Facts and Opinions about the campaign

Obama’s support by educational level

The Gallup Tracking poll has the race broken down by various demographics, among them education.

Here is the latest data

Education Level	Obama	McCain
High School or Less	45	44
Some College	45	48
College Graduate	44	50
Graduate Degree	57	39

If you look at the results from week to week and look at the range, we see that the only demographic that Obama consistently wins is the “graduate degree” demographic; all of the rest have gone either way over the past several weeks.

Education Level	Obama Range	McCain Range
High School or Less	41-45	39-45
Some College	42-49	42-48
College Graduate	44-49	42-50
Graduate Degree	50-57	35-40

What does this mean? I honestly don’t know.

Fair Criticism of Obama

Here is what I consider a fair analysis of Obama’s weaknesses as a candidate. This is NOT a “the sky is falling” type of article.

Basically, one of Obama’s weaknesses is perhaps a bit too much pride; he might be better off if he comes to truly understand that he can’t do it alone.

Another fair analysis (I think) of the current situation

It’s happening again. Regardless of the outcome of this thing, it’s clear that half of America is falling for the same superficial trickery that gave us eight years of George W. Bush. You know the routine. Who do you want to have a beer with? Who is more plainspoken? Who would you like to drive your kids to hockey?

Only this time around, America is exponentially worse off than it was in 2000 or 2004, which only makes the degree to which certain voters are being tricked all the more infuriating and incomprehensible. Show of hands: have you gone all Howard Beale yet this week?

I’d do the list of Republican Epic Fail, but it’s too exhaustively long to enumerate here. So here’s a thumbnail. The day after Sarah Palin’s historically overrated Edie McClurg With Lying performance at the Republican convention, the Dow tanked 344 points. The day after that, the Republicans got their bounce — an unemployment rate bounce to 6.1 percent — the highest level in five years. Two days after that, Secretary Paulson announced the government’s “deprivatization” of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. And yesterday, the Dow dropped another 280 points. All of this within the last seven days.

So what are the Republicans and the barbecue media talking about today? A pig metaphor that’s older than John McCain. John McCain! [...]

Today on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, we overheard some accidental truth-telling as to why this is happening. Chris Matthews was on with Scarborough and Andrea Mitchell (sitting in for Mika who, I think, was off updating her Sarah Palin Fansite & Web Shrine) and Matthews was poking Scarborough and Buchanan about their wall-to-wall pig remark coverage.

MATTHEWS: Two days from now — I want to ask you, what will we talk about two days from now?

SCARBOROUGH: Whatever the McCain campaign wants us to talk about, because the McCain campaign is assertive.

[...]

We all know why this is happening. Senator Obama said it during his convention acceptance speech in Denver:

Because if you don’t have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
You make a big election about small things.

Small things. Like lipstick. And the Republicans get away with it because everyone with barbecue sauce stains on their mouths will, as Scarborough inadvertently admitted, talk about it.
[...]

What else gets short-changed in lieu of the small things? Adequate debunking of the most disgusting Republican attack ad since Lee Atwater’s Willie Horton ad or Alex Castellanos’ White Hands ad. Instead, the new McCain ad depicting Senator Obama as a creepy perv who wants to tell your kids about their down-there places is aired over and over and over on cable. And the very serious discussion swirling around this ad? How will Obama respond to this? Will this damage Obama? When do we get to show the ad again?

You wouldn’t know it while watching Morning Joe, but the truth is that the legislation in question had to do with age-appropriate education that would help to protect children from sexual predators. I repeat: to protect children from sexual predators. [...]

Given their record of success in years past, it’s no wonder why the Republicans do what they do. But this goes beyond cause and effect. It’s their nature. They’re simply unable to govern, so all they have left are their basest, most cynical and depraved instincts. Their presidential ticket is composed of two incompetent, corrupt liars who want to continue the Bush legacy (while also lying about their “change” message). But they’re good at whining; they’re good at smearing; and they excel at fear-mongering. John McCain has fully embraced Karl Rove’s brand of insect politics.

With a complicit barbecue media at their disposal — a team of fainting goats on cable news and AM radio — their screaming and stomping gets plenty of airplay. But worse than that, it gets an obscene amount of undue validation. Because when it doesn’t, the Republicans crap their cages until the goats faint again. Consequently, casual viewers who aren’t as knee-deep in this stuff get the wrong impression as to what’s truly important. Or they become so flummoxed by the noise that they throw their hands in the air and, with an exhausted yalp, declare both candidates equally as awful. George W. Bush “won” in 2000 due to that exact phenomenon. [...]