Biden / Palin VP Debate, Oct 2nd @ 9PM EST

[nittanyalum]

Ah, now I see why our GOP friends are in a frenzy, I've been buried for a couple of days and have only caught tidbits of news here and there, am just catching up today -- just stopped by here for the first time in a while: Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

Electoral College projections now show Obama leading 217-163. However, when “leaners” are included, Obama leads 300-174. A total of 270 Electoral Votes are needed to win the White House.

Voters now trust Democrats more than Republicans on all ten key issues tracked regularly by Rasmussen Reports.

I understand the panic now. Everybody, breathe and reboot (quoting Carrie Bradshaw), it's gonna be ok.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

Ah, now I see why our GOP friends are in a frenzy, I've been buried for a couple of days and have only caught tidbits of news here and there, am just catching up today -- just stopped by here for the first time in a while: Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

Check out FiveThirtyEight.com. Even more reason to be worried there.

Originally Posted by Kevin

I think we're both thinking of influence in different terms. Perhaps that's my fault for imprecise wording?

Well, surely you're not suggesting it's my fault?!

But I see what you're saying.

As for what Nelson said, politicians say the craziest things and for the craziest reasons. An Illinois Republican state elected official saying very nice things about the probable future president which might substantially improve his standing in the eyes of the doubting public might possibly have motives beyond giving the public a truthful account about how everyone feels about former domestic terrorists.

Politics does indeed make for strange bed-fellows. (But she's a former State Senator, not a current one. FWIW)

Still, though, her point still stands. So far as I can tell, pretty much everyone who dealt with Ayers (who is a professor at U of Illinois-Chicago -- I know, insert joke here), whether Democrat or Republican, treated his WU activities as part of the past and did not view them as impediments to dealing with him now. I can't help but take that into account when the charge is made now that Obama should have had nothing to do with him.

As I said, politics makes for strange bed-fellows.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Still, though, her point still stands.

And you don't think it's mitigated at all by the fact that she could stand to gain quite a bit by being the 'Republican who is not standing upon partisanship, but telling the truth because it's what's best for our country!'?

When listening to politicians who are saying unlikely things, a good rule of thumb is to assume that whatever the most cynical person could come up with as a motive for the politician to say what she said is probably true.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Kevin

And you don't think it's mitigated at all by the fact that she could stand to gain quite a bit by being the 'Republican who is not standing upon partisanship, but telling the truth because it's what's best for our country!'?

When listening to politicians who are saying unlikely things, a good rule of thumb is to assume that whatever the most cynical person could come up with as a motive for the politician to say what she said is probably true.

Maybe, but

• when that politician is saying that pretty much nobody, Republican or Democrat ever expressed a problem with working with Ayers before this year's campaign, and

• when such a statement can be easily proven untrue if it is indeed untrue, and

• when nobody seems to be disputing that claim, and what record I can find, at least, doesn't dispute it, and

• when it is undisputable that it didn't bother the Annenberg people (hardly a hot-bed of liberalism, and this was long before Obama as president looked like a possibility), and

• it's undisputable that Ayers' past didn't keep him from becoming a distinguished professor of education at a major university (their graduate program in education was ranked 42 in the country by USN&WR in 2007),

then an equally good if not better rule of thumb might be to consider the possibility that what she's saying is, in fact, true.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

Ah, now I see why our GOP friends are in a frenzy, I've been buried for a couple of days and have only caught tidbits of news here and there, am just catching up today -- just stopped by here for the first time in a while: Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll


I understand the panic now. Everybody, breathe and reboot (quoting Carrie Bradshaw), it's gonna be ok.

Well, hopefully we're just getting ahead of ourselves...haha. I will admit, though, that the latest polling numbers have me very worried. I was watching "Meet the Press" this weekend and (I think it was on that show) they were talking about the different calculations being thrown around. In all of the calculations mentioned, Obama has a sizeable lead.

I'm hoping that the numbers are wrong, but I'm at least a little afraid that they're accurate.

[AGDee]

Yes, it was Meet the Press who was looking at the numbers by electoral college delegate votes and current polls. However, there is still a month left. I'm not resting easy yet.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Yes, it was Meet the Press who was looking at the numbers by electoral college delegate votes and current polls. However, there is still a month left. I'm not resting easy yet.

And I don't think you can rely on the polls anyway for a lot of different reasons although they're all we've got right now.

I'm not sure if it's possible for McCain to win, but I'd be surprised if Obama wins by some of the margins that he is presently showing in some states.

We'll see on election day.

[pinksirfidel]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

And I don't think you can rely on the polls anyway for a lot of different reasons although they're all we've got right now.

I'm not sure if it's possible for McCain to win, but I'd be surprised if Obama wins by some of the margins that he is presently showing in some states.

We'll see on election day.

I agree.... polls aren't the end all-be all. I don't want to get my hopes up! I believe this is still a very close race!