Besides: by his third or fourth term, President Obama will probably have a hang of this whole zany economics thing.

Update: generously linked at The Pirates Cove, Daily Pundit, Nathan J. Martin, Daley Gator, Stacy On The Right, The Lonely Conservative, and Hogewash.

Category: Election 2012

ELECTION NIGHT RESULTS HQ; UPDATE: OBAMA WINS RE-ELECTION; AMERICA HOPELESSLY DOOMED

Posted on | November 6, 2012 | 115 Comments

GAHANNA, Ohio
UPDATE 10:35 p.m. ET: It’s over, folks: Obama wins Wisconsin, which invalidates any remaining alternative path to 27o for Mitt Romney. Florida looks very much like a loss for Romney, who will hang on to North Carolina and, maybe, Virginia, but that’s not enough if Florida is gone.

The last time I looked at Ohio results, Romney was trailing by 60,000 votes and actually under-performing in the bellwether, Butler County. But the apparent loss in Ohio is moot, without Florida. Also, Iowa and Colorado look kinda iffy. So it is time to think about what this means — The Final Wisdom, the gestalt of the zeitgeist, which I must write for the American Spectator.

Please forgive me for having encouraged anyone to believe that there was still hope to save America. We’re obviously doomed beyond all hope of redemption.

UPDATE 10:50 p.m. ET:The dark gloom of stygian night might be mildly lightened if you were to hit the tip jar.

* * PREVIOUSLY 7 p.m. * *

It’s 7 p.m. ET and polls just closed in the key battleground state of Virginia. It is also now 30 minutes until polls close here in the key battleground of Ohio.

The Other McCain Decision Desk™ 2012 is watching results closely, preparing to be first to declare officially that Mitt Romney has won.

UPDATE 7:15 p.m. ET: We can declare Romney the winner in Kentucky, Georgia and South Carolina, while Obama has won the Peoples Democratic Republic of Vermont.

UPDATE 7:25 p.m. ET: CNN just called Indiana for Romney, but still considers Georgia and South Carolina “too close to call.”

The word for this is not “journalism,” but hallucinations.

UPDATE 7:33 p.m. ET: CNN just called West Virginia for Romney, but South Carolina and Georgia “too close to call”? And they’re also reporting exit polls as if they were talking about actual results.

UPDATE 7:45 p.m. ET: Finally, Wolf Blitzer decides that South Carolina can be safely called for Mitt Romney, as if there were ever any doubt at all.

Linked by The Lonely Conservative — thanks!

UPDATE 7:50 p.m. ET: Decision Desk™ 2012 is going to the store to buy a couple of packs of cigarettes. John King is on CNN babbling Democrat propaganda like the dishonest stooge he is. Polls haven’t even closed yet in the Panhandle of Florida, and King is giving a spin on the results that would make David Plouffe proud.

UPDATE 8:36 p.m. ET: Maryland, Illinois, Maine, Massaschusetts and Connecticut for Obama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas for Romney. Still going over the map. Virginia and Florida currently appear too close to call. I’m looking hard at North Carolina.

UPDATE 9:30 p.m. ET: Still crunching numbers here. If Mitt wins Florida, it will be by a very narrow margin, and Virginia is giving me the sweats. Loudoun County now at Obama 51% to Romney 48%, which aren’t the kind of numbers that reassure me.

The Decision Desk™ just got himself a cold Yuengling.

UPDATE 9:45 p.m. ET: Obama wins both Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. Romney maintains leads in North Carolina and Virginia. Florida remains neck-and-neck.

UPDATE 10:05 p.m. ET: You’ll excuse my failure to report numbers from Ohio, but if Romney can’t win Florida, Ohio is moot and the numbers aren’t looking too encouraging in Florida right now.

UPDATE 10:25 p.m. ET: Obama wins Wisconisn.




 

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Category: Election 2012, Fear. Loathing., Florida, Ohio, Virginia

ELECTION DAY UPDATES

Posted on | November 6, 2012 | 15 Comments

GAHANNA, Ohio
Years of Election Day coverage have provided me with a traditional routine: Sleep late or get a nap and ignore as much of the inevitable panic as I can.

Remember the absurd reaction to the 2004 exit polls? A leak of morning results gave Democrats a false hope of victory. That was followed (as false hopes always are) by an outrage at being “cheated” out of what they thought they had “won.”  But they were losing all along.

Anecdotal information about turnout — how many people were standing in line to vote here or there, et cetera — is only valuable if the data has specific and verifiable data points that can be compared to previous years. Telling me that turnout is “heavy” in a certain location only increases the noise-to-signal ratio. Likewise, unverified reports of voting-machine glitches aren’t helpful. Until the famously contested election of 2000, nobody ever said a peep about malfunctioning or “rigged” machines, but now the scare-stories multiply endlessly year to year. Nothing ever comes of such tales.

OK, a brief afternoon survey of headlines:

True the Vote observers barred
from Franklin County polling places
— Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch

DETROIT POLLS: OBAMA CAMPAIGNER
PUNCHES VOTER IN FACE
— Breitbart.com

Romney up 92K in OH early voting?
— HotAir.com

Judge issuing order to reinstate booted
Philadelphia election officials, Republicans say
— Fox News

Lindsay Lohan Will Be Charged with
Lying to Cops — Faces Jail Time
— TMZ

You’re saying, “Wait? What does Lindsay Lohan have to do with Election Day?” Dude. She endorsed Romney, remember? Voter suppression!

Win, lose, or draw, we’re gonna be up late tonight, and the best thing to do is to avoid unnecessary stress. My advice to you is to start drinking heavily. Readers are welcome to provide their own reports, or link to useful information, in the comments.

I’ll be checking in with more news as I find it.

UPDATE: Some helpful information:

UPDATE II: Instead of panicking over every rumor, how about getting an early start on your Christmas shopping at our Amazon Associates store? Low prices for you, and a small commission for me. What a deal!

 

UPDATE III: A few items from the Twitter feed:

UPDATE IV: Elecion Night Results HQ, featuring The Other McCain Decision Desk™ 2012.

Category: Election 2012, Fear. Loathing., Ohio

OHIO: ROMNEY AIRPORT RALLY — LOOKING LIKE A WINNER, MITT!

Posted on | November 6, 2012 | 15 Comments

Jackie Romine of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, sends a message
to the press corps at Romney’s rally Friday

GAHANNA, Ohio
Last night’s rally at the Columbus Airport was a wonderful experience. How many people attended? Just say “capacity crowd” and leave it at that. More importantly, further Ohio early-voting data continued to come in, reinforcing the conclusions Ali Akbar drew from his previous analysis — Romney’s numbers here look very encouraging.

Trying to avoid violating the First Electoral Axiom of Instapundit (“Don’t get cocky“), I will objectively report what Ali said when he got the latest numbers: “There’s no other way. We’ve won.”

Me? I don’t do numbers. However, I do photos (click to see full-size):

That sign says “Victory in Ohio,” doesn’t it? And the guy standing at the podium? He might just be the 45th President of the United States.

Nancy Robinson of Pickerington, Ohio, and her daughter Annie. Mrs. Robinson saw me walk past and said, “Are you . . . Smitty?” Seriously: She says she’s a regular reader of the blog, and recognized the hat. Anyway, here’s the top of my latest American Spectator column:

By the time Mitt Romney took the stage Monday night for his next-to-last Ohio “Victory Rally” at the Columbus airport hangar of Landmark Aviation, thousands were already lining up to see him 750 miles east in New Hampshire, where the Republican presidential candidate was scheduled for a rally three hours later. Romney’s campaign speech was nothing new, the text having scarcely changed in the past week, but what was newsworthy were the crowds — large and enthusiastic or, as Barack Obama often said during his historic 2008 campaign, “fired up and ready to go.”
If Americans want to know whether Romney has the executive skill needed to deliver on his promises to revive the U.S. economy and restore the nation’s morale, let them look no further than the brilliant campaign the former Massachusetts governor and his staff have run. Against all odds, and despite the enormous challenges of taking on an incumbent Democrat adored by the media elite, Romney has brought the GOP to Election Day with a real hope of victory.
A win by Romney will be difficult, but it is clearly a real possibility. Monday was a big day for predictions. Several bloggers offered their own Electoral College maps, with many predicting that Romney would win with more than 300 Electoral College votes (ECVs), but anything more than 270 ECVs is a victory, and Republicans will be celebrating even if Mitt squeaks by with the narrowest of margins. . . .

Please read the whole thing. I’ve got to get a nap today, because I want to be fresh and lively for tonight’s victory celebration in Columbus.




 

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Category: Election 2012, Fear. Loathing., Ohio

Election Day Reminder

Posted on | November 6, 2012 | 23 Comments

— by Wombat-socho


Woke up a little early -not early enough to do Live at Five, unfortunately, but early- and decided to throw this up as a cheap substitute.


Hopefully all of you will be voting and/or taking part in Romney’s GOTV efforts today, or working as election judges to make sure things are on the up-and-up even if it is close enough for them to cheat. (Ace is offering an incentive, as if you needed one.) Some of you have excuses for staying home, but unless you’ve been crippled by some burdensome medical condition, there is no excuse for not going to the polls and pulling the lever for Romney.
Randy Barrett explains in a WSJ column why voting Libertarian this year is counterproductive.
If you don’t know where your polling place is, what the hours are, or what the ballot looks like, this helpful link will get you what you need.


Now go out and win this thing! NOBODY STAYS HOME!

Category: Election 2012, Live at Five

Wild-Ass Scenarios? Chill.

Posted on | November 5, 2012 | 24 Comments

WILMINGTON, Ohio
Prudence Paine had asked me to submit an Electoral College prediction map and, while Smitty played the game, I chose to abstain. It’s just not what I do. I once won an office pool by correctly guessing the length of a Bill Clinton State of the Union speech, but I suck at election predictions.

Uh, 401 Electoral College votes? C’mon. There are plausible scenarios in which Romney could clear the 300-ECV threshold, and that’s about as high as I’d be willing to go. Just imagine that you had $100 riding on the outcome, and the outrageous optimism immediately chills. Give me Nate Silver’s 7-to-1 odds against Romney, and I’d gladly bet $100, but other than that, I’ll predict nothing.

As I’ve said before, it’s better to think in terms of contingencies: “If X, then Y.” I just saw some data on early votes in Virginia that would seem to indicate Romney winning that state with 52% or more, an outcome (i.e., R+4) that no recent poll has predicted. OK, so if Romney overperforms the polling in Virginia, then he is likely to overperform in other states.

That contingency would then suggest that the systemic oversampling of Democrats that we’ve seen in so many polls has badly misrepresented the electorate, and you could probably figure on adding two or three points to Romney’s RCP average in any state. But readers didn’t send me to Ohio so I could pontificate about poll numbers. Time to leave this McDonald’s and get back on the road to the Romney rally in Columbus that starts in two hours.

Hit the freaking tip jar!

Category: Election 2012, Polls

By ‘Research’, Furr Means ‘Whitewash’

Posted on | November 5, 2012 | 10 Comments

by Smitty


From YouTube:

Dr. Grover Furr is an English professor at Montclair State University. He is actively engaged in concealing the murder of 150 million citizens by Stalin and other communists. How an accessory to genocide like him is permitted to teach at any American University is evidence of the successful Marxist takeover of academia. The above exchange occurred on October 25th, 2012 at that university.

Yeah, I guess the Black Book of Communism is just a copy of The Lord of the Rings that got munged by a mad PHP application*.

Furr, this blog supports and defends your right to debase yourself after the fashion of the dishonorable jackass. But I wouldn’t take your class, nor would I allow you to pollute my son’s mind with your wretched distortions. If you want to talk about Socialism in the abstract, fine. It’s just a set of ideas. However, don’t write off the reality that every time it’s implemented on any significant scale, authoritarianism, ruin, and misery follow.

via The lovely Gabriella Hoffman, whom follow.

*All implied anachronisms defined as part of the gag.  See: PHP.

Category: Politics
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