US Presidential elections

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A gracious concession speech by McCain. That was the old John McCain that I have admired for over a decade when I first saw him go to Vietnam deal with his ex captures and helped Clinton to lift economic and diplomatic embargoes against them and normalise relationships with them. It was sad to see him, but mainly his campaign run to the hard right which I isn't his natural posture.

He will have some cognitive dissonance with George W Bush for a long time. He stole the republican nomination from him 2000 using some ordinary tactics in South Carolina and other states. He then leaves him in the s**t with an unpopular war which was poorly conducted by the stubborn Rumsfeld who McCain called for his sacking about 18 months before Bush dumped him and the financial and economic crisis.

But it was always going to be tough to beat Obama and the democrat machine. But Obama has been a charismatic candidate, who overcome any race problems partly because who he is and partly because America has changed. Minorities are close to becoming the majority and as a couple of commentators have said, young people don't see colour.

This will be the biggest democrat presidential result since 1964 when Lydon Johnson won, partly off the coattails of the Kennedy assassination and partly because Barry Goldwater was demonised.

The Republican party are facing a challenging time. Substantial majorities in both houses of congress. They don't have a tricky Dickie Nixon in their back pocket to turn to. That's why whether you like her or not Palin will be a player in the Republican party as they go to use a footy analogy 'rebuilding" phase. They will have to find a state governor who is able to connect with the changing American demographics. Ex Californian governor Ronald Regan was able to do that. It would be interesting if Arnie was allowed to run. He is a pretty popular moderate republican in a democrat state.

As that Economist article Toots posted said, it will be interesting to see how the Arab world takes to a US president whose middle name is Hussein.
 
Arnie to run? It's 'Demolition Man' all over again!!:eek:

Congrats to obama, bigger win than i thought. Will be interesting to see how things change post jan 20, 2009.
 

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An outstanding acceptance speech by Obahma. That story about the 106 year old black woman, Anne Nixon Cooper, who stood in line today to vote on a touch screen machine, and the change she has seen in her time was a powerful image of the change in the US.
 

morell

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Great result.

I grew up with a great admiration for the United States, sadly my feelings for the country have waned in the last decade the point where I have a pretty strong dislike of nearly everything they stand for.

Obama's election has taken me me back to when I was a kid and the USA was the big friendly older brother that we could all look up to.

Hopefully he is more than just style and he has substance too.
 

morell

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An outstanding acceptance speech by Obahma. That story about the 106 year old black woman, Anne Nixon Cooper, who stood in line today to vote on a touch screen machine, and the change she has seen in her time was a powerful image of the change in the US.
Wasn't it just.

One of few public figures I can think of that can make a persons hair stand up on the back of their neck with mere words.

I have seen a few political acceptance parties/speeches, none of them had so many people crying! Nearly everyone was incredibly emotional.

Amazing the power that man conveys with his charisma.
 

Toots Hibbert

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thank you.
Did we win? We shitted it in!! :D

(Just joking!!! :) )

It's incredible really how much interest there's been in this election. Apart from the unique circumstances of the first black president of the USA or the first woman VP it shows how the world is becoming more and more interconnected)
 

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Alex99

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Just cos Obama won, doesnt mean its the best decision.

History will answer how well his performance will be but i believe the actions of George W Bush and the Republican Party gave McCain no chance at winning this election. So the Republicans lost Obama didn’t win, his action over the next 4 years will determine if he wins another term in office.
 
This quote from a blog I checked on amused me very much:
"I see that McCain is retaining all of the states where incest is a tradition...if not an obligation......."

.....So the Republicans lost Obama didn’t win......
Obama certainly won in his own right. His beating Clinton for the Democrat nomination was a magnificent story in itself. However the magnitude of the win was affected by factors other than Obama's performance. And yes one of those was the Republican machine dragging a moderate McCain to the loony right, where try as he might he was seen as a continuation of the Bush administration.
..... his action over the next 4 years will determine if he wins another term in office.
When hasn't that been the case?
 

Alex99

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Obama certainly won in his own right. His beating Clinton for the Democrat nomination was a magnificent story in itself. However the magnitude of the win was affected by factors other than Obama's performance. And yes one of those was the Republican machine dragging a moderate McCain to the loony right, where try as he might he was seen as a continuation of the Bush administration.


Yeah i wasn’t trying to take anything away from Baraka Obama victory because i believe he will go down in history as one of American best presidents but this year was the unlosable election


When hasn't that been the case?

Don’t know but what the hell did George W Bush do in his first 4 year of office as POTUS to get re-elected
 
....Don’t know but what the hell did George W Bush do in his first 4 year of office as POTUS to get re-elected
Fair point, but most incumbents get a second term. GW almost lost it, he was was 1 million short in the popular vote in 2004. It came down to some very dodgy behaviour by electoral officials in Florida where his brother was Governor to give him just enough Electoral College votes.
I cannot conceive of Obama blowing off enough support to be in this position in 4 years.
 
History will answer how well his performance will be but i believe the actions of George W Bush and the Republican Party gave McCain no chance at winning this election. So the Republicans lost Obama didn’t win, his action over the next 4 years will determine if he wins another term in office.

Not sure if you can say that, well that it was 100% due to a republican loss. There is always a mix of the incumbent losing and the challenger winning it.

Karl Rove, Bush's number man who ran his machine in Texas before the federal campaigns and is acknowledged as the man who changed the way the republican machine analyse and stratagised and responsible the republicans changed their campaigning and getting to know who, what, where, and when about their base and getting them to the polling booths, made some interesting comments. He talked about the Obama campaign being smart and shifting 3% to 5% of so many groups from traditional republican groups over to the democrats. So by shifting a small percentage of evangelical Christians, white voters, defence family and defence communities, older voters and so called Regan democrats. Also the democratic changes in the south where by the cities have grown bigger relative to the rural areas is where he has made significant gains. He has also improved by 3% to 5% his share of traditional strong holds such as union voters, Hispanics, blacks etc.

Also getting more people out to the polls has to be taken into account. Part of it is that people get off their backside because they are pissed off and some of it is because they believe in the candidate and worth making an effort.

An interesting map was shown of the voting results in the south by CNN. He won less counties in the south than Kerry or Gore and obviously less than Clinton, but he has done very well in the heavily populated city counties which has seen their population rapidly grow over the last decade.
 
Fair point, but most incumbents get a second term. GW almost lost it, he was was 1 million short in the popular vote in 2004. It came down to some very dodgy behaviour by electoral officials in Florida where his brother was Governor to give him just enough Electoral College votes.
I cannot conceive of Obama blowing off enough support to be in this position in 4 years.

Florida was 2000. Bush won easily in 2004, by 3 million votes.

http://us.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/president/

Bush had a war and fear of Sept 11 driving his re election in 2004. The war was only 18 months old in the 2004 campaign. Four years on people had enough and the financial crisis was the no.1 issue not the war. Security was McCain's strong suite.
 

Toots Hibbert

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i couldn't work out why some of Obama's rhetoric sounded somehow familiar. Then hearing his acceptance speech it suddenly clicked. Some of his words are from an Sam Cooke song from 1964. One of my absolute favourites and written in response to the Bob Dylan song Blowin in the wind.

A Change Is Gonna Come

I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I've been running ever since
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die
Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keep telling me don't hang around
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

Then I go to my brother
And I say brother help me please
But he winds up knocking me
Back down on my knees

Ohhhhhhhhh.....

There been times that I thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

[youtube]wUT1WgHat6I[/youtube]

Oh that just send shivers up my spine.
 
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Florida was 2000. Bush won easily in 2004, by 3 million votes......
Mea culpa. I had it absolutely fixed in my head it was his 2nd run that was the close one, but I acknowledge I am wrong. I really learn a surprising amount from these non-footy threads.
 

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