Miss him yet? Oh yeah you do.

Americans are divided over whether President Barack Obama or his predecessor has performed better in the White House, according to a new national poll.

And a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday also indicates in the battle for Congress, Republicans hold large advantages over the Democrats among independents, men and blue-collar whites. The poll also indicates that Republicans are much more enthusiastic than Democrats to vote.

By 47 to 45 percent, Americans say Obama is a better president than George W. Bush. But that two point margin is down from a 23 point advantage one year ago.

"Democrats may want to think twice about bringing up former President George W. Bush's name while campaigning this year," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

It would be a tiny miracle if they thought just once about it.

Posted by: Ace at 04:38 PM | Comments (115)
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54%. And 27% moderate, 18% liberal.

There are several caveats here.

"Moderates?" Often are not. They tend to be liberal-ish people who "don't like labels" or who have internalized the idea that liberalism is bad, even as they continue to believe in it. (They just don't call it "liberalism" -- they call it common-sense centrism.)

Even "Conservatives," as in "conservative Democrat," are actually more liberal than a "liberal Republican."

Plus, even at 54%, bear in mind we're going to have a lot of conservatives voting big in some areas, but you can only win the same district once. That is, if we win huge in TX-5 (or wherever) that doesn't help us in MA-6, where it's going to be a lot dicier.

And these numbers may actually cast doubt on that last poll. Remember their eyepopping poll showing Republicans with +13 or even +18 advantage based on likely turnout models? Well this I'm pretty sure is the cross-tab report to that, so if that first poll was too good for us, these numbers are similarly too good for us.

There are going to be good polls and bad polls; you're never as good as you look like when you're winning and you're never as bad as you look like when you're losing.

Room for optimism, but as Winston Wolf's maternal grandfather, corn farmer Walter Wolf, sagely observed: Gentlemen, let's not start shucking eachother's cobs just yet.

Posted by: Ace at 01:48 PM | Comments (295)
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I wrote this earlier, but wanted to main post it. There is some important new stuff after, too:

nine coconuts writes:

The difference in a lot of these out-of-nowhere contests is the ground game.

People calling likely voters and knocking on doors getting the normally docile right leaning voters excited enough to take a stand.

That's right. That's exactly right. Dingell's got the machine working for him; there is no machine at all for Dr. Rob Steele.

So you can either sit on your asses and just read about the wave, which won't come, because you're not making it come, or you can be the wave.

And, again, contact your local GOP offices to find out how you can help. Check out "someone's" post about GOTV -- he actually did it, and wants you to know it's pretty easy, people are friendly about it (bear in mind, they will be targeting you to address likely Republican leaners), and there's a 99% chance you'll meet someone wonderful there and get ridiculously laid.

Okay, he didn't say the last part, but you have to read between the lines here, people.

It really frustrates me that so many conservatives talk a good game about taking our nation back and restoring liberty and securing a better America for our children but do not walk the walk.

...

Okay. So, for a while, I have really wanted to do as big a GOTV push as I could. I can't do much, but I can do some.

On Monday (fingers crossed), I will be announcing a big GOTV campaign intended to unite the Online Armies in getting together over the next few weekends to phone bank, knock on doors, all of that.

The bonus, here, is that there will be a big map where you can sign up, and maybe run into your nearby friends and maybe team up with them for carpooling and stuff. And of course, some kind of social aspect, because afterwards, the beer's on me.

Wait, no it's not. But I'll have some with you.

Anyway, so, like: The plan is to get bloggers, twitters, and commenters (and lurkers too!) to sign up to adopt a district or whatever and make this Big Red Bitch really hit hard.

I don't know what kind of numbers we can get. My hope, though, is that we get about 100 or 200 bloggers and big-time twitterers to come out, and then maybe each of us gets 10 or 15 of our more local buddies to come out for it. And other people just sign up anyway because they feel kind of guilty.

So I'm hoping we can get maybe another 2000 in ground troops for the election, coming out one weekend, maybe all weekends before the election.

That's the hope.

And I hope it comes together on Monday. Fingers crossed. I have an ally determined to pull this off bringing it together (under the banner of a major allied organization). If not Monday, soon after.

I'm tipping this early so people can start mulling it over and considering if they can come out one or more weekend days before November 2.

It's important. I've never done this before. I always thought it was stupid, frankly, and a big waste of time.

It's not. Not this year. We need to do this.

David Piffle set us a standard of success. Fine, David: We accept. And we're going to get as close to your mark as possible.

If you want to declare victory lying bloody and toothless in an alley because you still have your shoes, fine.

Posted by: Ace at 12:16 PM | Comments (245)
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No, really. Piffle, or, I guess, correctly spelled, Poofle, said that.

So, um, here's the bar for our "success." If we don't make it, it's a "colossal failure" and Obama is vindicated.

Trying to reshape expectations for the midterm elections, David Plouffe said Thursday that the Republicans should be expected to make a full sweep of Congress - and key gubernatorial races - given the environmental advantages they have. Anything less, he said, should be seen as a disgrace.

"By their definition, success is winning back the House, winning back the Senate and winning every major governor's race," Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign manager, said. "When you've got winds this strong in your favor, that's the kind of election you need to have - or it should be considered a colossal failure."

Anyone ever sort of notice that maybe liberals and the media really sort of put the bar for the success of Retard King Obama pretty damn low?

Apparently he'll now shock the world as the New Comeback Kid of a single Republican loses.

You know what, David Piffle? I can live with the sort of colossal failure you're offering me.

Thanks to Slublog again, who is really showing me something with his easy tips, while other cobloggers are offering me stuff I have to think about and stuff.

I hate the other cobloggers.

Posted by: Ace at 11:47 AM | Comments (179)
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National Review has a long and interesting piece on the man who will hopefully be the new Senator from Alaska come January.

Should he win the seat, Miller pledges to be a different kind of Republican. “I’m not going to be a co-opted senator, I can tell you that much,” he begins. “That’s the mandate of Alaskans: to get things done and to change the direction of D.C.”

Nonetheless, he says he’s impressed by the party’s leadership and its potential incoming freshman class. “I think there’s an understanding that the mood of the nation has changed in such a way that there is not going to be toleration of business as usual. If that means shutting down the government, so be it. I mean, we’ll do what it takes,” he says. “I think that we will have enough like-minded people coming into D.C. that we’re actually going to be able to accomplish something.”

But is Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate GOP leader, open to the possibility of shutting down the federal government? “There was a comment made at breakfast this morning about shutting down the government, and he reacted in a positive way,” Miller says. “I’m not going to quote him, but I think that he recognizes that that’s on the table.”

...In the final two years of President Obama’s term, Miller says, Republicans have the opportunity not only to make gains, but also to begin, with gusto, to roll back the Obama administration’s policies. “We can do things that don’t require his cooperation,” he says. “That’s what it has to be. Defunding agencies in a targeted fashion, particularly where agencies are aggressively acting against economic interests of the country, be it resource development, business, or otherwise. There are things that need to be cut — low-hanging fruit. With Obamacare, we ultimately want to see it repealed, but we are not going to get the two-thirds vote to do that.”

Obviously this has to be on the table and employed if it comes to that but itÂ’s going to be a risky move, even if Republicans have both houses of Congress. The problem is there are 535 members of Congress and they are going to have their own ideas and agendas. The White House will more or less speak with one voice and it will be easier for them to frame the narrative.

This is why I really like John BoehnerÂ’s idea about breaking up authorization bills into much smaller pieces. Doing it that way, Republicans can pick and choose which fights to have and their timing. By shutting down certain parts of the government a piece at a time, you can divide the enemy and build ad-hoc coalitions and make stage the fight on your terms.

Either way, itÂ’s taken generations to get us to this point. We arenÂ’t going to dismantle in one fell swoop, especially not with Obama in the Oval Office. Republicans need to spend the next 2 years building a record much different than what they have to show from 94-06. Piece by piece, fight by fight they can do this leading up to the 2012 elections.

Sending people like Miller, Rubio, Lee, Angle and the rest to DC to reinforce the DeMint/Coburn wing of the caucus is going to be a very good start.

BTW-Miller still needs to raise money to reach his fund-raising goal. Just saying.

And just a side note. I follow the Adirondack Anchorage Daily News on Twitter just to keep up on this race and they give the NY Times a run for their money when it comes to bias. There's been stories about Millers' income, his wife's unemployment benefits and stuff like that. Not a damn word about Murky, her lies or shady real estate deals.

Posted by: DrewM at 10:45 AM | Comments (76)
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Content Warning because they say the F word a lot and of course have to have naked cheerleaders a couple of times.

But watch it when you can. Part two here and apologies in advance to the libertarians I'm about to piss off.

Here's the deal: The most dangerous sport in high school and college is cheerleading, except it's not, because no one will call it a sport and therefore put efforts into increasing safety and the like.

Penn & Teller are doctrinaire libertarians, and so they can't say here what I think they actually do want to say: There should be illegal moves in cheerleading, just as there are illegal moves in any sport. Like ice skating -- you can't do a backflip in competition. Why not? It's awesome, right? Because if you permit people to do backflips in competition, they will do backflips in competition, and the risk of spinal cord injury is too great. Hence, the move, while super-cool, is illegal. Can't do it.

Wrestling? Can't do a lot of things in wrestling. Sure, would be awesome to strangle your opponent, but guess what? Not allowed. Why? Because it's too friggin' dangerous.

Now, cheerleading isn't a sport, supposedly, but is instead an "activity" controlled by pretty much one company, and that one company doesn't make any cheerleading moves illegal. Like, say, a bunch of girls hurling a 90 pound girl 20 feet above the hard floor and then attempting to catch her.

And so on. Bottom line, cheerleaders are subject to more injuries than any other athletes including the worst-of-the-worst, the severed spine.

Yeah, I admit, those little girls flying 20 feet into the air are kinda awesome. But a lot of absurdly dangerous things are kinda awesome.

I am eh on Bullshit! most of the time. Sometimes I think it's interesting; sometimes I think they're being silly just for the sake of claiming a strong opinion about a sexy topic. I expected the cheerleading show to be lame. It's not. This is a frigging scandal. We are letting high school girls get paralyzed doing a bunch of utterly-unsafe circus moves for no particular reason other than watching people almost die is thrilling.

This is really sort of heartbreaking. I guess they are deploying the appeal to emotion here pretty strong, but this quadroplegic girl... in a wheelchair for life, only able to move from the jaw up, because no one bother to even have a spotter for her when she attempted a dangerous running flip in try-outs.

Spotters? Who needs spotters? Spotters are for sports.

OH! Gratuitous Anti-Feminist Political Angle!!! You know who's the biggest opponent of just deeming cheerleading a sport?

Feminists.

For two reasons. 1, they hate cheerleaders because they're feminine and feminity is bad. To borrow a joke from snarkandboobs, Because, Patriarchy.

But 2, because if cheerleading were a sport, it would be counted for purposes of Title IX -- as it is, it's excluded -- and thus all those cheerleaders would be counted for purposes of determining parity and equality of resources and programs devoted to female athletes and thus might impinge on their quest to shut down more schools' male hockey programs for lack of an equivalent female hockey program.

In other words, a cheerleading program could be used to offset one other female sport, and they won't have that. They just won't. If cheerleading were a sport, that's Girls +1 as far as sports, and thus they can't demand some made-up fake sport to offset the football team.

So there you go. Because feminists think cheerleaders are awful and want to shut down male hockey programs college and high school girls are subjected to an unregulated extreme freeform gymnastics sport without any of the typical rules and regulations of an admitted sport.

Posted by: Ace at 10:01 AM | Comments (374)
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Did she just win the race? I'm moving this one into my own "Leans Republican" column. This is good stuff.

It's a 30 second ad, and Linda McMahon has money out the robot wazoo, so I'm 99% sure this is a real TV ad and not just some internet ad.

Serious Cat (I think) wondered how Blumenthal's rambling stupid could be cut into a short TV spot. Well, it's tricky, but I think McMahon pulled it off.

Here's the Dick In The Headlights moment: more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:46 AM | Comments (165)
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True dat, true dat. Brother, you're preaching to the choir.

South Carolina Democratic Senate nominee Alvin Greene was just trying to flirt with a teenage college student when he allegedly showed her online pornography in a campus computer lab last year, his attorney said Thursday.

“He was attempting to flirt with a young lady who had no interest in him,” Eleazer Carter told The Associated Press. “While the charges are very serious, I think it boils down to, when a lady turns you down, has it reached a criminal offense?”

Yes. That is an important question regarding sexual harassment -- no, it can't be the case that just because a man asks a woman out and she's not interested it's a crime.

But there are objective standards of behavior we enforce in society and one of them is "Do not show people pornographic material unsolicited." Yes, you can have porn. No, you can't proselytize your porn enthusiasms to an unwilling woman or child. Or man, for that matter.

Your right to extend your fist stops at my nose and your right to get off on internet porn ends at my eyeline. You just can't show unsolicited dick-pictures to strangers or near-strangers. Period.

Now, speaking of Brett Favre. Deadspin delivers, mostly, on its claim that Brett Favre tried to pick up a chick with voicemail messages (fine) and then pictures of his dick (not as fine). I guess he too could be facing charges, if the recipient cared to file them (which she doesn't).

I don't really care about this story too much -- professional athlete is an egotistical, horny boor who thinks the world revolves around his hog; news at eleven -- but it is interesting that ESPN choses to embargo the story. Deadspin's big schtick is that "sports reporters" and especially ESPN protect and coddle their subjects like most celebrity "news" outlets do.

And it is my firm belief that somehow the legions of Brett Favre jock-sniffers -- most announcers, who cannot report on Brett Favre taking a dump without turning it into some grand statement about the power of human determination -- will eventually turn this story into some kind of testament to the character of Brett Fuckin' Favre.

Guys, if you love him so much, just marry him already.

Here's my impression of every football color man reporting on the dick-pictures:

"Wow, he's still just like a kid out there! Hurling his wiener around with reckless abandon! Why, I haven't seen an athlete put this much heroic effort into taking pictures of his lunch-meat since, well, since Brett Favre punched the clown just three days after the death of his father!"

And etc.

Posted by: Ace at 09:35 AM | Comments (114)
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Whoa.

Coming off a contentious televised debate, Republican Marco Rubio has now jumped to a two-to-one lead over Independent candidate Charlie Crist in FloridaÂ’s U.S. Senate race. Democratic Congressman Kendrick Meek still runs third.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Florida shows Rubio with 50% of the vote, up nine points from just over a week ago and his best showing in the race to date. Support for Crist, the stateÂ’s current GOP governor, has fallen to a new low of 25%, while Meek captures 19%. Three percent (3%) like another candidate in the race, and three percent (3%) more are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Rasmussen moves the race to "Solid Republican."

From CAC. who wants you to see his projections for Senate. Bear in mind, CAC predicts defeat in at least thee states we have a good shot at winning (CT, NY, and especially CA), so his 51 R's could easily wind up fifty four. And then who knows, maybe Christine O'Donnell can make a race of it, too.

Posted by: Ace at 08:36 AM | Comments (66)
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This video is being labeled "NSFW" but that's not really true.

Yes, it's a robot vagina. But, it's a medical training device, showing doctors how to deliver a baby. And the video shows that. Doctors, in doctor-smocks, delivering a simulated baby.

So, I think you can get away with it at work. I mean, you know, they show this stuff on The Discovery Channel and there it's not even a robot, it's the real thing. Actually: Okay, I guess it probably is NSFW, because, like, no one can afford to lose a job right now. So I guess wait. Unless your employer doesn't mind robot-vagina videos.

But make up your own minds. I gotta say, this is weird. The robot vagina makes these horrific badly-voice-synthesized grunts and moans, I guess to make the simulation more complete, but it's the freakiest thing.

I think you've gotta watch it because it's going to be an internet meme.

Oh, and here's a bonus Ewok picture.

Via the Other McCain, who also has a Krystal Ball for Congress video mash-up, and that one is sorta NSFW, what with horny dick-noses and all.

Posted by: Ace at 08:23 AM | Comments (55)
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