Monday, August 3, 2009

Screaming at themselves

Before I begin, let me clarify that I'm not one to put much stock in polls, I don't think you can accurately represent a country of over 100 million voters by asking 1000 people a series of questions over the phone. Not saying that every poll is wrong, but don't put all your faith in them.

But with that said, Republicans can't shut up about polling these last few weeks. Why? Because Obama's approval rating is down, shocking that they're all over that. So for those folks who are dying to write off an entire presidency in six months because of one week's worth of polling, I want to share a poll of my own.

Political Party Affiliation by State - Gallup

There are currently 37 states that are considered "strongly Democrat" or "leaning Democrat" and you can add DC in there as well for a combined 350 electoral votes. How many are Republican strongholds? Four, with only one additional state "leaning" Republican. Those states are Alaska, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Alabama... with a combined 15 electoral votes between them. There you go, there's today's Republican Party, amazing where people can live nowadays.

Above: Ouch.

Naturally, this Gallup poll is not reflected by the way the "liberal media" (lol) covers the news. Just today, MSNBC gave actual airtime to "lawyer" Orly Taitz (yes, her name is Orly) to explain the so-called "Birther Movement" and why she's fighting to "prove" that Barack Obama wasn't really born in the United States. Just watch this video and see that this woman is a special brand of crazy; I mean there's crazy, and then there's Orly! But the Birfers, as I like to call them, have somehow gotten their stupid cause picked up by the mainstream media the last couple weeks and it's still getting reported on even though it has been repeatedly confirmed that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.

But it's not just the Birfers, the media's letting various Republicans, wingnuts and lunatic fringers all over the networks to talk about whatever insanity is on their mind. Just yesterday,
This Week with George Stephanopoulos hosted right-wing columnist Michelle Malkin, who's about as qualified to go on that show as I am, and let her just spew her Ann Coulter-lite vitriol. I still see Frank Gaffney pop up all over MSNBC, and he's a guy that thinks Saddam Hussein was not only behind 9/11, but the Oklahoma City Bombings as well. Even Sean Hannity managed to up his "OMG did he really just do that?"-factor by bringing on MARK FUHRMAN to discuss race relations in America... yes, that Mark Fuhrman, the same dirty cop from the OJ Simpson trial who we heard on tape talk about how much he enjoys beating black people.

Then there's John McCain, who seems to get a weekly interview with the news outlet of his choice. I challenge you to find me a Democrat that got as much airtime as McCain has in the six months after he lost an election. I know we sure as hell didn't see John Kerry, Al Gore or Michael Dukakis this much, but somehow that "liberal media" (lol again) seems to find all the time in the world for ol' Johnny. Memo to the media: McCAIN LOST! Overwhelmingly! That means we didn't like his ideas six months ago, why should we have to hear about them now?

So right now the Republicans have less support than the Whigs, yet they still dominate the news cycle to promote their agenda of LOUD NOISES! They don't have the ability to engage in rational discussion (just listen to talk radio), they have no solutions for the nation's problems (just watch C-Span), all they have left to offer is obstruction. They can't tell us why we shouldn't have health care reform, why gay people shouldn't be allowed to marry or why we should take Sarah Palin seriously, so all they do is just ratchet up the crazy and force us to listen. Remember that next time you see footage of Glenn Beck's latest stunt - which will probably be something like setting the American Flag on fire - the GOP is nothing but an increasingly irrelevant political party trying to do anything to get attention. Like a dying television show desperate for ratings, the Republican Party has jumped the shark, the networks just haven't figured it out yet.

12 comments:

Rosie said...

The media should absolutely be ashamed of themselves for continually giving air time/newsprint/0's and 1's to all this crap. I don't care if rational discussion and solutions don't make for sexy TV. That's no excuse for bowing down to all things nutty.

GM said...

You're going down Razor. 2010 shall be an electoral bloodbath!

Healthcare reform shall epic fail as well.

Razor said...

I'm going down? I wasn't aware that I was running.

And when your party has a problem with crazed, angry people going on killing sprees, I don't know if "bloodbath" is the word you should use.

Razor said...

Oh and your use of troll speak like "epic fail" when referencing health care, speaks volumes about how the right views reform. It's a joke to Republicans, hence why right-wing lobbying groups are sending out ridiculous talking points like "government-sponsored euthanasia" or "government-mandated sex changes." Somehow, the right has managed to become even more ridiculous and sad, so congrats on that.

GM said...

Bwhahaha Your crappy party is going down. My bad.

Rosie said...

"Your crappy party is going down."

Hmm, that map would seem to indicate the reverse ...

Razor said...

Really? That's all you've got? So basically, you have no response to the blog, the poll, or my comments?

I mean it's no surprise considering the right has no response to anything and lacks the ability to present an agenda or even a coherent thought, but seriously, all you have left it trolling? It's sad.

GM said...

Eh, Democrats always have an advantage in voter registration. There are a lot of poor, ignorant drones out there for them to take advantage of.

Not very concerned about that. It's all about who turns out on election day. A lot of these so called "blue states" on this poll are uber red states in presidential elections.

hugobomb said...

You've got to love how after a detailed, incisive report on polls (which Zero says he's not the biggest fan of). The right's reponse is:

'YOU'RE GOING DOWN!!!!!! YOU AND YOU AND YOUR CRAPPY PARTY ARE GOING DOWN!!!!'

And they say intelligent discourse is dead

GM said...

Yeah man Tennesse, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, etc are totally going Blue in 2012.

Razor said...

Oh so what you're telling me is the Republican candidate will get 57 electoral votes? I can live with that.

hugobomb said...

Unless it's Sarah Palin then she'll win about 5.7 electoral votes