How "Blue Hawai'i" Came to Be in Play

[KamaAina]

complete with a scary Hallowe'en night visit from Crashcart himself!

It's the economy, stupid...

I realize most of you on the mainland will have trouble identifying with this, but the economy out here is as good as it's ever been.

And we have Bush* to thank for it.

No, really. It's all Bush*'s doing.

You see, tourism is the mainstay of our economy here, and thanks to Bush* and his bull-headed attempts at unilateral foreign policy, Americans are terrified to travel abroad.

So, you see, they're coming here in record numbers, making up for the decline in Japanese tourism that had us deep in recession through the '90s.

And with the unemployment rate on O'ahu below 3 percent, people here are less likely to throw the evil dunce out on his butt, all because of his own immoral, illegal war!!

(smacks head against wall)
(smacks head against wall)
(smacks head against wall)

[Rjnerd]

1. Not to mention with the dollar in the toilet

Its a lot cheaper for the japanese to visit.

[gratuitous]

2. Naw, Crashcart's just planning his escape route

Mainland to Hawaii, Hawaii to wherever his buddy Osama has been hiding out.

[aquart]

3. Somebody had to get some good out of it.

At least it wasn't outsourced to India.

Don't you feel better now?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. Worry not about Hawaii

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

5. That looks like a minimally likely scenario.

Meaning I don't even think we're going to lose Hawaii, Florida, New Mexico, or even Nevada. Indeed, that map gives a lot of hope for optimism.

[phirili]

7. Very good projection. It's the most likely minimum win scenario for Kerry.

[gratuitous]

8. You forgot Poland!

Damn, that line just never gets old, does it?

[burythehatchet]

10. no. I've used it twice today

[demobabe]

11. that assumes ohio goes for kerry

...which i hope it does, but from everything i see, ohio looks like the target place for repugs to try and steal. i don't want to see hawaii go red - it's a bad trend for the islands. bad enough we have a couple guys running for office here that have basically said that if homosexual acts could be punishable by death, that they'd be all for it...

[NewYorkerfromMass]

16. Ohio is going for Kerry

I am almost ready to bet good money on it. The GOP chicanery has been met and turned back at every juncture. The judges have ruled against the challenges to voters, and in any case, provisional ballots will save a lot of Dem votes for us.
It looks great.

[bush equals idiot]

19. Can you believe

the republicans say they're going to try to appeal THIS decision too?

They should get their answer just in time for Thanksgiving.

[cubsfan forever]

21. Good point

But now they are saying in Ohio that there cannot be challengers at the polls. Link included This is a great development for our chances to have the votes counted despite the fascists' attempts. GOTV

Professor 2

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=4&u=/ap/20041101/ap_on_el_pr/ohio_voting

[aden_nak]

6. At least that makes some sense.

But here's a question for you, then. Does the "terror alert" stuff really hold water there, either? I mean, I can't imagine a state that would be LESS efficient to attack that Hawaii, from a terrorist point of view.

- It's a pain in the ass to get to with the planes and the checks.
- It's harder to get a weapon to, because of simple geography.
- There aren't enough people there to make a lasting impact from a WMD compared to a land-locked state that must be traversed regularly by people in other states.
- It is the most remote state in the Union, thus lessening the emotional impact on the rest of America.

So, is the "TERR'R'LERT!" climate out there relatively passive? I would imagine that'd put a real dent in Cheney's message.

[dryan]

9. That's what the Japanese thought too!

[aden_nak]

13. They attacked with a military operation, not a lone terrorist operative.

And their goal was decidedly different.

[KamaAina]

18. State terralert has never been raised to orange

this with a repuke gov in charge, no less.

Thing is, Civil Defense never went away here, what with the tsunamis, lava flows, rockslides, hurricanes and so forth, so the terralerts are just another, less concrete threat.

I would imagine that Crashcart's message* had to do with "our brave troops in Iraq" (i.e. the ones he just got through blaming for the missing explosives!) since after tourism, the military is the next most important industry here, especially on O'ahu (think Pearl Harbor, Schofield, and more).

[aden_nak]

20. I had a relative or two stationed in Hawaii.

Yep, there are a LOT of military-related jobs to be had there. Maybe that's part of it, then? If the blatantly false message of, "Kerry cuts military spending!" has been hammered into people, that might shift Hawaii red.

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

12. BS..* has about as much chance in HI as Kerry does in TX...

I have yet to see a poll that is worth a shit...they are all wrong...even Zogby. Kerry is so far ahead its laughable. If Kerry loses this election it is rigged.

[kcwayne]

14. And I helped....

I visited Hawaii this summer, not because I was terrified to travel abroad, but because I love Hawaii so much.

While having an upside to tourism is great for the people of Hawaii, from what I have seen, the standard of living is low, which is offset by the standard of mother nature being so high, but I have a hard time understanding why people that work in restaurants and hotels would be particular committed to Bush. But I have only visited, I have not lived there.

[realcountrymusic]

15. Hawaii is not in play

I don't believe it for a minute. This little scare is useful to GOTV though.

Kerry by at least 6 in HI.

rcm

[Teaser]

17. HI ain't really in play.

Bank on it.

[burythehatchet]

22. nice to see you KamaAina

:hi:

Aloha