The American Voter

All I can say is ditto. It’s frightening.

Why should innocent drivers be threatened by jaywalking deer? Why is it that American citizens are under the thumb of government regulations, but deer can cross our roads and highways and bike paths any damn where they please? Elect Romney–fewer regulations on business and more regulations on deer!

Not shocked. Radio talk shows tend to attract the looniest and dumbest of the bunch.

/listened to too much sports talk radio/

This cannot possibly be real. At least, I hope not.

@missannethrope: Certainly crossed my mind, but a reasonable-sounding adult woman calling a local North Dakota radio show doesn’t fit the Prank Profile.

@nojo: But don’t you think that someone genuinely surprised by what she’s saying would push back a bit more, perhaps ask whether she’s aware that deer can neither read nor decipher pictograms?

@mellbell: Depends on how you play it. You can hear the studio crew stifling giggles — which you can read as being in on the gag, or trying not to spoil the moment as the horror dawns on them. If it were me, and I was on my game, I’d roll with it.

@nojo: Please continue, Governor.

Heh. My favorite part is the announcer trying to wrap his head around exactly what is wrong with her argument . It’s like someone trying to figure out how to explain that the sky is blue while both parties are outside looking at it- it’s so obvious that explaining it it slightly daunting. I feel the same way about the failure of neoliberalism.

If it is faked it is pretty well played on the interviewer’s part.

In a similar vein I had lunch today with some friends including our former mayor and one of his sisters. She lost her longtime city job in January when her brother the mayor left office. She’s currently drawing unemployment and can’t wait for Social Security and Medicare to kick in.
Her brother and I tried explaining to her that she is part of the 47% Mitt Romney mentioned behind closed doors. She loudly told us we were completely wrong, that Romney was talking about welfare recipients who refuse to work, and that Obama looted Social Security of 700 billion to fund Obamacare, which nobody wants.
We very quickly reached the point where trying to explain, especially to someone who has already voted, just wasn’t worth the hassle.

In other news, Obama was intentionally funny last night (and Romney made a valiant effort to do the same, but, uh, not so much). My favorite moment in Obama’s routine, though certainly not the funniest:

It’s been four years since I was last at the Al Smith dinner, and I have to admit some things have changed since then. I’ve heard some people say, “Barack, you’re not as young as you used to be. Where’s that golden smile? Where’s that pep in your step?” And I say, “Settle down, Joe, I’m trying to run a Cabinet meeting here.”

I love Biden, but I love a good joke at his expense even more.

@mellbell: Obama made some Uncle Joe jokes with Jon Stewart last night, based on what I heard on Morning Edition this AM.

@mellbell: You are making the common mistake of assuming that a North Dakota talk show host would be aware that deer cannot read writing or even know what a pictogram is.

@Dave H: You know, once the light has been turned off, there’s just no reaching them. You just have to hope that 1. They can’t find the polling place. 2. They can’t find their keys or 3. They check the wrong place on their ballot.