So who won the other race?

Tannin

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By the way, having been listening toi the car radio a fair bit these past few weeks while you were busy staring out the window dreaming, I heard some rather interesting poll results.

OK, everybody was interested in the opinion polls in the States and wondering if Obama's apparent lead would translate into an actual victory in the real poll or not, but I listened to a long and pretty detailed interview with someone working woith an organisation which, for reasons unknown to me, had been doing a heap of polling non-Americans about the US election. I forget which countries, but several of them.

Obviously, Obama was by far the favourite choice - roughly 2 - 1 in favour, more in some places - and that shouldn't surprise anyone, as GWB is pretty generally regarded in most of the world as a throwback, one who represents pretty much everything that is bad about the United states of America. But the really interesting part was why people favoured Obama.

In a nutshell, it was because most people (unlike my good self, who pretty much hates everything about the USA except for some of the engineering and all of his friends at Storage Forum) feel that the US is important, and has a positive role to play on the world stage. People like and respect the United States, or - more to the point - used to do so and want to do so again. The overwhelming sense of the polling was that people around the world wanted the US to be liked and respected once again, and this was the reason they strongly favoured Obama.

Interesting stuff, I thought.
 

udaman

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I heard some rather interesting poll results.

OK, everybody was interested in the opinion polls in the States and wondering if Obama's apparent lead would translate into an actual victory in the real poll or not, but I listened to a long and pretty detailed interview with someone working woith an organisation which, for reasons unknown to me, had been doing a heap of polling non-Americans about the US election. I forget which countries, but several of them.

Obviously, Obama was by far the favourite choice - roughly 2 - 1 in favour, more in some places - and that shouldn't surprise anyone, as GWB is pretty generally regarded in most of the world as a throwback, one who represents pretty much everything that is bad about the United states of America. But the really interesting part was why people favoured Obama.

In a nutshell, it was because most people (unlike my good self, who pretty much hates everything about the USA except for some of the engineering and all of his friends at Storage Forum) feel that the US is important, and has a positive role to play on the world stage. People like and respect the United States, or - more to the point - used to do so and want to do so again. The overwhelming sense of the polling was that people around the world wanted the US to be liked and respected once again, and this was the reason they strongly favoured Obama.

Interesting stuff, I thought.

Yeah, those same people polled, also favored Sadaam's plans for the Middle-East, long as they got their fuel oil in the EU or else where we can look the other way...until disaster strikes the idle rich, eh Tannin?

Not very interesting, IMHO. Just like Joe the Plumber, the majority of US voters are almost as dumb as the overwhelmingly ignorant world populations...really means nothing of any real importance. Chinese had great respect for president Nixon...yet Nixon wasn't much liked in the USA...take polls with a large grain of salt.

Much of the world's population are so incredibly biased by distorted media reports, it matters not much what the ignorant masses overseas think.

Take the French actress who won an Academy Award, really good thread here on Macrumors:

With people this stupid who needs enemies...
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=446186

It's interesting that she also questions men walking on the moon--

A couple of croissants short of a continental breakfast, poor lamb.

Btw, it would be a Nazi world if not for the USA, "polls" of people turned a blind eye to Hilter...until is was almost too late, until he almost exterminated the Jews. I don't have much faith in the common 'polled' person's intelligence.

Unpopular presidents make unpopular decisions, usually the tough decisions that history will find make the bigger difference as compared to Mr. Feel Good presidents. Bill Clinton has done more for the world after his presidency then he did as president (actually Clinton was one of the worst presidents, as far as policies in his administration/by his administrations influence, that had long-term economic implications, along with the Dem's>>>present economic crisis).

But the polled masses are too ignorant to comprehend. If you want to know what the ignorant, uninformed masses think, do a poll.

Garbage In>Garbage Out.
 

Stereodude

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Much of the world's population are so incredibly biased by distorted media reports, it matters not much what the ignorant masses overseas think.
*Ding* *Ding* *Ding*

We've got a winner. The people around the world don't like Bush and the current administration because they've been watching CNN and the mostly liberal media for the past 8 years and they believe what they're watching at a much higher percentage than US voters. No matter what he did or does he's criticized for it. It's no wonder they have a bad opinion of the US.
 

Mercutio

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Stereodude, if you can pull yourself away from Fox News and talk radio, you might consider spending a month or two in the fine company of the BBC World Service, from the CBC or Australia's ABC.

The election is over. Rush is just going to be sputtering about the secret muslim gay penis homosexual born-in-Kenya Obama agenda anyway. Try some news that's not influenced by American political thought *or* American corporate interests. I bet you'll be surprised.
 

Howell

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Congratulations to Obama. It was a good close race. Palin... I'd be surprised if it didn't turn into an expletive.
 

Fushigi

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As reported on Fox News and elsewhere, Palin apparently thought Africa was a country & not a continent, couldn't name thee countries in NAFTA, and FTM couldn't name the countries in North America. Link. (I think she'd freak with Australia since it's both a country and a continent.)

Merc, talk radio you'd probably like.
 

LiamC

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Btw, it would be a Nazi world if not for the USA, "polls" of people turned a blind eye to Hilter...until is was almost too late, until he almost exterminated the Jews. I don't have much faith in the common 'polled' person's intelligence.

You've made this claim before, and I've asked you to back the claim up, and so far you haven't. Just because you keep asserting it, does not make it true. If anything, it most likely would have been a Soviet, and/or Communist world if the U.S.A. had not entered the war. And that event was not likely until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and Hitler declared war on the U.S.A

But the polled masses are too ignorant to comprehend. If you want to know what the ignorant, uninformed masses think, do a poll.

Garbage In>Garbage Out.

Then you don't understand what polling is about. It doesn't distill what the unwashed masses think. If it did, it would be biased, and not a genuine poll.
 

Stereodude

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As reported on Fox News and elsewhere, Palin apparently thought Africa was a country & not a continent, couldn't name thee countries in NAFTA, and FTM couldn't name the countries in North America. Link. (I think she'd freak with Australia since it's both a country and a continent.)

Merc, talk radio you'd probably like.
Uh... yeah... I sure know I'd trust the sour grapes of a loser.

I don't recall you have a problem with Obama saying there were 57 states though...
 

Fushigi

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Never heard that before and from the video it seems like he meant to say 47 but accidentally said fifty, had the pause where he probably realized his mistake, then went on. Did McCain ever figure out how many homes he owns? Because apparently he stopped counting at four.

Re: Sour grapes. Are you trying to imply that McCain's people are looking to blame Palin for the loss? That's a non-starter. For one, McCain picked her so any issues with her come with his implicit approval. "The buck stops here." For another, this report is about how McCain's people had to keep her away from scrutiny as much as possible. If they were looking to blame her, they'd have to go on public remarks from her that damaged the campaign and/or her as a running mate and not insider info.

For giggles, here's a breakdown of voter demographics. McCain's appeal was mostly (although not entirely) limited to middle-aged and older white males with above average incomes.
 

Fushigi

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Above, you were implying the conservative nature of talk radio and I just wanted to point out that liberals have a voice as well.

I've no stake in the discussion; I mostly listen to classic rock. :thumbright:
 

Mercutio

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Above, you were implying the conservative nature of talk radio and I just wanted to point out that liberals have a voice as well.

Liberals by-and-large don't listen to talk radio as it exists for conservatives. Air America was an attempt to create something similar. Many liberals who did attempt to listen found the tone of the discussions there rancorous and off-putting, and it's generally a nonentity in terms of its influence on liberal politics.

Conversely, conservatives don't seem to make much of a mark through internet-based media. Conservatives get things done with old media: radio, magazines, pamphlets sent through the mail. I personally believe that conservatives work in a top-down fashion. They march easily in lockstep because their sources for new political thought are basically centralized in a small number of individuals. This is showing some wear at the moment because with Bush on the way out there is no one person who can be said to represent the interests of the three main schools of conservative thought (security-minded / business friendly / fundie).

Liberals tend to be more interested overall in building coalitions and having slightly divergent ideologies. Liberals would often rather read information for themselves than have ideas dictated to them. This can make for a schizophrenic body politic, since the sources for liberal thought can be very, very diverse (Urban Ministries vs. Atheist College Professors vs. Silicon Valley Entrepreneur former Hippies). Compromise is very much a part of the process, but so is arguing. Basically Liberals are used to being splintered and fractious, and the structure of the Internet suits that very well.
 

Stereodude

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Never heard that before and from the video it seems like he meant to say 47 but accidentally said fifty, had the pause where he probably realized his mistake, then went on. Did McCain ever figure out how many homes he owns? Because apparently he stopped counting at four.
Ok... but that still wouldn't make sense because there aren't a total of 48 states either, but anyhow...
Re: Sour grapes. Are you trying to imply that McCain's people are looking to blame Palin for the loss? That's a non-starter. For one, McCain picked her so any issues with her come with his implicit approval. "The buck stops here." For another, this report is about how McCain's people had to keep her away from scrutiny as much as possible. If they were looking to blame her, they'd have to go on public remarks from her that damaged the campaign and/or her as a running mate and not insider info.
Yes, except I'm not trying to imply anything. I will come right out and say that, yes, McCain's people are looking to blame Palin for the loss. Even when they picked her they referred to the pick as a "hail mary" pick. They knew their campaign was dead they threw a long pass to the endzone, it didn't quite work, and now they're blaming the receiver.
 

.Nut

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Just in case you weren't paying attention, Tannin, tere was another race last Tuesday. Who won that one?


It was Cale Yarborough by two carlengths over Richard Petty.


 
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