Free Republic

Ugh - these ‘comedy’ routines are painfully unfunny. In addition it’s the last thing we need to be wasting time on with all that is going on right now.

I agree... OK to run a short comedy routine, but that one went through two segments of Rush's show. What was up with that?

Could not disagree with either of you any more! I thought it was brilliant and I want a copy of it NOW! It skewered the media, Obama, Hillary by using the very effective use of ridicule. There are still 2 plus hours for serious analytical discussion of the issues for those of you who don't get the use of humor.

“Obama has never cut taxes. That is a lie.”

I hate to defend the guy, but yeah, there was a little tax cut on our 1040 this year. The “Making Work Pay” credit buried away on Schedule M gave my family of 5 about $800 off of our tax bill.

The first post-election press conferences are supposed to be happy, free-wheeling affairs. Pres. G.W. Bush was loose, humorous and took questions for 45 minutes. I was shocked when I was away from my radio for 15 minutes and came back to the car and it was over. That’s it? After being 20 minutes late?

I’m willing to give this guy a chance, but maybe I’m wrong. Is he really this bad away from a script?

I don’t know that I see it as a conspiracy. Could it be? I don’t know if it’s possible or not. The amount of money involved here is unfathomable to me.

But I do wonder if George W. Bush had wanted to if he could have buried this for a few more weeks until after the election. Wouldn’t Bill Clinton have done everything he could to hide the truth until after November? But President Bush trusted his advisers that this was indeed a huge crisis and acted in the most responsible way possible, given what he was told by Henry Paulson and others.

As we await the election, I keep thinking of how well this financial crisis was timed with the 2008 election. Did all this stuff REALLY have to come out in the middle of September?

The blackouts are because Fox has a low-power UHF station in Portland, ME which has shown all the Giants games. I am in that station's area, although obviously nobody has UHF reception 60 miles away. I spent about ten hours on the refund issue, and the short answer is, no. I disconnected the dish over the weekend.

That really stinks! I was not aware that the blackout policy was being used to prevent you from seeing the game you wanted to see. Totally unfair!

Actually, the Sunday Ticket is much less than it was, because of the blackouts. I bought it five years ago to watch the NY Giants in Central NH. Up until this year, I had all 16 games every year. This year, due to a policy change, I've had none. Needless to say, I won't renew.

Can't you view the games on the local channel provided by DirecTV? The games blacked out for the Sunday Ticket in my area (Wash. DC) are just the ones that are shown on the local CBS and Fox affiliates. And DirecTV is giving the Local Channels for free from July to January.

If you can't even see the games on the DirecTV local channels you should be given a refund, in my opinion.

You actually saw him 'sneer' at Clarence Thomas? I listened to Specter's reasons for his actions in the past on Hannity yesterday. He spoke well. I give him thumbs up for the job.

No, I did not literally see him "sneer" at Thomas. But he does not respect Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court Justice and he was very hesitant to state that he would support Thomas for Chief Justice.

I do not think we can trust Arlen Spector when he will not face Republican Primary voters for 6 more years. He felt free to oppose Bork in 1987 soon after his first re-election in 1986. He then managed to salvage his reputation with conservatives with his prosecutorial approach to Anita Hill in 1991. After re-election in 1992, he voted for both of Bill Clinton's Supreme Court nominees in 1993 and 1994.

I agree with those who believe that the President's Supreme Court picks should be honored, but Specter has shown a greater willingness to trust the judgment of a President Clinton over the judgment of a President Reagan.

excuse my ignorance, but why isn't Orrin Hatch the judiciary chairman? are there term limits on that position?

Yes, Sen. Hatch is the current chairman. But it is my understanding that when the Republicans gained majority status in 1994, they decided that they would impose term limits on the Chairmen of committees. There is no constitutional reason why Hatch could not remain as chairman.

Arlen Specter sneers at Clarence Thomas and opposed Robert Bork, but he rolled over for the three liberals like Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer. Specter redeemed himself a bit with Clarence Thomas, but his Bork vote must forever be held against him.

Hillary wants to end the EC because she knows she can rack up tons of fraud in New York, Chicago, LA, if there votes actually affected the election.

Dems would never lose the Presidency if it changed to popular vote due to the conrol they have in these major cities and the fraud they can pull.

You may be right.

Please Note -- Hillary Clinton said this in 2000, after the Al Gore defeat, NOT 2004, after the John Kerry defeat. My point is that, like most Democrats, she'll change the rules to whatever will produce the result she wants. Republicans are more likely to say "Let's just follow the strict guidelines of the law."

Remember in 2000 how quick Hillary Clinton was to say that we needed to abolish the electoral college? Whatever happened to that idea?

I'm sure that after she got the PR spin out of it she wanted in 2000, she realized that, as long as California is a Democratic stronghold, the Electoral College is the Democrats' best friend. It worked against them in 2000, but in 2004 the 3.5 Million Vote margin that GWB has rolled up proves how the EC is the Democrats' only hope.

I saw some of this documentary by Nancy Pelosi's daughter a few weeks ago when HBO had a free preview weekend. She manages to show the side of politics where the candidates can be real people and actually be friendly with one another behind the scenes. George W. Bush comes across as such a likable and decent guy. How can there be so much hatred of this good and decent man?

I really liked what I saw of Joe Lieberman in this movie. But Kerry is his usual stiff self. Even when he's "spontaneous" he seemed forced and staged. Very "Nixon-like" in that way. So, it's kind of funny to see Democrats demonize the very John Kennedy-like-at-ease-with-himself George W. Bush while they are forced to support the very awkward, Dick Nixon-like-awkwardness of a John Kerry.

I look forward to another four years of a regular normal guy in the White House!

I think you are right on the money! I live in a heavily Democratic area and I have learned over the course of my 43 years that trying to convince political opponents that they are wrong is usually a waste of breath. So we keep it quiet and if a pro-Kerry neighbor kid asks who I'm voting for, I avoid the question. If his parents ask, then I'll give them the truth -- that I support Bush. But I'm not going to be aggressive about it. And I do believe there are a lot of people who, in the quiet of the voting booth, will have the freedom to vote for Bush, without worrying about what their neighbors think about them.

The Left in this country has become so vicious and intolerant (think Michael Moore) that we can no longer have reasonable discussions about political issues. So, I keep it to myself, my family and, of course to Free Republic

The internals of these Pew Research Polls have been very illuminating. For example, Men who are fathers support Bush 61 to 35. Non-Father males split 48-47.

Married people support Bush 56 to 39 and Unmarried men and women support Kerry 56 to 36.

Folks who seldom/never attend church support Kerry 62 to 31, while once a week attenders support Bush 55 to 40.

I happen to fit into all the categories that support Bush big time, and I have a lot of friends who live in Blue States (think SF Bay Area) who also fit into all those categories. So I like to use this information with them to make them feel like they aren't the only ones who would be supporting Bush. Most other married church-attending dads also support Bush. It kind of puts a bit of peer pressure on my friends to counteract the very-liberal Bay Area culture

Site says this is the Final state poll update. I don't know why they won't update tomorrow- I've included leaners

I can't see how any reputable pollster would try to poll households on Halloween night. Just a guess.

With Halloween tonight and many parents taking their kids out for trick or treating, I cannot see how any reputable organization could use any polling for tonight. If they do use October 31 evening polling as a part of their results, I will be very skeptical of the results, given that parents are overwhelmingly in favor of GWB.

I think we'll just have to finally put all of our poll-obsessing aside (I am guilty!) and just watch and work for GWB to win on Tuesday.

Bush is ahead in the polls. This is good news. But many Republicans are fearful that he was also ahead in the polls in 2000, and lost the popular vote. Actually, take comfort: The polls in 2000 were VERY accurate about Bush's level of support. What they could not measure, although some suspected, was that Nader's liberals supporters would abandon ship at the last moment for Gore.

GREAT POINT! I just noticed the Gallup results for 2000 the other day and was surprised to see how close they were to the actual Bush results. Nader is clearly not a factor in the polls this time, so I tend to agree with your optimism that there should be no big surprise Kerry surge on election day.

You know these Right Track/Wrong Track polls are misleading.

I believe one of the "Fox All-Stars" on the Brit Hume program said the other day that when Bill Clinton was re-elected by 8 points in 1996, the right track number was something like 38%. So, you are correct -- it is a meaningless number!