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deeperwell42

Listed below are comments made by deeperwell42 between Sunday, 26th October 2008 and Monday, 19th January 2009.

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The changing face of the presidency 11:40am on 19 Jan 2009 Wow, nice montage, thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Did anyone else find that the Carter>Reagan morph induced an involuntary shudder, like seeing a friendly vole mutate into a tyrannosaurus, or when the vampires on Buffy change into their "demon" face. That's not a judgement on either man, it's just that Reagan looks so much more menacing...
American exceptionalism 00:24am on 14 Nov 2008 @ #91 -

Well, the UK recovered from a very draining war; objectively speaking, WW2 was the best thing that ever happened for the US. A revitalised economy and military, emergence as a superpower, credit in the moral bank that would last at least until Vietnam, and all this without the real danger of invasion that the other Allies faced. Yes, I know the US soldiers fought bravely, but it was still a win-win situation.
American exceptionalism 7:39pm on 13 Nov 2008 @ #4 eightypercent

Wonderful stuff. P. J. O'Rourke is one of those writers I always immensely enjoy reading even when I disagree with 90% of what he has to say. Even when he's making Coulteresque arguments implying that conservatives are the only sane people, he still makes me smile. It's like William Hague - I wouldn't want him in a position of power, but he's always entertaining and eloquent. BoJo too, for that matter, though he somehow *has* ended up in power.
Breaking stereotypes with Cupcake 5:16pm on 02 Nov 2008 Yet again, we find confuse U.S. right-wingers ranting about the "racism" of black voters in supporting Obama. This seems to ignore the fact that, in recent history, black voters have always overwhelmingly backed the Democratic candidate - 88% for Kerry, over 80% for Gore and Clinton (1992 and 1996) - obviously the number is higher for Obama, simply because of voter identification. Military veterans are much more likely than average to support McCain, for example. The sense you get is that there is a profound desire to push against centuries of oppression by putting a black man in the White House, and who can blame them? On the other side of the coin, we know black voters won't just vote for any black candidate, hence the recurrent failure of Alan Keyes.

robloop - thanks for handing us sane folk the argument on a plate. You claim to be baffled that Obama should be defined as black more than he's defined as white, even though his mother was white. Has it really not occurred to you why this might be the case? The fact is, in a society dominated by a white majority (and please don't try and claim America is not such a society, I might die of laughter), someone who looks black is defined as such. It shouldn't be the case, but there you go. If you can't see that, then I really don't know what world you think you're living in.
Frayed Nerves and Rumours 3:47pm on 02 Nov 2008 #15 - totally agree with you. I love how diggerjohn (#6) and his ilk talk about "the media" subverting democracy without explaining how that's actually supposed to work. Even if the news outlets do declare victory for Obama before the polls close (which they won't, that's a bizarre thing to suppose), does that mean late McCain voters will just, what, not bother? Or in your world, is the dreaded pinko un-American MSM so powerful that they can decide the result of an election just by calling it? Pathetic. Posts like this, pre-emptively blaming a McCain defeat on a liberal media or ACORN (or anything other than a lacklustre campaign or, y'know, Obama actually being very popular and convincing) are just positioning themselves for passing the buck when they really have lost.

In other news, the BBC's warped idea of balance strikes again:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/us_elections_2008/7704740.stm

Some rodeo attendees in one of the most solidly red states in America don't like Obama, and this is supposed to be good news for McCain? Nowhere in this piece does it mention that, no matter how large a majority vote for McCain, Wyoming contributes a grand total of THREE electoral votes out of FIVE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT (compare with California (55) and New York (31), both safe for Obama). This is why, looking at the electoral map of the 2004 election, it's easy to conclude that Republicans completely dominate the country - they control lots of big, empty states like WY.

Are hardcore McCainites really so hard to find that the BBC has to run this kind of is-the-Pope-a-Catholic barrel-scraping as a front-page feature?
Bad losers and bad finishers 12:49pm on 30 Oct 2008 #196 jcptn5349

Ahh, you're an Alan Keyes supporter. Say no more.

I don't think we need to continue giving this nutter the time of day, people.
Bad losers and bad finishers 00:37am on 30 Oct 2008 john-in-Dublin (#9)

I am one of those people (and personally, I don't think he DOES have a liberal bias) who has said that. While, like most journalists, I suspect Justin does lean a little to the left (as an actress said to a bishop), his problem is more that he leaves himself wide open to criticism by linking to the HP and others, then thinks the best way to balance it out is by giving equal time to nutters like Pajamas et al.
The songs - and the candidate - remain the same 9:46pm on 29 Oct 2008 #1 -

Haha, that's probably true, but it's very mean of you to say so - there goes our Gavin, constructing this big, lovely metaphor about a perfectly controlled campaign being like a perfectly controlled campaign, and you had to come in with that wet blanket ;)

As for the weight of expectations - good lord, yes. I am not American, but I can't remember the last time, young though I am, that the result of any election mattered so much to me. If he loses, it will be genuinely crushing.

However, I think people who are predicting widespread civil disobedience if McCain wins (and loses the popular vote) are overstating the case. At most, I can see there being a few major demonstrations, peaking on January 20, followed by a gradual return to more of the same.
Love and untogetherness 02:32am on 26 Oct 2008 #32 -

People like you honestly brighten my day. What kind of universe do you think you're living in where a major political candidate could tell lies that big about their background without anyone in the entire world's media finding out? Oh, I forgot, they're all biased. Never mind.

Oh, little hint - if you don't want to be mistaken for, um, a lunatic, try NOT PEPPERING your TEXT with PANICKY CAPITALISATION that makes you sound like a cross between a STARTLED RABBIT and LYNDON LAROUCHE.
McCain and Palin's body language problem 02:17am on 26 Oct 2008 #157 -

Agreed, that site is textbook wingnut conspiracy stuff. Not only does it bang on about the usual birth certificate nonsense, but there's also some genuinely scary stuff on there (or linked to as "Essential Reading") including, fantastically, "Did New York Orchestrate The Asian Tsunami?".

exserviceman - I respect your service to your country (our country, I am also British), and your right to believe what you want, but do you really expect us to take this dangerous nonsense the least bit seriously?

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