2008 is both a real, and a fictional, election year. In 1955 Isaac Asimov wrote a short story titled Franchise about a fictional election in 2008:

In the future, the United States has converted to an “electronic democracy” where the computer Multivac selects a single person to answer a number of questions. Multivac will then use the answers and other data to determine what the results of an election would be, avoiding the need for an actual election to be held.

The story centers around Norman Muller, the man chosen as “Voter of the Year” in 2008. At first he is not sure he wants the responsibility of representing the entire electorate, worrying that the result will be unfavorable and he will be blamed. However, after voting he is very proud that the citizens of the United States had, through him, “exercised once again their free, untrammeled franchise” - a statement that is somewhat ironic as the citizens didn’t actually get to vote.

I might actually endorse this electoral system.

Phew! Ok, so it’s not Obama. Glad we cleared that up. My friends will be disappointed, though.

I like that Glen Beck is getting crazy email about this too.

NYTimes has the most misleading headline of this political season: “Cast of 300 Advises Obama on Foreign Policy.”

A fantastic story: A fashion designer who dislikes Obama because he think’s Obama is a Muslim sells a t-shirt that reads “Obama is my slave” to a grad student who thinks it’s a good idea to wear this t-shirt out and about in New York City.  The grad student is, unsurprisingly, assaulted by a group of angry New York denizens, then sues the fashion designer.

I can’t figure out who I like least in this story, the xenophobic fashion designer, the foolishly short-sighted and litigious grad student, or the violent street people?

I had to stop studying when a screaming fight broke out outside my apartment, so instead, as I threatened earlier, I made a goofy bumper sticker:

I think this one ultimately needs more work (my creative process is long, boring and seldom does much to improve my original work). Maybe it needs a spaceship or two…

Sources for Creative Commons pictures: Wil Wheaton and Joss Whedon.

Rasmussen reports that:

Libertarian voters make up 4% of the nation’s likely voters and they favor Barack Obama over John McCain by a 53% to 38% margin. Three percent (3%) would vote for some other candidate and 5% are not sure.

Only 3% of libertarians said they would vote for a third party candidate?  That’s a pretty sad performance for Bob Barr. Maybe he’s the one who should to be firing his campaign manager. Maybe Ron Paul wants the gig…

It just occurred to me that, after the success of Hypnobama ‘08, I should make an election bumper stick for the surprising candidacy of Joss Whedon and Wil Wheaton. I haven’t yet decided who will be at the top of the Wheaton/Whedon ‘08 ticket.

Things More Muslim than Obama is like Things Younger Than McCain, but funnier.

Through a combination of garbage picking, oddly colored food and unfulfillable requirements, the Democrats plan to have the least fun convention ever!

I think that Ron Paul supporters aren’t entirely clear on their level of political popularity:

[Bob] Barr also hopes to tap into the zealous grass-roots network of Rep. Ron Paul, who recently dropped his bid for the GOP presidential nomination and pledged to support “Libertarian-leaning Republicans.” Paul, a Texas Republican who ran for president on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1988, drew hefty campaign contributions online, but did not win any primaries.

Paul supporters said they’re giving Barr a look. Some are skeptical.

“We’re waiting to see if he’s deliberately moving toward Ron Paul’s principles to be politically popular,” said Marlane O’Neill, a Paul supporter in Atlanta.

Gosh, as politically popular as Ron Paul turned out to be? I think if Bob Barr’s intentions are to lose in every state, than going for the Ron Paul vote could be a viable plan.

Well known angry curmudgeon Jack Cafferty asks “how to survive the presidential campaign?” This being the first election in recent memory where both candidates stand an arguable chance of not living through their term, I thought this was going to be a surprising discussion of security procedures and healthy eating.

It wasn’t.

It was just a setup for a discussion of how it is possible for those of us watching the campaign on TV to be able to stand it. Is it really so hard to watch and read news coverage of a campaign? And isn’t it perfectly easy to opt out if you’re not interested? Not that what I thought the other topic was a good one, but it certainly would have been more interesting than this.

Will flip-flops once again be prominently featured at the GOP presidential nominating convention?

Obama 2007:

Question I-B:
If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?

Yes… If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.

Obama’s Spokesperson, 2007:

Obama’s spokesman Bill Burton said the senator “is pleased FEC took this important step in preserving the public financing system, which is why he sought the opinion. If Senator Obama is the nominee, he will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”

Obama 2008:

Sen. Barack Obama told supporters Thursday that he has decided not to accept public financing for his general election campaign.

Hmm…

McCain’s supporters show how their lively, dynamic campaign is poised to take America by storm:

Amazing picture via Reddit.

Who will be Staten Island’s next Congressman, Gary Francis, Sr., Republican, or Gary Francis, Jr., Libertarian? No word on any relation to the OTHER Gary Francis. Via Electoral-College and the Daily Irrelevant.

Mitt Romney is joining me in southern California.

Yahoo News: “Hillary Clinton also has called for Guamanians to be able to vote in presidential elections.” Guamanians?

Descriptive, not divisive. Can’t he be both?

After CrazyMonk’s reports on the Nevada state Democratic Convention, it’s not all that surprising that the Republican convention was equally interesting. Ron Paul’s people, as usual, showed up en mass and overwhelmed the traditional republicans:

They seemed to make up more than half of the 1,300 or so state delegates to the convention. They won a key procedural vote on the rules, and their boisterous presence created significant delays, causing the convention chairman, Bob Beers, a state senator from Las Vegas, to recess the convention without selecting delegates to the national convention. The state convention is to resume at a later date.

Wherever Ron Paul goes, chaos follows. I like it.

Via Reddit.

My favorite image from the Daily Show clip that CrazyMonk linked to:

It looks like a Soviet propaganda poster. Hell, it looks like THIS Soviet propaganda poster:

Now, let’s combine them:

UPDATE: For CrazyMonk:

If this ad was 30 seconds long, rather than one minute, it would be fantastic:

I assume the problem is that, during a competitive election, it would take too much time and too much money to make really creative ads, but I wish political campaigns did more innovative work. Not every ad has to be stock footage and people talking straight to the camera.

Here’s a remarkable uninteresting video on the making of this commercial.

Damn, I’m never going to be President:

Leo has never lost to a Scorpio. Scorpio, however, has lost to 11 of the 12 signs and has the greatest number of election losses, 16.

Governor Rendell, did Governor Rendell’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton make you, Governor Rendell, more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton? Absolutely.

Sure, Barack Obama may have bowled like something of a priss, but at least he knew to put his fingers in the ball’s holes:

The results of holding the bowling ball as if it were a shotput are predictable.