November 4, 2010

But we lost

A big thing that was going around the internets all of today was a site that kept listing all the great stuff the Obama administration did and I really don't get why this is what's being pushed around now. If it's motivation for the election results, it doesn't matter. We still lost. By a huge amount. If The White House had discovered a free, airborne cure for cancer, it wouldn't have mattered if they utterly failed to get the message out about it. In fact in context of the way they handled things, if they had actually done that, Fox News and Sarah Palin would have been screaming about how Obama wanted to force vaccinations on illegal immigrants and no one except Media Matters for America would have said anything.

Likewise I'm amazed that after all of this, there's still hippie-punching as some kind of cathartic attempt to blame people who voted for Obama instead of, you know, Obama. This really isn't about the handful of bloggers or whatever upset that a public option wasn't passed. A public option wasn't passed because the administration capitulated to the whims of several dozen Blue Dog Democrats, most of whom lost fantastically anyway.

Anyone still making the sarcastic comments about "not getting unicorns" on websites is deeply flawed in their self-projection that every voter is actively online, and conversely that active, online bloggers are remotely close to the bulk of the electorate. Obama won in 2008 thanks in part to an amazing campaign and messaging organization that brought out new voters, young voters, and minority voters. All of those decreased in numbers this time around. The administration needs to sit down and address why. A cute website is not going to explain that. I said this a few weeks back and I think it's officially my mantra for the next election season now: "we're not blogging our way out of fucked."

Obviously I'm not happy about the results, even though I expected them for months now. I'm angry and diasppointed that I had to watch a slow motion car wreck and I hope that the administration realizes what they need to do now. Not a political genius, but I guess maybe the whole eleven percent unemployment thing. Not sure but that might have been a thing to work on. Just a thought.

Posted by August J. Pollak at 11:03 PM

November 2, 2010

Election Night thoughts (pre-closing)

1. In any race where the losing candidate spent millions of dollars and lost in a landslide, the vote graphic should be depicted in the form of the number of starving children their campaign funds could have fed.

2. I'm wondering if Christine O'Donnell will actually be offered her contract with Fox News within the hour of her crushing loss, or if the network will continue the mild facade and wait until morning.

3. I think it's incredibly refreshing that for once, Andrew Breitbart was a crazed, paranoid lunatic throwing wild, nonsensical accusations based on his own sick hatred of liberals and the person who gets fired because of it is actually, you know, him.

Posted by August J. Pollak at 4:00 PM

November 1, 2010

"Pre-School vs. Election Night Coverage"

Latest comic - click here!

Tomorrow night a whole mess of people are going to act like children. I like making sure I address this before the actual election so it doesn't just look like a response to whatever level of horrible befalls the Democrats. Whatever happens, teabaggers making any gains is going to be a bad thing. Their bragging is going to be even worse. Democratic strategists trying to spin it is going to be even worse than that. And crazy racist right-wing bloggers will accuse people of criminal activities, even when they win.

And I guess I should remind you all again that oh hey, look, new book! Buy your copy of You're Still an A%*hole For Voting For Nader immediately. It would be an awesome thing to do.

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Posted by August J. Pollak at 12:36 AM