h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The candidates and their vice-presidential running mates have been selected by their respective party conventions, and the campaign, which has been running de facto for at least 18 months, is now on its final, official lap.

And so we are gathered here in the bar off the exhibition area to discuss American politics in all its florid and exhibitionist glory: the election of a new president.

Or possibly, more of the same. Though I sincerely hope not.

A round of Matina, please!

I'm glad the conventions are over, it will be interesting to see if the media get more excited about covering McCain now that he has his own celebrity on board.

There was a mention recently in Swedish press about McCain bragging about how he would 'get' Osama bin Laden *if* he were elected president.

'I know how to get him and I'm gonna get him.'

So why wait until he's president? Why not spill the beans now? Which is more important - capture bin Laden as fast as possible or McCain getting the credit for it once he's president? And what's this *if* he were elected? If he isn't, he won't lift a finger to help?

Made a somewhat egotistic impression, that quote...

RE post 4: I wonder if McCain and his camp realized that Palin would overshadow him?

According to write ups in Danish newspapers online today, McCain looks like someone clinging to a rollercoaster they set into motion without knowing how fast they'll really go.

Under the headline "Is this McCains party", they discuss how the Rep convent spent lots of time hammering on the "leftish", East-coast elitarian people had driven the nation to the brink of bankruptcy, increased the state apparatus and were rolling out Big Brother during the last 8 years.

Errmmm, wasn't that the Republicans? Apparently, McCain didn't quite want to address this issue, even though right-wing commentators are calling it schizophrenic and mad.

Is there a major rift down the Republican party? And how will that affect things?

(you may start polishing your crystal balls now )

it'll really go....

There is a rift, but they're doing a pretty good job of holding it together right now. The rift didn't prevent Bush from being elected. Or re-elected.

And isn't ironic that under a republican administration, the party of free markets and small government, that we have our first government seizure of two large private mortgage lenders? OK, to be fair, "semi-private" but the "semi" part never meant anything before.

It was really odd to watch the Republicans disassociate themselves from their own government at their convention last week. "We're against...us!" went the cheers and applause.

During one moment of McCain's acceptance speech he had a line about "We (as in his party) failed." There was dead silence in the hall. Then he went back to blaming political pundits/West and East Coast elites/Hollywood and everyone went back to cheering. Oh well, I guess it will be Bush Campaign #3.

I saw an article today saying a majority of Americans think McCain would bet money that McCain would win. Personally, I'm not placing any bets until three days after the VP debates.

Speaking of betting money, the Iowa Presidential Markets, where people really do put money on the outcome of the elections, have the democrats ahead. If I read these graphs correctly:
http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/iem/markets/data_Pres08.html

It's supposed to be unusually accurate.

“We are just going to keep on presenting the facts, truthfully, forcefully, consistently every day. We are going to hammer away at the fact that the stakes in this election are too high. They have to do with whether we can rebuild the middle class and put this country back on a pathway to success in the 21st century competitive, global economy. We’re going to hammer away at that every single day. And I trust the American people to pay attention...”

http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/09/10/obama-says-enough-with-phony-controversy/

Refreshing! I hope it works.

An interesting film has been found in the archives of the Swedish state television. According to Swedish press, there are pictures of McCain leaning on crutches when returning from North Vietnam, making it look as if he was badly injured. Ah, found one:

http://media.myfoxphoenix.com/mccain-tracker/pictures/mccain_pow.jpg

But the Swedish film shows him leaving North Vietnamn with only a slight limp. Odd that his condition should have worsened so much during the flight, eh?

So far I've only been able to find the original film where Swedish is spoken, but the pictures are more than enough. Click on the link titled 'Webb-tv: Krigsfången McCain friges' to view it:

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3070

Another interesting report here is that McCain apparently is on a YouTube video making rather much the very same remark about lipstick and pigs... (sorry, too lazy to go check)

Oops, sorry - that specific Swedish newspaper has added a lot of ads onto that page since I last visited.

This is the least ad-loaded site I could find, on the Swedish state TV's site:

http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=22584&a=1243689&lid=puff_1243753&lpos=lasmer

I was watching the news yesterday; there's a plethora of clips of politicians using the phrase, "you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," among them, McCain, Cheney, Bush, Liebermann, and John Edwards. It's a popular euphemism in the US, when you're appealing to the "just plain folks".

Bet you the clips were all from YouTube. It's the nation's (world's?) video clip scrapbook, now.

A good monologue/rant about the election by late night talk show host Craig Ferguson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x5HrbFmGtA

Even Palin used a version of it to describe herself. But that one involved a pit bull.

McCain has finally come out and said that Obama wasn't talking about Palin when he used the term "lipstick on a pig" - but he did say that Obama was up to something.