Red Vs. Blue

[davidn]

Can we move the election forward a month and get it over with?

As I knew I was in danger of a couple of months ago, I've been completely caught up following this election. Well, "completely" is stretching the term a bit, because all I really do is examine that map and a couple of others daily and watch The Daily Show with Jon Smugtwit when Whitney's recorded it, but she mentioned to me herself the other day that because of this I probably now know more about the movement of the states than she does. And I have never been that kind of person - when we met in Worcester and I looked up the map on my laptop, livatlantis said that he didn't know I was 'political', but I didn't think of myself as such - I'm not political, I just want Obama to win, as do the rest of the world.

And honestly, things are looking pretty good for that at the moment. My knowledge of how things usually go is limited, but I do know that in general, the middle and South (with the odd exception of New Mexico) are very red, the West and Northeast are very blue, and the states with funny shapes on the border between the blue and red patches are the ones that cause the problems by being undecided. But compare that to the map's situation today - those swing states may be swinging back and forward, and Colorado and Nevada are happily falling under the influence of California and New Mexico, but the states that are meant to be red are the real surprise. Florida is heading towards being liberal. North Carolina is tied, and it's really, really not meant to be. Georgia and Mississisisisissisissippi are weaker than they have been all year... even Texas has become a weak republican area. I feel this is a pretty strong indicator that things are going very wrong for that side of the campaign at the moment.

Provided this isn't just a one-off absolute miracle that will revert tomorrow (back to a slightly weaker lead, still), all the democrats really have to do is hang on to the lead for a month and not do anything totally stupid. Tonight's debate is the moment a lot of people have been waiting for, with the promise of Piano-mouth having to stand up and speak to people instead of the republicans trying to smuggle her through the campaign with a bag on her head (with lipstick). I can't imagine that Biden will manage to do anything to make the democrats look worse than her unless he accidentally reveals that he's actually Darth Vader and goes around nicking sweets from orphans.

Comments

[diarytypething.livejournal.com]

Do you ever get confused with the red/blue thing? I find myself having to concentrate to figure out which colour belongs to which party in US politics because I'm so used to the colours having the opposite symbolism (I know the two systems aren't exactly compatible, but they've both got one party that is more right-wing, and red is the colour associated with socialists and communists in most of the world). Or this might just be me, because I've been following Westminster/Holyrood elections since I was 13, and can remember having a vague awareness of politics long before then.

[davidn]

It's strange to see it the other way round, but I think it actually makes it easier, as a large spread of red is easily associated with "danger - very bad".

[jenny0.livejournal.com]

Yes, I see it as blue=soothing, red=danger!

[lordrosemount.livejournal.com]

Just like in the UK!

[davidn]

I remember it being great news when they started. Now I really can't find myself particularly enthusiastic about any of them.

[lordrosemount.livejournal.com]

Who?

[davidn]

Gordon Brown, David Cameron, whoever runs the ones in the middle now, the whole lot of them. I remember that Labour was going to be a big change from John Major not doing anything, and then they fell apart.

Though Cameron does have it going for him that unlike his predecessors for a surprising amount of time he actually looks like a fully convincing member of the human race.

[starfishchris.livejournal.com]

I think I preferred weird and unelectable to dull and unelectable. The Monster Raving Loony Party seems a lot more viable lately.

[kjorteo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31FFTx6AKmU

[jenny0.livejournal.com]

I was pretty surprised to see that Georgia is only 'weak Republican'. Although I guess I shouldn't have been, I've seen equal numbers of signs/bumper stickers for both candidates (plus a MASSIVE sign for Ron Paul...)

I don't see how things can go any wronger for McCain's campaign. I was reading the NYT's suggestions of questions for the VP candidates in the debate tonight; one asked, "Governor Palin, Ahmadinejad has given more press conferences than you have. Can you explain your fear and distrust of the press?" or something like that. I think the debate will be so painfully awful that it'll be awesome.

[lordrosemount.livejournal.com]

Don't bank on it! Trouble is that at this point if Palin manages to avoid swallowing the podium and throwing it up again, it'll look like she's won. Best to be realistic about this, I reckon, not have any preconceived notions and then judge the debate against what actually happens, not some manufactured set of expectations.

[davidn]

Whitney actually said the same thing to me this morning - the expectations for Palin are now so appalling that no matter how badly it goes people will probably be surprised at how well it went compared to what was expected.

[jenny0.livejournal.com]

Based on the interviews I've seen, Palin is not only totally uniformed, but can't even construct a coherent sentence about those issues of which she does have some knowledge. So, sort of what you said, if she comes out of it NOT looking totally retarded then she'll have done exceptionally well. That's not exactly a stellar result, though.

My only worry is that it may be too easy for Biden to really take her to task and rip her down, making people feel sorry for the poor nice pretty lady. Because that's totally how we should judge our legislators, but whatever.

Anyway, I'm just interested to see how it goes.

[jenny0.livejournal.com]

My only quibble, upon reading the page further, is their article "Senate Passes $700 Bailout Bill".

[starfishchris.livejournal.com]

$700 is still more than they deserve.

[kjorteo]

I feel strangely proud of myself for teaching you all about the wonderful wackiness that is New Mexico!

[davidn]

You did - I had previously assumed that you came from one of the mad states just because it was in the southern centre-ish area, but it's nice to know that there is an island in there - and it seems to be spreading, too.