A noun, a verb, and POW
Chris F. Masse August 28th, 2008
John McCain will announce soon who will be the Republican vice presidential nominee.
Reading the Press this early Thursday morning does not give any insider’s clues.
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Archive for the 'Politics' Category
Joe Biden is a liar —a big-time liar.
Chris F. Masse August 26th, 2008
- He performed a spectacular act of plagiarism.
- He misled people about his education and academic credentials.
Joe Biden is a jerk.
Kathleen Sebelius would have made a better Democratic vice presidential nominee.
The vetting of the many potential Democratic vice president nominees was not as secretive as I thought. — Bo Cowgill was right, in hindsight.
Chris F. Masse August 24th, 2008
The New York Times has a recount on how Barack Obama reached his decision on Joe Biden. The final decision was probably made 10 days ago, while Barack Obama was vacationing in Hawaii.
[...] Mr. Obama’s decision had as much to do with Mr. Biden’s appeal among white working-class voters and compelling personal story, and his conclusion that the Delaware senator was “a worker.”
The important information in the NYT piece is that Barack Obama personally called governor Bill Richardson “late last week” to announce him that he was not considered anymore. That’s around the time the Joe Biden rumor began to have more weight in the media circles —see the InTrade chart below.
Bo Cowgill, back in May 2008 (when I started to act as a prophet of doom):
This is dumb. Cover them if something interesting happens. Maybe your theory will turn out to be wrong. Anyhow: Although the decision is made in secrecy, the Presidential nominees have a number incentives which we have plenty of information about. Specifically:
* They want someone who will balance their tickets in terms of geography, race and class.
* They want someone who will help with weak areas of their campaigns.
* They want someone who will be a good campaign surrogate — giving good speeches and attacking the opponents effectively.
* They want to avoid a VP who will de-motivate or offend the base.
* They want to avoid someone with a bunch of skeletons in the closet such as angry ex-wives, out-of-wedlock kids, etc.
* Etc etc.
Anyhow, I don’t see any reason to ignore these markets in case something interesting happens. I read Midas Oracle so that I don’t *have* to read a whole bunch of other websites!
Bo Cowgill was on the right track, now that I think of it —in a society where everything leaks out.
On the opposite of the spectrum, Tom Snee was too much extreme in his view:
According to Tom Snee of the Iowa Electronic Market, at Iowa University, futures markets need more hard information than they get in the veepstakes, to reliably predict a result.
Markets are very good at predicting elections, he says - but not choices being made inside Barack Obama’s or John McCain’s head.
Justin Wolfers was more measured.
So, Bo Cowgill and Justin Wolfers are the winners, on that one.
I was partially wrong. I am a bit too extreme, sometimes. (Did someone else notice that? 
) I need to learn more about… granularity.
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PS: On the Republican side, now…
Never trust a politician.
Barack Obama + Joe Biden — THE PREDICTION MARKETS NAILED IT… triple alas (for my reputation as a world-wide prediction market pundit, and for the debate on the different quality of the various primary indicators out there).
Chris F. Masse August 23rd, 2008
Some blogger says his wife is fantastic.
New York Times portrait of Joe Biden.
UPDATE: Barack Obama’s speech + Joe Biden’s speech
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I think it is the worst pick ever. What a blunder. Joe Biden (a D.C. insider) is unpopular and gaffe prone. Plus, that choice shows that Barack Obama is insecure when it comes to foreign policy. An emphasis on the economy and, thus, on a successful gubernatorial experience would have been better.
Kathleen Sebelius was the one to pick. She is my vice president. (And Ron Paul is my president. )
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I have over-estimated the secretiveness of Barack Obama’s decision process. The chart above obviously shows that the Joe Biden narrative leaked out to reporters was beamed out for a purpose: testing the Obama-needs-a-VP-who-is-strong-in-foreign-policy argument, and letting the Press do the final vetting on gaffe-prone Joe Biden.
InTrade CEO John Delaney (along with the HubDub and BetFair people) will now brag on his marketing material that his prediction exchange did forecast Joe Biden as the Democratic vice president nominee.
What’s bad in all that (other than I have an egg on my face [*] ) is that we won’t have a public debate on the different quality of the various primary indicators, and how that conditions the accuracy of the prediction markets.
[*] I have an egg on my face, but Caveat Bettor has a whole omelet on his.
Bloomberg says WSJ says Tim Kaine is Barack Obama’s VP.
Caveat Bettor August 22nd, 2008
I don’t have a link, as the Bloomberg tape just printed it at 12:15pm EST. Will update when available.
Unfortunately, Intrade was down, so I could not check where things were trading.
He who laughs last, right Chris?
UPDATE: Jack Tapper says there is a hoax email out there, which could be the basis for the Bloomberg article.
Cross-posted from Caveat Bettor.
Barack Obama drops hints about who his VP candidate will be. — Might be Evan Bayh.
Chris F. Masse August 21st, 2008
Time:
QUESTION: One of the biggest moments in the campaign is going to be your announcement of a vice president. What is that decision going to tell voters about you?
BARACK OBAMA: Hopefully, the same thing that my campaign has told the American people about me. That I think through big decisions. I get a lot of input from a lot of people, and that ultimately, I try to surround myself with people who are about getting the job done, and who are not about ego, self—aggrandizement, getting their names in the press, but our focus on what’s best for the American people.
I think people will see that I’m not afraid to have folks around me who complement my strengths and who are independent. I’m not a believer in a government of yes—men. I think one of the failures of the early Bush Administration was being surrounded by people who were unwilling to deliver bad news, or who were prone to simply feed the president information that confirmed his own preconceptions.
“Not about ego”… is no good for Joe Biden.
“Complement”…. is no good for Kathleen Sebelius and Tim Kaine.
So, it might be Evan Bayh.
UPDATE: Or Jack Reed.
