Election Day, 2012

Suffice it to say, polls have shifted the president’s way since a week ago & my prediction below.

We’ll see what happens. Could go either way, could even still end up going the way I predicted, if Romney actually wins independent voters decisively.

Till tonight, this song seems apt.

Update, 1:45 PM: Win or lose, this piece reflects my view of the presidential campaign.

Pop Culture and Reality

Pop culture.

Reality.

#Trudeaupia

So yeah, Justin Trudeau is running.

I think it’s great. Why? The media attention is hilarious.

Paul Wells had some fun:

Colleagues at the sprawling Maclean’s nerve centre in downtown Ottawa note that we are sometimes asked why Maclean’s carries such a torch for Justin Trudeau. I hotly dispute the claim: that’s no torch, it’s more like a lighter, of the kind fans hold aloft whenever REO Speedwagon breaks into Can’t Fight This Feeling. Herewith, the greatest hits of our decade-long thing for Justin.

We can’t fight this feeling any more. We’ve forgotten what we started fighting for. It’s time to bring this ship into the shore.

And throw away the oars.

Forever.

It’s going to be so much fun.

That being said, I wouldn’t dismiss him out of hand. He thrives on being underestimated. Misunderestimated, you might even say…

Of course, there’s this.

We’ll see how he is on the trail.

Musical Interlude: Fly Over States

Heard this song at least ten times today while driving the Upper Midwest.

Well, we’ll see Fly Over Country fight the Bi-Coastal Elite again in the fall. And it’ll get bitter.

I like the song a lot, but the first verse annoys me — the cardboard cutouts up in the flight.

See, I have driven through Indiana. Haven’t seen a harvest moon in Kansas, but I’ve seen stuff in Tennessee and Texas.

Each part of the country (well, most) has its appeal. Even New York and California. I like California.

So could you try to avoid kicking them, in order to sing about the virtues of the middle of the country?

Update: Here’s where I was earlier — the Northwest Angle.

I didn’t realize how apt it was…

Remember how the Liberals were using “Jumpstart” in the last campaign?

Well:

Broke.
Ain’t got no money,
dont know where to go.
Just sittin’ staring at the stereo.
I think we better turn it UP, turn it UP, turn it UP

That’s actually a pretty good summary of their campaign, now that I think of it…

***

As for right now, the NDP continues to poll well.

OTTAWA – A new poll suggests the New Democrats are widening their support across the country.
The Canadian Press Harris Decima survey indicates that the NDP have 34 per cent of popular support, compared to 30 per cent for the Conservatives.

With a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points, support for the two parties could be equally split.
Still, the poll indicates that the New Democrats have become competitive in traditional Tory areas.
Among rural Canadians, the poll suggests the New Democrats have 31 per cent support, compared to 35 per cent for the Tories.
The NDP appear to have the support of 36 per cent of urban and suburban men, a number that has risen steadily since February.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives are seeing their support in that demographic appear to hover around 29 per cent, down from close to 40 per cent four months ago. …

Overall, the Liberals continue to hold steady at 20 per cent support, the poll suggests.
Just over 2,000 Canadians were polled for the survey in the last week of April and first week of May.

Well, as long as the Tories continue to lead in Ontario, I continue to believe they’re doing fine, and the national polls will rebound over the next years.

The big worry for Team Blue, however, is BC, which very well could go NDP next election. In fact, I rather expect it to — the conservative side has won BC in seven straight elections, after the NDP won it in 1988 in the Free Trade Election. It’s time for them to do something different — it isn’t a true blue province like Alberta.

Anyway. Liberals are still dead, NDP is riding high, and the Tories watch and wait vis-a-vis the Mulcair juggernaut.

Musical interlude: more synthesizer!

Valerieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Call me!

A fine song to end an academic year on.

***

Oh, other news: Obama’s centre-right praisers of 2008 seem to be turning on him.

Better late than never, I suppose, but I saw what they’re now seeing when I read his books.

Back in April 2008.

Breathe!

Harper as Nickelback?

As soon as he got back to the Commons, Mulcair made a beeline toward economic uncertainty. “Mr. Speaker, since the Conservatives took office, Canada has lost hundreds of thousands of good jobs in the manufacturing sector,” he said. And then: “The Conservatives are saddling future generations with the biggest environmental, economic and social debt in our history. They are gutting the manufacturing sector and destabilizing the balanced economy that we have built up since the Second World War.” …

After that first QP, Mulcair told reporters he plans to keep focusing on “the failure of the Conservatives to apply basic rules of sustainable development.” Mulcair’s line of attack is all about the Conservatives’ zeal for developing and exporting natural resources, which, handily, your humble columnist has been writing about for three months. “That’s driven up the value of the Canadian dollar, made it more difficult to export our own goods,” Mulcair said.

There is a very large voter market in this country for Canadians who don’t like the Harper record on oil, the environment, and the fate of Canadian heavy manufacturing. One label for that market could be “people who haven’t been voting Conservative.” Those voters have been switching allegiances as they look for a way to stop Harper. In 2011, more than 1.5 million of them left the Liberals, Bloc Québécois and Green party to vote NDP. …

But there is another big vote market in the country, which we can call “people who have been voting Conservative.” They will see little in Mulcair to make them change their minds.

The debate Mulcair wants is about economic interest, and millions of Canadians have a stake in the growing resource economy. The fights he wants, over free trade, serious carbon-pricing schemes, and the wisdom of support for fading companies over rising ones have been fought too many times. We know how the fight usually ends. …

During the NDP leadership campaign, SunTV asked candidates which record they like best. Mulcair named a recording of the Beethoven opera Fidelio. Stephen Harper likes to have the guys from Nickelback over to 24 Sussex. Given the choice, I’d take Beethoven too, but Nickelback sells more records. For four elections in a row the Conservatives have run a populist rush against elites in urban enclaves. Mulcair wants to lead the party of the Canadian worker from Outremont. He’s good, but he can’t work miracles.

We’ll see.

But this is a healthier axis of division for Canadian politics — substantive.

Canadian politics watchers — breathe!

In honour of VVP’s clean victory

I give you this.

Granted, they look like dirty hippies.

But we have to deal with dirty hippies in the West. It’s healthy.

***

Cry, VVP, cry.

This is your future.

Romney takes Michigan, Arizona

Plays music from his endorser, Kid Rock:

Political duets

Fellow Americans?

The president does have pipes.

But I’ll see Obama’s “Let’s Stay Together” with Harper’s “With A Little Help From My Friends“.

***

Well, if Obama gets re-elected, maybe he and Harper can do a duet at some point…