'Only three discernible, if highly unlikely, paths to a McCain victory'

[bigtree]

from FRANK RICH today: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/opinion/19rich.html?pagewanted=print

October 18, 2008

{snip}

The election isn’t over, but there remain only three discernible, if highly unlikely, paths to a McCain victory. A theoretically mammoth wave of racism, incessantly anticipated by the press, could materialize in voting booths on Nov. 4. Or newly registered young and black voters could fail to show up. Or McCain could at long last make good on his most persistent promise: follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell and, once there, strangle him with his own bare hands on “Hannity & Colmes.”

Even Republicans are rapidly bailing on a McCain resuscitation. It’s a metaphor for the party’s collapse that on the day of the final debate both Nancy Reagan and Dick Cheney checked into hospitals. Conservatives have already moved past denial to anger on the Kubler-Ross scale of grief. They are not waiting for votes to be counted before carrying out their first round of Stalinist purges. William F. Buckley’s son Christopher was banished from National Review for endorsing Obama. Next thing you know, there will be a fatwa on that McCain-bashing lefty, George Will.

{snip}

The former Bush speechwriter David Frum has facetiously written that McCain could be rescued by “a 5,000-point rise in the Dow and a 20 percent jump in home prices.” But the economy, stupid, can’t be blamed for McCain’s own failures, any more than Bush can be. Even before the housing bubble burst and Wall Street tumbled, voters could see that the seething, impulsive nominee isn’t temperamentally fit to be president.


read: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/opinion/19rich.html?pagewanted=print

[babylonsister]

1. I love Frank; he has me laughing out loud. Fatwa on George Will?

:rofl:

[bigtree]

3. he's been amazing

. . . and hiliarious. From the article:


"In Debate No. 2, McCain set the concrete: he re-enacted the troubling psychological cartography of his campaign “suspension” by wandering around the stage like a half-dotty uncle vainly trying to flee his caregiver."

"McCain had half a point on Wednesday night when he said, “I am not President Bush.” What he has offered his country this year is an older, crankier, more unsteady version of Bush."

[johnnydrama]

2. McCain's problem

to me is that even if he gains a few points in one state, he loses them in another.

Ohio hasn't changed all that much in the last few weeks, yet states like Minnesota, Wisconsin & Pennsylvania have skyrocketed to Obama.

Some parts of Ohio love Sarah Palin but they hate her in florida.

So when McCain scores points that help him in one state, it seems to hurt him in another.

So what does he do to score points in all states.

It seems pretty hard.

[electionwatcher]

4. I'll suggest a fourth path ..........

Inaccurate voting machines and other methods of vote manipulation. I'm sure some of this will occur but I hope it is not sufficient to change the outcome of the election.

[bigtree]

8. as long as the nation's voting systems are so different for each state

. . . there will always be that risk. On the other hand, states have good justification in reserving the right to decide the method of voting on their own. I think each state should be required to stage some sort of statewide test and inspection midterm, at least.

[Kaleko]

5. Spot on, Frank. Keep going. The word is mightier than the gun.

[pnwmom]

6. Or voter purges in multiple states significantly reduced the numbers of

Democratic voters, coupled with machine fraud.

[bigtree]

7. I'm not sure Rich could credibly attribute that to one party's demise over the other

. . .without appearing to accuse one party or the other. Or, at least, he wouldn't.

[glitch]

10. No, that would take true courage.

He could get that credibility by interviewing actual computer professionals who have risked their own careers discussing the subject, but again, there's that pesky true courage requirement.

[Hekate]

9. Electoral fraud comes to mind. 13 million purged voters the UK seems to know about.

x(

Other than that, good article.

Hekate