"The Important Thing Is That the American People Are Going To Lose"

The folks over at Pajamas Media did a minute-long (plus or minus 60 seconds) video interview with me about the election as part of their "60 Second Seers" series.

Look upon my predictions and despair.

Comments

[FinFangFoom]

Nick Gillespie is too cool to put his name on his posts or to provide working links.

[Yoda]

Fucked you are, yes, hmmmmm.

[jf]

Nice non-playing video. Set to private, it is, and not playing through website.

And why is it that it's always Dem lawyers trying to keep the polls open late? Is it really only Republican voters that get to the voting booth before work?

[joe]

jf,

It's because the voting stations with so few working voting machines that people end up waiting for hours are always concentrated, through some bizarre coincidence, in heavily-Democratic precincts.

[ChicagoTom]

And why is it that it's always Dem lawyers trying to keep the polls open late? Is it really only Republican voters that get to the voting booth before work?

No, it's more likely the fact that urban areas have mostly been the ones having very wait times (90+ minutes) and faulty machines to vote, so voters leaving before having a chance to vote. And urban areas tend to vote Democratic.

[Crusader Rabbit]

It's a conspiracy. They want to get everyone sitting in front of their computers watching a screen shot that says "Loading..." all day long, so they'll miss voting.

[Nick Gillespie]

tough crowd. apologies for the screwed link, which is now fixed.

[joe]

I think Nick is great on TV.

I loved the "huh!" expression at "...legendary..."

[jf]

joe and ChicagoTom,

Interesting, because those urban districts tend to be in counties under Democratic control (correct me if I'm wrong). Why can't Democratic county election boards get their acts together, and why should I think that Democrats, if they can't even manage an election properly without lawsuits, are going to be any better than the band of Republican losers we currently have at managing the government?

[jf]

And now that I've gotten to see it, nice job, Nick.

[joe]

jf,

Having significantly less funding for electoral machinery is not an indictment of the local elections boards.

If you notice, the places that have the greatest problems (Ohio cities in 2004, Indiana cities today) tend to be not only Democratic cities with large minority populations, but Democratic cities with large minority populations in Republican states.

If Republicans are going to withold the resources necessary to run a simple election, how do you think they'd handle a disaster, like, say, a hurricaine hitting a major city?

[jf]

joe,

Somehow I knew that would be your response, and to it, I can only say touch?. I think the Democrats might do themselves a favor by highlighting these problems from the county level long before the elections, instead of relying on lawyers to launching election day lawsuit to muddy up the issue.

Living in Ohio, I know all too well how Ken Blackwell has done his best to manipulate voting (which is why I'm so happy to see that slime go down in the gubernatorial race here), but local officials need to do their part too.

[BarneyFrank]

Awww joe with da conspiracy theories.

Which party has historically been The Cheat? Look at the record.

2000 - mucked up election, chads, miscounts, recounts, etc - Red victory. Whatever the result, this did promote voting reforms.

2004 - the "most important election of our time". Polls are placed under the microscope for fraud watch. Everything is checked, re-checked, verified, polished to perfection - no dead people voting, no pets voting, no one voting twice. All under international supervision. Upset Red victory.

Who has been cheating all this time? Democrats.

[NoStar]

Joe,
Where I come from, the counties, not the state government, provide their own budgets for election machinery. (They even design their own ballots, butterfly or otherwise, just like in FL.) So, the ball is back in the court of the local Dems.

[Jemez Hobbit]

.. nice job, Nick ..

.. Hobbit

[Happy Jack]

Pajamas Media ?

[joe]

I don't know where you come from, NoStar.

I don't know how your counties get their budgets.

I don't know what services they fund vs. the state.

I don't know if you are from an area that has had problems with fair voting.

[nota]

Why can't I see this video? Who is conspiring to deny me of my ability to obtain this important information?

[Mark]

Nick, is that the Financial Report of the United States I see on the second shelf of your bookcase? Rock on, sir.

[Garth]

OMG: Please tell me that that apartment isn't right across the street from JHU-SAIS! Jeebus! It looks like an ex-girlfriend's apartment!

ACK!

[Jason Ligon]

Nick's suggestion that in '08 candidates will be running against their records in a more libertarian way is, well, only likely in the district anchored by Big Rock Candy Mountain.

The answer will be, as ever, more pork and favors that their constituents actually want.

I do think the Dems are in an interesting situation though. It will be hard to raise taxes significantly. Taxing dividends means pooping on AARP, so that isn't likely to happen. I'm not sure what they are going to do if they get in.

[Pig Mannix]

Nick's suggestion that in '08 candidates will be running against their records in a more libertarian way is, well, only likely in the district anchored by Big Rock Candy Mountain.

Yeah, I did a double take on that one, too. Personally, I think your going to be seeing more of the same for a long time to come.

I do think the Dems are in an interesting situation though. It will be hard to raise taxes significantly. Taxing dividends means pooping on AARP, so that isn't likely to happen. I'm not sure what they are going to do if they get in.

And that's one of the reasons I think we'll get more of the same - a war economy is likely the only way our current commitments are going to be paid for (or provide the only suitable justification for reneging on them). I'm not even sure it matters who gets elected at this point. More likely, politicians are going to be driven by events than the other way around.

Unfortunately, I think the Bush administration is going to be the prototype for American government for a long, long time.

[joe]

If we get spending on Iraq and Afghanistan down to a manageable $30 billion/year (I can't believe I just wrote that), that's a lot of dollars to reduce the deficit, fix the AMT, or whatever.

[Coming Attractions.]

Democrats Vs. Republicans: Who ever wins, we lose...