POUBELLE - (Projets - Projects)

[MTLskyline]

Her speech was agonizingly painful and typical. What HS. All she did was tell me that a POW equals a good president, which is completely absurd and loony. McCain may be patriotic but being a soldier doesn't mean jack shit. Besides that she attacked Obama which childish, hypocritical and at times contradictory statements. Then again this is the Republican party we're talking about. They have nothing good to say so they just try to insult Obama. Newflash there's more people in Obama hood then in all of Alaska! The Reps used Gustav as an excuse 'cause they had nothing to say. Today they wasted half the evening airing on prime time the votes...how stupid?

 

I hope American's aren't going to vote for a party saying they need to restore Americans' faith in Washington, when it's them the crooks anyways.

This is the same party who sat on its ass and watched a major us city drown.

 

And yet people think they should be re-elected. I'm actually dumbfounded. It's beyond my grasp how you could vote republican! The worst is with all this the elections will still be hotly contested.

Frankly its beyond my grasp why someone could vote for the Liberal Party of Canada, but yet you Anglo-Montrealer types do it en masse.

 

I'm glad to know how agonized the left is getting with regards to the possibilty of McCain being relected. That's what conservatives in Canada endured for 12 years (1993-2005) under Liberal rule. How come Ontario, Montreal and the Maritimes keep voting them in?! They're not corrupt enough for you. One of francophone friends was right on the money when he said: "Stéphane Dion est un fif!"

[yul_love_mtl]

I never said I voted Liberal. But hey then I guess you are feeling my pain.

 

Harper gets re-elected

 

Obama gets elected and then both of us are happy. Deal?

[yul_love_mtl]

Btw did anyone noticed Palin's statement about Iraq? Something to the effect of victory is finally in sight and obama wants to forfeit. Excuse me but she can't honestly be advocating for the war in Irak, can she?

 

Also victory, war and America should never be put in a statement since they've never actually won a war.

[MTLskyline]

I never said I voted Liberal. But hey then I guess you are feeling my pain.

 

Harper gets re-elected

 

Obama gets elected and then both of us are happy. Deal?

 

Yeah, Obama getting elected wouldn't bother me too much, I don't hate him or anything (like some Republican sympathizers), I just prefer some of McCain's policies.

 

Obama is much much better than Dion (who I can't stand). The one thing that annoys me about Obama is that he seems more like a pop culture figure than the leader of the free world but that's just me. Although I admit that I like Harper a little better than McCain.

 

Before judging Palin, I would give her a little more time. Yes does have an annoying voice, but McCain must have thought she had some potential (aside from attracting votes).

[MTLskyline]

Btw did anyone noticed Palin's statement about Iraq? Something to the effect of victory is finally in sight and obama wants to forfeit. Excuse me but she can't honestly be advocating for the war in Irak, can she?

 

Also victory, war and America should never be put in a statement since they've never actually won a war.

 

Well the troop surge actually did help things out a lot. Condi Rice (who is a very smart woman) is currently examining a 2011 pullout date.

 

Even Barrack Obama admits that the troop surge worked:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1146023,surge090408.article

[Ornello Mastrocola]

Her political views aside, but is it me or is Palin quite hot looking?

[superstar]

^There's nothing matter with being Christian is there?

 

I hate the common Atheist practice of trying to force your non-beliefs on others. Just because you don't practice a religion, doesn't mean you have the right to criticize someone who is practicing theirs.

 

Who said that I am an atheist, but when I hear Palin saying things like the war in irak is a task from God ( something along that line), it makes me wonder what will be the next thing that will be assigned by GOD

[superstar]

Frankly its beyond my grasp why someone could vote for the Liberal Party of Canada, but yet you Anglo-Montrealer types do it en masse.

 

I'm glad to know how agonized the left is getting with regards to the possibilty of McCain being relected. That's what conservatives in Canada endured for 12 years (1993-2005) under Liberal rule. How come Ontario, Montreal and the Maritimes keep voting them in?! They're not corrupt enough for you. One of francophone friends was right on the money when he said: "Stéphane Dion est un fif!"

 

stephane Dion and the current liberals are weak and not attractive, but the liberals from 1993-2005 fixed the mess that the conservatives did in the previous years. They brought Canada back on track with some very good economic decisions. Harper is only benefiting from their efforts. Let us see how he will do in the next years especially after the possible recession looming in the horizon

[ErickMontreal]

McCain Vows to End ‘Partisan Rancor’

 

Senator John McCain cast himself as an outsider Thursday night at the Republican convention when he accepted the party’s presidential nomination.

 

ST. PAUL — Senator John McCain accepted the Republican presidential nomination Thursday with a pledge to move the nation beyond “partisan rancor” and narrow self-interest in a speech in which he markedly toned down the blistering attacks on Senator Barack Obama that had filled the first nights of his convention.

 

Mr. McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, after his speech Thursday night. Their spouses and other family members stood behind them.

 

Standing in the center of an arena here, surrounded by thousands of Republican delegates, Mr. McCain firmly signaled that he intended to seize the mantle of change Mr. Obama claimed in his own unlikely bid for his party’s nomination.

 

Mr. McCain suggested that his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate gave him the license to run as an outsider against Washington, even though he has served in Congress for more than 25 years.

 

“Let me just offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first-country-second crowd: Change is coming,” Mr. McCain said.

 

With his speech, Mr. McCain laid out the broad outlines of his general election campaign. He sought to move from a convention marked by an intense effort to reassure the party base to an appeal to a broader general election audience that polling suggests has turned sharply on Republicans and President Bush. He invoked, in one of the most emotional moments of the night, his struggles as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

 

Mr. McCain also returned to what has been his signature theme as a candidate, including in his unsuccessful 2000 campaign: that he is a politician prepared to defy his own party. He used the word “fight” 43 times in the course of the speech, as he sought to present himself as the insurgent he was known as before the primaries, when he veered to the right.

 

“Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight,” he said at the end of his speech. “Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.”

 

Much of the address, though delivered at one of the most prominent moments of a presidential campaign, was little different from the stump speech he has been delivering across the country. And it was often offered in a monotone as he stood before a solid-color backdrop that flicked from green to blue. The reaction was far more subdued than it was the night before for his running mate, Ms. Palin. There were stretches in which he drew only a smattering of applause.

 

“I liked the conservative tone and that he talking about being prolife, self-sufficient — let’s keep the money from countries that don’t like us,” said Peggy Lambert, a delegate from Maryville, Tenn.. “But man, Sarah Palin! John is gonna have trouble keeping up with her.”

 

One of the livelier moments of the evening came when Mr. McCain was interrupted by several antiwar protestors who had infiltrated the hall. Their signs were quickly ripped from their hands, and they were carried out of the arena as the crowd shouted, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

 

Mr. McCain, who by now has become accustomed to these kinds of interruptions, responded with a smile. “Please don’t be diverted by the ground noise and the static,” Mr. McCain said, before adding “Americans want us to stop yelling at each other.”

 

Mr. McCain faced the challenge on Thursday of pivoting from making an appeal to Republican base voters to reaching out to the larger general election audience watching him. Accordingly, there were relatively few mentions of divisive social issues as he returned to the way he has historically presented himself: as an iconoclast willing to challenge his own party. That image was shaken this year as he as appeared to adjust some positions in navigating the primaries.

 

“You know, I’ve been called a maverick, someone who marches to the beat of his own drum,” he said. “ Sometimes it’s meant as a compliment and sometimes it’s not. What it really means is I understand who I work for. I don’t work for a party. I don’t work for a special interest. I don’t work for myself. I work for you.”

 

At a convention in which President Bush was barely mentioned, Mr. McCain paid only the most fleeting tribute to him, not even using his name. “I’m grateful to the president for leading us in those dark days following the worst attack on American soil in our history, and keeping us safe from another attack many thought was inevitable,” he said at the opening of his speech.

 

Mr. McCain defined bipartisanship as not only working with the opposite party but being prepared to work against his own, even though he is aligned with Mr. Bush on two of the biggest issues facing the country: the Iraq war and the economy.

 

The Caucus: Live From St. Paul: McCain’s Big Night (September 4, 2008)

News Analysis: The Party in Power, Running as if It Weren’t (September 5,

That pledge of political independence and bipartisanship could prove especially valuable at a time when Republican Party is so unpopular.

 

“I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party,” he said. “We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us.”

 

But he also pledged to work across the aisle.

 

“The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn’t a cause, it’s a symptom,” he said. “It’s what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you. Again and again, I’ve worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That’s how I will govern as president.”

 

That approach also permitted him to reprise what has been a central line of attack against Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee, at a convention whose motto is “country first”: that his opponent has put his political interests ahead of those of the country.

 

“I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again,” Mr. McCain said. “I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not.”

 

That was one of the few moments in which Mr. McCain directly engaged Mr. Obama. But every time he did — contrasting, say, the two men’s records on trade or taxes — the crowd broke into loud applause, a clear signal of what they were looking for.

 

“I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need,” he said. “My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.”

 

The McCain campaign not only tried to seize the “change” mantle from Mr. Obama but the “peace” one as well. Scores of signs saying “Peace” in capital letters were passed out among the delegates on the floor of the convention — despite the fact that Mr. Obama opposed the Iraq war from the start, while Mr. McCain was an early proponent of it.

 

Mr. McCain pointed to his support for increasing the number of troops in Iraq, which Mr. Obama opposed, as evidence of his judgment. “I fought for the right strategy and more troops in Iraq, when it wasn’t a popular thing to do,” he said. “And when the pundits said my campaign was finished, I said I’d rather lose an election than see my country lose a war.

 

The speech at times seemed low on energy, and the crowd responded less enthusiastically than it did the night before for Ms. Palin. But towards the end Mr. McCain recounted, in detail, his captivity in Vietnam, drawing repeated ovations.

 

“I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s,” he said. “I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.”

 

When it was over, he was greeted by his wife, Cindy, his running mate, Ms. Palin, and their families to the song “Raisin’ McCain,” by John Rich, a country star who is supporting him. Then the theme song of the film “Rudy” — which was the theme song of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s presidential campaign — and the song “Barracuda,” in what seemed to be a nod to Ms. Palin’s nickname, “Sarah Barracuda.”

 

Across the hall, delegates drew contrasts between the two speeches they heard to close out the convention.

 

“He doesn’t have the sizzle that Sarah has,” said Rick Lacey, 51, a delegate from Springfield, Ill. “That’s probably why he picked her.”

 

But David Kramer, a delegate from Omaha, said he was not bothered by that.

 

“Sarah really energized the crowd — energetic, emotional, and really uplifting,” Mr. Kramer said. Her speech was more about the people in this room, the base. His speech was more serious — why is he fit to be commander in chief? What does he want to do for America. Sober stuff.”

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Firing Up the Faithful With Echoes of Culture War Rhetoric

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By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: September 4, 2008

 

Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former mayor of New York, said Senator Barack Obama thought a small Alaska suburb was not “flashy enough” or “cosmopolitan enough,” linking his campaign to “Hollywood celebrities.” Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, denounced the “Eastern elites” that he said dominated the television broadcasts and editorial pages.

 

Fred D. Thompson, a former Tennessee senator turned actor, mocked Mr. Obama for trying to deflect questions about the science and theology of abortion, promising the Republican convention audience that Senator John McCain would be “a president who doesn’t think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade.”

 

And the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as the Republican vice-presidential nominee put the abortion issue center stage: A committed Christian conservative, she has been a hero to the anti-abortion movement since she gave birth to a child with Down syndrome last spring.

 

The Republican National Convention this week in Minneapolis-St. Paul hardly measures up to the belligerence of Patrick J. Buchanan’s 1992 call for a “cultural war,” but some of the same refrains are playing in the background. “If you want to define your party, you have got to say who you are,” Gary Bauer, a Christian conservative political advocate, said approvingly.

 

The heated debates over social issues like abortion had appeared to be burning out, overshadowed by terrorism, war and economic difficulties.

 

Now, however, the war in Iraq appears to be stabilizing, economics are a delicate subject for Republicans while a president of their party presides over the current slowdown, and the potential for two vacancies on the Supreme Court adds urgency to the issues. An Obama victory risks “a Supreme Court that could be lost to liberalism for a generation,” Mr. Thompson warned.

 

At the convention, speakers have harped upon certain details of Mr. Obama’s life as recurring themes. His work as a community organizer — a vaguely left-sounding job many Americans would be hard put to explain — has become a laugh line. Several speakers, including Ms. Palin and Mr. Giuliani, alluded to a remark he made at a San Francisco fund-raiser about the need to reach “bitter” working-class voters who “cling to guns and religion.”

 

The aim, of course, is to portray Mr. Obama as an outsider — Mr. Romney suggested that Democrats want the United States to follow a European path — who cannot understand the concerns of ordinary Americans.

 

The echoes of culture war rhetoric are a notable change from the Republican conventions of 2000 and 2004, when many social conservatives like Mr. Bauer complained that President Bush’s campaign had hidden them and their issues from the cameras. Mr. Bush, while known to oppose abortion rights, preferred to discuss the issue with gentle euphemisms to avoid turning off more moderate voters. During the debates over his Supreme Court nominations, the liberal activists on the other side chose to play down abortion and other social issues as well.

 

The convention presents a contrast with its nominee as well. Mr. McCain has seldom seemed eager to talk about social issues and has urged his party to moderate its abortion stance.

 

The Democrats took a different approach at their convention, trying to invite in religious voters and abortion opponents (though without dropping the party’s support for abortion rights).

 

But the paradoxical logic of political conventions dictates that less-partisan candidates often feel compelled to showcase more partisan convictions to shore up their rear flanks.

 

Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who supports abortion rights, argued that the moderate voters in his state — in the pivotal Philadelphia suburbs, for example — would shrug off the convention as “red meat” for convention activists. “My preference would be that you don’t have a litmus test on abortion anywhere, including in the selection of a vice president,” Mr. Specter said, “but I can understand Senator McCain’s concern about solidifying the base, especially since he had had a rocky relationship with it.”

 

Republican strategists emphasized the differences between this convention and Mr. Buchanan’s famous “culture war” speech at the 1992 convention, widely blamed for hurting President George Bush with moderate voters. There was a speech by Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, who calls himself an independent Democrat, and, there has been no allusion whatsoever to race, a potentially volatile issue with the first African-American nominee of a major party.

 

Whit Ayres, a Republican strategist, argued that the tone of the rhetoric differed as well. The barbs at the convention this year flew toward Mr. Obama, not the broad swath of Americans Mr. Buchanan had in mind. “There is a difference between sarcasm toward individuals and sneering toward an entire group of people,” Mr. Ayres said.

 

Still, talk of a culture divide was “like wallpaper,” said John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron in Ohio who studies religion and politics. “There was this relentless emphasis on cultural difference. ‘We are from the real America; our opponents don’t understand it.’ ”

 

Mr. Buchanan said he was delighted. “Now the conservatives and the Republicans and evangelicals, they have got somebody to go out and work for, to root for, to help,” he said on MSNBC. “I think you’ve really got almost an even race in terms of enthusiasm, energy and fire.” Of Ms. Palin, he added, “A star is born.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

The Words They Used

 

The words that speakers used at the two political conventions show the themes that the parties have highlighted. Republican speakers have talked about reform and character far more frequently than the Democrats. And Republicans were more likely to talk about businesses and taxes, while Democrats were more likely to mention jobs or the economy.

 

[ErickMontreal]

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

 

Friday, September 05, 2008

 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows the beginning of John McCain’s convention bounce and the race is essentially back where it was before Barack Obama’s bounce. Obama now attracts 46% of the vote while McCain earns 45%. When "leaners" are included, it’s Obama 48%, McCain 46% (see recent daily results).

 

Tracking Poll results are based upon nightly telephone interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. Virtually all of the interviews for today’s update were completed before McCain’s speech last night. Roughly two-thirds of the interviews were completed before Palin’s speech on Wednesday night. Tracking Polls are released at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time and a FREE daily e-mail update is available.

 

Both Obama and McCain are now viewed favorably by 57% of the nation’s voters (see trends). However, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is viewed favorably by 58%--a point more than either Presidential hopeful. Forty percent (40%) have a Very Favorable opinion of her.

 

Fifty-one percent (51%) of voters now believe that McCain made the right choice when he picked Palin to be his running mate while 32% disagree. By way of comparison, 47% said that Obama made the right choice by picking Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. Voters are evenly divided as to whether Palin or Obama has the better experience to be President.

 

Premium Members can review demographic crosstabs and all the data we collect--not just the portion we make public. Premium Members can also get an advance look at tracking poll results via the Daily Snapshot each morning.

 

The number of Republicans in the country increased slightly during August, but Democrats still have a nearly six point advantage.

 

The Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator currently shows Obama leading in states with 193 Electoral College votes while McCain leads in states with 183 votes (see Quick Campaign Overview). When leaners are included, it’s Obama 264, McCain 247 (see 50-State Summary).

 

Data from Rasmussen Markets currently gives Obama a 55.7 % chance of winning in November. Other key stats of Election 2008 can still be seen at Obama-McCain: By the Numbers. Sign up for a free daily e-mail update.

 

Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 1,000 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. The margin of sampling error—for the full sample of 3,000 Likely Voters--is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Results are also compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for the full-week results are available for Premium Members.

 

Like all polling firms, Rasmussen Reports weights its data to reflect the population at large. Among other targets, Rasmussen Reports weights data by political party affiliation using a dynamic weighting process. Our baseline targets are established based upon survey interviews with a sample of adults nationwide completed during the preceding three months (a total of 45,000 interviews). For September, the targets are 39.7% Democrat, 32.1% Republican, and 28.2% unaffiliated (see party trends and analysis). For the month of August, the targets were 40.6% Democrat, 31.6% Republican, and 27.8% unaffiliated.

 

A review of last week’s key polls is posted each Saturday morning. We also invite you to review other recent demographic highlights from the tracking polls.