Does Obama's financing make him uncorruptible?

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Monday October 20, 2008 · 10:43 AM PDT

2008/10/20 · 10:43

by Adam | Barack Obama's September fundraising numbers have been announced, and they are simply staggering. He raised over $150 million dollars in the month, shattering the previous monthly campaign fundraising record of $65 million set by... you guessed it, Barack Obama in August.

doktarr

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Monday September 22, 2008 · 2:01 PM PDT

2008/09/22 · 14:01

The more I read about the financial industry bailout, the more angry it makes me. I have a hard time thinking rationally about this, but I think that's because the entire idea of the bailout is fundamentally irrational. This is really an unfathomable amount of money (i.e. more government debt) being tossed around, and I don't think the benefit is even close to being worth the cost. That's not even bringing up the enormous moral hazard issue here, and the basic lack of moral fairness in a plan that bails out investors and industry powers but leaves individual morgage-holders and taxpayers holding the bag.

Any time you can find ample commentary from the left and the right that something doesn't make sense, it looks bad:

doktarr

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Wednesday September 10, 2008 · 9:52 AM PDT

2008/09/10 · 09:52

In general, I'm no conspiracy theorist. I do think there's strong evidence that Gore would have won the election in 2000 were it not for a coordinated strategy in Florida of denial of ballot access by Bush supporters which was augmented by the butterfly ballot fiasco. I think there is some evidence that denial of access and/or corrupted/broken voting tabulation swung the outcome of the 2004 presidential election in Ohio, although it seems ambiguous to me. But I tend to believe that these are isolated actions and that there was not a top-down effort to steal the presidential election in either year.

That said, events of the last few days have me carefully looking over the election equipment status in key swing states, and worrying that chicanery in Virginia or Florida or Jefferson/Arapahoe counties in Colorado will end up being the deciding factor in this election. The reason for my worry is that I posed a simple question to myself: if I were in charge of a "vast right-wing conspiracy", and I was planning on stealing this election, how would I go about it?

The answer breaks down into three parts: Read More

Soon-to-be-obsolete ramblings on the VP

doktarr

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Thursday August 21, 2008 · 11:31 AM PDT

2008/08/21 · 11:31

It seems pretty likely that Obama will announce his VP in the next 24 hours. As such, this is my last chance to weigh in on major options before it becomes a moot point. So, here's a brief rundown of the major choices that are being mentioned, in order from my most favorite option to my least.

To be clear, this ordering is based almost entirely on TACTICAL considerations. I tend to believe that Obama's presidency will be pretty much the same in character no matter who his VP is. Your mileage may vary. Anyway, on to the list. I include everyone who was trading above 4% on Intrade a few days back:

Poll

62 votes Show Results

Which would be your favorite?

62 votes Vote Now!

Which would be your favorite?

Clark

23 votes

Schweitzer

3 votes

Sebelius

9 votes

Richardson

3 votes

Clinton

10 votes

Biden

6 votes

Bayh

2 votes

Kaine

6 votes

John McCain's incredible shrinking path to victory in Iraq

doktarr

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Wednesday July 23, 2008 · 1:38 PM PDT

2008/07/23 · 13:38

John McCain is in a very tough spot this year. He represents an unpopular party going for a third straight term in the white house (something only accomplished once in the last 60 years), his party has a large and growing registration gap, and he lacks the charismatic appeal of his opponent. But most fundamentally, a majority of the public prefers Obama's policy proposals to McCain's on nearly every major issue, from health care to tax policy to foreign policy. These issues have become more and more difficult to deny.

As such, McCain really only has one clear path to victory. He must paint Obama as unfit for office and make the election a referendum on his readiness. His only hope is that Obama's negatives can outshine all the issues that matter.

Poll

51 votes Show Results

In the debates, will McCain explicitly claim that he could have troops out as quickly as Obama?

51 votes Vote Now!

In the debates, will McCain explicitly claim that he could have troops out as quickly as Obama?

yes

36 votes

13 votes

no opinion/not sure

2 votes

Media Narrative vs. the Real Campaign, part 2: uniting the party

doktarr

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Sunday July 20, 2008 · 5:55 PM PDT

2008/07/20 · 17:55

As I mentioned in part 1 of this series, the media has a strong incentive to create issues where McCain seems to "beat" Obama, because this helps create the impression that McCain and Obama are locked in a tight race, despite strong evidence otherwise. In this second part, I will take a look at another issue where the media narrative seems to run opposite to the facts on the ground: how unified each party is.

doktarr

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Friday July 18, 2008 · 11:40 AM PDT

2008/07/18 · 11:40

We've collectively grown used to the idea of a biased media. Conservatives consistently harp on the idea of a liberal media bias, to the point that it's almost accepted wisdom, while authors such as Glenn Greenwald and Ariana Huffington have exhaustively laid out the case that it is the right that controls the media narrative.

At times, however, it's more interesting to temporarily set aside which way the media is biased, and in stead focus on why the media would have an incentive to be biased. That is, forget for a moment that the right wing rewards loyal journalists with access and scoops, or that many journalists are part of the wealthy elite that benefits from extreme neoliberal economic principles. In stead, just think about the media as a business that wants more eyeballs so they can sell advertising at higher rates. With that in mind, it becomes clear that they need a compelling story to tell.

doktarr

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Wednesday June 25, 2008 · 6:36 AM PDT

2008/06/25 · 06:36

What follows is the text of an e-mail I sent my lone Democratic senator, Ken Salazar, yesterday. Salazar voted for the previous Rockefeller FISA bill which had contained retroactive immunity for the telecom companies, and he voted against the Dodd Ammendment (along with 16 of his fellow Democratic senators). The actual bill passed the senate with essentially the same set of senators crossing the aisle.

RSS

Does Obama's financing make him uncorruptible?

Largest government spending splurge ever.

What stealing an election would look like

Soon-to-be-obsolete ramblings on the VP

John McCain's incredible shrinking path to victory in Iraq

Media Narrative vs. the Real Campaign, part 2: uniting the party

Media Narrative vs. the Real Campaign, part 1: campaign finance

What I sent to my senator