Second Quiz and Suggested Answers

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johnkarls
Posts: 2033
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Second Quiz and Suggested Answers

Post by johnkarls »

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August 3 weekly e-mail to our 130 subscribers =

Dear Friends,

(Information about August 13th meeting omitted).

Attached are suggested answers to the July 20th quiz based on our book and the July 27th quiz based primarily on recent news accounts.

The reasons for posing the second set of questions are (1) to gain an appreciation of how difficult it may be for Barack to be elected, and (2) to put us in a proper frame of mind to spend part of our meeting on August 13th functioning as a focus group that might achieve some insights worth sharing with friends and acquaintances (after all, there are no more than "six degrees of separation" between us and 100% of the American electorate) AND PERHAPS EVEN APPROPRIATE CAMPAIGN OFFICIALS.

We hope you will join us on Aug 13th as a volunteer “focus group” that helps the American electorate and campaign officials brainstorm these looming obstacles to Barack’s election.

(Full disclosure – as a fellow Harvard Law graduate and a person who has worked extensively “in the trenches” (co-founder 30 years ago of the first homeless shelter in Fairfield County CT, sponsor and chief benefactor of an “I Have A Dream” project that provided tutoring/mentoring for 200 housing project kids as they progressed from third grade through high school with a guarantee of college tuition, and volunteer treasurer during the 1990’s of Eugene Lang’s national “I Have A Dream” foundation that oversaw 180 similar projects in 50 American cities), I HAVE SAID MANY TIMES (SEVERAL ON OUR BULLETIN BOARD) THAT I CANNOT HELP BUT WORSHIP SOMEONE WHO WAS PRESIDENT OF THE HARVARD LAW REVIEW AND THEN TURNED HIS BACK ON A LUCRATIVE LEGAL CAREER TO CHAMPION THE CAUSE OF THE RESIDENTS OF OUR COUNTRY’S WORST GHETTOS!!!)

Your friend,

John K.

PS - To un-subscribe, please press "reply" and type "deletion requested."

PPS - To register for posting comments on our bulletin board (http://www.drinkingliberallyslc.org/reading), please press "reply" and type "registration requested" with a suggested user id and password.

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Second Short Quiz – 27 July 2008
(based on current news accounts)
Suggested Answers


Question No. 1

What is a "wedge issue"?

Suggested Answer No. 1

A “wedge issue” is one that divides the base of a particular party.

Question No. 2

On what two wedge issues did Barack and Congressional Democrats cave in this summer in an attempt to remove them from the fall election campaigns?

Suggested Answer No. 2

They caved in on the issue of warrantless wiretaps (i.e., the renewal of the Patriot Act). The last remaining aspect of the renewal on which Democrats were making a “last stand” was whether telephone companies that had cooperated with the warrantless wiretaps immediately following 9/11 would be given legal immunity. Democrats caved on this as well.

The second wedge issue on which Barack and Congressional Democrats caved in this summer was on whether any conditions would be imposed in the funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – such as a withdrawal timetable. No conditions were imposed on funding through 2009.

Question No. 3

On what remaining wedge issue is the Congressional Democratic leadership desperately trying to prevent a vote because "Blue Dog" Democrats would vote with Republicans?

Suggested Answer No. 3

U.S. off-shore drilling in any state that consents to it, as proposed by John McCain and the Republicans.

Polling shows that gasoline prices are now the Number 1 political issue, followed by national security. And polling shows that the overwhelming majority of the public favors offshore drilling. As a result of which the “Blue Dog” Democrats (who are quite conservative because they are Senators from conservative states or Congress-persons from conservative districts) would vote with the Republicans. So far, the Democratic leadership (which is quite liberal because they are elected in Democratic caucuses in which the “Blue Dogs” are in the minority) have succeeded in imposing procedural rules that prevent any vote on offshore drilling.

Question No. 4

According to psychological studies, what is the greatest traumatic event for American males after their 30th birthday? What is its significance for the 2008 Presidential election?

Suggested Answer No. 4

When, for the first time, there is elected a U.S. President who is younger than the American male, thereby making him feel “all washed up”!!!

Only John Kennedy and Bill Clinton during the last 60 years were younger than all of their predecessors.

Whenever there is a possibility that this will happen, there are plenty of articles in the psychology magazines about this phenomenon. AND HOW IT CAUSES AFFECTED AMERICAN MALES TO SUBCONSCIOUSLY REACH FOR THE “OLD GUY” LEVER!!!

Question No. 5

Who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on European Affairs including NATO matters? How many meetings has this subcommittee had? What is the significance of this?

Suggested Answer No. 5

Barack Obama.

None.

Barack has begun claiming that more troops need to be sent to Afghanistan. But he was derided by John McCain for not visiting Afghanistan (and Iraq) and, following his recent trip there, continues to be derided for traveling to Afghanistan on a “fact finding tour” when Afghanistan is a NATO operation and Barack should already have known all about it from chairing his dormant committee.

Question No. 6

What topic will dominate the headlines from September 15th through election day?

Suggested Answer No. 6

The military tribunal of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and several of his colleagues. In preliminary proceedings, they have won permission to represent themselves. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has already announced that he intends to use his trial for publicity purposes and wants to be executed!!!

The last potential delay for the military tribunals of KSM and his colleagues was cleared away when a U.S. District Court Judge in Washington DC refused last month to grant an injunction against another military tribunal that had already begun against Osama bin Laden’s driver – on the grounds that the U.S. Supreme Court had already considered the issue of military tribunals and ordered that Congress had to approve the rules for the tribunals, that Congress had then done so, and that any objections to what Congress had done could be raised on appeal if ObL’s driver is convicted (together with whatever other objections ObL’s driver might have concerning the conduct of the trial itself).

Question No. 7

Who is forced to choose his Vice Presidential running mate first?

Suggested Answer No. 7

Barack Obama – because the Democratic Convention precedes the Republican Convention.

Question No. 8

Who does Tom Brokaw (per his comments while hosting Meet the Press) think are likely Vice Presidential running mates?

Suggested Answer No. 8

Carly Fiorina – top McCain economics adviser and Chair of the RNC’s Victory Committee. As Vice President of AT&T in 1996, she directed the strategy and implementation of the Lucent spin-off, which is often called the most successful IPO in history. In 1998, Fortune Magazine called her the “most powerful woman in business.” In 1999, she became CEO of Hewlitt-Packard where she had a wildly successful tenure at HP (although its stock price did decline during the “dot-com crash”) – constantly being called a “rock star” CEO by business publications and engineering the wildly-successful acquisition of Compaq. However, like George Steinbrenner and Donald Trump, the Hewlitts demonstrated that they have no tolerance for HP executives who up-stage their bosses.

And first-term Senator Clair McCaskill (D-MO) who entered the Senate only 1.5 years ago after serving as Missouri State Auditor.

Tom Brokaw featured them on Meet the Press on 13 July 2008. He made numerous comments indicating his belief that both of them were on the “short list” for the V.P. nominations of their respective parties (though several of these comments were omitted from the official transcript).

Question No. 9

What is the significance of Q&A 8 and 9?

Suggested Answer No. 9

Polling shows that women who supported Hillary Clinton despair that there is “anyone else in the pipeline” to break the “glass ceiling” at the White House.

Most political commentators believe that Barack would not be able to select Hillary as his running mate without destroying his message of “change.” And it would appear that choosing Sen. Clair McCaskill who entered the Senate only 1.5 years ago (prior to which she was the Missouri State Auditor) would add to the issue of Barack’s experience, the issue of Clair’s experience.

Accordingly, it would appear that Barack will be forced to choose a male.

That would open the door for John McCain to choose Carly Fiorina in an attempt to woo female Democratic supporters of Hillary Clinton. Carly has impeccable business/economics credentials and, as VP of one large multi-national and CEO of another, has substantial international experience as well.

And her interview by Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press shows that she is very diplomatic, forthright, knowledgeable, forceful and eloquent. Indeed, looking at the videotape (vs. merely reading the transcript) shows that Tom Brokaw began realizing that his normally-penetrating questions were making him look foolish because Carla is an expert on the economy and Tom is not.

Question No. 10

What does the early polling for the Presidential campaign imply when combined with a constant feature of the polling during the Democratic primary campaign?

Suggested Answer No. 10

As if on cue, The Chris Matthews Show which aired last Sunday several hours after this quiz was sent with our weekly e-mail, addressed the issue of race in the Presidential race with four top political reporters.

They agreed that the impact of Barack Obama’s race is impossible to measure with polling because so many voters lie to pollsters to cover up their attitudes.

In many of the Democratic primaries, virtually all of the “undecided” voters went for Hillary Clinton AS DID EVEN A FEW PERCENTAGE POINTS OF BARACK’S SUPPORT AS MEASURED BY POLLS!!!

If the election were held today as the polls typically show Barack leading by 0% to 2% with 10% undecided and the undecideds (and perhaps 1% to 2% of Barack’s supporters) went for McCain, there would be a landslide that could only be compared to Franklin Roosevelt during the depression and Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

Pat
Site Admin
Posts: 170
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:11 pm

August 3rd Chris Matthews Show Re-Confirmation Re Answer 10

Post by Pat »

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Editorial Comment –

Suggested answer 10 in the Second Quiz stated in part that on July 27th Chris Matthews and his four top-reporter guests “agreed that the impact of Barack Obama’s race is impossible to measure with polling because so many voters lie to pollsters to cover up their attitudes.”

As if to make sure that viewers had not missed this point, the following week (August 3rd) Chris Matthews made this issue the “Big Question” (the last feature of his weekly Sunday morning Chris Matthews Show on NBC). There follows the official transcript of that feature, in which Chris and the same four guests as the week before, re-affirmed their belief that polling is unreliable because of Barack’s race.


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MATTHEWS: Welcome back.

This week's BIG QUESTION, are voters misleading pollsters if they don't want Obama on racial grounds? In other words, can we trust the polls or are they unreliable because voters aren't honest about race? Gloria?

Ms. BORGER: I think generally they're not reliable. However, you see them all over the lot. In certain states, more voters say race matters than in--than in other states. So I don't know what...

MATTHEWS: No, can you trust when they say who they're going to vote for?

Ms. BORGER: Probably not. Probably not.

Mr. ROBINSON: Sometimes yes, sometimes no. This whole--the whole way people are seeing race in this campaign, it's--you know, we keep taking slices of the salami--we keep taking snapshots--it's changing. It changes from week to week.

MATTHEWS: It changes from Saturday night to Tuesday.

Mr. ROBINSON: So even the timeline is unreliable.

Ms. BUMILLER: No, I don't think people are honest. I think it's very hard to admit in a phone call, even to somebody you've never met before and you can't see, what you really, really think if you feel it's somehow racist.

Mr. KLEIN: Well, I think that, you know, there is a so-called Bradley effect but this year there's also a Barack effect, where in places--we've seen in states like Iowa--where you get a tidal wave of voters who are new voters, young, black, coming out and are skewing the, you know, the results...

MATTHEWS: Yeah.

Mr. KLEIN: ...you see in polls.

MATTHEWS: So, in other words, we may get a bad sample in our polling.

Mr. KLEIN: Right.

MATTHEWS: (Unintelligible)...I think there's a Bradley effect.

Thanks to a great roundtable: Gloria Borger, Eugene Robinson, Elisabeth Bumiller and Joe Klein.

And that's the show. Thanks for watching. To catch a webcast of this show, however, go to thechrismatthewsshow.com. See you next week.

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