Kerry - 1, Bush - 0

To sum up my response to the debate tonight:

Bush said, "The majority of Iraq wants elections." I replied, "No, they want running water."

Kerry didn't land any major body blows, although there were a couple good lines opposing Bush. He also didn't offer much new and substantive that favored him. Bush, on the other hand, seemed unprepared, stumbling, angry, and defensive. Several times Bush broke the roles to rebut Kerry without the moderator's okay and wasn't very coherent even when did rebut.

If I ignored Bush's performance stylistically, I'd say the debate was largely a tie. This is what CNN started off with in its reviews. But when you consider Bush was defensive most of the debate, you have to give Kerry a small edge.

Most other bloggers I've looked at, and some of the instant polls being done, are saying the same thing - Kerry won this debate.

I'm Back

Crossing my fingers, I do believe my computer problems are over, with some house cleaning and a replacement tower doing the trick. Meanwhile:

1) It appears I am hitting the campaign trail in the Carolinas for the DSCC as a GOTV volunteer, much like my stint in New Jersey in 2002, for the week before the election. I'll let you know more as I do.

2) No word yet from the lit agent whether they liked the manuscript or not. But an early reply would likely be a rejection, so maybe my odds are improving.

3) My employer and the union that represents me has reached a tentative agreement on a 5-year contract. All told, I could be receiving a decent pay increase this year and a 5-year guarantee on no health care premiums. If you care to know, I'll let you know when it's agreed to.

MoveOn Has It Right

In a print advertisement appearing in the New York Times, MoveOn.org finally got something right.

That is, that Gallup has recently decided that the partisan makeup of the electorate, since the Republican convention, has shifted more decisively to the Republicans than even in the 2002 midterms. Gallup expects likely voters to consist of 40% Republicans, and 33% Democrats. This generates a 52%-44% lead for President Bush in a recent poll.

However, as myDD points out, if you weight the partisan split to match the 2000 election (much closer to the likely outcome than a midterm election), then the 52%-44% margin becomes a 46%-50%. Nonpartisan indeed.

What's worse is that Gallup has been the consistent pro-Bush outlier in most polls since Kerry picked Edwards in early July.

I really hope that blows up in their faces as much as the mid-term results blew up in everyone's faces.

Ken's Top Democratic Dozen

Hey, I just posted a fundraising page for my favorites among Democrats. Included are 2 Senate candidates and 10 congressional candidates - all of these candidates represent tough districts and states to win in, but currently have a good chance.

I may also post a "second tier" page. But right now, just consider this my fun project. If you are a deep partisan for Democrats - at least more than I am even close to being - then browse the page.

It is located here.

Bush's Uncontrollable Spin Machine

Something on CNN's American Morning show today really bothered me. For the umpteenth time that I can remember, the White House Communications Director was stepping in to talk about foreign policy as it relates to the presidential campaign. Here are a couple problems with his appearances:

1) As a campaign issue, why the hell is the White House staff and not the campaign staff doing the Bush campaign spin work? Isn't there a degree of separation from the government paid staffers and the political hacks?

2) As a foreign policy matter, why is Bush sending his communications director to spar with a Kerry aide who happens to be a subject matter expert?

3) Doesn't sending a press guy to compete with a policy guy make it look like all Bush wants to do is spin his way out of an issue rather than take it on directly?

It's very troubling to me that the Bush campaign would rather deal in the art of communications rather than the science of policy when it comes to foreign affairs questions in this election season.

What's in a headline?

Kerry has attempted to deflect the CBS scandal away from him (because the source of the documents allegedly had CBS set up a meeting between him and the Kerry camp).

One might say that Kerry denies that there was a link between his campaign and the scandalous reporting by CBS.

Instead, the right-wing Washington Times goes with the headline "Kerry camp rejects CBS link." Small semantics, to be sure, but "rejects CBS link" implies that there was once a link and now they are pulling away from it. Perhaps they meant "rejects charge of CBS link" - which would be closer to the truth.

Okay, maybe I am a bit paranoid or a bit too moderate to accept it as conincidence and not subtlety. But that headline could have been better written and less misleading - if objective journalism was the goal at the Washington Times.

I hate FedEx and Dell

I am not usually the kind of Democrat to complain about corporations, but FedEx and Dell are the worst. Don't get me wrong, FedEx is usually swift in delivery and Dell makes a good computer product. But...

FedEx ships Express only on weekdays, and only during regular business hours. And when it comes to dropping off something at my apartment, they insist on giving it to me personally, refuses to leave it in front of my door, or at the front desk. Either they hand it off to me personally during regular work hours during regular work days, or they insist on my coming down to their office to pick it up. Who the hell do they think they are? You can't ship to someone's home during work hours and expect us to be there. If all their customers were at home during the day, chances are they'd have no customers who can afford their service!

For three weeks now, on three separate occassions, a part of my Dell computer has broken down and made it unable to power back on. It takes me up to 15 minutes to get through to someone on Tech Support, and another hour to get them to replace the part. But that's all they do. Rather than figuring out the cause of the problem and provide a permanent solution, they just replace the damaged part, which proceeds to break down 2 or 3 days later. So, assuming I can get through to Tech Support on the first try, I can safely use a functioning computer for 2 or 3 days, fight for at least a day to have a replacement part shipped, and another 2-3 days before the part is installed by a dispatcher. My computer, for the last month, has been on for all of maybe a week. And no one at Dell can explain what's causing the repetitive problem in the hopes of stopping a future call to Tech Support. I only have a cell phone dammit, and can't affort 90 minutes chats with technicians in India! Err...

Thanks for reading these anti-corporate rants.

Brad Carson for Senate

I don't normally endorse candidates outside of Florida unless they have national prominence. Brad Carson, the Democrat running for a U.S. Senate seat in Oklahoma, is a worthy exception.

His Republican opponent, former Congressman Tom Coburn, fumbled away an easy win for Governor two years ago with his right-wing and even more bizarre comments. An Independent two years ago took 13% of the vote, and the Democrat squeezed to a hugely upsetting victory.

Coburn's back again, along with his marvelous gaffes. Like the one where he thinks abortion doctors should be given the death penalty - except he himself performed abortions before becoming a politician! He's also insulted the Native American population, and attacked Oklahoma's unseemly but necessary desire for more federal aid in the form of "pork barrel" legislation.

Carson, on the other hand, is a likable moderate-to-conservative Democrat who represents eastern Oklahoma in Congress. And he's a Native American, to boot. He's the best chance in a decade for the Democrats to win a Senate seat from Oklahoma, and I urge you all to help him out! Or at least visit his website and give him a look over.

9/11 Memorial

Yes, I was remiss in not noting the 3rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. But then, there was nothing to report on them that others weren't already doing, so why waste my breath?

50 days until Election Day...

A Reason for the Hurricanes

Enough said.

Computer Ups and Downs

On Wednesday of last week, my Dell computer developed a faulty power supply unit. On that Friday, Dell sent someone over to replace it. By Monday morning, after turning it off Sunday night, its supply unit was faulty again. Dell finally came out this morning, and after replacing the unit and the motherboard, it's back up again. Needless to say, I am not turning this thing off again!

Hurricane Ivan

The third large hurricane to hit my home state of Florida, Ivan, is barreling down just after Frances invaded a little over a week. My family has survived, albeit without power during the storm and a flood in our 5-acre property, but is wary of another one.

The interesting side note is the son of my mother's longtime boyfriend/fiance is named Ivan. Coincidence?

Voice Party Revival

In 2001, I was chairman of a Voice party in student government elections at the University of Florida. Our party lost the election, 39-1, against a Fusion Party that had merged itself with a bitter rival from the last campaign, SUN.

Now, three years later, history is very close to repeating itself. Currently, Access - which won despite not being backed by the larger and more powerful greek houses - is very close to merging with its bitter rival, Innovate. And a Voice party has been formed in an effort to retain Access's more independent legacy, although it has hopes that its running in the fall won't be necessary.

Moral of the story? As many years as go by, UF changes very little in the broad brushstrokes. It's only in the details that things seem to be that much different.