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2012 US Presidential Election

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zherok:

--- Quote from: AceHigh on November 07, 2012, 06:43:05 AM ---However seeing this stupid 50 - 49 result every fucking time in US election concludes that US election is rigged. There is nothing natural about these results. It seems like the whole thing was manipulated by news network because they benefit from such close elections, which provide thrilling newsflashes for them.

--- End quote ---
I'm not sure how you reconcile MSNBC and FOX colluding together to manipulate the vote count. Or why CNN would be so ridiculously hesitant to avoid repeating the 2000 election by calling stuff early that they opt to call things ten minutes after every other network does.

The gap has never been that wide in American politics. There has never been a popular vote separated by more than 26%. And that's definitely not a typical spread even then. Unless you're suggesting that the media has had this sort of influence throughout the entire history of the United States, it's just how US politics operate.

I suspect it has to do with the strength of the two parties and the virtual insignificance of most third parties in most elections. It allows the two to operate rather close together on the political spectrum. They may call each other communist or nazies, but you can see European elections with ACTUAL communists and nazis running at the same time. And they win seats! The closest the US comes is seating the occasional independent (or a former democrat/republican dropping the label to become one while in office.)

AceHigh:
Not that wide? 1% or less is ridiculous. You can tell me all you want about people being split in the middle, but that evenly? Bullshit.

zherok:
Right, media corporations with dramatically different political drives manage to pull a con over a nation of nearly 315 million people spread out across 3.7 million miles without anything leaking out. Totally Occam's Razor.

The networks obviously seek to overplay the closeness for ratings purposes. But the results have been predictable for months. See Nate Silver's blog at the NY Times, for example.

Even the idea of election fraud doesn't suggest that someone manipulate the entire election. Manipulating the result to favor a candidate in a single swing state would be a huge endeavor as is, to manipulate it across the entire United States in order to ensure it stays close is pure tin foil hat territory.

And again, it's hard to argue the merits of such a plan when there's pretty clear winners and losers based specifically on how they covered the election. If they all knew the end result in advance, you certainly wouldn't have seen FOX acting the way it did tonight, or again, CNN so worried it'd repeat it's 2000 performance.

AceHigh:
Don't assume that I am talking about some grand conspiracy. However it is the same principle as the hysteria at the stock exchange: fucking contagious. It's the same thing with general population, the networks aren't orchestrating something grand, but their actions do manipulate the outcome on the national level.

This must be especially easy when the typical average population of the country are mindless passive receptors that park their ass in front of the TV. Let's bomb them with political ads and see how it tips the polls, then let's report the doom and gloom on the result and see how it raises the viewers hungry for some dramatic development.

This is not a conspiracy we are talking about, it's business that is causing a side effect. Roughly six billion dollars spent on this election. About half of that on ads in media, obviously you must be right how little role the media plays in this.



--- Quote ---There is an old saying in politics, "half the money spent on campaigns is wasted," the problem is you don't know which half it is. At some point, the spending is only serving the financial interests of the TV stations, who are making a fortune from ads, and the campaign consultants - not the interests of the American people. Spending money in a campaign in the abstract is not a problem. But there are problems where it floods the system, where the candidates have to put themselves on the auction block to get money, and where a small handful of millionaires, billionaires and influence-seekers can exercise an undue influence on the results. This money is not innocent money. Fundraising in Washington, DC is 24/7 365 days a year - it never stops. It's a terrible situation we have right now - it's not serving the country. I think there is a high level of disgust with what is going on.

- Fred Wertheimer, president of the advocacy group Democracy 21
--- End quote ---

Ixarku:

--- Quote from: Semnae on November 07, 2012, 04:11:13 AM ---Obama wins the presidency, the Dems win the Senate, but not with a large enough majority to prevent a filibuster, and the Reps retain control of the House. Looks like the next two years is going to be a lot like the last two years.

--- End quote ---

Pretty much exactly what I'm expecting -- at least a couple more years of partisan bickering with nothing getting done.

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