Barack Obama, not to be outdone on the regular-guy front by Hillary’s boilermakers, strode decisively into a Raleigh bar tonight and ordered a Pabst Blue Ribbon.
As a result, he won the North Carolina primary. That is, you can’t prove that’s not why he won. If only he’d mastered the intricacies of Yuengling while there was still time in PA…
He also demonstrated that he could hold his brew by resisting a pitch from a perky saleswoman who wanted to sell him new kitchen countertops for the White House. Really.
Unfortunately, while the candidate was catching up on his drinking, his rival went and stole the Indiana primary — apparently. Obama, apparently feeling mellow, conceded that contest to her before it was even over.
So the madness continues.
Tomorrow, his campaign plans to work on his bowling. Once he cracks 100, they’ll teach him to bowl and drink beer at the same time, and then he’ll be unstoppable…
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Lake County has not submitted their ballots yet. Estimates are there are 220k votes there, it’s heavily black, and a 60% pull by Obama could pull this off. The Clintons will stay in to pay off debt and save face.
The spot light now shines brightly on McCain and Hagee, 100 year presence in Iraq, ignorance on the economy, flip flops, tax cuts for the wealthy, and 4 more years of W.
Brad may even post critical threads about McCain.
BTW, I worked at a bar in Clemson. We kept a 6 pack of PBR for a regular named Snake. Guys like him keep the beer alive.
PBR?
Almost as good a reason to vote for anyone else as Bud Light.
Like drinking the sap of a china berry cut with lighter fluid.
Vile, and in this case, a condescending toast to the muddled masses who back Obama without having a clue who he might be.
Brad may even post critical threads about McCain.
-Randy E
I wouldn’t hold my breath. Sadly, McCain is just not the same man he was in 2000. Or maybe it was just a fascade that has now been exposed. I can’t wait until the general campaign gets rolling. If the media will focus just 1/10 of their energy on the issues this election will be a laugher. Indeed with a promise of a 100 year bloody occupation and an admission that he knows nothing about economic matters McCain looks foolish to even run for POTUS. Then again we ended up with 8 years of G.W. How could we have allowed that to happen?
When asked in an exclusive “This Week” interview with George Stephanopoulos if it was “a mistake to solicit and accept his endorsement”, McCain replied “oh, probably, sure.” Despite admitting his error, McCain made clear he’s still “glad to have his endorsement.”
McCain contradicts himself in the same breath. He will wither under the media attention.
bud, I think W’s election victories had little to do with what he offered as a president. Gore and Kerry shot themselves in the foot by being stiff and staying on the defensive. The 2006 and 2008 elections represent the complete rejection of all issues GOP.
How do you like those fake regional accents Obama puts on as he campaigns?
In NC, he did the “polite small-town black” accent. In New York, he put on a mix of Bronx and Queens.
He obviously has better coaching than Hillary. Her attempt at Southern slang in that black church was too pathetic to even make us laugh.
But her normal speaking voice is so shrill, she sounds like she is flying around on a broom.
Gore and Kerry shot themselves in the foot by being stiff and staying on the defensive.
-Randy
That’s the conventional wisdom. But I believe it had more to do with the appalling media spectacle that focused on Gore’s alleged claim that he invented the internet (False) and his brown suits. And let’s remember Al Gore received more than a half million more votes than Bush. Coupled with the vote caging, butterfly ballot fiasco and other outrages Bush managed to get into the White House. So in effect Gore actually won in 2000.
As for 2004, Kerry could have done more with the Swiftboating but again, the media coverage was highly selective in dealing with Kerry’s shortcomings and not Bush’s obvious incompetence in handling the job. Why, for example, did we not see endless coverage of Bush reading My Pet Goat while the WTC burned?
And now we have this 24/7 coverage of a complete non-story – Rev. Wright. Meanwhile McCain seeks out and accepts an endorsement from the bigoted Rev. Hagee. McCain is also probably violating campaign laws by using Federal matching funds as collateral so his campaign can borrow money. Despicable. And how often has the press mentioned McCain’s deplorable flip-flopping on the torture issue. And if we go back far enough we have his adulterous affair apparently because his at-the-time wife had lost her looks. The second Mrs. McCain has a propensity to steal even if she’s very wealthy. She stole drugs from her charity and then stole recipies claiming they were her own. You ask, what does Mrs. McCain have to do with anything? Two points. The right-wing blogosphere is constantly harping on Mrs. Obama’s comments concerning how she hasn’t been “proud to be an American” until recently. Also, the whole Rev. Wright mess is predicated on the fact that Obama stayed with the reverand even though he has made unpatriotic comments, guilt by association if you will. How about McCain remaining married to a drug thief? Isn’t that just as bad?
It’s high time we cut out all this crap and focus on issues. If that ever happens McCain doesn’t stand a chance.
Kerry and Gore were both 1960s radicals who used the McGovern campaign to put on suits and hijack the Democratic Party.
While Kerry was pretending to be combat veteran, lying about “atrocities”, being funded by the KGB as one of their useful idiots, Gore was smoking dope and protesting outside the 1968 Demo Convention.
They are schizoid, lusting after personal wealth while clinging to the socialist agenda of their mispent youth. Most voters didn’t know the whole story on them, but they could tell these guys didn’t pass the smell test.
Gore was smoking dope and protesting outside the 1968 Demo Convention.
-Lee
Good for him! That makes me like him even more.
obama is not an american. an affirmative action baby boy, he is an anti white radical socialist with brothers in kenya. anyone who votes for obama is anti american; if white then pure self hating white; if negro descendant of west african slaves, just self hating negroid.
candid, you could at least spell “american” with a capital “A”.
bud, I was angry with both Gore and Kerry for blowing it. W, as in Wizard of Oz, was a weak candidate with Rove as the “man behind the curtain”. Again, both were so rigid they underperformed.
You cite the media as overlooking W’s capabilities. Why didn’t either Gore or Kerry hammer him on these issues? These would not have been negative attacks but valid criticisms.
Read more about John McCain the “reformer”.
I agree with Bud on Gore…even if you forget the question of the disputed Florida result, Gore did outpoll Bush in 2000. And John Kerry received the second most votes for President of any candidate in history, and very nearly won the election. He certainly should be derided a la Dukakis for blowing a sure thing (and then getting trounced as Dukakis was in electoral vote anyway).
But guys, Gore…Kerry…1968…Clintons…let’s move on. We’re turning the page on all that. Let’s let the reactionaries try to relive the swinging 50’s and the McCarthy era. (We know who that’s for). We’re turning the page to a completely new politics.
Apologies, I left out a very important word above…it should read
“[Kerry] certainly should NOT be derided a la Dukakis…” etc.
Phillip, I completely agree and I’m guilty of getting caught in the GOP trap of focusing on non-issues.
How’s this for starters. As I write this, oil (West Texas intermediate) is trading for, what 2 months ago would have been an astounding, $123.62 a barrel, an all-time record. This shatters the all-time highs set in 1980 even when adjusted for inflation. And what does John McCain propose? An unfunded gas tax holiday!!! How crazy is that? What the candidates need to talk about is the future of energy in the post-oil world. Obama comes closest. At least he’s not pandering to the spoiled nature of American motorists. I think if the media would start asking hard questions about this very important issue it would become apparent that McCain has no clue what to do. Obama, on the other hand, would likely have a well thought out strategy. But no one is asking. Everyone is just too darn busy talking about trivia.
For my part Phillip I’ll try to stay focused on the important issues of the day.
How do you Obama supporters like all those terrorists and communists who are close to and backing Obama?
Yesterday, Obama was in NC, wrapping himself in the flag, talking about how he and Michele are proof you can make in it America. The day before, Michele was telling blacks they can’t make it, because mean ole whites, “….they keep moving the bar.”
Obama talked about his father’s flag-draped coffin. Not the America flag. He was a communist, a supporter of communism in Kenya. That’s not working out so well for Kenya.
They are liars, actors with an act for each audience, playing to suckers. They are ignorant of history and economics, they hate America, they despise you for being dumb enough to fall for their scam.
“communists are not American”…I didn’t know this is in the Consitution. I better read up on this.
Phillip, “history repeates itself” so looking back at ’00 and ’04 may be important. This is especially true when the GOP is attempting the same approach, especially swiftboating.
I think there is something to the elitist tag that was put on both Kerry and Gore. They seemed out of touch to the point that wanting to have a beer with the candidate actually had credence to some extent.
Think back to Bush 41. He was hammered for not acknowledging the recession or not knowing the price of a loaf of bread which made him appear out of touch with the common man.
Similarly, Bittergate had a similar effect. Obama, as demonstrated by his community work, cares about the common man. Despite this, the appearence of being an elitist can be a problem.
McCain will win not because he is the better man or the better candidate but because his party is the lesser of two evils. That is why George won.
I love how the democrats will say because everything costs more we are going to raise your taxes. Please tell me how they plan to put that square peg into a round hole.
They are only going to tax the rich ? The democrats definition of rich is anyone who works for a living and has a pay check that they can steal from. With all the socialist countries in the world wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper to move there than to spend your whole life trying to turn the United States into one ?
These socialists are incapable of creating wealth – that is why they HAVE TO spend their lives trying to figure out how to mooch off productive people.
Obama, the Clintons, John F. Kerry, Al Gore – none of them ever held a real adult job. If they weren’t in politics, they would be doing some clerical work in a back office. Early on, they learned how to con dummies into giving them a free ride.
Wolfe, flinging tiresome platitudes will hardly work this year. The lesser of two evils was certainly not the republicans in 2006. Newt is having a nervous breakdown about the GOP chances in 2008.
Obama on taxes:
*No tax increase if earning under $250K; tax cuts under $75K
*Raise capital gains tax for fairness, not for revenue (it was 28% in the 90s and now is 15% under W)
Hardly “stealing” from “anyone” with a paycheck.
Very obviously, McCain is the lesser of 2 evils, Bush being very much worse. But we have a chance to do something different, and good, with Obama at the helm. Lets, see–our military has been gutted, the economy’s in the tank, our standing in the world is sinking, And we owe China so much that it could probably take our children and grandchildren as chattels. This is, after 8 years of Republican reign, all the Democrats fault, of course. I remain very glad that Obama is again the clear winner, and I think that once he gets the Demo. nomination, that McCain will step in it often enough to ensure victory. And Brad, cute picture, but not your best.
Critical posts about McCain? Hmmm. How about this? Or this? Or this?
Looks like you can keep breathing, bud…
Pay attention, people. Randy, you should know better.
And what does any of this have to do with the critical issue of PBR vs. Crown Royal?
I still say that if Obama had drunk enough Yuenglings — pride of Pennsylvania, nation’s oldest brewery still operating, etc. — this would all be over. It’s cheap (available to the working class), it’s American, and it TASTES GOOD, unlike most American beers.
A truly respectable lager.
Clinton and the Democrats lowered the capital gains tax from 28% to 14% in 1993, while raising the rates on working people by 50%, the top bracket going from 28% to 42%.
The 2001 Bush tax cuts were too small. They should have rolled the brackets back to 28%, left capital gains at 14%, lowered the corporate rate to no more than 28%, and eliminated the dual taxation of dividends.
Obama proposes lots of taxes on business which will be passed on to consumers, and proposes new taxes to pay for his back-breaking socialist medical plan.
Here are some of the TAX INCREASES proposed by Obama and discussed by him in multiple interviews:
* Increase payroll taxes by 80% overall.
* Remove the cap on payroll taxes.
This will only postponed bankruptcy of Social Security by 3 years, according to SS analysts.
* Repeal the Bush tax cuts on all income brackets.
* Add a surcharge to the top bracket and extend the Alternative Minimum tax, raising the top bracket to 55%.
* Double the capital gains tax from 14% to 28%, he says to, “for fairness, not revenue.” Since most owners of stock and real estate are middle class, middle income folks, they will be hit by this.
* Double the inheritance taxes.
Force family businesses to sell out to big business. Force family farms to sell out to developers.
* No spending cuts. “Maybe a weapons program or two”, he told ABC News, but couldn’t think of one. What a lightweight!
* Voted against every tax cut while in the Illinois Senate and the US Senate.
PS:
For you socialists who like to compare the US to Europe,
* The US has the highest corporate taxes in the world, about twice that of most of Europe.
* Europe doesn’t double tax dividends like the US does. They are a deductible cost. In the US, dividends are paid from after-tax profits, then the individuals receiving dividends are taxed as ordinary income.
* US payroll taxes are much higher than the rest of the modern world.
In Canada and France payroll taxes are levied only up to the average wage.
In the United Kingdom, taxes stop at 1.15 times the average wage.
In Germany and Japan at 1.5 times the average wage.
Raises in payroll taxes mean employers will have to reduce wages by the same amount as it costs them. This means less income subject to federal and state taxes. Maybe that’s why Obama favors boosting the income taxes on wages, too.
Crown Royal is a lot better than PBR.
A lot better.
This election offers a stark and obvious choice for the future of America. A choice between prosperity and economic stagnation and decline. A choice between a visionary health policy and the failed Republican health care system that benefits only the rich. A choice between diplomacy, peace and stability vs confrontation, war and an unstable dangerous world. A choice between a sound and fair tax code for all Americans and a tax code that favors the very richest in this country.
The smart choice in this election is the energetic, charasmatic, visionary, brilliant Barack Obama or the tired, worn-out, 100 year war John McCain. The choice is clear. I choose Barack Obama.
Socialist seizure of medical care is a failure in every country. It is first about controlling people, not about healing them.
The USA beats every country in outcomes of treatment in every major disease I have checked so far, in every European country: breast cancer, ovarian cancer, heart disease, prostate cancer and lung cancer. I have already posted the details here.
you can read the first sentence of any post and if it’s the craziest thing you ever read, know it came from Lee.
Yup, Lee is a disciple of the failed conservative agenda of the past 25 years. Lee does one thing well though. He knows how to find good sources of information. The interesting thing is that the sources he cites usually contradict the point he’s trying to make. Lee would make a fascinating study on how the human brain assimilates information in such a way as to reach a conclusion opposite of that supported by the facts.
The only people who want socialism are those who don’t think they can earn the right to the lifestyle they desire. They will accept the inferiority of socialism to the nothing they would have on their own money.
Most people without health insurance CHOSE to spend the money on non-essential items, according to studies by the US Census Bureau, Blue Cross, and several foundations.
Medical Costs Down in Private Sector, Only Rising Due to Government
——————————————————————–
All increases in medical costs are in the 58% of the industry controlled by government. This is because the patients do no pay enough out of pocket (only 3%), so they don’t see the true costs or care.
Health care costs over the past 40 years have risen as the proportion of health care paid for by third parties has increased. Prior to the advent of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, health care spending never exceeded 6 percent of gross domestic product. Today it is 16 percent. These two government programs unleashed a torrent of new spending and led to rising health care prices. For instance, a recent study by Amy Finkelstein of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that half the growth in health care expenditures was due to Medicare. There has also been an increase in tax-subsidized employer spending on health care. These two factors, rather than the cost of new technology and drugs, explain why health care costs outpace inflation.
Cosmetic Surgery Prices. Cosmetic surgery is one of the few types of medical care for which consumers pay almost exclusively out of pocket. Even so, the demand for cosmetic surgery exploded in recent years. Of the 10.2 million cosmetic procedures performed in 2005 that were tracked by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 1.8 million were surgical procedures. By comparison, in 1992 the American Society of Plastic Surgeons only tracked 413,208 cosmetic procedures — a fraction of those performed in 2005.
Despite this huge increase, cosmetic surgeons’ fees remained relatively stable. The average increase in prices for medical services from 1992 through 2005 was 77 percent. [See the figure.] The increase in the price of all goods, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), was 39 percent. Cosmetic surgery prices only went up about 22 percent. Thus, while the price of medical services generally rose almost twice as fast as the CPI, the price of cosmetic surgery went up slightly more than half as much. Put another way, while the real price of health care paid for by third parties rose, the real price of self-pay medicine fell.
Another example of price competition is the market for corrective eye surgery. In 1999, only a few years after LASIK was approved, the price was about $2,100 per eye, according to the ophthalmic market research firm MarketScope. Within a short time, competition drove the price down to a slightly more than $1,600. The cost per eye of the standard LASIK is now about 20 percent lower than six years earlier. Competition held prices in check until a new innovation arrived for which patients were willing to pay more. By 2003 surgeons began to perform a newer, more-advanced custom wavefront-guided LASIK procedure.
– 2006 article by Devon Herrick, Center for National Policy Analysis
Life expectancies are higher among those of European ancestry, who earn more money and take better care of themselves. Canada has a sorry national medical care system, yet still has long life expectancies.
———————–
Canada – 80.22
U.K. – 78.54
France – 79.73
Spain – 79.65
Russia – 67.08
Netherlands – 78.96
U.S. – 77.85
South Carolina – 74.9
Canada – spends 10.6% of GDP on health care (2006)
– 50% of breast cancer patients die
– average surgery wait 102 days, up 43% since 1993
– 225,000 Canadians on waiting lists for serious surgery
– oncology surgery wait 34 days
– plastic surgery wait 246 days
– neurosurgery wait 224 days
– MRI waiting 123 days
– Ultrasound waiting 27 days
– see a cardiologist 24 days
– 11% have a long wait for serious surgery
– 40% of elderly wait for non-emergency surgery
– 23% have difficulty seeing a specialist
– 10% have no access to outpatient services
– 10,000 physicians and nurses have fled to the USA since 1990
– 900,000 on waiting lists to get into hospitals
– 46 dialysis per 100,000 people
– 65 coronary bypass per 100,000 people
– 81 coronary angioplasty per 100,000 people
– 25 MRI scans per 100,000 population
– 87 CT scans per 100,000 population
Source: Fraser Surveys 1993 – 2006
Canadian Medical Association
http://www.cnehealth.org/pubs/health_care_in_canada.pdf
Interesting numbers Lee but they don’t exactly support your contention that health care is better in the U.S. than in Canada since they live 2.5 years longer than Americans (and 5.5 years longer than South Carolinians). Perhaps the reason that waits in the U.S. are shorter (if true and I’m not giving you credit just yet for the veracity of that claim) is simply because so many people can’t afford the procedures therefore the number of people waiting in line is lower. So these people die early and reduce the waiting line.
As for the claim that person of European ancestry live longer that’s just plain, flat out not true. The Japanese have the longest live expectancy in the world. Blacks in France live longer than whites in the American South. That claim is nothing but bigotry speaking.
A quick google search found this nice 2007 article on msnbc.com:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20228552/
Here’s an excerpt:
For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles.
Countries that surpass the U.S. include Japan and most of Europe, as well as Jordan, Guam and the Cayman Islands.
-MSNBC
Can anyone with half a brain really believe the sorry state of our health care system hasn’t contributed to this scandalous decline. Just look around. We must have hundreds of different ways to pay for similiar procedures. The government will pay if you’re old or very poor. Your employer will pay part of your insurance if you have the right kind of job. If no one pays then the hospital picks up the tab and passes it along to paying, usually insured, customers. The folks who pay the most and get the least are probably those with insurance but no funding from their employeer and who stay well. If you’re healthy the cost of insurance may seem like something you can do without. But you do so at your own peril.
bud, I am afraid this Cheney administration has been a watershed. Our economy, military, and democracy have taken suffered horribly. The Iraq “war” (still waiting for someone to explain who exactly is the enemy) has drained our nation. Our naked emperor, with his head in the sand, has hampered our pursuit to a GREENer pastures in terms of energy and technology.
Friedman paints a bleak picture of the direction of our country. The new power center is South East Asia.
Yes, it was so horrible to have the 2001 tax cuts lift us out of the economic slump that began with the stock market crash in 1998, and ended with the Clinton Recession of 2000.
Then mean ole Cheney started cleaning up the terrorists which Clinton had let run wild for 8 years. Not another terrorist attack on America pulled off now for 7 years. How cruel of our military!
Bush proposed in 2001 to increase alternative energy R&D TENFOLD over Clinton’s budget, but the Demcorats fought it, so they would whine about a phony issue of their own making.
I think the democrats are against higher fuel efficiency standards as well – it’s part of the platform now. Pelosi was talking about some tax cuts for millionaires this morning. I hear Obama is thinking of making Christianity the official US religion (although according to some subterranean life forms he’s a Muslim, go figure). I think Richardson was pushing legislation to make all Mexicans illegal aliens (I think Lee voted for him).
Because the only way to achieve more fuel mileage from automobiles is by reducing their curb weight, the Union of Concerned Scientists and many insurance groups oppose arbritrarily higher CAFE mandates.
Each MPG would cost 3,000 lives and 25,000 serious injuries in vehicular wrecks.
Uh, YO — guys!
I thought we were talking about beer…
Brad, I think YOU were talking about beer, lol.
Because the only way to achieve more fuel mileage from automobiles is by reducing their curb weight.
-Lee
Oh really? Then how does a 3,000 pound Toyota Prius get 45 miles per gallon and a 3,000 pound Toyota Matrix get around 28? There must be something else at work besides weight.
Because the Prius has a 75-HP engine with 13:1 compression, while the Matrix has a 158-HP engine with low compression.
Prius trades off acceleration for mileage.
It also requires more expensive high octane gasoline for proper operation, which reduces its cost per mile closer to the Matrix.
You could put in an even weaker engine in the Prius and get better mileage, but slower acceleration.
You can also choose to accelerate a Matrix very slowly to running speed, and get 34 MPG out of it.
I just drove a Buick Lucerne gently for 1,700 miles and got 27.7 MPG overal, with 31 on the highway.
The decision to buy a Prius, Matrix, Buick or Corvette is one of personal tastes. It is no one else’s business, and the mileage they get on a test track is not the business of legislators or bureaucrats.
I thought Muslims didn’t drink….