Predictions?

[[AK]Sonic Boom]

It's 1:30 am here on the West coast and the polls are about to open over there. What is your prediction?

Here's mine in five words: (For the Republican Party)

Armageddon at the ballot box.

Electoral Votes:
Obama 346
McCain 192

Popular Vote:
Obama 52%
McCain 46%

Senate Seats:
Democrats 57
Republicans 43


Now my commentary:

40 percent of Americans are Democrats, whether you like it or not. Speaking as one, just because I'm a Democrat doesn't mean I'm a liberal and it has pissed me off for years to be called an unpatriotic Godless (big "G") heathen. Republicans are not "the Party of God."

There has been much gloom and doom about the evil of "one party rule." Last time I checked, Republicans ruled with supreme authority from 2000 to 2006. They had complete control of the Presidency, the Senate, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. Yet, according to most of you, somehow, none of the ills of our nation seem to be the fault of any Republican. Conveniently, the economic woes of our nation are the fault of the all-powerful Chris Dodd and the faggot congressman, Barney Frank.

Please.

I have yet to see any influential figure within the conservative movement take a sober look in the mirror and actually point a finger at themselves.

How did we get here? Is it the "liberal media" or did the Republicans just plain **** it up?

Whiny, bitching, cry-baby conservatives love to prattle on and on about the "liberal media." To be fair, except for The Wall Street Journal and FOX News (Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, John Gibson, Neil Cavuto, Steve Doocy, E.D. Hill, Brian Kilmeade, Brit Hume), Clear Channel, Laura Ingraham, Dr. Laura, Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, Ann Coulter, Newsmax, G. Gordon Liddy, Michael Reagan, Michael Savage, The New York Post, Sinclair Broadcast Group (WLOS13, Fox 45, WTTO21, WB49, KGAN, WICD, WICS, WCHS, WVAH, WTAT, WSTR, WSYX, WTTE, WKEF, WRGT, KDSM, WSMH, WXLV, WURN, KVWB, KFBT, WDKY, WMSN, WVTV, WEAR, WZTV, KOTH, WYZZ, WPGH, WGME, WLFL, WRLH, WUHF, KABB, WGGB, WSYT, WTTA), David Horowitz, Rupert Murdoch, PAX, and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, they're right.

The ever-expanding list of Republican failures has become difficult to manage, yet somehow no Republican is to blame.

Iraq
Katrina
Erosion of the middle class
Erosion of individual freedom
Warrantless spying on U.S. Citizens
Torture
"Rendition"
10 Billion a month in Iraq
Rumsfeld said Iraq would cost 60 billion. What's the number now?
Science policy run by theocrats
700 Billion dollar deficit this year alone
Complete meltdown of our financial system
Massive socialist bailout of our banking system. Also 700 BILLION and counting
Nationalization of our largest insurance company, AIG

I'm not sure where to continue, but I'm running out of steam now...

I am an August Knight and I love my country and this is a day of national transformation.

My final prediction:
Obama will win Montana. That's how bad your side has screwed it up. If I'm wrong and you come to Seattle, I'll buy you a steak dinner.

I will not resign my commission as an August Knight. If you excommunicate me, I will wear it as a badge of honor.

[[AK]Beaker]

Sonic,
I would hope no one would be excommunicated because of their political beliefs. I mean then I'd be in big trouble too!
Will we get ribbed in this forum because we are the minority. (YOU BET!)
Will we have to duck and cover because some are very clever with their words, (YUP).
But it's the political forums and that's what it's about. I bring my flame proof undies when I post here.

I respect Hylander and the other Rabid Republicans I'm married to one and have been friends with another since I was 14. I count many as my good friends.

I do believe that "my side" will win this year by a fairly large margin not just in the presidency but in the house and senate and state senates and governorships, my hope is that they don't screw it up too badly. (Because I think that no party has the corner on idiocy!)

Can you be right and still buy me well sushi or some other "liberal" food when I get to Seattle?

PERSONALLY I have a tradition of having friends (of both parties) over on this night and cooking several types of pork and remembering we are all in this together! It's amazing that with good food and good wine we remember that we are mostly the same, and the pork just makes me smile!

So yall are all invited to come eat pork watch the returns and drink my wine. Just private me to get directions to the house.

Oh I forgot! GET OUT AND VOTE NO MATTER WHAT YOUR POLITICAL FLAVOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S IMPORTANT!

[[AK]Swae]

Amen.

[[AK]Kidd]

Montana has gone to the wolves already.

Democrat Gov., both Senators are Democrats. In fact, two years ago the sheeple elected the second Senator over a senior member in Congress. Subsequently the air force wing in Great Falls (my home town) has lost their ICMB mission, effectively closing the base within the next 5 years.
Morons....

[[AK]Bribo]

Some of my best friends are Democrats. Most of the guys I go hiking and backpacking with are all liberals. Needless to say it makes for some interesting discussions around the campfire.

The bottom line is that we can have different opinions and be passionate about them without taking things personally. At the end of the say we are all still friends.

That's the way I feel about all you AK members and this political forum. We may have some heated debates in here and at times it can get ugly but when the dust settles we are all still AK and brother Knights.

[Slaughter]

My prediction:

Upset for the Democrats, Mass rioting in Los Angeles.

Electoral:
Obama: 260
McCain: 278

Popular Vote:
Obama: 51%
McCain: 48%

Thats my *optimistic* outlook with McCain stealing away PA and winning most all of the Battleground states...

Another possible outcome is an Electoral tie, which would be very interesting.

[[AK]Clay]

Good points on the Republican bashing. I couldn't agree more. Though I'm not sure I agree that the Republicans caused Hurricane Katrina. The Republicans seroiusly screwed up their day in the sun - anyone who denies that is deluding themselves.

For the most part, I find Obama and McCain to be remarkebly similar - with only a few minor differences. Amongst those - McCain is not seeking to make me a felon for a owning few steel pipes with springs in my basement. McCain didn't consider a white hating racist his spiritial leader and the most influential person in his life. And McCain didn't seek input from US hating Terrorists during his formative years. Closer to the wallet, I expect Obama's fiscal policies to be a dissaster - he seeks to tax his way to greatness. I see a lot of Jimmy Carter in this one. So yes, the Bush years were a dissaster. No matter what happens today, the Bush years are over. A new party has both houses, and the next president is NOT going to be George Bush.

As to political differences - we're an adult video gaming community populated by intelligent respectful adults who think. Nobody is going to be excommunicated for respectfully holding differences in political opinions. Folks will certainly challenge what you say when they differ in opinions. And I think that's a good thing. Facts and data should always trump BS and rhetoric.

[Slaughter]

You can be excommunicated for trying to help out with encounters that the group hasn't dealt with that you have while playing on another server.

I mean...

[[AK]Hylander]

Now my commentary:

Republicans are not "the Party of God."

It certainly isn't the Democratic Party who have a problem with "torture" interrogations of our enemies, yet have no problem slaughtering "inconvenient" babies. Yeah - makes sense to me.

There has been much gloom and doom about the evil of "one party rule." Last time I checked, Republicans ruled with supreme authority from 2000 to 2006.

They had complete control of the Presidency, the Senate, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. Yet, according to most of you, somehow, none of the ills of our nation seem to be the fault of any Republican.

Not correct. The Republican Party did not have a filibuster proof majority. Lets put the shoe on the other foot - Liberals have had control of congress for a couple of years now. What did they deliver of their "promises" to get elected? Jack Squat.

Conveniently, the economic woes of our nation are the fault of the all-powerful Chris Dodd and the faggot congressman, Barney Frank.

Considering a fix for the major issue that has put our financial markets in the current situation could have been resolved but was blocked by Dodd and Frank - that is absolutely correct.

Our Financial System is not broken, it had a significant flaw and nobody in Washington did anything to fix it because the economy was fine and the housing market was booming. Home ownership was at record numbers and everyone was 'happy', as long as the sun was shining. Well, it started to rain and people discovered their umbrella had a major hole in it.

I have yet to see any influential figure within the conservative movement take a sober look in the mirror and actually point a finger at themselves.

Then your blinded by your hatred of Bush. I've continually bashed Bush on several fronts ranging from Tax "welfare" to his fiscal policies in general. George Bush is NOT a fiscal conservative by any stretch of the imagination. Tax cuts alone do not make a fiscal conservative.

How did we get here? Is it the "liberal media" or did the Republicans just plain **** it up?

If you're talking about the financial markets - no, it wasn't the liberal media. It was both parties, but at least one tried to rectify the lacking oversight and the Democrats attacked them for being biased against the "poor" and "minorities", while Dodd and Frank killed the bill in committee.

Whiny, bitching, cry-baby conservatives love to prattle on and on about the "liberal media." To be fair, except for The Wall Street Journal and FOX News (Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, John Gibson, Neil Cavuto, Steve Doocy, E.D. Hill, Brian Kilmeade, Brit Hume), Clear Channel, Laura Ingraham, Dr. Laura, Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, Ann Coulter, Newsmax, G. Gordon Liddy, Michael Reagan, Michael Savage, The New York Post, Sinclair Broadcast Group (WLOS13, Fox 45, WTTO21, WB49, KGAN, WICD, WICS, WCHS, WVAH, WTAT, WSTR, WSYX, WTTE, WKEF, WRGT, KDSM, WSMH, WXLV, WURN, KVWB, KFBT, WDKY, WMSN, WVTV, WEAR, WZTV, KOTH, WYZZ, WPGH, WGME, WLFL, WRLH, WUHF, KABB, WGGB, WSYT, WTTA), David Horowitz, Rupert Murdoch, PAX, and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, they're right.

And these are how many out of the country's ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN national affiliates? You need some perspective. Any person who denies the overwhelming bias of the mass media is just that, in denial and blind of factual information. Even most liberals concede that fact. The ONLY area Conservatives have control is the radio - and Liberals want to silence that with the Censorship, I mean "Fairness" Doctrine.

The ever-expanding list of Republican failures has become difficult to manage, yet somehow no Republican is to blame.

Iraq - Mismanaged to large extent the first few years. But without surrendering, is now a victory. Victory would have never happened under Democratic leadership whether you approved of the war or not.

Katrina - Blame starts at home.

Erosion of the middle class - Should I debunk this with econometrics?

Erosion of individual freedom - Please name them. Or do you want the freedom to organize terrorist cells and carry out terrorist acts?

Torture - See abortion

Science policy run by theocrats - Education system dominated by Liberals.

Complete meltdown of our financial system - See above. Not to mention, our country needs capital investment and Obama thinks taxing this investment is the way to encourage investment? If all the "poor" need the money to pay their bills - how does that lead to capital inflow? NObamanomics to the rescue!

Massive socialist bailout of our banking system. Also 700 BILLION and counting - (I hated the bailout plan from the beginning and stated so numerous times) - Plan developed and encouraged by Democrats. Why don't you explain why the Democrats didn't pass the first bailout bill THEY DEVELOPED when they had enough votes to do so?

Nationalization of our largest insurance company, AIG - Again, plan developed with Democrats. (I hated it from the core, I hate it now)

this is a day of national transformation.

You're right - we'll take several steps toward a more West European Socialism. I mean, it makes sense, right? We're the worlds only economic and military super power - why would you want to maintain that when we can digress into being on par with Europe? BRILLIANT.

Even "IF" McCain somehow won this election - it won't matter much. Democrats control the congress, and it will be a stalemate on a vast majority of policy regardless. (A good thing, the less government does - the better) But in the long run, Liberals have dominated our educational system and for the better part of two decades have been teaching our children 'socialistic' values. Don't keep score at sports games, "everyone is a winner", the government should take more responsibility of areas of your life, capitalism is "unfair", etc etc. Most schools don't have a single class that teaches students how to succeed in economics, finance, or capitalism in general. These children are at voting age and will only increase in numbers as the years pass. The older generation will pass on and the voting values of these children, illegal immigrants, etc will be much more prominent in the national record. The failure of capitalism from within politically has already started. I was just hoping I'd be dead and gone before the erosion of American Capitalistic values took hold.

AND - For the record, I voted for more Democrats than Republican on the local level. Our last two Mayors have both been Democrats and very good Mayors. I was also very close to voting against Charlie Dent for his flip flop support of the bailout plan (I actually called and told his office he just lost my vote) - but his opponent is a train wreck and had to have a debate censored before it aired because she proclaimed two local banks in failure, which was completely false and could have caused a run on the two institutions locally.

[[AK]StitchJones]

*Cheers with joy over Hylander taking way too much time to reply to Boom's message*

[[AK]Hylander]

*Cheers with joy over Hylander taking way too much time to reply to Boom's message*

I actually cut it short. I have a whole Manifesto, I can visit and read it to you some time!

[[AK]Bribo]

You can be excommunicated for trying to help out with encounters that the group hasn't dealt with that you have while playing on another server.

I thought that it was for being an asshat?

[Slaughter]

Thats possible too.

[[AK]Swae]

I voted this morning. Lines were not long at all at our polling location, but coworkers had different experiences (up to 1 hour lines). I predict that Obama will win, but I don't think it will be a landslide. I think more McCain supporters will come out and vote than the polls are accounting for.

I plan on cracking a bottle of Maker's Mark tonight and watching the returns (although Kidd and I will likely fight over which network to watch). It's been an interesting campaign and I've enjoyed disagreeing with all of you in our political discussions.

[[AK]Squidly]

I will not resign my commission as an August Knight. If you excommunicate me, I will wear it as a badge of honor.

Nobody is asking you to resign. You're our token communist.

Regarding the god/God thing, I'm sick of liberals tearing down God, yet running to him when it's convenient (election time.)

I don't consider myself particularly religious, but the Liberal disdain for those who are turns my stomach.

Regarding the election: Obama wins.

Regarding the other stuff - I disagree with you in ways big and small throughout, but I'm not up to writing a book just now, so I'll pass. We can take these issues up individually perhaps, on another day.

I'll sum up: We've lived through 8 years of Bush, and 8 years of hyperbolic counterproductive liberal whining. The Republicans screwed plenty of things up (although not in the way you believe, they did it by not being true to their conservative roots.) So now it looks like you'll have your shot. You've got 2 years before the next vote. Good luck.

You're 2 jumps ahead with 90% of the media carrying your luggage.