Making a choice
I want to applaud the Journal editorial board’s endorsement of President Obama In the Oct. 14 paper (“Obama is the best choice for president”). You pointed out many important choices we need to consider.
So much hinges on this presidential election, including the future of our Supreme Court, which will be a critical factor in the next four years.
DEHLIA CARVER
Kernersville
Win and lose
It is no surprise that the Journal editorial board has endorsed President Obama (“Obama is the best choice for president,” Oct. 14). If he wins, we will all lose.
The surprise will come when, if he is re-elected (which I hope and pray will not be the case), the nation will eventually drown in its own massive debt and slide into a deep malaise from which it will never recover. Rampant inflation and higher taxes will be inevitable. Money will buy less and there will be less of it.
Your newspaper will cease to exist due to lack of advertising since businesses will have no money to squander on such non-essentials and your subscribers will cancel since they'll have no money to waste on frivolities when they will barely be able to afford food and clothing. Rest assured, Obama will blame someone else — and you'll believe him.
STANLEYG. SIMM
Winston-Salem
Kudos
Kudos to the Journal's endorsement of President Obama for another four-year term as president (“Obama is the best choice for president,” Oct. 14). This endorsement by the Journal should pretty well guarantee a Mitt Romney victory in those counties serviced by the Journal. Thanks.
RON BIRD
Winston-Salem
Endorsement
So, with the presidential endorsement out of the way (“Obama is the best choice for president,” Oct. 14), who are you endorsing for vice president after that exceptionally disrespectful and rude performance by Joe Biden the other night?
ROBERT LINNELL
Winston-Salem
Good weekend
You made my day on Saturday and did it again on Sunday.
Thank you for the Oct. 13 cartoon that depicted Mitt Romney as Pinocchio. (I had been making the same comparison since the debate and telling friends that had he been Pinocchio he would have needed those family members who rushed the stage to carry his nose.)
Thank you for your endorsement of President Obama and your clear reasons for the endorsement (“Obama is the best choice for president,” Oct. 14). I suspect that some of these pages will line bird cages. Mine will be prominently displayed on my refrigerator door.
Thank you for making my Saturday and my Sunday.
BARBARA WATKINS DAYE
Boone
The editorial board photo
The recently published picture of the Journal’s editorial board with John Railey’s Oct. 14 column “We’re the editorial board, and we approved this message,” reminds me of the painting “Dogs Playing Poker” by C.M. Coolidge. In view of the first three of four endorsements, it is obvious there is much more cerebral matter and common sense among the dogs.
It would be appropriate for the newspaper boys to reveal their party affiliation, even though that is obvious to educated readers. P.S. I am a dog lover.
BRUCE A. GUSTAFSON
Winston-Salem
The Obama endorsement
Your glowing support of a failed president (“Obama is the best choice for president,” Oct. 14) is a good reason not to continue buying your liberal publication.
You have right to print what you wish. Conservative, moral, law-abiding citizens have a right to get their news from a trusted source. When the man you support begins to eat away at the freedom of the press you will think back to this day.
CLAY L. NUTTALL
Winston-Salem
Observations
Some observations that I have made during this presidential campaign:
That honesty is no longer a family value. With dishonesty you can't please all of the people all of the time, but you might please enough people to get elected.
That there is no respect for anyone or anything. No respect for our president and even no respect for the families of the U.S.ambassador to Libya and the two other American heroes who were killed.
That hate is acceptable but love is not. We can hate anyone we choose but we can't love anyone we choose.
That party affiliation trumps what Jesus taught.
That fetuses matter but sick and hungry children don't.
That, like it or not, race matters.
That evangelical, once a Christian expression, is now a political expression.
That elected representatives are rewarded for going to Washington and saying no to everything, even a jobs bill for veterans.
That women are considered second-class citizens.
That a strong attempt is being made to buy the presidency.
That a strong attempt is being made to disenfranchise a certain group of voters.
That people are dying because they have no health care and many people don't care.
Blaise Pascal was right so many years ago when he said, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.”
I will vote for President Obama because I like his record and I trust him.
CYNTHIA GOUGH NANCE
Clemmons
Correspondent of the Week
Hard-earned suffrage
Alice Paul and Lucy Burns would be very upset if women did not vote.
Who are these women? It is surprising that very few women know what they did for the women of our nation. We take for granted the right to vote without regard for what they had to endure to obtain this right for us.
The suffrage movement brought women from all states to protest, parade and finally picket the White House. When they could not be stopped, the police arrested and wrongly convicted them for “obstructing sidewalk traffic.” On Nov. 15, 1917, the “Night of Terror” began. They were beaten, fed food infested with worms and treated inhumanly.
Paul went on a hunger strike and was force-fed until word was smuggled out of prison and printed in the newspaper about their plight. The women were finally released and saw their long battle come to victory on August 26, 1920, when the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, became constitutional law.
The U.S. also declared the arrests of the suffragettes were unconstitutional.
Please honor these courageous women by voting.
JUDITH RUFF
Winston-Salem
What a surprise! A loser newspaper supports a loser president.
ReplyDeleteLTE #1: w-o-w! Is that you, Doom and Gloom Deb?
ReplyDeleteLTE #3: No need to endorse the Veep. It comes with the presidential package.
LTE #4: It's called "Romnesia".
LTE #7: I'm guessing your "trusted source is . . . Faux News?
LTE #8: Well thought out and written. Thank you, Ms. Nance.
Poooof! Since the polls are trending toward Romney, we haven't heard diddly squat out of our favorite liberal chatter box.
ReplyDeleteGallup:
Romney 51%
Obama 46%
Rasmussen:
Romney 46%
Obama 46%
Wanna believe Rasmussen now over Gallup? Hee Hee....liberals you gotta love 'em.
DeleteEven though the national polls (popular vote) mean nothing, we will note here the actual latest results as reported by RCP instead of some people's made up fantasies:
ReplyDeleteNBC News/Wall St. Jrnl. 10/17 - 10/20 Tie
Rasmussen Tracking 10/18 - 10/20 Romney +2
Gallup Tracking 10/14 - 10/20 Romney +7
IBD/TIPP Tracking 10/15 - 10/20 Obama +6
Hartford Courant/UConn 10/11 - 10/16 Obama +3
ABC News/Wash Post 10/10 - 10/13 Obama +3
Politico/GWU/Battleground 10/7 - 10/11Obama +1
Monmouth/SurveyUSA/Braun 10/8 - 10/10 Romney +1
FOX News 10/7 - 10/9 Romney +1
RCP Average 10/7-10-20 Obama + 0.2
Both the Gallup and IBD/TIPP polls are what is known in the business as "outliers", polls that are drastically out of line with all other polls. Poll watchers would typically ignore such results. If we did that for the Gallup and IBD/TIPP polls, the RCP average would be Obama + 0.33.
Gallup may be the oldest and best known pollster, but there has been something wrong with their system for some time now, as they were outliers in both the 2008 and 2010 election cycles. For instance, in the 2008 presidential race, Gallup had Obama at +11; the final margin was +7.3 and the RCP was +7.6. In 2010, they had Republican candidates up by 15 points. The actual result was about +7, almost exactly the RCP polling average.
In addition, the Rasmussen polls are typically ignored by the legitimate media because Scott Rasmussen is in the pocket of the GOP by enjoying free cruises, lavish dinners, etc that no respectable pollster would accept and because of his automated phone system, which saves money and allows larger samples, but rarely pays off in accuracy. Rasmussen had the second worst record in the 2010 election cycle after Gallup.
Getting back to what really matters, the electoral college. As to the recent shift of personnel from NC to Ohio by the Romney campaign, that has much less to do with what is happening in NC than the Romneyites belated realization that they cannot win unless they win Ohio.
Obama can lose NC, Virginia, Florida, Colorado and New Hampshire and still win the election. And all of those are very close. Even NC is up for grabs because Obama's ground game, successfully tested last year in the Charlotte and Raleigh mayoral elections, is superior to Romney's.
Early voting could decide the race once again. As Stab reported earlier, there was a big turnout in Winston-Salem on the first day, including the biggest, Big Bird. Charlotte had a heavy turnout as well and Raleigh was up 50% from 2008. The state board of elections reported that 86,031 Democrats and 38,428 Republicans voted statewide on the first day.
Actually, Winston-Salem is lagging far behind in early voting, ranking tenth in the state, behind the smaller cities Fayetteville, Wilmington, Asheville, Chapel Hill and Cary. Even that fact is an indicator, as W-S is far more conservative than Raleigh, Charlotte, Durham and Greensboro.
So far (through end of day Friday) in NC, 318,506 one-stop and 73,269 mail-in votes have been counted. Registered Democrats have cast 196,696 of those, Republicans 127,738 and unaffiliateds 71,975. The percentages for male/female and black/white are the same as in 2008.
New York does not have early voting, but everywhere we went this week we saw Big Bird, and Friday night at Cooper Union, Big Bird debated "Romney" before a standing room only crowd. Cooper Union is a remarkable school, about the size of my alma mater. You'll need an SAT of over 2,000 to have a chance of getting in…they reject 11 out of 12 applicants, but once in you've got a 4 year scholarship currently worth about $140,000.
During the 1860 campaign for President, Abraham Lincoln made one of his most important speeches in Cooper Union's Great Hall, which at the time was one of America's largest auditoriums. Of course, it couldn't touch the nation's largest, the Wigwam in Chicago, where a few weeks later 10,000 people jammed inside to nominate Lincoln as the first Republican candidate for President.
Rush, I think I'm going have to start a segment in here that I'll simply call 'The Weekly Nitwit Report'. You are simply amazing.
DeleteIn it, I'll go line by line and outline how you are utterly full of it.
I've never read so much unsupported, ridiculous nonsense in my life until I started reading your liberal gibberish in this forum.
You love to tell half truths in order to make facts come out the way you want. Don't you? These poor liberal smucks in here don't have time to fact check your nonsense, so they accept it. You should be ashamed of yourself. However, since you are a liberal, you are incapable of shame.
I don't have time to deal with you tonight, but I'll take you, and your so called 'facts' up later.
All I can say is, 'Jeez'.
Please do. Everyone is waiting with bated breathe.
DeleteBucky, facts (real ones, not the warped assertions of campaigns) by themselves are not political. OT's history lesson is interesting, warrants thanks, not a sneer.
DeleteHi cuz...
DeleteI recall that you said sometime ago that Ohio was the key and you were right, at least for Romney.
The latest RCP electoral map gives Romney NH, VA, NC, FL & CO, but gives Obama OH, for 277-261.
So Obama can lose all of those toss-up states and still win. But to win, Romney MUST have Ohio. Even if he wins it, Obama would still win by taking FL, VA or NC, the first 2 of which are dead even. For instance, if Obama loses Ohio but wins VA, he would still win, 272-266.
I enjoy the national game, but I'm still focused on local matters, which actually affect our lives. I talk to hard core conservative elected officials every week…the crazy topics of the national frenzy never comes up. Instead, it's about cost-benefit ratio. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.
So it goes. In the end it's all a game and then we die.
Hey cuz. Yes, politics is ultimately local, and I am much less familiar with local issues than national. Thus, I tend to pay attention to the paper's editorial board's endorsements (I don't necessarily vote that way, but I do pay attention).
DeleteAs for the Presidential election, the national polls show a close contest (note that I deliberately do not say "race"--damn this protracted process). But, that obscures the FACT that in terms of electoral votes, as you note, it ain't that close. Romney needs to run the table; Obama does not. Also, there is an interesting poll report that some older white guys who voted for McCain in 2008 are defecting to Obama.
Mind you, when I say "interesting," that doesn't mean that I like the news, but it demands attention. My preferences don't alter the facts. And relying on outliers like Gallup and Rasmussen as predictors is whistling past the graveyard, IMO.
You have mentioned more than once the idea of running for the local school board.
DeleteWhy not bone up on the issues and do it? We could use sane people on that board, which is currently controlled by fundamentalist christians intent on their personal agendas with no concern for the teachers and students, which, I believe, is the actual point of it all. At least, it's supposed to be.
I recommend a chat with Dave Plyler, who knows more about what is going on than anyone else. He is a nice guy who welcomes such interest.
Speaking of the Wigwam, today's "dirty tricks" cannot touch those of long ago. The Wigwam figured in one of the biggest ever.
ReplyDeleteIn 1860, Senator William Seward of New York was the odds-on favorite to win the first Republican nomination. Lincoln was one of a half dozen minor contenders.
On the morning of May 18th, thousands of Seward's fans staged a march through downtown Chicago, waving banners and singing. But when they got to the Wigwam, they were turned away. Lincoln's people had printed counterfeit tickets and packed the hall.
As expected, Seward led on the first ballot, but did not have enough votes for the nomination. And every time Lincoln's name was mentioned, his supporters shook the Wigwam with cheers. That was enough to convince the uncommitted delegates who the people wanted. Lincoln was nominated on the third ballot. And Seward, the victim, became Lincoln's most important and trusted adviser in the White House.
Historical quirk: In those days, it was traditional for the candidates themselves to stay away from the convention. Lincoln learned of his nomination by telegraph in Springfield.
Had he gone to Chicago, he might have found time to walk a couple of blocks from the Wigwam to McVickers theater to catch the new smash hit comedy "Our American Cousin". He did finally attend a performance of the play five years later. Unfortunately it was playing at Ford's Theater, and John Wilkes Booth was lurking in the wings.
So it goes.