Motley Moose – Archive

Senator McCain and Governor Palin do have some record of reform.  That record is obviously mixed, but yes, they have accomplished some feats of reform in their careers.  That is to their credit and I’m not trying to diminish that.  You guys know me.  I like to give credit where it’s due.

That said, Senator McCain and Governor Palin are trying to conflate “reform” with “change.”  Yes, a facile understanding of these words would make that a passable construction, but in so doing one misses the whole theme of the Obama campaign.

Hey all!  I just thought I’d do something nobody’s really been doing of late.  I’m going to tell you why I’m a Democrat, why I believe in the party and why I agree with much of the ideology.

My mother was a union-member air traffic controller with the FAA.  Her job was pretty much to keep civilian air traffic (and if I recall correctly, the occasional military flight) safely taking off, landing, and in the air as needed.  This is an incredibly difficult and stressful job.  It is also one of the most important functions of our government.

The fact that my mom had this job had a bigger impact on my formative years than I realized at the time.

Okay folks, this one’s going to be brief.  Nate Silver over at FiveThirtyEight has a good piece on the merits of these recent shifts in party-identification and weighting and so forth, I recommend you read it.  http://www.fivethirtyeight.com…

(Crossposted at MyDD)

However, that analysis, however clever or correct, isn’t what I’m here to tell you.  Stop blaming the damned pollsters, it’s counter-productive if not outright STUPID!

So the Obama campaign has gone dark in Georgia and is moving some of that staff from Georgia to North Carolina.  And so the last round of polling makes North Carolina and Montana look a lot less likely to swing our way.  So it goes.

Virginia still looks good.  North Dakota, oddly enough, still looks good.  Colorado, New Mexico, and Iowa still look fantastic.  We’re still up in New Hampshire.  Yes, we’ve won some of those states, off and on, in the last few cycles.  We have not done so consistently.  There is a point to this, and mark it well.

(Crossposted at MyDD)

Crossposted at MyDD and DailyKos

Guys, please Rec this one up!

Governor Palin, we would like to apologize.  Some of us among the Netroots have been, shall we say, overzealous in looking for ways to turn your nomination into a liability for your party.  It seems the world has no shortage of wood-be Woodwards and Bernsteins.  The saner among us have been hitherto unable to restrain those wanted to believe in these scurrilous rumors.

If we have hurt your family we are truly sorry.  We are better people than these stories would have you believe.  We wish you and your family nothing but good health and good times.  Alaska is a great place for a family, no?

Again, the families of the candidates should be off-limits.  What they do, where they pray, and how they relate have nothing to do with us, and should certainly never be used for the purpose of an attack.

Good evening everyone!

Blogs do not (yet) drive public opinion. The overwhelming majority of voters have probably never heard of DailyKos and certainly haven’t heard of MyDD.  We aren’t there yet.  We aren’t much better than an echo chamber.  We can raise money pretty well and we’re not that bad at organizing.  We can, on occasion, do some good opposition research (though the Republican bloggers have done a better job of it thus far).

We really aren’t kind of a big deal (yet).  This is very important and it speaks to a misunderstanding.  We’re self-centered, and we overestimate both the good we can do, and the damage we can wreak.

Howdy all!

Alaska has a population of roughly 670,000.  The 1970 census shows that Cleveland had a population of 750,829, and the 1980 census shows a popuation of 573,912.  Then Mayor Dennis Kucinich had executive control over a population (during his term, which ran from 1977 to 1979) roughly equivalent to the modern population of Alaska.  The “Boy Mayor” was a dismal failure, leading the city of Cleveland to default on its debt.  However, he’d had a full two years running the place.  I live not far South of Cleveland, so the story is known to me.  

Sarah Palin has been in charge of Alaska for about 18 months.  Anyone care to point out to the Republicans that Congressman Kucinich was more qualified prior to winning his seat?

Good afternoon everyone!

John McCain has made a mistake.  I understand that the conventional wisdom was that if he waited to announce his Vice Presidential pick after the Democratic convention he’d be able to steal their thunder and, perhaps, turn some voters his way.  Folks, that bit of reasoning will turn out to have been incorrect.