2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

Interesting study that suggests self-ID'ed independents are actually strongly partisan. If there's truth to that, then steering towards the center is not welcomed by a large, "untapped," centrist electorate, but is always just a painful compromise to attract enough partisans to get things done.

I find this analysis counter-intuitive in one way: it fails to consider that most people care very little about politics. I think the real "centrists" are the uninterested.

 

[unofan]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he feels "called" to run. Don't know who he thinks is calling him...

So what's the tally on candidates being told by God to run? Bachmann and Perry for sure. Cain? Pawlenty? Santorum?

Me thinks God is about to give a great lesson in humility, though I doubt the targets will be listening to that one...

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he feels "called" to run. Don't know who he thinks is calling him...

Can someone who wanted to secede from the USA be the POTUS? That doesn't seem right...

*sigh*

He's going to ruin everything.

 

[Foxton]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

Maddow apparently did a little digging on Perry's friends.

<iframe width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5eOOcgu7JdU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Priceless]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

Maddow apparently did a little digging on Perry's friends.

Wow.

"We will find it on our knees." Uh huh...

 

[Priceless]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

The Wrap, a website that covers Hollywood, confirmed Time’s numbers, reporting that the movie “got off to a soft start… grossing somewhere between $65,000-$75,000, according to estimates confirmed by distributor ARC Entertainment.”

By way of comparison, the biopic “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” opened on seven screens last year and averaged $23,479 per theater.

Nevertheless, Fox News is touting the opening as a smash hit, leading their “Fox Nation” website with the following:

The Fox Nation piece, which purports to be about the film’s opening weekend, leads with a quote from an article that appeared before the movie premiered. It avoids all mention of actual ticket sales.

Gotta love Fox News. BTW, has anyone on the network said anything about the phone hacking scandal, or is that still a forbidden topic?

 

[Bakunin]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

I find this analysis counter-intuitive in one way: it fails to consider that most people care very little about politics. I think the real "centrists" are the uninterested.

A strong majority votes in the presidential election cycles in high turnout states (such as MN) - so I think a more accurate statement is "most people don't care about politics during midterm election cycles".

What that study tells me is that ideologically speaking, there simply aren't any centrists. In the future, perhaps we should just refer to centrists as functional centrists. They have ideological stances like everybody else, but they're also willing to bend a bit for the sake of solving problems. If I was a politician, I'd likely fall into this group (as would some others that partake in these discussions on here). Yes, we have our entrenched stances, but on the larger issues, coming to some sort of long-term agreement is simply the better approach for the sake of the country - so if we were elected and did that, things might turn out better in the end, but we'd all probably get killed in our re-election bids (likely unseated by angry partisans in our primaries).

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

Gotta love Fox News. BTW, has anyone on the network said anything about the phone hacking scandal, or is that still a forbidden topic?

John Kasich mentioned on Meet the Press that Murdoch cried.

 

[Handyman]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

Rick Perry...haha the left should PRAY he gets the nomination. In a general election that guy has no shot. Even ignoring the fact that every attack ad about him will include his secession quote he is way too extreme on both social conservative issues and religion to get anything besides the 28%ers to vote for him. (even with a great VP candidate) The guy will be a laugher.

And this is where Kepler comes in with some "never underestimate a candidate" thought but guess what, I am underestimating. The populace may be ignorant but they aren't THAT stupid. It is one thing when a candidate pretends to be hardcore when around certain audiences in hopes of garnering votes, the average rube can look beyond that and see what else is going on. Perry is front and center organizing a prayer revival (to solve the economy no less!) with some of the most extreme factions of the Christian community which he will not be able to talk away later. This may endear him to freaks in Texas or bumphuck, Alabama but even normal GOPers wont be Right enough to vote for this guy. It would take an assassination attempt to get most people to vote for him.

Look at it this way...the guy helping him run the event says only Christians have religious freedom in this country. Another went on a rant about the Catholics. The racist and homophobic comments pretty much speak for themselves. That means he has already lost the votes of Jews, Catholics, Blacks and Gays and he hasnt even started yet! You dont think quotes from these guys are going to show up in ads in Jewish parts of Florida (where they arent all Dems) or in high Latino population areas where Catholicism runs high? Perry may win the White Racist vote and the Tea Party vote (insert joke here) but that is it. He will win a few more states than Mondale but less than McCain.

Hell Obama should endorse him right now. "Vote Perry in Iowa, for Four More Years of Obama!"

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

BTW, has anyone on the network said anything about the phone hacking scandal, or is that still a forbidden topic?

In the Fox narrative, News Corp is the victim. Which means 29% of the country thinks News Corps is the victim. Those guys are essentially Egyptian State TV during the protests.

As they (literally) die off, the Echo Chamber audience will never know that they are becoming more and more irrelevant. Their own flagship will lie to them until the day it's more profitable to fold or become an All-Fly-Fishing station or something. They are Enron, hawking valueless company stock to their hostage dependents while making sure their own retirements are golden.

Only dinosaurs listen to radio these days, and it’s doubtful many people under 50 even know AM radio exists, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the average age of right-wing radio listeners is 67. It’s also truly not shocking that this demographic is also predominantly male. According to a Pew study in February, 72 percent of Limbaugh’s elderly listeners are men and thus are statistically likely to “stroke out” sometime in Pres. Obama’s second term, assuming he wins one.

However, television viewership trounces radio audiences in every demographic, so the fact that the average age of FNC viewers is, well, retired could have huge ramifications on the political playing field over the next decade.

It took some googling but I found a reliable source that confirms that during the 2007-2008 television season, the most recent season for which figures are available, the average age of Fox News viewers was 65:

According to a study released by Magna Global’s Steve Sternberg, the five broadcast nets’ average live median age (in other words, not including delayed DVR viewing) was 50 last season. That’s the oldest ever since Sternberg started analyzing median age more than a decade ago — and the first time the nets’ median age was outside of the vaunted 18-49 demo…

Among ad-supported cable nets, the news nets (along with older-skewing Hallmark Channel, Golf Channel and GSN’s daytime sked) sport the most gray, with Fox News Channel’s daytime and primetime skeds the absolute oldest, clocking in with a median age above 65.

BTW, the people who have actually carried water for the Dark Side for the last 20 years should get a clue what fate awaits them when they are no longer useful.

 

[WetSubArticCanine]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

Gotta love Fox News. BTW, has anyone on the network said anything about the phone hacking scandal, or is that still a forbidden topic?

Re the movie ... ran across the term “Palin Hatter” today (in a complaint about public education). A head exploding on KOS? An entity from a newly discovered Lewis Carroll manuscript?

Got a smirk over the deflection, using a PR flack, but, given the appeal to “seriousness”, more than a chuckle at the end of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9gOSsvLIO4&feature=player_embedded

 

[WetSubArticCanine]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

.... BTW, the people who have actually carried water for the Dark Side for the last 20 years should get a clue what fate awaits them when they are no longer useful.

Personal anecdote with all the possibilities for skewing, but I’m around people doing service and repair work. They’re not the over the hill demographic. Not at all dummies, but no post secondary exposure. They’re on the road during a good fraction of the day with lots and lots of AM radio, and inside the complete spectrum of the community’s living spaces for most of the rest of the day. They get reinforcement of the memes. Same radio with the drivers doing deliveries to support these guys. Not all Fox, though - smaller entrepreneurs too.

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

Personal anecdote with all the possibilities for skewing, but I’m around people doing service and repair work. They’re not the over the hill demographic. Not at all dummies, but no post secondary exposure. They’re on the road during a good fraction of the day with lots and lots of AM radio, and inside the complete spectrum of the community’s living spaces for most of the rest of the day. They get reinforcement of the memes. Same radio with the drivers doing deliveries to support these guys. Not all Fox, though - smaller entrepreneurs too.

There's an oft-cited stat that the average dittohead listens to Rush for only 6 minutes at a stretch. It's probably enough to inoculate against logic, unfortunately.

I'm on the road more than 2 hours a day because of a godawful commute, and I can't stand political radio of any stripe. Talk Radio's main problem isn't so much that wingnuts are idiots; it's that the format accentuates idiocy. The same effect comes through with Sports Radio. Rob Dibble is the spiritual and intellectual equivalent of Mark Levin.

 

[French Rage]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

Re the movie ... ran across the term “Palin Hatter” today (in a complaint about public education). A head exploding on KOS? An entity from a newly discovered Lewis Carroll manuscript?

Got a smirk over the deflection, using a PR flack, but, given the appeal to “seriousness”, more than a chuckle at the end of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9gOSsvLIO4&feature=player_embedded

I for one will not rest until CitiCorp apologizes for getting hacked.

 

[unofan]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

There's an oft-cited stat that the average dittohead listens to Rush for only 6 minutes at a stretch. It's probably enough to inoculate against logic, unfortunately.

Reminds me of the semi-joke about Howard Stern:
The Average person listens to a station for 5 minutes before turning the dial. The average Howard Stern fan listens for 20 minutes before turning the station, because they want to hear what he'll do next. The average Howard Stern hater listens for 40 minutes...because they want to hear what he'll do next.

 

[Rover]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

There's an oft-cited stat that the average dittohead listens to Rush for only 6 minutes at a stretch. It's probably enough to inoculate against logic, unfortunately.

I'm on the road more than 2 hours a day because of a godawful commute, and I can't stand political radio of any stripe. Talk Radio's main problem isn't so much that wingnuts are idiots; it's that the format accentuates idiocy. The same effect comes through with Sports Radio. Rob Dibble is the spiritual and intellectual equivalent of Mark Levin.

Right wing talk radio is hilarious. I have 12 radio stations set in my car, and whenever they decide to all get together and give me a banquet of Creed, Live, Beyonce, Ricky Martin, Barry Manilow, and in NPR's case: Depressed Prairie Home Companion to choose from, I'll switch on the righties. I realized something about the demographics of the audience a few weeks ago. I'm listening to the local wingnuts do their thing, and one of the hosts starts going off on how we need to "defeat" rap music. Look, I couldn't name you 5 rap songs, but I'm not sure the country needs a crusade against the genre. So I park my car and head to work, leaving the radio set to this station. Get back in after work, turn it on, and its a different bunch of local righties, but this time they're pushing an ad for the upcoming Englebert Humperdink concert. . That's when it dawned on me. Right wing radio listeners aren't just older folks, they're freakin' fossils. No wonder they're so upset all the time.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

A bad couple of days for GOP presidential wannabes. First, Herman Cain gets himself tangled up in First Amenment Light, conferring mosque locating authority on the locals. Now the Daily Caller is reporting that Michele Bachmann suffers from periodic "incapacitating" episodes that may or may not be migraines. I flashed on Tom Eagleton when I read the story. If she can't put this down definitively and soon, she's done.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/18/s...ncapacitates-bachmann-heavy-pill-use-alleged/

My father suffered from migraines and they put him flat on his back in a dark and silent room. But that was decades ago. I would have thought that modern medications are capable of ameliorating the attacks. Decreasing the frequency, shortening the episodes and moderating the symptoms.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

Rick Perry...haha the left should PRAY he gets the nomination. In a general election that guy has no shot. Even ignoring the fact that every attack ad about him will include his secession quote he is way too extreme on both social conservative issues and religion to get anything besides the 28%ers to vote for him. (even with a great VP candidate) The guy will be a laugher.

And this is where Kepler comes in with some "never underestimate a candidate" thought but guess what, I am underestimating. The populace may be ignorant but they aren't THAT stupid. It is one thing when a candidate pretends to be hardcore when around certain audiences in hopes of garnering votes, the average rube can look beyond that and see what else is going on. Perry is front and center organizing a prayer revival (to solve the economy no less!) with some of the most extreme factions of the Christian community which he will not be able to talk away later. This may endear him to freaks in Texas or bumphuck, Alabama but even normal GOPers wont be Right enough to vote for this guy. It would take an assassination attempt to get most people to vote for him.

Look at it this way...the guy helping him run the event says only Christians have religious freedom in this country. Another went on a rant about the Catholics. The racist and homophobic comments pretty much speak for themselves. That means he has already lost the votes of Jews, Catholics, Blacks and Gays and he hasnt even started yet! You dont think quotes from these guys are going to show up in ads in Jewish parts of Florida (where they arent all Dems) or in high Latino population areas where Catholicism runs high? Perry may win the White Racist vote and the Tea Party vote (insert joke here) but that is it. He will win a few more states than Mondale but less than McCain.

Hell Obama should endorse him right now. "Vote Perry in Iowa, for Four More Years of Obama!"

You may be right, although most Americans have never heard of Rick Perry. On the other hand, where do you think they stand on juicing a kidnapping, torturing, raping, murdering pos? With the president and the UN or with the governor of Texas?

 

[geezer]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

A bad couple of days for GOP presidential wannabes. First, Herman Cain gets himself tangled up in First Amenment Light, conferring mosque locating authority on the locals. Now the Daily Caller is reporting that Michele Bachmann suffers from periodic "incapacitating" episodes that may or may not be migraines. I flashed on Tom Eagleton when I read the story. If she can't put this down definitively and soon, she's done.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/18/s...ncapacitates-bachmann-heavy-pill-use-alleged/

My father suffered from migraines and they put him flat on his back in a dark and silent room. But that was decades ago. I would have thought that modern medications are capable of ameliorating the attacks. Decreasing the frequency, shortening the episodes and moderating the symptoms.

Yeah, she's done. Thank goodness.

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel

My father suffered from migraines and they put him flat on his back in a dark and silent room. But that was decades ago. I would have thought that modern medications are capable of ameliorating the attacks. Decreasing the frequency, shortening the episodes and moderating the symptoms.

My mother suffers the same condition, with exactly the same symptoms -- two days of agony and no ability to block out the slightest noise or amount of light. Imagine doing that in a house full of young children, no matter how well-behaved.

I wouldn't wish that on anyone, and I hope Bachmann's condition is in no way comparable.

Pio, the Farmers' Almanac conventional wisdom is that migraines skip a generation and switch genders (I have no idea whether that's actual medicine or just an old wives' tale). Do you have daughters, and do they get migraines?