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

>>I believe Romney could and would be much worse than GW Bush.<<

I haven't really paid much attention to this. Ron Paul sounded reasonable in the primaries and Romney sounded reasonable in the Presidential debates. I was left with the sense that Romney will most likely win since he seemed more confident and positive when talking about the economy, whereas Obama tended to focus on possible negatives of Romney. Of course the devil is in the detail and much of the US American economic mess seems to be legacy from Bush.

Elections are never decided by the Supreme Court. On rare occasions when a candidate fails to receive the necessary Electoral College votes, the election goes to the House of Representatives. Although further provisions exist beyond that, it's never needed to go anywhere else.

Obama is not going to go down without putting up a huge fight. Mitt Romney is self-confident and secure, if a bit geekish and inward.

I've heard various pundits say that no president has been re-elected when the jobless rate has been above 7.8% We're pretty much at that level now, so the election is a tossup.

Four years ago after 8 years of Bush the Republicans put up a "geriatric" and a "bimbo" against Obama. Even so it seems that Obama still lost the "white vote" 40 to 60% I believe (???), but had 80% of the non-white vote (??? - I could be speaking nonsense here).

Anyway, this time round it looks like an improved team from the Republicans.

From my point of view Obama has been and acted presidential during these four years and received what looked to be a disaster of an economy, when first sworn in.

Deciding the election with the supreme court - Right Z the house ,not the court is the intended set-up.
If I understood right.
It could all be repeated same as Bush-Gore.
Because of the electorial vote setup and things like hanging chads etc.

I prefer big changes.
There is increased momentum towards changing things permanently.
The electorial college-
It is not the protection it once was for equal representation of city and rural persons

People want to go to popular vote.
The current laws have state by state differences in handling their electorial votes.
They can decide to split the votes or not. A big difference.Not consistent.

Close votes will likely have a similar result.
State voting laws,procedures and ballot changes lead to confusion.
Would be nice to have a consistent voting programs across all states and one vote for one person.

I agree. But if that's ever going to happen it'll be because of a constitutional amendment. I doubt the Supreme Court will ever get involved. And without that amendment, if they did then they would just uphold the Electoral College, so I'd rather they not.



~*~I've heard various pundits say that no president has been re-elected when the jobless rate has been above 7.8% We're pretty much at that level now, so the election is a tossup.~*~

http://xkcd.com/1122/

What would we do without the pundits?

One explanation I heard for why some polls seem off -

The pollers can only call home phone numbers.

The majority of Americans use cell phones.
Most people have caller ID.
Those with a home phone, most people do not pick up toll free numbers nor
unidentified callers.

So whatever demographic answers toll free numbers and non id numbers
on a home phone are the ones answering telephone polls.
This could help explain some polls numbers.

>> Elections are never decided by the Supreme Court. << He...Met

The first stolen GWBush election went to the Supreme Court.

Extremely good points, abbi And here I was just thinking it was all due to lies

What I don't get is why none of those Big Money earners haven't said as much ( or even noticed)

>> Elections are never decided by the Supreme Court. << He...Met

~*~The first stolen GWBush election went to the Supreme Court.~*~

Did not.

~*~The first stolen GWBush election went to the Supreme Court.~*~

The impression I had over here in the motherland was that Al Gore was a bit of a robotic blockhead. It's not clear whether he would have made a good president, but then again it's not clear that Bush Junior was particularly clueful - presumably other people ran the "country" when Bush was president.

Hi, Mr X

"On December 12, the Supreme Court ruled in a 7–2 vote that the Florida Supreme Court's ruling requiring a statewide recount of ballots was unconstitutional, and in a 5–4 vote that the Florida recounts could not be completed before a December 12 "safe harbor" deadline, and should therefore cease and the previously certified total should hold." This comes from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2000 under "Florida Recount." There is a reason many of us in America know that GWBush stole that election. The reason is because he did.

And StoneArt, you mention you had the impression that Al Gore was a robotic blockhead. The problem here is that that's just what Bush wanted. He wanted you to have an impression and then vote on it. Bush didn't want you to look at the facts of the man Gore, because if you had you would have voted for Gore.

And this is just what is going on in this election, too. The Republicans are hoping America will vote on the impressions the Republicans' lies leave rather than voting on the facts.

Information (bias?) broadcast in the GB indicated underhand local tactics to prevent "blacks" registering and voting in Florida as residual of southern state racism helped swing Florida result in favour of George Bush Junior. This all could be media bias of course, but there seemed to be outstanding issues.

Whatever the shenanigans it seems that the overall "national" vote was pretty well split evenly. A colleague who attended one of the campaign speeches of Al Gore - said Gores stage presence was dreadful - very wooden and mechanical, generating no enthusiasm from neutrals in the crowd.

Hmm.... I didn't know that was even a possibility. I should point out that the very same article concludes that if the recounts had been completed, they probably would have resulted in a victory for Bush anyway.

No, it doesn't.

I agree that Romneys best shoowing was in the debates.

I believe that President Obama was ready to tackle the topics based on what Romney had said up to that point.
Romney contradicted himself almost toatlly on all accounts. I can only imagine how frustrating that was from the start.
i have never seen President Obama so mad and over taken on camera.

If A person watched only the first debate it would be understandable why Romney "looked the part "
If you had nothing to compare his words to you ,might think he was competent.

I did think Romney lost his debate advantage on the last for sure.
I believe they caught Obama in one lie. Romneys total I llost track of.

It was amazing how they made Romney up to look more like Reagan.
This was after a week of Reagan talk, from both sides
Romney trying to look like him and the Dems saying He would not be a Republican in todays political world..
With the exception of the ole trickle down therory.
They made Romneys head appear more square. They darkened his skin to a hollywood tan.
Some radicals said "ethnic look".

No flaws on anybody from either parrty.
They did not look that flawless other weeks.
In fact Romney has aged during his run. It showed about the time Ann Romney said she was worried about him emotionally.

>>I believe that President Obama was ready to tackle the topics based on what Romney had said up to that point.
Romney contradicted himself almost toatlly on all accounts. I can only imagine how frustrating that was from the start.
i have never seen President Obama so mad and over taken on camera.<<

I thought Obama started off extremely badly - going on an on about his anniversary, leaving the US American public waiting - he seemed to be half asleep from the beginning.

If what you say is true - that Romney invented his policy on the hoof - then that could explain his lackadaisical performance (but only partially because for me he seemed "half asleep" from the beginnning).

t"hought Obama started off extremely badly - going on an on about his anniversary, leaving the US American public waiting - he seemed to be half asleep from the beginning. "

Agreed.It was his worst performance debating. I was very dissapointed.