Posted on 02/14/2010 12:51:08 PM PST by Salena Zito
You have to hand it to the White House: It is at least consistent in sending the absolutely wrong message to voters pondering whether to keep Democrats in control of Congress in the coming midterm election.
Even the body language is all wrong.
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On Tuesday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs mocked Sarah Palin's crib notes on the palm of her hand. The next day, President Obama told Business Week that he didn't begrudge gazillion-dollar bonuses for executives of banks that U.S. taxpayers rescued.
That'll all play real well in battleground congressional districts, where incumbents and hopefuls are trying to define a message and a plan to win back independent voters and conservative Democrats who have surged away from them in recent polls.
Poll-aggregator Real-Clear Politics' average on the generic ballot shows Republicans ahead of Democrats, 46 percent to 42 percent. That is one big red flag for the party in power as the midterms approach.
Independent voters may not vote for Sarah Palin, but the White House does itself a disservice by making fun of her; Main Street voters have a lot more respect for someone who uses crib notes (something they might do) over someone who uses a teleprompter in a sixth-grade class room (something they would never do, but that Obama did recently).
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
I believe red used to mean challenging party and blue incumbent. The Bush/Gore election changed that.
I believe red used to mean challenging party and blue incumbent, or vice versa. The Bush/Gore election changed that.
I agree, but I always felt that the coup was in getting average Americans to see just how clearly the ruling elite is concentrated in such few areas, while the masses (massive masses) across the country are far more numerous than the rulers would have us think.
That map was a wake-up call for conservatives, not a psyop to subliminally link us to historic communist oppressors.
-PJ
And while we are talking about acachol, you can only buy beer at either beer distribors or bars{ only six packs there}. Why cant you go to the supermarket and buy a six pack like almost every other state? Who knows?
As the late great Groucho Marx would say, "close but no cigar."
You can buy liquor and wine ONLY at State Stores "PA Wine & Spirits" but not malt beverages and beer. Wineries are allowed to sell their own wines on premises plus two remote locations.
You can buy beer by the case--only--at beer distributors
You can buy up to two six-packs at bars and taverns. If you want more you have to leave and then come back in and buy again.
True, but Kerry only won by 51% to 49%. It’s not hopeless.
We’ve had succes in Pennsylvania before. It has a smaller swing vote than most states.
I have no idea how to do that; nor do I know how it got on there. sorry.
The moderators have to remove it but I left your name on the heading to allow you to see that I made the request since it’s your thread.
THANK YOU !
It’s not seared into people that know better. Thank heavens Dave Leip gets the colors RIGHT on his website. We can easily reclaim blue if we STOP CALLING OURSELVES ‘REDS’ ! I never stopped using blue as the proper Republican color, and I never will. To hell with this Orwellian newsspeak crap.
Naah, it was to de-link the Democrats from the Communist/Totalitarian color. And it most certainly was deliberate (and it didn’t start with USA Today, it was done the night of the 2000 election).
It was in 2004 that they broke with convention, keeping the red color with Bush to continue the narrative of red states and blue states.
-PJ
Nope, I had never heard that “justification” in my life. The proper color scheme was fully in place prior to 2000, and the first time I heard it, I said, “I don’t THINK so !”
I expect the left-wingers to label us however they wish, but where our side made the mistake was not a swift CORRECTION. “We are not Reds, we are not a Red party.” It was that simple. I expect our side will be similarly accepting of being called “teabaggers” now, too.
I refuse to use it, and it’s about time we started a movement right here at FR to stop using the red/blue crap as the MEDIA labelled us. It’s very easy to do, but do we have the balls ?
Here's a video from Youtube showing Walter Cronkite reporting on the 1972 election between Nixon and McGovern. About a minute into the video, you see the election map showing Nixon (incumbent) states in blue and McGovern states in red.
Here's a video from Youtube showing Walter Cronkite reporting on the Reagan/Carter election in 1980. About a minute into the video, you see the election map showing Carter (incumbent) states in blue and Reagan states in red.
On the other hand, here's a Youtube video showing Dan Rather reporting on the 1984 election between Reagan and Mondale. About a minute and a half into the video, you see the election map showing Reagan (incumbent) states in red and Mondale states in blue.
Now, in this Youtube video from ABC in 1984, David Brinkley explains that they chose "Red for Reagan" as their map color scheme, making it seem that it is a choice that the networks made rather than a convention that developed over time.
-PJ
PA has a huge number of old union types who can’t figure out why the plant is no longer in town and why their children don’t live in PA anymore.
I guess I accepted it as fact.
-PJ
-PJ
It should be noted that it is not anti-alcohol prudes who are keeping PA’s liquor laws intact. The state stores have...wait for it...unionized employees.
My favorite story about alcohol has to do with the implosion of Three Rivers Stadium. It was being done on a weekday morning and some of the restaurants on Mt. Washington (overlooking the city) were selling breakfast as you watched.
They served no alcohol, but the alcohol control board cited them anyway. Why? Because the license they had did not permit opening before 11am, even if they served no alcohol at the time.
On top of the arbitrariness of the rule, what’s most galling is that it was a gotcha sting by some snot-nosed bureaucrats. The restauranteurs could have received a warning call in advance saying that their well-publicized events would have negative repercussions, the owners didn’t even know about the little-enforced provision of their licenses.
It’s the kind of pettiness you expect from bureaucracies.
Just as an aside, don’t take it to look like I’m yelling at you or attacking you, this subject just really boils my blood and I find the relabelling to be nothing short of viscerally offensive and a whitewash of history, and a key loss in the psych warfare game of the past decade. Some think I’m overreacting, but I disagree. Words and colors with historical ideological definitions MEAN something. The fact they were so casually changed and ACCEPTED to me is bone-chilling. We need to firmly get the ball rolling and change it back. All anyone needs is a very swift history lesson, and keep hammering away.
Well, that gives me some hope for 2012. One must remember, as long as B. Hussein Obama is in the White House, if you do see the light at the end of the tunnel,is more than likely a train.
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