"By the way we have to fix that"
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"By the way we have to fix that"
I guess President Obama's victory was the headline coming out of yesterday (barely beating out this story) but the most interesting comment was this off-hand remark by the current and future leader of the free world:
As he spoke in Chicago, he thanked everyone who cast a ballot "whether you voted for the first time, or waited in line for a very long time" -- then he quickly added, in an evident ad lib, "by the way we have to fix that."
By "that," the president was referring to long lines, confusion over early voting and other issues, thousands of voters who should have been on the books but weren't (full disclosure: including my 18-year-old son casting his first ballot, although he was able to vote eventually), and a slew of recent laws aimed at making it harder for people to vote instead of easier. The resulting chaos made a mockery of American exceptionalism, unless "exceptionalism" is now synonymous with "what you might find in a faraway banana republic."
Now, three things about the president's comment:
1) "By the way", you've been president for the last almost four years -- this is just occurring to you now? Amazing. It's almost like that Ragu commercial..."I wonder what other bad decisions I've made.."
2) If he's serious, Step 1 is to roll back all the voter suppression laws -- like Pennsylvania's outrageous voter ID measure -- that have passed in the last couple of years.
3) More importantly, I hope America can think outside the box for real solutions to encourage as close to universal voting as we can get. That means things like day-of-voting registration, early voting in every state (including, gasp, Pennsylvania), and moving the final Election Day from Tuesday to Saturday. I heard on the radio yesterday that Tuesday elections were to coordinate with farmers' trips to market. I don't think we'd be crushing too many succotash growers by moving the vote to the weekend.
“I mean, then you would have to depend completely on African Americans and gays to scare the base into voting. “
What I find funny is that originally the right pretended to be ultra Christian, bigoted against gays, and anti abortion to get their stupid middle class base to go out and vote against themselves. As in “Billy Bob, you need to get to the polls and vote against those evil abortionists, and while you’re at it, go ahead and vote for some Republican candidates (who are going to redistribute middle class wealth to the top).” But now they actually believe their own propaganda and will take the whole party down supporting it. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.
— Hamlet- Hamlet, I'm disappointed in you. I thought you were better than name calling: "bigoted against gays, and anti abortion to get their stupid middle class base ". You just called a good 33% of the country stupid and bigoted. I seem to recall seeing quite a few pro-abortion ads attempting to scare women into voting. Are women stupid? "It's a beautiful thing to watch" -- what is? That 48% of the country voted AGAINST Obama? Will it be a "beautiful ting to watch" if the House decides to be obstructionist and prevent Obama from doing anything for the next two years? And then potentially gets voted back in again to deny him again for another 2 years? How exactly is that going to help us?— IggleFan68
- The country is drifting to the stupid. In the same way that a one-eyed man is king in a land full of the blind the Dullard-in-Chief must seem like a genius to the morons and imbeciles who voted for him.— 2ndNlong
- I do admit the following -- I was really surprised to see that Romney got less votes nationally than McCain (until Florida is counted, I think). I predicted that Obama was not going to get anywhere near the same # of votes he did (by comparison, Bush got 50 million votes in 2000, 62 million in 2004), but I thought that Republicans would turn their base out to defeat him. Looking at some of the election analysis, however, I think there are a number of points that should concern conservatives/Republicans/GOP. The demographics of the country are changing -- the white male vote will NOT carry a national election. Hispanics need to be a core constituency for the GOP, and that's totally missing right now as evidenced by the % of the Hispanic vote that Obama received. I also agree that the GOP needs to drop the family values tour, and move into the 21st century with their positions on gay rights (which I've been vocal here about), adopt a sensible position on abortion (there are easy positions to take that are way less inflammatory), and keep their religion to themselves. Core conservatism needs to be about: limited role of government, fiscal responsibility, strong defense, and now a sensible immigration policy. It will be interesting to see if the GOP can move in that direction, or will attempt to double down and go way further to the right (losing strategy there).— IggleFan68
- Even though you were woefully off in your predictions for election, you seem to be a sensible person. Congrats for accepting reality and good luck. Sincerely.
PS - I still haven't sensed any anger at Fox News for lying - yes, lying - to it's viewers about the polls. Where is the outrage at Karl Rove being an "analyst" on the election night and flailing around when Fox called Ohio for Obama?— wokmaster - I have an OT question. On the old Philly.com, I would click on the News dropdown and click Attytood. How does one get there now with the new format? (And yes, I'm prepared for the joke answers)— Commentdant_Klink
- Go to 'news blogs'. It's usually under the news section. (No, I'm not being sarcastic. It took me a couple days to figure it out). — wokmaster
- I have to think that if we changed the presidential election to a popular vote winner instead of the electoral college, it would result in less voter fraud.— General Turgidson
- Congress has the authority to set the rules for Congressional and Presidential elections. If they set the rules, the state elections will fall in line. Look to Australia, UK or Canada to see how to do elections right.— MikeP
- "Core conservatism needs to be about: limited role of government, fiscal responsibility, strong defense, and now a sensible immigration policy." . . . . . Limited government and fiscal responsibility are sensible principles, but they're static. They do not translate easily to the aspirations and hopes of most Americans, particulalry younger Amercians. It sold well when Communism was an existential threat to our way of life, but the Red bogeyman is long gone. The Right has compensated by appealing to nationalism, family values, xenophobia, homophobia, etc., and has painted itself into a corner. Figure out what conservatism means to a global economy with an evolving society, and sell it.— montani semper liberi
- hey wok. i was wrong about the polls. you are wrong about life. go play with your obama phone and free condoms or something— rysagr
- Okay, Iggle, I was being a bit nasty, but my point was that what the GOP used to pretend to be for to get voters to vote for them, and to get out the vote, it now actually believes. Appealing to the anti-intellectuals turned into them actually becoming an anti-intellectual party.— Hamlet
- I put a free condom over my Obamaphone when it rains...— Hamlet
- "I was wrong about the polls"
Yeah, rsygar, you were. But it's not like saying you were wrong for picking the Eagles over the Saints last week. You had data to look at and numbers that could be backed up but you and the rest of the dimwits decided to believe Dick Morris. I wouldn't be telling anybody else they're "wrong about life", when you clearly live in a Fantasy Land. But not only is your logic all messed up, you have a big mouth and don't hide your stupidity very well. Yeah, you "were wrong". Lol. Like that's a rarity...— wokmaster - wow wok. you make so many right choices in life you have all day to spend here. oh wait you don't have a job. lol good luck with that and 4 more years— rysagr
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