Some Interesting Dynamics

Even though I find our choices for President to be putrid, the race is starting to get more interesting. Why? I think we could be on the verge of the Democrats self-destructing again. They are in position to lose the un-losable race.*

I really don’t care who wins. Election night is already a funeral as far as I’m concerned. I hate McCain and I hate Obama’s philosophy. I was briefly tempted to vote for McCain just out of spite because the media has been so horrendous to Sarah Palin. They have manufactured controversy about her while refusing to touch skeletons in Joe Biden’s closet that are much more concerning. This is nothing new. Take McCain’s alleged affair of the heart, which the NYT jumped on without proof. Compare that with the John Edwards scandal that they took nearly a year to even acknowledge even though the evidence was much more convincing. They still haven’t followed up the baby part by the way.

I was tempted. In the end, I can’t vote for John McCain. And that is the point.

John McCain has totally baited the Obama campaign, and they took the bait hard. Polls have shown that overwhelmingly (nearly unanimously) that in the end, voters vote for the name on the top of the ticket. It’s only common sense.

John McCain has set up a straw (wo)man of sorts. The Democrats are giving body blows to Palin now. Who cares? They are letting the guy that is running for President get off basically unscathed. And this guy is horrible!

Look at it this way, the voters that McCain has picked up because of Palin are going to be pretty small in number. He is going to pick up a hand full of jaded Clinton voters and some evangelicals who couldn’t stomach McCain by himself.

What does Obama gain by cutting Sarah Palin’s legs off? He may sway an infinitely smaller number of voters by doing this. Like I said, at the end of it all, you are voting for President, not VP. Obama is not going to convince evangelical Republicans to vote for him. He won’t. McCain - as wretched as he is - is a slightly better choice than Obama in their minds. He just wasn’t better to the point to vote for him without Palin. AT BEST Obama can convince some of them to not vote at all. This is remote, and it is only a 1 vote swing. A waste of time and money!

No current John McCain voter is going to be convinced to flip to Obama because Sarah Palin handled the firing of a police officer badly. Not if they think little enough of Obama to vote against him in the first place.

It’s also funny that he attacks her (a former Mayor and current Governor) for being inexperienced and “a heartbeat away” from being President. Okay, and what do we get if we elect you? A less than one term Senator with no “heartbeat” clause to protect us from your inexperience.

Instead of wasting his time attacking Palin, he should be spending his time attacking the big fish. McCain has plenty to be attacked on - he was basically dead in the primaries one year ago, there was just nobody that had enough name recognition and good ideas to hold him down. They only had one or the other (or neither.) Obama should be swaying skeptical Independents and angry moderate Republicans. There are much more of these people, and if you sway them from one side to the other, that is a 2 vote swing.

And by the way, if you think George Bush is bad with the outtakes - have you seen Barack Obama without a teleprompter? He is right up there with W. He doesn’t say anything funny really, he just stutters and stammers and generally loses his train of thought. I doubt we’ll see this every week on Letterman though.

Not that I think public speaking matters. In fact, it’s the least important thing GWB screws up on a daily basis. Yet, that is what the Democrats have been fixated on for the last 9 years or so. And that is why they lose. Instead of attacking him on something like his disastrous immigration policy (which has basically sunk the state of California) they instead spend their time making village idiot shirts, and making masturbatory books filled with Bush-isms that they can giggle at all day.

Instead of capitalizing on what was probably the biggest change of policy enacted by THE PEOPLE in my lifetime, they are content with making witty bumper stickers. The failed amnesty bill last year had the support of the President, half the Republicans, pretty much all of the Democrats AND the media - yet it went down in flames. A victory strictly won by the people. No, we didn’t make signs and march in the streets. We called our representatives, we emailed them, we faxed them, we screamed at them, we cancelled political donations. They caved. They feared the wrath people for once. The Democrats are running against one of the figure heads of that bill! They cannot capitalize. Upset conservatives were ripe for the picking (myself included) but Obama & Co. failed to move.

As is their M.O. for the last 12 years, they’ve decided to try to win by default. Aside from the previous mid-term election (in which the Republicans had gotten just too, too bad to take) this tactic has failed. It failed in the mid-terms of Clinton’s Presidency, it failed with a bumbling John Kerry, it failed when Tom Daschle became a human road block, and with Harry Reid crowned himself King Filibuster. They haven’t had an original idea since Clinton defeated Bush.

Now they are taking the default posture again. Obama presents only complaints, no solutions. The Reid/Pelosi era Congress has sat on their hands, not wanting to make a mistake in the run up to the election.

I don’t think it is good enough in a Presidential election to just say “The other guy sucks.” Say what you will about McCain, he puts himself out there, and he makes his views known.

The Democrats are never about ideas. Obama has been specific on precious few things. He loves to say in an interview “Now let’s be specific” and then goes on to give a totally vague answer. The bottom line is that Obama ™ is really a well packaged marketing campaign. He is an interesting experiment in guerilla promotions. He is our first internet sensation candidate. Howard Dean doesn’t count because even the best campaign strategy wouldn’t help him beat a slug.

This campaign is about the cult of personality. What we are watching here is pretty much a glorified season of American Idol. Who looks the best? Who’s potential Presidency do you like the idea of?

“I like the idea of a black President. It shows we are making progress.”

“I like the idea of a woman on the ticket.”

Well, that is all fine. But really, it’s a beauty contest. If it’s a black Democrat we really want; Harold Ford, Jr. is a better choice.

Do we want a conservative female? Condi Rice is way more qualified than Sarah Palin.

We don’t want better choices and more qualified people. We want to vote for an image. Nothing crystallizes this more than Obama’s Hollywood supporters. They don’t know crap about crap - but Obama is “in.” Obama is the new Kennedy.

This from people who must have their i-phone to go along with their Von Dutch hat. Not only do they need to shop at Whole Foods, but they have to have the cloth bag as well. They must drive a Prius with an Apple sticker on the bumper. Don’t tell them that the 1998 Toyota Tercel and the 1994 Geo Metro XFi are much better for the environment. That wouldn’t look cool. Plus, if you were driving one of those, nobody would know you are doing your part to help the earth. And if nobody knows you are doing you part to save the planet…

“Well, like, what’s the point? Right?”

* Which would undoubtedly be followed by a barrage of lame excuses as per usual.

- “Voting irregularities”

- “Voter intimidation”

- “Voter disenfranchisement”

- Diebold

And a new one but old one:

- Racism

A Whole Lot Of Hypocrisy Going On

*** First, a disclaimer. I’m voting for Bob Barr this November. I just cannot support John McCain because of his idiotic stance on immigration among other things. I like Barack Obama, I would vote for him if his ideas (the very few he specifies) weren’t garbage. ***

I don’t even know where to start with this really. Just a lot of stuff floating around in my head the last few days that I feel like I have to get out of my system. The current Republican party sucks. Most of them need to go home. This does not change the fact that they are held to an infuriating double standard on a million different issues. I’m going to try and point out just a couple that have come up the last week or two.

• When Democrats nominate Barack Obama for President, it is because of his ideas. When someone who votes for Hillary Clinton, it is to advance a great cause.

Michael Steele is an “Oreo” and an Uncle Tom. Condoleezza Rice is Aunt Jemima. Colin Powell is a house slave. Sarah Palin is “an affirmative action pick.” This coming from the party that champions affirmative action by the way.

• I noticed plenty of people watching the hurricane coverage this week that were borderline giddy. After all, it is proof that God really exists. They wanted President Bush and his cronies to be embarrassed. If that means a few hundred thousand black people lose their homes or die…so be it.

So what is worse? Failing to help folks in Louisiana because you are an inept administration? Or cheering for it to happen again because it will make people look bad with its ironic timing?

• I don’t give a rat’s ass about Sarah Palin’s daughter being pregnant. What does that have to do with anything? People say this undermines her “family values” appeal. Is she supposed to control every action of her kid? Parents teach their children the best they can, and then eventually the kids make their own choices. This happens in every family. Are we now going to start disqualifying Presidential candidates based on the choices of their teenage children? The pickings are already slim as it is!

Of course, were Al Gore to run, I have a feeling his son would not be an issue. He is addicted to every drug known to man, and has been known to drive at high speeds while on said drugs. This puts people’s lives in danger - but it is nothing nearly as bad as being pregnant. Gore’s kid got a half day in the news cycle - if that. Throw Howard Dean’s son in there too.

I have to wonder. What if it came out that Palin’s son does coke? Do you think it would get more play in the media than the fact that Obama did coke and wrote about it in his own book? If you don’t, you are a moron.

Not to mention Joe Biden’s daughter has been arrested. His son was being paid as a lobbyist for a credit card company while Biden pushed for legislation that would make it harder for people to get relief from credit card debt. Biden himself has received over $200,000 in campaign donations from employees of said credit card company.

As for undermining her family values - how? She has supported her daughter and encouraged her to not abort the child. You may disagree with her views, but under pressure she has walked the walk. She has been consistent with her platform. She is a true believer in what she says. I don’t see the problem here.

• Speaking of coke, apparently nobody cares. Wasn’t this the same group of Democrats/media that was killing themselves (unsuccessfully) to find some evidence that George W. Bush used coke? Now they have it right in front of them with another candidate and they don’t even blink. Not shocking though, you had a draft dodger in Bill Clinton, and one in Howard Dean who got just about no scrutiny at all when they ran, yet the media again KILLS itself to find (or make up) some evidence to show that George W. Bush didn’t give it his all.
• Back to Sarah Palin. Last night, after her speech, I must have heard ten media commentators and Democratic strategists (including the Obama campaign’s press release) point out the fact that she didn’t write her own speech. Yeah? Neither does Barack Obama. Neither does any politician. Why would they feel the need to point this out? Just a coincidence, I’m sure.

They also keep saying, “shouldn’t she be home with the kids?” Really? What if it were Todd Palin that was running? Would it be okay then? What if Hillary had younger children when she was running? What would the reaction have been if Republicans had mentioned that her family might be better off if she stayed home with the kiddies like a good woman should? Do we even have to wonder?

CNN’s Campbell Brown made an interesting point about Harry Reid’s rebuttal to Palin’s speech last night.

• Where the hell does Barack Obama get off making fun of her experience by the way? The guy is a glorified State Senator. He has never authored any important legislation, and according to professors who worked with him, he never penned any law papers either. Then, in his criticism, he brags about how small her Mayoral budget was, and that he dwarfs that number monthly in his campaign. Leave it to a Democrat to brag about how much money he is blowing through. A great sign of things to come.

You have to love Anderson Cooper last night defending Obama’s lack of executive experience by pointing out that he has some - he has run this campaign, hasn’t he? As my good friend The Red Lion pointed out:

I’m running for President. I guess all the experience you need is the experience you gain running your own campaign, so count me in!

• Are people really getting bent out of shape about Palin wanting to fire a cop who tased a ten year old boy and threatened to kill her father? Wow, we are reaching, aren’t we?
• CNN’s John King made an excellent point as well. One of the clowns on their broadcast kept pointing out that the religious right was “running this campaign.” King thoughtfully mentioned how the Democratic campaign hall was filled with members of the AFL-CIO and the Teachers Union, yet nobody said they were “running the Obama campaign.” If it goes down anything like how they do things in California, then they most certainly are running the campaign.
• A lot of talk about Republicans and fear. They want to scare you. They want to vote for them because you are afraid. Hmmmm, Democrats are only using the biggest scare campaign in the history of the country. The world is going to end! Al Gore told us global warming ™ was going to melt the polar ice caps during the next administration. And hey - if that doesn’t kill us, the Republicans will kill us all by starting a nuclear war!
• A couple final smaller points.

The New York Times prints a speculative story about John McCain “spending too much time with a lobbyist,” yet they take 9 months to acknowledge an affair with proof (John Edwards.)

The media refuses to touch Edwards, freezing out the story for nearly a year, yet they are already starting to report on a Palin affair story that is based on one unnamed source. Wow.

As for the lobbyist and McCain, nothing has been proven. Meanwhile, Barack Obama makes shady land deals with a guy who is now in prison. Yawn. No biggie.

This year we are seeing the media’s true colors like we have never seen before. They are going all out. If Bill Maher can see this stuff, it is pretty obvious.

I’m just glad I’m not a McCain supporter. If this is how worked up I get when I don’t care - Imagine what I’d do if I did!