Bill McDonald

...there's little or no difference between [Charles Lewis] and Amanda Fritz...

East-side streetcar?

I wrote you in Jack. Sorry.

Cast my votes and dropped off my ballot yesterday. I don't live in Portland now but I really appreciate you guidance on all those measures which I fall asleep trying to read.
I keep thinking that if McLame should cheat and win I will be moving north of the US border permanently. I will no longer feel secure in the USA.
I am hopeful that Barack will win AND be a truly great POTUS.

Is Smith really a friend to the Bush administration? I thought his stance on the war and the Alberto Gonzales firing made him somewhat dead to Bush. Certainly the Dems want him out of there in order to increase their #'s, but I guess I never saw him as a Bush lapdog.

Congratulations, "portland native!" You are officially the ten millionth person to make a claim on the internet or at a cocktail party since 2000 that you plan to move to Canada or Europe should a Republican win the White House. I'm scared that our entire infrastructure will collapse if such a mass exodus occurs.

And of course the only way the Republican can win is by cheating?

I wrote you in Jack. Sorry.

I wrote you in too, Jack.

...there's little or no difference between [Charles Lewis] and Amanda Fritz...

East-side streetcar?

Ever since Jim Francesconi bought him lunch, Lewis is all for it. And I'm not at all confident that Amanda will actively resist boondoggles like that one, either. Certainly she's had enough time to look at it and say unequivocally that she'll fight it, and of course, she hasn't said that at all.

Is Smith really a friend to the Bush administration?

Only 90% of the time.

I'm not voting for Merkley. He ran a nasty primary campaign and I haven't seen anything from him that would make me want to vote for him. I'll wait and see if the Dems nominate someone better next time.

I established a policy of forcing the challenger to give me a reason to vote FOR them instead of telling me why I should vote AGAINST the incumbent. In my mind, Merkley failed to do that. My vote went to Smith.

Regarding Fritz and Lewis.

One thing I learned two years ago is that if you really want to win, you become very malleable. You start saying the things that the particular audience wants to hear. You start to go with the grain.

I didn't have a tinker's dam chance of winning in '06. I knew that. That allowed me to say what I thought consistently. It was pretty much against the grain of the majority opinion around here, but I thought it had to get out.

I will never run for political office again. It's a dirty, thankless, sleazy task. If you're serious about it, you have to sell you soul. I sleep well at night, so I don't need it.

But the bottom line is somebody's gotta do it. So just recognize that they play the game the way they do because they have to. Fritz or Lewis. Smith or Merkely. Obama or McCain. These people are driven by ego. What they say they will do has absolutely no bearing on what they will really do, and then next election cycle they will say it all over again. Look at Sten. Look at Saltzman. Look at Bush for chrissake.

If there is anybody I actually admire, it's Tom Potter. He and I have had a lot of disagreements, but he realized he woke up in a snake pit and he decided he didn't want to stay there. More power to him.

So pick the lesser of the evils. This will be behind us soon and we can get back to our lives. And the nation, state and city will survive, regardless of the outcome.

I established a policy of forcing the challenger to give me a reason to vote FOR them instead of telling me why I should vote AGAINST the incumbent. In my mind, Merkley failed to do that.

Hell, if the TV ads are any indication, everyone running for office failed to do that.

I established a policy of forcing the challenger to give me a reason to vote FOR them instead of telling me why I should vote AGAINST the incumbent. In my mind, Merkley failed to do that. My vote went to Smith.

I totally understand voting on principle, but why then does your vote default to the other candidate? If I am not confident enough to vote for the candidate that I want to vote for (Merkley) then I'm not going to vote in that race.

If you're serious about it, you have to sell you soul. I sleep well at night, so I don't need it.

I don't think you have to sell your soul, though many do. And I don't think it is just about ego.

It's also not just about voting on principle, or conscience. Or living in a snake pit.

This is our country, our experiment, and the amazing thing is that we get to vote. When people denigrate that, we're losing sight of what's extraordinary about our democracy, and how we've evolved. Amanda running for Council, and Obama for president...how long ago was it that neither of them would have been allowed to vote, let alone run for office? I'd argue, even, that the biggest threat facing this country isn't the snake pit of politics, but the assault on our right to elect our representatives with our votes, something these last two presidential elections have seriously raised questions about, and the growing unease that our votes are not being counted properly

I'm not a fan of public financing of elections because I think it's failed as an experiment. Obama's running without it puts the final nail in that coffin, at least at the national level.

But for all its flaws, I don't think Amanda would be coming on our City Council without it. And I'll look forward to seeing if what she's able to contribute is worth the cost. I think it will be. And her integrity and thoughtfullness is worth your vote.

Whatever else, don't throw that vote away, or let them take it away from us. We've fought too damn hard to win that right to give it up so easily.

My Senate vote also went to Smith for the reasons stated above. I am a registered Dem.
Merkley's ugly campaign didn't jive with me. In the debates he didn't come across as genuine and knowledgable (on the spot) as Smith did. In tough times Smith stood up and had the balls to part with the GOP. Not so sure that Merkley will do that (part with the Dems) when things get real ugly, 'cause they are about to.

Merkley's ugly campaign didn't jive with me.

Come off it, friend -- Smith's was even uglier.

I don't quite get the "ugly" charge against the Merkley campaign. His ads were pretty tame, I thought. The ones from the independents were a little more biting (golf clubs, illegal workers) but not out of bounds. Smith's ads, "you sided with rapists" and Capitol office furniture, came directly from the Smith campaign and were sleazy with a capital S. Maybe I don't watch enough TV--did I miss something that offended people?

abs said:If I am not confident enough to vote for the candidate that I want to vote for (Merkley) then I'm not going to vote in that race.

I was confident enough in Smith to vote for him. I would have liked it if Merkely had given me reason to vote for him, but he didn't. Strange, but this was the only R vote I cast. I don't know what it is about Merkely, but I just don't like him.

Somewhere among mapping the "loose ends" of the political landscape, we could draw out the unscrewed canons shot from the lips of LIARS.

The man is either not sleeping at night or is on doubled dosage of those medications that keep kool-aid-soaked wetheads from exploding. Even through his delerium fog, though, (or hysterical insomnia, whatever), that LIARS fool goes on slopping out his trademark.

So far LIARS has stained his endorsement Smear of Political Death lipshtick on several -- yet not enough! -- wacko rightwing ideas and candidates. Notably that goofgoon Gordo, who shunned listening to LIARS all year until September, when he phoned in to hear LIARS question "whether Smith is still hiring undocumented workers, or has quit it."

Yesterday, LIARS lobbed another soft spitball for Sizemore to swing with: "B.S., why don't you openly admit you illegally spent non-profit funds for personal luxuries -- completely disarm your detractors, put the matter to rest ... wouldn't that get this lawsuit behind you and you could move on?"

Today's dizzy self-spinning LIARS said, "Yeah, I say my hate and anger, at the popular movement to take more taxes from rich fat rats, but doggonnit, we can just pack it up and abandon this State [n.b. he already has] if they take my way of life away, you betcha. It's all that odius Obama's fault, he's not even the same parentage as real Americans."

And, (today), stewed and steamed with a caller's (false) reported sighting of an 'Execute Bush and Cheney' window sign in Beaverton, (maybe some sign said 'Prosecute'), LIARS promised he "will always go hard after anyone who raises such talk, and sic the Secret Service on them;" although neither LIARS nor SSers disapproved of Rash Lamebrain, Nov. 5, 1992, (Loser Day for Bushbutcher I), violently voicing over the 2nd-hour outro music: "Bill Clinton does not deserve to be President. Somebody should just go shoot ... oh, nevermind, I could get in trouble for what I'm thinking."

The No News is the good news, though -- LIARS this month has not once put his toxic tongue contamination around your blog name, Jack.

Anti-Obama Sign Fuels Debate, by David Hench, Portland Press Herald (Maine), October 23, 2008.
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Political experts say the image tries to convey a sense that Obama is not truly American. It also perpetuates the misperception by a large segment of the population that Obama is Muslim, said University of Maine political science professor Amy Fried. She said the negativity is unlikely to sway many people.

If Smith wins by incumbency default, he might be the one repub who prevents a filibuster proof Senate. It will take 9 switcheroos to happen. Merkley may not be as dynamic as I might hope as Smith's replacement, but Smith's lack of courage to vote his stated convictions is a tired refrain. His support of legislation for the off-shore banking industry should be the deal breaker for any fence straddlers. If you can't show Smith the money, forget about attracting his interest.

This site, Five Thirty Eight .COM -- sort of a Poll of Polls -- says Senator Merkley sticks a fork in El Gordo, The Gross One, he's done.

It says "Leaning Dem 68% Merkley." Whatever '68%' means.
Level of confidence?
Percent of counties? Cong.Dist?
Percentage of polls reporting Merkley?

What I know is two people who voted Gordo before, and now say no.

Tenksy,

I don't know what those numbers mean, or who they are polling to get them, but Rasmussen Reports (widely quoted among news agencies' polling) shows Merkley and Smith in a dead heat at 47%: link.

As we know from the Presidential polling, one poll's results might be diametrically opposed to another's. It's all hooey until Nov. 4.