Political Betting, not as dull a blog as it sounds, carries an extraordinary statistic, which suggests to me that there must be something deeply unattractive about Mitt Romney which I have not noticed, or that socialists in Other Countries somehow don't bother conservatives in Britain in the way that imbeciles like Kinnock or creeps like Brown do. Either that, or they have not been concentrating during the past 4 years during which Obama has tried his hardest to turn America into a Big Government entitlements culture along the lines of France. He would have got further than he has, had he not suffered a disastrous setback in the midterm elections of 2010, when he lost the House to the Republicans and presided over the biggest midterm loss since 1938.
Here's the statistic from Political Betting:
In Britain 86% of Con supporters would choose Obama over Romney / 95% Lab / 96% Lib Dem @YouGov #stat2watchpic.twitter.com/rZyEs0jF
I just don't get it. Logic tells you that the majority of Conservative supporters in Britain would instinctively recognise, in America, that Republicans are the conservatives over there. True, Dubya Bush and von Rumsfeld might have been a bit too bloody in tooth and claw for them, but Romney is a moderate Republican. The guy won the governorship of Massachusetts, for heaven's sake! He is no redneck. He may be very rich, but he's no Michael Bloomberg. He may have dissed London's preparations for the Olympics, and been proved wrong, but there are worse things: Obama returned the bust of Churchill to the British Embassy in Washington and then described France as America's closest ally, or something equally lunatic. He thumbed his nose at Britain, and most sentient Conservatives would have noticed, and remembered.
And just how much does the average Conservative know about Obama? Or Chicago politics? These are deep and murky waters. He seems a cool enough dude to me but he's a socialist and has managed to get the US debt up to $16 trillion, which means spending tax not yet taken from generations not yet born on a scale not hitherto attempted. This is neither caring, compassionate, nor progressive, as Mark Steyn points out in After America in a way that will make your hair bristle.
Romney might not win on Tuesday but this is obviously a very close election and it is always hard to depose the incumbent, particularly one so loved by the (overwhelmingly) liberal media in America. He seems decent and sensible and he looks a better CEO for a country that simply has to get more realistic about how to pay its way and compete with the emerging countries, which America has done so much to free from despots and pursue popular liberal democracy.
86% of Conservative voters really want Obama? I'm staggered.
13 comments:
Obama is obviously spreading the European disease throughout the U.S. Another four years of him and there economy will be just as sclerotic!
A confession.
I hoped Obama would win in 2008.
I stayed up to watch the tear stained, lycra bumed African American women weeping at history in the making.
And it did feel good. To see the Premier Inn of nations vote against its insane war making,'F**k You' policies of the previous 6 years.
Obama could be the unifier. The man to bring the USA back into the polite society of the European court.Someone who could look at the West vs the East and help shape the future.
There were many, many warnings that he was just 'Tony Blair MkII.'
I didn't think that would matter too much. Like a first term Blair i thought he'd have so much support he could achieve anything he wanted.
Yet,exactly like a first term Blair, he achieved almost nothing at all.
For a man who was almost a saint when he took office to now have to be grubbing about in the potato fields of Iowa to scrape the 10,000 desperate swing votes he needs to retain power is incredible.
He should have been so far ahead by now that the legislature decide to call the election result a forgone conclusion before SANDY and give everyone a week off to celebrate.
He must have done an awful lot wrong. Because he still has all the aces and he's really struggling. The US system favours the incumbent way more even than the UK system favours the left.
I hope Dave is watching. Its not just about being a nice guy Dave. You have to be effective too.
Obama is a huge disappointment, which I was already prepared for domestically, but globally he should and could have forged a new consensus.
I can only apologise Idle. I must have watched too much west wing.
I don't expect the British electorate to know too much about the presidential election but even a cursory glance at the candidates history and stances would make any decent person run screaming from Obama....everything about the man is dangerous and corrupt.
Bill...you should apologise indeed, Obama made it clear pre 2008 election in his own biography just what type of man he is...hiding in plain sight, a race mongering alinskyite radical.
There are some very scary youtube videos of Obama talking about taxing coal fired power stations out of existence.
OT Idle, I have to eat my words,yet again. We have just had an offer accepted on a house in Wiltshire...I will have to be nice about the county now.
I'll give you a clue... a military market town ... that should narrow it down a bit :-). I shall have to get a proper display cabinet for my bit of Greenham perimeter fencing.
As with the Left and British politics, so it is with Obama - that he is an enemy of the basic tenets of liberty is blindingly obvious, but because he is also the Messiah, it doesn't matter. It seems to me that whatever ones' position in the life stakes, if one is not free nothing else truly matters; that the USA has rolled over whilst Obama has trashed the Constitution is quite alarming. As is how the Left adore him - if I make any criticism of him to my American friends they jump on me big time. Frankly, the man creeps me out, and the Benghazi fiasco confirms my belief that he is an arsehole of the first degree; his getting into bed with the Muslim Brotherhood also confirms that he is an idiot. A dangerous idiot, but nonetheless an idiot.
Idle, why are youse surprised? Conservative supporters are so stupid they elected a pinko EU-supporting big-spending tree hugging husky hugging leftie as their leader, despite professing to stand for the exact opposite.
I don't watch US TV but if it is anything like the BBC (leftist) then I can see how difficult it would be for Republicans.
Those in support of Obama here see it through the prism of the BBC camera.
I was watching Breakfast TV this morning on IDS's child benefit reforms and both the presenters and the opponent to IDS (his representative) seemed to gang up against the reforms.
It is so difficult for the government not to sound nasty. It is virtually impossible to state honestly "If you can't afford to have children then the state can only go so far in supporting them."
or (counter to the argument from the left that 'children are our future') "There are certain people we would do well to discourage reproducing in large numbers."
The BBC is relentless. These perfectly logical reforms were made to look ridiculous on this morning's show. I can see how Conservatives might run scared. IDS's man was virtually asked by the BBC presenters "You can't really be serious about this, can you ?"
This issue is key to getting Britain out of the mire. If we don't do it we can't recover.
Now project this institutionalised BBC leftism across to the coverage of the US election trail:
I'd say that Conservative supporters are confusing two things (having been so conditioned as not to realise that they are being manipulated.
Electability set within the parameters of BBC acceptable policies as opposed to a truly free political range.
Psychologically most Conservative voters are now squeezed into a box. The range of political options is limited to BBC politics - they see candidates within those limits and anyone who strays out of them is viewed as wayward and a risk.
Some Conservatives may be excercising some pragmatism "The reality is that we can no longer have 'radical' right wingers in power. The post revolution media won't allow it." But I think the reality is that most of us have been so conditioned that we can no longer see the truth.
Obama conforms to the BBC identikit. As does Cameron. That's why we have him.
I liked what the man on the New York Street said this morning, "The free market works. Obama socialism will take us the way of Spain, Greece or even Great Britain and I don't want us to go there."
I think the whole of the West will go the same way in fact. Leftism is soft but suffocating. It is very hard to get out of and gets everywhere. Rather like a warm duvee on a cold morning.
Thank you all for your comments. I have been away in North Wales helping them with their pheasant problem.
BQ, you are forgiven. A lot of folk got excited by Obama in 2008 in a way which they subsequently became rather reticent about. A bit like going to see your tailor when inebriated and ending up with a shooting suit one can barely face wearing.
I had a conversation with one of our occasional commentors on this blog over dinner on Saturday night, whose strong support for Obama and distaste for Romney/Ryan appeared, under questioning, to be based upon a loathing of American religious people. In other words, given that liberal America is more secular than god-fearin' Suthners in the Red States, he chooses the Democrats. I saw this as a poor yardstick to judge presidential candidates (or more likely, an excuse NOT to judge the candidates on their merits).
I am now expecting an Obama victory, even if the small leads he has in the swing states are all within the margin of error. But he will be a lame-duck president, having lost most of the large margin of victory in 2008, most of the goodwill that came with it, and having put the American economy into the hands of the Chinese - so great is the US debt, so great the reliance upon Chinese purchases of US bonds, we are approaching a point where China may choose to stop buying those bonds. My guess is that this won't happen until domestic consumption in China grows to two thirds of the economy (it's currently around 40%, which is very low and makes China reliant, in turn, upon the West's purchases of its exports).
Where the Dollar goes, there goes America. The US can cope with a weak Dollar, a policy they currently pursue, but a crashed Dollar? That's another story.
America needs a businessman, and fast.
No, no. What they need is a "community organiser". Or a lawyer.
The quite bizarre but huge outpouring of support for chick fil a a few months back suggests a large amount of highly motivated anti obama statist types, I think a victory for Mitt is more than likely.
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