American Election thread

Those KKK meetings should be a barrel of laughs from now on.

JK wrote:Wow. Phenom's prediction (and mine) was way off. Obama won by a country mile! 338 votes to 159 and still counting! McCain's won hardly any since the victory was announced!

Technically McCain was winning 8-to-3 in the beginning. The corks were flying off the champagne! Then promptly found and returned for 5 bucks from the local drugstores they came from.

A big empty space.... hmmm

How do you get youtube links to display?!

Good to see Newsnight isn't dumbing down...

And on tomorrow's show - Kirsty Wark discusses how Hollyoaks has changed the face of modern Northern Britain with Ian Rush, Sonia and Lord Coe.

Does he have a clue what he's on about?
Hip Hop influences the youth? Can someone tell me what's special about a gang of chavs?

It wasnt a clear message but it wasnt a stupid one either.

Big Dave wrote:Went to see comdian Russell Howard (from Mock The Week) last night and he said the following:

Sarah Palin couldn't be more right wing if she had a gun in one hand, a baby in the other and was stood on a mountain of dead gays!

He made the same joke on 8 out of 10 Cats tonight. Methinks he spent a lot of time coming up with that joke.

Thats all thoughs shows are though is a showcase for the standups jokes on tv.

It just how comedians work. I've heard several of Bill Hicks' albums from different points in his career and there's similar jokes in his routines and people (quite rightly) sing his praises and rate him highly.

A few observations.

While Obama did win handily, it should be noted that the electorate did not really increase as much as predicted. People were predicting well into 150 million voters, while at current count this year's election is actually 1 million voters less than 2004. When all said and done (remaining absentee ballots), should only be about 2 million more.

Obama campaigned solely on the dreams of the electorate. Hope and change. However, hope and change are not methods for true reform or progress. He has a lot to live up to, and has perhaps set the bar too high for himself. The crowd in Chicago was very rowdy and excited at the start of his speech, yet seemed to lose a bit of pep when he mentioned that the road ahead was tough, and many people would have to sacrifice. Even that he may not be able to reach their goals in one term. I believe he instilled a lot of false hope in many of his supporters. And weeks ago, he began to attempt to lower expectations, by explaining how hard it may be. He has a lot to live up to, and frankly his tax cut promise was premised on a lie. I'll explain if need be.

McCain ran a horrible campaign, and essentially was not the correct choice from the start. He is a false conservative, essentially more of a Democrat produced in the Reagan era than anything. Palin was not the best choice for him, it did help him energize the base, yet it came off as a ploy to steal Hillary voters (which it may have been). The fact that part of his demise was because of his own bogus campaign finance bill (as Obama pulled out of it) is very ironic.

We have elected a man who is not proven, not experienced, and not known to the public as out past presidents have been. It will be a very interesting four years, and I look forward to serving under President Obama.

What is evident, is that the conservatives need to purge the party of moderate republicans, and the ways of Bush spending, and return to our roots. The 2010 midterm election will be very telling of how Obama is performing.

The Phenom wrote:What is evident, is that the conservatives need to purge the party of moderate republicans, and the ways of Bush spending, and return to our roots. The 2010 midterm election will be very telling of how Obama is performing.

What exactly are these "roots" you speak of? Over here we mostly think of American Republican roots as shooting things, lynching black/gay people and inter-familial sex? Of course it's not like that, but I'm curious as to what it really is like. Want to have a much better understanding of the American political scene before I go to work next year.

The Stig wrote:

Big Dave wrote:Went to see comdian Russell Howard (from Mock The Week) last night and he said the following:

Sarah Palin couldn't be more right wing if she had a gun in one hand, a baby in the other and was stood on a mountain of dead gays!

He made the same joke on 8 out of 10 Cats tonight. Methinks he spent a lot of time coming up with that joke.

I've lost count of the number of times Frankie Boyle has made a joke about the failed Edinburgh bomb.

"Apparently thousands of people were saved from being horrifically burnt... these were Scottish people on their way to Spain!"

disco stu wrote:It wasnt a clear message but it wasnt a stupid one either.

What was his message other than, I'm not into politics so why am I on your show?! And what has Obama got to do with hip hop?!

ShowStealer wrote:

disco stu wrote:It wasnt a clear message but it wasnt a stupid one either.

What was his message other than, I'm not into politics so why am I on your show?! And what has Obama got to do with hip hop?!

Obama went on record praising Hip Hop saying he was there at the begining, and the point was that even with his own admission that he wasnt to involved with politics he found it inspiring that we can move forward to a day when skin colour is compleatly irrellivent.

disco stu wrote:Obama went on record praising Hip Hop saying he was there at the begining

Cringeworthy!

JK wrote:

The Phenom wrote:What is evident, is that the conservatives need to purge the party of moderate republicans, and the ways of Bush spending, and return to our roots. The 2010 midterm election will be very telling of how Obama is performing.

What exactly are these "roots" you speak of? Over here we mostly think of American Republican roots as shooting things, lynching black/gay people and inter-familial sex? Of course it's not like that, but I'm curious as to what it really is like. Want to have a much better understanding of the American political scene before I go to work next year.

The principles of small government, less spending, and a focus on national security. Not handing out things to the public, expecting free markets to survive with as little interference as possible.

And Republican politics made it possible for black people to be free. The major political movements against the freeing of slaves and against rights for black people have deep roots in todays democrats. Lincoln is often cited as the father of our party. Not to mention a current US Senator, Robert Byrd, a democrat had a long history of involvement with the KKK, and even held leadership positions within it. Yet democrats give him a pass, and praise him for his transition. Yet he is the true example of the democratic party of the 1860-1960's period.

JK wrote:
I've lost count of the number of times Frankie Boyle has made a joke about the failed Edinburgh bomb.

"Apparently thousands of people were saved from being horrifically burnt... these were Scottish people on their way to Spain!"

You're lucky... I had to listen to him tell the joke about terrorists attacking Sock Shop in Central Station more times than I care to remember (34) when he was doing the Jongleurs open-slots in Glasgow.

Good to see that fame hasn't stopped him re-hashing his old favourites...

The Phenom wrote:

JK wrote:

The Phenom wrote:What is evident, is that the conservatives need to purge the party of moderate republicans, and the ways of Bush spending, and return to our roots. The 2010 midterm election will be very telling of how Obama is performing.

What exactly are these "roots" you speak of? Over here we mostly think of American Republican roots as shooting things, lynching black/gay people and inter-familial sex? Of course it's not like that, but I'm curious as to what it really is like. Want to have a much better understanding of the American political scene before I go to work next year.

The principles of small government, less spending, and a focus on national security. Not handing out things to the public, expecting free markets to survive with as little interference as possible.

And Republican politics made it possible for black people to be free. The major political movements against the freeing of slaves and rights for black people. Lincoln is often cited as the father of our party. Not to mention a current US Senator, Robert Byrd, a democrat had a long history of involvement with the KKK, and even held leadership positions within it. Yet democrats give him a pass, and praise him for his transition. Yet he is the true example of the democratic party of the 1860-1960's period.

Ah ok. Now that is interesting :-)

*Bump*


So one of his first acts is to shut Guantanamo Bay due to it's poor human rights record.

Excuse my ignorance, but why doesn't he just keep it open and change the policies of the place? Where will the detainees stay now?

Is this a move to help boast his already impressive popularity with the public?

Because the people there are unlikely to follow the policies?

And the reputation it has has tainted it. No matter what changes he made, if it stayed open people would always remember the negative stuff.

Plus the immediate steps to remove one of the more controvertial (especially internationally) parts of Bush's 8 years gets him good press worldwide and distances him from wat came before. Just amending the way it ran would, for the reason above, look like he was bottling out of making real change.

Changing where the prisoners are housed will not make any difference. I'd rather they be in Cuba than on our soil.

Obama should not be doing things just because of the press he'll get, or just because it was something to get away from Bush. Guantanamo is a valuable asset to the US and the problems came from how it was run, and not the base itself. I really hope this is not a sign for things to come.

I agree with Phenom (in one respect at least). If the place had been run properly and not like a POW camp nobody would care that it was on Cuba and full of terrorist suspects.

I see in the papers that we've told the EU & USA that we won't be taking in any more prisoners from Guantanamo as we've already taken our fair share as it is. How long do you reckon before that decision is challenged in the European courts & we're made to take more?