We're Gonna Frickin' Lose this Thing

"Stop saying that!" my wife says to me. But this is not a high school football game and I'm not a cheerleader with a bad attitude. This is an election and as things stand now, we're gonna frickin' lose this thing. Obama and McCain at best are even in the polls nationally and in a recent Gallup poll McCain is ahead by four points.

Something is not right. We have a terrific candidate and a terrific VP candidate. We're coming off the worst eight years in our country's history. Six of those eight years the Congress, White House and even the Supreme Court were controlled by the Republicans and the last two years the R's have filibustered like tantrum throwing 4-year-olds, yet we're going to elect a Republican who voted with that leadership 90% of the time and a former sportscaster who wants to teach Adam and Eve as science? That's not odd as a difference of opinion, that's logically and mathematically queer.

It reminds me of playing blackjack (a losers game). You make all the right moves, play the right hands but basically the House always wins. I know what you're going to say " But I won twelve hundred dollars last year in Atlantic City!" Of course there are victories. The odds aren't tilted crazy, but there is a 51%-49% advantage. And in the long run, the house has to win. The house will win.

So what is this house advantage the Republicans have? It's the press. There is no more fourth estate. Wait, hold on...I'm not going down some esoteric path with theories on the deregulation of the media and corporate bias and CNN versus Fox...I mean it: there is no more functioning press in this country. And without a real press the corporate and religious Republicans can lie all they want and get away with it. And that's the 51% advantage.

Think this is some opinion being wryly posited to titillate other bloggers and inspire dialogue with Tucker Carlson or Gore Vidal? Fuck that. Four corporations own all the TV channels. All of them. If they don't get ratings they get canceled or fired. All news is about sex, blame and anger, and fear. Exposing lies about amounts of money taken from lobbyists and votes cast for the agenda of the last eight years does not rate. The end.

So one side can lie and get away with it. Now let's throw in one more advantage. Voter caging and other corruption on the local level with voting. Check out the article here on HuffPost about Ohio messing with 600K voters. If only five thousand of those voters don't or can't vote that's a huge advantage in a contest that could be decided by literally dozens of votes. That takes us to about a 52 to 48% advantage.

I'm not even getting into the fact that the religious right teaches closed mindedness so it's almost impossible to gain new voters from their pool because people who disagree with them are agents of the devil. I just want to look at two inarguable realities: A) we have no more press and B) the Repubs are screwing with the voters on the local level.

I'm telling you, we're going to lose this thing. And afterwords we'll blame ourselves the same way we did with Gore and Kerry (two candidates a thousand times more qualified to lead than W Bush.) Just watch.. McCain wins by a point or two and we all walk around saying things like "Obama was too well spoken." "Biden wasn't lovable enough." "I shouldn't have split those eights." "Why did I hit on 16? Why?!"

So what do we do?

1) We give definitive clear speeches like Biden and Obama gave the other day about how no one talked about any issues at the Republican Convention and how they outright lied. But we do them over and over again. 2) We use the one place where it's still a 50-50 game -- the internet -- as much as we can. 3) But most importantly we should bring up re-regulating the media and who owns it and what that conflict of interest is a lot more. By pretending there's no conflict of interest we're failing to alert the public that they're being lied to or given a looking at a coin at the bottom of a pool slanted truth. Every time a pundit or elected official is on any TV news program it should be a polite formality to mention that GE has made such and such billions off the war in Iraq by selling arms or that Murdoch is a right-wing activist with a clear stake in who wins and who taxes his profits the least. Disney, GE, Viacom, and Murdoch -- all want profits and the candidate and agenda that will get in their way the least.

Obama and Biden should also create a "master sound bite sentence" and repeat it hundreds of times. It should be so true that even the corporations can't screw with it when it makes the airwaves. Here's my attempt: "Katrina, four dollar gas, a trillion dollar war, rising unemployment, deregulated housing market, global warming...no more."

This race should be about whether the Republican Party is going to be dismantled or not after the borderline treason of the past eight years. But instead it is about making the word "community organizer" a dirty word and a beauty queen who shoots foxes from a plane. Someone is not in any way doing their job and it's the press. Or more specifically, that job no longer exists.

Probably the worst offenders are the pundits who take the position that it's all just a game and say phrases like "getting a post-convention bump" or "playing to the soccer Moms." This isn't a game of Monopoly or Survivor. There are real truths that exist outside of the spin they are given and have an effect on lives. 250,000 Iraqi civilians are dead because we let our reality be distorted by the most effective propaganda machine in fifty years, the corporate American press. Money and jobs are flying out of this country as our currency becomes worthless and we're talking about the fact that McCain is a veteran. If someone busted into your house and robbed you would you then forgive them if you found out they were a veteran? Of course not. So why are we forgiving McCain for selling out his country by supporting the Bush agenda?

This is it folks. If McCain takes power we fade and become Australia in the seventies: a backwoods country with occasional flashes of relevance. Except we've got a way bigger military and we're angrier. People will get hurt and we'll pay the bill for the bullets. I'm telling you, unless we wake up, we're gonna lose this frickin' thing.

Comments

[Kirk59]

If we end up with McCain/Palin they will face the most hostile Congress in a long long time. No change, more gridlock and fingerpointing, no way Dems will allow McCain to achieve any successes. Obama, to his credit, has tried to move us beyong tribal partisanship. We may not be up to the task. As a people we are less educated, we read less, we work more hours and have less and less time to devote to being citizens, we are swayed by personalities and "narratives" instead of a careful review of the issues. All of this plays right into the Christian-neocon agenda to dumb down the voters, and supress or discourage the rest. It is already ugly and is going to get much worse before we wake up.

[valleygent]

You are preaching to the choir here...mos­t realize that the fight should be stepped up dramatically. What will it take for the top to hear us?

[dvcnuts]

The Obama-Biden campaign can learn from the wisdom of Sean Connery's character in The Untouchables: "When they pull a knife, you pull a gun. When they put one of yours in the hospital, put two of theirs in the morgue!" They need to get tough with McCain, and hit him harder than than he hits them. Sarah Palin will flame out and be a liability. She is already on her downward spiral.

[MadeinAmericaProud]

The little money I have left to donate, I want to purchase that untouchables CAMPAIGN new policy.

[PensiveObserver]

"So what is this house advantage the Republicans have? It's the press."

This is laughable. Watch MSNBC some night--from Chris Matthews, to Keith Olbermann, to Rachel Maddow...

[Kirk59]

MSNBC is not the main stream media. It is a mostly partisan broadcast and they don't pretend to be anything else. There is a market for a liberal news outlet and they are fulfilling it, as does FOX on the other side. Since GE owns MSNBC and has billions of dollars in defense contracts, don't expect any more than throwing us a few harmless scraps of red meat. The press which co-conspired to get us into Iraq and for 8 years has refused to call out the Bush administration on its endless scandals, THAT PRESS, is the one we are talking about.

[toddausaurus]

Exactly. How can anyone who has been actually watching not conclude that the press has been trying everything in the book to get Barry elected? Oh, NOW, the press is unfair because the polls have shifted? The fact is thaht Barry has in the end come across like an out of touch snob, he's not that likeable to most Americans and guess what...we have to actually like the guy we vote for. Stop whining.

[jimvj]

If you think Chris Matthews is liberal or even moderate you must be a paid Republican hack.

Matthews almost had an orgasm as he blathered on when Bush was playing the macho codpiece equipped pseudo fighter pilot on that "Mission Accomplished" aircraft carrier off San Diego. He has repeatedly said that McCain had paid his dues and deserves to be president.

The only reason KO and RM are on MSNBC is that they get viewers in numbers that rightwing blowhards like Savage or even Joe cannot get - not because GE/NBC buys into their worldview. As the corruption and ineptitude of the rightwing becomes more and more obvious, quite a few Americans are getting fed up with the blatant lies of FOX and even CNN & MSNBC. Compare this to FOX, where Murdoch basically dictates how the news should be colored.

If GE/NBC thought they could get viewers without KO & RM they would be gone sooner than you can say Phil Donahue.

[Independent voter]

Over 2800 of you have written comments in response to Adams's hypotheis. But how many of you have done something about it?

We are not going to win by typing wittly notes on Huffpo. We can only win by pushing away from the keyboard and helping the Obama campaign.

It might seem intimidating at first, but it's very easy to get involved and if you can change one other person's vote or register a new voter, then you have doubled your voting power.

Look on this web site for things happening in your area.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/search_simple

[Lauren SoFlo]

I’ve got more issues with the campaign (continued):
McCain has better surrogates going out to the political shows to argue specifics and spin any negative stories. They are excellent TV debaters. On our side, there are some political figures are polarizing because of their voting histories or views that are a little more left-ist or have more grating personalities than the average swing voter would like. DON’T CHOOSE THOSE PEOPLE AS YOUR SURROGATES. Chuck Schumer is a great guy, and less controversial than Al Sharpton, but that still doesn’t mean want to see him again until after the election. Rudy's follow up on Meet the Press mopped the floor with Chuck. And on George S this morning with Carly Fiorina vs Claire McCaskill ...Carly was ruthless and completely won the arguments. They bully their point through and talk as long as possible so that it eats up the airtime, while our side politely waits to speak their turn…..onl­y to find out they are out of time.
And finally, we’ve allowed the discussion of Iraq to focus on the surge, when the biggest selling point Obama has on Iraq is that he didn’t vote for it in the first place. Judgment isn’t just how to deal with the wars we are in, but whether to start unnecessary wars in the first place. Let’s face it, overall Obama loses the surge argument, but the idea of bomb first, ask questions later is the Bush/McCain strategy which is very vulnerable.

[Lauren SoFlo]

Thank for this article. I’m so depressed about how we’re losing almost ready to give up! Here's my list of some things I think they can do better:
Obama and Biden: get your bites ready, sneak some specifics in there, too. Statistics about energy, or “specific” truths such as how it’s a myth that drilling will mean more American oil since the oil will enter the world market, and OPEC will just reduce supply to keep prices high, negating any price breaks from drilling. You're fighting McCain AND oil company commercials on this subject, so its time to burst that mythical bubble or “Drill Baby Drill” will be the winning slogan.
Counter the tax-and-spend attack that McCain’s camp wields with such ease and to such a stinging effect. It’s our Achilles heel but I do not see anything effective coming out of the Obama campaign, or the democratic party as a whole, that is trying to counter that.
Don’t give up on Florida!! McCain is beating us in Florida, but I’m shocked that his lead is so small considering the barrage of commercials that out-play Obama commercials about 5 to 1 here. Sadly what really has the most effect here is commercials, but only McCain's camp seems to understand that.
I don't want to lose again, but this campaign looks just like Kerry's to me.

[4TJefferson]

NO FREAKIN WAY! We just need to roll up our sleeves, register voters, call voters to the polls especially all of the new voters. We have to make sure that the black and hispanic vote is not suppresed. Does anyone know where I can find a collection of all the McSame/Queen Sarah FlipFlops? I mean these two have flipflopped enough to open a shoe factory; in China of course. Or, does anybody know where/how to create such a flipflop web site? Please enlighten us. Thanks.

[auntpajamy]

obama should have chosen hillary. we would never of heard of sarah palin if hillary were on the ticket. the republicans don't care about women's rights. it is about winning. i hope the democrats realize that before it is too late. the republicans are masters at winning elections, they just don't like governing. it really looks like clinton was only dem who knew how to beat the republicans. unfortunately, you have to be as ruthless as they are. the difference with clinton, even with all his faults and disappointments, was he really did care and knew what was going on with everyday people. oh, and just a comment to all the conservative comments. it is unbelievable arrogance to play the victim of us evil liberals, when conservatives hold all the power, whether literally as in the presidency, supreme court and for most of the time in the congress or societally by giving the word liberal a negative connotation. when was the last time you heard a republican trip over himself trying to avoid being called conservative like democrats do when the liberal label is applied.

[Mag44]

I don't agree w/not have never heard of Palin. McCain would have picked her whether HRC was picked or not. Espeically if HRC were picked. He needs a woman to use to get female votes and it would have been an all out brawl. Could you only imaging. It would be worse. Digging up all HRC's baggage and Palin's. My head is spinning enough as it is. It would have been about HRC & Palin only and McCain/Obama would both be in the background like McCain is now. No I think one women is enough to deal w/for now.HRC's supporters need to realize McCain & Palin are both using them to get what they want, but nothing will be accomplished if they win. Actually McCain & Palin are using each other. She said to one of her staff she wanted to be president. What better way than to jump on McCains offer? With his medical background she has a huge chance of becoming president this term if they get elected.

[blahber]

"when was the last time you heard a republican trip over himself trying to avoid being called conservative like democrats do when the liberal label is applied.
"



apparently, liberals are self-aware

[fatchen]

Image yourself play an away game in a hostile town, it’s of no avail to call refs (MSM) since local townees trust only their own refs (Fox news). How are you going to win?
There are only a few things to do to target the true "undecided": (McCain is willing to go all the way, why can’t we?)
1) scare tactics: If Republican wins, there is for sure a NUCLARE WAR: Didn’t Palin say we might go to war against Russia for Georgia, or any war? Whoever cares about trooper-gate are already Obama’s supporters.
2) bribery: Why do you think Iowa is in our column? When people say I didn’t hear the DETAILS or complain lack of SUBSTANCE, that means they didn’t hear what they want to hear: i.e., What can I benefit from? Health care, tax cut etc. are not good enough since they don’t believe Obama can deliver. Remember what Bill Clinton said before convention: One candidate promises everything but can’t deliver anything, and the other promises less but can deliver something---whom are you going to vote for? Obama should now announce that he will tear up NAFTA, or cooperate with people like Pickens that promises REAL jobs in Ohio and Michigan.
3) target the Hispanics: find out what they want and give it to them.

[karronna]

Please forward this to the Obama Campaign. This person is thinking in terms that will affect low-information voters in drastic fashion. And by the way.....ma­ke some phone calls for Obama or a 527 in the next two days, or knock on doors, or give money.

[Fishfearme]

If Change is the theme. Instead of using the words "real change" or "change we can believe in", Obama should define his view in two words "HONEST CHANGE".

A majority of the people believe that Bush is dishonest. He lied to us about uniting Washington and about a bloody war. Honest is the buzzword that will resonate with people. Most Americans can identify with the word "honest" regardless of the irrelevant culture war.

Obama is honest. McCain and Palin by their records are not. Simple as that.

Let's more "honesty" than "we're gonna change Washington­."

[karronna]

another excellent simple idea that would be relevant to voters - please forward to Obama campaign.

[hopehappens]

Yeah, Obama is probably going to lose, and he and his latte liberal mafia have nobody but themselves to blame. The lefties have been on a self-destructive binge since 2000 when they sold Gore out for Nader and elected Bush in the first place. You confused disenchantment with Bush for a lurch to the left which it wasn't. Then, Obama basically told half the party -- the Hillary voters -- to go to hell when he passed her and her 18 million voters over for a guy who got 9000 votes in the same contest. That meant that the Clintons had to spend two nights of the convention trying to convince her supporters that it was fine the Obama screwed them over. The Obama campaign has tried to pretend that they can redraw that map and ignore the battleground states -- pure political malpractice. Until you latte lefties get off your high horse and figure out that a political party is not a country club -- you need more votes than the other guy to win, and you have to let go of your sanctimony and see other people's viewpoints once in a while if you want a big enough party to win -- it's going to be Republicans in the White House for a long, long time.

[rpence]

Well said, Mr. Giuliani!

[mijumom]

If half of this country is as simpleminded as you, then I can see why the Repubs will win. Don't you think H illary had some participation in O's decision??? She was not passed over!

[Kirk59]

The reason Hillary was not selected is that there is so much dirt on Bill over the last 8 years that the ticket would have been doomed. The right has been pushing for Hillary for weeks as VP so they won't have to waste all that valuable oppo reseach they have piled up.

[Mirri]

Everybody in elected office has dirt. But the Clintons would have saved Obama. He alienated a lot of women by letting his campaign malign Hillary. It's too late now.

[growler52]

Perhaps we maybe be missing two elements that may swing things in our favor:

1) Is Obama employing the same strategy he did before his convention speech; moderately (i.e. pretending) take all the repubs can throw at him, let them think he's in a corner by drawing them in and then UNLEASH HELL. He did it so perfectly before, perhaps this is occurring again.

2) The pollsters are not able to reach the total voting demographic. Newly registered voters AND OR those with only cell phones are not polled. Furthermore, how many young people do you know share a house, apartment, etc with others? A lot right? So, it is also possible they aren't getting an exact tally of a complete household.

My 2 cents.

And yes, I too am worried. If McCain wins, I don't think I can bare another 4 years. The stakes are way too high and WE WILL SEE OUR DEMISE. PERIOD.

If McCain wins, I'm "done". I've tried re-evaluating every possible bright side, but there are none.

I suspect others with more angst than I will take to the streets. I wouldn't be surprised to see the beginnings of a modern civil war. Some will be violent while others will fight through calculated economic boycotting.

[downstairs]

This article attempted to articlulate reality that may make McCain/Palin the next administration.
I think he made some good points but there is more going on than meets the eye.
Honestly, Barack and Michele Obama have more intelligence than Bush/Chene­y--McCain/­Palin--Rov­e/Wolfowit­z--Rice/Po­well--Hann­ity/Limbau­gh combined. But America does not want intelligence. We want a "commander in chief"...w­e want to fly the flag at parades, go to Wal-Mart and enjoy the World Series. We want far away enemies, and a war we can watch on TV. We want to romanticize the military by thinking that we can solve every world problem with military force.

McCain will use the military angle to get elected..

I pray Obama would win in November, but Billy Bob in rural American-- who has never even voted for a Black person to even be dog catcher-- will not vote for Obama to be 'commander and cheif'. The 'code' words will be played over and over...Sad but true.

We have to let Reganonics and the Republican /conseravative agenda run its complete course. This crash/collapse will make 1929 look like a minor recession. This is the perfect storm and McCain will invade Iran and we will end up fighting in 3 countries at the same time... this makes logical sense for the miliarty chicken hawks who think Iran will fold like Iraq. Then it becomes just a police operation.­...

Get your passports ready...

[elizaW]

You are kidding yourself if you don't think that there's a demographic of strong, intelligent voters from urban centers who find the McCain/Palin ticket appealing. Some are moderate Democrats, some moderate Republicans, some Independents, but all are inclined to vote Republican even if they may not agree with McCain/Palin on all the issues. The reason for this is that Obama and a lot of his supporters (like the unhinged liberals full of hate who post on this blog) are appearing more and more like extremists. The ugly disregard for the truth among those who once claimed the high road and the constant attacks on red state people by Obama's supporters have turned many impartial voters off, fearing that the Democrats once again are inclined to viciously exclude anyone who may not agree with them. Meanwhile McCain/Palin are inclusive. They welcome all people without condescending smirks, without judgment and with genuine enthusiasm. At this point if you live in a red state you'd have to be a masochist to vote for the party that makes fun of you on a daily basis. Yes, I know you're going to say, but what about the issues? Check out McCain on Fox's presidential forum the other night. He made a lot of sense.

[doza]

Truth? Whose version? What about republican ALAN GREENSPAN, coming out today and saying McCain's economic plan won't work?

[Mirri]

The cellphone-­contingent is not going to save Obama. There's a new videogame coming out Nov. 3rd, the night before the election.

[bygollymissmolly]

ENOUGH. We are not going to lose it. Obama is behind in the Gallup poll because after the Republican convention Gallup started polling an equal number of Republicans and Democrats even though Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by 12%. The pollsters are cooking the books.

Personally I'm happy to have the fantasy that it is a close race. That will keep the volunteers coming and encourage the young people to actually get out and vote.

ENOUGH with the doom and gloom. Get out there and work for Obama and contribute to his campaign.

[LongTimeLiberal52]

"Personally I'm happy to have the fantasy that it is a close race. That will keep the volunteers coming and encourage the young people to actually get out and vote."

Couldn't agree more, bgmm. But the fact that ANY percentage of Americans would still favor the GOP and a continuation of its ruinous policies is simply incomprehensible. And pretty damn frightening.

There are over 16 million Americans who could vote for the first time in this election, a majority of them young, informed, concerned, and Liberal. Forward this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9pqqGxnrM1A) to any first-timers you know; their participation could make all the difference.

[orangepetal]

Was 11% now it's 5%.