MI, OH, IN, PA Will Go To McCain-Palin

Barring any major scandals McCain-Palin seems to be winning the Regan Democrats.

The registration drive to get more young voters will not make a dent in the sheer number of older working class democrats who will join with the independents to give McCain-Palin the edge they need.

The press is going to paint this as a racial decision. But I think it is going to be more about the lack of credibility with Obama. How can you bring change to a complex system like government when you haven't done anything to change it.

McCain-Palin has the right change message and the credible record to back it up.

From the Politico:

In the wake of Sarah Palin, John McCain has opened up a 15-point lead among independents, according to a new Gallup Poll — and Barack Obama has a real problem.

Since the GOP convention and his selection of the Alaska governor as his running mate, McCain has changed a months-long tie among independents into a 52 to 37 percent advantage. Support for McCain among self-described "conservative Democrats" has jumped 10 points, to 25 percent, signaling the shift among swing voters to McCain.

Team Obama's Strategy Is Failing

Joe Trippi's take on team Obama's flat footedness.

The Obama campaign’s ability to recognize the shifting ground, understand that it is real, and adjust accordingly will determine the outcome. And the outcome, for the first time, is in doubt.

The brilliance of the McCain strategy and messaging is that it includes a trap for Obama. To push back on the McCain claim of “country first” and “the original mavericks who will shake up Washington” the Obama campaign’s attack of “four more years of George Bush” becomes a problem. In a country that yearns for post-partisan change the Obama campaign risks sounding too partisan and like more of the same.

McCain is the one running against Washington now. Obama can’t just run against Bush.

Do Democrats Have A Lock On Feminism? - No

From

..women share a different life experience from men, and we bring that difference to the choices we make and the decisions we come to. Having a woman in the White House, and not as The Spouse, is a change whose time has come, despite the fact that some Democratic Party leaders have decided otherwise. But with the Palin nomination, maybe they'll realize it's not up to them any longer.

Clinton voters, in particular, have received a political wake-up call they never expected. Having watched their candidate and their principles betrayed by the very people who are supposed to be the flame-holders for equal rights and fairness, they now look across the aisle and see a woman who represents everything the feminist movement claimed it stood for. Women can have a family and a career.

The rank bullying of the Clinton candidacy during the primary season has the distinction of simply being the first revelation of how misogynistic the party has become. The media led the assault, then the Obama campaign continued it. Trailblazer Geraldine Ferraro, who was the first Democratic vice presidential candidate, was so taken aback by the attacks that she publicly decried nominee Barack Obama as "terribly sexist" and openly criticized party chairman Howard Dean for his remarkable silence on the obvious sexism.

There was a lot of pandering and lip service to women's rights, and evenings filled with anecdotes of how so many have been kept from achieving their dreams, or failed to be promoted, simply because they were women.

A Feminist's Argument for McCain's VP

An Essay by Tammy Bruce - Democrat and NOW member

In the shadow of the blatant and truly stunning sexism launched against the Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign, and as a pro-choice feminist, I wasn't the only one thrilled to hear Republican John McCain announce Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Virtually moments after the GOP announcement of Palin for vice president, pundits on both sides of the aisle began to wonder if Clinton supporters - pro-choice women and gays to be specific - would be attracted to the McCain-Palin ticket. The answer is, of course. There is a point where all of our issues, including abortion rights, are made safer not only if the people we vote for agree with us - but when those people and our society embrace a respect for women and promote policies that increase our personal wealth, power and political influence.

They are deciding women's rights must be more than a slogan and actually belong to every woman, not just the sort approved of by left-wing special interest groups.

Palin's candidacy brings both figurative and literal feminist change. The simple act of thinking outside the liberal box, which has insisted for generations that only liberals and Democrats can be trusted on issues of import to women, is the political equivalent of a nuclear explosion.

The power of that accusation is interesting, coming from the Democrats - a group that just told the world that if you have ovaries, then you don't count.

Yes, both McCain and Palin identify as anti-abortion, but neither has led a political life with that belief, or their other religious principles, as their signature issue. Politicians act on their passions - the passion of McCain and Palin is reform.

Washington Post's Liberal Bias aganist Palin

William Kristol of the Weekly Standard points out Washington Post's blatant smear of Palin:

Update [Ed. Note by John McCormack]: It appears the Washington Post has tried to (partially) walk back Kornblut's distortion that Palin tied responsibility for 9/11 to Saddam Hussein's regime. The second paragraph of this story, as noted above, originally read:

The idea that Iraq shared responsibility with al-Qaeda for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself. On any other day, Palin's statement would almost certainly have drawn a sharp rebuke from Democrats, but both parties had declared a halt to partisan activities to mark Thursday's anniversary."

It now reads:

The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself. But it is widely agreed that militants allied with al-Qaeda have taken root in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion.

The Post still ascribes an idea to Palin that she evidently wasn't promoting. It's nice that the Post threw in the sentence: "But it is widely agreed that militants allied with al-Qaeda have taken root in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion."

When Obama Loses He & Only He Will Be Blamed

From Tod Lindberg in the Weekly Standard:

Nobody ever said Barack Obama was unqualified for the No. 2 spot on the ticket.

Had Hillary Clinton won the nomination and selected Obama as her running mate--which, being a savvy politician, she would certainly have done, in order to fire up his 18 million primary supporters--Obama would have been perfectly positioned. Either he would be preparing himself as vice president for his run for the Oval Office eight years hence. Or he would be experienced and tested in a national campaign that he would never be held responsible for losing, with a fundraising base beyond the imagination of Croesus.

Palin In The Mold of Regan and Truman

From Steven Hayward:

For Truman and Reagan the key ingredient to successful statecraft was simplicity. "I say there are simple answers to many of our problems--simple but hard," Reagan liked to say; "It's the complicated answer that's easy, because it avoids facing the hard moral issues." Churchill wrote that he immediately liked Truman when they met for the first time in Berlin in 1945 because he could see that Truman possessed the "obvious power of decision." We can see already from Palin's record--unseating a governor of her own party, delivering a long-blocked pipeline deal--that she shares this trait; another six years in the governor's office isn't likely to tell us anything we can't already discern if we don't let status bias get in the way.

Reagan and Truman forced their way into grudging acceptance and eventual recognition by the establishment through genuine and hard-earned political success, and Palin too will have to prove herself. She shows signs of sharing their humility, power of decision, and simplicity toward self-government.

In her first innings, Palin has offered a unique display of the capacity that John Adams described as the essence of a "natural aristocrat" in America: "By an aristocrat I mean every man who can command two votes--one besides his own." Here Adams was reminding us of the centrality of substantive persuasion in political life, something Republicans haven't been very good at of late. The talking heads of the establishment deprecated Palin's debut. "Sure, she gives a good speech, but  .  .  ." They should be saying to Palin, "Welcome to the aristocracy, governor."

Thomas Jefferson Would Have Been Proud Of Palin

From Steven Hayward of the Weekly Standard:

Jefferson expressed more confidence that political virtue and capacity for government were not the special province of a recognized aristocratic class, but that aristoi (natural aristocrats) could be found among citizens of all kinds: "It would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of the society." Jefferson, moreover, trusted ordinary citizens to recognize political virtue in their fellow citizens: "Leave to the citizens the free election and separation of the aristoi from the pseudo-aristoi, of the wheat from the chaff. In general they will elect the really good and wise."

Today's establishment doubts this. The establishment is affronted by the idea that an ordinary hockey mom--a mere citizen--might be just as capable of running the country as a long-time member of the Council on Foreign Relations. This closed-shop attitude is exactly what both Jefferson and Adams set themselves against; they wanted a republic where talent and public spirit would find easy access to the establishment.

Elitist's Arguments Aganist Palin - Snobbery Has No Limits

Steven Hayward has a good piece in the Weekly Standard about the current elitists arguments against Palin.

Here is the current litany:

• She doesn't have enough experience on the national scene
• She does not have foreign policy experience
• She hasn't been on the political Sunday morning shows
• She hasn't attended conferences on policy
• Etc, Etc, Etc

But this country was built on a belief that citizens should participate in government. Palin is one of the many (in a long line of citizen politicians) from the citizen class who have stepped up to serve in elected office.

From Hayward:

Adams's widely misunderstood argument that there should perhaps be an explicit recognition and provision for an aristocratic class finds its reprise in the snobbery that greeted Palin's arrival on the scene. It's not just that she didn't go to Harvard; she's never been on Meet the Press; she hasn't participated in Aspen Institute seminars or attended the World Economic Forum. She hasn't been brought into the slipstream of the establishment by which we unofficially certify our highest leaders.

Obama Feeling The Heat - Steps Up Attacks out of Desperation

You could have predicted the recent moves by Obama to attack McCain.

Watch team McCain execute the counter attacks by using Obama's ads against him.

From the NYTimes:

Senator Barack Obama portrayed Senator John McCain as out of step with America’s concerns as he opened an aggressive front on Friday in television advertisements and campaign appearances that were intended to pacify Democrats who are jittery over the direction of the presidential campaign.

A day after the two men suspended their divisive campaign to commemorate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Mr. Obama amplified his criticism of Mr. McCain through new television advertisements that portrayed his 72-year-old rival as an entrenched Washington politician who is out of touch.

At a town meeting, one man told Mr. Obama that he was concerned the Democratic ticket would suffer the same fate as the party’s last two candidates, Senator John Kerry and Vice President Al Gore, because of “attack ads and the smear campaign.”

Mr. Obama said he preferred the high road, adding, “I’m not going to start making up lies about John McCain.”

Obama's Wafer Thin Accomplishments - Where is the Beef

We have heard from Obama for the last 19 months, yet all we have heard is what he will do and very very little for what he has done that is worthy to make him President.

It is odd that no one at the Convention or otherwise has stepped to state categorically that Obama has achieved anything of any great stature.

Here is a view from Charles Krauthammer:

Eerily missing at the Democratic convention this year were people of stature who were seriously involved at some point in Obama's life standing up to say: I know Barack Obama. I've been with Barack Obama. We've toiled/endured together. You can trust him. I do.

When John Kerry was introduced at his convention four years ago, an honor guard of a dozen mates from his Vietnam days surrounded him on the podium attesting to his character and readiness to lead.

The oddity of this convention is that its central figure is the ultimate self-made man, a dazzling mysterious Gatsby. The palpable apprehension is that the anointed is a stranger -- a deeply engaging, elegant, brilliant stranger with whom the Democrats had a torrid affair. Having slowly woken up, they see the ring and wonder who exactly they married last night.

Charlie Gibson's Gaffe on The Bush Doctrine

Charles Krauthammer right points out that Gibson's Bush Doctrine question to Palin was ambiguous. There is no state Bush Doctrine. It is a collection of principles that has been associated with the Bush Administration after 9/11.

Here is what Krauthammer says:

There is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration -- and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today. It is utterly different.

If I were in any public foreign policy debate today, and my adversary were to raise the Bush doctrine, both I and the audience would assume -- unless my interlocutor annotated the reference otherwise -- that he was speaking about the grandly proclaimed (and widely attacked) freedom agenda of the Bush administration.

Not the Gibson doctrine of preemption.

When Will The Media Do Hard Hitting Stories on Obama

The media has given Obama a pass during the primaries by not doing an meaningful in depth analysis on his past and his record.

They did not waste any time going after Palin but refrained from checking out Obama.

Here are some comments from Mark Penn:

Penn also has a strong warning for the media, which was caught unawares by the Palin selection and is eagerly pursuing virtually anything to do with her.

"I think here the media is on very dangerous ground," Penn tells CBS.com. "I think that when you see them going through every single expense report that Gov. Palin ever filed, if they don't do that for all four of the candidates, they're on very dangerous ground.

"I think the media so far has been the biggest loser in this race. And they continue to have growing credibility problems.

"And I think that that's a real problem growing out of this election. The media now, all of the media — not just Fox News, that was perceived as highly partisan — but all of the media is now being viewed as partisan in one way or another. And that is an unfortunate development."

So does the strategist, who had his own complaints about sexism in media coverage about Sen. Clinton, think the media is being harder on Palin than other candidates?

"I think that the media is doing the kinds of stories on Palin that they're not doing on the other candidates. And that's going to subject them to people concluding that they're giving her a tougher time.

Team Obama Shoots Itself In The Foot - Backs of Palin

Give it up to Team McCain for backing team Obama to the corner.

It is yet another piece of evidence that Obama was not prepared for McCain's game changing move. All week Obama tried to attack Palin to no avail.

Looks like they have given up attacking her and moving on to attacking McCain.

Here are some comments from Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's strategist.

Penn says if there's one thing the Obama campaign has been good at for 19 months it's scheduling major speeches on topical issues to focus attention on its agenda and it ought to do that on the....

...economy. And avoid lipstick fights with McCain-Palin, especially between the Democrat's top candidate and the GOP's No. 2 candidate, Palin.

"The fact that the Republican convention was as successful as it was was basically out of the hands of the Obama campaign," Penn admits.

"I think these polls will settle down close to even. And I think the real important thing (for Obama) is not to overreact, not to be caught in a back-and-forth with Palin, but to get your candidate rising above it."

Barney Frank, Chris Dodd Should be Investigated for Freddie & Fannie's demise

Both of them defended the companies and did nothing for the last 10 years. Lawrence Summers warned about the risk that Fannie & Freddie posed during his tenure as the Treasury Secretary during the Clinton Administration.

The Bush administration warned about them again in 2001 and proposed legislation to reign them them in. Both Dodd and Frank had oversight over the two GSEs but continuously defended them and protected them from being dismantled.

They still defend them even after the markets have voted against their survival.

From the NYT:

A second camp consists of Democratic lawmakers who have long defended the companies against efforts to rein them in, and see them as a way to achieve the goal of providing more affordable housing.

This camp includes prominent lawmakers who lead committees with jurisdiction over Fannie and Freddie, including Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, and Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts.

“We accepted him at his word that all he needed was the authority and that he wasn’t going to exercise it. Then he used his authority very aggressively,” an angry-sounding Mr. Dodd said in a telephone conference call with reporters. He indicated that he would approach any future commitments by the outgoing administration more skeptically.

Mr. Frank seemed confident that he could stop the effort by the administration to ultimately shrink the companies through its rescue plan over the long term.

Mr. Frank has been a strong supporter of giving agencies like Fannie and Freddie new opportunities to earn profit while forcing them to divert some of that profit to public policy goals aimed at low-income families.

Obama's Sexist Attack on Palin Is Same Tact He Used Against Hillary

Game on to bash Palin like he did Hillary.

Fron NYT:

For one of the few times in his presidential candidacy, Mr. Obama is suddenly not the freshest and most telegenic figure on the ballot. While he seems to have settled on a line of attack against Mr. McCain, his campaign appearances in the past 12 days make clear that he is still grappling with his approach to Ms. Palin.

But Mr. Obama’s remarks are curiously reminiscent — right down to that mocking tone — to words he spoke nearly a year ago when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton suddenly tried to swipe the mantle of change and Mr. Obama demonstrated a fight that many Democrats had doubted he could muster.

His advisers said that combative edge was essential to blunt any progress Mr. McCain was making as he sought to encroach on Mr. Obama’s trademark message of change. Or perhaps it is in response to cries of alarm from Democrats who believe he is being too mild-mannered.

Obama-Biden Voted for Bridge to Nowhere

Watch the Republicans pound Obama for his voting record on earmarks! What was team Obama thinking? I think it shows their lack of preparation in attacking Palin. They are completely surprised and don't know what to do.

However, Sen. Biden and Sen. Obama voted for funding the Bridge, even when given a second chance by Sen. Tom Coburn, who proposed shifting earmark funds to Katrina relief.

Sen. McCain did not vote on the Coburn Amendment, though he is on record as opposing the Ketchikan bridge earmark.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/109/senate/1/votes/262/

Click a party to list individual members.

Party	Yes	No	Not Voting
Democratic	Daniel Akaka, Joseph Biden, Jeff Bingaman, Barbara Boxer, Robert Byrd, Maria Cantwell, Thomas Carper, Hillary Clinton, Kent Conrad, Mark Dayton, Christopher Dodd, Byron Dorgan, Dick Durbin, Russell Feingold, Dianne Feinstein, Tom Harkin, Tim Johnson, Edward Kennedy, John Kerry, Herb Kohl, Mary Landrieu, Frank Lautenberg, Patrick Leahy, Carl Levin, Joseph Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, Barbara Mikulski, Patty Murray, Bill Nelson, Ben Nelson, Barack Obama, Mark Pryor, Jack Reed, Harry Reid, Jay Rockefeller, Kenneth Salazar, Paul Sarbanes, Debbie Stabenow, Ron Wyden	Evan Bayh	Max Baucus, Jon Corzine, Daniel Inouye, Chuck Schumer

Obama Voted for Over a $1 Billion in Earmarks - Change we can belive in!

Unbelievable that Obama attacked Palin knowing that his own voting record will show that he voted for the bridge to nowhere in Alaska and nearly $1 Billion in earmarks!!

Last year, he asked for $311 million worth, about $25 for every Illinois resident. Alaska asked this year for earmarks totaling $198 million, about $295 for every Alaska citizen.

McCain said the Illinois senator's earmark total over the years amounts to "almost a million dollars for every single day he was in the United States Senate."

McCain doesn't seek pork projects and vows to do away with them as president.

Biden Wanted to Send a Check To Iran for $200 Million

Not sure what the heck the Obama campaign saw in Biden.

Here a a excerpt from The New Republic:

Any wrongheaded declaration by Biden "would not be deliberate; it would not be that he stopped being a team player and decided to go out and conduct foreign policy on his own. It would be just that he was out there and talking."

At the Tuesday-morning meeting with committee staffers, Biden launches into a stream-of-consciousness monologue about what his committee should be doing, before he finally admits the obvious: "I'm groping here." Then he hits on an idea: America needs to show the Arab world that we're not bent on its destruction. "Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran," Biden declares. He surveys the table with raised eyebrows, a How do ya like that? look on his face.

The staffers sit in silence. Finally somebody ventures a response: "I think they'd send it back." Then another aide speaks up delicately: "The thing I would worry about is that it would almost look like a publicity stunt." Still another reminds Biden that an Iranian delegation is in Moscow that very day to discuss a $300 million arms deal with Vladimir Putin that the United States has strongly condemned. But Joe

Biden Not Ready to Be A Heartbeat Away from being President

From an article in the New Republic:

Biden is tough and he's an internationalist. Unfortunately he's also legendary for speaking impulsively and leaving others to clean up the mess. "He lacks the filter," says one Democratic strategist. Or as a senior Senate foreign policy aide put it: "Biden is an unguided missile." Not exactly the persona you want out front when the country is at war.

In fact, the only thing Biden likes better than reminding people about his anti-terrorism bill is reminding them that he predicted the September 11 attacks. On September 10 Biden delivered a foreign policy speech to the National Press Club complaining about the administration's fixation on missile defense. "The real threat comes to this country in the hold of a ship, the belly of a plane, or smuggled into a city in the middle of the night in a vial in a backpack," Biden said. So give the man credit. Just not as much as he's been claiming. "Literally as recently as yesterday, I spoke to the National Press Club and talked about the fact it is just as easy to fly from National Airport into the White House as it is to, you know, do the same thing in New York," Biden told ABC News. Unfortunately Biden said no such thing. His speech didn't mention National Airport or the White House--or any kamikaze scenario at all.

On Cue Obama Goes Negative - Change we can belive in!

It was a matter of time before Obama goes negative! It will back fire on him as the press and the Republicans point out his oratory about change and being a different kind of politician.

From the NYT:

For all the discussion about polls this week, perhaps the best barometer of the state of the campaign can be found by simply taking a listen to Mr. Obama as Election Day rushes up on him.

With just 57 days remaining in this long presidential race, Mr. Obama is going after Mr. McCain more aggressively than at any other point in the campaign, with a professorial tone giving way to one of prosecution. These days, he sounds more like those sharp-tongued commercials seen on television.

“Do you really believe John McCain is going to make a difference now?” Mr. Obama said, mentioning his rival’s name twice in the same breath, a pattern he repeated again and again. “John McCain doesn’t get it.”

Biden's Questionable Foreign Policy Record - Misjudgements

Senator Biden's foreign policy record is a reflection on his poor judgment.

From WSJ:

On Sunday's "Meet the Press," Sen. Joseph Biden made a series of stunning arguments in defense of his plan for segregation of Iraq along ethnic and sectarian lines. When Mr. Biden first announced his partition plan in May 2006, Iraqi leaders and U.S. officials understood it to mean the establishment of strong Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish regional administrations. The Biden plan would have also begun a phased redeployment of U.S. troops in 2006 and withdrawn most of them by the end of 2007.

Despite deep resistance from the Iraqi government, Mr. Biden tried to turn his plan into U.S. policy, introducing a nonbinding Senate resolution that called for its implementation. But his effort completely backfired in Baghdad. The proposal ended up unifying all the disparate Iraqi factions in opposition.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who called on the Iraqi parliament to meet and formally reject the Biden plan, immediately went on Iraqi television with a blistering statement: "[Biden] should stand by Iraq to solidify its unity and its sovereignty . . . [He] shouldn't be proposing its division. That could be a disaster not just for Iraq but for the region."

Obama's Tax 3.0 - Change You Can Count on

Obama's tax policy keeps changing as he sinks in the polls!

From the WSJ:

Even individuals staring down the barrel of Mr. Obama's tax increases should not wish for an economic recession to give them a reprieve. The relevant point is that it was early last year, when the "Bush economy" was still humming, that Senator Obama first proposed pushing taxes sharply upward on "the wealthy," while giving what he calls "tax cuts" (actually they are credits, not rate reductions) to "the middle class."

At the time, Mr. Obama was the long shot in the Democratic Presidential sweepstakes, and it made some political sense to reassure the party's intensely liberal primary voters with class-war boilerplate on taxes.

Under ObamaTax 1.0, he would have repealed all the Bush tax cuts, lifted the cap on wages subject to the payroll tax, put the top marginal rate up to 39.8% and raised the rate on capital gains and dividends to at least 25% from 15% now. The official campaign line was that tax rates really don't matter to economic growth.

Summer arrived, the Clinton challenge was history and with the general election ahead came ObamaTax 2.0. It posited that the top rate on capital gains now would be 20%, described on this page August 14 by economic advisers Jason Furman and Austan Goolsbee as "almost a third lower than the rate President Reagan set in 1986." This was progress.

Now with the big vote less than 60 days off and John McCain pounding him as a tax-raiser and pulling ahead in some polls, the Democratic nominee has decided to release ObamaTax 3.0, the most interesting upgrade so far. If the economy is still weak in January, a President Obama might defer all of the planned increases.

Obama Loosing Women's Vote

Seems like team McCain has caught Obama flat footed.

From the AP:

Obama's campaign seemed to be caught off guard by McCain's surprise pick of Palin on Aug. 29. Obama's spokesman initially blasted her as a former small-town mayor with zero foreign policy experience who wants to continue Bush's policies. But Obama quickly walked the statement back with more congratulatory words about Palin as a compelling addition to the ticket.

Voters, particularly women, seem to agree, according to new polls. An ABC News-Washington Post survey showed white women have moved from backing Obama by 8 points to supporting McCain by 12 points, with majorities viewing Palin favorably and saying she boosts their faith in McCain's decisions.

Hillary Supporters Wants Sexist Treatment of Palin to Stop

Finally some thinking Hillary supports see the same sexists attacks against Palin.

From Politico:

WomenCount, a group co-founded by top Hillary fundraiser Susie Tompkins Buell, posted a lengthy item on their blog decrying questions over whether Palin can, as a mother of five, juggle her family responsibilities and still be vice president.

"The very notion that Sarah Palin should not have accepted this nomination because she is a mother with demanding challenges underscores just how far we have to go," wrote Rosemary Camposano, the group's communications director.

She added: "It will be good for America to watch Sarah Palin on the campaign trail – bouncing from parenting to politics. That’s how most women function – multi-tasking, leaning on friends and family, and waking up each morning and doing it all again."

Obama Loves $$$,$$$ from Fannie & Fredddie -

Some kind of change. Obama is an insider doing what insiders do. Get money from lobbyists for the wrong reasons. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac spent close to $100 million in lobbying fees and contributions. Some of it pocketed by our change agent, Barak Obama

From CNN:

When it came to buying influence in Washington, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were among Corporate America's biggest spenders.

Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500) spent over $94.8-million on lobbyists since 1998, making it the nation's 12th-largest lobbying client, while Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) bought $79.5-million of influence, the 20th biggest spender, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

"They wanted to fend off regulation of their enterprises," said Massie Ritsch of the Center.

Campaign contributions bought influence as well, including donations to the presidential candidates.

Sen. Barack Obama is the No. 3 recipient of Fannie and Freddie campaign dollars, having collected $123,000 from the companies since he first ran for the Senate in 2004, according to the Federal Election Commission and the Center for Responsive Politics.

The former chief executive of Fannie Mae, James Johnson, was the original head of Obama's vice presidential search team. Johnson resigned from Obama's campaign amid controversy over discounted home loans he had received.

Sen. John McCain has received $19,000 from the two companies in the past ten years.

Why McCain's Healthcare Plan is better

I happened to have a conversation with some physicians about the difference between McCain-Palin's approach to Healthcare reform and Obama-Biden's approach.

I found that they did not understand why providing tax credits (McCain-Palin) is more efficient than having the federal government involved.

Here is a excerpt Jason Furman, OBAMA's economic adviser, praising McCain-Palin's plan!

The most promising way to move forward in all three dimensions – coverage, cost, and
long-run fiscal situation – is to replace the employer exclusion with a tax credit, a step that has been proposed many times before (e.g., Butler 1991 and Pauly and Hoff 2002). Firms would still be allowed to deduct the cost of their contributions to employee premiums, just as they can deduct wages and other expenses today for the purpose of calculating taxable income. But workers would now have to include employer contributions to health insurance in their earnings for the purpose of calculating taxes (precisely which taxes is discussed below). In exchange for, workers who purchased qualifying insurance would get a refundable tax credit. Qualifying insurance would be along the lines proposed by the President in his standard deduction for health insurance, including limits on out-of-pocket payments, coverage of a general range of medical care, and guaranteed renewability by the provider (Treasury 2008)."

This is a pretty fair description of the McCain health care plan. The funny thing is, this is not be found in McCain campaign literature or on his senate website, but rather in a paper written by Jason Furman, Obama's Economic Policy Director, who now is arguing about the perils of this very plan.

Open Mind on Bush's Legacy - How he saved millions of lives

I am sure very very few people realize the following accomplishments George Bush.

From the Washington Post:

IN HIS 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush surprised many when he proposed to take the fight against AIDS to Africa. At the time, slowing the spread of the disease seemed quixotic, particularly on a continent where only about 50,000 of the 30 million infected people received antiretroviral treatment. But Mr. Bush's proposed "work of mercy beyond all current international efforts" has had a profound impact. After five years and $15 billion, 1.7 million people are receiving treatment. Encouraged by the progress, countries in sub-Saharan Africa have spent more of their own money to combat HIV-AIDS. The disease still ravages millions of Africans, but it is no longer an automatic death sentence.

On July 30, Mr. Bush signed into law a bill that would triple funding for programs that fight HIV-AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The bill also repealed a ban on HIV-positive visitors and immigrants to the United States.

Globally, funding for HIV-AIDS has increased to $10 billion annually, 40 times greater than the $250 million provided in the mid-1990s. Worldwide deaths from AIDS dropped 10 percent last year, according to a recent U.N. report.

Helping treat AIDS patients in poor countries earns the United States considerable goodwill abroad. It's also the right thing to do.

From the NYT:

..the Democratic-led House acted this week to rescue another of Mr. Bush’s international priorities: the global fight against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, diseases that kill millions of Africans each year.

That Democrats stepped in to champion Mr. Bush’s signature global health undertakings suggests the deepening of political support for foreign aid programs, especially those that quickly demonstrate they can save hundreds of thousands of lives. It also bucks a historical pattern of declining support for foreign assistance when control of Congress and the White House is divided between Democrats and Republicans.

Under Mr. Bush, aid to Africa has risen to more than twice the level of any previous administration and more than triple that achieved during the Clinton administration, according to an analysis by the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit research group in Washington.

President Clinton, now a leading advocate for global AIDS treatment and prevention programs, failed to muster an American response commensurate with the scale of the dying, many critics say.

Tim Rieser, who has been the lead Democratic staff member on the same Senate subcommittee since 1995, said: “When Clinton was president, he didn’t make AIDS the priority he should have. President Bush saw the opportunity and deserves credit for that.

McCain Acts - Obama Wishes

Good example why McCain will be a better President than Obama.

"Now the world will watch and remember what we do here - what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time? " - Obama's Speech in Berlin

Wonderful words. Socially conscious words. However, they’re words. Obama offers only words. John McCain offers words, too, but he backs up those words with concrete action. He has already literally lifted a child in Bangladesh from poverty. I wrote about Bridget McCain a few weeks ago. Bridget McCain is the adopted daughter that the McCains lifted from poverty from Mother Teresa’s orphange in Bangladesh.

Roberta McCain Is An Amazing Person - Source of John McCain's Character

From Vogue:

At 88, when she was told she was too old to rent a car in Europe, she simply bought one and drove it from Munich to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with her twin sister and most constant traveling companion, Rowena.

A woman of no light convictions, she was rumored, during her son's 2000 presidential bid, to have flown the Taiwanese flag out the window of her apartment in Washington near the Chinese Embassy on the anniversary of the Communist Party's victory in the Chinese Civil War. While her son said, "I would truly not be surprised," his mother wasn't giving anything away. "I'm not saying whether I did or I didn't," she told a reporter. "The less said, the sooner mended. Have you heard that one?"

Despite such uncharacteristic hedging, The Washington Post, in a play on the bus that has become her son's campaign signature, dubbed her "The Even Straighter Talk Express," and it is an apt description.

she was given a ticket for going 112 miles an hour. "The policeman said, 'Didn't you see me?' and I said, 'Yeah, I saw you,' " she tells me, laughing. "I went straight to the next town and got the money to send to the police. I thought the quicker it was over, the better, so nobody would find out."

Both sisters rarely touch alcohol, though Rowena professes to love the occasional glass of champagne and reports seeing Roberta drink beer, but only in Europe.

"I don't do anything I'm supposed to do," Roberta tells me on the phone when I ask her how she manages to maintain her almost astonishing vitality. "I don't exercise, and today I've already eaten half a box of caramel popcorn." The regimen, or lack thereof, seems to be working. Her posture is straight as an arrow, her gait is brisk, and, though a doctor told her once she had arthritis in her hands, she says, "I guess I do, but I've never had an ounce of pain from it.

"Honey, I've had a dream life, and it was all luck," she says. I venture that the impetuosity and appetite her mother so often bemoaned might have had at least a bit to do with it. "I'm glad my mother's not around, because I still don't plan ahead or think things out." She laughs. "Mother told me once, 'If the gardener asked you to go to Chinatown with him, you'd go.' And I thought, Well, of course I would."

There is a CLEAR choice for President - McCain

If you don't have time to deep dive into the issues then you might find this summary helpful:

And THERE is the choice this election year. On one hand we have Barack Obama, a gifted speaker who has absolutely no history or accomplishments to back up his rhetoric. He is untried. He is inexperienced. He has a proven history of questionable associates. He has a proven history of questionable judgment concerning foreign affairs. He is all about words.

On the other hand we have John McCain - a statesman with a long history of service, accomplishments and sacrifice for our country. He has proven himself repeatedly to be a man of character, a man of good judgment, and a man of thorough knowledge and experience in both domestic and foreign affairs.

Palin Was Right About Obama - He Failed as a Community Organizer

From the New Republic:

Indeed, during his three years in South Chicago, Obama was constantly having to scale back his objectives as one project after another faltered. First, he got community members to demand a job center that would provide job referrals, but there were few jobs to distribute. Then, he tried to create what he called a "second-level consumer economy" in Roseland consisting of shops, restaurants, and theaters. This, too, went nowhere. At that point, Kellman advised Obama to move elsewhere. "Stay here, and you are bound to fail," he told him.

By late 1987, he seems to have grown disillusioned with the underlying principles of community organizing.

..if you examine carefully how Obama conducted himself as an organizer and how he has conducted himself as a politician, if you consider what he said about organizing to his fellow organizers, and if you look at the reasons he gave friends and colleagues for abandoning organizing, then a very different picture emerges: that of a disillusioned activist who fashioned his political identity not as an extension of community organizing but as a wholesale rejection of it.

Obama helped the residents wage a successful campaign to get the Chicago Housing Authority to promise to remove asbestos from the units; but, after an initial burst of activity, the city failed to keep its promise. (As of last year, some residences still had not been cleared of asbestos.) In waging these campaigns, Obama's organization added staff, gained adherents, and won church support, including from the congregation of Reverend Jeremiah Wright. But it failed to stem the area's overall decline. "Ain't nothing gonna change, Mr. Obama," says one resident quoted in Dreams from My Father who grows disillusioned with the Developing Communities Project. "We just gonna concentrate on saving our money so we can move outta here as fast as we can.

Sometime before he left Chicago, he wrote an article for a magazine called Illinois Issues that would eventually appear in an anthology titled After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois. In the article, he insisted that his project had achieved "impressive results" in South Chicago. While acknowledging that the "exodus from the inner city of financial resources, institutions, role models and jobs" posed difficulties for organizers, he insisted that "none of these problems is insurmountable."

Obama's Community Organizing Myth

More from the New Republic:

Before he was done, Obama had rejected the guiding principles of community organizing: the elevation of self-interest over moral vision; the disdain for charismatic leaders and their movements; and the suspicion of politics itself. But he did so in a way that seemed to elude the other participants. Two decades later, Green couldn't recall any disagreement over his more positive take on SON/SOC. Joravsky also didn't remember Obama's criticisms of organizing. Instead, he recalled thinking how "cool" and "well-spoken" Obama was.

Based purely on his organizing background, one would have expected Obama to become a bread-and-butter politician, a spokesman for his constituents' immediate needs. Instead, Obama became a politician of vision, not issues--one who appealed to voters' values rather than their immediate self-interest. As a state senator in Illinois, he was best known for his advocacy of government reform. Asked in September 1999 to explain why someone should vote for him for Congress against incumbent Bobby Rush, Obama told the Hyde Park Citizen that, unlike Rush, he had "a vision." And, as a Democratic presidential candidate, he has run on an abstract platform of "change" that appeals to many young and upscale voters, but has fallen flat among the white working-class voters whom Alinsky once courted.

When Obama came to South Chicago, he believed in community organizing; within two-and-a-half years--by the time he and Jerry Kellman went for their late October walk around Harvard's campus--he was clearly growing disillusioned. Now, having fashioned a political identity in near-total opposition to the core principles of his one-time profession, Obama's bid for the presidency may come down to this: Is he willing to rediscover--and put into practice--one of the main principles he followed as a twentysomething activist all those years ago?

Obama 's Disdain for Community Organizing

From the New Republic:

In truth, however, if you examine carefully how Obama conducted himself as an organizer and how he has conducted himself as a politician, if you consider what he said about organizing to his fellow organizers, and if you look at the reasons he gave friends and colleagues for abandoning organizing, then a very different picture emerges: that of a disillusioned activist who fashioned his political identity not as an extension of community organizing but as a wholesale rejection of it. Indeed, the most important thing to know about Barack Obama's time as a community organizer in Chicago may not be what he gained from the experience--but rather why, in late 1987, he decided to quit.

Yet there is considerable evidence that, even as he was writing these words, Obama was having doubts about community organizing. By the early fall of 1987--a little more than two years after he had come to Chicago--Obama had decided to apply to Harvard Law School. At some point thereafter, he began to explain his decision to friends and colleagues. The most revealing of these discussions are not reported in Dreams from My Father.

Judith Warner - an exmaple of the new kind of anti-female liberal elite

Judith Warner's piece titled 'The Mirrored Ceiling' is a good example of the liberal elite anti women crowd.

They are the created from Obama's rib, spewing condescending, thinly veiled attacks against women not like them; highly educated, liberal elitist. Here are some of her comments:

'Palin sounded, at times, like she was speaking a foreign language as she gave voice to the beautifully crafted words that had been prepared for her on Wednesday night.'

Why does this woman – who to some of us seems as fake as they can come, with her delicate infant son hauled out night after night under the klieg lights and her pregnant teenage daughter shamelessly instrumentalized for political purposes — deserve, to a unique extent among political women, to rank as so “real”?

But shouldn’t a woman who is prepared to be commander in chief be intimidating? Because of the intelligence, experience, talent and drive that got her there? If she isn’t, at least on some level, off-putting, if her presence inspires national commentary on breast-pumping and babysitting rather than health care reform and social security, then something is seriously wrong.

We’re not likely to get a worthy female president anytime soon.

Obama Tactic to tie McCain-Palin to Bush will fail

The desperation tactic will fail because most voters know now, with all the coverage of McCain-Palin that they are not a fan of Bush and are more like independents.

They are running out of tactics:

Obama confessed that the surge in Iraq has worked after lambasting the top army brass earlier this year. The Iraq war is enter a new stage where the US is contemplating withdrawal by 2011.

The economy is not tanking as professed. Yes the unemployment rate rose to the highest level since 2003 but it is a lagging indicator not what is to come. Manufacturing is improving as the lower dollar drives exports. Lower dollar in increasing tourism and asset purchases by foreigners, further pumping capital into the economy.

McCain-Palin has received a positive reception from the American electorate.

Team Obama is going to reach for straws and avenues of attack and that will eventually contribute to their loss in November.

Damn The Press & The Pundits - Palin favored by the Public

Interesting poll numbers:

Half of all those polled view Palin favorably and 37 percent hold negative opinions. Men are somewhat more apt to view her favorably, but that is mainly because women are far more likely to be Democrats.

Eighty-five percent of Republicans view Palin favorably, and nearly nine in 10 approve of her selection as Sen. John McCain's running mate. Among Democrats, 24 percent view her favorably and 57 percent disapprove of her selection.

Among independents, 53 percent have favorable views of Palin, and about two-thirds approve of McCain's choice.

Americans are divided about whether the media, which have focused early coverage on personal matters, have treated Palin fairly or unfairly. Half called the coverage fair, while 41 percent said it has been slanted. Most Republicans said it has been biased; two-thirds of Democrats disagree.

When will Obama go negative

With his post convention bounce, trounced by McCan-Palin, Obama will have no choice to go on the attack and go negative.

Team McCain has laid out a positive message and has let Palin and her gang attack Obama. Obama will be vilified by women if he attacks Palin and drive them McCain.

So he will have no choice but to attack McCain and defend his character. That should eventually fail because of the promises that Obama made about running a uplifting campaign! The more he attacks the less energized his base is going to be.

Exactly the kind of scenario that team McCain wants.

We will see how this gets played out. Team McCain seems to have gamed these scenarios very well.

Obama supported Bush Policies nearly 50% of the time

From Newsweek:

By comparison, Obama's own record of supporting Bush policies has averaged slightly under 41 percent since the senator took office. However, Obama's voting record is no less partisan than McCain's. He has voted in line with his party an average of nearly 97 percent of the time.

Retirees would be worse off Under Obama

From Newsweek:

We'd also note that retirees would fare quite a bit less well than working families under Obama's tax plan: The TPC estimates that 32 percent of households with a person over age 65 would see a tax increase.

Obama Nervous About Attacking Palin

With 18 million members of his own party rejecting him in the primaries and the millions of women chiding his brand of gender attack politics, team Obama is weary of attacking Palin.

This is a great strategy by team McCain. Back your opponent against the wall with no room to maneuver. Team McCain laid the attack by quickly bringing up the 'sexism' charge, neutralizing any rebuttals from Obama.

Here is an example of the trepidation at team Obama:

Sen. Obama's response to this criticism Thursday was puzzlement. At a brief press conference with reporters in York, Pa., he said he believed Gov. Palin's work as mayor was fair game. "I assume she wants to be treated the same ways that guys want to be treated," he said. "I've been through this for 19 months, she's been through it for four days or so."

Thomas Friedman's Partisan View - Shows His Ignorance of Energy Issues

So much for being a journalist!! This a prime example of the liberal media bias!

Some comments from Thomas Friedman's Post:

I know during elections it is tempting to put aside the critical mind in order to fully agree or disagree with certain candidates, but as a much read journalist, you have the civic obligation to be as least biased as possible. "Fair and Balanced" as they say.

In the natural gas discoveries of the last 2 years have double the reserves of natural gas in the USA. Who do you think does that drilling? You local water well drilling company? When one in three wells pay at 10 million a well can a mom and pop business take that type of risk? Isn't "big oil, which is also, big natural gas", done a great job in tremendously expanding natural gas reserves. Natural gas prices have recently falled by 50%, why? Because we finally are drilling in many different places, in different types of geologic structures (shale) and low and behold ensuring energy independance for the USA with natural gas.

Wind is great, but we don't have lines that can transmit the energy from S. Dakota to NYC. If you want green, push windmills where we have the most wind right next to major metro areas, which is of course the beach. It is green, it is efficient, and when you look out of your million dollar beach house you can sacrafice your view for clean energy.

Off shore drilling is more about beach front real estate values than environmental issues.

The fact it, that green energy is not going to propel your car or truck down the highway in the next five years, the time it would take for new domestic oil to reach the gas pump. The most realistic hope for weaning our motor vehicles off of oil, according to some experts, is natural gas, another non-renewable source. Hybrids use some gasoline.

Our first domestic priority is energy security, which like it or not, involves more drilling and refining of our own energy. Green energy is an important addition to meet our domestic energy needs, and it has a place in Sen. McCain's platform. But the green energy mantra will not keep your car rolling in the near term.

If you -had- been listening to Mr. McCain, you'll have noticed that he has said, rightly, that the switch from oil to alternative energy is going to be long, difficult, and expensive. He has emphasized drilling, in part to separate him from Mr. Obama, but he has never once stated anything along the lines of ignoring global warming.

McCain has the country's ear - 38.9 Million !!!

From Reuters:

A record 38.9 million U.S. TV viewers watched John McCain accept the Republican nomination for president on Thursday, slightly more than the 38.3 million people who tuned in for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's speech, Nielsen Media Research reported.

McCain's tally was also higher than the 37.2 million Americans who tuned in to hear Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's address, Nielsen said on Friday.

More Obama Half Truths - Fact Check

From Newsweek:

Obama said "average family income" went down $2,000 under Bush, which isn't correct. An aide said he was really talking only about "working" families and not retired couples. And – math teachers, please note – he meant median (or midpoint) and not really the mean or average. Median family income actually has inched up slightly under Bush.

Obama asked why McCain would "define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year"? Actually, McCain meant that comment as a joke, getting a laugh and following up by saying, "But seriously ..."

Obama noted that McCain's health care plan would "tax people's benefits" but didn't say that it also would provide up to a $5,000 tax credit for families.

He said McCain, far from being a maverick who's "broken with his party," has voted to support Bush policies 90 percent of the time. True enough, but by the same measure Obama has voted with fellow Democrats in the Senate 97 percent of the time.

Obama: Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime – by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow.

This is misleading. Even by his own campaign's estimates, closing corporate loopholes and tax havens won't pay for all of Obama's new plans.

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor told FactCheck.org that the Tax Policy Center's analysis "fails to take in account Senator Obama's spending cuts, including ending the Iraq war."

That's true, but Obama's proposed cuts are dwarfed by the Tax Policy Center's projected deficits. Obama's new spending programs might be completely offset by new revenue and spending cuts. But overall spending will still exceed overall revenue, and the nation would face at least 10 more years of annual deficits.

McCain Takes on Obama Lofty Oratory

Give it up to team McCain for using Obama's oratory against him.

“I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need."

What Differentiates McCain

In his acceptance speech last night John McCain laid out the differences between his version of change and that of Obama. Here are some highlights:

He will foster an economic environment for small business for job creation.

"Again and again, I've worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed," he said. "That's how I will govern as president. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again."

"I have that record and the scars to prove it," Sen. McCain said of his ability to work across divides. "Sen. Obama does not."

"My opponent promises to bring back old jobs by wishing away the global economy. We're going to help workers who've lost a job that won't come back, find a new one that won't go away."

"Let me offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second Washington crowd: change is coming," he said.

Palin Has More Experience With Energy Issues than Obama-Biden

As a Governor of the largest oil producing state and a environmentalist, Palin knows more about our energy issues than Obama & Biden combined.

She had to face and think about real energy issues in Alaska and is more credible in formulating our energy policies.

History is not Siding with Obama's Plan

Alan Blinder the former Fed Res Vice Chair and Econ Prof has clearly partisian intentions when he penned a piece in the NYT.

Why else would he basis his reasoning on the Econ 101 axiom that correlation is not equal to causation.

Shame on you Alan!! You gotta find a better reason to support Obama's flawed economic plan.

The Sexist Media - Hillary Supporters Should Be Furious

What is with the media demeaning women political candidates on both sides?

First it was Hillary Clinton now Sarah Palin!

Why aren't the Democratic Hillary supporters out there criticizing the media for all the blatant female bashing.

Palin Foreign Affairs Experience Does Matter

As governor of one of the the two non-contiguous states in the union, Gov. Palin, frequently met with Asian countries' leaders to promote trade and tourism

Also, Alaska as a neighbor to Russia, has the additional federal and state military presence compared to other states. She is intimately involved with military and other national agencies in coordinating the resources of Alaska and the federal government.

It means that Alaska's governor has add importance for for being the commander in chief of the Alaskan National Guard.

Giuliani Spits in Obama's Oratory Pits

Gotta give it to the former mayor of NYC.

He is the least experienced candidate for president of the United States in at least the last 100 years. Not a personal attack, a statement of fact. Barack Obama has never led anything, nothing, nada. Nada, nothing.

They would have you believe that this election is about change versus more of the same, but that's really a false choice, because there's good change and bad change. Because change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.

Well, I'll tell you, if I were Joe Biden, I'd want to get that V.P. thing in writing.

I'm sorry -- I'm sorry that Barack Obama feels that her hometown isn't cosmopolitan enough.

I'm sorry, Barack, that it's not flashy enough. Maybe they cling to religion there.

Well -- well, the first day -- as far as I'm concerned, the first day she was mayor, she had more experience as an executive than -- than Obama and Biden combined.

Do Hillary Supporters Want the first Female VP?

If Hillary Clinton really care about the glass ceiling then they have a perfect opportunity to elect our nation's first female VP.

That would be historic!!!

Palin's Obama Zingers

Give up for Palin's speech writers for taking Obama's oratory and making minced meat. Here is one of my favorites.

In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers.

And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.

They're the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners, or on self-designed presidential seals.

Among politicians, there is the idealism of high-flown speechmaking, in which crowds are stirringly summoned to support great things.

And then there is the idealism of those leaders, like John McCain, who actually do great things. They're the ones who are good for more than talk ... the ones we have always been able to count on to serve and defend America. Senator McCain's record of actual achievement and reform helps explain why so many special interests, lobbyists, and comfortable committee chairmen in Congress have fought the prospect of a McCain presidency - from the primary election of 2000 to this very day.

Palin Takes on Obama-Biden

Excerpts from her AWESOME VP acceptance speech.

But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.

This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word "victory" except when he's talking about his own campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger ... take more of your money ... give you more orders from Washington ... and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy ... our opponent is against producing it.

Victory in Iraq is finally in sight ... he wants to forfeit.

Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay ... he wants to meet them without preconditions.

Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights? Government is too big ... he wants to grow it.

Obama Bouncing Down

From the Politico:

Barack Obama’s post-Democratic National Convention bounce in the polls appears to be slightly smaller than the norm of past conventions, and it's gradually depreciating.

The Gallup daily tracking poll has found that since the conclusion of the convention, Obama has risen 4 percentage points in the polls, to lead McCain 49 percent to 43 percent today. That's a slightly smaller uptick in the polls than the 5- to 6-point bounce earned by a typical party nominee, by Gallup’s measure, since 1964. Obama and McCain were evenly split at 45 percentage points apiece prior to the Democratic convention, according to Gallup.

That outcome comes despite Obama’s speech before more than 80,000 people at Invesco Field in Denver on Thursday night, a political event that was also seen by about 40 million television viewers.

McCain Tax Plan Trumps Obama

From the WSJ

John McCain's tax policies are designed to create jobs, increase wages and allow all Americans -- especially those in the hard-pressed middle class -- to keep more of what they earn. His plan achieves these goals in three important ways.

First, he proposes a package of tax incentives that will create jobs and raise earnings by inducing firms to invest more in the U.S. Second, he is strongly committed to blocking any increase in tax rates while doubling the personal exemptions for families with children, which will reduce the tax burden on working Americans. Third, he proposes a new, refundable tax credit that will increase health-care coverage, reduce the cost of health care, and provide more funds for families and individuals to purchase health care.

Obama's Speech Flawed # 3

From RealClear Politics:

In foreign policy, he promises the miraculous: "I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease." He's going to defeat terrorism with "partnerships"; face down Russian and Iranian aggression with diplomacy; and while he's at it, he will end poverty, disease, and changes in the weather.

Oh yes, and he will "cut taxes for 95% of all working families," but he'll "pay for every dime." How? "I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less--because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy." Does anyone remember the Grace Commission in the 1980s or Al Gore's task force in the 1990s? Eliminating "waste, fraud, and abuse" is a perennial promise made by politicians, but it will never produce significant results, because you can't pare down a $3 trillion federal budget by squeezing out dimes.

In essence, Obama is declaring simultaneous loyalty to individualism and to collectivism, to independence and to dependence, to free markets and to state control.

If you wonder which half of this self-contradictory agenda will win out, Obama doesn't leave you in suspense. He criticizes McCain because "For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy--give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else." The references to "two decades" and to "trickle-down economics"--a derogatory term for Ronald Reagan's pro-free-market policies--make his meaning clear. It is the free market that he wants us to regard as "discredited."

More flaws in Obama's speech

From RealClear Politics

On another area where he is particularly weak, foreign policy, Obama decided that the best defense is a strident offense. He projected a righteous self-confidence intended to make his viewers forget his opposition to the surge and his weak and stumbling response to the Russian invasion of Georgia. In this section, note again the gap between rhetoric and reality--and the willing suspension of critical thought that he requires of his listener.

Obama criticizes McCain for allegedly going soft on al-Qaeda--it's a good thing he's not going to question anyone's patriotism--yet all Obama can offer is precisely the policies we are already pursuing: more money and troop for Afghanistan and one-at-a-time special forces strikes against al-Qaeda leaders "if we have them in our sights," which we have been doing for years. What Obama is presenting as a tough and visionary new policy is his support for the Bush administration's status quo.

Obama's Speech Flawed - Pack of .....

From RealClear Politics

Obama led with the best sales pitch he has to offer: that he is not George Bush. But of course, Obama is running against John McCain, not Bush. So he attempted to justify the substitution by claiming that "John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time." This statistic has been used throughout the Democratic convention, but it makes no sense. Bush is not a member of Congress and casts no votes there--so how can you compare his voting record to that of McCain?

When it came to making the positive case for himself, Obama's first goal was to address the public's concerns about his background, particularly his patriotism and how much he identifies with American values. So he drew, not from his own biography, but from that of his family.

In addition to identifying himself with the lower-income, blue-collar types who have so far refused to vote for him, Obama is also painting himself as someone with uncontroversial, traditional American values, someone who believes in fighting for your country and improving your life through hard work and perseverance.

This is supposed to make us forget that Barack Obama launched his political career under the spiritual guidance of a pastor who delivered far-left tirades calling on God to damn America--and he launched his first campaign under the patronage of a former domestic terrorist. Theirs are the stories that also shaped Barack Obama--but he wants to write Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers out of his biography.

Obama is not the CEO of his campaign

It is incredible that some Obamanuts think that Obama is incharge of his 500 person $100 million election campaign!! That gives him the label of an executive!

Hellooo!! A CEO sets the vision, defines strategy, puts in place the framework for the culture and the operational aspects of an organization. The effective ones have a grip on the business and follow the metrics closely.

Obama's handlers are responsible for all of these. They make the high level decisions and run the day to day operations. Obama's job is to stick to the message, look happy, smile and spew his trademark speech.

Obama is uplifting but insubstantial charisma - Actions Speak lounder than words!!

If you quantify the two tickets on risk, reward and uncertainty, you would see the McCain Palin has a higher return.

Past actions contain information that you can use to evaluate the future. Obama-Biden has no record to evaluate their future actions and the outcomes. Words are not enough. You need credible proof or information.

McCain Palin have their respective records that are more credible, allowing us to evaluate future outcomes.

Obama & Biden Has No Executive Experience. Palin has!!

Great comment from Rudy Guliani:

“I mean, he's never run a city, he's never run a state, he's never run a business, he's never administered a payroll, he's never led people in crisis,” Giuliani said.

It comes down to accountability and actions.

Obama-Biden comes up short on this.

Mark of a Liberal: Thinks Profit is a dirty word. Obama is a Dirty Liberal

Obama's economic policies are skewed toward punishing companies and individuals taking risks and earning a reward for their actions.

Ben Stein in his NYT pieces highlights one of Obama's misguided policies: the windfall profit tax.

Stein correctly points out that most of the stock of publicly traded companies are held by pension funds and mutual funds (which manage retirement funds). Taxing companies reduces the amount of funds that go into these retirement.

Taxing reward for taking risks, reduces the number of risk takers which leads to less economic activity and job creation. That is because most of the jobs created in the country are by entrepreneurs taking risks to start companies.

Lack of Media Coverage for the GOP Might Be Good

Seems like all the big television and cable news outlets are leaving St. Paul, MN to head to New Orleans!

That is good for the GOP. These guys epitomize the 'liberal media bias' which was on display during the primary election period and during the Democratic National Convention.

Audacity of Hype - William Safire's take on Obama's Speech

From the NYT:

Goaded by increasingly worried advisers, he turned personal and mean. “If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander in chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have.” That use of “temperament,” accent on the “temper,” was a throwback to the slur at Barry Goldwater as “trigger happy.” (It worked for Lyndon Johnson.)

Then came a strange one: “John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell — but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.” What’s that supposed to mean — that McCain is a coward, unwilling to lead a charge into the hills of Pakistan?

Obama’s handlers offered the political version of “American Idol” — the audacity of hype. On the 50-yard line of the football field, at a reported cost of $6 million, they erected a plywood Parthenon, its fake Grecian columns suggesting the White House. At the end, not a traditional balloon drop in a contained hall — enjoyable hoopla — but a fireworks display in the heavens over a mass of humanity in a blizzard of confetti, all too like the collectivist fantasy that opened and closed the Beijing Olympics.

A stern editor could have improved the 4,500-word acceptance by cutting a thousand words of populist boilerplate and partisan-pleasing shots that offend centrists. But the die was cast before the writing began. The pretension of the fake Grecian temple setting clashed with the high-decibel, rock-star format and overwhelmed the history implicit in the event. Ancient Greeks had a word for it: hubris.

Women Democrats are Not Single Issue Voters

The economy is number one issue for most female Democrats.

Social issues such as abortion is in the top 10 but further down the list.

Here is is a quote from Carley Fiorina:

Fiorina said Palin’s anti-abortion rights position would not keep former Hillary Clinton supporters from backing a McCain-Palin ticket. “I think, frankly, the Democratic Party has done a disservice to women by trying to hold women hostage to the issue of Roe v. Wade,” she said. “The truth is the most important issue to women, all the polls say this, is the economy. Women are not single issue voters. Yes, there are some women for whom the issue of reproductive rights trumps everything else. But the truth is most women are not that way.”

Picking on Palin's Intelligent Design Views

Most informed people think that competiting views about human orgin are wrong and evolution is the only view.

It is sad that these folks don't have an open mind and if you press them on why they belive tht evolution is the only view, one finds that they are mis informed about evolution.

I don't belive any of the popular views on human orign, including evolution and Intelligent Design. But just most folks in the US, I learned in school that evolution is 'fact'.

But it seems more and more clear that evolution is not a fact and really not an empirical science and you cannot apply the methods of empirical sciennce to 'prove' evolution or give credence to evolution as being a theory.

From David N. Menton, Ph.D

'..evolution is not observable, repeatable, or refutable and thus does not qualify as either a scientific fact or theory.

The most important requirement of empirical science is that any object or phenomenon we wish to study must first be observable. While we may assume the existence of events not witnessed by human observers, such events are not suited to study by empirical science. Secondly, the object or phenomenon we wish to study must be repeatable.

First, evolutionists tell us that major evolutionary changes happen far too slowly, or too rarely, to be observable in the lifetime of human observers. Most living organisms and their offspring are said to remain largely unchanged for tens of thousands, or even millions, of years. According to the evolutionist Theodosius Dobzhansky, even when evolutionary changes do occur, they are by nature "unique, unrepeatable, and irreversible." Dobzhansky tells us that the "applicability of the experimental method to the study of such unique historical processes is severely restricted." The well-known evolutionist Paul Ehrlich says the theory of evolution "cannot be refuted by any possible observations" and thus is "outside of empirical science."

So picking on Palin for her advocacy to teach competiting theories of human origin is a fools game.

Bring down the Cost of Healthcare so more people can afford it

It is interesting that a member of AMA gives a number of ways to increase coverage except for the obvious. Why can't they reduce the cost of healthcare? Reduction in price will increase the quantity demanded, meaning that more people who were priced out will be able to consume healthcare!!

From Marketwatch

Dr. Nancy Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement that many patients are priced out of coverage, and that covering all Americans would be a "good first step."

"We advocate for a shift in tax incentives for health insurance so lower-income Americans get money to purchase coverage," she added. "We also want insurance-market reforms to provide individuals more choices and ensure coverage for high-risk patients."

Republicans Are Going To Show That Women Matter!!!

Obama's blunder in ticking off women by not taking their charge of sexism will be used aganist him.

With the selection of Sarah Palin and the reminders that Hillary was passed over and not seriously considered will allow them to get that 20% of Hillary supporters to reconsider John McCain.

From the NYT:

Few people claim to understand the dynamics of the Clinton vote. In the most recent New York Times/CBS News poll, conducted Aug. 15-20, 22 percent of voters who said they had voted for Mrs. Clinton in the primaries say they now support Mr. McCain, while 61 percent back Mr. Obama. Among the women who voted for Mrs. Clinton, 17 percent say they support Mr. McCain, and 63 percent Mr. Obama. (The rest were undecided.)

“This says again, you can’t take these women for granted,” Ms. Walsh said. “There’s going to be a need to really reach out to them, to highlight the difference between John McCain and Barack Obama on the issues women care about.”

For all the emotion of the week, she said, the lesson is clear: “We matter.”

Party Gender Wars: GAME ON!!

More clips from the NYT:

Karen O’Connor, the director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University, said the convention’s constant repetition about the “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling” had left many people depressed. “If 18 million votes is not enough, what does it take in the Democratic Party to get a woman on the ticket?”

The Palin nomination complicates the gender question in many ways.

Few people claim to understand the dynamics of the Clinton vote. In the most recent New York Times/CBS News poll, conducted Aug. 15-20, 22 percent of voters who said they had voted for Mrs. Clinton in the primaries say they now support Mr. McCain, while 61 percent back Mr. Obama. Among the women who voted for Mrs. Clinton, 17 percent say they support Mr. McCain, and 63 percent Mr. Obama. (The rest were undecided.)

All Is Not Calm on the Democratic Front

From the NYT

At the very least, Ms. Palin’s selection unleashes gender as a live issue again, just when Democrats thought they had it under control. (This might not be a bad time for Mr. Obama to reconsider that question of retiring Mrs. Clinton’s campaign debt.)

“This puts the issue back on center stage,” said Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “There are going to be some really fascinating conversations that are going to come up around gender, in some ways that nobody expected.”

“To go against Hillary is not easy for us,” Ms. Hackney said. “We don’t take that lightly. We just don’t think he has a message. We don’t think he’s good for women.”
“It’s not about being bitter for Hillary,” she said. Still, “I think the Democratic Party took women for granted in the primary, they didn’t step on sexism when they should have, and I can’t support them.”

Gender Discord With Obama Alive & Kicking

Seems like the all the kumbaya at the Democratic Convention was for naught!!

There seems to be mulitple camps of Hillary supporters in terms of how they are going to vote in November.

1. Write in Hillary as a candidate
2. Vote for the Green party
3. Vote for McCain Palin
4. Stay at home or don't vote for a Presidentail candidate

Obama's Economic Policies Short on Beef

From NYTimes Magazine

When Obama gives a speech about his economic plan, there is often a moment when you can sense him shift from poetry to prose. He can be inspiring when talking about how the country ended up being the envy of the world. But when he comes to the part about what he wants to do next, how he wants to keep America the envy of the world, it can sound a little like a State of the Union laundry list.His advisers are divided about how much of a problem this is. Some of them told me that he did have a unifying theme — the middle-class squeeze — and that it would become clearer to voters as they began paying closer attention to the race. Others said they didn’t think Obama had yet come up with a simple way to explain how he would alleviate that squeeze.

Clinton Started The Fight That McCain Is Going to Finish

What is lost in the the Democratic convention hoopla is that Hillary Clinton planted many of the seeds questioning Obama's credentials to be commander in chief!

18 million DEMOCRATS bought this argument or agreed with her.

McCain's team is smart for focusing on the same hammer issues that Clinton used against Obama.

Hey Obama, It is the Economy Stupid!

The audacity of Obama to state that McCain is out of touch on the economy.

Helloooo?

Obama's tax policies is the wrong type of policies for this economy. You don't raise taxes during a slow down! You increase government spending and give back money to the tax payers so that THEY can allocate it to its best use!

Really, the nerve of this guy.

Lack of Vision in Obama's Economic Policies

In John Kao's book Innovation Nation, describes a scenario for he US to become a leader in technology. It describes how Singapore, Finland, China are spending large amounts on technology in many fields.

Obama wants to build bridges and the infrastructure and bring back jobs that won't help America be more competitive.

From NYTimes Magazine

From there, Obama moved the conversation toward a discussion of how the government could improve the nation’s infrastructure — its backbone of bridges, roads, tunnels, airports and the like, much of which has seen better days. Since the dawn of the Age of Reagan, the idea that government spending can be a good thing for the economy has been out of favor, even among Democrats. But it’s now making something of a comeback, particularly within Obama’s camp. His agenda calls for about $50 billion in new annual spending on various investments, including infrastructure, alternative energy and scientific research. (To put that in perspective, the cut in the payroll tax would cost about $70 billion a year.)

Great Political Porno Exhibited By Obama in the last day of the convention

The stage setting, the props, the fireworks; all for naught IMHO.

History will show that his speech was not in any way historical.

The sustained hype over the course of last two years culminated in less than a substantive bang.

Really everybody knew this is a historic moment!