2018 Midterm Election Thread

[Bernie Brewer]

Hmmm...I'll have to disagree, at least on this board, with the last sentence. Bernie Brewer certainly agrees with the premise that this administration didn't cut it on fiscal restraint, and I've pointed out more than once in different threads that the great GOP budget cutter, Ronald Reagan, actually increased non-defense spending as a percentage of GDP through every year of his administration. If you're talking in general, I'd agree that the GOP has run on a fiscal restraint platform, but the real data indicates both parties make drunken sailors spending habits look wise by comparison.

I do? [Much deeper and confident voice mode] err, I mean, I DO! [/Much deeper and confident voice mode]

But Chance is right, I really do!

[DMT]

In the words of Cousin Eddie, "Bingo!" But they weren't doing because, well, they weren't.

Nope, sorry there was plenty of criticism of Obama from the left on this board. Foreign policy, transparency, immigration to name a few.

[Bernie Brewer]

Nope, sorry there was plenty of criticism of Obama from the left on this board. Foreign policy, transparency, immigration to name a few.

Whelp, there it is. The definitive word!

Except The issue isn’t whether people on the left criticized Obama. It was whether there was whataboutisms from those on the left when someone on the right criticized Obama. Um, there was.

[onejayhawk]

Nope, sorry there was plenty of criticism of Obama from the left on this board. Foreign policy, transparency, immigration to name a few.

He really was very disappointing. I cannot say I am sorry I voted for him, but I expected something of worth.

J

[DMT]

Whelp, there it is. The definitive word!

Except The issue isn’t whether people on the left criticized Obama. It was whether there was whataboutisms from those on the left when someone on the right criticized Obama. Um, there was.

Ok that's true.

[Sour Masher]

Whelp, there it is. The definitive word!

Except The issue isn’t whether people on the left criticized Obama. It was whether there was whataboutisms from those on the left when someone on the right criticized Obama. Um, there was.

This may be a big ask, but are there any examples? I'm genuinely curious what sort of thing Obama did that people defended his actions based not on their merit, but simply the fact that others did the same. I'd be surprised if someone here was like "I won't argue the merits of him killing bad guys with drones; instead, my tactic will be trying to get everyone to focus on how he isn't the first person to kill people with drones, so you are not allowed to critique him for killing people with drones, unless you can provide three notarized statements verifying that you were exactly as outraged when Bush did it."

[nots]

One of the biggest in my recollection was ElDiablo. Sadly, he deleted all his posts.

[Bernie Brewer]

This may be a big ask, but are there any examples? I'm genuinely curious what sort of thing Obama did that people defended his actions based not on their merit, but simply the fact that others did the same. I'd be surprised if someone here was like "I won't argue the merits of him killing bad guys with drones; instead, my tactic will be trying to get everyone to focus on how he isn't the first person to kill people with drones, so you are not allowed to critique him for killing people with drones, unless you can provide three notarized statements verifying that you were exactly as outraged when Bush did it."

Search through the threads from 2008 thru 2016 on the economy, foreign policy, or enacting ACA, just to name a few. I’ll m not sure searching whataboutism or whataboutery will help because until 2016 I’d never heard that expression. And, your mileage may vary depending on whether you see it as whataboutism or just fact.

I’ll try searching for examples I recall later tonight.

[Sour Masher]

One of the biggest in my recollection was ElDiablo. Sadly, he deleted all his posts.

That is very believable. What sort of things did he do that with? I'd like to see examples, because we may differ on what we mean by whataboutism.

For instance, to me, there is a difference between pointing out that a president has not written more EO than others as evidence to counter someone saying he wrote too many, versus someone responding to a person arguing against EOs in general and someone saying, well Bush did more, where were you then? In the first case, antecedents are being used as evidence to refute a false claim that Obama wrote more EOs than normal. The latter is sidestepping the actual argument that EOs are bad.

[Sour Masher]

Search through the threads from 2008 thru 2016 on the economy, foreign policy, or enacting ACA, just to name a few. I’ll m not sure searching whataboutism or whataboutery will help because until 2016 I’d never heard that expression. And, your mileage may vary depending on whether you see it as whataboutism or just fact.

I’ll try searching for examples I recall later tonight.

Yes the distinguish is often subtle. As I just posted above, it depends on the argument being made. If im arguing Obama's use of EOs is consistent with past presidents, so it is unfair to criticize him on how many he signed, that is just evidence. But if your point is that all EOs are bad, it would be whataboutism for me to not push back on that but rather say, sure, but what about when you're guy did it? Let's not talk about EOs now, because we didn't talk about them then.

[frae]

“2016 primary: Dowless works for Todd Johnson (R), who wins Bladen mail-in absentees 221-4-1 (!) over Harris (R) & Pittenger (R).

2018 primary: Dowless works for Harris (R), who wins Bladen mail-in absentees 437-17 (!) over Pittenger (R).

A blatantly obvious absentee mill. “

https://twitter.com/redistrict/status/1070111027268866051?s=21

[chancellor]

Nope, sorry there was plenty of criticism of Obama from the left on this board. Foreign policy, transparency, immigration to name a few.

Especially from you, for which I try and remember to give you credit for in these discussions.

[Judge Jude]

Chris Matthews tonight made his pick for the 2020 nomination, and it's Beto

[frae]

House vote still adding up, Democrats are up 9.7 million votes and 8.6 points.

https://twitter.com/redistrict/status/1070493064685412352?s=21

CA 21 call should be called by AP soon. They are waiting for the state to certify but all votes are now counted there and Cox leads by 0.5%.

https://twitter.com/natesilver538/status/1070407983849529344?s=21

Nate Silver sending more shade to Rasmussen and the fact that trump keeps retweeting their approval poll of him at 50% when Rasmussen said R’s would win the house popular vote and they lost it by over 9 million.

https://twitter.com/natesilver538/status/1070524679419555841?s=21

[onejayhawk]

Chris Matthews tonight made his pick for the 2020 nomination, and it's Beto

That would be great. Trump could decline to run and Cruz could beat Beto again.

J