Matthaniel Social Blog

Rush Limbaugh Wants America to Fail

2009-02-05T08:19:00.000-08:00

On Rush's famous national radio show, Mr. Limbaugh spoke about his dissent for the upcoming bill proposed by the president, which is fine, as people are allowed to be critical. Though, in the process, in speaking in reference to Obama, his words were, "I hope he fails!" Well, Mr. Limbaugh, like it or not, Obama is your president. I believe that by saying he hopes Obama fails, that he is saying America fails, probably for the reason that he wants America to see what "it did wrong" by electing Obama. Which I think is a sick to wish upon those you share a society with. Yes, the economic plan may not be perfect, but then again, nothing is perfect. We already tried it Bush's way, which didn't work too well. So, we're trying it Obama's way, I think he's especially smarter than some of the GOP I've been reading about lately, c'mon, "Joe the Plumber" as a GOP economic advisor, give me a break! Let's Obama's plan go though, we don't know until we try and we need to do something for our economy right now instead of playing partisan politics.

Here's the clip:

Obama a Socialist?

2008-10-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

I was watching one of my favorite shows, The Colbert Report, and I saw a great interview on pretty much why Obama isn't a socialist. In fact, Stephen interviewed a guy named Brian Moore, the ACTUAL Socialist Candidate for President, and guess what? He's not voting for Obama, how about that! I mean, why would I vote for a guy, who would make my major in college obsolete. I actually have done my research, unlike most of the Republican base, at least the ones who are all about, "Off with his head!"

Here's the video:

If You're Voting Obama, then Vote!

2008-10-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

The election is only 7 days away. Wow, it has seemed as if this election would go on forever. I've been an intern on the campaign for Obama here in Erie, PA for about a two months, and its been rough. Pennsylvania is a highly competitive state in this election and I believe people here are close to evenly split. After all the people I've been interviewing in this town on my canvassing trips, I've seen more people choose Obama, which is encouraging, but, we've only been interviewing a selected group of people, mainly undecideds and people we haven't talked to yet. I would say also biggest problem is that some people don't have enough information to vote. My job is to get the info out there, but one can only do so much. So, I was reading an article from one of my more favorite news sources, the BBC, and this is why you should vote Obama fans!

Here is the article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7693309.stm

Newsweek: Why McCain won...

Jonathan Alter

By Jonathan Alter
NEWSWEEK

The conventional wisdom, which I share, is that Barack Obama will win this election, perhaps by a healthy margin. But Democrats are nervous wrecks; they're having nightmares that defeat will be snatched from the jaws of victory.

To add to their misery (and guard against complacency), here's how that horror film could play out:

In the end, the problem was the LIVs. That's short for "low-information voters", the three-fifths of the electorate that shows up once every four years to vote for president but mostly hates politics.

These are the 75 million folks who didn't vote in the primaries. They don't read news magazines or newspapers, don't watch any cable news and don't cast their ballots early. Their allegiance to a candidate is as easily shed as a T-shirt.

Several million moved to Obama through September and October; they'd heard he handled himself well in the debates. Then, in the last week, the LIVs swung back to the default choice: John McCain.

Some had good reasons other than the colour of Obama's skin to desert him; many more did not.

In October, a study by the Associated Press estimated that Obama's race would cost him 6%. The percentage was smaller, but still enough to give the presidency to McCain.

Obama's field organisation was superb, so it was no surprise that most of the 18 million Hillary Clinton voters came home to the Democrats; the person-to-person voter contact (and significant resentment about the selection of Sarah Palin) made a big difference.

But the huge swathe of more than 30 million independents broke heavily for McCain. By piling up overwhelming margins in big blue states like California, New York and Illinois, Obama carried the popular vote, but he ended up like Al Gore in 2000 - denied admission to the Electoral College.

Swinging states

The first ominous sign was largely missed amid the Democratic euphoria after Obama outclassed McCain on the financial crisis.

While most of the country moved toward the Democratic nominee in early October, Ohio did not. Obama could never close the sale there. In a repeat of the Democratic primary, his big totals coming out of Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) weren't enough to offset larger-than-expected losses in the suburbs around Cincinnati and Columbus.

Florida had looked promising for Obama for a time, but his weakness among seniors caught up with him. One national poll from early October should have been a warning: it showed him up by 7% overall, but down 14% among those older than 65.

And Sarah Silverman's "Great Schlep" fell short. Obama easily carried the Jewish vote, but not with the 75% won by Gore and John Kerry. As it turned out, the real problem wasn't south Florida, where Hispanics came in surprisingly well for Obama. It was erosion in the critical I-4 corridor near Tampa and in the Panhandle, where the astonishing Republican margins among whites could be attributed only to race.

Obama shifted New Mexico, Iowa and Nevada from red to blue. But there was a reason Virginia hadn't gone Democratic since 1964. The transformation of the northern part of the state couldn't overcome a huge McCain margin among whites farther south. They weren't the racists of their parents' generation, but they weren't quite ready to vote for the unthinkable, either.

As McCain closed the gap in the last week with his message on taxes and fear of another terrorist attack, the race came down to New Hampshire (which went for Kerry in 2004) and Colorado (which went for President Bush). Obama needed one of them to get to 270 electoral votes.

New Hampshire's fabled independents had long had a soft spot for McCain in GOP primaries, and they delivered for him again. Colorado, after flirting with Obama, simply reverted to form, with Palin's frontier image helping a bit.

Robo-call alienation

Obama had wired every college campus in the country, and he enjoyed great enthusiasm among politically engaged young people. But less-engaged students told reporters the day after the election that they had meant to vote for Obama but were "too busy".

History held: young people once again voted in lower percentages than their elders. Waiting for them turned out to be like waiting for Godot.

The Obama margin among young voters was underestimated a little in some polls because so many 18- to 24-year-olds use only cell phones.

But the deeper failure of the polling came from methodology that could not properly account for the nine in 10 voters who won't answer a polltaker's questions.

With ceaseless robo-calls and as many as 15 live calls from campaigns to each household in a swing state, even fewer people than normal took time in the last two weeks to respond.

Who were the voters slamming down the phone? Disproportionately for McCain. In rebuffing pollsters, they skewed the sample toward Obama, inflating his "support".

At the start of the campaign season NEWSWEEK asked, "Is America Ready" for a black president?

The answer: only if Obama proved close to a flawless candidate, and even then, we won't know for sure until Election Day. That doesn't mean Obama lost because all, or even most, McCain voters allowed race to be a factor. But enough did to change the outcome.

Democrats are despairing over the results, fearing they might never view their country in the same light again. Even many Republicans are subdued at the news of McCain's victory.

Having expected him to lose, they know the GOP has now completed a sorry transition from the party of Lincoln to the party of cynicism. McCain, they're reasoning, might prove a fine president, but it shouldn't have happened like this...

... It probably won't. Millions of people in the rest of the world assume that Barack Obama cannot be elected because he is black. They assume that the original sin of American history - enshrined in our Constitution - cannot be transcended.

I go into next week's election with a different assumption - that the common sense and decency of the American people will prove the sceptics wrong.

Marriage

2008-04-28T19:11:00.000-07:00

In my time, I've learned a few things. One thing that I've determined is that I will never get married. I just don't see any value in it. I'm not in a position to consider it, but I've just been thinking on how impractical it can be. Here are the reasons to get married and my rebuttals (these arguments may seem sexist, but I promise you they are as fair as I could make them):

1. You'll have a life-long companion.

Not necessarily true. Well, first of all, let's take a quick glance at the divorce rate in the US, 50%. If it were a lifelong companionship, then nobody would get divorced. If you feel lonely, you'll always feel lonely, marriage will not bring you out of that. Besides, can't you have a life-long companion without the legal paperwork tied to it.

2. It'll be easier to share financial burdens with each other than alone.

Yeah, this is true guys. You'll share your finances... with your ex during a divorce when she cleans out your finances. After a divorce, it's been statistically proven that the woman's lifestyle goes down while the man's goes up. The GDP of a woman decreases while the man's increases overall. It's because he no longer has to pay for the woman's pedicure, manicures, potpourri, and other such things that a straight male would probably never buy. Instead, the man could now buy stuff that HE wants, like a ridiculous widescreen 72" TV, or an awesome car (for himself). Ladies, why the hell would you want your GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to go down. You should be independent and spend your money things you want and not come home to a surprise ridiculous widescreen 72" TV and other things that guys tend to buy that might upset you, such as porn for example.

3. Wanting to be free from parents or related reasons.

Yes, because legally contracting yourself to someone else is freedom. Enough said.

4. To be happy.

Have you ever been happy before marriage. Accomplishing a goal that you've been working on for a

while? Having friends? Making ton loads of money? There are better ways to be happy.

5. My family/friends expects it.

So, what are you, five? You can't make others happy if you aren't happy. That might have been a

valid argument in the 1920s but, it's not to say your parents aren't proud of you anyway. If they aren't,

well, you'll never make them them happy anyway. So, what are you worried about?

6. I got my girlfriend pregnant and getting married is the right thing to do.

Ask any relationship expert, at least any level-headed one of the worst reasons to get married.

This would be one of them, if not the worst one. These marriages won't work out anyway because, there's

no actual love for one another in this type of relationship. It's a sense of obligations, and nobody likes those.

There's a lot more but, I'll more later as I get into the mood again. Thanks for reading.