Humorless Politics Thread

[emma]

I thought it was a draw and was quite surprised that they didn't go into extra time or sudden death penalties.

Pistols at dawn.

This election can obviously only end with a Hamilton/Burr style duel. I'd pay to see Obama and McCain have a gunfight in Weehawken, wouldn't you?

[Spoony]

If Obama was smart, he'd choose a weapon that he knew he could win with, like Cheeseburgers at Denny's. He'd win by surviving Red State cuisine, making him their undisputed leader.

[John Junk 2.0]

This Bailout thing is a bigger motivation for me to move out of this country than any election.  Seriously, this Bailout is full-on bullshit unless this company (Edit: Company!  I meant to write "COUNTRY".  Freudian slip!!) suddenly decides to go socialist (which I would fully support).  I don't want my kids to grow up in a dump like this.  This country is going to the birds.

[Gilly]

I don't make any claims to know a ton about economics issues, but it seems to me that the bailout would be the worst thing that could happen. Not only are taxpayers on the line for 700 billion+ dollars (that won't go back into their pockets, that's for sure) but the dollar depreciates at the same time. Lose-lose, right? It seems like the best move is to let these pieces fall and if anything has value somebody will buy it, and if it doesn't we would have been paying all that money to fund companies that aren't worth anything and they'd only struggle again. I don't get why anybody is for that but maybe I'm missing something.

[Fido]

I thought it was a draw and was quite surprised that they didn't go into extra time or sudden death penalties.

Pistols at dawn.

This election can obviously only end with a Hamilton/Burr style duel. I'd pay to see Obama and McCain have a gunfight in Weehawken, wouldn't you?

You can afford to say that Emma, sittin' up there in Toronto, all smug and having a good laugh at the Americans and their foolishness. Oh, I bet you and your compadres are having a few good belly laughs right about now. And I can't blame you. I would too, if I were you.

Well, times are hard this side of the border and they're about to get a whole lot harder. We need a real president, not a pretender/incompetent/fool. I think there might be a decent one among these two, but I'm not sure and I know there's only one way to find out.

So a gun battle? No ma'am. Not just now. But paintball? Hell yeah. That would be awesome. I'd even agree to rubber bullets, with the appropriate eyewear being worn, because I have a strong hunch that McCain is the better shot.

[Andy]

Canadians are silly.

[Forrest]

Andy is the king of the terse post.

[Fido]

Tell me if I'm crazy, or if this is a possible October Surprise scenario. The bailout/rescue bill died. The market responds negatively, even malevolently. This course of events continues for a few days. Blame is assigned by congressional Republicans to their Democratic colleagues and vice versa.

Congressional Republicans fashion a new package, sufficiently similar to the last one, feign dissatisfaction yet manage in the process to obtain substantial Democratic support. John McCain rides into Washington and pretends to summon substantial Republican support after Democratic votes on the new package are tallied, and the bill is passed. The president signs it, and he and Republican congressional leaders commend him with the strongest possible praise for saving the day. This tips the election in McCain's favor at the last minute. The Democrats and Obama have been faked out and wrest defeat from the jaws of victory. Implausible?

[Andy]

now you're thinking in the right direction.  the US Political System is the new WWF.

[John Junk 2.0]

Some guy from Texas complained that the bill puts us on the "slippery slope" toward socialism.  But I like socialism.  Socialism would be great.  I think it just accentuates how all us little folk are just becoming peasants in a weak-but-tyrannical Christian fascist state whose shots are actually gonna be called by a centralized corporate oligarchy that runs the entire world.  That, or China is gonna have our ass.  Either way.

I guess the election is starting to get me riled up after all.

[Matt]

October Surprise: Bristol Palin's Shotgun Wedding! Everyone loves a wedding, right?

[Steve of Bloomington]

Socialism rocks.  It'd be like living in Sweden, only warmer.

[yesno]

The Swedish bailout of 1992, which worked like a charm and arguably more than paid for itself, isn't too far from what just got voted down. I'm as wary as socializing risk and privatizing gain as the next guy, but I'd be careful just automatically assuming that bailouts are always bad. A lot of the rhetoric around this is very "cut off my nose to spite my face"-y, but I don't think it's worth having a depression just to prove a point or to teach fat cats a lesson.

Now what'll happen is that a much more left wing bill will pass, without the republicans even needed but with more support from leftier Ds. In other words the Republicans who voted against the bill have ensured what is a worse outcome according to their principals in order to score some political points by being able to claim they opposed something which was unpopular. Ah, democracy.

[Andy]

neither side has any principals.

[Emily]

now you're thinking in the right direction.  the US Political System is the new WWF.

is that Sarah Palin's husband?