Election 2008

[Mr.Music]

Obama probably will get shot if he wants the troops out and McCain will continue Bush work and invade Iran, thats my oppinion. And i fucking dont care about politics anymore, because it doesent matter if its russia or u.s.a they realy dont care about nobody else but theirselves. The only difference between russia and u.s.a is that u.s.a lies better to public.

[maxxy]

interesting point...
ya politics can be extremely aggravating

[Elston]

Us Canadians to the North have a Federal election coming up (oct. 14th) and it's looking like the Conservative party is going to win a minority government. According to the stats, the Liberals will be second, NDP (social democratic party) with be third, the Bloc Quebecois fourth (a federal party that represents Quebec's interests), and the Green (environmental) party is expected to finish last with about 5% of the ballot. Granted these polls don't always reflect how the public will vote, so we will see in a few weeks how it plays out.
Personally I would love if the either the NDP or the Liberal party took power, but it's not looking likely
In Canada we have a similar party system as the Americans, with the Conservatives and Liberals contending for power. A big difference is there are several smaller parties that represent diverse points of view having some input into how the country should be run (NDP's usually get 10-20% of the vote).
I really hope Obama wins.
I like McCain, he seems like a much more honest fellow than George W., but I would prefer Obama.

[maxxy]

I never really looked in to foreign politics. It might be interesting to me if I did, you know, get a better sense of the world.
One thing that can be annoying about American politics is the fact that no third party has ever won an office (we have one independent in congress and the rest are democrats or republicans, and that independent used to be a democrat who happened to not get nominated by his party so just ran as an independent). We have had a two-party system since 1789 (not always the same two, but no more than two). The most successful third-party candidate was Teddy Roosevelt, in 1912, who ran as a Progressive and got almost 35 percent of the vote. He lost to Woodrow Wilson (but he had already been president as a republican so that doesn't count).It gets kind of restrictive with only two points of view on most issues.
part of the problem is the stupid electoral college system, which i'm not even going to go into.
Obama really needs to win this election, because if he doesn't we're just going to regress further and further. At least with him we can actually change something.

Also, on another note, I don't think Sarah Palin will really make a difference in the long run. Her initial bounce is fading, and the number of women voters is slowly leaning back towards Obama, where it was a month ago. She is so unbelievably unqualified for the job. You want to criticize obama for his experience, go ahead, I'm not arguing that he's Ted Kennedy, but he has run his campaign longer than Palin has been governor of Alaska.
Again on Palin, I hate how nobody can criticize her personal life (especially her daughter). If obama had a tenth of her problems he would be slammed for it.
When she started the office of mayor in her town of 5,000 (yes, 5,000 when she was in charge. Now has about 7,000. Kind of like running a big high school) it had a small surplus. When she left, it was 23 million dollars in debt.
All candidates flip-flop, but she is the worst.
I dislike the term flip-flopper. What it frequently means is that that person is flexible, and thats a good thing.

I'll shut up.
Probably the longest post ever (not really but close)

[Elston]

I doubt there is much incentive for Americans to follow Canadian politics. Our economy depends greatly on yours, that's why some of us actually pay more attention to what is happening in the U.S.A., then what is governing our own people (it's silly but logical in a way). Americans who follow Canadian politics may own a business up here, have Canadian customers at their business, or have family or some other vested interest. Otherwise, what is the point? It doesn't impact your daily lives, however what's happening in America effects many places around the world.
As for whether a candidate is qualified for their job, in Canada you don't need to be a genious to succeed in politics. It is often quite the opposite. Politicians in Canada are mediocre. The people who are knowledgeable, who shape and form the laws and budgets that governments pass, are not the politicians themselves, but the experts working behind the scenes. These people effectively run the governments, shape the policy, and instruct politicians on what to say. Politicians in Canada are mere puppets of strategic tactics and masked ideologies, which they don't even come up with on their own. I can assume that it is much the same in other countries around the world.

[Neo LSD User]

To me Obama did a very good job in the debate. The only thing is he let McCain call him naive and inexperienced to much and let McCain interrupt him too often. Overall Obama did a great job but he should have said something like

"Calling me naive is a direct insult to me and every one of the millions who voted for me and will vote for me. I never said you were naive, I only said your judgement was wrong for situations you were wrong. It would take a naive person to vote for a naive canidate, are saying that the millions of people that voted for me are naive?"

That would have been great and would have raised Obama reputation greatly

[Elston]

He said AND a lot, a few too many run-on sentences, but if I were American I'd definately be voting for him.

[maxxy]

More thoughts:
A lot of foreigners are more interested in American politics than their own (that's how it was in Ireland when I lived there and my dad claims that when he was in New Zealand they were really interested in this election because they hate Bush so much).

Also, to anyone who has seen or heard about Katie Couric's CNN interview with Sarah Palin: I think a lot of people on this site could have done a better job answering those questions. Katie treated Sarah like she was ten. No joke--she was just pathetic.

I think both McCain and Obama did fairly well in the debate, but Obama seemed better informed and more serious, and therefore I am of the opinion that he came out ahead. Can't wait for the Vice-presidential debate tomorrow.
And then I can't wait to watch Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert the day after.

I also find McCain's negative ads very insulting. For example, his campaign claims Obama supports sex ed for kindergarten students, when the truth is he supported legislature that would warn children about inappropriate touching and sexual predators.

I think that McCain is a good senator who has worked hard for his country, but at this moment in time he is not the best man for the job.

[maxxy]

VP debate today!

Hope the bailout goes through the House this time. We really need it. Here's why:

A few years back, there was some, well, extra money floating around. One of the fastest and easiest way to make money is in housing, so lots of these big banks invested in housing, causing the housing boom in, like, 2005. The problem is that so many houses were being built, regulations on mortgages and some other stuff got too lax. The United States government should have regulated that then, but they didn't. Another problem is that housing is always a short-term investment, so that was stupid on the banks' part. So when people stopped buying so many houses, which, of course, was bound to happen eventually (there are not infinite people in the United States and there is not infinite money, no matter what you may think), the prices went down below their security value (the value minus the down payment), and now the banks own worthless stuff (well not really worthless but worthless from a bank's point of view because they base their spending on what they think their assets are, and if they find out their assets are not what they think, as in this case, they're totally fucked because then they can't safely loan out the money anymore). So now the banks effectively have no money, and therefore cannot loan out money anymore (this problem was created by bad loans in housing anyways).
Anyway about a month ago everyone just totally freaked out. Of the five major investment banks on Wall Street, Wamu got bought by Bank of America just as it was about to go bankrupt, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, and Maryl Lynch (spelling?) went bankrupt. Now there are only two left (JP Morgan and some other bank). Then AIG got screwed, too, and the government bailed it out.
The reason for the bailout is to halt this outflow of money and put some money bank into the banking system so that all these big banks can bring the economy back out of the hole. If it doesn't pass, there is the possibility that we could hit a second great depression.
The reason people are against it is because they're afraid the money might be used wrongly or be wasted. 700 billion dollars is a lot of money (equivalent to an economy the size of the Netherlands') and should not be spent without a good reason.

At least that's my understanding of it.
Hope you're all better informed now.

[maxxy]

phew...