Political Kombat ’12: Obama vs Romney

Too good to miss… especially the last scene… Not that long out so far as I can tell… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

#USElections: Will it all come down to one Romney OpEd back in 2008?

If you didn’t get to see our US Politics panel that’s been bumping along in the background for six or seven weeks, last night’s is well worth the watch. See also: – Dante Scala on just how knife edge the race is in New Hampshire. – Nick Cull talks about how despite the tightness of the race, the betting money is going Obama’s way… – How the new modeling combining poll ratings with other economic factors has begun to replace …

Read more…

US Presidential debate songified…

Cool video, but when you are done watching that, for US watchers, here’s the first post debate poll for Reuters… which is some of what we’ll be talking about on our Late Night panel tonight. Yes, it starts at 11pm Irish/UK time so we can bring together people from across America. No real damage done to Obama, but some dramatic rises in Romney’s rating on things like Medicare.. A sign perhaps that the Dem’s negative campaigning attempt to demonise the …

Read more…

The [animated] view from Taiwan… Redux

Everyone’s favourite Taiwanese animators have neatly summarised last night’s first 2012 US Presidential debate.  Ouch!  Via the Professor’s stand-in team.  And with the incumbent heading for a more comfortable platform on which to revise his debating points after the fact, there’s this for true believers to consider. The fact is that Mr Obama has a talented, cynical team around him who have been successful in constructing a narrative in which Mr Romney is a comic villan who wants to ruin the …

Read more…

“Obviously, people are never going to be seized by the exact same patently bullshit sense of destiny they were last time around…”

The Onion reports, prematurely it would appear, from the Democratic Party’s National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.  From the Onion slice. According to sources, none of the students in attendance appeared to be discussing proposals for college debt-relief with quite the same degree of unthinking, asinine fervor as they did in 2008, nor did the older convention-goers seem quite as transfixed by the magic spell of actually believing they could retire with financial stability. Moreover, not a single woman has …

Read more…

US Presidential Election: “the process is the ultimate deceit. And the ultimate distraction.”

Something for Mick’s late night panel to consider, perhaps…  The Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, had a reasonably successful convention in Tampa by most accounts, and has followed up by stealing a march on the current president.  But I’d tend to agree with most of Glenn Greenwald’s take on the US presidential election process.  [If not the sub-editor’s? – Ed]  Indeed.  From Glenn Greenwald’s Comment is Free post But mocking CNN is to pick low-hanging fruit. The real issue is …

Read more…

US Presidential Election: “I believe we can acknowledge the real truth here.”

In The Onion’s version of an op-ed, the Republican candidate for vice-president, Paul Ryan, has a message for Democratic Party attack dogs everywhere – “if we’re able to put aside the talking points for a few minutes and say what we’re all actually thinking and feeling”. I’m young, I’m handsome, I’m smart, and I’m articulate. And that scares the ever-loving shit out of you. You can pretend like you have this thing in the bag, but you know good goddamn …

Read more…