GOP: A Generation Lost?

Party Identification Among 18-29-Year Olds

After sifting through all the exit polls and data from last week’s Democratic route of the GOP, someone somewhere was bound to find a silver lining that points to some optimistic microtrend that the GOP could take solace in and build on as they look toward the 2010 mid-terms and the 2012 presidential election. This entry does not contain any such silver linings.

Obama won young voters 2-to-1 vs. McCain, as opposed to 2004 and 2000 when the vote was very close to even. If that’s not absolutely frightening to the Republican brass, they need to have their heads examined.

Forget losing an election, the GOP could lose an entire generation of voters to the Democratic party, as its base grows older and smaller in numbers.

The challenge for the GOP now must become, how do they craft ideas and solutions that are relevant to a young, tech-savvy generation? On the surface, it would seem that the tactics and strategies the GOP uses most effectively are outdated and completely ineffective to younger audiences.

The GOP is all about robocalls while many under 30 don’t even have home phones.

The GOP uses conservative talk radio very effectively to spread its message while many under 30 don’t listen to the radio at all, preferring to listen to their iPods instead.

In Obama, young people had a candidate who connected with them via text messages, Twitter and podcasts while allowing them to self-organize through social networks. In McCain, young voters had a candidate who admittedly didn’t even know how to email.

So I’m sure there are some in the GOP who will come up with the very simple solution of running a younger candidate next time. Maybe that will succeed in lowering the age of the candidate but the problem is that it likely won’t succeed in lowering the age of their ideas.

.chris{}

1/20/09 = The End Of The War Against Science

The War Against Science

After the euphoria of the triumph over the McCain/Palin ticket has worn off and reality sets in, Obama’s victory is almost like the gift that just keeps on giving!

One of the first great things about Obama’s convincing win on Tuesday — no President McCain and (thankfully) no Vice President Palin.

But what sinks in after the fact is that the best aspects of an impending Obama presidency is the undoing of the myriad of misguided and failed policies of current President George Bush. None of these failed policies is as pronounced or as ready to be undone as the unofficial war on science!!!

It’s no secret that the Bush Administration has waged a war against government scientists where science conflicts with the stated theological ideology of the president as well as the extreme religious right. This has led to severe restrictions of funding for stem cell research, the denial of global warming and numerous conflicts with government agencies like NASA.

No more.

As we speak, a team of lawyers from Obama’s transition team are reviewing a number of Bush’s executive orders and are prepared to immediately overturn any and all orders that have been executed for “overtly political” reasons.

It seems like the last three weeks leading up to election day dragged on and couldn’t go by fast enough. I’ll tell you, I think the next three will drag by even more slowly! January 20, 2009 — the end of our 8 year, “long national nightmare” as blogger SusanG of the Daily Kos called it — can’t come fast enough!!!

.chris{}

The best Sarah Palin outfit from Halloween

There were TONS of people dressed up as Sarah Palin last night but here is my favorite pic, courtesy of the blog Out Foxing Karl Rove:

The Best Sarah Palin outfit from Halloween 2008

.chris{}

59% of Americans say Palin not ready

Gov. Sarah Palin

More and more voters — 59% to be exact — are deciding that GOP vice presidential pick Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is just not ready to be vice president of the United States.

A New York Times/CBS News poll finds that 59% of Americans think Sarah Palin “was not prepared for the job”.

All told, 59 percent of voters surveyed said Ms. Palin was not prepared for the job, up nine percentage points since the beginning of the month. Nearly a third of voters polled said the vice-presidential selection would be a major factor influencing their vote for president, and those voters broadly favor Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee.

UNBELIEVABLE! What was Sen. John McCain thinking?????

5 days until change!!!!

.chris{}

Anchorage Daily News Endorses Obama

Sen. John McCain

When it rains, it pours. The Anchorage Daily News has endorsed a presidential ticket and it is NOT the one that includes their own Governor, Sarah Palin. No, they have endorsed Sen. Obama:

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain.

Since his early acknowledgement that economic policy is not his strong suit, Sen. McCain has stumbled and fumbled badly in dealing with the accelerating crisis as it emerged. He declared that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” at 9 a.m. one day and by 11 a.m. was describing an economy in crisis. He is both a longtime advocate of less market regulation and a supporter of the huge taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout. His behavior in this crisis — erratic is a kind description — shows him to be ill-equipped to lead the essential effort of reining in a runaway financial system and setting an anxious nation on course to economic recovery.

They also write, regarding Gov. Palin:

Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.

How long before we hear cries that Anchorage is not “real Alaska”?

9 days until change….

.chris{}

McCain’s Palin Problem

Gov. Sarah Palin

Wow. I’ve seen rocks that don’t sink as fast as she has been.

A Washington Post poll released this morning shows that 51% majority of those polled said they have a negative perception of her vs. fewer than 46% who describe themselves as having a positive view of her.

Obama is up by a large margin among women, 57 to 41 percent in the new Post-ABC tracking poll. The senator from Illinois just about ties McCain among white women — 48 percent back Obama, 49 percent McCain — a group that President Bush won by 11 points four years ago and one that had shifted significantly toward the GOP this year after the Palin pick.

In polling conducted Wednesday and Thursday evenings, after the disclosure that the Republican National Committee used political funds to help Palin assemble a wardrobe for the campaign, 51 percent said they have a negative impression of her. Fewer, 46 percent, said they have a favorable view. That marks a stark turnaround from early September, when 59 percent of likely voters held positive opinions.

It’s just unbelievable when you consider that in early September her positive perception was around 59% — of course, before we knew much about her and before she ever got asked tough questions like “what do you read?” or “what is the job of the vice president?”

Conventional wisdom has long held that the VP pick doesn’t win or lose the presidency. That’s probably still true. But this can NOT be helping the already flailing McCain campaign, as it struggles to find whatever help it can get.

In another twist, and very bad sign for the McCain camp, Politico’s Ben Smith reports on the internal turmoil within the campaign between the campaign advisers and Gov. Palin. Apparently she is increasingly going off the reservation and doing her own thing, much to the chagrin of the campaign.

Believe me, when folks are fighting each other and doing their own thing a little more than 1 week before an election, things are NOT going well! Stay tuned!

10 days until change….

.chris{}

Sarah Palin is dumber than an 8 year old

It’s official. We had our suspicions but now it’s been confirmed. Sarah Palin is, indeed, not only dumber than a box of rocks but she’s also dumber than an 8 year old.

Monday, while doing an interview with a reporter from a local news station in Denver, Palin was asked a question submitted by a third grader. When asked what the vice president does, she provided the answer and it was the wrong answer! See her answer below. Video as well:

“That’s a great question, Brandon. And a vice president has a really great job because not only are they there to support the president’s agenda, they’re like the team member, the teammate to that president, but also they’re in charge of the United State Senate. So if they want to, they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom. And it’s a great job, and I look forward to having that job.”

.chris{}