Well not exactly. In Barack Obama’s defense of socialism he suggests McCain and Palin oppose his redistribution scheme because they make a “Virtue of Selfishness“:
“John McCain and Sarah Palin they call this socialistic,” Obama continued. “You know I don’t know when, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness.”
You can find the quote here. The article suggests this may be an Obama slight at Ayn Rand who wrote a book entitled “The Virtue of Selfishness”.
Edit Here’s the video:
Cue Drudge siren:
Zogby Saturday: Republican John McCain has pulled back within the margin of error… McCain outpolled Obama 48% to 47% in Friday, one day, polling. He is beginning to cut into Obama’s lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all…
No lie, I had to read this article three times before I could believe what Conor Clark from The Atlantic was suggesting.
But it’s also the case that, in recent history, the argument against one-party rule fails when measured against most basic economic indicators.
I would have an easier time believing that Bill Clinton could control his libido at a Playboy mansion party, than this socialist baloney from The Atlantic.
More from Clark;
McCain and Palin are setting the standard here: they want to suggest there is a tight link between the health of the country and the division of the government. So it’s worth pointing out that, to the extent their claim is measurable, the data seem to indicate the exact opposite of what the Republicans want voters to believe.
Mr. Clark must have spent the 1980′s and mid-1990′s in a coma, because the two most recent economic booms occurred during divided government. Of course, most of the credit belongs to Reagan (80′s) and Gingrich (90′s), but who is looking to assign credit?
Not surprisingly, in his manifesto supporting single party rule, Mr. Clark failed to mention the disasterous Carter administration. Carter and the Democratic Congress left America with high double digit interest rates, sluggish growth, a fuel shortage and high inflation.
But, the most ridiculous argument made in Mr. Clark’s article was this;
the most widely admired governments in the long sweep of American history—like Lincoln, Washington and FDR—were united under a single party. On the other side of the docket, divided government has frequently pitted a president of one party against a Congress of another to disastrous effect—à la Nixon, or the Clinton impeachment.
I could not believe Mr. Clark made that statement! Was he actually comparing Watergate to the Clinton impeachment? Certainly most Americans believe Congress went a little overboard in their reaction to President Clinton lying about which end of the cigar he smoked, but how about the budget surplus, welfare reform and tech boom, all of which occurred during those years of divided government and the blue dress?
Clinton aside, the most idiotic example Mr. Clark used to defend and promote the benefits of single party rule, was the reference to President Lincoln. It is true, Lincoln’s party controlled the White House and Congress, BUT HALF THE COUNTRY SEPARATED BECAUSE THEY WERE OPPOSED TO HIS DOMESTIC AGENDA! Lincoln was obviously correct to push through anti-slavery legislation, but to reference his time in office as united, single party rule is not only misleading, but deaf, dumb and stupid.
I will avoid detailing the reasons why the majority of new democracies in the last 35 years adopted a form of American representative democracy (divided government), instead of parliamentary democracy. Instead, I will agree with Mr. Clark’s statement that that citizens will retain some protections in single party government, through the Bill of Rights. Of course, Mr. Clark purposely failed to highlight that the Bill of Rights will not protect Americans from the Fairness Doctrine, redistribution of wealth, double digit unemployment, socialized health care, human rights commissions, ACORN, $200 barrel oil prices, illegal fundraising and voter fraud.
The reason why the United States is the most powerful, wealthy, innovative, and compassionate society in the history of civilization, is because we decided correctly to entrench shared administrative and legislative power in our representative democracy. We are at our best when our power is shared between more than one party. Arguing in favor of one-party rule lead by Obama, Pelosi and Reid is nothing more than another example of the socialist ideology we face in this election.
The media will continue to mock the Republican candidates as they warn of the impending socialist power-grab, but to the detriment of American voters, it may not be until after the election that they realize the threat was legitimate.
(Happy B-day DF)
From ace.mu.nu. My ideological problems with Arnold aside, it’s genius. Also, note towards the end, when Arnold says “Our Democracy is not for Sale!”. Why in the world didn’t somebody in Team McCain harp on that angle? Maverick campaign finance maven, railing against outrageous big spender who has an enormously shady campaign donation system? Sigh. Oh well, enjoy the vid.
Happy Halloween!
Take a break from politics and take some time talking about what’s really important in life — kids and family! What are you doing tonight? What are your little ghouls dressing up as? Unfortunately Baby J is sick tonight, but at least we go this pic from his pre-school.
Rasmussen Georgia General Election
- John McCain 52% (51%)
- Barack Obama 47% (46%)
Favorable / Unfavorable [Net]
- John McCain 57% (57%) / 43% (42%) [+14%]
- Barack Obama 50% (48%) / 49% (51%) [+1%]
Survey of 500 likely voters was conducted October 30. The margin of error is +/- 4.5 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted October 22 are in parentheses.
Rasmussen New Hampshire General Election
- Barack Obama 51% (50%)
- John McCain 44% (46%)
- Undecided 3%
Favorable / Unfavorable [Net]
- Barack Obama 58% (55%) / 41% (43%) [+17%]
- John McCain 52% (56%) / 44% (43%) [+8%]
Survey of 700 likely voters was conducted October 30. The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted October 23 are in parentheses.
- Barack Obama 48.2%
- John McCain 43.8%
- Undecided 8.0%
Survey of 897 likely voters was conducted October 26-30. The margin of error is +/- 3.5 percentage points.
| McCain | ||
| Colorado | $237,000 | $858,000 |
| Florida | $1,441,000 | $4,615,000 |
| Indiana | $336,000 | $1,248,000 |
| Iowa | $429,000 | $298,000 |
| Minnesota | $176,000 | $499,000 |
| Missouri | $437,000 | $1,105,000 |
| Montana | <$1,000 | $175,000 |
| North Carolina | $537,000 | $1,094,000 |
| New Hampshire | $60,000 | $643,000 |
| New Mexico | $223,000 | $309,000 |
| Nevada | $357,000 | $850,000 |
| Ohio | $753,000 | $1,984,000 |
| Pennsylvania | $1,388,000 | $2,742,000 |
| Virginia | $637,000 | $2,450,000 |
| Wisconsin | $202,000 | $1,084,000 |
Source: American Spectator:
Some of this looks pretty odd to me. For instance, why the apparent play for Iowa? Yes, it’s cheap, and Obama isn’t spending there because he thinks he has it in the bag but…well, he does have it in the bag. Between the base and operations Obama built during his primary and McCain’s opposition to ethanol, it was always THE wobbliest 2004 red state. And yet Sarah Palin is going there AGAIN the day before the election. It’s also been obvious for months that New Mexico was a goner; McCain hasn’t dumped many dollars there, but surely all of them could have gone to better use…well, anywhere else. Other then that, the spending distribution makes some sense. Penn and Florida are getting the largest share of resources and McCain has seemingly abandoned states like NH and severely cut back in Colorado. Still it’s hard to escape the feeling that if McCain really hoped to turn Penn blue, and really that’s always been his best blue state target, he probably needed to reach at least spending parity with Obama there.
Update: According to a Conference Call, McCain expects to outspend Obama in the closing days. Ad Blitzkrieg in Penn, Ohio, and North Carolina?
- Barack Obama 50%
- John McCain 43%
- Undecided 4%
Survey of 543 likely voters was conducted October 29. The margin of error is +/- 4.5 percentage points.
Gallup Daily General Election Tracking (10/31)
Registered Voters
- Barack Obama 52%
- John McCain 41%
Likely Voters (Expanded)
- Barack Obama 52%
- John McCain 43%
Likely Voters (Traditional)
- Barack Obama 51%
- John McCain 43%
Survey of of 2,825 registered voters, including 2,459 likely voters (expanded model), and 2,116 likely voters (traditional model) was conducted October 28-30. The margin of error is ±2 percentage points.
SurveyUSA New Jersey General Election
- Barack Obama 52% (55%)
- John McCain 42% (40%)
- Undecided 3%
Survey of 632 likely voters was conducted October 29-30. The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points. Party ID breakdown: 44% (D); 32% (R); 22% (I). Results from the poll conducted October 11-12 are in parentheses.
SurveyUSA Indiana General Election
- John McCain 47% (45%)
- Barack Obama 47% (49%)
- Undecided 3%
Survey of 900 likely voters was conducted October 27-30. The margin of error is +/- 3.3 percentage points. Party ID breakdown: 44% (R); 42% (D); 14% (I). Results from the poll conducted October 21-22 are in parentheses.
Diageo/Hotline Daily Tracker Poll
- Barack Obama/Joe Biden 48%
- John McCain/Sarah Palin 41%
- Undecided 6%
Survey of 870 likely voters was conducted October 28-30. The margin of error is +/- 3.3 percentage points. Party ID Breakdown: 42% (D), 36% (R), 18% (I).
Concord Monitor/Research 2000 New Hampshire General Election
- Barack Obama 51% (50%)
- John McCain 44% (43%)
Survey of 600 likely voters was conducted October 28-30. The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points. Party ID breakdown: 31% (D); 30% (R); 39% (I). Results from the poll conducted October 17-19 are in parentheses.
SurveyUSA New Hampshire General Election
- Barack Obama 53% (53%)
- John McCain 42% (40%)
Survey of 682 likely voters was conducted October 29-30. The margin of error is +/- 3.9 percentage points. Party ID breakdown: 30% (D); 29% (R); 40% (I). Results from the poll conducted October 4-5 are in parentheses.
Strategic Vision (R) Pennsylvania General Election
- Barack Obama/Joe Biden 49% (50%)
- John McCain/Sarah Palin 44% (43%)
- Undecided 5%
Favorable / Unfavorable (Net)
- John McCain 49% (48%) / 40% (39%) [+9%]
- Sarah Palin 48% (49%) / 40% (38%) [+8%]
- Barack Obama 49% (48%) / 41% (39%) [+8%]
- Joe Biden 47% (47%) / 39% (37%) [+8%]
Strategic Vision (R) New Hampshire General Election
- Barack Obama/Joe Biden 50% (46%)
- John McCain/Sarah Palin 41% (45%)
Favorable / Unfavorable [Net]
- John McCain 55% (59%) / 35% (29%) [+20%]
- Barack Obama 54% (52%) / 38% (36%) [+16%]
- Joe Biden 49% (48%) / 37% (38%) [+12%]
- Sarah Palin 47% (50%) / 40% (35%) [+7%]
Politico/InsiderAdvantage North Carolina General Election
- John McCain 48% (48%)
- Barack Obama 48% (49%)
- Undecided 3%
Survey of 641 likely voters was conducted October 29. The margin of error is +/- 3.7 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted October 19 are in parentheses.
Politico/InsiderAdvantage Missouri General Election
- John McCain 50%
- Barack Obama 47%
Survey of 814 likely voters was conducted October 29. The margin of error is +/- 3.4 percentage points.
- Barack Obama/Joe Biden 49%
- John McCain/Sarah Palin 45%
- Undecided 6%
Survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted October 27-30.
Rasmussen Daily General Election Tracking (10/31)
- Barack Obama 51%
- John McCain 47%
Favorable / Unfavorable (Net)
- Barack Obama 54% / 44% (+10%)
- John McCain 53% / 45% (+8%)
Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 1,000 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. The margin of sampling error—for the full sample of 3,000 Likely Voters–is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
For polling data released during the week of October 26-November 1, 2008, the partisan weighting targets will be 40.0% Democratic, 32.8% Republican, and 27.2% unaffiliated. For the preceding week, the partisan weighting targets were 39.7% Democratic, 33.0% Republican, and 27.3% unaffiliated.
Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Daily Tracking Poll
- Barack Obama 50.1%
- John McCain 43.1%
- Others/Not sure 6.8%
Survey of 1,201 likely voters was conducted October 28-30. The margin of error is +/- 2.9 percentage points.
Iowahawk:
When my late father T. Coddington Van Voorhees VI founded the iconoclastic conservative journal National Topsider in 1948, he famously declared that “Now is the time for all good conservative helmsmen to hoist the mizzen, pour the cocktails, and steer this damned schooner hard starboard.” In the 60 years since he first uttered it after one-too-many Cosmopolitans at one of Pamela Harriman’s notorious foreign policy black tie balls, father’s pithy bon mot has served as a rallying cry for conservatives from Greenwich to Chevy Chase. Today, I say it’s time for we conservatives to once again grab the rigging and set sail with the flotilla of the true conservative in this race: Barack Obama.
Trust me, I haven’t taken this tack lightly. No Van Voorhees has supported an avowed socialist since great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandpapa Cragmont Van Voorhees lent Peter Minuet $24 and a sack of wampum to swing a subprime mortgage on Manhattan Island. Old dad himself often recounted how, as a lad, he would command the family chauffeur Carleton to drive the Duesenberg down to the Times Square Trans-Lux so he could hiss Roosevelt. But I’ve taken a good measure of this Obama fellow, and I must say I like the cut of the man’s jib.
How can I say this, you ask? One look at this Obama chap is all the answer you need. Suave, tanned, unflappable, Harvard connections; it’s obvious that here is a man to the conservative manor born. One imagines him at the helm of the Ship of State, basked in the sunlight diffusing through the seaspray over the bow, like some beautiful rugged Othello from a rapturous Ralph Lauren catalog, calmly issuing instructions to the deck crew in that magnificent mellifluous baritone of his. It’s that easy-going, almost effortless grace that has all the A-list conservatives like David Frum and Kathleen Parker whispering Reaganesque in hushed tones. Even Peggy Noonan — the Grand Dame of Gipperism — has succumbed to Obama’s undeniable conservative charms.
CBS News/New York Times General Election
- Barack Obama/Joe Biden 52% (52%)
- John McCain/Sarah Palin 41% (39%)
- Undecided 5% (5%)
Favorable / Unfavorable (Net)
- Joe Biden 43% (43%) / 25% (20%) [+18%]
- Barack Obama 51% (52%) / 34% (31%) [+17%]
- John McCain 41% (39%) / 43% (46%) [-2%]
- Sarah Palin 36% (31%) / 41% (40%) [-5%]
ABC News/Washington Post General Election
- Barack Obama 52%
- John McCain 44%
We’re being overpowered by forces beyond our control. By unlimited checkbooks. By a deeply unpopular President. By a crashing economy. By powerful speeches from a smooth, confident man. By a country fed up, eager to try anything new in their frustration. I am not….I am not the answer to everyone’s prayers. I am not a hope machine. I am not young or handsome; my voice cracks sometimes; I wasn’t blessed with a rich baritone. I can’t promise you free healthcare, and I wouldn’t if I could. It’s not in my nature or my philosophy. I guess I still believe in silly old American ideals like self-reliance and hard work and freedom: freedom to make your own way, without government or the corrupt and greedy holding you down. Or propping you up. You never stay up.
Maybe all this means I’m going to lose this election. It wouldn’t be my first failure. I lost an election 8 years ago if you recall, and it nearly tore me to pieces. But, I moved on. The country did too, I guess. I’ll do so again if they want me to; if they vote that way on November 4th and the country will too. It always does and I’m more proud of America for that then just about anything; that when we make a choice, even if we’re wrong, and we come to regret it, we figure things out. We persevere. We keep believing in this crazy ideal and we keep on striving towards it. That’s what it means to be an American and I’ve spent 70 years cherishing this; building it up, trying to live the American dream and make it possible for my countrymen to do the same.
That’s why I’m here, on this stage, talking to you folks. That’s why I haven’t conceded to Senator Obama’s buckets of money; to his charm and charisma; to a media that wants to make history and remake a country. That’s why I’m going to keep fighting, for 10 more days at least. For fiscal responsibility and lower taxes. For reform of the government and the special interests. For American families and American small businesses. For a safer nation. For a safer nation. For a safer nation. Maybe it’s a lost cause, but I know a thing or two about lost causes. I fought in lost cause once, far from home, and I’ve learned that they can break you down and build you back up again. I’m a better man for having fought some of America’s lost causes and I pray my country’s better off too, though I leave the ultimate judgment to the American People and to the Almighty.
There’s a young woman out there tonight in Muhlenberg, Pennsylvania or maybe Poughkeepsie, New York, and she’s staring at her TV, watching this rally, thinking about these ideas, maybe for the first time; let’s call her Mary. Mary’s wondering if I mean it; if anyone can possibly mean it. Well, I do Mary. I do. And she’s thinking that maybe this American ideal is worth pursuing, worth fighting for; maybe even worth dying for. That’s how this whole thing gets passed on folks. Freedom and liberty growing in one heart, beating fast enough to propel a small corner of the world. And so this is all worth it; even if I’m overwhelmed, and beaten back, and left for dead. Even if Senator Obama is coronated with trumpets and rhetorical flourishes. Even if this is the ultimate lost cause. Because the Mary’s of the world will go on, and keep it up, and pass it on and I’ll have played my own small part. Then even if my country goes astray and misplaces its ideals, it’ll ultimately find it’s way back. Mary will make sure of it.
Reno Gazette-Journal/Research 2000 Nevada General Election
- Barack Obama 50% (50%)
- John McCain 45% (43%)
Survey of 600 likely voters was conducted October 25-28. The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted October 3-6 are in parentheses.
Civitas/TelOpinion (R) North Carolina General Election
- Barack Obama 47% (48%)
- John McCain 46% (45%)
- Undecided 5% (7%)
Survey of 598 likely voters was conducted October 18-20. The margin of error is +/- 4.2 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted October 18-20 are in parentheses. Party ID breakdown: 48% (D); 35% (R); 17% (I).
