I’ll be down in New York City the weekend of November 10, and I was thinking of another Balloon Juice meet-up. What do people think? Too close to the election?
Also, too let’s make sure that one way or another we’re all in a good mood that weekend, by continuing to move the thermometer for Obama.
raven
It’s my birthday! Commitment ceremony #2 that day. They are actually getting married in NYC and having the party/celebration in the deep woods of Georgia that day.
Valdivia
well, if we win we can drink and celebrate, if we lose we can drown our sorrows (but hopefully that won’t happen.
And funnily enough: I will be in nyc that weekend so that makes me say, yes to the meet-up. :) Sunday or saturday?
Is Sully out of the hysteria phase yet?
TD
Got a bit lost in a thread yesterday, but I got an article published yesterday, and would appreciate some BJ love (err…by that, i mean clicks).
And being that I just moved to NYC two weeks ago, meeting ya’ll in meatspace would be wonderful.
raven
Since I work from home I can say “I gave at the office”!
Baud
If you see a creepy looking guy at the table next to yours who appears to be eavesdropping on your conversation, it’s not me.
TD
Should we invite Sully?
Joel
Thinking of a master plan…
Is this an open thread?
raven
@TD: Nice.
Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ
@Valdivia:
If you’re there, we definitely need to have it I’ll bring my poet friend and you can tell me what you think. ;)
MikeJ
So when are you going to come to a Seattle meetup?
lamh35
My birthday’s Nov 5th. Day before the election. I’m hoping for a great belated birthday present the next day.
I’m off and gonna ignore everything once the polls close. Gonna enjoy my birthday high as much as possible before finding out result of elections.
Bruce
I’m in.
lamh35
did Dems learn nothing from expectations game last time Biden will do fine, but fine=bad w/such high expectation. I see from my twitter timeline, that Ed Schultz and Tweety have all laid out what Biden better do on Thursday and the expectation that Biden wraps Romney’s lies around Ryan’s neck and all I see is a bunch of pundits on our side once again waging an expectations game that no way will Biden win. Ryan wins by default of standing up to Biden. mark my words, Biden will be fine, but the after debate punditry will of course be “not enough” on Biden’s part.
I’d be interested in seeing what Rachel & Lawrence add to the expectations game.
Also, I guess Romney’s new strategy is to ignore what he’s siad the past 18 months helped along by our “liberal” media of course.
Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ
@MikeJ:
Could do Portland near T-giving.
TheMightyTrowel
Really looking forward to spending election day in a museum basement in Vietnam. Obsessing is bad.
MikeJ
@Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ: We’ve already got tentative plans for a late November/early December meetup due to another out of towner. You should trek up for one night.
raven
@TheMightyTrowel: I’ve got a buddy living near Qui Nhơn.
MaximusNYC
I’ll be doing this:
Authoritarian Idol 2012
Y’all are welcome to come check it out!
TheMightyTrowel
@raven: I’ll be in Long An near HCM city – really looking forward to it.
Eric U.
@TD: didn’t get lost on teh google, I’m getting ads for some company that wants to know if I wrote a book
Nicole
Yay! I’m there! Nothing says “post-election” like fried food and beer.
Valdivia
@Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ:
oh, that is just too much temptation! :)
If you guys have it I will be there for sure. Just say when and where…
raven
@TheMightyTrowel: My old stompin grounds. We’d drive through HCM City and wait at the Phu Tho Racetrack and wait for the White Mice to sweep the road to Dong Tam. I assume it’s not the same. Have a great trip. Do you know about the Coconut Monk? He lived on an island near My Tho, the provincial capitol of Long An.
http://www.vietspring.org/religion/daodua.html
MikeJ
@TheMightyTrowel:
This is good news for John McCain!
redshirt
Next meet up: Mexico ME. Or Norway. Or China. Or Poland. Or Paris. Or Moscow. Take your pick. It’s all good.
TheMightyTrowel
@MikeJ: well of course it is! Did you have any doubt??
MikeJ
@TheMightyTrowel: I suppose he could crash into it, but Obama’s Navy probably wouldn’t loan him the plane. Oooor would they?
TheMightyTrowel
@MikeJ: 11 dimensional airborn chess.
MattMinus
Ooooh, my opportunity to troll in RL! Which BJ’er will I claim to be?
redshirt
@MattMinus: M_C
PurpleGirl
I’m in for a meet-up. Looking forward to another one and meeting new BJers in the area.
Elizabelle
Frontline on Obama and Romney backgrounds now.
Just saw Bobby Rush campaign and baby Malia(?) …
Pavonis
Imagine what our friend A. Sullivan would have been like during the Civil War, freaking out after every battle defeat, from Bull Run to The Wilderness, “OMFG! The Unions going to LOSE!”. Or if he had been a Roman orator after Cannae, “HOLY F*#$!, we lost our ENTIRE army! We’re going to LOSE!”. Yeah, defeats are bad, but when your strategic position is as good as Obama’s is in Ohio, you’re still going to win the war.
Okay, I’ll stop talking about Sullivan.
Gin & Tonic
@lamh35: Honestly, does anybody give a shit what Ed Schultz thinks about anything?
Davis X. Machina
redshirt: (For flatlanders: Reference is to the famous Lynchville signpost….)
MikeJ
http://i.imgur.com/pzMxe.png
PsiFighter37
Folks need to be seriously worried. Do you want a President Romney in your lifetime?
Donate right the fuck now if you shat your pants when I said that.
PF37 +12 (7 shots + 7 Brooklyn Lagers)
Baud
@PsiFighter37:
FTFY
raven
@Gin & Tonic: As much as they do this douche bag “Sully” that we just can’t stop talking about day fucking in and out.
hildebrand
How in the world is it possible that one less than stellar debate performance can cause Democratic support to collapse – at least in the polls? I really don’t understand this development at all.
The only thing I can come up with is the rather odd notion that all of the right-wing kvetching about polls before the debate poisoned the thinking of the pollsters.
redshirt
@Davis X. Machina: I used to live next to Belgrade during the “Kosovo War” and had many a bon mot because of it! At the time. Maine’s seriously got some unoriginal town names.
PsiFighter37
@Baud: Same fucking thing. I posted as much on dKos, and it got as much attention as a mouse farting at the Grand Central subway stop with a 6 train bearing down with its unbearably whiny wheels grinding on the rails.
I’m not about to go Andrew Sullivan Defcon-1 freakout, but people need to wake the serious fuck up. Donate. GOTV if you’re in a swing state. Phonebank. You need to give it all, right the fuck now, because this is the last stand, bitches.
Baud
@raven:
He’s more popular than Jesus.
PsiFighter37
@hildebrand: Because Democratic support is weak as shit. Tell me the last time that people were willing to light their hair on fire for the Democratic candidate?
I want inspiration, baby. I want the Democratic candidate to be Evander Holyfield, crushing the living fucking daylights out of Mike Tyson, before the opponent committed a disqualifying NI-Clang / ear-chomping penalty.
The general population of this country will support the Democrat as long as things ‘feel’ safe, even if the feeling is a real as a lubed-up plastic playtoy. If not, they’ll run straight home to home (aka the GOP) is they start feeling a churning in the stomach that don’t feel quite right.
raven
@Baud: Mathews wanted to suck him off the only time I ever saw the dope on tv.
Baud
@PsiFighter37:
I happen to think worry is demotivational, but I’ve got no beef with the rest of what you said.
Davis X. Machina
@redshirt: Palermo, Dresden, Belgrade. Athens. Lisbon.
(Is Lisbon Falls named after the 1755 earthquake?)
The Maine Sunday Telegram‘s got the IHT beat all hollow.
Baud
@raven:
Thanks for the nightmare I’m about to have, Raven.
PsiFighter37
@Baud: Fuck that. I worked my fucking tail off for Ned Lamont in 2006 when the primary polls were closing in on him. Guess what?
We won the fucking race, Joe L. won the general but spent his last term farting quietly in the corner without creating too much objectionable smells, and we’re about to get a proper Democrat (Chris Murphy) in his seat.
And don’t whine about Linda Mcmahon, because she’s dumber than a bag of hammers. No way she fucking wins.
Baud
@PsiFighter37:
Excellent. Keep it up. We’re going to sweep this thing.
gogol's wife
I can’t watch television except TCM, I can’t read the NY Times (except the crossword puzzle and recipes), I can’t read Sullivan or TPM or Daily Kos. All that’s left is Balloon Juice. To quote Biden, this is literally all I read except what I have to read for work. I like having all these fundraising threads. It seems so much more productive than anything else right now.
Yutsano
@Baud: Tebow?
Pavonis
@hildebrand: This interview seems to imply that Obama internal polling shows the firewall still intact.
As an aside, I’ve heard that Obama’s internal polls in 2008 showed a tied race after the GOP convention rather than the +3 McCain race which public poll averages showed. In fact, McCain/Palin never held a lead in the internals. And that Obama’s internal polls moved to +5 Obama during October, less than what many public polls showed, with most of the excess consisting of new voters (which worried the campaign). This is all uncorroborated internet hearsay so make of it what you will.
redshirt
@Davis X. Machina: I figured there would be a “New York, ME” so I googled and no, but then it turns out there is a “Maine, NY”, which must be quite confusing on the Post Office front.
SiubhanDuinne
@Pavonis:
You’re absolutely right, and finally I understand about Sully. He doesn’t get that tactics and strategy are Two Different Things.
Thank you for helping me clarify that.
gogol's wife
@PsiFighter37:
We came home from work yesterday to find “Linda” stuff all over our front porch. I wish I’d been home when they came. I need to scream at somebody.
lamh35
Obama Will Hold Final Fundraiser
PsiFighter37
@Baud: And that’s the exact OPPOSITE of reality.
Look, we’re not going to win the House. Obama’s first debate performance, rightly or not,screwed us out of that opportunity.
That said, we can win the White House, and we can hold the Senate. And then we can bully the motherfucking crap out of Orange Julius to get him to accept a substitution of the sequestration bill that actually makes some sense and isn’t diluted by the faintly sweaty, mildly hairy Teabagger flavor.
Janet Strange
@Valdivia: Me too! It’s only my second trip to NY in my life, but I’ll be using up some free air passes before they expire by visiting my nephew that weekend.
I’m in.
Will
I am totally in.
raven
@PsiFighter37: You are going to have a fucking stroke.
Baud
@PsiFighter37:
I don’t know that, because I don’t know what the next three weeks will bring. Do what you think is best with your time and money, and let the chips fall where they will.
SiubhanDuinne
@PsiFighter37:
I was willing to cut you a break over the holiday weekend, but I just don’t believe those numbers any longer.
PsiFighter37
@gogol’s wife: Take an alcohol-inspired dump on them and return it to HQ. Sends a message, (olfactory-driven) loud and clear.
PsiFighter37
@raven: FUCK YOU. I have survived this fucking long, I deserve to stroke out during intercourse. At least that’s what the online quiz told me 12 years ago.
redshirt
@SiubhanDuinne: You don’t believe alcoholics post on the Internetz?
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
My money’s on liver. Except, as noted above (#63), I think it’s all an act.
raven
@PsiFighter37: Well then go fuck a duck. Mollymauk
PsiFighter37
@SiubhanDuinne: Don’t rage against the machine just because it knows hows to drink. #Mildly_Clever_Punning
P.S. It’s partly my boss’s fault. He made me drink 2:1 shot ratio.
PsiFighter37
@raven: I prefer to shoot ducks on an NES, why thank you very much.
God, this cheesesteak tastes awesome.
Davis X. Machina
@redshirt: There was once a time-honored Harvard tradition of going up to the wicket at London King’s Cross and asking ‘Can I please have a day-return second class to Cambridge, England?’
SiubhanDuinne
@redshirt:
I’m sure they do. I’m just not convinced that PF is among them. I think he’s faking to get us all to gasp in horror.
If I’m wrong and he (I assume it’s a he) is genuinely an alcoholic, I wish safe passage into whatever recovery/sobriety situation is best for him.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: True dat.
Valdivia
@Janet Strange:
woo hoo! :) we all get to hang out in nyc even if we are not locals!
trollhattan
@Valdivia:
Is not phase, is lifestyle.
raven
@PsiFighter37: Don’t know who Mollymauk is do you grasshopper?
PsiFighter37
@Valdivia: I would hang out in NYC (it’s the hometown), except I plan to be out meeting some old friends in the Bay Area. If Obama gets elected president, I will be drinking to celebrate.
If Romney wins, I will be figuring out what the regulations for migrating north entail.
Another Halocene Human
Florida 3rd District
Yoho (Tea Party) vs. Gaillot (D)
According to Yoho’s internals:
Yoho – Gaillot – Dodds
46.7% / 42.4% / 2.75%
3% MOE
This is a winnable race!
Cliff Stearns’ former district. Btw, people forget that a Dem with no money challenged Stearns and got over 40% of the vote during a presidential election year. The district boundaries have now been redrawn. Yoho is more of an extremist than Stearns (supposedly), but has money from his rich clients in Marion County.
Gaillot is a good moderate Democrat with a firm grasp on what Congress actually does and can achieve. This guy really needs our help. We can finally flip this district!
http://www.jrgaillot.com
PsiFighter37
@raven: I didn’t, but I just used Google. #clever_grasshopping
raven
@PsiFighter37: Great movie.
redshirt
@Davis X. Machina: Heh. Fair Harvard.
Are you seeing as many “Romney-Ryan” signs as I am? They’ve sprouted like fungi over the last two weeks.
Ballpark sign count from Western Maine: Romney – 50; Obama – 1.
I don’t put too much stock in signs, but still. I don’t like it. Makes me sad and mad, simultaneously.
Another Halocene Human
PS: don’t count on who the Dems of Florida endorse and don’t endorse. Organized labor certainly doesn’t.
The state Dem parties in the South apparently have to be destroyed in order to be saved. Assuming they can even be saved.
raven
@Davis X. Machina: I spent a week in Kings Cross on R&R in 1969. Oh, THAT Kings Cross. Nevermind.
PsiFighter37
Weep not for roads untraveled
Weep not for sights unseen
May your love never end
And if you need a friend
There’s a seat here alongside me
Another Halocene Human
@PsiFighter37: PF37 +12 (7 shots + 7 Brooklyn Lagers)
ROFL
— AHH +0 b/c I have a migraine for the second fucking night in a row
raven
Now you young people enjoy yourselves tonight.
PsiFighter37
@Another Halocene Human: Shit, 7+7 doesn’t equal 12. Take 2 off the beer side, because my boss definitely made me take more shots.
TexasMango
@PsiFighter37:
Do you have evidence for your prediction about the House or do you just feel that this is the case?
Another Halocene Human
I literally JUST got an update from the Gaillot campaign that the Republican Party is putting a cool million in the Florida 3 House race!
What are they scared of?
If Dems think this is unwinnable, why do the Republicans think it’s losable?
Maybe because Yoho’s #s are sinking?
And Ted Yoho’s son was arrested for being drunk and disorderly and it’s all anyone’s talking about today in Alachua County?
I’ve heard both 200K and 500K ad buys on the R side tossed around.
Gaillot needs some more money to get the word out. Please help!
redshirt
@PsiFighter37: Do you work for the Japanese?
PsiFighter37
@TexasMango: I do not have hard evidence, I am frank to admit, but I have tracked politics really fuckin’ close since 2004 that I feel reasonably confident of predicting that we have a 10-15% shot of taking the House back. Heck, I wouldn’t be all that shocked if we managed to lose House seats this cycle.
Color me cynical, but I would be surprised if we have Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Round 2, in January 2013.
SiubhanDuinne
@redshirt:
Oddly, in the northern suburbs of Atlanta (majorly conservative area), until the last couple of weeks the Obama bumper stickers were far outnumbering those for Romney. I’ve seen an upsurge in Romney stickers just in the past week of ten days maybe, but according to my completely unscientific research,t the good guys still have the lead.
Overall, though, I have to say there are WAY fewer bumper stickers of any persuasion this year than in previous Presidential election years.
SiubhanDuinne
@PsiFighter37:
You may be drunk, but I have to like the way your mind works :-)
kay
Romney says abortion not part of “my agenda”
Romney campaign says… yes it is!
That is one part of the base he can’t screw. It’s about time someone asked him.
PurpleGirl
@PsiFighter37: A nice bank account, a job lined up, relatives/friends already there, among other things. Canada has a nice immigration web site which explains things.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oops, totally misread what PF wrote. I don’t like the way your mind works after all!
redshirt
@SiubhanDuinne: Bumper stickers are a different matter altogether. I’ve seen ZERO Romney bumper stickers. I’ve seen a smattering of anti-Obama stickers. I’ve seen plenty of Obama stickers – and it always makes me smile. So, in this medium, pro-Obama stickers far outweigh anti or Romney stickers, combined.
So I’ve been rationalizing – maybe OFA isn’t giving out/selling yard signs? Maybe the type of person who would put up a yard sign is far different than bumper sticker types, and far less numerous? I don’t know.
I agree with the “less bumper stickers overall” observation. Way less than 2008. I feel the difference.
Another Halocene Human
@PsiFighter37: You’re mighty coherent for 9 shots.
I doff my hat to you, good sir.
Another Halocene Human
@redshirt: So I’ve been rationalizing – maybe OFA isn’t giving out/selling yard signs?
Yard signs have been tough to get. They’ve invested in a lot of those paper signs that you can hold at a rally or stick in your window but the yard signs are only now showing up for 2012.
Another Halocene Human
@SiubhanDuinne: People (especially people in SUVs) just lurved them some Bush bumper stickers.
Yep, including “JEB!”
I thought I would see more “Romney Ryan Romney Ryan” after the debate, but all my Romney sticker sightings were before.
Saw a car loaded with local douchebag Republican car magnets, no Rmoney stickers, not even his aquafresh R.
Also, they charge for the stickers, even at the campaign office. Dems here are giving a lot of swag away.
TexasMango
@SiubhanDuinne:
I was supposed to get sent a bumper sticker from the Obama campaign and I still haven’t gotten it yet. Maybe you’d see more if they were quicker to get them out.
redshirt
I don’t like the anecdotal evidence in these last few posts.
TexasMango
@redshirt: I also think one of the differences is that back in 2008, both parties had to campaign everywhere. Especially the long Democratic primary. This left a residual excitement. I never had an Obama/Biden bumper sticker, but I did have an Obama sticker left from the Texas primary in March 2008. We didn’t have that this time.
PsiFighter37
@redshirt: Bumper stickers don’t mean a damn thing. Just because you aren’t proud to support R-Money this time around by sticking a fickle-ass sticker to your car’s rear end doesn’t mean shit.
Unless Obama wins Georgia, I stand by this statement.
@Another Halocene Human: You’re a true gentleman/woman.
Valdivia
@trollhattan:
lol. so true!
@PsiFighter37:
I am going to be drinking either way. There may be a life in china in my future so I guess I can always bank on that if Romney wins.
Another Halocene Human
@PsiFighter37: I’m not about to go Andrew Sullivan Defcon-1 freakout, but people need to wake the serious fuck up. Donate. GOTV if you’re in a swing state. Phonebank. You need to give it all, right the fuck now, because this is the last stand, bitches.
Worker’s Voice, partnership between MoveOn.org and AFL-CIO is doing canvassing every Saturday around the state of Florida, if anyone’s interested. I think there’s info on flaflcio.org.
And there’s OfA. We need people from out of state to help us phone bank. If you are willing to fly or drive in for a week I and others have offered our homes for you to crash at.
redshirt
@TexasMango: I’m just referring to the efficiency of the organization. They can’t get you a bumper sticker? They’re slow to roll out lawn signs? That’s not eleventy dimensional chess.
Unless I’ve missed some new study on how ineffective lawn signs are.
Gin & Tonic
@Another Halocene Human: It’s BS.
Another Halocene Human
@TexasMango: Their fulfillment is slow.
I ordered stickers and they did arrive but not before I spent a week panicking thinking that the system had gobbled up my order and I would never get them.
Another Halocene Human
@redshirt: I wasn’t aware lawn signs were the critical factor in presidential preference votes, but I’m keeping an open mind.
redshirt
@Another Halocene Human: Are you saying they don’t matter? If so, what are your standards for advertising the candidate and otherwise showing support?
PsiFighter37
@Another Halocene Human: I wish I could volunteer more, but the older I get, the more personal responsibilities I have. That said, I hope that the coin I’ve donated to the president has been well-spent.
And not on that Big Bird ad, thank you very much.
Violet
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’ve noticed that too. In the last week or so I’ve seen a lot more Romney signs in my neighborhood. I live in a mixed neighborhood, so some of each, but until recently there were few Romney signs.
Elizabelle
From Virginia, I think the Romney campaign has yard signs, and Obama/OFA have a ground game.
I’d take the ground game.
And I was seeing a LOT of Obama signs in rural areas I was expecting to be Romney central.
FWIW, I don’t believe this alleged huge swing in the polls.
PsiFighter37
@Elizabelle: We shall see. The MSM is all too eager to make this come DOWN.TO.THE.WIRE.IN.OHIO.
I remember 2004. I was sick to my stomach, after volunteering my heart out (and having my grades in school suffer) after GOTVing for Kerry that fall. We took care of business in PA – but as the night wore on, it became clear we would lose OH and the election.
Keep fucking fighting ’til the end, and never forget the lessons of the past.
Ivan
Yeah! I’ve missed all the previous meetups. Do it!
Rich C.
Long time lurker. I’m in when you come to NYC.
Insomniac
No love for Charm City and Chocolate City? What’s up with that? No meet-ups there? Come on people! Let’s do this!
Nutella
Anyone seen this? EJ Dionne says it’s a quote from a pollster:
RadioOne
If we lose, sure, it’ll be a bit too soon and I wouldn’t really want to meet with any of you fuckers after losing a Presidential election we should have won. That said, we’re going to get Barack Obama re-elected, so make your weekend plans in NYC after the election accordingly.
MJ
@TD: Well done!
MJ
In for the NYC meetup, but only if O wins. (I’ll be too depressed to leave my house if we lose.)
notoriousJRT
@Davis X. Machina:
Don’t forget Vienna (Vy-enna)!
Rita R.
Last NYC meetup was a great time and hope I can make this one too. Depends on the day you decide on though, Sunday works for me, Saturday not.
Johannes
Sounds like a plan! La C and me are, however ungrammatically, in.
ThresherK
Hey, if I weren’t late to the thread, it wouldn’t seem right.
That title is a nod to one of “Loesser’s greaters”.
celiadexter
Right after the election would be a perfect time to celebrate — I’m in, whenever/wherever in NYC. But I dare you to do the Bronx!