We're Gonna Frickin' Lose this Thing (HuffPo)

[Unsane]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-mckay/were-gonna-frickin-lose-t_b_124772.html
Adam McKay

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We're Gonna Frickin' Lose this Thing
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Posted September 8, 2008 | 10:41 AM (EST)
Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Barack Obama Gallup Poll, Gallup, Gallup Polls, John McCain, Media Consolidation, Media Coverage Of 2008 Election, Sarah Palin, Media News



"Stop saying that!" my wife says to me. But this is not a high school football game and I'm not a cheerleader with a bad attitude. This is an election and as things stand now, we're gonna frickin' lose this thing. Obama and McCain at best are even in the polls nationally and in a recent Gallup poll McCain is ahead by four points.

Something is not right. We have a terrific candidate and a terrific VP candidate. We're coming off the worst eight years in our country's history. Six of those eight years the Congress, White House and even the Supreme Court were controlled by the Republicans and the last two years the R's have filibustered like tantrum throwing 4-year-olds, yet we're going to elect a Republican who voted with that leadership 90% of the time and a former sportscaster who wants to teach Adam and Eve as science? That's not odd as a difference of opinion, that's logically and mathematically queer.

It reminds me of playing blackjack (a losers game). You make all the right moves, play the right hands but basically the House always wins. I know what you're going to say " But I won twelve hundred dollars last year in Atlantic City!" Of course there are victories. The odds aren't tilted crazy, but there is a 51%-49% advantage. And in the long run, the house has to win. The house will win.

So what is this house advantage the Republicans have? It's the press. There is no more fourth estate. Wait, hold on...I'm not going down some esoteric path with theories on the deregulation of the media and corporate bias and CNN versus Fox...I mean it: there is no more functioning press in this country. And without a real press the corporate and religious Republicans can lie all they want and get away with it. And that's the 51% advantage.

Think this is some opinion being wryly posited to titillate other bloggers and inspire dialogue with Tucker Carlson or Gore Vidal? Fuck that. Four corporations own all the TV channels. All of them. If they don't get ratings they get canceled or fired. All news is about sex, blame and anger, and fear. Exposing lies about amounts of money taken from lobbyists and votes cast for the agenda of the last eight years does not rate. The end.....MORE AT LINK

[Alhena]

1. I honestly think it's 70-30 we win. He needs to settle down

[budkin]

2. He must visit DU often. ;-)

[whatchamacallit]

3. I'm more optimistic about this race but

he makes some good points that may be the reason for the gnawing in my gut.

[azmouse]

4. Ohhh noes!!!

[VolcanoJen]

5. I can haz panic?

:rofl:

[MadrasT]

6. Attention Mr. McKay... please step back from your computer...

...seriously, the man needs to take a break.

[OneGrassRoot]

7. My two experiences today....

with family members in Pittsburgh. We don't talk politics as they, as of 2000, are Bush-Cheney Republicans (one won't say it, but they both are).

What I learned today from each of them:

1. 55-year-old white, female bank executive said, "Obama's terrorism scares me." I said, "His WHAT?!"

"His terrorism scares me. He was raised in a terrorist camp, for cryin' out loud."

:wow:

I mean, I knew the right wingers push the whole muslim thing, but I must say that's the first time I've even heard of someone saying he was RAISED in a terrorist camp. Yes, I set the record straight.


2. 40-year-old white stay-at-home mom, not usually overly political but only watches Fox. 'Nuf said.

Her comment, "I can't vote for a Democrat. Obama is going to raise my taxes 75%!"

"Wow, I've never heard that figure before. But, unless you make over $250k, you shouldn't see a drastic difference." But PA has such high taxes, and is heavily Democratic, so residents are associating the high property taxes, etc. with Democrats. Period. "And all our money is going to the lazy people who won't help themselves."

Again, :wow:


Listen, I am surrounded by people who have "Obama is the antichrist" all over their cars here in an uber redneck fundie area south of Raleigh.

Maybe I have really, really, really shitty karma and the only people I interact with have the above views, but I am indeed surrounded by them, and they are strewn throughout the country, so I can't blame it on the Bible Belt mentality.

People hear what they want to hear and believe what they want to believe. Facts be damned. Sure I went on my rant about how the Republicans campaign brilliantly by repeating the same lie, over and over and over again. They win campaigns and then govern like shit, which is indeed the plan.

I must say, the extreme ignorance of example #1 above has left me in more of a Twilight Zone than I was in before. The only good thing to report is that I think these people are not inclined to vote at all this year.

[RagAss]

8. This is a bank executive?

You must be shitting us.

[OneGrassRoot]

10. I shit you not. I am stunned. Truly...no words n/t

[JuniperLea]

13. I've heard the same thing from CEO's...

Managing Directors, EVP's, etc., in banking and other areas. I saw one forward a climate change bashing editorial from the Wall Street Journal to a whole list of high ranking corporate types... He insisted it must be true because it was in the WSJ. Unfreakingbelievable how strong that Kool Aid is!

[RagAss]

26. Kool-Aid or Racism....?....or both?

[AlCzervik]

9. What bank because i would never want to do business that hires people that ignorant.

[OneGrassRoot]

14. PNC n/t

[loudsue]

21. I'm just east of Raleigh, and I'm hearing the same thing in this rural area.

The fundies spread this shit around the internet through their christian sites, and the recipients of these e-mails spread it to all their family members. It's part of their cult activities.

There is a family I know who have always been Dems who are NOT going to vote for Obama because all of that "he scares me" propaganda.( And these people have three sons who would be the right age for the draft if John McInsane was elected.) The South is eaten up with it right now, and Obama needs to find a strategy that will throw a meme bomb into the works.

North Carolina is basically as fed up as any state, and poised to turn blue, but the fundies have brought out the biggest CRAZY rumors, which sells here, unfortunately. The crazier the better in this area.

But the truth about McInsane doesn't get anybody's blood boiling. :shrug: And it's the scariest future of all.

:kick:

[OneGrassRoot]

23. It is eaten up with it. Honestly, it's sucking the life right out of me to...

have to fight THIS hard -- but, I've realized, you can't fight stupidity and willful ignorance. It's useless with this bunch, but there are more of them around the country than I believe most people realize. And why Palin is so frightening, as she is ONE OF THEM and emboldens them further.

I call them out every chance I get on the racism (since they are cloaking it in other BS; suddenly these people who hate the libruls for always being "PC" are suddenly being all PC instead of saying what they really mean), bigotry and hypocrisy.

No one ever responds. I've become invisible. I'm at the WRAL site where they're like fleas -- they're everywhere. But for those lurking who may be undecided I counter the blatant lies and distortions.

I asked to be taken off an email list after receiving a request to support Rush Limbaugh (!!!!!), and I got a knock on my door telling me I'm going to hell and Obama is the antichrist!!!!

I really, really, really need to get out of here. It's killin' me.

[Nay]

25. I'm in Richmond, VA, and I hear this shit every day as well. I used to even

get all the racist, lying RW emails until I started refuting them with snopes and hitting "reply all." I was immediately removed from the list, of course, but you can bet the fundies, fundy churches, racists, and RW morons are pumping this shit out all over the South and elsewhere. The whole "he scares me" meme -- it's everywhere here. And the racism? There are tons of ppl here who wouldn't vote for a black man for ANY reason, not even to keep their own houses. It's rabid, I tell ya.

[Doremus]

28. They should find all the times he's actually SAID he's going to institute a draft.

McPain has actually said several times he's going to do some form of draft. "I'll be calling on you," yadda yadda.

Pieced together those would make one dandy commercial.

[goodgd_yall]

11. This is my favorite paragraph from the article

"Probably the worst offenders are the pundits who take the position that it's all just a game and say phrases like "getting a post-convention bump" or "playing to the soccer Moms." This isn't a game of Monopoly or Survivor. There are real truths that exist outside of the spin they are given and have an effect on lives. 250,000 Iraqi civilians are dead because we let our reality be distorted by the most effective propaganda machine in fifty years, the corporate American press. Money and jobs are flying out of this country as our currency becomes worthless and we're talking about the fact that McCain is a veteran. If someone busted into your house and robbed you would you then forgive them if you found out they were a veteran? Of course not. So why are we forgiving McCain for selling out his country by supporting the Bush agenda?"

The seriousness of all that is at stake really hit me yesterday, but I'm not hearing the "real truths" often enough. I don't blame it all on the media, there are opportunities that are being lost by Biden and Obama to talk the serious truth about the threat to our country by a McCain presidency.

[ClarkUSA]

12. Adam McKay should get off his Chicken Little ass and register some voters

Thanks for the concern, though.

[Geek_Girl]

15. The house advantage Republicans is.....

The majority of the American public are complete idiots!!

[HowHasItComeToThis]

16. IF REPUBS WIN, AMERICA LOSES

[Barack_America]

17. So, Mr. McKay, there's this thing called the Electoral College...

And, you see, it's that and not the popular vote that determines Presidential elections.

m'kay?

[Meshuga]

18. He has good points about the media

And there is something wrong when we have two great candidates on our ticket combined with the last 8 years under Republican administration but we are still having trouble putting this election away.

The media does not fact check and we lost in 2004 not because of inaction by Kerry but because the media allowed the swiftboaters to define Kerry. In 2008, McCain's ads would not be so effective if the media did its job to fact check the false claims and to criticize the childish content. Man, it is frustrating!

The fact that all the TV channels are owned by only 4 corporations coupled with the fear from the media to appear biased, if they call the bullshit from McCain, is what is getting us in trouble and making this election so close. I don't blame Obama's campaign for the election being so close. Obama/Biden are in the damned if you do or damn if you don't bind because if they speak out the media will label them as "angry" and if they are careful both will be called "wimps". Meanwhile, McCain/Palin get a free pass. :-(

[demobabe]

19. Corporations own the media? Really?

So JUST NOW this guy is realizing what Noam Chomsky was telling us 25 years ago?

Bit late to the party are we, Adam? Welcome anyway, there's a keg over there, but it's nearly empty.

What, you're already drunk? Well then, that explains your rant.

The sky is NOT falling, Chicken Littles.

[Gregorian]

20. It may take one more election. But we know there's a man behind the curtain now.

The mere fact that we are seeing more and more articles like this one is testament that we have woken up. Or more like we are now conscious of the situation.

For the longest time we were not only in slow motion, but we didn't even know our opponent. The news cycle was at the mercy of letters to the editor. Now it's instantaneous blogs. Feedback is alive and well, and ready to rip someone's head off.

We know there's a man behind that curtain. Now just how long will it take for the majority of sleepers to wake up to it as well.

We live in different times from all of eternity. We're communicating among vast numbers of an entire society, societies.

Carl Rove and his followers are revealed. Their method of operation is naked.

I love the thought that even the most powerful have to cater. Because that's what they do. They cater to us. But we've been asleep. Not any more.

[BlooInBloo]

22. I'm in ur forumz! I'm panicing ur memberz!!!

[many a good man]

24. The Democratic Party is the Cleveland Browns of Politics

OK, we Dems are not THAT bad. I exaggerate.

Go Browns.

[bdamomma]

27. can we wait for the debates please.