Is Georgia In Play For Obama?

Still, it's a poll tax nonetheless. As I recall, there was no evidence of voter fraud that necessitated a law like this ... this was basically like the "Flag Burning Amendment" ... just another GOP scheme to stop something that wasn't happening anyway to pander to the base and keep power. Couldn't they have found something better to do, like maybe letting us vote on Sunday alcohol sales? No that'd piss off the religious nuts even though a solid majority of the state is for Sunday sales.

As to the original question, I've have said it here before ... I think Georgia is in play. The conservatives in this state are the hard-core, wingnuts and I don't think McCain is far enough to the right for most of them. Many may end up voting for Barr or staying home.

I remember an election from I think it was 1998 where it seems like former Dem Gov. Roy Barnes was down or tied in the polls leading up to election day and a huge minority turnout ended up giving Barnes an easy win. Also, more Dems voted in the primary on Super Tuesday in GA this year than Republicans and of course Obama won Georgia by more than 30 points. So the Dems in Georgia are excited about Obama and more apt to vote for him than the Repubs are for McCain, who lost the primary to a wingnut, Huckabee. (If Huck's on the ticket, that might make holding GA a foregone conclusion, but it will cost him Mizzougrad and a lot of the other moderates around the country!)

Bottom line: There are definitely lots of reasons to believe Obama COULD possibly snag Georgia ... and I would love to see it ... but I will grant that it would take a lot of stars lining up just right for it to happen.

 

I love how people saying that this year is different.
We'll see in November, but history says that the 18 to 24s won't make an appearance.
Put a draft on the table, and they will, but I can't find a single election that has been determined by young people.
I don't think it is because they are lazy or less engaged, I think it largely has to do with the mechanics of voting — the registration process, where they vote.
And the other thing is that I get older, I'm still often times the youngest person in the room. I know for damn sure that's true for the poll workers. Lordy, they look like they just rolled out of the nursing home.

 

Yes, because the insurgent often wins Democratic primaries.

Democrats often win Senate elections in Mississippi.

Oh, and just another black man nominated for president.

You know, the usual stuff.

 

With the price of gas these days? I'd say it's a poll tax.

Because correct me if I'm wrong... the poor voter is going to have to pay bus fare or find somebody with a car to drive to wherever they need to go to get the photo ID.

Am I right about that or not? I don't know, I don't live in a state with a poll tax.

 

Lugnuts ...You are correct. And it's not like you can go to the local Kroger (that used to be the case ... the Georgia State Patrol had offices set up in the grocery store) to renew your driver's license or get one of the photo ID cards. I'm in a suburb of Atlanta and the nearest ID office to me is 25 miles away. But like I said, a million people voted in the Dem primary in Feb. here, about 100,000 more than voted Rebublican, even with the poll tax!!! George W. Bush is the gift that keeps on giving, even here.

I love this quote in an editorial by the AJC's Jay Bookman last week: "History will note that the worst setbacks to modern conservatism have been dealt within the movement, most prominently by George W. Bush and Karl Rove. The way things are setting up, Rove will likely be remembered as the architect of a permanent Democratic majority, a delicious irony he will not appreciate."

 

And I suppose the ID office is open M-F during work hours?

I like the passage you quoted... but Obama has his work cut out for him getting those 600,000 folks registered.

 

So did all of these people who can't possibly make it to a GSP post have someone come to their doorstep with the registration papers in hand? Does the county thoughtfully set up a polling place in their kitchen come November?

 

I think the polling tax sucks because they were making a law to prevent something from happening that wasn't happening ... God bless all the people without transportation and those who live far from ID places who still managed to register and vote for Obama on Feb. 5th.

I think Bookman's got it right again today. Perdue prayed for rain on the capital steps, but he wouldn't sign off on a referendum so we could vote on Sunday alcohol sales ... and our public education system has become an even bigger joke than it already was. But hey, he did give us a poll tax and "Go Fish Georgia!"

 

You mean the same way there was supposed to be a permanent Republican majority a few years ago?

 

Lyman, I think you missed something, bud. Bookman was talking about the irony of Rove's goal from Day 1 of trying to put in place a permanent Republican majority. Things were running smoothly for Rove until 2006, when the country got tired of the neocon movement with its endless wars etc. and turned things back over to the Dems.

Just found this in the Augusta, GA paper ... this is a pretty blatant sign of how badly Rove and Bush have damaged the GOP ... they hold 49 senate seats now and they're basically praying they can hold onto 41 of them this fall. That, my friend [/McCain], is irony.

ATLANTA --- The chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee says Sen. Saxby Chambliss will be a key part of the firewall the party wants to build against stronger Democratic control of Congress.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., set a floor on the number of Senate seats the party must control: 41.
"The number that we get to is really, really important in the U.S. Senate," he said. "That's one of the reasons Saxby absolutely must hold his seat."

 

It's not just a matter of connecting or not connecting. It's young people caring enough to make time to register to vote and then actually do so. I'll believe it will happen when I see it.

And even if young voters do actually come out, expect there to be a lot of challenges at the polls on their eligibility to vote in X state. If someone from Texas is going to college in Massachusetts or just moved there for a job, you could have the kind of eligibility questions that trigger poll challenges, especially in an emotionally charged election like this.

 

Bring it on