tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12610610.post4977213315510463487..comments2023-12-27T03:40:39.548-05:00Comments on Mah Rabu מה רבו: Endorsement: Obama in '08BZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18242965196421853025noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12610610.post-69821950681064471222008-11-05T01:42:00.000-05:002008-11-05T01:42:00.000-05:00Y. Ben-David writes:Sorry to pour cold water on yo...Y. Ben-David writes:<BR/><I>Sorry to pour cold water on your enthusiasm, but Obama has ZERO chance to be elected.</I><BR/><BR/>Let's just look at that again:<BR/><I>Sorry to pour cold water on your enthusiasm, but Obama has ZERO chance to be elected.</I><BR/><BR/>WHEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!BZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18242965196421853025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12610610.post-77050427201820112382008-06-24T05:21:00.000-04:002008-06-24T05:21:00.000-04:00Here's another one for your "concern troll" commen...Here's another one for your "concern troll" comment (whatever that means).<BR/><BR/>The New York Times reported today that Obama has been keeping American Muslim groups at arm's length and they are offended that he keeps vehemently denying that he is a Muslim, instead of calmy denying it. Well, the article quoted a "PEW" poll that said 10% of American voters believe the rumors that he is a Muslim. Again, considering how close many elections are, this is another major handicap to be operating under, (assuming that most of these people don't want a Muslim as President-of course some might be Muslims themselves who hope that it is true).<BR/><BR/>I think you are mistaken if you think Republicans who didn't vote for McCain are going to line up for Obama. You agreed with my assertion that he is a super liberal and you claimed that most Americans want a candidate like this, but do you really believe that the Republicans who voted for Romney or Huckabee want a superliberal like Obama as President. I repeat that I think Republicans who are disatisfied with Bush's policied will largely vote for McCain for President a their local Democratic candidate for the House and Senate for balance.<BR/><BR/>In any event, your assertion that a "super liberal record is mainstream American opinion today" is way off-base. Many conservatives (e.g. Pat Buchanan) oppose the war in Iraq. It is not a "liberal/conservative" issue.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12610610.post-74252452489082158452008-06-22T14:03:00.000-04:002008-06-22T14:03:00.000-04:00The Utah example is not instructive - Utah's Repub...<I>The Utah example is not instructive - Utah's Republican voters are overwhelmingly Mormon, and thus voted for Mitt Romney out of loyalty</I><BR/><BR/>McCain also lost by more than 20 percentage points in Iowa, Nevada, Maine, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, West Virginia, and Kansas. Arkansas is Huckabee's home state, but none of the others have this excuse. Again, I don't think this means that McCain has no chance in those states; I think it means that the primary results are not instructive about the general election. <BR/><BR/><I>Obama's trouble among conservative, blue collar, older, and white Democrats - which was partially reflected in Hillary's wins in "swing" states with large groups of those populations - is a legitimate problem, and one which Obama supporters such as myself would do much better to admit to and deal with, rather than deny, in order to secure victory in November.</I><BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/194870.php" REL="nofollow">Numerous </A> <A HREF="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/12/134251/930" REL="nofollow">analyses </A> <A HREF="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/26/133958/391" REL="nofollow">have</A> <A HREF="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/05/its_an_appalachia_problem_not_1.php" REL="nofollow">shown</A> that this "trouble" is restricted to Appalachia (which includes a number of the late primary states), and is not reflected in the nation as a whole.BZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18242965196421853025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12610610.post-50295573536706902192008-06-22T13:44:00.000-04:002008-06-22T13:44:00.000-04:00that it is blasphemy even to suggest that Obama th...<I>that it is blasphemy even to suggest that Obama the Messiah might lose.</I><BR/><BR/>If I believed that Obama was the messiah, would I have waited until June to endorse him?<BR/><BR/><I>You are the one twisting facts trying to interpret McCain's loss in Utah as somehow indicating that Republican's don't support him.</I><BR/><BR/>I'm not making that claim at all. Rather, my point was that just as it is absurd to extrapolate anything from McCain's devastating defeat in the Utah primary to his chances in Utah in the general election, it is also absurd to make projections about Obama's general election chances based on his primary losses.BZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18242965196421853025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12610610.post-63834506307999862342008-06-20T04:12:00.000-04:002008-06-20T04:12:00.000-04:00I'm sorry it took you this long to endorse Obama. ...I'm sorry it took you this long to endorse Obama. Edwards ran a great campaign, but as Russ Feingold said of Edwards, "he's running on my senate record - not his own." (That's a paraphrase - but I think it's close to what he said).<BR/><BR/>I think he has an excellent chance of winning. It's not hard to find solid polling and analysis to counter Ben-David's arguments. Intrade.com has him currently trading at 62 cents to the dollar. That's encouraging.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12610610.post-34158576047529888672008-06-17T05:26:00.000-04:002008-06-17T05:26:00.000-04:00BZ-I wrote the same piece on another liberal Jewis...BZ-I wrote the same piece on another liberal Jewish blogger's site that also is pro-Obama and he reacted the same way you did to my comment....that it is blasphemy even to suggest that Obama the Messiah might lose.<BR/>I don't know what a "concern troll" is, but I am not "concerned" for him to win, I, like most Israelis, I want him to lose, but I was not twisting facts to fit my preferred outcome, I was just stating the situation as it now exists, regardless of my preference. As you must have noticed, Jewtah essentially agreed with my analysis. You are the one twisting facts trying to interpret McCain's loss in Utah as somehow indicating that Republican's don't support him. Well, if that is the case, how did he manage to easily win the Republican nomination?<BR/><BR/>Your statement that a "superliberal" ideology is what most Americans want today is laughable. The last time a liberal Democrat won the Presidency was in 1964, and the last time before that was Truman in 1948. Kennedy did NOT run as a liberal, he ran as a tough cold-warrior whose main claim was that the Eisenhower Administration was allowing the US to fall behind the USSR. <BR/>Both Democrats who won after 1964, Carter and Clinton portrayed themselves as moderate Southern Democrats. I don't even know if Obama is really portraying himself as as liberal...it seems you restrict "liberalism" to opposing the war in Iraq (which Obama is not going to be able to easily run away from if he is elected) and from what I heard he is NOT proposing a national health insurance plan. The economic situation is not going to allow a new "New Deal"-type Administration.<BR/><BR/>I find it fascinating how so many liberal Jews have gone bananas over Obama. He has very little political record to speak of, he has flip-flopped on Israel (according to the New York Times he used to be very pro-Palestinian, then when he realized the power of the Jews in Chicago, he changed his tune), he keeps bad company like Jeremiah Wright and the ex-Weatherman radical. One Jewish "progressive", Phil Weiss (Mondoweiss) says he loves Obama because Obama was "struggling with his identity" just like so many "progressive" Jews do and that since Obama has supposedly "transcended race" (did his mentor Wright do this?), he will teach us "parochial Zionist Jews" to do the same (Weiss is an anti-Zionist).<BR/>It takes much more than giving nice speeches and gladhandling people to make a statesman, and I doubt Obama has the qualities of a statesman.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12610610.post-49552327132061653182008-06-13T14:54:00.000-04:002008-06-13T14:54:00.000-04:00The Utah example is not instructive - Utah's Repub...The Utah example is not instructive - Utah's Republican voters are overwhelmingly Mormon, and thus voted for Mitt Romney out of loyalty - its a special case and not instructive of McCain's ability or lack thereof (although he does have such a problem) to win among conservative Republicans. Obama's trouble among conservative, blue collar, older, and white Democrats - which was partially reflected in Hillary's wins in "swing" states with large groups of those populations - is a legitimate problem, and one which Obama supporters such as myself would do much better to admit to and deal with, rather than deny, in order to secure victory in November.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12610610.post-2611051043476261482008-06-12T10:06:00.000-04:002008-06-12T10:06:00.000-04:00I also heard the results of a poll that said 19% o...<I>I also heard the results of a poll that said 19% of white respondents would not vote for a black candidate. Considering that elections often are decided by a 1 or 2% shift, this is an immense handicap to operating under.</I><BR/><BR/>CONCERN TROLL!!!BZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18242965196421853025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12610610.post-8589293666368098282008-06-12T10:05:00.000-04:002008-06-12T10:05:00.000-04:00Obama lost 9 of the last 16 primaries and Hillary ...<I>Obama lost 9 of the last 16 primaries and Hillary got 600,000 more votes than him. </I><BR/><BR/>Luckily for Obama, Clinton won't be on the ballot in December. And if we're going to carry the "losing primaries means losing the general election" argument to its (il)logical conclusion, then we should <A HREF="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/20/9502/12865" REL="nofollow">note </A> that McCain got crushed by an 85% margin in the Utah primary. And Utah is usually a Republican stronghold, so if McCain can't even win there, how will he have any hope in the rest of the country?<BR/><BR/>As for the primary "popular vote", the <A HREF="http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/06/final-popular-vote-estimates-obama-wins.html" REL="nofollow">only way Obama loses</A> is if you count all of Clinton's votes in Michigan and give Obama zero votes.<BR/><BR/><I>his voting record is super liberal and he is out of touch with most American opinion</I><BR/><BR/>A "super liberal" voting record represents the mainstream of American opinion these days. Solid majorities want universal health care and an end to the war in Iraq.<BR/><BR/><I>America's structural economic problems leading to problems like the massive trade deficit and weak dollar are going to demand belt-tightening</I><BR/><BR/>Like the belt-tightening we saw under "fiscal conservative" George W. Bush, who squandered the Clinton surplus to give tax cuts to billionaires?BZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18242965196421853025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12610610.post-68930574428952696882008-06-12T09:17:00.000-04:002008-06-12T09:17:00.000-04:00Sorry to pour cold water on your enthusiasm, but O...Sorry to pour cold water on your enthusiasm, but Obama has ZERO chance to be elected. Obama lost 9 of the last 16 primaries and Hillary got 600,000 more votes than him. Instead of gathering steam as he closed in on garnering the majority of the delegates, he began faltering. I saw a poll in the New York Times of Hillary voters in West Virginia (where Hillary beat Obama something like 2-1) and it said that 50% would not vote for Obama in November. A high percentage also said they were concerned about Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright.<BR/>I also heard the results of a poll that said 19% of white respondents would not vote for a black candidate. Considering that elections often are decided by a 1 or 2% shift, this is an immense handicap to operating under.<BR/><BR/>I am puzzled why you progressives think he is going to be the Messiah. He has little experience, his voting record is super liberal and he is out of touch with most American opinion. You may imagine that there is going to be a renewal of the New Deal atmosphere, but I don't think this is what the American people want. Instead of governmental handouts, America's structural economic problems leading to problems like the massive trade deficit and weak dollar are going to demand belt-tightening, so he is going to have to disappoint the progressives who are backing him.<BR/><BR/>Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com