Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Cliff's Update Part I: The Conventions

For political junkies, I guess these two weeks are something akin to playoffs for sports fans. In that spirit, I have added a new widget to our blog from electoral-vote.com which projects an electoral vote outcome based on the latest polls. I don't find it to be entirely accurate, since it doesn't account for statistical ties (where the difference in candidates' percentages are within the poll's margin of error), but it is fun to look at. (I spent most of my first-year Civil Procedure class surfing the site during the 2004 presidential election, when by the way, it wrongly predicted a Kerry victory).

I am sitting here enjoying the first (real) night of the Republican convention. (I won't bore you with my thoughts about the vast left-wing conspiracy in the media to avoid covering the GOP.) I had fun watching the Democratic convention last week, but I missed Obama's big acceptance speech (see "Fun and Games" below), so I thought I'd post a few of the most eloquent excerpts courtesy of David Brooks at the New York Times:


We must close the book on the bleeding wounds of the old politics of division and sail our ship up a mountain of hope and plant our flag on the sunrise of a thousand tomorrows with an American promise that will never die! For this election isn’t about the past or the present, or even the pluperfect conditional. It’s about the future, and I love the future because that’s where all my accomplishments are....

We meet today to heal the divisions that have torn this country. For we are all one country and one American family, whether we are caring and thoughtful Democrats or hate-filled and war-crazed Republicans. We must bring together left and right, marinara and carbonara, John and Elizabeth Edwards....

No, this country cannot afford to elect John "Bush" McCain. Under Republican rule, locusts have stripped the land, adults wear crocs in public and M&M’s have lost their flavor. We must instead ride to the uplands of hope! ...God bless the Democrats, and God Bless America!

2 comments:

Alyosha said...

Derrick read that article and made me read it. It was so hilarious. I'm a political junkie too!

Cliff said...

I saw a recommendation for a different electoral vote projection site, so I added a widget for that one, too. It still doesn't account for statistical ties, but it makes for a good comparison.