Answer me these questions three

Please forgive this punt of sorts but my post on opera was gradually growing from a Puccini one act into my very own Ring cycle so offer up your answers to these political teasers whilst I struggle on like Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald himself.

#1) How exactly does Obama win?

I’m not saying he doesn’t, his debate win last night hopefully cemented his national lead, but if you were running his campaign what would you do to make sure we pull off a victory? Simply continue to give McCain/Palin enough rope? Go (more) negative? Push a sound bite friendly populist economic message? Policy wonks: please feel free to offer up detailed electoral map projections and strategies.

#2) Who gets the blame if he doesn’t?

It may not be altogether healthy but maybe if we start pointing fingers now we can get the bad karma out of the way and pretend we never had this discussion while we celebrate as one come November 5th. Anyone else worried about the Bradley effect?

#3) What is the inevitable October surprise going to be?

What will the party of Atwater and Rove grace us with this time? Will it be more Ayers/Wright, a pale ex-girlfriend, a smear of Michelle, or another Bin Laden tape?

18 responses to “Answer me these questions three”

  1. Dave says:

    1) Keep smiling for the cameras.

    2) Ralph Nader?

    3) McCain will do a Google that tells him exactly where Bin Laden is hiding and forwards the information to Palin, who shoots him from a helicopter and field dresses him on the spot.

    Seriously? The presidential race is over.

  2. Scotty says:

    1) Stay on track: Obama is polling better than ever. He is putting pressure on McCain to spend money in states that he shouldn’t have to. It seems that he even has a decent chance of winning even if he loses in OH and FLA: he needs to win all the states that are trending toward him plus only one toss-up state like CO, VA, NC. NV isn’t big enough, and would only give him a total of 169 electoral votes, but Kansas doesn’t have a winner take all system, so he can maybe squeeze one vote out and get to 270. But the other important thing to remember is that a tie goes to the Democratic House to decide.

    2) Joe Lieberman: I know he’s a non-issue, but I sure don’t like him.

    3) Bush changes his endorsement to Obama, stating, “He seems better equipped to carry out the policies that I’ve put into place over the last eight years.”

  3. 1) Keep fingers crossed; repeat under your breath until November, “Come on Obama, you can do it”
    2) Eve! That fucking tramp — it’s on her shoulders.
    3) Beer hall putsch.

  4. Kansas doesn’t have a winner take all system, so he can maybe squeeze one vote out

    He’ll need a damn sight more than Kansas to get from 169 to 270!

  5. Scotty says:

    My bad, but You know what i meant.

  6. Yeah only joshin’.

  7. swells says:

    #1 The Rolling Stone article coming out next week might help (but at this point it’s hard to imagine anything changing anything), and not that it’s Obama’s doing. Careful–it will really upset you. As far as what he can do himself: no smears, just defense, I ‘d say. Is that too “nice”?

    #2 As always, I’ll blame the Christian Right for corrupting the election if he “loses.”

    #3 Paris Hilton sex tape?
    .

  8. Scotty says:

    morning + math = mouringmath

  9. swells says:

    sorry- the link has a period on the end that you should delete when it shows up in your browser window.

  10. swells says:

    Okay, or try this. and sorry for lameness

  11. Rachel says:

    #2–I worry about fraud: wiping names off the voting rolls, failing to count votes, refusing to let those with foreclosed-upon homes vote, etc. They’re using every dirty trick out there to prevent Obama supporters from being heard at all.

  12. Rogan says:

    #1. Obama wins by continuing to be the smartest person in the room. I think a lot of the country has moved beyond issue-driven politics to recognize that we need a dynamic problem solver. He needs to continue characterizing McCain as a partisan, start using the SNL-coined word ‘Mavericky,’ to turn McCain’s strongest asset into a joke, and make a huge issue out of the fact that McCain would have tied the fate of Social Security to the the stock market. McCain’s ‘Without privatization of SS…’ clip needs to be put into continual rotation in Florida.

    #2. If McCain wins, it will be because of racism and election tampering. Obama has run too good of a campaign, and the political environment is too favorable for an Obama win for this to end up any other way without some seriously evil shit taking place.

    #3. I would have guessed that Israel might bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, which would benefit McCain, but I think that is becoming less likely with the international economic meltdown. Can anyone imagine what bombing Iran would do to the price of oil? Then again, maybe Israel will take the position, ‘when it rains it pours,’ and just drive this thing hard toward its nadir. *kaboom*

  13. Thanks for that link, swells — I had seen the article referenced a couple of times this week but had not taken the time to read it. Pretty amazing to think about someone with that kind of personal history getting to where he is now.

    Here’s another good Rolling Stone article, from last month: Mad Dog Palin.

  14. Scotty says:

    From an editorial piece in today’s NY Times:

    …[Palin’s] demagoguery has elicited some frightening, intolerable responses. A recent Washington Post report said at a rally in Florida this week a man yelled “kill him!” as Ms. Palin delivered that line and others shouted epithets at an African-American member of a TV crew.

  15. LP says:

    #1: According to Cato Institute researcher, Will Wilkinson, “Obama owned [the debate]. This election’s over unless he murders and eats the flesh of a child on live television.”

    #2: The same dolts who voted for GWB in 2004

    #3: Let’s hope the “October Surprise” is that there isn’t one. If there is one, it has to be some national-security scare: a supposedly thwarted terrorist attack, or something having to do with Iran.

  16. Dave says:

    Cato Institute researcher, Will Wilkinson

    Hey, that’s my grad-school roommate!

  17. Tim says:

    1.) Easy does it. One day at a time. Any and all other 12-step cliches.

    2.) Like Rachel and Rogan have said, fraud and racism.

    3.) I think (*think*!) that someone in McCain’s campaign will eventually tell Palin loudly enough that she doesn’t want to get into a who’s-got-the-crazier-minister-in-his/her-past discussion with Obama, forcing her to cut that out. If there’s any October surprise that could be effective, it would have to be something to do with the bailout and/or economy. America can forget a lot in 4 weeks, so if there’s some kind of monumental turnaround for which the Repubs and/or McC. can take credit, that could do it.

  18. Any and all other 12-step cliches.

    Make a decision to turn our campaign over to the care of God as we understand Him.