Funny Political Videos

We could all use a laugh during this election. It’s Barack, it’s Hillary, it’s another 6 weeks until Pennsylvania. With the time, we might as well laugh. Check out these videos.

Spoof on Will.i.am’s Barack video, this one is John.He.Is

The Onion Network’s Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

The Barack Obama Song

Obama vs Clinton – Anything you can do, I can do better

Funny or Die’s Plea to Nader Not to Run

Nader runs… again… no, really

Barack Clinton, Hillary Obama

The democratic race has never seemed so intriguing or so close, with each election’s results closely watched and delegates tallied, each vote really does seem to count this time around. Numbers of those turning out to the polls have reached new highs for a primary election, and one of the main drivers is the head-to-head race between Obama and Clinton.

After Super Tuesday, Clinton was in the lead and sittin’ pretty. But since then, election after election has turned to Obama’s favor. Some big elections coming up include Texas and Ohio, both of which have Hillary is in the lead.

But how different are these two candidates? People seem passionate about their candidates, but when looking at the two side by side, they are overall very similar. In another post, I’ll try to do some research on the points that they differ on, to try to bring perspective to this.

But in the meantime, I think that there are some who hate Hillary, and would not want her to be President, but I don’t think the same is true for Obama. At the same time, if my candidate of choice wasn’t elected president, I think I wouldn’t be opposed to the other winning the nomination. Which raises the question of a joint ticket between the two.

In the recent California debate Obama and Clinton were asked if they would consider a joint ticket, and both said yes. Seems interesting. They are both strong and successful and wouldn’t back down if the other didn’t see eye-to-eye with them. That’s the kind of relationship I want between my Pres and VP, if you pick a pair who agree on everything, what good does that serve? What if no one is looking at the issue from another angle?

However, I would be worried about the two partnering together with the red states, I think together they can seem too liberal and might not be the winning ticket. I still think a middle of road white male would be the best ticket for both. Although, personally I would be all for a joint ticket.

Could a Barack/Hillary ticket, be the winning ticket?

Edwards: future VP?

With the disappointing results in Nevada, what can Edwards do now? Edwards went to Nevada more times than any other democratic candidate (17 times, vs Barack’s 12 and Clinton’s 8 ) and still captured only 4% of the vote in Nevada.

The real test will come in Edwards’ native South Carolina on January 26th. If he doesn’t take a historic lead there, he’ll be in trouble and need to decide what to do next. So the question is – what will Edwards do next?

Although Johnny has a decent resume for the White House, is a strong speaker and has a great head of hair, he can’t seem to capture the hearts of American democrats. I think the problem is change. American democrats are craving change from Bush, and the more dramatic, the better. Edwards can same, safe. Too safe for democrats.

Edwards may have an excellent opportunity head to head against the GOP, but in the mix with Clinton and Obama, he doesn’t seem the most optimal to liberals.

The question is – what will Edwards do next?

I still think he will be in the best position to serve as VP. As VP he can truly prove himself on a national scale (something Obama and Clinton have had more of an opportunity). But what are his possibilities to be VP for?

- Clinton: Perhaps. Clinton will need to partner with a strong male politician who has a good record, who won’t overshadow her. A fresh face might be preferred, but Edwards does have that charm factor that Hillary so desperately lacks.

- Obama: This one could be interesting. As was noted earlier articles, since 1948 every successful Democratic bid included a Southern on the ticket. And, Obama particularly would most likely do best with a Southern as his running mate. Edwards and Obama seem like they could be a good pair and complete each other nicely.

- Bloomberg: Okay, the guy still claims that he’s not running but he still seems to be leaving the great state of NY quite often. While his company is dealing with layoffs, he’ll probably wait a little longer, if he was going to throw his hat in the ring. Bloomberg has the business savvy and has helped bring that business savvy to a successful run as Mayor of New York City. Edwards’ lawyer background could couple nicely with the millionaire businessman.

- McCain: In honor of the change that both parties are looking for, might it be time to have cross parties joining together for this year’s election? Unfortunately bringing the parties together is no longer feasible in this election. Although the Unity 08 movement was making a lot of traction at the beginning of the election, they recently announced that is not able to move forward further to make the necessary changes for this year’s election. But if it was possible – McCain/Edwards just might be the ticket. Although they might seem like the odd couple, they could be rather electable.

How Clinton Could Have Won Iowa (Or the Age Divide in the Democratic Party)

Lucky for us, our inside man gdancik was able to participate in the first step of this closely watched election. His experience in the Iowa caucus provides us invaluable insight into how the caucus operates and how it may have shaped the outcome of the election in Iowa, as well as how it may have shaped the outlook for the overall election. As he pointed out, the Democratic caucus took over 2 hours in a small, hot room with no option to sit for those participating.

If we keep this in mind with the statistics of Clinton supporters, the outcome of the Iowa caucuses needs to be questioned. In New Hampshire, Clinton received 57% of the votes for the 65+ age group and generally her supporters tend to be on average above 40 and female. The situation for the Iowa caucus (standing for two hours straight in a crowded, hot small room) could have caused some Hillary supporters to stay home. Obama, however, dominates in the college crowd.

One has to wonder if this played into account for the outcome. Perhaps Clinton could have taken Iowa, if only it was a standard primary and not a caucus?

UPDATE: Ok, I think I may have ran with the ball a little too fast with this one.  But it does raise an interesting question.  Some are saying that Barack lost in NH because the college kids were on break and therefore didn’t vote.  But with such a big divide between the top two for the democratic candidacy, will this party stay divided?  As Clinton’s supporters are generally older and Barack backers are generally younger, will either demographic be willing to support the other candidate?

Candidates on the issues – links

It’s hard to still wrap my head around where all the candidates stand on the different issues, so I did some research and thought I would share what I found. Below is a list of links of sites that help summarize how the candidates stand on the issues. The first link is for a quiz to help determine who to vote for based on the issues, that seems to be pretty good.

http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html

http://www.2decide.com/table.htm

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.abortion.html

http://usinfo.state.gov/politics/elections/issues.html

http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/issues/index.html#/context=index/issue=health

Hope this helps!

Giuliani’s Daughter Shows Support for Obama

This is pretty interesting. Giuliani’s daughter Caroline recently joined the “One Million Strong for Obama” Facebook group, when a reporter at The Slate noticed, she emailed to find out why the young Giuliani didn’t want her father to move into the White House but never heard back. And wouldn’t you know soon after that email Caroline mysteriously left the Barack group.

Luckily for the former Mayor, she’s only 17 and couldn’t vote against her own father.

Gore, not gonna to do it in 2008

Gore announced just hours after his son’s recent marijuana arrest and hours before his Live Earth concerts, the former Vice President who has since gained tremendously popularity with his green crusade, repeated that he would not run in 2008 because he has fallen out of love with politics, according to CNN. It’s all about timing, right Al?

McCain out by Sept?

You Decide 2008 has some interesting coverage on John McCain possibly pulling out of the race by September based primarily his poor fundraising efforts to date.

I personally don’t think McCain has much of a shot. I was formerly a fan of who thought he was a simple, kind moderate many years ago, but in recent years he is coming off like the sweet grandpa who is trying to be everyone’s favorite old relative by saying exactly what we want to hear. And not being able to keep up with what most of the country is watching or listening to, or even talking about. I think he could of had a shot if he was 20 or even 10 years younger, but now he seems past his prime and out of place in the current pool of candidates.

Here’s the FOX News coverage on the speculation that he could drop out of the race:

Family: the Liability

2008Central has an interesting post on the possible liability that Mike Huckabee’s son can have on his campaign for president (or vice president) as his son has quite the interesting track record – an odd firing (because of the brutal killing of a stray dog), gun and drug charges as well as questionable business dealings while an elected official in college.

Mike’s son David has hopefully learned the err of his ways and has since turned over a new leaf and is changed man, and even if that isn’t true, that’s the angle the Huckabee team will have to play.  But regardless, how much of an impact does a candidates family have on their chances of winning?

Has there ever been a presidential front-runner who fell to the back of the pack because of their family?

I don’t think it’s really a liability, you can’t really hold a person accountable for their family (especially those crazy aunts or nephews).  It might play a bigger part in this case because David is Mike’s son, and technically if he can’t raise his son with good values or control his wild ways, then how could he control a whole country?