I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
How well do you think scare tactics are working this year?
and what are they thinking? Reuters
I’m inclined to agree with people who think that a move of 20 points in 2 weeks is an outlier or suggestive of a flawed poll methodology…or are they as dumb as the McCain campaign thought?
You might better ask “who believes in polls?”
Living in Florida, we were polled relentlessly, and the pollsters barely (but not always) disguised their opinions of us. I was the weirdo, my husband the dirty bastard. So I take them with an ocean of salt.
I have to admit that with the massive new voter registrations, I don’t think the polls are going to be the best predictor.
Anyway, I’m taking those polls as a sign that it isn’t over yet, and a reminder that we need to get out there and do all we can in the next month or two. I hope the weather is nice on Saturday. 🙂
ignore the polls – some are asking, are they cooked?
I posted that Reuters piece you linked to in contrast to another news item that had “Clinton’s Kentucky white working class voters moving to Obama”
That said, so far the edge is leaning John Bush….with an October surprise likely.
Don’t know if local anecdotal stories can counter the national media hype, but a letter in the local paper from a self-identified Republican woman stated she was “insulted” by McCain’s choice of Palin. And she listed her criticisms of Palin.
Didn’t say she would vote for Obama, but not happy with McCain / Palin.
are the new black: WashPo
Not convinced? Here’s more:
The whole article is depressing in the way that it reports on the lies as if they’re an expected and normal part of the campaign, even though we’ve seen this taking to a whole new level this month. Since when did the VP pick ever get sequestered from the press immediately to avoid any scrutiny over his/her blatant and repeatedly debunked campaign trail lies?
“We have created a system where there is not a lot of shame in stretching the truth,” said Charlie Cook, editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Just stunning!
that’s all we’ve had for 8 years – not just stretching the truth, brazen lies.
someone heard me whining about the unnecessary hugeness of my local grocery stores: NYT
I’m not really time-starved, I just don’t want to buy all that packaged crap in the aisles. Is anyone else a “perimeter” grocery shopper?
As I work my way through the local grocery store, I just keep thinking of how much of it is not food! And then there are aisles and aisles of pseudo food stuffs: soda, packaged junk food, etc. And I can’t help but think about how much energy goes into producing the stuff and shipping it all around the country – ack!!
Good to know some places are making changes.
Unfortunately, all the healthier stuff around the perimeter is also more expensive than Kraft macaroni and cheese and Chef Boyardee…
I think there’s been the slow beginning of a shift away from some of the high-fructose corn syrup-laden and prepackaged crap in response to the incredible increase in type 2 diabetes in young patients. I’ve noticed that the juice boxes (Capri Sun, I’m looking at you) that are most targeted to kids’ lunches have removed corn syrup and replaced it with sugar, resulting in a 33% reduction in overall sugar content. It’s not much, but it is a step in the right direction.
I do too, and I have for years. If it’s not the corn syrup, it’s the salt, and I have to be more vigilant about than ever.
But I am lucky to do so, because it is expensive. If you’ve got kids, why wouldn’t you buy a something in a box: it’s inexpensive, it won’t spoil and quick, unlike fresh veggies. Single parent and two-parent homes are harried and just trying to make ends meet and keep their heads above water.
Health is sacrificed for money. It should be criminal.
They want to make the stores smaller and hold nothing but that “packaged crap”. It’s about profit margin. They want you to buy pre-cut fruit, for God’s sake. Like you can’t spare a few seconds to cut a melon.
…I am guilty as hell on this, and I know I should do better. I buy the packaged mixed greens…ALL. THE. TIME. I love the mesclun mix and I am too lazy to buy all the greens separately–if I can find them at all. I buy cherry tomatoes, chop some onions I have my salad. Sometimes I put in other veggies, sometimes I don’t. (Oh, and I’m off bottled salad dressings too–just balsamic vinegar and EVOO, or I make my own and emulsify. Every now and again I’ll treat myself to blue cheese dressing from this one restaurant that has the freshest seafood and the BEST homemade dressing.)
I’m much better with fruit, and buy it whole: Apples, cherries, nectarines, grapes (well, duh), oranges, berries. But I have to admit to buying the cut pineapple every now and again.
This concludes the latest episode of grocery store confessional. :<)
This is not so bad. What they want to push is the prepared “heat and eat” meals, pre-cut fruit and pre-fried chicken. I’ve bought the chicken many times myself. It’s cheaper than McDonald’s when you’re in a hurry, but more expensive than cooking it yourself.
I still have yet to read Fast Food Nation but in recent years, I’ve been reading about the industrialization of our food, and it’s alarming. I have to become a better gardener–and I truly suck at it, and did not attempt it this year–if I want better health.
If it’s not the sugar and/or salt that’s dumped into food, it’s the advertising of sugary crap during children’s programming. I love cartoons but I’ve just been astonished at the unrelenting crap that’s pushed on them.
My Mom and Dad would always shake their heads at the pre-cut stuff when I was growing up. They always said, “You’re just paying for convenience” and would get the cheaper, whole food option.
But now, it’s all over the place. Pineapples, I get. Maybe even melons. But pre-cut apples?
Next thing you know, they’ll be selling us pre-peeled grapes. Luxury in a cup!
[Geeze, I just stumbled on a possible ad campaign!]
Pennsylvania Progressive: Newsweek
Interesting that this kid also campaigned for my despised congresscritter, Jim Gerlach.
or crying and whining works…at least in the RATpublican pork barrel money machine known as the military/industrial complex:
chimpy & co.™ punts another one.
Speaking of out-of-control spending
So they are taking money from a “virtual border” that doesn’t work to a “real border” that doesn’t work either… God Bless the U.S.A.
BushCo™ has always had the reputation of being in bed with the energy companies, and it appears that interior department emplyees in denver and washington took that literally:
Interior Dept. scandal: Sex, drugs, energy deals probed at Denver office
another of former Sec Interior gale noton’s legacies…she was/is a piece of work.
Evo Morales expelled US ambassador Philip Goldberg.
!
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out with Brazil’s natural gas exports cut off
Wouldn’t that be Brazil’s imports? And Bolivia’s exports?
yes, that’s what I meant to convey but can’t type coherently lately.
I’m incoherent with rage too.