It begins...

[Richard III]

Originally posted by Norlamand

I thank Al Gore for contesting all those wonderful chads!
After the 2000 election the left whined constantly about the outdated voting system, now they whine about the modern electronic one.

No, I think they were whining about the stupid, childish voting system. I continue to be amazed at America's inability to run a simple election with simple, straightforward national rules and simple standards. Take, for example, here in Canada, it's so tough! The notion of determining who voted for who, the basis of all election law? "A clear mark indicating a distinct preference for a single candidate shall be a valid vote." Duh. The joys of pen and paper.

But the real problem here, if you must know, is that the GOP has been reforming its get-out-the-vote systems to be much more similar to the "old model" door-to-door or phone banked stuff on the ground, while Democrats sit back and whine about how "they have so much money and they're conspiring against us" and waste their time in self-righteousness and lawsuits and rule contests instead of just finding their vote and getting it to the polls like they used to.

R.III

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

After the 2000 election the left whined constantly about the outdated voting system, now they whine about the modern electronic one. As long as they keep losing they'll keep whining.
The minute they win an tightly contested election those machines will be them most reliable that have ever been seen........

I'm fine with electronic voting machines. I just want federal oversight of the code and a paper trail to follow. Why not, after all?

 

[imposter]

Originally posted by Little Raven
But perhaps America has been a two-party system for too long. Maybe it's time to give a one-party (or at least, one relevant party) system a try. It seems to work for Chicago.

Daley has done a lot of good things for this city, including bringing back the public school system from the brink of absolute failure. I am currently a senior at one of his new schools, which has been a remarkable experience for me.

That said, Daley is in a bit of a bind right now. The city has spent ridiculous sums of money on a project known as "Millennium Park", Chicago's own black hole for money. This is problematic for Daley for one specific reason at the moment: Chicago Public School teachers will likely vote to go on strike on November 18. Daley has refused to back down from the contract that has been proposed, and rejected, because there is no money left (supposedly).

Essentially, Daley's lack of real opposition for over a decade now has made the man think that he can do anything he wants to, which is now clearly not the case. If the strike indeed does happen, you can bet that Daley's support throughout the city will plummet.

Not that I expect a Republican mayor anytime soon, but there's always another Democrat that takes a shot.

 

[Benderino]

Originally posted by Norlamand



I thank Al Gore for contesting all those wonderful chads!
After the 2000 election the left whined constantly about the outdated voting system, now they whine about the modern electronic one. As long as they keep losing they'll keep whining.
The minute they win an tightly contested election those machines will be them most reliable that have ever been seen........

...And the Republicans never whine about just as silly of issues? This is not some disease that only infests one party...all politicians are susceptible to such a disorder.

 

[Norlamand]

the litigation, whining and wild accusations of "disenfranchising the voters" seem to be inexplicably heavily onesided to me........but being on the right I'm incapable of an obective view and should rely on people with a more "objective" view........

 

[SeleucusNicator]

Originally posted by Norlamand
the litigation, whining and wild accusations of "disenfranchising the voters" seem to be inexplicably heavily onesided to me........but being on the right I'm incapable of an obective view and should rely on people with a more "objective" view........

The Republicans have been on the winning side of most of the close and controversial races as of late, and, off the top of my head, have been for as long as I remember going back to 1856 with the exception of 1976.

They have had no reason to do any of that.

 

[Benderino]

What about when Clinton and Monica did their thing? The Republicans were bawling about impeachment, and yet we have a President who's done worse things and nothing is being done about it.

 

[onejayhawk]

Originally posted by Benderino
...And the Republicans never whine about just as silly of issues? This is not some disease that only infests one party...all politicians are susceptible to such a disorder.

Not so much as you might think. Obviously the Republicans are the party in power, but they are fairly new to it. Most of the whining I hear comes from the recently disinfranchised Democrats. So yes, its one party.

The Clinton impeachment was about tampering with witnesses, abuse of authority and obstruction of process, just like Watergate, although on many more specifics.

Please name what this president has done that its worse than perjury.

J

 

[Benderino]

Originally posted by onejayhawk
Not so much as you might think. Obviously the Republicans are the party in power, but they are fairly new to it. Most of the whining I hear comes from the recently disinfranchised Democrats. So yes, its one party.

The Clinton impeachment was about tampering with witnesses, abuse of authority and obstruction of process, just like Watergate, although on many more specifics.

Please name what this president has done that its worse than perjury.

J

Lying under oath is as bad as lying in the State of the Union address, I believe. On top of that, his lying was covering up him having sexual trysts with a woman, not about us having lost about 350 good men and women in war. (I support the war by-the-way, but there comes a time when we should be able to say to ourselves that we can forgive Clinton for his errs, especially when one takes into account the brilliant things he did for this country in terms of the economy, foreign policy, welfare, etc.

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

And if Bush escapes, like Clinton did, on the technicality that lying in the State of the Union address is not technically perjury, then my response is "do we have to swear and oath the President before every speech before we can trust him?"

Regardless of the legalities, both Clinton and Bush broke the trust of the American people.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

Democrat wins governorship in Louisiana

This reminds me of 2002, where a Democrat won the Senate race a few months after the Republican victory in November. However, that Democrat won by stressing her similarities to Bush. This one won by saying her opponent was unfair to the poor -- a significantly better sign for Democrats.

Other than that, this win is HUGE for the Democrats. For one thing, the Republicans are denied having a sitting minority governor. Also, Jindal was heavily courting the African-American vote, which had blindly gone Democratic since FDR. These two factors mean that the GOP dream of breaking the Democratic monopoly on the minority vote has taken a big hit.

If African-Americans in the south are having more children than whites, which I suspect is the case (anyone have the statistics?) then the Democrats may have a chance at winning the south once again in the next few hundred years.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

Oh, and another thing -- Bush did NOT campaign for the Republican candidate in this election like he did for the sucessful Republican candidates earlier this month. He was advised to stay away from Louisiana because it was feared that his support for Jindal would turn African-American voters (who dislike Bush) away.

Now that it has been shown that African-Americans are virtually automatic Democratic voters, I doubt they will bother with that strategy again. They still have a white majority that has grown increasingly Republican to work with.