I know I'm probably the only one, and I know that in the larger scheme of things it probably doesn't really matter, but when this whole guilt-by-association Ayers bullshit first started being tossed around back in the winter, I actually went back and read all the interviews, etc. that were being cited.

Again, I know this won't matter to anyone but me, but Ayers was badly misquoted in that NY Times piece. His "didn't do enough" comment was taken out of context and used to say essentially the opposition of his intent. While he did say that he felt the Weathermen hadn't "done enough" to protest the Vietnam War, and that he "didn't regret" having participated in those actions, he has also repeatedly and emphatically stated that he does not endorse violent protest now. He has learned that "domestic terrorism" (or "setting bombs" or whatever you want to call it) is not the way to get your point across. He's an avowed pacifist. So he's not an "unrepentant terrorist." He's a fricking Professor of Education, a well-respected member of his community, and a person who felt strongly at the time that he was involved in acts of civil disobedience for the good of his country. He recognizes now that his tactics were wrong, but doesn't regret his commitments. There's a huge difference between that and saying he wishes he'd "bombed more," which is how that interview gets read.

I know this is beside the point, but it pisses me off that people can't even be bothered to quote someone correctly before maligning them. And then, maligning someone else through a misquote of an acquaintance? That's like dunking a Poincaré donut in an Alaskan latte.

Posted at October 9, 2008 6:15 PM in response to McCain Invokes Hillary To Hit Obama Over Ayers

rubber:glue::me:you

That One/The Other Guy '08

Posted at October 9, 2008 5:55 PM in response to I Know You Are, But What Am I?

I'm with you on this one. I expect a stronger Barr showing than polling suggests, and a bigger Obama turnout than current polling models show. These together will keep it close, and I think a Georgia win is possible. I definitely think a GA pick-up is likely by 2012.

I've been saying for a while that by the next Presidential election, it will no longer be possible to speak of "the South" as a single voting bloc. The "Atlantic Coast" (VA, NC, SC, GA, FL) will be a separate constituency. While I definitely think SC is out of reach for this cycle (although it hasn't been polled in quite a while...), I think it will come in closer than expected, too. The Atlantic Coast is a "different South" from the rest of the former Confederate states, and the Obama campaign has shown itself prescient in yet one more arena by recognizing this.

Posted at October 9, 2008 5:54 PM in response to Shocker -- Obama Wins Georgia!

You know, I think you are being snarky, but the sad fact is that I've spent too much time in academe for this to be funny to me. To the "kill him" crowd, we're all a bunch of no-good commies, trying to fill the heads of their unsuspecting children with our evil, Christ-hating, America-defiling, pro-reason agenda.

And we must be stopped.

When I first saw it floating around the internets last winter, I thought the Ayers "charge" was ridiculous and easily dismissed. I was amazed that it actually made it into the so-called "debate" moderated by Gibstephanofoxnews. I really hoped we'd seen the last of it then. But I've come to realize since that the real "danger" of William Ayers may lie less in his "terrorism" than in his elitist intellectual associations.

If he had just bombed buildings and planned a revolution, that would be one thing -- perhaps even allowed to remain safely out of reach in the hazy shade of collective American nostalgia permanently and uncritically ensconced as "the Sixties." Instead, Ayers committed himself to a much more insidious form of anti-American activism, namely, engaging in the practice and encouragement of education. Here, Obama not only sanctioned these activities of Ayers's, but was party to them.

The "Ayers connection" may be less about what Ayers did as a Weatherman and more about another kind of guilt by association. By bringing Obama's early Chicago history to the foreground, it serves serves to highlight the fact that Obama himself has engaged in the worst kind of domestic terrorism: he, too, was once a teacher.

Posted at October 7, 2008 4:13 PM in response to Another Republican Clears Obama on the Ayers Nonsense

The war on sanity.

Posted at October 2, 2008 10:15 PM in response to Vice Presidential Debate

1. "The past is prologue" is the best argument against McCain I've ever heard.

2. "McCain knows how to win a war." Let's fact check that one. What evidence do we have to support this claim?

Posted at October 2, 2008 10:08 PM in response to Vice Presidential Debate

Both were landline calls, both out-of-state numbers that I didn't recognize, both in the middle of the day. So, I got polled because I 1) randomly happened to be home and 2) considered the possibility that, just this once, I might answer my landline before screening through voicemail and 3) took a chance on an unknown number. I don't know what got into me! But after the first time (the ARG poll), I decided that if I saw any similar "looking" calls come in between now and 11/4, I would answer them. :-) And then, the next afternoon, I picked up another call and it was a Rasmussen poll.

Yes, they identify themselves. Both of these were robo/push button, not real people at the other end. It was a bit strange, because I have been "polled"/surveyed before for local races, but I've always talked to a living human being at the other end of the phone.

It's also a bit strange for me because I used to do surveying (for Nielsen, amongst others), so I'm very critical of how questions are put together. Rasmussen always ticks me off with their "opinion" polling, because they give you crap like (in the state polling they're doing right now, and which I had to answer): "What is more important, 1) creating economic growth or 2) reducing the income gap between rich and poor?" and then "What is more important to John McCain/Barack Obama, 1) creating economic growth or 2) reducing the income gap between rich and poor?"

And you just know that they're going to use this as some kind of "John McCain identifies more with voters' values" spin bullshit. All I could think was that this was a totally false choice, because I believe Barack Obama (and I) "think it is more important to create economic growth by reducing the income gap between rich and poor." Arrrgghhh. Bad question!

Anyway, it was still fun to get polled, because I never have before for a Presidential race. Then again, I've never lived anywhere considered "swingy" before. Just based on the political ad volume I'm now seeing in the maybe 30 minutes of TV I watch a day, I have a new-found sense of empathy for Ohio and Florida.

Posted at October 2, 2008 11:31 AM in response to Election Central Morning Roundup

I got polled for both the ARG and the Rasmussen NC polls. How weird is that? I never get polled.

ARG sucks, tho. Not just because I "don't like their data." Their survey design was bizarro, and their track record is bad.

PPP is still the best at polling NC (they are NC based, and understand the geographic complexity involved in polling this wildly heterogeneous state), but a +3 from Rasmussen makes me very, very happy.

Happy Veepday!

Posted at October 2, 2008 9:13 AM in response to Election Central Morning Roundup

maybe 79 or 80? I don't really know. I was born in '74 and didn't live in the states till 76. wasn't allowed to watch much tv as a little kid, and wouldn't have been a big c-span watcher, I'm sure.

but, yeah. I don't think Biden really came on the national scene in a big way until the Bork hearings, which was 87. But I could be wrong. Maybe I just think that because that's when my political consciousness really began (other than knowing who "The President" was and who the major candidates for, say Presidential and Gubernatorial races were).

Posted at October 1, 2008 10:14 PM in response to Did You Hear the One About Palin Listening to Biden Speeches Since She was 7!

Okay, I do not for one minute believe that Sarah Palin was tuned into Joe Biden's speeches when she was a 2nd grader and he was a Freshman Senator.

At the same time, I have to say that it's not inconceivable to me that children in general take an interest in politics; I just don't believe it in her case because she doesn't seem that interested as an adult. If she had been listening to political speeches since seven, she would know more Supreme Court history than Roe v. Wade, and she would be able to cite at least some examples of McCain's legislative record. I know this, because I can do these things, and didn't start following politics until middle school.

I do distinctly remember watching Joe Biden during the Bork confirmation hearings; I was 12 at the time. This is still very vivid to me; it made a big impression. I guess it was the first real "political" event to break through for me on an emotional and intellectual level, as strange as it seems to me now.

And while I may be the only person in America who even remembers Bork, those hearings - and more specifically, the way Joe Biden handled them - are the reason I started thinking of myself as a "liberal" in the midst of My Old Small-Town, Reagan Democrat, Christianist Conservative Kentucky Home. Truly. Joe Biden's "speeches" when I was 12 played a big part in making me into the person who would be an Obama (and then Obama/Biden) supporter in 2008. I have disagreed with him a lot over the years, but I haven't doubted Biden's motivations or core principles. And he's clearly had an impact on mine - which is not something I've heard many (any?) Republicans say about John McCain, even when they were praising his mavericky POWness.

I feel very weird, having just realized (and shared) that I had this "formative event" that I didn't even fully remember until Saracuddah went and dissed on my boy. So I guess there's one thing I like about her now. Her vapid meanness reminded me just how deeply effective our guy really is.

Posted at October 1, 2008 1:59 PM in response to Did You Hear the One About Palin Listening to Biden Speeches Since She was 7!