Strange how America seems so split over it’s potential next leader. To the rest of the world, it all seems very obvious…
If all else fails today, it seems as if Obama could happily slip into a job as President of France…
What has this to do with urban design on New Zealand? Well, nothing much really. Except that Europe’s push for austerity cuts seems to be failing at a faster rate than America’s push for jobs growth isn’t working… just very thankful that no matter how screwed uop our country is, it is currently nowhere like as badly messed up as Europe is. And that if NZ had a chance for a leader as charismatic as Obama is, we’d grab him with open arms. Instead we have…. sigh, bigger sigh, and really big sigh leading the country, with little sigh tagging along – and in opposition we have, well, more sighs…
I mean, after all:
(click here for link)
And Labour has anything better?
Best of luck to Obama though. The US economy will be seriously f***ed if Romney gets in.
Seamonkey – that’s why I said: “and in opposition we have, well, more sighs…”
“What has this to do with urban design on New Zealand? Well, nothing much really”
Much like this site in general nowadays, which is real pity because it was really good for a short while.
Settle down, foo.
Like an ageing stripper, Max works very hard for not many eyeballs.
It never ceases to amaze me how someone who pays absolutely nothing to read this site, who contributes nothing meaningful in commentary, seem to be an expert on what content should be on the blog. Hey foo – foo you too.
No, foo is right, whoever it is – this site has changed over the years as people have come and gone. Always looking for new writers. But most of all, always looking for subjects – and time. Need more buildings to review – which means that you guys need to build more.
Also – might have to change my self-imposed rule that I won’t comment on things I don’t like. I’m open to foo writing a column if he or she wants to – hell, someone has to, if it is to keep going – we’re coming up to 5 whole years soon, which is like an eternity in internet years. Entire corporations have come and gone bust in that time. Millions of things have been bought and sold in 5 years. Little Fish are now 5 years older.
60 – thank you for the (ummmm) compliment! You guessed my day job!
Well, exactly.
But I can’t help feeling we sprats could do a bit more.
Sorry about the stripper line Max, shall we say exotic dancer? Nice tattoos, by the way..
This election was a victory for the Moneyball-style nerds like Nate Silver and a disaster for Rove, Morris and Fox News. Obama used “nudge” style campaign targeting effectively. Note a top Google operator skilled in what they call A/B testing went to the Dems campaign early on in the piece.
The next thing to see is if the GOP pushes back from the Tea Party, Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Bros and goes back to the centre where, surprise surprise, the frickin votes are.
Fox captured them for coverage and advertising and sold them a load of hooey – either the scales will fall from their eyes and they’ll start cooperating before the fiscal cliff is here or they’ll double down on the propaganda and burn the unbelievers.
In other news, pot is legal in a Colorado and Washington state and first gay female senator elected plus marriage equality in two states so far
Could’ve been a helluva lot worse
“Ohio really did go to President Obama last night. And he really did win. And he really was born in Hawaii. And he really is legitimately President of the United States. Again. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make up a fake unemployment rate last month. And the Congressional Research Service really can find no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy. And the polls were not skewed to oversample Democrats. And Nate Silver was not making up fake projections about the election to make conservatives feel bad. Nate Silver was doing math. And climate change is real. And rape really does cause pregnancy sometimes. And evolution is a thing! And Benghazi was an attack ON us, it was not a scandal BY us. And nobody is taking away anyone’s guns. And taxes have not gone up. And the deficit is dropping, actually. And Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. And the moon landing was real. And FEMA is not building concentration camps. And UN election observers are not taking over Texas. And moderate reforms of the regulations on the insurance industry and the financial services industry in this country are not the same thing as Communism.
Listen. Last night was a good night for liberals and for Democrats for very obvious reasons. But it was also, possibly, a good night for this country as a whole. Because in this country we have a two party system, in government. And the idea is supposed to be that the two sides both come up with ways to confront and fix the real problems facing our country. They both propose possible solutions to our real problems. And we debate between those possible solutions. And by the process of debate, we pick the best idea. That competition between good ideas, from both sides, about real problems in the real country should result in our country having better choices, better options, than if only one side is really working on the hard stuff. And if the Republican party, and the conservative movement, and the conservative media is stuck in a vacuum sealed, door locked, spin cycle of telling each other what makes them feel good, and denying the factual, lived truth of the world, then we are all deprived, as a nation, of the constructive debate between competing, feasible ideas about real problems.
Last night the Republicans got shellacked. And they had no idea it was coming. And we saw them, in real time, in real humiliating time, not believe it even as it was happening to them. And unless they’re going to secede, they’re going to have to pop the factual bubble they have been so happy living inside, if they do not want to get shellacked again. And that will be a painful process for them, I’m sure, but it will be good for the whole country – left, right, and center. You guys, we’re counting on you. Wake up.
There’s real problems in the world. There are real knowable facts in the world. Let’s accept those and talk about how we might approach our problems differently. Let’s move on from there. If the Republican party, and the conservative movement, and conservative media are forced to do that by the humiliation they were dealt last night, we will all be better off as a nation. And in that spirit, congratulations everybody. Big night.â€