We are finally here. It was a long and amusing process. There have been a lot of exciting moments and probably an equal amount of screaming-at-the-TV moments. All of those moments are inconsequential compared to the small moment you will have when you step inside that voting booth.
Now go. Vote. This post will still be here when you come back from doing your duty as a citizen of this great nation.

Back? Voted? Got your sticker and your free coffee from Starbucks?
Good.

Before I start spitting my anger and sarcasm I would like to take a moment out to thank Madelyn Payne Dunham, the grandmother of Barack Obama. Thank you for helping to shape Senator Obama into the man that will hopefully be our next president. She got the chance to vote for her grandson in the presidential election but she sadly will not have the chance to see him lead. My heart and wll wishes go out to her entire family. Madelyn Payne Dunham was 86.

I’m going to be kind of sad once this is all over. I’ve never yelled at my television this much when I wasn’t watching hockey. This has been an exciting time for me. Nerve wracking, but exciting. I really enjoyed watching the McCain campaign venture into the inane with their bullshit attacks and fear mongering. For all the shit they threw at Obama, after all the times they tried to link him to terrorists, extremists, socialism, after all that the make an ad that ended with saying Obama wasn’t ready to be president… yet.
Yet.
The yet implies he will be ready eventually. But at the same time they want you to believe he is evil. How the hell are we supposed to take these fucksticks seriously if they refute themselves?
All the slander, all the lies, the fear mongering, the bullshit, the general douchebaggery coming out of the Republican mouthpieces to me feels frantic. And judging by the current numbers over at Pollster the American populace is ignoring it. Pollster has Obama at 291 electoral votes (273 strong, 18 lean), McCain at 142 (129 strong, 13 lean). 105 in the tossup. With that math McCain could take all of his strong states, all of his lean states, all of the toss up and, get this, all of the Obama lean states and would still lose. It would be close but he would still lose.
All that and I am still nervous. I think after the last two elections no democratic voter should feel comfortable.

One thing that does make me smile is the final Senate Score Card from fivethirtyeight.com:

That looks like good news doesn’t it?

I hope when this is over we can finally tell the Republican party what they deserve to hear:

Get the fuck out.

This is just an idea I have been kicking around for some time so bear with me as I flesh it out.
Pollsters do not call cellphones at all. How many voters are they missing due to that? Exit polls in ‘04 showed that only 7% of voters lived in cell phone only households so the impact would be small. Especially when broken down state by state. How much has that number changed in 4 years?
According to Pew Research the percentage of Americans between 18-24 that can only be reached by cell phones is 30.6. while the percentage of all adults that fit that bill is 14.5.
I really need more data to really make any significant predictions based on this, preferably something broken down state by state, but just going by this one set of numbers you can form a basic idea.
If 30.6% of 18-24 yearolds cannot be polled there is a good chuck of data the normal polling methods are missing. Now, we know not all of them are voters but we do see a trend in that age group to lean heavily toward Obama and a huge spike in voter registrations.

What can we infer from this? Whatever conclusion you come to doesn’t look good for McCain.

Watch Sarah Palin get destroyed by Senator Joe Biden!

I have been looking forward to this debate since Palin was announced for the job. Who else is excited to watch what I am predicting will be a glorious crash and burn?
Palin gave McCain a giant bump when she was chosen but one she started opening her mouth the poll number went directly into the tank. Last Gallup poll shows Obama at +5 nationally. FiveThirtyEight.com currently has Obama at +6 nationally. Things look even better when broken up state-by-state. Obama leads McCain 250 to 163 electoral votes with 125 still in the toss-up column. Out of those toss up states Obama has a slight lead in most of them, including Ohio and Florida, for another possible 79 electoral votes.

I predict that the debate tonight will only make the McCain campaign sink even further into this electoral vortex that seems to be directly caused by Palin.

A few days ago Ron Paul finally dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination. All the hippies and wackjobs that loved this man more then their own sanity are in a state of mourning. This is also a huge loss for me because, like Mike Gravel and Rudy “Noun, Verb, 9/11″ Giuliani, he was a constant source of easy comedy. Now I’ll actually have to focus my attacks on Old man McCain.
So here is to all the hippies who blindly supported him because he is pro-hemp and anti-war without a glance at the rest of his record.
And here is to you Ron Paul. Here is to the man that:

Who would have guessed that stoned college kids could be so easily misled?

Now that he is gone he leaves behind a nothing but cardboard signs and bumper stickers slapped up on telephone poles and mailboxes around my city. That is his legacy. Soggy, limp, useless hunks of cardboard flapping about aimlessly in the wind and old fading stickers barely clinging to rusty lamp posts. Fitting. Now who the fuck is going to clean up this mess now that his idiot fans have receded back to the paranoia of their 9/11 conspiracy forums?

Or at least it should but who knows if Clinton is even properly attached to reality anymore. She has been living the last few months in a land of unicorns and rainbows. Funnily enough that land of make believe is right next door to the “permanent war is good” land of make believe that McBush is living in.

This just in: Clinton to ride a candy coated unicorn to deliver a speech tonight where, according to her campaign, she will not concede but she will acknowledge that Obama has enough delegates to win the nomination. I am actually getting quite sick of Clinton moving the goalposts.
I don’t know how Clinton and her rabid supporters can overlook what has been obvious to the rest of the planet: It is over. It has been over for a long time now. Pack up, go home, the game is over.

One thing that you probably won’t hear all that much tonight is that there is a Republican primary in New Mexico too. Pay attention to that one and see what percentage of the vote John W. McBush actually gets. The Republican party is hardly unified behind him. Hell, even just today Cheney was criticizing McBush and his plan to cut the gas tax for the summer.

Obama has been playing this one well. While Clinton still takes shots at him while trying to stay relevant he has started acting like the Democratic nominee. He has been ignoring her and focusing his attacks directly at Old Man Warmonger.

A question I have to any McCain supporters that read this:
Why didn’t McCain support the new G.I. bill? Why didn’t he even bother to show up to vote on it?
As a veteran he should be appalled by the way this administration has treated the troops. Inadequate supplies of body armor, inadequate care when they come home. And that is just the tip of this bloody iceberg. How can you, John McCain, in good conscience say you support our troops when you are not willing to even give them better college benefits when they come home. If they come home.
Our soldiers fight and die every day, every minute of every god damned day for this bullshit war that you want so badly to inherit and you aren’t willing to even help them better their lives when they come home.
The act is, you don’t support our troops. The fact is, you are just using them for your own political gain.
I have two more words for you McCain:
Fuck You.

Widely ignored was the fact that Pennsylvania has two primaries. The Democratic one that everyone paid attention to and the fully ignored Republican one. Honestly the Republican primary shouldn’t even be news worthy because they have their nominee in John McCain but something strange is happening here.

Out of 791,205 Republican votes McCain only picked up 72.7%. Crazy assed Ron Paul picked up 15.9 and Mike “Change The Constitution for Jesus” Huckabee got 11.4. Huckabee dropped out a while ago and he still got double digits. I guess when your main selling point is being a term extension for the extraordinarily shitty Bush policies not everyone can get behind you. Not even your own party. Losing over a quarter of your vote when you are the nominee has to be embarrassing.

Even before McCain was the nominee voter turnout for the Republican primaries has been startlingly low while the Democratic side has been pulling in record numbers. A very bad sign for anyone with a hope for McCain.

Keep on yelling you old coot, nobody is really listening to you anymore. After the shit this country was put through by Bush we can not afford to have you at our helm.

It is really no secret that I support one Democrat over the other but if my pick doesn’t make it through to the general election you better damn well believe I will still step into that voting booth and pull the lever for Democrat. I know most of the Democratic supporters will do the same thing. Can you say the same for your team? Not currently.

The only tool he has that can pull his party together is the same tool Bush has been using to abuse his power. Fear. Lucky for America it seems that we have stopped falling for that bogyman. Don’t believe me? Check his ratings. 69% disapproval as of this month. That is lower then his father. Lower then Nixon. It is officially the lowest approval rating in recorded history beating out Truman’s 67% disapproval in January 1952.

Congratulations on that shit-stained landmark Mr. Bush! Now hurry the fuck off the stage, the grownups need to run the county now.

I wanted to put up this poll again to see if things have changed in the past few months. I left Ron Paul in this one because he hasn’t officially given up yet even though it is impossible for him to be anything but a joke. Same with Gravel. I also added Nader to the mix. Have at it!

Last time it ended with:
Obama 43%
Clinton 29%
Undecided 21%
Gravel 7%

While the answer to that question should honestly be the retirement home for old crazy coots what I want to know is who he is going to choose as his V.P. Or more accurately, who the GOP will let him choose.

Condoleezza Rice: This is the person I’m betting on if the GOP really wants McCain to win this one. Selecting her isn’t about her politics. It isn’t about her qualifications. It isn’t about her experience.
It is about her race. It is about her gender. It would be an attempt to one-up the Democrats. The Dems have, on one side, a black man and on the other a white woman running for the nomination. If the GOP tossed about a black woman for the VP it would be an attempt to prove they are as, if not more, progressive then their Democratic opponents and pick them up some independent votes.

Mitt Romney: I have heard his name tossed around a lot but I don’t think he would want it. He spent so much cash aiming at the presidency I think he will be aiming for it again next round. Plus I don’t think it would get McCain many new votes as there are better choices to stroke the religious right. Unless you count the Mormon areas.

Mike Huckabee: This is the reason that Huckabee stayed in the race when he knew he was dead. He would grab the attention and votes of the Jesus crew. He would effectively kill off the chance of any independent votes swinging to McCain and would virtually guarantee McCain a loss. If the republican party wants to keep the Jesus crew happy and doesn’t mind throwing McCain to the wolves you might see this one.

Jeb Bush: “The Other White Bush”. If McCain really wants to run as the third term of Bush this will be his choice. It would also set up Jeb for his shot at the presidency. Fuck that is scary.

Hillary Clinton: Also one of the names buzzing around. People think that her attacks on Obama and her quasi-praise for McCain point to this end. Bad idea. The Clinton family has a position of power within the democratic party and I don’t think they want to lose it. Imagine if she switched then lost the race. You think the republicans would accept her into a power role? Not a chance.
She likes the power and that is why she is where she is.

There is also the choice of a retired high ranking military officer. Good choice for McCain if he wants to go all-in as “The War President V2.0″

Buried within the wall of text at http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/women/ is a little tidbit that you may find interesting.

As First Lady, she helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act

Oh, that was nice of her.
Her husband was inaugurated on January 20, 1993 and signed FMLA into law on February 5, 1993, only 16 days later. Goddamn Hillary is a fast worker. Or is she trying to pull a fast one? I checked theough her recently released White House schedule and the only thing that is mentioned about FMLA at all is about making an appearance at the signing.
Looks like it is another case of Hillary counting smiling and waiving as actual work. That makes her one silly hat away from being Queen Elizabeth II.

Holy balls that is creepy.

Who deserves credit for FMLA? Why, it is none other then bill author and former presidential candidate Chris Dodd.

1986
Senator Chris Dodd introduced the Parental and Medical Leave Act on April 9, 1986, to provide job security and health insurance protection to working parents who must take leave to care for family members (newborn or adopted child; seriously ill child, spouse or elderly parent).
1987-98
Reintroduced the Parental and Medical Leave Act. The bill was brought to the Senate floor in October 1988, but was later shelved in the face of a Republican filibuster and a veto threat from President Reagan.
1989-90
Reintroduced as the Family and Medical Leave Act on February 2, 1989 and August 3, 1990. The measure passed the Senate unanimously on June 14, 1990, but was vetoed by President Bush on June 29, 1990. The House failed to override the veto on July 25, 1990.
1991-92
Reintroduced the Family and Medical Leave Act on January 24, 1991. The bill passed the Senate by a two-thirds vote of 65-32 on October 2, 1991.
1993
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 passed both houses and was the first bill signed into law by President Clinton. FMLA provides job security for millions of Americans by providing up to 12 weeks unpaid leave per year to care for a family member.

And he is still going:

2007
Dodd announces intention to introduce FMLA legislation for the 21st century to provide the resources necessary to help families who otherwise could not afford to take unpaid leave, take the leave they need as result of an illness, to care for an aging parent, or to care for a new child.

Damnit Hillary, stop taking credit for everyone else’s work because you were standing in the proximity.

Tuzla airport, Boznia
March 1996:

“I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia, and as Togo said, there was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn’t go, so send the First Lady. That’s where we went. I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”

Macedonia
May 1999:

“negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo.”

The Macedonian border opened a full day before she arrived.

It seems like Clinton can’t keep her foot out of her damned mouth. She keeps talking about her “foreign policy experience” but it turns out that is like Yoko Ono claiming she was a Beatle. Unless, that is, you count a trip to Bosnia with Sheryl Crow and the comedian Sinbad. I hope this makes people realize that her political experience really amounts to being a face.
How dumb does she think we are?
She didn’t think she would see any opposition on her trek to the presidency and now that she is coming in second she is flailing about trying to keep her ass afloat. Even if that means using the tactics of Karl Rove. I guess this is her reaction to what she saw as her birthright being pried from her hands.
What do you think she would do as president if she can’t even keep her cool here.
Lucky for us she has no chance of winning the nomination as long as the super delegates follow the will of the people.