The Convention Bounce
For some reason in the past week, the spam has been hitting this blog thick and fast. Two weeks ago I was unlucky enough to get 1 - 3 spam comments a day, now I am getting over 10. It’s not really a big issue but I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this kind of issue?
The good news for Senator McCain today is that his most likely choice is former Governor Romney according to Mark Halperin at Time:
2 Republican sources say McCain has apparently settled on Romney as his pick, but no offer has been made.
I personally don’t think this is a bad choice considering Senator Obama is favored in most polls for handling the economy better than Senator McCain. A few frequent commentors on this blog have argued whether VP’s actually make the difference in an election however I think it comes down to perception… if people believe a VP Romney will be right there by McCain side’s advocating economic policies to fix the current economic recession then maybe McCain is the right person to vote for? I honestly hope it is not governor Romney because I actually like the guy and I think a fair number of independents would like him as well especially considering his success in my home state of Massachusetts. He turned the economy around, and that is one fact we democrats cannot argue.
I am going to keep my fingers crossed that former Governor Romney is not the guy because a Biden vs. Romney debate would not end well for Biden. Anyway, onto happier news, the DNC is next week and if you are not in America at the moment and wondering when to switch on the TV, you can view the DNC schedule here. The DNC is going to be one big event considering the lineup of speakers, I think it is going to be the biggest political event this year even more so than the RNC. Let’s face it, is there anyone that is going to top Senator Obama’s acceptance speech at the RNC? I don’t think so.
Senator McCain’s camp concurs releasing a new memo:
Obama’s stadium address on Thursday - the 45th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech - will result in effusive and overwhelming press coverage. On Thursday, Obama will give a great speech, as has been his trademark. The press will sing his praises and remark on his historic address and Obama’s place in history. For example, The Associated Press today published an article comparing the historic nature of the addresses - a week before Obama’s speech. This coverage will be impenetrable and will undoubtedly impact the polls.
We believe Obama will see a significant bump, and believe it is reasonable to expect nearly a 15-point bounce out of a convention in this political environment.
This is good news going into this weekend for those Democrats who have been worrying about the narrowing polls, next week is going to be one hell of a week so make sure you get plenty of rest this weekend. Don’t forget the Obama VP announcement is tomorrow!
August 22 2008 10:10 pm | American Politics
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:32 am
I’ve been getting more junk lately, too. They’ve freaking found me! Incredibly annoying.
Personally, I don’t think the VP choices will have much to do with anything. The vetting machines of the respective parties will have narrowed down the choices to “clean” candidates (no history of public toilet blow jobs, etc.). Much ado about nothing.
Where I’m living now is an isolated, small town community in the mountains of Colorado, and we don’t have a TV. I don’t miss it. The ranchers I meet are some sophisticated, savvy folks. A bumper sticker I saw the other day said: “Worst.President.Ever”. Another one said: “January 20, 2009 - the end of an error”. These folks know what’s going on up here.
I’m sure the major “media” are now in an orgiastic carnival about the VP choices (Christ, do I not miss TV). History shows, however, VP choices mean nothing in general elections (unless, of course, it turns out that your VP choice used to revel in Nazi bondage fuck parties in the 60s).
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Just curious, Cyan;
Are the ranchers with “W” stickers still on their vehicles savvy and sophisticated also?
August 23rd, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Hey Cyan, its good to know I am not the only one who has been getting more junk. I recieved 30 spam already today, its just crazy and just a little bit irratating.
I can’t believe you don’t have TV, then again I don’t watch TV unless there’s a sporting event on, most of the watching is done in front of the PC. I heard yesterday was a VP day pretty much, so I don’t think we missed much.
Anyway let me know what you think about Biden, I didn’t quite catch the “W” sticker meaning Gordon?
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Crian,
The “W” bumper sticker can be found here.
I remember the first every bit of spam on the internet. It was about 1989; a law firm specializing in immigration cases posted an ad in all of the Usenet user groups that had any connection to immigrants or immigration.
Oh man, the storm was something to see. How dare someone pollute this precious resource with crass commercial content? Folks were positively outraged. But it was only a hint of what was to come. At that time, there were about 10,000 computers, and 125,000 people who had access to the internet.
August 24th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I see what you mean Gordon, I figured that it what it was but I wanted to be sure. I currently use usenet, and the spam is pretty bad though I imagine these things increase with time. I had 26 spam this morning along with this comment which I had to de-spam.
I can’t imagine just 125,000 people being connected to the net, that must have been pretty lonely for lack of a better word.
August 24th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
It was interesting back in those days. Most people had a connection through university or government machines; there were a few ISPs that charged about $10 per hour for the public.
You had to know UNIX or how to find your way around a mainframe system like VM/CMS. There weren’t no pictures, except what you could download from a Gopher site somewhere; I remember downloading the seismograph printout from the Loma Prieta (San Francisco) earthquake in 1989, and thought it was pretty cool to be able to do that.
But there was a very interesting community on Usenet. You could join a group arguing politics, or subgroups arguing libertarian politics, or whatever. If you wanted to learn phone phreaking, there was a group that knew everything about hacking your way to free long distance calling; they could also tell you how to bug someone’s phone remotely.
There were amusing flame wars. This was where I first learned that keyboards were anonymous, and people would say terrible things to other people they’d never say in person; but if you went to far, they’d contact your mainframe operator, and you’d have to apologize in public, or lose your privileges.
Some of the messages I posted back then can still be found in Google searches. Were we lonely? We didn’t think so. It was growing, dynamic, and fun. New stuff was happening!
I also conceived the World Wide Web in 1989 (Al Gore had beaten me to the Internet). I was talking to a programmer friend, and I said we needed a universal protocol such that a person could log on to a mainframe, mini or bulletin board. To the user, they would all look and work the same way. The software on the other end would recognize the user’s software, and no one would need to know the difference between O,7,1 and N,8,0, or what tron and troff were.
Sadly, I failed to develop the software, and some dude at CERN did. Sic transit Goreia!
August 24th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
RE: the convention bump;
I think the McCain camp is spinning the Obama bump. I dont’ think they expect 15 points; I’d bet they expect five points, and when Obama doesn’t get 15, they’re gonna say, “See, he was supposed to get more, he doesn’t have the momentum and we do!”
And if Obama should have a great con and get 15, they can say, “Oh, well, he was supposed to get that; ho-hum, people are bored with him.”
Wrascally, wrascally, thwose Republicans!
August 25th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Hey Gordon, you know I have always sort of guessed at what you worked in, I guess I can now conclude its I.T? Concieved the internet, man that would have been really cool if you hadn’t been beaten to the punch than I could have a slogan for this blog (I know the creator of the internet) or something to that effect.
My older brother ( 10 years older than me) was around in university during the Unix days and he often related to me similar stories and I even remember only using Dos back when we had my first PC at my house not to mention the pixelated games. I loved this RPG called rogue, it was all about imagination. Now days most games require at least $1000+ to be sunk into a pc in order to play them.
You make a good point on Keyboards, actually I never really thought about what you wrote. It’s true though, I see it when I game, people say some real nasty things to other people just because the internet is so “anonymous.” At the same time it helps some people communicate who wouldn’t normally communicate.
On usenet, I must admit I don’t participate too much in the discussion but it still exists. I mostly hit the binary groups for reasons I am sure you can figure out.
You make a very good point on the Memo, dude you must have a crystal ball hidden down there in Minnesota, seriously care to guess to Euro Million?
August 26th, 2008 at 3:09 am
I was an IT guy; then I got out of it for a while. When I left, Novell networking was the next big thing. When I came back, Novell was nearly dead, and Microsoft owned networking.
Nowadays I don’t do that sort of thing, because of a sleep disorder that ruins my concentration. I work on my feet, doing jobs in various retail stores. It doesn’t pay nearly as well, but I make my own schedule, and I don’t get a waffle-looking forehead from sleeping on the keyboard.
I can’t claim any great wisdom on the McCain memo. I’ve just known enough politicians and worked on enough campaigns to recognize preemptive bullshit. They all do it; it’s actually a bit of an art form.
August 27th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Hey Gordon, I was a kid when Novell was big and didn’t even know they were into networking. On Microsoft, I am with the haters crowd as bad as that is to say. I believe they are far too dominant and that has left us with questionable products like Vista.
Sorry about the sleep disorder, but at least you don’t get waffle head anymore, only had that experience once and it took a while for my head to reshape back to normal.
You and Griper both have the benefit of experience, I often forget that sometimes.