EMStoveken wrote:

"As for the ultimate result of this nightmare, I am seeing a McCain/Huckabee ticket or if Huckabee proves himself as receptive to being as shamelessly puppeteered as W, a Huckabee/McCain ticket.

This would be difficult for any Clinton or Obama ticket to beat. It wraps up the die-hard 30 percenters. It wraps up the Christian Fundamentalists. It wraps up the Hawks. It wraps up the born-again rapist vote. It secures the NRA vote and the anti-abortion vote. Throw in the independents who are turned off by Hillary's polarizing effect or the wishy-washy do-gooders who could be convinced that Obama's flirtations with the nose candy makes him a dangerous libertine, and you have a deep need to mobilize the disenfranchized, radical and sideline sitting cynic votes."

Put them side by side and it looks like a lot of people. Fortunately, many of these sub-classes describe the same "die-hard 30 percenters," so I don't think the actual percentage from this coalition is as high it appears.

The big variable here is the under-30 vote, and Obama appears to be bringing a lot of them to the polls. These people are finally realizing that they are the biggest victims of the Bush/Republican agenda, and it won't matter who's on the Republican ticket if they come out strong this year.

Edwards is either ignored or chastised by the media (including Salon, unfortunately). There is zero objective coverage of the guy.

I'de love to see how the media would react to a successful showing by Edwards in SC. Probably would pretend it didn't happen.

People may not be aware of the strike yet, but they will when 85% of prime time programming is reality fare and reruns. Networks/Cable are just starting to run out of whatever canned material they had stored when the strike hit, and it's going to get real ugly from here on.

As for source material for TDS and TCS, that all depends on what goes down this year.

With all due respect, a win in Iowa isn't representative of anything given their messed-up caucus sytem. But don't tell the media that. They're already anointing the primary winners based on these results and what happens in New Hampshire. These state comprise a miniscule portion of the electorate, but the media conventional wisdom says otherwise.

I was listening to an NPR interview with Edwards, and all the interviewer would ask was how well did he have to do in NH to keep going and did he have enough money to finish the campaign. Edwards was great, ignoring her BS and telling her, "it's an election, not an auction."

Don't get me wrong. I'de be thrilled to have Obama as the Dem nominee (although I'm voting for Edwards in the primaries). But the media is making me crazy. I'm especially disappointed with NPR, who used to be above this bullshit.

I'm also disappointed with a lot of posters at Salon that decry the inequity of the electoral system, yet are now claiming Edwards and HRC to be finished. Practice what you preach.

In a national election, all citizens should vote at once. This could be accomplished through the combination of a mail-in process or by depositing a completed ballot at federal kiosks located at post offices and other federal buildings. As long as some form of physical ID (signature, fingerprint) is required, people can just deposit ballots into a secure receptacle. Doesn't have to be one day either, provided no results are published until after the prescribed election period.

I also agree that the media is driving this whole perception in order to generate copy and advertising. They and Madison Avenue have the most to lose from an upgrade to a more coherent political process.

You'de be amazed at how much writers are needed for these shows. Aside from the monologue, many of the witty remarks made by the host are preconceived by writers (depending upon current events and the scheduled guests) and are available to be used by the host at his discretion.

This guy reminds me of all the true believers fresh out of college that were appointed to positions within the CPA and managed to make Iraq completely FUBAR.

I mean, look at him. He should be working in the copy room, not running the FCC. But he has one attribute vital to the Bush administration: he follows orders and doesn't ask questions.

I hope his tenure at the FCC becomes a huge stain on his resume.

I don't see much of it on this site.

What I do see is the appropriate bashing of people for using/abusing religion as a means for achieving their political ends, usually with a very high degree of manipulation and hypocrisy.

Is the only effective one given the large number of candidates. Keep the number of issues down to a few major topics and give enough time for everyone to engage in a dialogue that can inform the voter. All the network/cable debates have been game shows and contributed nothing.

I think everyone had an opportunity to give their perspective and benefitted from it. Kucinich made some good points that are normally never afforded to him (the CNN debate was ridiculous and I loved how he abused their "candidate ask a candidate" gimmick).

But Walter is right, Biden and Dodd showed their cred and people have to take them seriously. The next presidency is all about foreign policy and repairing the potentially fatal damage the Bush administration has inflicted on our country's international reputation.

Hell, it took Bush 2 months to find out about it, so I guess that's par for the course.