Small problem: Voters who select a candidate based on emotional reasons … Logical appeals don’t work with them; they are only moved by pandering to their emotions.

And currently, that’s about 48% of the population.

VastRightWingConspirator on September 18, 2008 at 3:07 PM

Yes, democracy is a bummer like that, and a good reason why everybody needs to be taught reasoning.

… It’s like “Alice (in Wonderland) Through the Looking Glass” I’m thinkin’ it’s time to start a 12-Step group.

NightmareOnKStreet on September 18, 2008 at 4:25 PM

But how will you get (allegedly) 48% of the population to attend for therapy?
:)

A recent example of this was Bill Clinton’s comment about Barak Obama that Jesse Jackson had also won South Carolina. It is obviously true that Jackson did win South Carolina. And it is clear that Clinton was reasonably referencing the demographic which allowed this victory.

The perception that this was a racist statement, and a contention supported by Dick Morris (who should know better than anyone), comes from the tangential reference to race. These tangential connections are potent as they do not have to be in agreement with the surrounding facts and they are, being only oblique to the thrust of the comment, deniable as being unintended.

The evocative subtexts, connections, puns and multiple entendres are the nature of great speeches. They are valued oratorical skills. ‘Spin’, on the other hand, as it is being presented in this present election, is not the effort to add such context and poignancy, but has become the effort to fully remove context and clarity and to actually deceive. This is called bull***t.

Is there an algorithm for that?

Look, can we, uh, dispense with the whole, uh, “Barack Obama is articulate,” uh, thing?

For instance, the handwriting analyst who looks at a signature of Albert Einstein and deducts from the signature that the writer is highly intelligent, probably good at math and tends toward pacifism. Hmmmm.

Did the analyst know who was talking when the analysis was done?

I used to think reasonable people would see Obama for what he was and recoil from him, but DAMN, they want a Marxist for president!

Star20 on September 18, 2008 at 2:42 PM

Correction: A lying Marxist.

I think I am cynically depressed today. Does anyone have a bottle of algorithms?

Sounds great! Can still bring Kettle One to a 12 step meeting?

This is a little off subject, or perhaps in addition to the subject, but I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so much like I have fallen down the rabbit hole, than I do today. Just look at the stories on Drudge and here, today. It seems like the nutjobs have taken over the world.

I used to think reasonable people would see Obama for what he was and recoil from him, but DAMN, they want a Marxist for president!

Star20 on September 18, 2008 at 2:42 PM

STAR20, that’s EXACTLY how I feel. It’s like “Alice (in Wonderland) Through the Looking Glass” I’m thinkin’ it’s time to start a 12-Step group.

CC

When it rains, you get wet!!!

Oh, sorry, THE ONE, Barack HUSSEIN Obama, (PBUH)(SAW)(SWT) is the reincarnation of King Canute, so he would actually stop the rain, before it landed on him.

Sorry Capn’t, in THE ONE’S case the “science” doesn’t work…

55 electoral votes for Calif. that sux.

kirkill on September 18, 2008 at 3:23 PM

The Southern Strategy doubles California’s votes and delivers a very steep hurdle for the Dems in close Presidential elections.

“The voice analysis profile for McCain looks very much like someone who is clinically depressed.”
I’m not a psychiatrist, but seven years of torture might have something to do with that.

Heck, if I were McCain, I’d DEFINITELY be depressed. Why did I spend 20-something years in the military — five of them in a Hell Hole — and another 20-something years as an elected public servant… only to have 48% of the population be so ignorant that they would elect a smooth-talking huckster like Obama, instead of me?

As the maitre de in Ferris Bueller says… “I weep for the future.”

“The voice analysis profile for McCain looks very much like someone who is clinically depressed.”

I’m not a psychiatrist, but seven years of torture might have something to do with that.

And currently, that’s about 48% of the population.

massaged
normalized
algorithm
processed
calculated
analyzed
still garbage

This is the site hosting the statistics model Rush mentioned today. It’s a Bayesian statistics model and it has some pretty interesting results. Cliff Notes Version: Only a complete GOP meltdown would result in an Obama victory, and even that only has a two in three chance of occurring.