On Demand
Political Roundtable
Monday, November 03, 2008
Mark Halperin, editor-at-large and senior political analyst at Time, Robert George, editorial writer for the New York Post and blogger, and Marie Cocco, syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group, break down the latest election news.
What surprises are you predicting for Election Day? Post your comment here.
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Brian:
I hope that after this election season is over that you will see your way clear to becoming more inclusive of viewpoints on politics. For the length of the last two years you have had guests whor ange from A to B, conservatives and moderates. Most notably, commentary on the economic crisis has been largely consensual. your guests all agree on the bailout, except the very Right wing, and have absolutely no illuminating analysis of why it has occurred. You ought to try some radicals: Bill Tabb, Richard Wolff, for example. In other words where are the dissident voices? Maybe when the Obama administration disappoints your liberal and moderate audience, you might find some real dissenters.
It is sad to say, but I think that California may vote to take away the right to same sex marriage.
I do hope they don't and I hope Obama wins. It's time for leadership.
That ad had shades of anti-semitism..
Surprises. The election will be much closer than expected and John McCain, ever the "Maverick," will refuse to concede. He will accuse the Obama campaign of voter fraud and link it with Acorn, the Socialists, who are planning to take over America, and who knows, maybe even Putin. Meanwhile, President Bush will step in and say that with no conclusive winner, he has no choice but to stay in power for another four years. Republicans will once again be gloating, Democrats will be pulling their hair out at the roots, and I will be moving to Italy. Katie
That ad is great! He's running against a crude New York stereotype from fifty years ago. Good luck with that; does this mean we get to represent southerners as overall-clad, banjo-picking bumpkins with a tendency to stalk urban canoers? Without feeling guilty about it?
I predict that the nation will breathe a collective sigh of relief, and there will be a sense of joy and excitement that we haven't felt in months or years.
Surprise on the plus side: Democrats come out with 63 seats, a supermajority allowing them to exclude the far-from-liberal war-mongering Lieberman and allowing prosecution of Bush administration war criminals.
Surprise on the down side: Obama wins landslide in popular vote, but McCain wins electoral college, provoking a genuine constitutional crisis.
SURPRISE SURPRISE
Dirty tricks win another presidential election.
Every time the U.S. votes pro-choice there is a disaster, and Senator Obama is radically pro-choice and pro-everything. I thing a disaster will follow if he's elected, which he probably will be, and it's sad but no way out of it.
Surprises:
1. Enormous campus enthusiasm for Obama fails to translate into unusually high national turnout among voters aged 18-25.
2. Al Franken wins the most votes in a 3-way Senate race.
I think the Dems/Obama has to change the way the debate about government is framed. He has to promote the things that government can do well.
For example:
You can't tell me that the auto industry and auto workers did not benefit from the inter-state highway system.
You can't tell me that lives have been saved from the space program which lead to the creations of weather satelites
You can't tell me that all the conservative bloggers do not benefit from the Internet which got its initial start from the defense department.
The republicans keep suggesting that a democratic presidential with a democratic congress would be such a dangerous predicament. Could it possibly be worse than the high spend, high deficit disaster that was the better part of the Bush/Republican congress years???
SURPRISE: Bill Kristol will say something accurate.
judges all over the country better be ready to do a lot of overtime tomorrow.. I suspect lines at polling places around the country will be MASSIVE, if early-voting lines are any indication... judges better be on hand to keep polling places open later than has been scheduled.. this will probably occur in practically every jurisdiction in the country..
It's pretty funny (although not surprising, since he's such a shameless Bush/Limbaugh/whoever else booster) that Mark Halperin pretends he doesn't know why voters are holding Republican senators responsible for the actions of the last eight years. I presume he's not actually that stupid, of course...
Very much agree with comment from Stanley Aronowitz above. He would be a great guest.
Here are some others. Some have, it must be said, been on in the past and some would be nearly impossible to get. Nevertheless the show is largely right-wing to moderate. The left is drastically under-represented:
Rashid Khalidi, James K. Galbraith, Michael Hudson, Paul Craig Roberts, Noam Chomsky, Joshua Cohen, Joel Rogers, Cornel West, Tariq Ali, Amy Goodman, Gabriel Kolko, Eric Hobsbawm, Amartya Sen, Juan Cole, Tony Judt, Greg Palast, John Pilger, Elaine Scarry -- the list could be much much longer.
All with sterling credentials -- vastly superior to the likes of Amity Shlaes.
if McCain comes on tv halfway through the night like Bush did in 2000 to say that Florida isn't finished, then we'll know that the fix is in again. why didn't we see right through that?
So what I'm hearing here is that the Obama presidency is already a failure.
Why does Halprin get to say unchallenged that republicans are concerned about spending when the bush administration has spent more than ANY other in history? How did republicans show their concern for high spending these last 8 years? Why do they now care with the possibility of an Obama presidency? It's hypocritical!
Robert George may be interesting to read, but why does anyone let him near a microphone?
The claim that Obama passed McCain because of the financial crisis on Sept. 15th is conventional wisdom bs. McCain peaked on Sept. 8th, and was in a freefall the entire week leading up to the 15th:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html
The question is why does Brian allow such blatant *verifiable* lies on his show? Do your staff not have an internet connection? You just finished two weeks patting yourself on the back on how "different" your coverage is. Having Mark Halperin and Marie Cocco on to spout verfiaby false conventional wisdom nonsense? That's different than the networks? How exactly?
what's the early voting rate for New York?
Surprise prediction: The NYC bridges will in fact have to be closed on Wednesday after McCain wins.
Anyone hear the Prime Minister of France say last week or the week before that Obama's foreign policy could be a disaster for Europe. Apparently, France and the rest of Europe has worked hard on isolating Iran, but Obama has an accidental policy approach towards Iran. To appease the left of the dem party, he agreed to sit down with Iran without preconditions, now we are stuck with Obama's "negotiate with terrorists" policy. If France is worried, man, that says something.
Read this quick before the WNYC Obama only censors delete this for not being in love with Obama.
Surprises at the polls? ... I guess anything can happen ...
I do hope that things run smoother tomorrow than I had expected them to go for me. As an "absentee voter" I registered and sent my request for my absentee ballot more than 6 weeks ago to my polling center in Monmouth County, NJ. Much to my surprise I recieved an email from the Monmouth County voter's center on October 20th stating:
***___________***@co.monmouth.nj.us
Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 11:05 PM
"We received your request for an absentee ballot, but the letter opener cut through your street address and we can't read it. ...Please send your complete address." (direct "cut and paste" from their email ... no pun intended!)
I, of course, hastily replied to them yet have unfortunately received any absentee ballot via mail. I did, however, "cover my bases" and vote via the local Consulate General's office here in Barcelona 10 days ago.
Another surprise prediction:
We'll learn of more Obama relatives in the country illegally, but unsurprisingly this news won't make anyone interested in seeing his actual birth certificate though.
I agree with Katie and add this.
Colorado, Tennessee, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
New Mexico, all will mysteriously go to McCain regardless of what the exit polls say.
Get ready people for another routing of votes through Karl Rove's favorite computer tech company, GovTechsolutions run by Mike Connell. Hes testifying under subpoena in Ohio right now for the Lincoln voter fraud case.
Surprise #1: Obama will win the election and say, "Surprise, I don't want to be president, I just wanted to prove I could do it - I'd have to be crazy to take that job, and you all must have been crazy to elect such an unexperienced person.
Surprise #2: It will be revealed that cheney (I refuse to capitalize his name) endorsed McCain because he knew it would favor Obama and he did not want to see a Republican inherit the mess his administration got us into.
Just heard Frank Rich on the Imus show. Imus asked Rich about the Obama campaign having ousted three reporters from the campaign plane. Rich responded that it was "unfortunate" that all three worked for newspapers that supported McCain. Rich continued --- I paraphrase --- that no matter who is president the press will have to be on guard against being manipulated. THIS IS FRANK RICH WARNING US ABOUT OBAMA. I support Obama --- as, of course, does Mr. Rich --- but am concerned about the internet technocrats who have been such a powerful force in the Obama campaign. Sad to think that at this moment of triumph we must think about being on our guard.
Sorry the company that was responsible for the voter routing through was,SmarTech.
"Documents reveal how Ohio routed 2004 voting data through company that hosted external Bush Administration email accounts." That company was SmarTech, Inc.
Hope Brian will check out the story surrounding Mike Connell.
Cynthia from Brooklyn #12:
It will be far worse!
#18 Brian M. from New York City.
I hope so, I don't want to live in the United Socialist States of America.
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