2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

[LynahFan]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

Every time Fox News or Rush is brought up no conservatives watch it. So, I wonder who does?

You're extrapolating from the handful of conservative college-educated hockey fans who are interested enough in politics to post on this thread to the general population? I'm not sure that's really a very solid methodology.

I know lots of people who watch Fox religiously (pun intended), plus it's the channel I most often see on TV in the cafeterias/break rooms of the aerospace and defense companies I visit. Lots of people watch Fox - they just don't happen to be interested in college hockey...

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

Maybe it's because we don't anymore. Sorry we don't fit your perception. Get over it.

Wow. You got a bone stuck up your backside or what?

I'm not extrapolating just from USCHO. I hear the same things outside of USCHO. To be honest I find it refreshing that most folks on here don't watch it. I know people who do and frankly they scare me.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

Wow. You got a bone stuck up your backside or what?

I'm not extrapolating just from USCHO. I hear the same things outside of USCHO. To be honest I find it refreshing that most folks on here don't watch it. I know people who do and frankly they scare me.

No, I'm just sick of your incessant whining on this.

 

[LynahFan]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

Every time Fox News or Rush is brought up no conservatives watch it. So, I wonder who does?

I know people who do and frankly they scare me.

Umm.....

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

No, I'm just sick of your incessant whining on this.

Fine. I will never bring up Fox News again. Happy?

Umm.....

It's a very small sample size.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

I don't care if you bring up Fox News. Just don't act like all conservatives watch it. Many do, but not all. Like I posted above, the perfect analogy here is the electromagnetic spectrum:

 

[geezer]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

I don't have a TV (already waste too much time on the internet as it is) but I find these Fox News interrogations kind of humorous, it's like the RED SCARE from back in the 50's: "Do you now, or have you ever watched Fox News?" "Have you ever been contacted by a Koch brother or Dick Cheney?" "Did you vote for John McCain?" "You will be shot forthwith."

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

I don't have a TV (already waste too much time on the internet as it is) but I find these Fox News interrogations kind of humorous, it's like the RED SCARE from back in the 50's: "Do you now, or have you ever watched Fox News?" "Have you ever been contacted by a Koch brother or Dick Cheney?" "Did you vote for John McCain?" "You will be shot forthwith."

Seriously, it's like that thing nobody expects.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

Seriously, it's like that thing nobody expects.

I admittedly find the subject interesting. dx is correct that there is a wide spectrum of people. I used to watch Fox News all the time. I still watch their Sunday show most weeks. Since I watch it some of the time I always find it interesting when others don't. With my politics people could put me in the MSNBC bin if they wanted. Wouldn't bother me. I do watch Rachel Maddow often and in the mornings I turn on Morning Joe while I'm getting ready for work.

Kind of a news junkie like most of the folks in these threads is all.

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

I know lots of people who watch Fox religiously (pun intended), plus it's the channel I most often see on TV in the cafeterias/break rooms of the aerospace and defense companies I visit.

Also true throughout DOD sites on the government side. Because FNC is always on in all these sites the distinction between their "news" and their "commentary" sides is fictional. People watch the network period, as a point of pride, and it is inevitable that a talking point raised on their morning show will be repeated by my coworkers that afternoon, and will settle in as the "conventional wisdom" by evening.

These people are not stupid, either -- they function perfectly well in a technical work environment. They just have a complete lack of curiosity when it comes to exploring political viewpoints other than that which they grew up with in southern military families and which they hear on FNC and then from one another throughout the workday. It's a closed system, which I why I find it so depressing.

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

Hell, I even listened to Beck before he want apesh*t with the Tea Party stuff.

I watched Beck in the beginning before he had his presumed alien abduction. He was funny (I mean, he actually is a comedian) and he was pretty upfront about playing his segments strictly for laughs. He was quite self-deprecating about the very serious problems in his life (mother's death, his substance abuse, wife's disease, his suicidal tendencies). Once he found his sweet spot though he stopped even the pretense of being a commentator and started creating the environment rather than critiquing it. That way lies madness... and lots and lots of money.

FNC as an entity makes me think of the young hoodlum in the Twilight Zone episode "He's Alive." It started out as a sort of tormented, pathetic creature just trying to find a voice and an audience, but the deal it made with dark forces makes it both menacing and beyond all sympathy.

 

[geezer]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

These people are not stupid, either -- they function perfectly well in a technical work environment. They just have a complete lack of curiosity when it comes to exploring political viewpoints other than that which they grew up with in southern military families and which they hear on FNC and then from one another throughout the workday. It's a closed system, which I why I find it so depressing.

I hear you. I'm either more sensitive to this in this cycle than I used to be, or it's more pronounced. But there are some very closed minded people out there.

 

[Gurtholfin]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

I hear you. I'm either more sensitive to this in this cycle than I used to be, or it's more pronounced. But there are some very closed minded people out there.

The other day I asked a dittohead (self-proclaimed and proud) friend of mine to name just one policy item that he disagreed with the GOP on. He was saying that he wasn't just a straight ideologue. I was helpfully telling him that he was just regurgitating talking points and couldn't think for himself.

College educated architect. Smart guy.

Guess how many he came up with...


Of course, this guy doesn't watch Faux though.

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

I was helpfully telling him that he was just regurgitating talking points and couldn't think for himself.

You must be fun at parties.

 

[Gurtholfin]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

You must be fun at parties.

He always starts it.

This same guy once told me "Of course you like McCain - he's a liberal."


I don't talk politics at parties and squash it with extreme prejudice when it comes up in my house during gatherings.

 

[geezer]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

College educated architect. Smart guy.

It's a peculiar sort of blindness. Probably one of the most stringently narrow-minded conservatives I know is a doctor. A college education was not what Aristotle was talking about when he said, "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

 

[FreshFish]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

I'm not sure how the race dynamics change any

I'll tell you how the race dynamics change (sadly, I've been right about these things more often than I'd like to be... )....it's already started.

The Obamabots strategy up to now has been to paint Romney as an out-of-touch elitist who favors tax cuts for the rich and shredding programs for the poor. Except he came across in the first debate as a thoughtful, articulate moderately right-of-center technocrat.

Now the slimeballs take center stage...Romney is now a "liar" and if you can't trust him during the campaign how can you trust him as President?



Set aside the fact that the purported "study" the Dems like to cite has been so thoroughly discredited that its own authors have had to acknowledge its flaws, effectively repudiating it (the fact that the authors of the study have admitted they were wrong will of course not stop the Dems from continuing to cite it anyway!). Set aside the fact that Romney's explanation of his tax plan during the debate actually was credible ("by putting more people back to work we will have more people earning incomes and we thereby can increase revenues without increasing tax rates" *). You are going to see a barrage attacking Romney's character and credibility like you've never seen.









* One can still debate whether Romney's programs actually will increase jobs, that's different from what I said above, which is mainstream economic orthodoxy. No one can possibly argue that by having more people working government tax revenue will increase!

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

Yeah, but the slimeballs are right. He lied during the debate. He changed just about every position he's taking during the campaign. He even changed his tax plan which was the center piece of everything he was running on. And for that matter it's not just the slimeballs that are calling him out on his flip-flops.

More bad news for Romney.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent last month, dropping below 8 percent for the first time in nearly four years and giving President Barack Obama a potential boost with the election a month away.

 

[Gurtholfin]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

It's a peculiar sort of blindness. Probably one of the most stringently narrow-minded conservatives I know is a doctor. A college education was not what Aristotle was talking about when he said, "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

I love that quote and look at this guy and wonder what went wrong. Where and why did his mind fail to expand or did it at some point contract? I'm just looking for some hint or glimmer that he can look at something objectively before he accepts or rejects it. Can he at least see it form the other side's point of view, even if he doesn't ultimately agree in the end.

It's just so foreign to me that someone couldn't or wouldn't.

I honestly don't press him much on it anymore as he is in the "lost cause" bin along with my old man. Not gonna change their minds and it's boring discussing things with ideologues.

Sad though. My dad is (was) a chemical engineer.

 

[cF[Authentic]]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election Part III: October Surprise!

I have always felt that the level of intelligence displayed on this board is far above that of the general American public. (with a few notable exceptions) Has the showing in last night's debate actually changed anyone's mind about who they will vote for here? And if not-why should we expect that the performance in the debate would change anyone else's choice? Especially since a large percentage of America was busy watching something else or got the gist of what went on second hand from the various network news sources. I am not sure but i think many make too much of these kinds of things. 47% will vote one way and 45% will vote another way regardless and if given the choice would have been watching NFL football highlights instead. The other 8%-I'm not totally convinced they even exist. As usual just my 2¢

I'm torn between not voting and voting for Romney. Still undecided, but it definitely brought me closer to one of those two options.