The Young Turks

If McCain runs away from Bush he loses his fundraising base and severely dampens turnout.  Bush is a lose-lose dilemna for McCain.  He didn't start stroking off Bush because he wanted to.  He did it because he decided he needed the base and the money more than he needed the independents and moderate.

He is pretty screwed either way but at least this way he doesn't have to beg his "cunt" and "trollp" of a second wife (his words not mine) to fund his campaign (which she could but for some reason won't) and he gets the mega-churches, Fox News and Limbaugh carrying his water for him even if they do so reluctantly.

Gallup today put up a poll showing McCain's ties to Bush are more destructive to vote-getting than Obama's ties to Wright.  So I guess you're right.  Wright could beat Bush.

he picks the color of skin (with apologies to bogie).

i think it speaks to the nature of discourse in our society that the sole, or the primary, reason for a voter deciding to cast an "incorrect" vote is racism, not health-care plans, not foreign-policy, not the economy, nothing.

this reminds me of some otherwise sensible leebruls i met in college who excoriated a newcomer to their company who did not like jazz because, get this, anyone who dislikes jazz is racist because all great jazz musicians are black. the poor guy was then reduced to pleading that he did like the blues, but no dice---if you did not like the duke, you might as well be in a klan lynch-mob.

i too was a newcomer to that group and did not stick around, but 2 things were very striking in that exchange: (a) the groupthink among those who equated jazz-love with egalitarianism (or, conversely, jazz-hate with racism) was scary, (b) i really don't think most of them actually were that big fans of jazz but felt a guilt-driven need to affirm their deep love for americana (and simultaneously, pay some sort of penance for the supposed crimes of their countrymen from the past).

back to the primaries.

i went to the msnbc website to look at the exit poll data, specifically for alabama (as an example of a seemingly extremely racist state, and ignoring arkansas because of the clinton home-state advantage):

(a) there is no indication of the % of eligible voters in the state who are registered democrat. there is also no indication of the % registered democrats who bothered to vote in the primary. low turnout polls provide less robust results than high turnout ones.

(b) clinton's advantage occurs in the over 65 age group, and equally among white men and women. the whites in alabama are demographically older and the blacks demographically younger. this sort of age-spread and age-regression is consistent with hillary being somewhat more conservative in her positions (or at least giving that impression, presumably from her arkansas days) and appealing to older voters, and for obama appealing to younger voters.

(c)  obama beats clinton in all categories by income, which just means that people lied on this part of the poll.

(d) level of education matters, but we need to regress that with age. the division of college-grad vs. highschool dropout is meaningless when the college-grad is 30 and the dropout is an independent business owner who grew up during world war 2.

most of the other categories indicate that impulse voters (who decided to show up at the last minute), and those who consider their personal philosophy to be moderate/republican have all gone more for clinton. none of this indicates racism. if it was a clinton vs. edwards choice, i suspect the splits would have been similar (with edwards gaining a small "man"-advantage).  

finally, if anything, whites in alabama are less racist and sexist than blacks in alabama. 75% of whites (about 50% of registered democrats) went for clinton, but 85% of blacks (also about 50% of registered democrats) went for obama.

finally finally finally, if you (dave) and i were magically dropped off in the street corner of bumfuck, alabama (or whatever shit-towns they have there), and we pulled aside a random white democrat and a random black democrat, and asked each of them to explain why they voted the way they did (making full allowances for lies), do you really think that the black person would offer a nuanced and reasoned explanation for why he/she thinks obama is a better candidate for president than hillary, or atleast offer a better explanation than the white person? most likely, each person is voting based on someone else's advice about who would be better for their narrow self-interest. voting based on ignorance is never going to produce sensible results.

That's some pricey real estate. I thought you had a government job.

the jug handle. Baffles people from out of state. They exist because most areas do not have the room to expand the highway for a left turn only lane. You have no idea how many times I have seen someone with out of state plates trying to make a left turn at a light on a 2 lane highway and saying to myself "you are going to die".

The sweet corn and tomato farms have been mostly covered up by condos and town houses so it is no longer an issue. NJ fun fact, it is the only state in the union without a rural district.

Mulignane or "mooley" or just "yam" is an Italian slur (like the n word) for black people. I have been told that it is the Italian word for egg plant but I can't verify that. Trust me, Italians are not insulted.

"Meanwhile, every Texas good ol’ boy voted for Obama, because “they’s no way any self respectin’ white man will vote for a (fill-in-the-blank) in November.” "

In Jersey, they will do what their union tells them to do. Just like I explained to Dave.