What if I had a crystal ball and could tell you that...

[World Citizen]

Obama was going to loose by the narrowest of margins. Knowing that ahead of time, and assuming we are not governed by fate, and what would it inspire you to do today?

[Neshanic]

1. Renew my New Yorker subscription. Oh and short banks.

[shraby]

2. Invest in pitchfork and torch stocks.

[XemaSab]

19. Invest in a 12-gauge

and a few cases of ammo. :o

[NatBurner]

3. then i ask u to give me the winning powerball numbers

and i would give less of a shit about 5 dollar gas and a trillion dollar war for the next 4 to 8 years

[Fire_brand]

4. Put my life savings on McCain on intrade

[Awsi Dooger]

36. You're supposed to do more than that

Borrow and beg, anything to max the investment.

Also, you probably can do better than Intrade. I would check reliable fixed odds sites. It would be best to spread it around.

The strategy would be to handicap public impression, and therefore the odds, leading closer to election day. Does Obama lose as a favorite, or does McCain surge to the chalk? Obviously you want to get down at the best possible point in time, from an odds standpoint.

I realize this thread is designed to focus on helping Obama win, a magical fix. Screw it. In a hypothetical like this I'm thinking of myself. :)

[damntexdem]

5. Vomit.

And start planning my retirement in another country.

[sui generis]

6. I was saying a correllary to this during the primaries

when some overly enthusiastic Obama people were telling Hillary people to eat shit and die.

First thing is, Obama has a responsibility too -

Obama has to speak to and reinforce his base. While it is only appropriate for Obama to speak to "all Americans", he also has to address the core principles of his democratic base in a way that doesn't shake our confidence.

The FISA thing was a misstep. He has heard the base on FISA. Let's hope he doesn't repeat that performance, and I'm willing to say we are going to change it if he doesn't, a year from now.

The second thing is that we have to reinforce OUR base. We have to get likely voters warm if not actually enthusiastic to the idea of believing that their individual vote counts, that they matter.

Too many times I hear (right here on DU!) "well, go and vote for McCain then, see if I care", or worse "you're just one person and your vote doesn't matter anyway".

That's really hurtful and if enough people believe that about themselves we are absolutely going to lose, without a doubt.

The third thing is, we have to get unlikely voters to understand what is at stake if we remain in this war, and what is at stake if we continue to ignore energy, the environment, the economy and our jobs and ability to be consumers of any kind. Anyone who has ever worried about putting food on the table for their kids can relate, democrat OR republican. That's who we have to inspire.

Because for every 90 of those people there are only five people wealthy enough to not give a damn, and together we can outvote them, vote against the politics of greed, against the economy of war.

[napi21]

8. My biggest fear is that lots of Dem voters will go to vote on Nov.4th,

only to find out voting machines don't work right, lines are HOURS LONG and most working people don't have time off to wait HOURS in line! I know how hard it is to juggle multiple problems at one time, but this could be a REAL PROBLEM!

[World Citizen]

10. so you are saying is...

that on November 5 we might be saying, if only we had tried to do something about the voting fraud we suspected was coming?

[napi21]

12. Not saying we haven't tried, but it's been 8 years since the 2000

fiasco, and EVERY election since has shown problems, including the one in 2006! Is there a way to get ONE Dem group to do NOTHING but handle the voting problems and let all the rest of the problems that seem to increase daily?

[SidneyCarton]

7. Begin to fill out paperwork,

To emigrate to New Zealand???

[democrat2thecore]

9. Look to 2012 - and if McCain's the president, pay close attention the the VICE President

Though, I still believe McCain will NOT be the nominee.

[AndyTiedye]

21. McLame Doesn't Look Healthy Enough to Last 4 Years in Office

and he will probably pick some Fundie wingnut as VP to get the Religious Wrong to come the polls.

[Bonobo]

11. The word is "lose", not "loose". Jeesh.

[NYC_SKP]

13. The word is "sheesh", not "jeesh". Gawd.

14,800,000 to 674,000, per search engine results.

ZOMG!!! Word Spell Nazi!

The LOLCat threads must make you krazy!!!

(edited for spelling!)

:rofl:

[SwampG8r]

30. the word is god not gawd

for chrasts sake

[cherokeeprogressive]

33. What's wrong with these farkin' iceholes anyway?

[newmajority]

35. The word is Christ, not chrast

for fucks sake!O8)

[bunnies]

14. My crystal ball says your crystal ball is full of shit.

So there. :evilgrin:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

15. If you had a crystal ball, you would know how to spell "lose".

[Name removed]

16. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[IndyOp]

17. Dear World Citizen,

If indeed you are citizen of some other nation than the U.S. and you read the replies above as typical of all U.S. citizens I would be dismayed. Please consider the fact that the people replying to this thread are replying because they were not inspired to get themselves down to their local Obama campaign headquarters to volunteer tonight. I am not at my local campaign HQ either tonight but I was at the local library yesterday afternoon registering the voters of my little blue city in a red state (Indiana).

:hi:

[World Citizen]

22. Don't be dismayed

I would rather they spend their venom on me than on someone who doesn't know what to do with it or someone who might be hurt by it. I know this is a ego boosting game to a lot of people and I expect to have to wade through that. What I didn't expect was the pettiness. I have a form of something called disgraphia that makes reading, writing and typing more difficult than it is for the average person, so I am used to criticism of my communication skills by now.

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in my OP. I want people to have the advantage of hindsight before its too late. Politics as usual does NOT apply in this election. I believed that a black man would never have a chance to win an election in 2008. The level of racism in this country is being underestimated to a dangerous degree. People who have never voted in their lives are going to be voting just to keep "those kind" out of power. BUT, since bush has screwed it up so totally I now believe we have a chance. Many people here seem to believe that if we lose, that just means four more bad years. I think it's much more serious than that. After seeing all the inhuman and arrogant thhings that the RW cabal is capable I believe we are on the brink of a major catastrophy.

To me it seems that voter registration and protection from election fraud are the most important things that need to be worked on. I applaud your efforts to turn Indiana blue. Good luck!

[AndyTiedye]

18. Trick Question

What if I had a crystal ball and could tell you that Obama was going to loose by the narrowest of margins. Knowing that ahead of time, and assuming we are not governed by fate, and what would it inspire you to do today?

The first sentence more or less implies being governed by fate, and most of the replies reflect this.
If I were to interpret it that way, I would get very depressed and probably not be much good for anything today.

Obviously, if we assume we are NOT governed by fate as you say in the second sentence, that presumes that it MIGHT be possible to change the outcome, which we would obviously desire to do.
Losing by the narrowest of margins strongly suggests yet another stolen election.
I would focus my efforts and money on preventing election fraud, and hope that we can be more successful at combating it than we have in recent elections.

[JuniperLea]

20. Move to Norway

If after all we've been through, people still want four more years of McBush... or if the Neo-Cons have found yet another way to steal an election under our radar, we are so fucking doomed it's not even funny.

[moriah]

23. Haven't picked a destination country yet....

.... but my cat's microchip is the 15 digit ISO compliant model. ;)

[JuniperLea]

41. LOL!

I think my dog's is too!

:rofl:

[snowbear]

24. "Loose" ....? .... Loose what? .... Loose Goose?

Hey World: Your thread is FLAMEBAIT.

If anyone is going to L.O.S.E., it's going to be the old man.

And you know what we did to ensure his win today?

We didn't send FLAMEBAIT like you did!

[World Citizen]

26. Is it? how so?

[snowbear]

25. Why do the FLAMEBAITERS like "World Citizen" never create accounts?

.........What are they so afraid of?

[World Citizen]

27. I assure you that I am not afraid of you in the least. now tell me...

what is an account?

[TheKentuckian]

29. I'd change those shadows

by donating more.

talking to more people.

giving more time and effort to the cause.

I'd also get my passport up to date.

[Patchuli]

34. My guess is the poster means

why do you have your profile disabled. That doesn't usually give other posters much reason to trust you or the agenda you may have posting here.

[snowbear]

37. Yes! That's what the poster means... ...see,

...the way I figure it... if he took the time to read through the options to see how to add a sig line, you'd think he'd not have select to lock his (her?) profile.

A locked profile means that no one can send you private messages (for instance, I could have sent them a sweet message instead of asking them a silly question in public on here)..

And heck, we can't even add locked profiles to a friend's list or anything.

DU'ers for the most part are good buddies..

Sure we bicker off and on at times..

But for the most part, we're a pretty tight crew..

[quakerboy]

28. I will take your question as I charitably assume you meant it

My interpretation, assuming it was meant for good, not flamebait: "If you knew Obama would lose if everything happens as it is currently slated, what changes would you make to alter that future to one where Obama would win."

[World Citizen]

31. that's IT

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in my OP, but yes, that is the idea. I want people to have the advantage of hindsight before its too late. What do they think is the most important thing they could have done differently. For example, I am involved with a group that does some work with trying to convince people to register to vote. Its not always very easy. We often discuss whether that is the most important we could be doing. I wanted to get other peoples ideas about priorities of tactics and strategies.

[quakerboy]

38. I had a feeling thats what you meant

Its a hard question to phrase because you have to assume a future, and then assume you can change that, creating 2 potential timelines.

After reading and sitting on it, even a further rephrase might be better: "If you knew that doing exactly what you do and plan to do now would not quite be enough to get Obama Elected, what more would you do to work toward that goal"

For myself, I guess it would depend on why it wouldn't be enough. Registering voters, particularly in states that are within a few points is hugely important. Informing people about what their choices are is another huge one. The media does not provide an accurate comparison. And doing what you can to make sure that people actually do vote is pretty vital as well.

[World Citizen]

40. yes

and since I am definately in a blue state I question the value of stuff a group of us have been doing with getting people to register.

What scares me most is election fraud, because it's mysterious and insidious. What can the average person do to work toward controlling it. I have no idea.

Best of course would be a landslide so big that even fraud wouldn't help them.

[newmajority]

32. Look for a Canadian to marry

If this country tolerates another stolen election, I'm out. :evilfrown:

[snowbear]

39. World Citizen, special message just for YOU !!!

~~~~~~ (( ))

Thank you for officially joining our (mostly) happy family!

[Brigid]

42. Get ready to leave the country.

I really do believe this is our last chance. Just as Romans of the third and four centuries began leaving the city as the empire began to crumble (only about 12,000 were left by the time the city fell), it will be time to get out while the getting is good. This will be the last straw.

[World Citizen]

43. what do you think is the most important thing...

that we should be doing to get Obama elected?