Election Thoughts #3

Email from Dangerous Dave:

I know I said that I planned on watching See-BS for the election returns so that I could watch Dan Rather sqirm, but I couldn't do it. I watched a few minutes before Dan pointed to Illinois and crowed about its 21 electoral votes going to Kerry in a surprise. Now, if Illinois going for the democrat is a surprise to you, then
you have no business calling yourself a newsman.

This is now two presidential elections in row where the exit polls were so wrong its not funny. Will we pay any attention to exit polls in 2008?

If I were Bush, I would pull Kerry's real military service file and call him into the oval office for a chat. I would tell him that he has a choice. He can be a very quiet, non-obstructive senator from Massachusettes, or this file can be leaked to the media.
Will Bush do this? No, he has too much integrity. Would Clinton do it? You bet your ass!

A coworker today asked how it was possible that Bush got reelected when he is the only president to lose jobs since the depression. I pointed out that he hadn't lost any jobs. This led to the inevitable statement: "Yes he has."

I replied: "How can you say that when more people are working today than at any time in our history."

He looked at me like I was a moron and said "Because the population has increased."

"Ok, granted. But there are still more people working now than there were 4 years ago."

"OK. You're right, but he still lost jobs."

Patiently I asked: "How can you resolve that statement with the fact that more people are working?"

He tried to for a few more minutes before finally agreeing that yes, if more people are working, then no jobs have been lost.

Then we went to the unemployment rate which I pointed out was lower than when Clinton was reelected and we were told that the economy was the best in our history.

Now that good news stories will no longer help Bush get reelected, I wonder if the media will begin to report some of the good news?

One last exchange at work:
Joan: "Our taxes in New York are just too high."
Dave (the Canadian): "Your taxes here are nothing compared to Canada."
Me: "Our poverty rate is nothing compared to Calcutta. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't reduce it."

OK, the big bad story in the media today is that the election results prove that our country is devided almost 50 - 50 and this is a bad thing. Huh?

• Bush got 53% of the popular vote.
• Clinton never even got 50% of the popular vote.
• Reagan, who won in a landslide, got a little over 50% of the popular vote.
• But with 53% Bush leads a divided America?
• I guess the media has to complain about something.

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-Dangerous Dave