note on all the VP speculation: pump-and-dump likely going on on DKos
Mon Aug 18, 2008 at 09:52:36 PM PDT
As I've viewed all the supposed "insiders" spewing supposedly ironclad information about Obama's VP choice, I'm reminded of the old "pump-and-dump" spam emails that tout a stock so a few suckers buy it, so the emailers themselves can short into the rising demand and make a profit once the market realizes they've been had.
What's stopping someone from pumping a candidate here, and shorting them on intrade or another site? Answer: nothing.
To my fellow Obama supporters
Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:32:25 PM PDT
I have been a long-time reader and occasional contributor to this website. The few people who recognize my handle will know that I'm an HRC supporter.
I have always been, and am now more than ever, a Barack Obama supporter. I want to get a few things off my chest.
Kos is a race baiter
Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 04:19:56 PM PDT
In this diary, Kos claims that Ron Fournier called Obama an "uppity negro." Read it yourself -- he even put those words in quotes.
The problem is, Fournier never said that; in fact, the article has nothing to do with race, and doesn't even mention Obama's race a single time. Kos is simply race baiting here -- he injected the race card, not Fournier.
What the Texas results tell us about "the rules" and "will of the voters"
Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 03:58:59 PM PDT
EDIT -- A COMMENTER MENTIONED I SCREWED UP THE NUMBERS. HE/SHE WAS RIGHT! SORRY, I HAVE REDONE THEM -- STILL THE BASIC STORY IS THE EXACT SAME There's been a lot of discussion about "will of the voters" and "the rules," mostly about whether superdelegates should follow the former, and what the latter says about the Florida and Michigan primaries.
But "will of the voters" and "the rules" conflict about one other topic: the fact that caucuses may not be an accurate reflection of the voters' will. Whether caucuses, which require a longer time commitment and often longer travel distances, are anti-democratic is a topic of fierce debate.
I'm an academic economist, and I therefore love "apples-to-apples" comparisons. Economists usually set these up by looking for natural experiments, or running experiments in the lab or field. Unfortunately we haven't had a natural experiment on the question of whether caucuses reflect the will of the voter. That is, until the Texas results.
