Obama's hidden benefits

I was thinking past the election for the first time. I know the election isn't wrapped up yet, but I was wondering what Obama has to accomplish to be considered successful. That led me to think about the disaster of the last eight years.

In retrospect, if Gore had taken office, he would have been successful in comparison to Bush just by keeping us out of Iraq alone, not to mention avoiding all the various constitutional abuses. But if he had been elected, we wouldn't know just what we had avoided. Especially considering the lies Bush told during the campaign about his agenda. No nation building indeed. Gore would probably have been judged on his handling of 9/11 and the economy. Not knowing how badly Bush fucked it up would actually work against Gore.

So too, for Obama. It's a little different, because Obama will be judged against the failures of the Bush administration, but he'll also be dealing with the consequences of those failures. The lingering effects of our current troubles could well work against Obama. And we all know McCain is a dangerous hothead, and it's hard to argue against hypotheticals. The fact that McCain may get us involved in further dangerous foreign entanglements that Obama may avoid won't necessarily be reflected in Obama's approval rating. Nevertheless, it's one of many reasons that just keeping McCain away from the reins of power is a success in itself. I hope we never have to find out what bullets we may have dodged.

Flipping Florida

We had been idly thinking about volunteering for the local Obama campaign, but hadn't really got anything going. Between work, kids, house, baseball and virtual couching, we hadn't made the effort to find out what to do. Fortunately, we got a kickstart when Moveon.org called me a few weeks ago. They had been calling people all over who indicated an interest in volunteering and scheduling times. I made an appointment and we did a little phone banking at the local office later that week.

Last week, I got a call from our neighborhood coordinator Tony. He was trying to round up people to do some canvassing in our area. Having got our feet wet with the phone banking, we said we'd meet him Saturday morning. We went to one of the neighborhoods in our area and got lists of addresses. Tony said these were people who, when called, had indicated they were undecided or were going to vote for Obama. We were supposed to find out how they were voting (early, vote by mail etc...) and who they were supporting, if undecided.

Here's Tony and a couple of other volunteers at the meetup in the neighborhood

Michelline and I aren't introverts by any means, but knocking on doors for a political campaign is definitely outside of our comfort zone. But if we can help turn out even a few additional votes, that can make a difference. We know McCain is counting on Florida, and turning it will probably give Obama the election.

We set out with our list and our campaign lit and started knocking -

Out of all the houses we hit, only 3 were still undecided. The others had decided for Obama previously or had made up their minds for Obama since they were called. We even took a voter registration app for a likely Obama supporter who hadn't registered. Everyone was very pleasant, we had some nice conversations and there was no tension or combativeness. We had forgotten to bring water (stupid, after 3 hours in the sun, we were dying), but we got offered water by two different households, including one of the undecideds.

We'll definitely be doing more volunteering over the next few weeks. We've signed up to do voter transport and we may do more canvassing and calling. I think it's especially important to keep the pressure on now that McCain is going to throw the sink at Obama this last month.

(Speaking of McCain, we just saw one of his newest negative ads, claiming Obama is untrustworthy and using the 94 tax votes lie again. McCain is such an asshole.)

Seen at our local Publix

We ran across this today while out doing a little grocery shopping. At first I just saw the big "Obama" and idly thought "Cool, another supporter". Then I saw the fine print. These people must be some serious idiots. This reminds me, I really need to go ahead and get some Obama/Biden bumper stickers and yard signs.

People are Stupid

What kind of a moron do you need to be to think that being multilingual could possibly be a bad thing?

People are Stupid

Pastor Roger Byrd said that he just wanted to get people thinking. So last Thursday, he put a new message on the sign at the Jonesville Church of God.

It reads: "Obama, Osama, hmm, are they brothers?"

That's very clever. Has anyone ever known any brothers where one's first name rhymes with the other's last name. My last name is Howard, and my brother's first name is Chris, so it doesn't work there. Not to mention, that in most cases, this would end up with one of the brothers having a stupid name that rhymes with itself. However, in this case, Obama and bin Laden don't share a last name, so that's not an issue. They don't share a last name, a first name, or even a name at all. But according to Roger Byrd, the rhyming is really the key. Well, I just have one thing to say to that, Pastor. Byrd, Turd.

Byrd said that the message wasn't meant to be racial or political.

Of course not, what could be political about linking the name of a candidate for President with a terrorist leader? How do people even get a crazy idea like that, that this sign could be political?

"It's simply to cause people to realize and to see what possibly could happen if we were to get someone in there that does not believe in Jesus Christ," he said.

Ummm, what could possibly happen? Anyway, since Obama does believe in Jesus Christ, I'm not sure why the sign is necessary then.

When asked if he believes that Barack Obama is Muslim, Byrd said, "I don't know. See it asks a question: Are they brothers? In other words, is he Muslim ? I don't know. He says he's not. I hope he's not. But I don't know.

Oh, so he's just saying Obama could be a liar then. Well, if we're not taking our candidates at their word regarding religious beliefs and Byrd is really worried about "what could happen if we were to get someone in there that does not believe in Jesus Christ" then he should add McCain and Clinton's names to the sign, since we only have their word that they're Christians. Well that, and all those years of going to church.

Despite some criticism, Byrd says that the message will stay on the sign. He took the issue before his congregation Sunday night, and they decided unanimously to keep it.

Well, that's good anyway. Until we can get all the morons in the world to wear signs proclaiming their stupidity, it's nice to have things like this as some indicator.

Electoral compass

I ran across this at Chosha's blog. There are a lot of these things floating around, but this one was quick and easy, and the questions covered a nice range of subjects. In addition to plotting you on the familiar social/economic graph, you can compare your answers to each question with each candidate's answers as derived from their stated positions, and link to the quotes and other evidence used to support it.

I was a little surprised that by their reckoning, Clinton is farther to the economic left than either Edwards or Obama. I was not surprised that I ended up as a socialist libertine.