Some Wacky Poll Results In New York

[Gob]

So the point of parties is what exactly?

[Big RR]

Political parties in the US ar essentially fundraising organizations that exchange their funds for political patronage for their members/comtributors/supporters. Because of this, they always want to back the winner, and cast any semblance of an agenda aside so that they can get their piece of the pie for their patty faithful. In NYC, I recall Ed Koch running for myor as both a dem and a republican with the liberal endorsement as well (not sure of the conservatives). It's money/patronage plain and simple.

[Gob]

Your candour is very becoming, and enlightening BigRR

[oldr_n_wsr]

From what I have been reading, I think Paladino is going to have a meltdown before this is over.

[Sue U]

From what I have been reading, I think Paladino is going to have a meltdown before this is over.

Did you see the tape of his encounter with F.U. Dicker last week?

Paladino and Post reporter square off
By JENNIFER FERMINO
Last Updated: 11:02 AM, September 30, 2010
Posted: 12:30 AM, September 30, 2010

Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino and Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker last night got into an angry confrontation -- during which Paladino threatened, "I'll take you out."

It started when Dicker asked Paladino if he had any proof of his shocking allegation that Democratic rival Andrew Cuomo cheated on his former wife during their marriage.

"What evidence do you have for something most people would consider a smear?" Dicker asked.

Instead of responding to Dicker's question, Paladino accused him of sending a "goon" to stake out his former mistress at the home where she lives with their love child.

Sunday's Post featured a front-page story about Paladino's wife, Cathy, and his ex-lover, Suzanne Brady. It included an exclusive interview with Cathy Paladino.

"You send another goon to my daughter's house and I'll take you out, buddy!" Paladino told Dicker.

When Dicker asked how he planned to do that, Paladino replied, "Watch!"

"Are you threatening me?" Dicker asked.

When the candidate's aides jumped in to separate the men, Paladino, referring to Dicker, told them, "F- -k him."



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/pala ... z11aTLtlLn

[oldr_n_wsr]

Yeah I saw that. He also called Sheldon Silver a "criminal" and reffered to him as the "Anti-Christ", and has been accusing Cuomo of having an affair. No proof forthcoming of course.
Lazio must be sitting back laughing at all this.

I'm not a big Cuomo fan but with the choice of the lesser of two evils, he may get my vote. Plus he's actually putting out "policy" books, his latest is "how to Clean up Albany". I'll try and find it online later.

[Lord Jim]

F.U. Dicker

I don't know why he had to threaten to get physical with a man who's name cries out for verbal abuse.....

[Crackpot]

Well it's the only televised Michigan Gubernatorial debate tonight. I've been a bit lax in keeping up with the candidates so the rundown in the Paper this morning was helpful (insofar as it's confirmed my beliefs) in what is actually seeming to happen with more regularity (at least locally) are two candidates that don't quite fit the "party" mold to some refreshing moderateness. On one side we have a Republican that isn't Anti-Union (and has won the support of at least one) and a Democrat that has worked to win concessions from them. Though they both have things in their platforms that doesn't sit well with me Bonero wants a part time legislature (which in my opinion would just give them more of an excuse for not getting anything done) Snyder OTOH seemingly (hopefully) has filled out his platform with some of the "Just say no" Republican boilerplate. The debate could steer me either way as they both have some interesting and good ideas, but, the Boilerplate is pushing me tward Bonero at the moment.

[Crackpot]

Bonero drew his guns early and probably lost the debate.


...Unless factcheck proves him out.

[Crackpot]

Though he needs to just drop the Gateway stuff it's been proven otherwise.

[Crackpot]

Bonero bit it. Barring a major gaffe on Snyder's part he'll be or next Gov.

[Lord Jim]

Bonero bit it. Barring a major gaffe on Snyder's part he'll be or next Gov.

Well CP, judging from the combined poll results going back to last March, unless Bernero had demonstrated in this debate that he could do things like leap tall buildings in a single bound, Snyder is a sure winner...

He's been leading in that race by double digits for months....

Michigan is probably the most solid GOP Gubernatorial pick up in this election cycle...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls ... -1407.html

[Crackpot]

For the most part he seems to be a moderate Republican (which plays well here) and he's did himself a service by limiting it to this one debate. Bernero may have gained some ground if he had stopped harping on gateway which has been proven false. if he'd stuck to the issues he may have gained a fair amount of ground even with some of his other unproven claims against Snyder. What he really needed to do is separate himself from Granholm (which in truth wasn't all that bad (though she had her issues) she just got stuck with a shitty hand and and a warring congress) by stressing what he'd do differently.

Bottom line he failed miserably at this debate obliterating any chance at a last minute comeback.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Open mouth, insert foot

A couple of quotes.

"I don't want them [children] to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option," Paladino said.

Paladino asked Lauer on Monday if he'd ever attended a gay pride parade, explaining to the NBC host that men who participate "wear these little Speedos and they grind against each other and it's just a terrible thing."

[Crackpot]

I know this wasn't quite the tread for my posts but I couldn't find Jim's general polling predictions thread.


BTW Jim you notice Bernero actually seems to be (slowly) closing?

[Lord Jim]

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist this...

F.U. Dicker

F.U. Dicker, you better wear a condom...

[Lord Jim]

Ya know, I have to say...

That even as a dedicated, lifelong member of the Republican Party, if I were a resident of New York, I find this Paladino character so odious that I might even vote for Prince Andrew....

And if I lived in Delaware, I might even vote for the non-entity running against Christine O'Donnell....

But if I lived in Nevada, I would face a true conundrum....

Yes, Sharon Angle is a wingnut of the first order....

But vote for Harry" The War In Iraq Is Already Lost" Reid?

The oily, vile, undertaker from Central Casting, Reid?

That's like asking me to vote for a cross between Edwin Edwards and George McGovern versus a total fruitcake...

Given that choice, as I said before, I'd fortify myself with a couple of stiff drinks and pull the lever for the banana nutbread....

[Crackpot]

Personally in that case I'd go for the known quantity (or third party).

[Lord Jim]

Personally in that case I'd go for the known quantity (or third party).

As I said, I'm glad I'm not faced with that choice....(voting for Carly Fiorina over Babs Boxer is an easy one for me)

Removing my own appendix with a rusty straight edge and a cheap bottle of scotch strikes me as a more appealing alternative than having to choose between Reid and Angle....

[Gob]

Nevada: In Nevada I get a real feel for the glorious absurdity of Las Vegas, where I am a first-time visitor, an appreciation for the harsh beauty of the mountains and desert and an admiration for the engineering achievement of the Hoover Dam.



But in this key battleground of the mid-terms, I don't get a first-hand feel for the candidates. They are being kept under wraps.

Still I continue my quest to understand the most important phenomenon in American politics at the moment: the Tea Party movement.

The battle in Nevada is the clash at the heart of this election. The Silver State is tarnished. It has the worst economy and the highest unemployment and home-repossession numbers of America's 50 states - so perhaps it is not surprising that the man who has been senator here for 24 years, Democratic leader of the Senate Harry Reid, isn't boasting.

Instead, he's running on his opponent's supposed "extremism". It is something the Tea Party relishes. Reid is a hate figure for those on the conservative right: he is someone who they say has dragged President Obama to the "extreme" left. That word again.

His opponent Sharron Angle, with huge Tea Party support and a Palin endorsement, beat more centrist Republicans to take him on.

Neither Angle nor Reid was to be seen while I was in the state. Instead of campaigning in person, they're ever-present in adverts on TV and radio. His tactic is simple. Just about every ad ends with the words: "Sharron Angle? She's just too extreme."
Nevada terrain

Nevada is the driest state in the USA - although it rained on me - and Sharron Angle's economics are drier than dry.

She is accused by opponents of wanting to abolish the Department of Education, to do away with social security and Medicare, to do away with funded testing for cancer and even of suggesting that if conservatives don't win at the ballot box, they may have to think about armed insurrection.

She is scarcely a new face on the Nevada scene; indeed she is the perennial candidate. But this time she has struck a chord.

As I watch Republicans stuffing envelopes with leaflets and even free gum (fair dealing: I haven't drunk the Kool-Aid but I am chewing the freebie as I write), one of the workers, Kim Bacchu, tells me the difference between the Republicans and the Tea Party.

Although she doesn't use these words, it seems to me that she clinically supports the former and loves the latter.

At the heart of the Tea Party, she says, is adherence to the constitution and a belief that Obama's economics are taking America away from this document. She says:

"This progressive agenda has progressed to the tipping point in the United States, where we either stand up for the constitution of the United States or we accept socialism, tainted with Marxism."

Later I meet the founder of "Anger Action Is Brewing" (the "Anger" is crossed out), Debbie Landis, who supports Angle but has fallen out with the Republican Party. She says the Tea Party is about fiscal conservatism rather than any one party, and that around 30% of her members are Democrats.

Perhaps the Tea Party is just the latest phase of a long-term realignment of American politics into more "normal" European patterns of left and right, where Blue Dog Democrats and "Rinos" (Republicans in name only) find their rightful ideological home, rather than choosing parties on the basis of what their mummies and daddies did.
Travis Christesen


Travis Christesen - a young man who, like many Tea Partiers, has only been active in politics since the 2008 election - makes no bones about his aim: to infiltrate the Republican Party.

I ask him what he means by this.

"We are going to elect people who are going to represent us, and represent the principles which we stand for. So either those who are in office now will start to represent us in that way, or we will push them out. We will elect people who will represent us the way that we would like to be represented."

I talk to several old-timers, moderates, who seem lukewarm about Sharron Angle as a candidate but determined to support her now she's in. "She's an interesting woman," says one, comparing both her gaffes and appeal to those of Sarah Palin.

A Republican strategist says that it is essential for mainstream Republicans to embrace the Tea Party. He muses that, from his point of view, Harry Reid is dangerous and will do damage if he is elected. Sharron Angle will get lost in Washington and not cause much trouble. While the Tea Party feels that the Republicans have veered from Reaganomics, it hasn't felt particularly centrist for a while now.
Michael Steele


But when I catch up with the Republican Chairman Michael Steele in Las Vegas, he seems to think that this is not much of a gamble, that his party has found a winning streak.

He tells a small audience of party workers that only a year ago they were walking around with their heads bowed, thinking they would never recover. Then along came the Tea Party.

I ask him whether there is a danger they will lose seats like Nevada, which were in their grasp, by being pushed to the right. Is it, I ask him, changing the Republican Party?

"I think for the better. Look, we are the conservative party. I made no bones about that: we are the conservative party; the Democrats are the liberal party."

The gulf in American politics is growing wider all the time, and 2 November will be an important day - not just for Democrats, but for the future direction of the Republican Party.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters ... evada.html