Not a good outlook for McCain. Never in a million years did I think my projections would be more conservative than Karl Rove’s.
Archive for the ‘Talking Heads’ Category
Hologram Interviews on Election Night
Posted: October 31, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Media, Talking Heads, TechnologyTags: 2008 Elections, CNN, Election Night, Media, Talking Heads, Technology
According to their press release, my former employer CNN has a sweet new gadget to do interviews with guests from remote locations, via holographic projection:
Adding to what promises to be one of the most technologically advanced events in CNN’s 28-year history, CNN will enhance interviews with remote correspondents and guests using hologram projection. The network has built sets powered by hologram technology at both campaign headquarters making it possible to project three-dimensional images into the Election Center. From the New York set, anchors will exhibit more natural conversations with newsmakers and CNN correspondents in the field by interacting in real time with their 3-D virtual images.
Did they rip the idea off from Star Wars or what?
The 2008 Election By Numbers
Posted: October 31, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Bush Administration, House of Representatives, Joe Biden, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Senate, Talking HeadsTags: 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Beltway Drama, Bush Administration, Election Day, House of Representatives, Joe Biden, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Senate, Swing States, Talking Heads
538 – The total number of votes in the Electoral College.
270 – The number of votes in the Electoral College needed to win the White House.
72 – John McCain’s age. If elected, he would be the oldest first term president in American history.
65 – Joe Biden’s age.
47 – Barack Obama’s age.
44 – Sarah Palin’s age.
9 – The number of candidates who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination.
11 – The number of candidates who ran for the Republican presidential nomination.
43 – The number of men who have been President of the United States.
46 – The number of men who have been Vice President of the United States.
14 – The number of vice presidents who have become president.
0 – The number of women and African Americans who have been President or Vice President of the United States.
41 – The number of states that lost jobs during the month of September.
15 – The approval rating of Congress in a recent poll by CBS News and the New York Times.
22 – President George W. Bush’s approval rating in recent poll by CBS News and the New York Times.
435 – The number of members in the House of Representatives. All of them are up for re-election.
34 – The number of senators up for re-election.
60 – The number of senators necessary to break a filibuster.
150,000,000 – The record amount of money the Obama campaign raised during the month of September.
134,000,000 – The amount of money the Obama campaign had at its disposal to spend during the final month of the election.
640,000,000 – The amount of money raised by the Obama campaign.
360,000,000 – The amount of money raised by the McCain campaign.
4,191 – The number of U.S. military casualties killed in Iraq since 2003.
554 – The number of U.S. military casualties killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
537 – The number of votes that decided who won Florida and the 2000 presidential election.
123,535,883 – The number of people who voted in the 2004 presidential election.
19,549,291 – The number of ballots cast during early voting in the 2008 election.
Note: All statistics are updated as of Friday, October 31.
Bill Kristol’s Punditry
Posted: October 29, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, Media, Sarah Palin, Talking HeadsTags: 2008 Elections, John McCain, Media, Sarah Palin, Talking Heads
My friend and former classmate Matt Mundy offers this analysis of Bill Kristol’s prognosticating this election season and takes him out to the woodshed. Shorter Matt: Kristol offers advice, the McCain campaign seemingly follows it and tanks in the polls, and now Kristol is criticizing the campaign for following a course of action he advocated.
Quote of the Day
Posted: October 26, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, Media, Quotes, Sarah Palin, Talking HeadsTags: 2008 Elections, John McCain, Media, Quotes, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Talking Heads
“There’s going to be a bloodbath. A lot of people are going to be excommunicated. David Brooks and David Frum and Peggy Noonan are dead people in the Republican Party. The litmus test will be: where did you stand on Palin?”
– Jim Nuzzo, former White House aide to George H.W. Bush
The Tell
Posted: October 26, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, Media, Talking HeadsTags: 2008 Elections, Arizona, John McCain, Jon Kyl, Media, Republicans, Talking Heads
The Tell
Posted: October 23, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, Media, Sarah Palin, Talking HeadsTags: 2008 Elections, John McCain, Media, Sarah Palin, Talking Heads
Chuck Todd is one of the most influential political observers and commentators in Washington. When he says something, people listen. This is not what the McCain people want the chattering class in the media to be talking about less than two weeks before the election.
Commenting on a new joint interview with John McCain and Sarah Palin, NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd described the Republican ticket as lacking cohesion, chemistry, and (he hinted) trust.
“There was a tenseness,” Todd told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. “I couldn’t see chemistry between John McCain and Sarah Palin. I felt as if we grabbed two people and said ‘here, sit next to each other, we are going to conduct an interview.’ They are not comfortable with each other yet.”
Todd, who was remarking on the interview conducted by NBC’s Brian Williams (he was in the room), speculated that the candidates had come to the realization that “they are losing” the campaign, and guessed that McCain may have begun to hold his vice presidential choice responsible for his dwindling White House chances.
Rove Map Not Kind to McCain
Posted: October 20, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Talking HeadsTags: 2008 Elections, Talking Heads
As a habit, I try to keep up with what the various pundits are saying about the election, because what they focus on often drives the political discussion at the local and national level. One guy I’ve been following especially closely is Karl Rove.
He’s been updating his presidential map fairly frequently, and I am surprised at his most recent forecast: a 313-171 rout for Obama, winning Florida and Virginia. Undecided states include Missouri, North Carolina, and North Dakota.
Rove is a movement conservative, but his political instincts and insights are finely honed after decades of experience as a partisan operative. Whether or not his new role as a pundit frees him from the standard GOP spin is subject to debate, but if he is being this frank about McCain’s chances publicly, I can only imagine the kind of fretting going on behind closed doors in Republican circles.
Circular Firing Squad
Posted: October 16, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Beltway Drama, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Talking HeadsTags: 2008 Elections, Beltway Drama, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Talking Heads
A few days ago, I made note of the back and forth sniping going on between the McCain campaign and conservative pundit Bill Kristol. It’s gotten a bit personal lately, with McCain campaign manager Rick Davis personally taking Kristol out to the woodshed on national television. The key soundbite:
DAVIS: Yes, well, you know, it’s a good thing Bill Kristol has never run a political campaign because he’d probably have to fire himself at least two or three times.
This may be beyond standard political sniping. Scott Horton of Harper’s has written extensively about Bill Kristol’s role in promoting Sarah Palin for the VP slot. But in a recent interview with Glenn Greenwald, Horton reveals evidence of discontent behind closed doors at the McCain campaign.
SH: I’d say, of course the McCain campaign isn’t doing too well right now, and one of the consequences of that is we’ve got a lot of finger-pointing going on within the camp, and I’d say there’s a pretty broad agreement amongst a number of the senior-most advisors to McCain that the Palin pick is worse than disappointing. It’s a total disaster, as one describes to me. And there is a sort of blame game going on there.
Now, one of them described to me quite recently in some detail, who it was who introduced and pushed the Palin nomination, and he says it really boils down – there were a number of people behind the nomination, but there’s one person who was essentially the person who introduced her as a candidate and pushed her consistently and firmly all through the summer primary she was elected – and that person is Bill Kristol. And the interesting thing is of course, if we look across the whole horizon of conservative columnists, prominent conservative columnists, pretty much all of them are expressing reservations or concerns or they’re outright opposing Palin as a pick, with one really striking exception, and that’s Bill Kristol. And Bill Kristol, in none of his columns has acknowledged that he in a sense is the author of Sarah Palin. He discovered her, he promoted her, and he pushed her through to the vice-presidential nomination.
If this is true, that makes Kristol’s recent criticism of Palin much more self-serving. It’s become full-on cover your ass mode. When the post-mortem of this campaign is written, there will be a lot of people pointing fingers at each other, and I think quite a few of them will be pointed at Bill Kristol.
Icepicks and Nukes 