••• Enthusiasm helping Angle against Reid •••

[breadandwine]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/poll-angle-up-one-on-reid-in-nv-sen-race.php


Angle's best showing is among likely voters because like all the goopers and tea partiers, they are fanatics who will rush to the polls with their pitchforks while Democrats aren't overjoyed to vote because we didn't get everything we wanted. So we stay home and the nuts vote.

if we can't even win in the race of the majority leader, with huge advantages for Reid and he is also blasting Angle with some very aggressive ads, then how are we going to pull this thing out?

At present I know of only one tea party nut who is actually BEHIND and that is O'Donnell and who knows how long that will last, now that the GOP has decided to forget bygones and pump money into her campaign.

I watched O'Donnell interviewed and she has a bubbly, gushing, all-blushy charisma and acts like anybody who challenges her past is just ridiculous. I have never seen such a good liar, given what she has to work with. She's got TEFLON. Probably partly because she thinks she's got some holier-than-thou right to lie, she doesn't care what people say and so she has that ramrod CONFIDENCE that is so necessary in politics. She has all the right Gingrichian platitude buzz words and she has modeled herself visually to look like Palin if you've seen some startling side-by-side photo comparisons. Watch this untouchable nut become Senate Majority Leader or something down the road. Just watching her is creepy because she is so full of bubbly smiles no matter what. If I was as full of it as she was no way I could pull it off the way she does. She is one smooth liar.

Meanwhile there is no national Democratic message about how bad these people are. The White House has a new message every couple of days and has no clue how to fight and one day they are about criticizing critics within the party and another day they are about touting the legislation Obama passed and another day it's another message. There is no overriding message. The real race is between a Democratic party that is far from perfect and largely treading water and a bunch of nuts who would take us from lying at anchor to sinking the whole ship. But our party doesn't get it that these nuts are really going to sink the ship, the whole country.

After the 1929 stock market crash we would not have gone into a depression had President Hoover spent enough stimulus to rescue things. Instead, he stupidly tried to balance the budget at the worst possible time and cut spending. Bang zoom! Instant depression. Now the GOP threatens to break the stimulus at the knees. We will have many people, people we know, losing their jobs. Things could be really disastrous and by 2012 the country could be so desperate they could turn to a nut for PRESIDENT.

But this is not being addressed adequately because every day the White House stupidly tries out a new positive thinking seminar message and there is never any passion coming from the White House and this is toxic. It is as if our side suddenly said, "Eh!"

So many on our side are staying home because we are stuck in a rut while the GOP plans to sink the ship.

It looks really awful to look at these poll numbers and others, which show how enthusiasm turns a fringe into the most likely voters and will overrepresent their numbers at the polls on election day. We seem to have done nothing to reverse the likely voter/enthusiasm gap and we act like deer in headlights. They gin up their supporters with hysteria while we react like a punchy prize fighter beat up and looking for the exit.

It's all pow! Pow! Pow! Now beat it. We're taking over.

And it worked in 1994 when Gingrich took over and it's working now.

We don't rail, we don't pound the podium the way they do.

The other side spreads alarm and fear while we peddle stupid positive thinking seminars, smile buttons and prozac.

I haven't a clue how to stop this and so far I haven't heard anybody on DU come up with a viable solution either, other than some Pollyanna cheery nonsense.

Your thoughts appreciated ......

[breadandwine]

1. Thanks for the recs, folks.

...

[BlueCaliDem]

2. You're welcome. :-) eom

[ORDagnabbit]

3. a lose lose situation... crazy nut job vs no spine corporate dem..I want my third party progressive

[breadandwine]

9. This is a two-party system by CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.

Once you have district voting, Congressional districts and Senate seats in 50 states, you AUTOMATICALLY have 2 parties. In a parliamentary democracy a party can get 12% of the vote and they get 12% of the seats in parliament. But if you are voting by DISTRICT, what are they supposed to do, give you 12% of a seat in Congress from your district.

So if you have districts (and that is IN THE CONSTITUTION), you have no chance of your candidate winning unless it is one of the top two running in that district. This automatically forces people to pick lessers of evil or the two top parties. This is designed to promote consensus and compromise.

If you don't like it, go ahead and move to Scandinavia.


After all, voting in America is such a drag.

In fact, LIVING in America is a drag.

So give up your friends, your family, your mortgage, the shopping centers and transportation familiar to you, take a crash course in Magyar and move to Hungary.

Great idea.

[Ken Burch]

4. The problem is...our leaders hate and FEAR the idea of enthusiasm!

They can't stand it when voters think that elections can make GOOD things happen.

Reminds them of McGovern, even though McGovern didn't lose because his supporters felt too much enthusiasm.

They'd rather lose with people like Reid than win with candidates voters actually believe in.

[rpannier]

5. I rec'd it

But, to be honest I have yet to see any poll where she is leading Reid (other than her internal polling and her conversations with God)
I agree there is more enthusiasm on the side of the lunatics and it would have been nice if the National Leadership had gotten its act together sooner
But, I do think we've kind of entered the closing the gate after the cattle have run off moment
It's now less about the National Leadership and more about stopping the hemorrhaging that will be created by the Republicans controlling Congress.

For the most part elections are won after Labor Day, especially in late September and early October (that's when most people are pretty well decided)
Undecideds make up their minds in the last week, to week-and-a-half
I've seen articles where as much as 10% of undecideds make up their mind when they get in the booth and vote

Whether we can get people out to vote is important -- I think more people will vote than normally do for two reasons
1. The tea-floggers will vote
2. People who can't stomach tea-floggers will vote as well

I think there are more latter than former

[breadandwine]

6. There are polls where Angle's leading slightly, within the margin of error.

But combine that with the enthusiasm gap and Reid is going to get crushed at this rate.


By the way. Margin of error is overrated. When a poll says that it has a margin of error of, say, 3%, that does not mean that if one candidate is 3 points ahead that he is really not. Margin of error of 3% means that 80% of the time or something that 3% is accurate. The accuracy or inaccuracy of a poll is more due to varying polling METHODS, not margin of error.

So when a poll says Angle is up by one point, that means she is probably really up by one point, if the poll uses methods that have integrity (which they often don't).

Still, feed in the nut factor and Angle is going to clobber Reid.

Similar up in Alaska where Miller is doing well. His crazed maniacs are going to sweep him into office. The same is true in other states.

[karynnj]

10. Those polls already INCLUDE the enthusiasm gap

[life_long_dem]

7. Graphs, pie charts, and diagrams.

That's what the Democrats, including the President need to be showing. The same graphs, pie charts and diagrams that are on always posted on DU.

They need to show the (bikini) graph, the one showing how job losses under * have stopped dropping.

There is also the one showing how Americans prosper when we have a Democratic President vs. a republican. And so many more.

Teabaggers are a lost cause, we need to get the support of Independents and Democrats and visual aids couldn't hurt.

Afterall, a picture is worth a thousand words.

[breadandwine]

8. Here's the deal.

The Republicans gave us THREE stock market crashes, a Savings and Loan scandal, recessions and a depression.

Democrats gave us years of prosperity, the New Deal and the Safety Net which the GOP spent years dismantling it.



THAT'S because trickle down is GOOD for you!



There's a book about how to invest on Wall Street, called "Don't Sell Stocks On Monday."

It says that if you bought $10,000 worth of stocks during years of Democratic presidential administrations and $10,000 of the same stocks during the same number of years during Republican presidential administrations, you would have made vastly more money ON WALL STREET during the Democratic years. Why? Because the best way to help Wall Street is to help Main Street.

Republicans on Wall Street will all tell you they are Republicans.

THAT'S because they are not profit maximizers.


But why listen to any of this.

Trickle down is GOOD for you!

It sure sounded good when RUSH said it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[breadandwine]

11. Here's something interesting.

FDR made a huge impact as the first president to use radio effectively, with his fireside chats.

John Kennedy was the first president to make effective use of television and he won in no small part because of the televised debate with Nixon.

Why hasn't Obama made use of computers? If he came on national TV illustrating points with graphics and edited video it could be very effective. We do this on the net and here on DU all the time but the president never does. I think Obama is much less computer literate than most people realize. Thanks to my computer I constantly know things he only seems aware of days or months later.

[red red red]

12. A friend asked me... K & R

to send a newsletter about whats going on in politics and she will send it around, as she works and does not take time to look at the news. She just asked me last night and I am in the process of tryimg to do just that. She was not real happy about Obama to begin with, however, he has done a couple of things that turned her around and she would like to know more. I agree about the graphs being extremely important since it is visual and more than likely be remembered than long paragraphs. I also need to find the list of bills, etc. that they have passed since he won. I just know I have to keep it easy to read and understand. Anyway, I am just thrilled that they have begun to see the light! Any ideas will be appreciated. (She has a long list of email friends)!

[life_long_dem]

14. Try the search function at the top of the page.

I typed in the word "charts"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9037669

"graphs"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9125991


Well, you get the idea.

[life_long_dem]

13. Great idea. It wouldn't cost nearly as much as a TV ad.

Everything spreads like wildfire on the net, so it seems like a logical way of getting Obama's messages out there.

At least there are people on DU thinking of ways to help.


P.S. I just noticed a typo in my previous post. Oh well.

[red red red]

15. Thanks so much for the help...

I have been talking to her for some time and we got to talking about something last night. Well,I went on a tyrade (sp??) about how horrible the repugs have been and she suggested that I do this. She would like to know more, but will not take the time to look for herself. She also knows that I will be honest with her and not pressure her, but will present her with the facts. Of course, I had to tell her about O'Donnell and her witchcraft and m_______te thing (hee hee) But, the Social Security and Medicare things will be much more important to them (as will Angle wanting to get rid of alcohol)! ha ha

[life_long_dem]

19. You're welcome.

I forgot that Angle wants to ban alcohol. The casino owners will just love her for that. What's next???

[breadandwine]

20. Angle wants to ban ALCOHOL??? Wow. How do you do that in NEVADA???

This underscores what I've been saying about Nevadans being NUTS. How can it be that Ried is spending money like water pumping one hard hitting negative ad after another into the airwaves of Nevada and basically tearing Angle a new one and Angle just cruises along neck and neck with him while her fanatic supporters prepare to rush to the polls out of proportion to their numbers in the general population. These people are like mindless robots and drones.

[yurbud]

16. it's not just messaging: Democrats in Congress refuse to draw a hard line and stick to it

on anything.

It's hard to get people excited about voting for someone who isn't excited about representing us.

[EFerrari]

18. But the corollary may be that the leadership won't let him lose

unless they want him out. There's that, too. They have resources to allocate if they want to do that.

[Kringle]

17. a big advantage, having a living candidate .nt

[SoCalDem]

21. I looked quickly & saw "euthanasia"..

:rofl: