Late to the game. Heading in!
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Live Blog – CNN Debate
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Category Archives: Politics
Live Blog – NBC News Facebook Debate
Ugh…I’m awake. Might as well watch it.
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Live Blog – ABC News/Yahoo News Republican Debate in New Hampshire
It’s certainly been an interesting week. I’m honestly shocked that Santorum has suddenly risen to such a prominent spot in the race for the Republican nomination. I mean, from my perspective? The guy is a joke as a candidate. When you look at his petulant behavior during the earlier debates it’s pretty clear that, unless he went through a major personality change, Obama would shred him in a debate during the general election. His views on “family values” and homosexuality range from laughable to offensive, to the point where I think there’s very little chance he win enough votes from moderates and independents to actually win the election. The only real hope he’d have is that a whole slew of people would just stay home instead of choosing between him and Obama.
That said, I think his moment in the spotlight is going to be fleeting.
I really hope that Huntsman is able to make a splash in South Carolina and continue his campaign. I like Huntsman. I don’t agree with his politics in many ways, but he’s not a jackass. I can’t say that about the rest of the contenders.
I also hope that Gingrich decimates Romney. That will be fun.
Commentary is starting, so here we go…
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Live Blog – ABC Debate from Drake University
Here we go again! I swear, it seems like there’s a whole bunch of debates this cycle. Is that normal, or am I just noticing it now that I’m paying attention. I know there aren’t this many Presidential debates once it’s down to the main candidates.
So yeah, should be interesting tonight. Gingrich is currently in the lead, so anyone who thinks they have a chance to win should be gunning for him. Those who can only hope to get a Vice Presidential nod at best will probably be backing him up. He made some really poor comments yesterday about Palestine, so I’m betting that’s going to come up at some point during the debate.
Perry? Oh, Rick. You released what was one of the most offensive things I’ve seen yet this election season. The internet turned around and crucified you for it, but it remains to be seen whether or not it will help you with the Republican base. While it may do so, I can’t believe it would be possible to win a general election after saying something like that.
Santorum. You actually said that science should get out of politics. I…I have nothing but scorn for you, sir.
Huntsman has agreed to a Lincoln/Douglas style debate with Gingrich that’s going to take place in a few days. I’m not sure what his motivation there is other than, perhaps, sucking up to the front runner. He has to know he’s not going to get the nod at this point, so maybe he’s hoping for a VP nod.
Romney…Umm…He’s been kinda boring and quiet lately. Bachmann has too. I think Romney is probably counting on the fact that his numbers haven’t really fluctuated much and I don’t imagine we’ll see much out of the ordinary for him. He’s going to stay the course and let the media wear down Newt (if Newt doesn’t do it to himself). I also suspect we’re not going to see much “new” from Ron Paul for similar reasons. If Gingrich and Romney both self-destruct he’s sitting pretty.
BEER FOR THE EVENING – This is, of course, the most important part of the debate. I’ll be enjoying a Cigar City Brewery Maduro Brown Ale. I will. alas, probably only be enjoying one as I have to leave to pick up the boy as soon as the debate is over.
And with that all being said it’s time for me to get set up in the living room. I’m going to disable the Twitter to Facebook feed for now because, frankly, there’s no point leaving it up. It’s going to break in a few minutes anyway.
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Live Blog – Republican National Convention Media Walk-Through
So I’ve actually made it into this thing. At the current time I’m sitting on the lower deck of the St. Petersburg Times Forum waiting for the presentation to begin. I’m surrounded by media representatives. Bloggers. Journalists. Newscasters. I haven’t seen anyone I recognize yet as far as media personalities are concerned, and I really don’t suspect that at this particular event that I will. I’ve heard mention of Politico.com so far, and there is a large group from NBC sitting right in front of me.
For a moment when I first arrived I really wondered if I was actually going to be let into the door. They asked for my credentials, and I had to tell two different people I was registered as an independent blogger. When I mentioned that I had per-registered, though, they whisked me right through. I have an official badge with my name and web site on it and everything.
Lord, that makes me sound like an utter and complete rube, doesn’t it?
Tampa seems to be going all out to make a nice presentation. We were all given swag bags that have various items from sports teams and other organizations in the area. Bright House networks is on hand offering information on their internet access packages, so that causes me to wonder if there will be free wi-fi during the event itself. I may want to be safe and get myself a cellular modem just in case.
I’ll take pictures of all the various swag I’m picking up later. I’m feeling out-of-place enough without whipping the camera out during this thing.
The event itself should be starting shortly, so I’m going to finalize this post and make the rest of my updates via the live blog feature. I’ve recently updated the plugin so my individual tweets aren’t going to be linking back to this page any more. Check back here if you want to see non-truncated updates.
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Live Blog – CNBC Republican Debate at Oakland University
Should be interesting to see how things go down this time. In particular, I’m curious as to whether or not the sexual misconduct allegations against Cain come up. Romney mentioned something recently about these things being “very serious,” so I’m wondering if he’s going to use them as an opportunity to come out on the offensive.
On a personal note, I have to get the boy from school at 9 and cook dinner while I’m watching this, so coverage is going to be a bit on the spotty side. Sorry about that, folks.
Let’s do it.
Shortest. Live. Blog. Ever.
Apparently CNBC decided they weren’t going to stream the debate.
Jerks.
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Follow The Money Trail
Image courtesy of Raquel Baranow via flickr
Joe Scarborough recently wrote a piece in which he pointed out, rightly so, that Barack Obama received more donations “from Wall Street” than “any politician in American history.”
Joe is being deceptive.
Goldman Sachs, as a corporate entity, has donated nearly 6.5 times more money to Mitt Romney than Barack Obama. Romney has received $290,750 so far during the 2011-2012 election season. Obama has received $44,750 (just slightly more than the $43,000 they have given to Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican here in Florida).
Goldman Sachs employees, however, contributed significantly to Obama’s 2008 campaign. As a matter of fact they were the second largest contributor. This is a VERY important distinction. I quote from the page I just linked to at OpenSecrets.org:
This table lists the top donors to this candidate in the 2008 election cycle. The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organization’s PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.
In other words, the rank-and-file support the Democrats. The corporate entity itself supports the Republicans.
Where is the disconnect? Seems pretty typical to me.
The truth about the lies
Image courtesy of Gage Skidmore via flickr
Over the course of the last week I’ve heard several reports about how Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio may have “embellished” a bit over the course of many interviews in which he discussed his family history. The story, as he told it, was that his parents came over from Cuba in 1959 to get away from the Castro regime. The problem is that his parents actually came over in 1956, before Castro was even IN Cuba.
Senator Rubio has stated in recent interviews that his family had always intended to return to Cuba but that Castro being in power prevented them from doing so. He also points out that he was simply repeating “family lore.” One reporter, however, has noted that Senator Rubio has always been very clear on the fact that his brother was six years old when his family came over from Cuba, and his brother was born in 1950. Either Senator Rubio is horrible at basic arithmetic or he “embellished” to make his family history more sympathetic to Cuban-American voters.
If you don’t live in Florida you probably don’t understand how likely the latter scenario is. The whole Cuba issue is a pretty big deal down here, and the Cuban-American exile community is very influential in our politics (especially in the Miami-Dade area of the state). The three year gap between those moves could possibly represent two very different political realities to those voters. Someone who moved over in 1956 could be seen as a deserter who fled the country during a time of need and inadvertently helped create the environment that let Castro take power in the first place. Someone who moved over in 1959, however, could represent the huge number of people who faced persecution under the Castro regime. There are, obviously, countless other scenarios that could have inspired someone to leave their home country at any particular time, but Senator Rubio himself brought the political reasons into this so it is fair to assume that, whatever the real reason was, the political mood in Cuba had something to do with his family feeling their homeland.
The long story short here is that it’s fairly safe to say that Rubio made up some shit about his past in order to help him get elected.
I’m waiting for someone to tell me what the big deal about this is.
Atheists Not Allowed
As I mentioned during my live blog of the Republican debate the other night, I get really uncomfortable when the whole religion question pops up in politics. The reason is, of course, because I’m an Atheist. I have a problem with anyone telling me that they think their actions are divinely inspired, much less someone who desires to be the leader of the free world. It’s always amazed me that if an individual claims that they blew up a building because a mythical sky being told them to do so we say they are crazy, but if someone else says they are running for political office because a different version of the same mythical sky being told them they were supposed to we think that’s perfectly ok.
No, running for office isn’t the same thing as blowing up a building…but you’re both still claiming that your actions were directed by a being nobody else has the ability to see or hear.
That’s kinda creepy to me.
But I digress…
Live Blog – Republican Western Debate (Las Vegas)
Here we go again, kids! Time for another fun edition of “Mike makes a bunch of inane comments while watching people he’s not likely to ever vote for.”
It will be interesting to see how Cain performs tonight. His 9-9-9 plan has come under a lot of fire in the last few weeks. I ran the numbers based on my own finances and it looks like I, personally, would come out ahead. There’s a lot of people out there who think they won’t be so lucky. So far he’s gotten by on a lot of vague statements, but it’s likely that tonight the other candidates are going to try and nail him on the specifics.
I realize they are in Vegas and all…I wonder what the odds are that Santorum will actually break into tears this time around?
I’m eating a big old bowl of baked beans to get ready. I figure I’ll be as full of gas as the candidates.
Let’s do this!
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