Quote :

"^ must have missed this: http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/campaign-finance/independent-expenditures/totals"

My link includes Super PAC spending. Try clicking on it.

[Edited on November 7, 2012 at 5:32 PM. Reason : 2]

11/7/2012 5:31:02 PM

Yea, I got that link from your link - you're apparently ignoring the fact that the big red and blue totals at the top only include one outside PAC

[Edited on November 7, 2012 at 5:33 PM. Reason : ]

11/7/2012 5:33:09 PM

Keep in mind that networks also charge PACs more money to run ads than official campaigns.

Quote :

"So what? I predicted that Alabama would be good at football this year. Obama had a huge advantage going into this election and the Republicans offered up a bunch of weak candidates. All the GOP had going for it was money and a shit economy that Obama managed to put 100% blame on Bush for. "

Exactly. Yet people like d357r0y3r kept telling me my confidence in Obama winning was unwarranted.

[Edited on November 7, 2012 at 5:35 PM. Reason : :]

11/7/2012 5:35:31 PM

If you add up the outside spending advantage that Romney enjoyed, I believe that it still doesn't make up for the $100 million spending advantage that Obama had from his campaign and primary PAC. It's close, but it appears that Obama and his advocates were the bigger spenders this election cycle.

11/7/2012 5:37:51 PM

this could of been put in the credibility watch thread.....basically, Obama isnt going to get anything done and is already a lame duck....GOP is still the party of NO and that probably has even gotten worse now.

11/7/2012 6:33:27 PM

Quote :

"Exactly. Yet people like d357r0y3r kept telling me my confidence in Obama winning was unwarranted."

Good try, but your Obama-induced mania is still preventing you from thinking clearly. You're overconfident in your belief that the next 4 years will bring economy recovery. I predicted several times over the past few months that Obama would win the election decisively.

11/7/2012 6:40:42 PM

Looks like the inauguration day will be January 21st. It's traditionally on the 20th, except when that's a Sunday and then it gets bumped to Monday. That also happens to be Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for 2013 which is a United States federal holiday. So other than the additional symbolism, it'll be easier for more people to watch the inauguration too I'd imagine. Not a bad way to start the first 100 days of the second term.

11/7/2012 9:23:57 PM

Make me excited about the next four years guy.

11/7/2012 10:56:55 PM

you will still be living in the bumfuck woods of western north carolina.

im sorry.

11/7/2012 10:59:24 PM

That's not true.

11/7/2012 11:01:46 PM

you wont be working at a community college?

11/7/2012 11:15:06 PM

In western NC..?.

[Edited on November 7, 2012 at 11:44 PM. Reason : God I hope not-]

11/7/2012 11:44:05 PM

It'll be interesting to see what new cabinet and staff personal come in to comprise the 2nd term administration too.

11/8/2012 12:07:48 AM

Quote :

"Here are a few of the recently-announced official second-term goals of the Obama administration: All future presidents must pass the "paper bag test." Any candidate whose skin is lighter than a paper bag must concede the race immediately and accept a consolatory place on the Nutrition and Horticulture House subcommittee. Each subsequent president must be at least as black, if not blacker, than the president who preceded him or her. On Inauguration Day, all presidents will be required to publicly apologize to the French people for being cisgendered (if they are cisgendered). They will have to apologize in French. Any white children who cannot defeat Michelle Obama in a pushup contest will be drowned and replaced by the child of an illegal immigrant. Virginity will be made illegal. All evangelical churches must be converted into "Wiccan fuckpits" for mandatory monthly orgies. These orgies will be taxed. Local police will transition into their new roles as the actual PC police. Ableism will be punishable by death. Obama to revive the Disney Channel's short-lived 1990s cartoon series about anthropomorphic gargoyles, "Gargoyles." Any male president will be required to have at least one gay experience if he has not already had one. Swordfighting and other non-penetrative activities will not count. Heterosexuals will no longer be allowed to use Facebook. All handguns will be personally replaced with crucifix-shaped dildos by the president himself. The dildos are to be used for anal insertion only; an embedded microchip will alert federal authorities if they are inserted anywhere else on the human body. Racism will be officially reversed as a matter of government policy. All whites will be rezoned to various reservations based on the number of black friends they have. All reported friendships must be confirmed by said black friends; self-reporting does not qualify any white for residence in District A."

http://gawker.com/5958709/what-obamas-second-term-will-really-look-like

11/8/2012 12:16:11 AM

All I got out of that is that Gargoyles is coming back.

11/8/2012 7:20:46 AM

Here's something to get excited about: You wont be led by a man and a team and an entire party that throws numbers out when they're inconvenient, and so misallocates resources and priorities.

Seriously, there's a reason almost the entire right was expecting Romney to win, a persistent, pervasive bias and aversion to math, and a complete lack of methodological rigor in putting information together and making sure it represents reality. Poll numbers aren't the only numbers Republicans are woefully misinformed about, their inability to adjust to factual information that's inconvenient affects their interaction with every issue.

[Edited on November 8, 2012 at 8:11 AM. Reason : .]

11/8/2012 8:09:19 AM

Not sure if this has made it to TSB yet, but there are some gems in here about the prophet who saw this 2nd term coming.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/meet-drunk-nate-silver

Quote :

"President Obama talks on the phone with world leaders in the Oval Office, Nov. 8, 2012: http://on.wh.gov/npL6nA"

Quote :

"The President spoke with: Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt President Francois Hollande of France Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz of Saudi Arabia Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom"

I do enjoy the campaign season, but I'm glad to see the President back in the Oval Office.

11/8/2012 9:39:04 PM

Quote :

"Seriously, there's a reason almost the entire right was expecting Romney to win, a persistent, pervasive bias and aversion to math, and a complete lack of methodological rigor in putting information together and making sure it represents reality. Poll numbers aren't the only numbers Republicans are woefully misinformed about, their inability to adjust to factual information that's inconvenient affects their interaction with every issue."

I totally agree with the overall sentiment.

I don't know that "almost the entire right" expected Romney to win, though...but they expected him to have a chance and for it to be close (which effectively illustrates the same problem).

11/8/2012 9:51:37 PM

What blows me away are those on the right that honestly thought it would be a blowout

11/8/2012 9:53:33 PM

who needs logic and math when you've got your gut and your heart???

11/8/2012 9:58:26 PM

and God.

11/9/2012 8:10:05 AM

Boom.

11/9/2012 4:04:43 PM

If ^ and http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/beginning-of-the-end-half-the-senate-now-supports-filibuster-reform/2012/11/09/72bd6ad4-2aaf-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_blog.html , are the only things that get accomplished during his second term, he's already the most successful Democrat since FDR.

[Edited on November 9, 2012 at 5:55 PM. Reason : :]

11/9/2012 5:54:57 PM

define "successful"

11/10/2012 11:22:14 AM

Quote :

"a : to turn out well b : to attain a desired object or end"

11/10/2012 11:33:33 AM

Although it was already obvious, it's now official:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/10/obama-wins-florida-cnn-projects/?hpt=hp_t2

Quote :

"With the Sunshine State's results in – the last undecided state - CNN projects Obama's electoral vote total comes to 332, well above the 270 required to win the presidency. CNN projects Romney to finish with 206 electoral votes. The state's 29 electoral votes have proved decisive in the past and were expected to be important this year. But Obama ran the board on Election Day, and it was another heavily contested battleground, Ohio, that put Obama over the top."

Hopefully with this sizable lead in the electoral college, no more ability for the GOP to explicitly make not re-electing the President their main obstructionist concern, the automatic tax increase if nothing is done, and the gains in the Senate the GOP will concede that whatever happens should lean more towards the Dems plans than the Ryan-Romney plan.

[Edited on November 10, 2012 at 2:42 PM. Reason : .]

11/10/2012 2:30:36 PM

Quote :

"If ^ and http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/beginning-of-the-end-half-the-senate-now-supports-filibuster-reform/2012/11/09/72bd6ad4-2aaf-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_blog.html , are the only things that get accomplished during his second term, he's already the most successful Democrat since FDR."

signing NDAA and fighting in court to preserve section 1021 = failed presidency

11/10/2012 5:09:27 PM

Quote :

"signing NDAA and fighting in court to preserve section 1021 = failed presidency"

Horrible decision on Obama's part. The same folks who bitched about the Patriot Act aren't opening their mouths about this, for the most part. He gets a free pass because of the letter beside his name, of course.

11/11/2012 12:49:58 PM

Yeah, you're right. No one complains about the NDAA. The media has been completely silent on it and the ACLU praises it.

11/11/2012 1:16:02 PM

Of course the ACLU is all over it. That's their job and that's what makes them great. I'm talking about the partisan shills. (It was an anectdotal observation about some friends of mine who, like me, were all about calling out Dubya over the Patriot Act, but are conspicuously silent over Obama's actions, because that would be contrary to their "team").

These are also the same folks who get their panties wadded in a hurry over any criticism you make of Obama, despite him being on track to be an equally bad president as his predecessor, although I hope he comes back toward the middle a little in this second term.



[Edited on November 11, 2012 at 1:30 PM. Reason : ..]

11/11/2012 1:22:59 PM

Well, you can't be surprised when partisan shills act like partisan shills.

Support for the NDAA detention clause doesn't seem anywhere close to what it was (and is) for the Patriot Act, and, in fact, I don't think I've heard anyone other than the government attempt to defend it. I would imagine the seeming one-sidedness of thought doesn't make conversation and debate on infinite detention very interesting, and it certainly doesn't make for widespread media coverage. Not very satisfying given its seriousness.

11/11/2012 1:55:02 PM

Obama did not get a free pass on the NDAA

11/11/2012 2:06:19 PM

Methinks the reason that I and many other Democrats didn't criticize Obama so much on the NDAA is that we knew the other side would only be worse; however, with this guy safely re-elected, expect the criticism to increase and any future Democratic nominee to be pressured to oppose it.

11/11/2012 2:43:48 PM

Republicans have a combined IQ under 75, so its no wonder why they can't do math and also explains why they thought Romney would win.

11/11/2012 2:45:25 PM

Quote :

"Obama did not get a free pass on the NDAA"

wasn't mentioned once in a single debate

other than messageboards, podcasts, and relatively small sector of online journalists there's been very little public discourse on indefinite detention

11/11/2012 3:43:18 PM

10 THINGS OBAMA SUPPORTERS LOVE ABOUT TUESDAY'S ELECTION

1. Our Social Media Kicked Your Super Pac's Ass
Sheldon Adelson, called by The New York Times, "the biggest single donor in political history" backed eight conservative Republican candidates through Super Pacs. None of them won. People have been wondering when America would have its social media driven "Arab Spring"? This was it.
Why Men Don't Always Want Sex

2. Karl Rove's $300 million extra super, ugly, horrible super bad day
Karl Rove has been a boil on the ass of the American political landscape since he first ushered George W. Bush into the White House in 2000. His smug Fox News-driven run of seemingly invincible political gutter dredging has finally come to an end. His American Crossroads Super Pac spent a lot of money and delivered a record-breaking bad return on investment.

3. Rape Became the Third Rail of American Politics
Lots of Tea Party Republicans took it on themselves to wax philosophical on the "rape thing." Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin, Richard "God Intended" Mourdock and Joe "There's No Longer Any Threat to The Life of the Mother" Walsh are now looking for lobbying jobs. It would appear that women don't take kindly to having their reproductive rights traded for Tea Party votes.

4. Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God We're Free at Last . . . From Network News.
This election season, through Facebook and Twitter, voters discovered that fact checking happens. For the first time in a presidential election, we didn't have wait for network news to notice when a candidate said something stupid, or wrong or hateful. Even in the case of Romney's 47 percent comment, which took a while to fully catch on, the facts came out. To devastating effect. We are finally free of network news' lazy group think reporting of political spin as fact.
Keep reading for the rest of the article.

5. The Tea Party Poison Pill
Like Frankenstein's monster come back to the castle to toss the good doctor off the highest tower, the Tea Party is fast transforming the GOP into a bush league (pardon the pun) third party. Already nearing irrelevance in California, the crazy wing of the GOP is driving old-school conservatives into the ever-growing pool of independent voters. Insatiable and relentless, the Tea Party will continue to nominate US Senate Candidates like Richard Mourdock over more moderate candidates like Richard Luger. We love the Tea Party. Keep it up guys.

6. GOP, meet my friend Miguel, and Margarita, and Jose, and Tim, and Frank and So On . . .
Sorry to be harsh, but for every angry and aging white Tea Party voter that dies in America, a Latino baby is born. GOP stars like scary witch of the west Arizona Governor Jan Brewer have slimed America with their nasty anti-immigrant positions. And it's going to cost the GOP some votes. For about half a century. And the good part? It ain't about pandering to Latinos or any other group. It's about immigration reform and a new America, that isn't only white but a nation of every color under the rainbow.

7. No Clarence Thomas or Antonin Scalia This Go Round.
Any Supreme Court judges nominated during the next four years will not be crazy.

8. Gay Marriage Is Getting the Green Light Directly From Voters
The cynical GOP wedge issue campaign started two decades ago against gay marriage has finally come to fruition. It forced everyone in the country to think about the gay folks they know personally, and you know what? Everybody is arriving at the same conclusion. We like gay people. We like fancy weddings. So why not put 'em together and have some fun?

9.Pot Is Legal
Colorado and Washington have voted to make pot legal. Can this be the beginning of the end of the disastrous war on drugs? Like prohibition did in the 1920s, we have created a murderous global black market drug trade that funds everyone from the Taliban to the Mexican drug cartels. And for what? So we can look down our noses at drug users while we have a good stiff scotch? It's well past time to legalize and regulate drugs, including hard drugs, so our police can go back to chasing criminals instead of pot heads and addicts. The fact is, Americans are pretty sick of anything with the word war attached to it.

10. Cue the GOP Circular Firing Squad
The GOP is already finger pointing with gusto. And Fox News looks downright comical. All the smug C-PAC talking heads, the Anne Coulters and the Rush Limbaughs are going to demand Mitt Romney’s head on a pike, doubling down on their shrinking hate talk radio constituencies in a desperate attempt to sell a few more years of Dodge Ram trucks and gun cabinets before they are rolled off to the old folks home. And it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people. Keep up the good work guys, we'll be waiting on Twitter for you . . .

http://www.tressugar.com/Why-Obama-Supporters-Loved-2012-Election-25838490

11/11/2012 9:12:12 PM

I would have loved for Romney to call out the prez on NDAA during the debates but it just wouldn't happen. That bill passed with bipartisan support and Romney would have signed it just the same had he been president.

In our current state any legislation that passes with overwhelming bipartisan support raises a red flag for me.

11/11/2012 9:16:55 PM

Quote :

"wasn't mentioned once in a single debate"

Neither was the drug war, prison population, racial issues at all, the list goes on. Just about nothing was covered. In general, things are only brought up during debates that the candidates are expected to disagree about.

Quote :

"other than messageboards, podcasts, and relatively small sector of online journalists there's been very little public discourse on indefinite detention"

Pretty sure it was a primary gripe during the Occupy protests. They were mostly composed of the far left and a handful of libertarians, though, so yeah that's still a small sector but they got plenty of media coverage.

[Edited on November 14, 2012 at 9:29 AM. Reason : .]

11/14/2012 9:28:42 AM

does the president get a weekday off, like Sunday, or is he at work constantly?

11/14/2012 10:32:56 AM

I'm sure he has designated working hours where he's doing scheduled reading, signing, meeting, and other stuff.

I would bet that he technichally has "weekends off" but when you're the president you're pretty much on-call constantly.

11/14/2012 11:47:23 AM

Boss only checks in once every 4 years...

11/14/2012 11:49:38 AM

Obama just reiterated during his press conference that there are only two possible outcomes for taxes before the new year: either taxes go up for everyone, or they only go up on the wealthy.

11/14/2012 1:51:51 PM

Hey, if the President could bring back Arrested Development in his first term, then he can certainly use some of his new-found sizable capital to bring back Gargoyles!

11/14/2012 2:48:20 PM

"White House: President Obama supports filibuster reform"
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/28/1150658/-White-House-President-Obama-supports-filibuster-reform

Quote :

""Over the past few years important pieces of legislation like the DREAM Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act, and the American Jobs Act weren't even allowed to be debated, and judicial nominations and key members of the administration are routinely forced to wait months for an up-or-down vote," Pfeiffer added. "The American people deserve a United States Senate that puts them first, instead of partisan delay.""

11/28/2012 6:09:25 PM

If memory serves, wasn't it the democrats that changed the rules at the end of Bush's last term?

11/28/2012 6:14:09 PM

You mean this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_14

Democrats use the filibuster 10 times: Republicans freak out

Oh how the times have changed.

11/29/2012 10:49:05 AM

hey that's from before mccain went batshit crazy - cool

11/29/2012 8:52:20 PM

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/gop-rejects-white-house-opening-budget-bid.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

Quote :

"The White House formally proposes to increase tax revenues by $1.6 trillion over 10 years by increasing top marginal income tax rates and taxes on both capital gains and dividends, and by limiting tax deductions for top earners, according to Republicans. Obama proposes to reinstate the estate tax at its 2009 level, as well as patch the alternative minimum tax. The administration asked Republicans to boost the economy, too, by either extending the payroll tax cut, or replace the holiday with a similar stimulus, such as the Making Work Pay tax credit in the Recovery Act. They also want to extend emergency unemployment benefits. On top of that, the administration proposes $50 billion in new infrastructure spending, as well as a mortgage refinancing program. The plan would prevent automatic reimbursement cuts to physicians who treat Medicare beneficiaries, and would eliminate congressional control over the debt limit altogether. In exchange, the administration proposes a tax reform proposal consistent with its $1.6 trillion in new tax revenues taken from top earners, and to cut 10-year deficits overall by $4 trillion, including $400 billion in savings from Medicare and Medicaid in Obama’s budget."

11/30/2012 2:42:37 AM

One hurdle passed. Still a lot to do for this term to be a success.

1/3/2013 10:01:22 PM

What's the over/under on number of American citizens he will assassinate in his 2nd term?

1/3/2013 10:30:07 PM