Are you becoming happier with Kerry?

Since John Edwards withdrew from the race, making John Kerry the nominee in fact, if not in formality, have you become happier with him? Less happy? Or the same?

I'm happier. I was worried that once the primaries ended, the mojo would die, but Kerry seems to know what the hell he's doing. He came back from the void to beat both Dean and my man Clark, and he's just pounding Bush left and right.

I didn't know they made Democrats like this anymore!

to the crooked republicans. :)

"I'm Happier With John Kerry!"

Its a Beautiful Day!

He's a fighter, and a fighter is a winner.

The bitterness is subsiding...

3 positive choices, one negative. Nice pushpolling.

From whence comes this mindless nastiness, huh? Was there a point to it?

There are two negative choices, and two positive ones.

Pushpolling? Jeez, louise. People learn a fancy word, and they just have to use it...

And even if you were correct, are we really striving for parity between positives and negatives of the Democratic candidate on a Democratic message board, especially on silly online polls? Man, some people's political humors are out of whack.

She's correct about there being 3 positive and 1 negative choice. By English-language convention, 'less happy' means 'still happy but not as much', the net value being 'happy'.

RevCarol is due an apology from you.

revcarol is wrong on the merits (see post below) of the argument, and out of nowhere compares me to a Fox push-poller, when the initial post contained nothing warranting that at all.

revcarol's post was nothing but a drive-by.

:eyes:

1 |I'm happier with John Kerry
+ |
1 |The same -- but I've always been happy with him
= |
2


1 |I'm less happy with John kerry
+ |
1 |The same -- but I've always been unhappy with him
= |
2

'Less happy' implies, by convention, that the person is still happy, though less so than formerly.

If balance is wanted, this should have been the format:

++ More happy
+ Still as happy as before
-+ Less happy
Neither happy nor unhappy
+- Less unhappy
- Still as unhappy as before
-- More unhappy

Cheers,
Your local methodologist.

Saying that person A is less attractive than person B, does not imply that either person is overall attractive to begin with. Saying less happy in this context means they are even less pleased with Kerry.

Suppose there's a pretty depressed person X. You ask X, are you still unhappy with life? X says, "I'm even less happy with life; it gets worse and worse." Does that imply prior contentment on X's part? No, merely that life and words are broad, and the bad can get worse.

I'm not altogether sure of what English-language convention to which you refer. I think the poll is fairly clear. There is no implicit suppositional trickery built in there. I suppose people can look for, and find, what is not there; but that's just how people are.

The only way this meaning cannot be valid is if their unhappiness has reached such an apotheosis of despair that the gradients just don't matter any more.

I post an innocent little poll, and I get called a Fox push-poller out of nowhere. Sorry, no dice.

does not imply that either person is attractive to begin with."

Yes, it does, because otherwise you'd say A is 'uglier', not 'less attractive'. 'Attractive' implies something good, and is used for that reason.

You can deny it all you like, but Carol is right.

Using the comparative form of an adjective does not mean the adjective itself applies to a noun. It's simply not true.

Me and another computer geek in my office regularly compare each other's lily-white skin to see "Who is darker?"

it was claimed that there are 3 positive responses and 1 negative.

That is simply wrong.


Also your reasoning is false.

'Less happy' implies, by convention, that the person is still happy, though less so than formerly.


I am less happy with George Bush now, than I was on the day he was inaugurated, however, I was not at all happy with him on the day he was inaugurated.

It's called going from bad to worse.

If you say 'I'm less happy with Bush' to someone who has no reason to know what you think of him, I *guarantee* that they'll think that you were and probably still are happy with him. Because that's how the language works! Unless you're intentionally trying to garden-path someone, you don't say 'I'm not happy about Kerry being the nominee' to mean you're ecstatic. Nor 'I'm less unhappy with him than I was' when you mean you're happy!

1 being ecstatic beyond all words that the Perfected being known as John Kerry is my nominee

3 -don't really give a rats ass one way or the other

and 5 being I want to move to another planet or sleep the deep sleep of death for at least 100 years


:evilgrin:

How bout THAT in a survey...hey...maybe I'll even do it .....
DR

You 'guarantees' and your assertion that:

'Less happy' implies, by convention, that the person is still happy, though less so than formerly


are both unpersuasive. Again, you are trying to dispute what I'm saying without actually addressing my argument.


I am less happy with George Bush now than when he was inaugurated. That doesn't mean I was happy with him when he was inaugurated, and it doesn't mean I'm happy with him now. If you 'think' otherwise, it's because of false reasoning on your part.

read the poll again.

but (besides his lying/corrupt remark and refusal to back down which I loved) there was a really neat picture of him and Theresa on the Drudge page this morning. It's gone now, but she was leaning into him and it caught a really cool, human, unscripted (and sexy) moment between 'em.

My biggest objections to Kerry -
- his IRW resolution (which I still find troubling but there's enough ambiguity that I can grudgingly give it a pass, particularly in light of his toughness about it now.)
- his election tactics against Dean. But he was certainly not alone in this, it IS politics, and the fact that Dean is behind him is enough for me. (Hell, if I trusted Dean before, how dumb not to trust him in this, right?)
- his goddam stiffness and blah-blah-blah usual Washington politician demeanor which I thought made him one lousy candidate. They could say what they wanted about Dean (and they did) but I saw Kerry as yet another goddam BORING Dem candidate. This was the biggie for me - he was like Gore without the personality (that's irony, folks.)

But Dean brought out the tiger in him (sorry, but he until he started playing hardball ala the Dean model he was another Gore waiting to happen.)

And the picture today gave me a better glimpse of Kerry the Man and I feel a lot more reassured. Yes, superficial. So, sue me. I liked him a lot more for seein' there was a real live body in that nice suit.

eileen from OH

I am looking forward to the next few days and the Kerry response to this latest plague of GWB commercials.

on edit title

No matter what people around here think. This is the same John Kerry I've always known and supported. When he talks, Bush moves. It's always been that way.

He changed the legacies of three Rethug presidents already - Nixon, Reagan and Bush. Now it's Bush2's turn.

Going after other Democrats was NEVER his comfort zone.

more excited about him as it gets closer to November. I like how he muttered those now famous words, showed some gritty-ness. I want him to attack shrub as much as possible to exposure his flaws more and more, we all know shrub;s flaws but I hope Kerry is relentless in making the public more aware.

the McCain rumors don't turn out to be true. If he actually did choose McCain as his running mate I would be very, very unhappy.

I don't believe that's going to happen though.

happier with Kerry everyday! :bounce:

He's gonna have to keep this up to really convince me of his determination.

Maybe it's just that I'm not much of one to trust anybody, but especially not politicians.

I've been coming around to Kerry more and more everyday. Doesn't mean I think he was the best choice--that will never happen. But he was always my second choice, if a distant second.

But I will admit to liking him more as I have learned more about him.

And I cheered right out loud when I heard him say he would NOT apologize. Not just what he said, but the way he said it. Very good.

Now, if I could only convince myself that he can actually beat Bush. That's always been my biggest concern. "Massachusetts liberal" senator who is charisma-challenged... a tough sell with so many people. I'm also concerned his coat-tails won't be very long.

But he's the man now, and god knows we need him. GO KERRY!!

I like the guy... but if you give him a chance to convince you, you can't really be faulted. I hope very much that he does convince you, and I've got high hopes that he will.

Anyway, we'll see!

I just hope he continues attacking the asshole who's squatting in Al Gore's WH. Attack, attack, attack!

And he appears to be a man of his word. Hot damn!

That's an important question. The 'small investor'? The 'people who make $50-$70K a year'?

November '04': 'Yay, we won!' 'Okay, what did "we" win? And who's "we"?'

Cautiously optimistic.

I don't have anything against Kerry. I just wish he would speak more like a regular guy. Surely he didn't sound so insufferably pompous when he was crusing the Delta in 1968 with the poor kids he commanded. Why does he always seem like he believes that every word out of his mouth must sound as though it was delivered by a Roman senator?

:boring:

I do like him more than I did. This election is about removing the worst President and most "crooked" group of politicians that have ever set foot in DC.

Don't let minor differences get in the way of the real mission.
Send the idiot back to his village!

Kerry for President/Clark for Vice President

To my own suprise and delight.

I'm happy with Kerry and have no reservations whatsoever about supporting him.

His 'slip' in Chicago the other day improved my opinion of him enormously, as did his refusal to apologise for it. We need a 'fighter' this year, more than we ever have, and he showed me that he knows how to fight those evil, dirty bastards that are squatting in the People's House.

:)

I'd be. I was hoping I'd start to feel a little more excited. I was hoping to feel a little more reassured. But I'm open to the idea that that may come. It's a long campaign.