Thursday, October 30, 2008

Thursday Evening

A man on my TV told me today that Barack Obama is running on an "unapologetic socialist platform." I don't think that's true but let's say it is. Does that mean that if Obama wins next week by a wide margin, he has a mandate to bring Communism to these United States?

The definition of socialism, by the way, seems to have changed in light of the big bailouts. It no longer includes the government taking over companies and sinking our money into industry. It does apparently involve rolling the top tax rate back to what it was in the Clinton years.

• Posted at 10:25 PM · LINK

Counting Ahead

As Alfred Walker and a few others have informed me, there's another Electoral Map Projection on the 'net that has Obama under 300. It's the one for National Public Radio. They have Obama at 291 and McCain at 163. They're declining to call Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri or Indiana. This is probably a more realistic way to look at where we are today.

• Posted at 2:06 AM · LINK

Briefly Noted...

I occasionally make typos on this here website and once in a while, my brain goes condo for a little while and I write precisely the opposite of what I intended to say. I have a few friends who keep me honest with corrections but no one is faster to send corrections than a fellow I've never met, except by e-mail, Mark Thorson. For this, and a reason I'm sure he'd rather I not mention, I wanted to tell you he's a great guy.

• Posted at 2:00 AM · LINK

Face Front Nevermore!

Gee, I wish there was somewhere on the Internet where I could watch a video of Stan Lee reading "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. Oh, if only there was somewhere on the Internet where I could watch a video of Stan Lee reading "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. Sigh.

Oh, wait. There is!

• Posted at 1:34 AM · LINK

Thursday Morning

I watched Barack Obama's half-hour "infomercial" last evening. It was well-produced, moving, touching...probably everything its makers wanted it to be. And I didn't like it. Then again, it probably didn't strike me the way it should have struck those in its target audience. To me, it was so slick and well-crafted that it triggered my "caveat emptor" sensibilities...you know, when a product is so beautifully packaged that it makes you wonder what's wrong with it. I'll bet the folks who made this documentary on Obama could make one just as beautiful and inspirational about a really bad candidate.

I always feel manipulated by these things, bombarded with images and concepts that have been factory-tested and researched to induce the desired response. I like Obama when he's just talking to us, laying out concepts and philosophies that seem to me a lot more candid and genuine than is the norm for his profession. I even liked the speech he gave shortly after where he and Bill Clinton were appearing at a "midnight rally" in Florida. Clinton spoke first and, amazingly and after a self-indulgent start, spoke mainly of Obama and not himself. What Obama followed with was also well-polished...but given how many times he's given essentially the same speech these past few months, you can forgive that. I liked him a lot more in that speech than I did in his overgrown commercial.

You can see the overgrown commercial, by the way, at this link...and at about 10,000 other places on the Internet.

Meanwhile, I'm getting hundreds of entries in our "Guess How Many Electoral Votes Barack Obama Will Receive" contest, the details of which are here. Guesses so far range from 0 to 438 but many numbers are being guessed multiple times and a lot of good ones are still unguessed. Get yours in today. You don't want to miss out on that terrific, non-existent prize. In fact, I'm thinking of doubling it.

• Posted at 12:53 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Okay, I found a clip of the segment on CNN today. I'm in there for a few seconds, looking way too serious for the topic...

• Posted at 12:21 AM · LINK

October 31, 2008 • Current • October 29, 2008