Fear and Loathing in 2008

Recap Time

2008-11-02T19:03:00.001-08:00

I need a recap not sure about you all

Obama's Cabinet

2008-10-31T12:21:00.000-07:00

Republican insiders close to John McCain are spending much more time in the campaign’s final days trying to pull off an upset victory on Tuesday than focusing on who might be in a McCain Cabinet. But sources close to Barack Obama have quite specific ideas about his most likely choices for a wide array of top jobs.

The list is heavy on campaign heavyweights and Washington insiders, many of them from the administration of President Bill Clinton. So while surprises can be expected to crop up — especially on any Republican members of the Cabinet — many of the selections would likely be proven hands who would provoke little controversy. Obama has not communicated his final choice on any of these posts but plans to move very quickly if he is elected, according to the sources. They point to the political price that Clinton paid for dilly-dallying on his appointments and nomination.

Obama could name his White House chief of staff within a week of his election, advisers say. Obama would also likely make a rapid announcement on an economic team in an effort to show command of the most pressing issue that would face him on moving into the Oval Office on Jan. 20. Read Article Here.

With the possibility of a substantial presidential win and majority in Congress, Obama seemingly get whatever cabinet he wants. He has chosen a pretty safe list of nominees. This makes sense, but it would be nice to see a few surprises.

Last Time - McCain-Palin: Scapegoat

2008-10-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

John McCain's campaign is looking for a scapegoat. It is looking for someone to blame if McCain loses on Tuesday.

And it has decided on Sarah Palin.

In recent days, a McCain “adviser” told Dana Bash of CNN: “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone.”

Imagine not taking advice from the geniuses at the McCain campaign. What could Palin be thinking?

Also, a “top McCain adviser” told Mike Allen of Politico that Palin is “a whack job.”

Maybe she is. But who chose to put this “whack job” on the ticket? Wasn’t it John McCain? And wasn’t it his first presidential-level decision?

And if you are a 72-year-old presidential candidate, wouldn’t you expect that your running mate’s fitness for high office would come under a little extra scrutiny? And, therefore, wouldn’t you make your selection with care? (To say nothing about caring about the future of the nation?) Read Full Article Here.

This is the last time I will blog or repost on the topic of McCain-Palin and what went wrong. I think I have made my point why I am voting for Obama.

Why Obama - Boris Johnson

2008-10-29T12:15:00.000-07:00

Democracy and capitalism are the two great pillars of the American idea.

To have rocked one of those pillars may be regarded as a misfortune.

To have damaged the reputation of both, at home and abroad, is a pretty stunning achievement for an American president.

It would be tough for any candidate to receive the Republican baton from Dubya, and McCain can be proud of doing as well as he is.

His chief problem is that he does not seem to offer any hope of repair to those American ideals.

Or, to put it another way, it is not clear how America under McCain would recover her standing in the eyes of the world.

His chief selling-point is his grasp of foreign affairs, and his staunch belligerence in the pursuit of American interests.

Read Full Article Here.

Republicans v Democarts

2008-10-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

versus

Not the most unbiased thing I ever posted, but whatever

The Election

2008-10-14T17:40:00.000-07:00

I used to nod wisely when people said: "Let's discuss issues rather than personalities." It seemed so obvious that in politics an issue was an issue and a personality was a personality, and that the more one could separate the two, the more serious one was. After all, in a debate on serious issues, any mention of the opponent's personality would be ad hominem at best and at worst would stoop as low as ad feminam.

At my old English boarding school, we had a sporting saying that one should "tackle the ball and not the man." I carried on echoing this sort of unexamined nonsense for quite some time—in fact, until the New Hampshire primary of 1992, when it hit me very forcibly that the "personality" of one of the candidates was itself an "issue." In later years, I had little cause to revise my view that Bill Clinton's abysmal character was such as to be a "game changer" in itself, at least as important as his claim to be a "new Democrat." To summarize what little I learned from all this: A candidate may well change his or her position on, say, universal health care or Bosnia. But he or she cannot change the fact—if it happens to be a fact—that he or she is a pathological liar, or a dimwit, or a proud ignoramus. And even in the short run, this must and will tell.

On "the issues" in these closing weeks, there really isn't a very sharp or highly noticeable distinction to be made between the two nominees, and their "debates" have been cramped and boring affairs as a result. But the difference in character and temperament has become plainer by the day, and there is no decent way of avoiding the fact. Last week's so-called town-hall event showed Sen. John McCain to be someone suffering from an increasingly obvious and embarrassing deficit, both cognitive and physical. And the only public events that have so far featured his absurd choice of running mate have shown her to be a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses but easily trained to utter preposterous lies and to appeal to the basest element of her audience. McCain occasionally remembers to stress matters like honor and to disown innuendoes and slanders, but this only makes him look both more senile and more cynical, since it cannot (can it?) be other than his wish and design that he has engaged a deputy who does the innuendoes and slanders for him.

I suppose it could be said, as Michael Gerson has alleged, that the Obama campaign's choice of the word erratic to describe McCain is also an insinuation. But really, it's only a euphemism. Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear had to feel sorry for the old lion on his last outing and wish that he could be taken somewhere soothing and restful before the night was out. The train-wreck sentences, the whistlings in the pipes, the alarming and bewildered handhold phrases—"My friends"—to get him through the next 10 seconds. I haven't felt such pity for anyone since the late Adm. James Stockdale humiliated himself as Ross Perot's running mate. And I am sorry to have to say it, but Stockdale had also distinguished himself in America's most disastrous and shameful war, and it didn't qualify him then and it doesn't qualify McCain now.

The most insulting thing that a politician can do is to compel you to ask yourself: "What does he take me for?" Precisely this question is provoked by the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin. I wrote not long ago that it was not right to condescend to her just because of her provincial roots or her piety, let alone her slight flirtatiousness, but really her conduct since then has been a national disgrace. It turns out that none of her early claims to political courage was founded in fact, and it further turns out that some of the untested rumors about her—her vindictiveness in local quarrels, her bizarre religious and political affiliations—were very well-founded, indeed. Moreover, given the nasty and lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party's right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods about Obama's position on Afghanistan, she has drawn upon the only talent that she apparently possesses.

It therefore seems to me that the Republican Party has invited not just defeat but discredit this year, and that both its nominees for the highest offices in the land should be decisively repudiated, along with any senators, congressmen, and governors who endorse them.

I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors, and on that "issue" I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity. Obama is greatly overrated in my opinion, but the Obama-Biden ticket is not a capitulationist one, even if it does accept the support of the surrender faction, and it does show some signs of being able and willing to profit from experience. With McCain, the "experience" is subject to sharply diminishing returns, as is the rest of him, and with Palin the very word itself is a sick joke. One only wishes that the election could be over now and a proper and dignified verdict rendered, so as to spare democracy and civility the degradation to which they look like being subjected in the remaining days of a low, dishonest campaign. Read Article Here.

McCain's Supporters Are Becoming Nasty

2008-10-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

The unmistakable momentum behind Barack Obama's campaign, combined with worry that John McCain is not doing enough to stop it, is ratcheting up fears and frustrations among conservatives.

And nowhere is this emotion on plainer display than at Republican rallies, where voters this week have shouted out insults at the mention of Obama, pleaded with McCain to get more aggressive with the Democrat and generally demonstrated the sort of visceral anger and unease that reflects a party on the precipice of panic.

The calendar is closing and the polls, at least right now, are not.

With McCain passing up the opportunity to level any tough personal shots in his first two debates and the very real prospect of an Obama presidency setting in, the sort of hard-core partisan activists who turn out for campaign events are venting in unusually personal terms.

"Terrorist!” one man screamed Monday at a New Mexico rally after McCain voiced the campaign’s new rhetorical staple aimed at raising doubts about the Illinois senator: “Who is the real Barack Obama?” Read Article Here.

C.R.E.A.M. - Bailout is Failing

2008-10-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

After falling nearly 700 points within the first 30 minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average regained some ground, but continued to bounce between positive and negative territory. It is down about 5.8 percent, or 498 points around the noon hour. It fell below 8,000 briefly today for the first time since March 2003 after falling below 9,000 for the first time since June 2003 yesterday.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 fell 6 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 5 percent.

Wall Street is facing deepening fears about the financial crisis and its spillover to other parts of the economy. Traders have shrugged off drastic government efforts to address the problem, from a global rate cut to plans to buy bank's toxic mortgage debt. The Bush administration is now hammering out the final details of a plan that would allow the government to inject cash into banks in exchange for ownership stakes. Read Article Here.

McCain - Grumpy?

2008-10-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

It was a surprising rebuke from a politician who once was famous for palling around with reporters, and who was so media-friendly that he was sometimes known as “the senator from ‘Meet the Press.’”

But what friends call “grumpy McCain” is showing up regularly on the campaign trail, and several top advisers worry that it’s hurting his campaign by making him appear peevish and hunkered down when the country is looking for a larger and more optimistic brand of leadership.

After his first debate with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), both spectators in the hall and commentators on TV noted that McCain had deliberately avoided looking at his rival.

A close McCain friend said the reason is clear: McCain is miserable about having to run a campaign that’s antithetical to his persona.

“He is basically having to be somebody that he isn’t,” said the friend, who remains strongly supportive. “He is just not a guy that goes on the attack in public. For him to be on the attack constantly, attacking Obama’s character … McCain is uncomfortable with that, and it’s made him grumpy.” Read Article Here.

I am not sure that if I were McCain I would want anyone describing me as grumpy. The only times that I think someone is grumpy is either a child after a nap or a mean spirited old man.

Palin - Insane and Irrational

2008-10-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a McCain confidant, told The Post's David Broder that the campaign would "go down in history as stupid if they don't unleash" Palin. Well, the self-identified pit bull has been unleashed -- if not unhinged.

Barack Obama, she told 8,000 fans at a rally here Monday afternoon, "launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist!" This followed her earlier accusation that the Democrat pals around with terrorists. "This is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America," she told the Clearwater crowd. "I'm afraid this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country." The crowd replied with boos.

McCain had said that racially explosive attacks related to Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are off limits. But Palin told New York Times columnist Bill Kristol in an interview published Monday: "I don't know why that association isn't discussed more." Read Article Here.

Who believes her and why does anyone support her?

Rove on Obama

2008-10-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

With 30 days until Nov. 4, Karl Rove projects that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) would get at least 273 electoral votes – three more than are needed to win – if the presidential election were held today.

But Rove warns that this race is “susceptible to rapid changes,” so no definite prediction is possible.

The remarkable forecast from the architect of the last two nationwide political victories underscores the straits that have rapidly enveloped Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as the banking and credit crisis spread. Read Article Here.

Interesting to hear Rove say that Obama would win if the election were today. Wonder what the strategy is behind this claim. Probably trying to ensure that the Republican base will vote on November 4, and try to get Democrats to feel that Obama has already won the race.

Palin Bringing Race Into the Campaign

2008-10-05T12:12:00.000-07:00

First, Palin's attack shows that her energetic debate with rival Joe Biden may be just the beginning, not the end, of a sharpened role in the battle to win the presidency.

"Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country," Palin told a group of donors in Englewood, Colo. A deliberate attempt to smear Obama, McCain's ticket-mate echoed the line at three separate events Saturday.

"This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America," she said. "We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism."

Obama isn't above attacking McCain's character with loaded words, releasing an ad on Sunday that calls the Arizona Republican "erratic" _ a hard-to miss suggestion that McCain's age, 71, might be an issue. Read Article Here.

Obama can not help the color of his skin, just like McCain can not help the fact that he is 71. Having said that, being black does not carry lasting health concerns the way old age does. Palin is going to regret making these comments.

Obama and McCain Battle for States

2008-10-05T10:40:00.000-07:00

The turmoil on Wall Street and the weakening economy are changing the contours of the presidential campaign map, giving new force to Senator Barack Obama’s ambitious strategy to make incursions into Republican territory, while leading Senator John McCain to scale back his efforts to capture Democratic states.

Mr. Obama has what both sides describe as serious efforts under way in at least nine states that voted for President Bush in 2004, including some that neither side thought would be on the table this close to Election Day. In a visible sign of the breadth of Mr. Obama’s aspirations, he is using North Carolina — a state that Mr. Bush won by 13 percentage points in 2004, and where Mr. Obama is now spending heavily on advertisements — as his base to prepare this weekend for the debate on Tuesday.

By contrast, Mr. McCain is vigorously competing in just four states where Democrats won in 2004: Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, followed by Wisconsin and Minnesota. His decision last week to pull out of Michigan reflected in part the challenge that the declining economy has created for Republicans, given that they have held the White House for the last eight years. Read Article Here.

McCain Losing Virginia?

2008-10-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

Virginia Republicans are warning that John McCain's prospects for winning a state that has been in the GOP column in every presidential election since 1964 could be in jeopardy. With Barack Obama treating the Old Dominion like a battleground state and reliable polls showing a margin-of-error race there, some are cautioning that McCain is making a critical mistake by allowing the Democratic nominee to outpace him in terms of visits and resources committed.

The two best indicators of which states the campaigns are serious about – time and money – tell the story.

Since wrapping up the Democratic nomination in June, Obama, his wife, Michelle, and his running mate Joe Biden have visited the commonwealth a combined 12 times. The candidate himself was in the Tidewater city of Newport News Saturday.

Obama is also plowing millions into Virginia, blanketing the airwaves with TV and radio ads, filling up mailboxes with leaflets and, along with the state party, operating 49 campaign offices.

Together, McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, have held just one campaign event in Virginia. And the campaign has taken its ads off the pricey Washington, D.C. network affiliates that reach into the entire swath of the Northern Virginia, the commonwealth’s most populous region. Read Article Here.

The Race in Three Mins

2008-10-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

Recap of the Presidential Race in Three Minutes

Republican Senate Races

2008-10-04T16:53:00.000-07:00

January 2009 could bring Democrats a dominance over Washington that neither party has experienced since the Reagan years.

The possibility that Democrats will build a muscular, 60-seat Senate majority is looking increasing plausible, with new polls showing a powerful surge for the party’s candidates in Minnesota, Kentucky and other states.

A poll out Friday shows Sen. Norm Coleman could now easily lose his Minnesota seat to comedian-turned-candidate Al Franken. A Colorado race that initially looked like a nail-biter has now broken decisively for the Democrats. A top official in the McCain camp told us Sen. Elizabeth Dole is virtually certain to lose in conservative North Carolina.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has seen his race tighten dangerously close over the past week — and Democrats are considering moving more money into the state very soon. And there is even talk that Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss is beatable in conservative Georgia after backing the economic bailout package opposed by many voters.

“Before the economic crisis, we had a number of races moving our way,” said Matthew Miller, communications director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “But now we’re seeing Republican numbers plummet.” GOP officials largely agree. Read Article Here.

Last Night/This Morning - the Debate

2008-10-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

Palin claims that a good barometer for economic climate is a kids soccer game. I must have missed that chapter in economics.

Palin - Predator Lenders...who deceived the public and there is greed on Wall Street

Joe Six Pac and Hockey Mom's banding together, who demand strict oversight. It is not the American peoples fault that the economy is hurting.

Really? Cause I think that the American People did not think about spending and the future.

Biden - McCain did not know about sub-prime mortgages. Called for more deregulation. Wants to deregulate the health care industry.

He is doing exactly what he should be doing, attacking McCain. Palin has not said a single new idea just regurgitating McCain sound bites.

The buzz word for the night. Palin will not comment on it but will continue to hammer away on the idea that Obama-Biden support higher taxes.

Taxes are certainly a divide tonight. Biden is calling the tax increase on people making more than $250,000. That is more than the middle class is making by far.

After what Palin has already has said I have to drink.

Wow Biden can't speak

Blog Later

Cheers

So those were last night's posts. I stand by them. Anyway I thought the debate went well for everyone but McCain. Palin was able to demonstrate that she is more than just a pretty face. Biden kept the spot light on McCain and his failed policies, while able to defend and promote Obama. Palin was not able to explain why McCain was the right choice for the country. It was interesting to hear Palin debate because she frequently refused to answer the question. I don't think it really did much to persuade people but maybe I am wrong.

Bizzare

2008-10-02T15:07:00.000-07:00

This is pretty bizarre but enjoyable:

Not sure who would think to mash-up Bollywood and Obama, but here it is.

Enjoy!

Strategy for Palin and Biden

2008-10-02T12:54:00.000-07:00

The debate is tonight and everyone is giving their two cents. Well here is mine:

Palin

Time to demonstrate that you are in fact smart, charming, and an agent for change. Brush off the interviews as strategy for lowering expectation for the debate. Use Biden's past against him. He has been in Washington longer than McCain. If Obama really wants change why did he pick such a safe choice? For all of his foreign policy credentials, he voted for the war in Iraq. Try to paint him as out of touch with working class Americans, who embrace you. You are a tough woman, who scores well in the key states of Ohio and Iowa. Take those two states and the election is once again too close to call. Also Biden is known for his gaffes, if he says one tonight, Jump on it.

Biden

You are a six term senator, head of the foreign relations committee, you helped create the Violence Against Women Act and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, you served as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and seem to be an otherwise decent guy. What does all this matter? This woman is not fit to hold your papers. You have been at this far longer than she even be remembered. You have experience and facts on your side. You have authored more and better legislation than McCain has. You should focus on McCain and his problems. Do what Obama has not been able to do, hit McCain and Palin hard and often. Don't shy away or look down. Ask the questions millions of Americans are asking: how the hell can you claim that the war is a success, what is your solution for the economy, and what the fuck makes you think you are prepared to take office, you were barely able to run a town the same size as my high school? Don't worry about coming off as elitist or talking down to her, you are going to be painted that way no matter what. Might as well take advantage of it.

Palin's Strategy

2008-10-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin plans to go on the attack in tonight’s debate, hitting Joe Biden for what she will call his foreign policy blunders and penchant for adopting liberal positions on taxes and other issues, according to campaign officials involved in prepping her for tonight’s showdown.

The Palin camp is projecting surprising self-confidence in the pre-debate hours, despite the vice presidential nominee’s uneven — and, at some points, peculiar — performances in recent television interviews, the officials say. Top advisers to John McCain privately say Palin’s recent CBS interview was a borderline disaster, especially since it played out in several segments over several days. Tonight will be different, they say.

“This is going to finally put her back into a position where we see her like we saw her the first couple weeks,” a McCain official said. “She was herself. She was authentic, and people related to that. ... Tonight, she’ll get into a rhythm. You’re going to see her in a way that you haven’t seen her yet.”

By contrast, Biden plans what an aide calls "a just-the-facts, prosecutorial approach laying out the case against McCain and defending Obama." The aide said Biden will be "keeping the eye on the target, which is McCain." Read Article Here.

McCain Out of Michigan

2008-10-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

John McCain’s decision to cancel a campaign event in Michigan next week was not a matter of scheduling: Mr. McCain is giving up his effort to take the state back into the red column, concluding that economic distress there has simply put the state out of reach, according to Republicans familiar with the decision. Read Article Here.

I am surprised McCain has pulled out of Michigan. It is one of the swing states, I thought, he could grab. Even with the economy being the main concern, McCain seemed like he had a chance to take it with his American Warrior rhetoric. If he won Michigan, I think it would put Ohio within his reach.

The Descent of Palin?

2008-10-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight's heavily anticipated debate comes just five weeks after the popular Alaska governor entered the national spotlight as Sen. John McCain's surprise pick to be his running mate. Though she initially transformed the race with her energizing presence and a fiery convention speech, Palin is now a much less positive force: Six in 10 voters see her as lacking the experience to be an effective president, and a third are now less likely to vote for McCain because of her.

A month ago, voters rated Palin as highly as they did McCain or his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, but after weeks of intensive coverage and several perceived missteps, the shine has diminished.

Nearly a third of adults in a new poll from the Pew Research Center said they paid a lot of attention to Palin's interviews with CBS News's Katie Couric, a series that prompted grumbling among some conservative commentators about Palin's competency to be the GOP's vice presidential standard-bearer. The Pew poll showed views of Palin slipping over the past few days alone. Read Article Here.

McCain 100% Truth, 100% False

2008-10-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

McCain has recently boasted about speaking 100% truth. This is untrue. No one ever speaks 100% truth. Over at Politico they round up the biggest lies and untruths. Check It Out Here.

Biden's House

2008-10-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

Mr. Biden certainly can trace his roots to the working-class neighborhoods of Scranton, Pa., and Claymont, Del., where he was raised. But these days, his kitchen table can be found in a 6,800-square-foot custom-built colonial-style house on four lakefront acres, a property worth close to $3 million.

Although he is among the least wealthy members of the millionaires club that is the United States Senate — he and his wife, Jill, a college professor, earn about $250,000 a year — Mr. Biden maintains a lifestyle that is more comfortable than the impression he may have given on the campaign trail. A review of his finances found that when it comes to some of his largest expenses, like the purchase and upkeep of his home and his use of Amtrak trains to get around, he has benefited from resources and relationships not available to average Americans.

As a secure incumbent who has rarely faced serious competition during 35 years in the Senate, Mr. Biden has been able to dip into his campaign treasury to spend thousands of dollars on home landscaping and some of his Amtrak travel between Wilmington, Del., where he lives, and Washington. And the acquisition of his waterfront property a decade ago involved wealthy businessmen and campaign supporters, some of them bankers with an interest in legislation before the Senate, who bought his old house for top dollar, sold him four acres at cost and lent him $500,000 to build his new home. Read Article Here.

Worst Script of Cribs Ever.

Clinton vs Palin

2008-10-02T08:26:00.000-07:00

But Palin's gender is at the center of another set of reactions I've been hearing and reading among women who don't support her ticket, filled with ambivalence over how bad she is. Laugh at the Tina Fey parodies that make Palin ridiculous just by quoting her verbatim. And then cry. When Palin tanks, it's good for the country if you want Obama and Biden to win, but it's bad for the future of women in national politics. I'm in this boat, too. Should we feel sorry for Sarah Palin? No. But if she fails miserably, we might be excused for feeling a bit sorry for ourselves.

Palin is the most prominent woman on the political stage at the moment. By taking unprepared hesitancy and lack of preparation to a sentence-stopping level, she's yanking us back to the old assumption that women can't hack it at these heights. We know that's not true—we've just watched Hillary Clinton power through a campaign with a masterful grasp of policy and detail. Clinton lost in part because she was the girl grind. Complex sentences, the names of Supreme Court cases, and bizarre warnings about foreign heads of state invading our airspace weren't her problem. The fear now is that Palin is the anti-Hillary and that her lack of competence threatens to undo what the Democratic primary did for women. Palin won't bust through the ceiling that has Hillary's 18 million cracks in it. She'll give men an excuse to replace it with a new one. Read Article Here.

It is hard to argue with this piece. Palin is the anti-Clinton. Hillary Clinton is academic, well spoken, has the best education possible, and probably was President during Bill's impeachment trial. She pissed off Republicans, and just about everyone else, because she was so accomplished and is able to beat men at their own game. She is a high end brand, only something the elite and powerful get to enjoy and understand. Palin, on the other hand, comes off as pedestrian, has fallen apart in interviews, went to five colleges that are not known for academics, and has no experience in government. Before she became Mayor and Governor, she was a beauty queen and a TV personality. Unfortunately this seems to sum up women in media right now: the librarian vs the playboy bunny.

India - A Nuclear Power

2008-10-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

The Senate last night approved a historic agreement that opens up nuclear trade with India for the first time since New Delhi conducted a nuclear test three decades ago, giving the Bush administration a significant foreign policy achievement in its final months.

The bill, which passed 86 to 13, now goes to President Bush for his signature, handing the chief executive a rare victory that both advocates and foes say will reverberate for decades. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who first conceived of the deal, have pushed hard for it from the earliest weeks of the president's second term.

The agreement, which sparked fierce opposition from nuclear proliferation experts, acknowledges India as a de facto nuclear power, even though it has never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. India until now has been barred from worldwide nuclear trade, leaving its homegrown industry hobbled and short of uranium fuel to run its reactors. The administration said that the deal would bring a substantial portion of India's nuclear industry -- though not the facilities that produce materials for weapons -- under international observation.

Supporters, moreover, argue that the deal will help India become a responsible world power and will forge ties between two large democracies that have had an antagonistic relationship in the past. With an agreement in hand, India has said it plans to spend $14 billion on reactors and other nuclear equipment next year, though France and Russia are also expected to be key suppliers. Read Article Here.

I have to imagine both McCain and Obama voted for this bill for different reasons. McCain because he supports nuclear energy. Obama because he knows that if he attacks al-queda, then he will have to go into Pakistan, and if he goes into Pakistan he better be supported by India.

Bailout - Passed in the Senate

2008-10-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

In stark contrast to the House rejection of the plan on Monday, a bipartisan coalition of senators — including both presidential candidates — showed no hesitation in backing a proposal that had drawn public scorn, though the outpouring eased somewhat after a market plunge followed the House defeat. The Senate margin was 74 to 25 in favor of the White House initiative to buy troubled securities in an effort to avoid an economic catastrophe.

Only Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who is being treated for brain cancer, did not vote.

The presence in the Senate of both presidential candidates in the final weeks of the campaign gave weight to the moment. The political tension was clear as Senator Barack Obama walked to the Republican side of the aisle to greet John McCain, who offered a chilly look and a brief return handshake.

Mr. McCain did not make remarks on the legislation. Mr. Obama, in his speech, said the bailout plan was regrettable but necessary and he referred to the stock market drop after the House vote. “While that decline was devastating, the consequences of the credit crisis that caused it will be even worse if we do not act now,” he said. Read Article Here.

This should help the market tomorrow. It would surprise me if the House did not pass it.

VP Debate - Social Issues

2008-10-01T18:54:00.000-07:00

It seems unlikely that social issues will be discussed this debate with all the economic and foreign turmoil going on currently. If they are discussed though it should be interesting. Slate has gathered up past answers Biden and Palin have provided on gay marriage, abortion and more. Check it out here.

Incase you are tired of Classic and Indie Rock

2008-10-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

Jay-Z will preform a pair of free voter registration shows in the swing states of Florida and Michigan. I would guess he supports McCain, since the two share so much in common and McCain mentions that he has HOVA on his ipod, but I could be wrong. Read About it Here

Bailout Redux - More Info

2008-10-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

To calm voters fearful of bank failures, the $100,000 cap on federal insurance for deposits would also be raised to $250,000—a concession backed by both parties but also aimed at community banks who can be helpful in building small town support for the larger bill.

With each permutation, the bill has steadily grown in size. Treasury’s initial plan was about three pages long. The House version, which failed, stretched to 110. The Senate substitute now runs over 450 pages. And tucked away in the tax provisions is a landmark health care provision demanding that insurance companies provide coverage for mental health treatment—such as hospitalization—on parity with physical illnesses.

Really a bill onto itself, the mental health parity measure has been a bipartisan priority for top lawmakers in both chambers but has stalled because of disagreements again over how to pay for its estimated $3.8 billion five-year cost. In the current climate, that seems to be no longer a stumbling block, and if the Treasury plan becomes law, it will also. Read Article Here.

I like the idea of adding to the bill to help Americans. The new bill has provisions for mental health and education. I do not like the fact that it will add several Billion dollars to the deficit. I am not sure this bill will pass the House. It sounds like it will certainly pass the Senate, but there is a lot in this new bill that both Democrats and Republicans will dislike.

Early Voting

2008-10-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday opened Ohio's unusual week-long window in which voters can register and cast absentee ballots at the same time. Hundreds arrived in steady streams, part of a first wave of people already voting across the country, five weeks before Election Day.

Given Ohio's pivotal role in presidential races, its one-stop registration and voting drew attention -- and legal challenges.

But nationally, early voting, by mail or in person, is becoming more common and is likely to account for one-third of all votes cast in the November elections, up from 14 percent in 2000, predicts Paul Gronke, a researcher with the Early Voting Information Center in Portland, Ore.

That projection tracks with growth that three other election analysts have noted, with the rate of early voting rising from 20 percent in 2004 to 25 percent in 2006. Experts and state election officials have followed the growth in early voting for more than a decade. Read Article Here.

Tossup States, Swing States, and You

2008-10-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

You've heard of most of the battleground states before. Ohio and Florida are the two most famous, making all of the other swing states jealous because they've had movies made about them. Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico are also among the traditional swing states that have supported candidates from both parties in recent elections.

The number of battleground states is not fixed. Different news organizations have varying counts. NBC, CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Mark Ambinder, and Pollster.com, all see it slightly differently. The slight distinction among the different analysts is about which new states will be accorded the coveted "swing state" title and which traditional swing states should fall off the list. Indiana and North Carolina are new states flickering in the desirable "tossup" category, whereas Iowa, a state George W. Bush won in 2004, appears to be headed out of McCain's reach.

To determine the states that are truly competitive, we start with the states that historically have been close and then look at the current polls, which are now quite favorable for Obama. Statewide polls can be unreliable, though, because of small samples and crazy methodology, so analysts also look at other cues like party registration. If the party that is traditionally the underdog is signing up lots of new voters—perhaps enough to make up for the 2004 margin—it might hint that the state is really in play. In traditionally red Colorado, for example, Democrats have seen the number of registered voters grow. It's also worth checking who or what else is on the ballot: Anti-union initiatives in Colorado might help McCain, while popular candidates like Mark Warner, who is running for Senate in Virginia, might help Obama. Read Article Here.

Republican Party - RIP?

2008-10-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

Percentagewise, the Sept. 29 crash was one-third the size of Black Monday, the stock-market crash of Oct. 19, 1987. As I write, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen more than halfway back up (though stock prices remain volatile). It's still possible to believe that the economy will return to normal in a year or two. For Republicans, though, the events of Sept. 29 could well be remembered as the start of a decadeslong exile from power—much as Democrats remember Nov. 4, 1980.

That's not to say that John McCain is certain to lose this year's election to Barack Obama. As I've noted before, this race has experienced so many abrupt reversals that we're all starting to suffer from "game-changer" fatigue. At the moment, though, things seem to be going the Democrats' way, with Obama up five or six points in national polls and swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Missouri trending toward him. Meanwhile, the GOP has virtually no hope of retaking Congress; indeed, it's projected to lose seats in both the House and the Senate. Even if McCain wins, his past record of unpredictability combined with the likely imperative of working with a Democratic Congress suggest he'll spend much of his time fighting with members of his own party. That would seem especially likely given the current banking crisis, which has forced the Bush administration, the House and Senate leadership of both parties, and McCain himself to practice lemon socialism. Read Article Here.

Bailout Redux

2008-10-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

In what is shaping up to be yet another historic vote, presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain will return to Washington for a late Wednesday night vote.

But unlike the tumultuous House vote, the Senate roll call is expected to go more smoothly. While nothing is a slam dunk at this point, there is an expectation on both sides of the aisle that the bailout could receive 60 votes in the Senate, enough to overcome any potential filibuster.

The decision to hold this vote Wednesday in the Senate comes after Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) spent much of the day pressuring the Senate Democrats to put the bill on the schedule. Late Tuesday, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) relented and agreed to schedule the vote after sundown on Wednesday, when Rosh Hashana ends.

“The voters sent us here to respond to crises, not to ignore them," McConnell said. "And if you fail the first time, you get back up, and you work with each other.” Read Article Here.

Not sure if I support this new legislation. It added tax breaks for businesses and does not pay for revenue increases. I think that we should stop giving business so many tax breaks, especially the ones that we have to bailout.

Palin and the Debate

2008-10-01T07:16:00.000-07:00

Yet a review of Palin's experience during her 2006 campaign for governor, when she engaged in a long series of debates with her opponents, suggests she is a more formidable adversary than is widely thought.

Unlike her opponent Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, who has considerable presidential-level debate experience, Palin has never been involved in a debate where the questions were national and global in scope.

But she is familiar operating in a high-stakes debate environment against older, more seasoned pols who seemingly have better command of the issues.

In 2006, with no experience as a statewide officeholder, Palin ran what amounted to a debate gauntlet, beginning in the Republican primary against incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski and former state Sen. John Binkley, and then in the general election, against former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles and former state Rep. Andrew Halcro, an independent.

Against that experienced opposition, Palin proved herself to be a comfortable and confident debater, not exactly deeply versed in the issues but unusually adept at dodging controversy and quick to take advantage of opponents' missteps. Not one to throw an unnecessary punch, Palin took a patient approach, waiting for her rivals to expose their weak points - and then striking fast. Read Article Here.

At this point, I think I know more about Palin than Biden. The media has focused on Palin but largely ignored Biden. I know that Biden has lots of foreign policy experience, has been in Washington almost as long as McCain and is a Senator from Delaware, other than that I do not know much. He is a big reason why I am watching the debate. I want to see what he brings to the table.

Is This Really the Only Option Left?

2008-09-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

John McCain’s fade in recent polls, combined with a barrage of negative news coverage during the financial crisis, has leading Republican activists around the country worrying about his prospects and urging his campaign to become much more aggressive against Barack Obama in the remaining month before Election Day.

A flurry of new polls shows Barack Obama gaining in several battleground states – most notably Florida, Pennsylvania and swing states throughout the West. Officials worry early voting, which is under way in important states such as Ohio, is likely to favor Obama in this toxic political climate.

Several state GOP chairmen in interviews urged the McCain campaign to be more aggressive in hitting Obama’s vulnerabilities, such as his past relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and other problematic associations from Chicago. Read Article Here.

More Obama Events

2008-09-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

This is pretty rocking. Not quite Ohio but still good.

The Bruce Springsteen/Billy Joel show is not as sweet to me. Mostly because I really don't like Billy Joel. Read About It Here.

VP Debate - The Very Definition of Low Impact

2008-09-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

The amount of time and staff power being devoted to this was evidence of concern among Mr. McCain’s associates that Ms. Palin’s early triumphs — a well-received convention speech, her drawing of big crowds — has been overtaken by a series of setbacks, creating higher stakes for her in the debate Thursday with the Democratic nominee for vice president, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware.

“I think she has pretty thoroughly — and probably irretrievably — proven that she is not up to the job of being president of the United States,” David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush who is now a conservative columnist, said in an interview. “If she doesn’t perform well, then people see it.

“And this is a moment of real high anxiety, a little bit like 9/11, when people look to Washington for comfort and leadership and want to know that people in charge know what they are doing.” Read Article Here.

There are three reasons for this. First, Biden does not want to look condescending. For the same reason, he plans on referring to Palin as “Gov. Palin” during the debate and never as “Sarah.” (He will sometimes refer to John McCain as “John,” however, because they have been senators together for many years.)

Second, Biden knows the press is going to pounce on any mistakes, and so he does not need to.

Third, and most important, Sarah Palin is not Biden’s true target.

“Joe Biden’s No. 1 job during the vice presidential debate is to keep the focus on the top of the ticket,” the Biden debate prepper told me. “He is going to keep the focus on John McCain.”

This is an arguable strategy. After all, McCain is the experienced one on the Republican ticket, the one whose credentials to be commander in chief from Day One are not in much question. Read Article Here.

The title of this post comes from a West Wing quote, Josh is afraid that Leo is unprepared for the VP debate and Toby reminds him that the debate doesn't really matter. It is hard to say if this debate truly matters. As the articles point out America votes for the top of the ticket. Biden is going to have to walk a tight rope so he does not seem: cruel, patronizing, or elitist. Palin has to demonstrate that she is more than an SNL skit gone horribly wrong. I will be blogging live throughout the event, mostly to mock Palin.

Bush Wants Decisive Action...Again

2008-09-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

Appearing drawn and frustrated, Bush said in remarks at the White House that this is a "critical moment" for the U.S. economy. He noted that yesterday's single-day loss on the stock market, estimated at more than $1 trillion, was greater than the highest estimated cost of his administration's bailout plan.

"The consequences will grow worse each day if you do not act," Bush said, addressing dissident lawmakers. He added a moment later: "Our economy is depending on decisive action from the government...This is what elected leaders owe the American people."

"Our country is not facing a choice between action and the smooth functioning of the free market. We are facing a choice between action and the real prospect of financial hardship" that will be felt across the board, Bush said. Read Article Here.

I am glad that Congress stood up to Pres. Bush and his cronies. The last thing that the nation needs is decisive action without fully understanding the long term consequences. Isn't decisive action what got the US in Iraq? Afghanistan? Illegal Wiretaps? The Patriot Act? This mess in the first place? To quote Mr. President, "fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again".

Bailout: A Day Later

2008-09-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

Slate on Republican Candidates Chances with Election:

For in the meantime, the chaos they've created by coming to the table and then throwing a fit works to their disadvantage. Each time a deal is close to done and then gets scuppered, the market (and its many participants) freaks out. Huge quantities of wealth are destroyed. The markets fell about 8 percent after today's stunt, likely wiping out close to $1 trillion in wealth. In so doing, they're turning off whatever base the party had left on Wall Street and likely closing off a huge source of campaign cash. Asked for his evaluation of what took place today, Lawrence Fink, the CEO of asset management giant Blackrock, said, "Major disappointment came from the Republican side." A Republican congressman who shows up for a fundraiser in Manhattan this week is likely to get tarred and feathered. In some congressional races, I suppose financial dislocation and bank failures could plausibly be good news for Republican challengers—but only if the challengers can pin them on the incumbent Democrats.

BU Today interviewing Professor Simon Gilchrist:

If you were in Congress, would you have voted for this plan?

Yes. Last weekend’s bailouts of European banks highlight the fragility of the global financial system and how far and how rapidly this problem can spread. A financial meltdown would severely impair the ability of households and firms to obtain the credit necessary to continue funding ongoing operations and spending plans.

Based on the “financial accelerator” economic model I developed in conjunction with Ben Bernanke [chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors] and [NYU economist] Mark Gertler in the 1980s, my recent research suggests that even prior to this September’s events, the financial crisis was creating a drag of about 2 percent on GDP growth. Since then, things have gotten worse, and I anticipate that even with the bailout, we will see a mild recession in the coming year. However, without a bailout, it would likely be a severe global contraction. While people can argue over the details of the plan, it does put in place a mechanism by which the government can intervene to alleviate the systemic risk associated with this financial crisis.

In the short run, the bailout will unfreeze the interbank lending market, the commercial paper market, and other key financial markets required to finance short-term lending. This will reduce the cost of credit to consumers and firms and allow them to obtain financing that would otherwise be unavailable. This, in turn, will alleviate pressure on the economy and reduce unemployment and increase growth. In the long run, however, taxes will be raised or spending cut to pay for this. Also, lending standards will be tighter, which ultimately is probably a good thing.

Politico ponders the future for Rep. Boehner:

The leader lost the support of some of his closest allies in the House — including Iowa Rep. Tom Latham and California Rep. Devin Nunes, two drinking buddies who helped lay the foundation for Boehner’s political comeback in 2006.

Another Boehner ally, Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter of Michigan, physically turned his back on the leader during a tense closed-door GOP conference meeting Sunday night.

People who were in the room said McCotter left abruptly after Boehner told members not to attack one another. Boehner tried to reach out to McCotter as he left. McCotter kept walking.

Social Secutiry

2008-09-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

Through talking points and campaign ads, Democrats are accusing GOP candidates of supporting President Bush’s past proposal to allow workers to invest Social Security retirement funds in the marketplace. Though the legislation died in 2005, you’d hardly know it from recent Democratic rhetoric.

“What we have seen as a result of this meltdown in the financial markets is that people’s future retirement savings are put at risk … and there are many members of Congress on the Republican side that supported the Bush Social Security privatization plan,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Sunday on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.” Read Article Here.

Time to beat this dead horse again.

Good Day for Barr

2008-09-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

Didn’t see that one coming, did you?

Today’s bailout vote in the House embarrassed President Bush, the congressional leaders of both parties – and, to some extent, both major-party presidential candidates. Obama and McCain both endorsed the bailout proposal, and its failure to pass the House puts the two men in an awkward position as negotiations start all over again.

There was, however, one presidential “contender” who got on the right side of this issue: former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr. Barr called today’s bill “the bailout from hell” and warned it would make Henry Paulson “an economic dictator, empowered to reengineer the economy as he sees fit.” As Obama and McCain carefully parse their language in response to developments on the Hill, Barr has no such burden: he got what he wanted.

Of the two major-party candidates, McCain finds himself in a somewhat more uncomfortable position going forward, having watched congressional Republicans desert the bailout bill after one of his campaign aides bragged about McCain’s role in corralling GOP support. But after this afternoon’s surprise revolt against the bailout, it’s hard to say either he or Obama had a really good day. Barr, on the other hand, had an unexpected moment in the sun.

Read Article Here.

Proposal For the Future

2008-09-29T15:38:00.000-07:00

Initially I thought that the house not passing the bailout bill was an unbelievable and terrible thing for the economy. Then I read the bill itself, available here. I obviously know that not passing the bill hurt the economy today, but I am not sure the bill would help the economy in the long term. It gives too much power to the Treasury Secretary and President, and does not do enough to help the average person.

The Paulson plan, as originally presented on Sept. 20, would have bailed out the institutions holding mortgage derivatives without doing anything about the underlying homes or adequately protecting the taxpayer, who would have been taking the risk without potential for reward. Congressional negotiators addressed those glaring omissions in 'round-the-clock weekend negotiations and announced yesterday they had reached an agreement. Both the House and Senate plan to vote on the proposal this week.

We will never know what would have happened without the largest government bailout in history. And it's far from clear this new New Deal will be the end. Surely there is a better way to dispose of bad assets. Read Article Here.

I think that a New New Deal is absolutely what is needed. A new WPA is what the country needs. It will provide employment for the average person, no matter their education level. Unemployment is at a dangerous high, even higher among blue collar workers. And the country desperately needs to be updated. The harbors, highways and rail system all need to be modernized. We need to build new factories to produce green technology and products. It seems to me, that it is high time that the government starts to regulate energy policy and promote public works and green projects. If it worked to get us out of the Great Depression, it will work to get us out of this Depression.

McCain "Angry and Hyper-Partisan"

2008-09-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

Obama spokesman Bill Burton:

This is a moment of national crisis, and today’s inaction in Congress as well as the angry and hyper-partisan statement released by the McCain campaign are exactly why the American people are disgusted with Washington. Now is the time for Democrats and Republicans to join together and act in a way that prevents an economic catastrophe. Every American should be outraged that an era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and Washington has led us to this point, but now that we are here, the stability of our entire economy depends on us taking immediate action to ease this crisis.

Palin: Should Scare You

2008-09-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

Jack Cafferty unloaded on Sarah Palin's "disastrous" interview with Katie Couric Friday afternoon on CNN, telling Wolf Blitzer, "There's a reason the McCain campaign keeps Governor Palin away from the press."

After showing a clip of Palin stumbling over Couric's question about the bailout and offering an answer connecting the bailout to healthcare, Cafferty asked, "Did you get that?"

He warned the viewers: "If John McCain wins this woman will be one 72-year-old's heartbeat away from being President of the United States. And if that doesn't scare the hell out of you, it should." Read Article Here.

The Vote on the Bailout

2008-09-29T11:59:00.001-07:00

While the economic consequences of the vote will be determined during the coming weeks, the outcome this afternoon was a major setback to John McCain, who had backed the proposal and had portrayed himself as a party leader who would help win approval for the bailout. Instead, members of his own party voted 133 to 65 against the measure.

In contrast, Democrats voted 141 to 94 for the bill.

There very likely will be an attempt to try to pass the bill again, although it is not clear how soon that would take place. Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas asked if he could move for reconsideration and if he did, how soon would it be taken up. He was told by House parliamentarians that it would be taken up immediately -- too soon for supporters to regroup -- so he put off his motion. Read Article Here.

Both Candidates endorsed the deal. One party voted almost two to one against it, one voted almost two to one for it. Doesn't this signal who is leading their party and who is out of touch with their party?

Obama and Women's Rights

2008-09-29T11:47:00.000-07:00

And though she never was told about the nature of the commercial, Shelton-Knight said she thought that the focus of the ad may be about the practice in Wasilla, Alaska, to charge rape victims to pay for their own exams.

The law was on the books when Sarah Palin became mayor of the small city, and it's unclear whether she supported it or opposed it during her tenure.

But Shelton-Knight said Palin should not be criticized for having governed a city with such a law as they were quite common until recent years.

Alaska didn't pass a bill until 2000 requiring state and local law enforcement to pay for the exams. And Shelton-Knight said it wasn't until lobbying by her and others that Virginia last year put the financial burden on localities. Many states still charge victims for the cost of the exam. Read Article Here.

Seems a little craven to use a rape victim in a commercial, but at the same time women's rights are hugely important this election. With the choice of Palin, McCain certainly has signalled that he does not support the right to abortion.

Another Day, Another Bank

2008-09-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

Citigroup reached an agreement early Monday morning to acquire the banking operations of the Wachovia Corporation after making a daring bid that pulled the deeply troubled company from the brink of collapse.

Citigroup will pay $1 a share, or about $2.2 billion, according to people briefed on the deal.

Federal regulators worked around the clock this weekend to orchestrate the sale, finally reaching an agreement at 4 a.m. on Monday morning. In the end, the government agreed to provide Citigroup with a financial guarantee on Wachovia’s most risky assets. It is similar to the deal that the Federal Reserve established with JPMorgan Chase’s emergency takeover of Bear Stearns. Read Article Here.

C.R.E.A.M. - Failed Bailout

2008-09-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

Treasury’s $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan collapsed in the House on Monday, sending a shock through financial markets and leaving the Bush administration scrambling to find some new path to deal with the credit crunch facing the American economy.

Republican defections proved fatal to the massive government intervention, which was rejected 228-205. Despite bipartisan appeals from the leadership, anti-Wall Street sentiment and the huge scale of the proposed government intervention proved too much for Treasury to prevail.

Democrats more than delivered a majority of their caucus, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) held the vote open to bring her numbers up to 140 votes for the package. But Republicans never topped 70, and the final GOP split was 133 against the bill and only 65 for the measure.

After the vote, Republicans claimed that the Democratic leadership had been warned that fewer than 60 Republicans would vote for the bill. Democrats denied the claim, saying they never would have brought the bill to the floor if they had been told there was so little Republican support. Read Article Here.

Clearly McCain's attempt to moderate discussions and deliver the Republicans failed. I have a feeling that this is not going to help the financial situation.

The Debate

2008-09-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

I have not commented on the debate. This is partially due to the fact that I did not see all of it. I was out and only saw the last half hour or so. From what I saw:

Obama needs to be more forceful, stop being so academic.
McCain looks even older when he stands next to Obama
Not sure the not looking at your opponent strategy was a good way to go for McCain
McCain sure seemed annoyed when Obama agreed with him. Since Obama agreed so often, is Obama really that naive? If he is, doesn't that mean that McCain is also naive?
For all the attack ads, the debate was pretty civil. Can we see the two of them go at it soon? I want to watch two people go for the jugular live in a debate.

Those are my thoughts. Can not wait for the next debates, especially the VP debate.

McCain, Obama and Kissinger

2008-09-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

But the true farce and disgrace is that this increasingly glassy-eyed old blunderer and war criminal, who has been wrong on everything since he first authorized illicit wiretapping for the Nixon gang, should be cited as an authority by either nominee, let alone by both of them. Meanwhile, I repeat my question from two weeks ago: Does Sen. Obama appreciate, or do his peacenik fans and fundraisers realize, just how much war he is promising them if he is elected? Once again on Sept. 26 in Mississippi—at the end of a week when American and Pakistani forces had engaged in their first actual direct firefight—he repeated his intention of ignoring the Pakistani frontier when it came to hot pursuit of al-Qaida. Out-hawked on this point, as he was nearly out-doved on the Kissinger one, McCain was moderate by comparison. Obama went on to accuse Iran of having built more centrifuges than most people think it has. This allegation has a confrontational logic of its own, above and beyond the minor issues of preconditions and the "level" of diplomacy. I think Obama is to be praised for doing this—always assuming that he does in fact know what he is doing. But as we all press bravely on, the debate would look more intelligent, and be conducted on a higher plane, if it excluded a discredited pseudo-expert who has trampled on human rights, vandalized the U.S. Constitution, deceived Congress, left a trail of disaster and dictatorship behind him, and deserves to be called not a hawk or a dove but a vulture. Read Article Here.

SNL and The Election

2008-09-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

Every four years SNL becomes kind of relevant again. This year mostly due to the fact that Tina Fey does a great Sarah Palin.

Check it out here.

I am not going to bother to post clips from Colbert and Daily Show, since there would be too many.

Debate

2008-09-26T12:15:00.001-07:00

A year ago, the debate on foreign policy and national security would have been viewed as a marquee general election showdown. McCain and Obama hold starkly different views on the question of exiting from Iraq, and have sparred for months over issues ranging from negotiating with rogue countries to stabilizing Afghanistan to challenging an emboldened Russia. It was supposed to be the night that McCain, long immersed in foreign policy, would occupy the commanding heights.

But as the economy has overtaken Iraq as the top concern of voters, and the financial crisis on Wall Street casts an ever longer shadow, the nation – not to mention the candidates – is focused on matters closer to home. McCain and Obama are each expected to broaden the conversation Friday to encompass economic concerns. Read Article Here.

Pelosi: McCain's involvement, meeting at White House "disruptive"

2008-09-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

“I think Sen. McCain's involvement is sort of a blip.”

Pelosi called Thursday's meeting with the president, congressional leaders and the presidential candidates “disruptive” to the negotiations “because we had to begin writing the bill.”

“We can't take the bill to the floor until the bill is written, and we were on a path to that. It took a whole afternoon. And that time is important to us,” Pelosi said. Read Article Here.

On a side note, if Pres. Clinton and Sen. Liberman could just switch their party affiliation to Republican, it would save us a lot of time. The two of them are practically campaigning for McCain. If they like him that much why not switch teams?

The Stunt Failed

2008-09-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) ended three days of suspense on Friday morning and announced that he will leave bailout negotiations in Washington and fly to Oxford, Miss., for tonight's opening presidential debate.

McCain had previously said that he would suspend his campaign—and so would not attend the debate—until an agreement was reached on the administration's $700 billion mortgage proposal.

No such agreement has been reached, but Republicans said the standoff was hurting McCain's campaign and that he would look terrible if he didn't attend the nationally televised, eagerly anticipated debate, while Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was ready to go on stage. Read Article Here.

Runnin' the Numbers

2008-09-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

Obama is breaking open a presidential race that had once looked deadlocked.

State by state, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill). is showing signs of breaking open a presidential race that looked deadlocked through much of September.

A new wave of polls released Wednesday showed decisive leads for Obama in the critical states of Colorado, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

That follows noticeable progress in polls in Virginia, which had looked safe for Sen. John McCain, and Florida, which had looked promising for McCain.

This is the first time that one of the candidates has dominated state polls in the most closely contested battlegrounds. Read Article Here.

When the Going Gets Tough, Run Away

2008-09-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

John McCain called Wednesday for the first presidential debate, scheduled for Friday in Mississippi, to be delayed and urged Barack Obama to join him in Washington for a high-level meeting of congressional leaders to address the financial crisis. Obama responded that the debate should go on.

In a roll of the dice that jolted the presidential race, McCain said in New York Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign - and his fundraising and campaign advertising - as of Thursday and will return to Washington. He also scrapped a planned appearance on David Letterman.

Aides said it was unclear how long the suspension would last. The McCain campaign also left open the possibility of agreeing to the debate if a bailout deal could be reached by early Friday.

"I am calling on the president to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself," McCain said. "It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem."

Obama rebuffed the proposal. “It’s my belief that this is exactly the time the American people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible with dealing with this mess," he told reporters in Florida, where he has been prepping for Friday's event. "What I think is important is that we don’t suddenly infuse Capitol Hill with presidential politics," he said. Read Article Here.

Blind I and Obama

2008-09-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

My favorite Hip-Hop site is blind I. They are pretty good about putting up all sorts of Hip-Hop mixtapes. Many of them are inspired by Obama. Some are sick and some are not so sick. You can check it out here.

Don't Get Turned Away

2008-09-24T15:39:00.000-07:00

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ADVISE EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT THEY ABSOLUTELY CAN
NOT GO TO THE POLLS WEARING ANY OBAMA SHIRTS, PINS OR HATS, IT IS
AGAINST THE LAW AND WILL BE GROUNDS TO HAVE THE POLLING OFFICIALS TO
TURN YOU AWAY. THAT IS CONSIDERED CAMPAIGNING AND NO ONE CAN CAMPAIGN
WITHIN 100 FEET OF THE POLLS. THEY ARE BANKING ON US BEING
EXCITED AND NOT BEING AWARE OF THIS LONG STANDING LAW THAT YOU CAN BET
WILL BE ENFORCED THIS YEAR!

THEY ARE BANKING THAT IF YOU ARE TURNED AWAY YOU WILL NOT GO HOME AND CHANGE
YOUR CLOTHES. PLEASE JUST DON’T WEAR OBAMA GEAR OF ANY SORTS TO THE
POLLS! PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION, OH AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE
ALREADY AWARE, WE’RE JUST TRYING TO COVER ALL GROUNDS.PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ADVISE EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT THEY ABSOLUTELY CAN
NOT GO TO THE POLLS WEARING ANY OBAMA SHIRTS, PINS OR HATS, IT IS
AGAINST THE LAW AND WILL BE GROUNDS TO HAVE THE POLLING OFFICIALS TO
TURN YOU AWAY. THAT IS CONSIDERED CAMPAIGNING AND NO ONE CAN CAMPAIGN
WITHIN 100 FEET OF THE POLLS. THEY ARE BANKING ON US BEING
EXCITED AND NOT BEING AWARE OF THIS LONG STANDING LAW THAT YOU CAN BET
WILL BE ENFORCED THIS YEAR!

THEY ARE BANKING THAT IF YOU ARE TURNED AWAY YOU WILL NOT GO HOME AND CHANGE
YOUR CLOTHES. PLEASE JUST DON’T WEAR OBAMA GEAR OF ANY SORTS TO THE
POLLS! PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION, OH AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE
ALREADY AWARE, WE’RE JUST TRYING TO COVER ALL GROUNDS.

Miami Crew Better go to this

2008-09-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

The National and The Breeders Rock Free Concert for Obama

I am sure Obama has something like this but...

2008-09-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

I ghost-wrote letters to the editor for the McCain campaign

I spent a morning in John McCain's Virginia campaign headquarters ghost-writing letters to the editor for McCain supporters to sign. I even pretended to have a son in Iraq. Read Article Here.

Seems a little scummy to do this.

New Numbers

2008-09-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

Obama has also increased his advantage on two critical indicators—which candidate voters believe would better handle the economy, and which would bring "change" to Washington—that McCain had closed the gap on following his party's convention. And Democrats have broadened their lead in party affiliation after that too had tightened following McCain's addition of Sarah Palin to the ticket and acceptance of his party's nomination.

The shift appears to be tied, at least in part, to the turmoil on Wall Street. Wednesday's Washington Post-ABC poll found that for the first time this cycle, half of all voters view the economy and jobs as the single most important issue—five times more than cite the war in Iraq and a remarkable 13-point rise in the past two weeks. The CNN/ORC poll found that by nearly a two-to-one margin, 47 to 24 percent, voters believe Republicans “are more responsible for the problems currently facing financial institutions and the stock market.” Read Article Here.

Obama McCain and the Press

2008-09-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

While I don't believe that the Times is pulling for Barack Obama, and I'd never judge an entire publication by one story, Steve Schmidt is right about the more general point he raises: The press corps does adore Barack Obama. They like his story. They like writing about him. They like the way he gives speeches. They like the way he makes them feel. And they don't mind cutting him slack whenever he acts like a regular politician—which he is.

This, of course, is the same press corps that adored John McCain during the 2000 race, as this comprehensive study by FAIR shows. The press corps liked his honesty. They liked the access he provided them. They liked his maverick stance. They liked the way he made them feel. And they didn't mind cutting him slack whenever he acted like a regular politician—which he was, most of the time. Read Article Here.

McCain's Chief of Staff

2008-09-23T19:44:00.000-07:00

One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.

The disclosure undercuts a remark by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years.

Freddie Mac’s payments of roughly $500,000 to Davis Manafort, the people familiar with the arrangement said, began in late 2005, immediately after Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae disbanded an advocacy coalition that they had set up and hired Mr. Davis to run.

From 2000 to the end of 2005, Mr. Davis received nearly $2 million as president of the coalition, the Homeownership Alliance, which the companies created to help them oppose new regulations and protect their status as federally chartered companies with implicit government backing. That status let them borrow cheaply, helping to fuel rapid growth but also their increased purchases of the risky mortgage securities that proved to be their downfall. Read Article Here.

If Obama can not capitalize on this then I give up.

George F. Will on McCain

2008-09-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that "McCain untethered" -- disconnected from knowledge and principle -- had made a "false and deeply unfair" attack on Cox that was "unpresidential" and demonstrated that McCain "doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does."

To read the Journal's details about the depths of McCain's shallowness on the subject of Cox's chairmanship, see "McCain's Scapegoat" (Sept. 19, Page A22). Then consider McCain's characteristic accusation that Cox "has betrayed the public's trust." Read Article Here.

Obama: the new Dukakis?

2008-09-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

And yet, and unless I am about to miss some delayed "groundswell" or mood shift, none of this has translated into any measurable advantage for the Democrat. There are three possible reasons for such a huge failure on Barack Obama's part. The first, and the most widely canvassed, is that he is too nice, too innocent, too honest, and too decent to get down in the arena and trade bloody thrusts with the right-wing enemy. (This is rapidly becoming the story line that will achieve mythic status, along with allegations of racial and religious rumor-mongering, if he actually loses in November.) The second is that crisis and difficulty, at home and abroad, sometimes make electors slightly more likely to trust the existing establishment, or some version of it, than any challenger or newcomer, however slight. The third is that Obama does not, and perhaps even cannot, represent "change" for the very simple reason that the Democrats are a status quo party.

To analyze this is to be obliged to balance some of the qualities of Obama's own personality with some of the characteristics of his party. Here's a swift test. Be honest. What sentence can you quote from his convention speech in Denver? I thought so. All right, what about his big rally speech in Berlin? Just as I guessed. OK, help me out: Surely you can manage to cite a line or two from his imperishable address on race (compared by some liberal academics to Gettysburg itself) in Philadelphia? No, not the line about his white grandmother. Some other line. Oh, dear. Now do you see what I mean? Read Article Here.

Todd Palin

2008-09-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

Todd Palin grew up as the archetypal Alaskan -- salmon fisherman, champion snowmobiler, North Slope oil worker. But since his wife became governor 20 months ago, his portfolio has broadened: househusband, babysitter, senior adviser, legislative liaison, and -- when the occasion warrants -- enforcer and protector. Read Article Here.

We can argue if Gov. Sarah Palin has experience necessary to be President. I think we can all agree that champion snow mobiler and fisherman are not. From the sounds of the article, Todd Palin would have much more power than anyone would feel comfortable with. I don't care if you can have a beer with the guy or if he is hot, he might be the deciding voice in foreign policy and that is an even scarier thought than Pres. Palin.

From Presidential Dreams to Realities

2008-09-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

Abroad are two wars of uncertain future, conflicts to be won or wound down in a way that brings stability to those regions while retaining public confidence in the next commander in chief. At home, the cost and complexities of resolving the economic crisis have put the government on a new footing and are likely to sharply limit the next president's domestic maneuvering room.

Presidential campaigns are exercises in big dreams and grand ambitions. This campaign has turned into a case of watching those ambitions chipped away by events. McCain or Obama will inherit a mess by any definition and will have to spend the first year of his presidency, at least, consumed with these problems. Read Article Here.

Presidential Powers and Presidential Candidates

2008-09-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

Some of this makes for reassuring reading: McCain pledges never to use a signing statement—the somewhat symbolic but nevertheless crazy-making evidence that the Bush administration was doing its utmost to supersede Congress. McCain also says that if Congress definitively says that a "specific interrogation technique" is off-limits, the president can't approve its use anyway. But McCain also declines to name a single use of executive power by the Bush administration that is unconstitutional or even just "a bad idea." And in May he went on his infamous tear about the federal judiciary, blasting the judges "common and systematic abuse of our federal courts"—never mind that at this point the majority are Republican appointees. (If anyone was wondering whether McCain would toe the line and appoint archconservative justices in the model of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, as he'd promised, this should have quelled such doubts.)

As for Obama, he has been consistently strong in saying the president can't hold detainees he decides are enemy combatants without charges, and on preserving the right to habeas corpus—the means by which the Guantanamo detainees might actually challenge their enemy combatant status in court someday. The Bush administration has cast all of this as a fight for supremacy between the executive and the courts, so Obama's position would be a major easing of tensions. Obama also told Savage that "the President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." And he said the president can't ignore Congress on troop deployments, while McCain complained about Congress micromanaging wars. Given how imperial the American presidency has become over the last half-century, Congress isn't good at taking power back for itself. So, Obama looks like he has the legislature's back. Read Article Here.

Follow the Money

2008-09-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

“These are not ideological courses,” said James Piereson, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, which created the Veritas Fund for Higher Education to funnel donations to these sorts of projects. The initiatives are only political insofar as they “work against the thrust of programs and courses in gender, race and class studies, and postmodernism in general,” he said.

The programs and centers differ in emphasis, with some concentrating on American democratic and capitalist institutions and others on the Western canon, the great books often derided during the culture wars as the history of “dead white men.” They sponsor colloquia, seminars, courses, visiting lecturers and postdoctoral students. At Brown, the Political Theory Project even put on a play by the capitalist heroine Ayn Rand. Read Article Here.

Seems to counter balance the Obama article I posted earlier.

Prof. Obama

2008-09-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

Obama taught at the University of Chicago Law School for a decade before he left in 2003 to run for the United States Senate. He emerged as one of the Senate’s most liberal members, and his voting record is often invoked in the current campaign, especially by his opponents. But the men and women who studied with him at Chicago echo Escuder’s observation that Obama was much more pragmatic than ideological. Even as his political career advanced, Obama’s teaching stuck to the law-school norm of dispassionately evaluating competing arguments with the tools of forensic logic. But Obama apparently was not attached to legal argumentation for its own sake. “It was drilled into us from Day 1 that you examined your biases and inclinations,” Richard Hess, now an attorney at Susman Godfrey in Houston, told me. “And then, when you made decisions, they were based on sound empirical reasons.” Escuder saw his professor as “a street smart academic”: “He wanted his students to consider the impact laws and judicial opinions had on real people.” According to Marcus Fruchter, who took constitutional law with Obama and now practices at the law firm of Schopf & Weiss in Chicago, “You never would have known he was going to be a liberal senator based on what he said in his courses.” Read Article Here.

Brilliance

2008-09-21T12:52:00.000-07:00

OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?

BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for! Read Article Here.

I am going to post the shocking similarities between West Wing and this election soon.

Third Party

2008-09-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

In an effort to be fair and balanced, I have decided to link some of the other candidates running for president this year:

Bob Barr - Libertarian Party

Cynthia McKinney - Green Party and Workers World Party

Charles Jay - Boston Tea Party and Personal Choice Party

Chuck Baldwin - Constitution Party

Gloria La Riva - Party for Socialism and Liberation

Brian Moore - Socialist Party USA

There are many more parties/candidates. These are the largest ones. Interesting to see how the third parties are usually split into two groups: strict constitutional liberty groups or communist/environmental anarchist-esque groups. I personally think that the Green Party is closest to my beliefs, but I know that they won't win and in a close race every vote counts.

McCain and Georgia

2008-09-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

That's exactly what worries some of McCain's many foreign-policy consultants. As the two presidential candidates prepare to debate foreign affairs and national security this Friday night, the Republican nominee is widely assumed to have an edge: polls consistently show that voters think he's better prepared than Sen. Barack Obama to be commander in chief. His relationships with leaders like Saakashvili contribute to that reputation. Yet McCain's affection for Misha runs counter to the instincts of many Republican foreign-policy "realists." (GOP moderates use the term to distinguish themselves from the party's neoconservative wing. McCain's chief foreign-policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, a former Saakashvili lobbyist, is identified with the neocons.) The candidate likes Saakashvili's sense of moral absolutes, says Dimitri Simes, founding president of the realists' home think tank, the Nixon Center: "I understand how someone who takes this posture would appeal to Senator McCain, who also does not tend to see international relations in shades of gray."

The concern, according to a McCain adviser and former Republican administration official, who did not want his name linked to criticism of the nominee's positions, is this: "When you personalize these issues, you lose sight of some more basic national interests." Saakashvili's tough talk about Moscow may ignite McCain's imagination, but his brinksmanship in August led to the rout of Georgia's armed forces and the worst U.S.-Russia standoff since the cold war. Simes says that "a number of leading Republican realists have shared their reservations with Senator McCain regarding Saakashvili and blind U.S. support for Georgia." Read Article Here.

This article makes me question McCain's foreign policy experience. It is beginning to sound as if he is not as wise as he claims. The fact that no one is willing to be named in this piece makes me wonder about McCain's tendency to hold grudges.

In Defense of Atheism, Elitism, and Experience

2008-09-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

The point to be lamented is not that Sarah Palin comes from outside Washington, or that she has glimpsed so little of the earth's surface (she didn't have a passport until last year), or that she's never met a foreign head of state. The point is that she comes to us, seeking the second most important job in the world, without any intellectual training relevant to the challenges and responsibilities that await her. There is nothing to suggest that she even sees a role for careful analysis or a deep understanding of world events when it comes to deciding the fate of a nation. In her interview with Gibson, Palin managed to turn a joke about seeing Russia from her window into a straight-faced claim that Alaska's geographical proximity to Russia gave her some essential foreign-policy experience. Palin may be a perfectly wonderful person, a loving mother and a great American success story—but she is a beauty queen/sports reporter who stumbled into small-town politics, and who is now on the verge of stumbling into, or upon, world history.

We have all now witnessed apparently sentient human beings, once provoked by a reporter's microphone, saying things like, "I'm voting for Sarah because she's a mom. She knows what it's like to be a mom." Such sentiments suggest an uncanny (and, one fears, especially American) detachment from the real problems of today. The next administration must immediately confront issues like nuclear proliferation, ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and covert wars elsewhere), global climate change, a convulsing economy, Russian belligerence, the rise of China, emerging epidemics, Islamism on a hundred fronts, a defunct United Nations, the deterioration of American schools, failures of energy, infrastructure and Internet security … the list is long, and Sarah Palin does not seem competent even to rank these items in order of importance, much less address any one of them.

We have endured eight years of an administration that seemed touched by religious ideology. Bush's claim to Bob Woodward that he consulted a "higher Father" before going to war in Iraq got many of us sitting upright, before our attention wandered again to less ethereal signs of his incompetence. For all my concern about Bush's religious beliefs, and about his merely average grasp of terrestrial reality, I have never once thought that he was an over-the-brink, Rapture-ready extremist. Palin seems as though she might be the real McCoy. With the McCain team leading her around like a pet pony between now and Election Day, she can be expected to conceal her religious extremism until it is too late to do anything about it. Her supporters know that while she cannot afford to "talk the talk" between now and Nov. 4, if elected, she can be trusted to "walk the walk" until the Day of Judgment.

The prospects of a Palin administration are far more frightening, in fact, than those of a Palin Institute for Pediatric Neurosurgery. Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated. Read Full Article Here.

These are just random excerpts from the article. They are not in order but I think you get the idea. Do read the full article it is very insightful.

Point Taken

2008-09-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

If there's one piece of advice Barack Obama should heed, it's this: Don't listen to advice. As John McCain overtakes Obama in the polls, pundits and bloggers have turned into political versions of "Dear Abby." They advise him about his message (Mark Halperin says: Talk about the economy!), his style (Arianna Huffington wants to see more MLK references), and his themes (Ellen Malcolm of Emily's List says, "Talk about who really is able to change the direction of this country"). So many people have added their two cents, no wonder Obama's breaking fundraising records. Read Article Here.

C.R.E.A.M. - Vegas Style

2008-09-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

Let’s understand what happened here. Wall Street — the financial industry — became a bubble in recent years thanks to an excess of liquidity and the oldest bubble maker in history: greed. Some of the smartest people forgot one of the oldest rules of investing: There is no such thing as a risk-free return. When you reach too far for yield, sooner or later you get burned.

In the ’90s, the no-lose, risk-free, high-yield return was supposed to be dot-com stocks. This decade’s version are subprime mortgages and financial stocks. Just like the dot-comers in the 1990s, the financial stocks got inflated to ridiculous levels and salaries for Wall Street executives reached ridiculous heights. You are now watching live and in color that bubble burst: “Thank you for playing, Lehman Brothers.” That’s really sad for a 158-year-old company. Read Article Here.

There is No Strong Leader Without a Strong Country

2008-09-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

Who cares how much steel John McCain has in his gut when the steel that today holds up our bridges, railroads, nuclear reactors and other infrastructure is rusting? McCain talks about how he would build dozens of nuclear power plants. Oh, really? They go for $10 billion a pop. Where is the money going to come from? From lowering taxes? From banning abortions? From borrowing more from China? From having Sarah Palin “reform” Washington — as if she has any more clue how to do that than the first 100 names in the D.C. phonebook? Read Article Here.

Barbies for War

2008-09-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

R. D. Levno, a retired school principal, flew in from Fairbanks. “She’s a child, inexperienced and simplistic,” she said of Sarah. “It’s taking us back to junior high school. She’s one of the popular girls, but one of the mean girls. She is seductive, but she is invented.” Read Article Here.

Got this from my Dad

2008-09-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

In the middle of September of 2008, as the Senate of the United States was pondering an energy bill, all 100 Senators were invited to speak at a Bipartisan Energy Summit. With a national election less than two months away, you may imagine the posturing. But you might not have anticipated this minute-long question. [Watch it here.]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Sheldon Whitehouse, Senator from Rhode Island:

WHITEHOUSE: Gentlemen, we're in the middle of a near total mortgage system meltdown in this country. We have a health care system that burns 16 percent of our GDP, in which the Medicare liability alone has been estimated at $34 trillion. We're burning $10 billion a month in Iraq.

This administration has run up $7.7 trillion in national debt, by our calculation. And there is worsening evidence every day of global warming, with worsening environmental and national security and economic ramifications. In light of those conditions, do any of you seriously contend that drilling for more oil is the number one issue facing the American people today?

(Long silent pause during which nobody answers.)

WHITEHOUSE: No, it doesn't seem so.

I watched this remarkable moment as I was reading Water Consciousness, a book about a crisis that just possibly muscles oil aside as the biggest threat to life as we know it. News to you? It certainly would be to our nation's leaders. But consider some facts:

-- Right now, 1.3 billion people have no access to clean water and 2.5 billion lack adequate sewage or sanitation. The demand for water doubles every 20 years. At this rate, demand for fresh water will outpace supply by 50% --- in less than 20 years.

-- Yes, the earth is mostly water, but 97% of the earth's water is salty. All life shares 1% of the earth's water.

-- 70% of the water in America we use goes to agriculture.

--- That third-of-a-pound burger? It takes 600 gallons of water to grow the corn that feeds the cow that produces just that third of a pound of meat.

-- To sustain life, we each need 13 gallons of water a day. In the United States, we each use about 150 gallons.

-- Three out of four Americans drink bottled water. One out of five Americans drinks only bottled water.

-- National Climate Data Center officials say that 43% of the United States is in “moderate to extreme drought.”

-- More than 50% of the water that American households use goes for lawns, gardens and pools.

In short, we are wasting a resource we can't live without. We are in crisis. And we have not declared any level of emergency.

This is not to say we're lost. Smart, serious essays by experienced professionals explain the problem and present some savvy solutions. If you're better read than this water user, perhaps you already know about the importance of watersheds and acequias (communal irrigation systems) and cisterns that collect rainwater --- but let me confess, I read with a pen in hand, and marked a lot. You may not like Big Government; you need to know the argument for a federal trust fund for water.

And in these pages you can learn what you, as an individual, can do. Calculate your water footprint. Rethink that lawn. Get a front-loading washing machine. Stop buying gourmet water; purify tap water at home and carry it around in non-toxic bottles.

A Goldman Sachs analyst predicts that the “water business could become the oil business of the decade from 2020 to 2030.” Whatever your politics, you really don't want that to happen. So either read two hundred pages of this picture-and-text book or start looking for a second home that has its own water supply. Because you don't want to be sitting on the sidelines, thirsty, as a Senator desperately tries to talk sense to his/her colleagues in 2025.

Last Post on this Subject

2008-09-16T09:07:00.000-07:00

All in all, it adds up to a huge win for Obama, right? Not exactly. (At this point in the campaign, the only huge wins are in contests of height or age.) For Obama to take advantage of this moment, he has to convince voters he's going to change their lives. He can't use it as merely another opportunity to paint McCain as out of touch. Read Article Here.

I am done with this subject. At this point we all get it, McCain is bad on the economy. And as the article points out, Obama has to be careful with the subject. If he continually points out the economy sucks, then he will become the candidate of gloom and not the candidate for change. I am sure Obama's people are thinking of ways to make the campaign about the economy and how Obama will change the economy and the American people's lives for the better.

Obama and Afghanistan

2008-09-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, and on Pakistani soil and under the very noses of its army and the ISI, the city of Quetta and the so-called Federally Administered Tribal Areas are becoming the incubating ground of a reorganized and protected al-Qaida. Sen. Barack Obama has, if anything, been the more militant of the two presidential candidates in stressing the danger here and the need to act without too much sentiment about our so-called Islamabad ally. He began using this rhetoric when it was much simpler to counterpose the "good" war in Afghanistan with the "bad" one in Iraq. Never mind that now; he is committed in advance to a serious projection of American power into the heartland of our deadliest enemy. And that, I think, is another reason why so many people are reluctant to employ truthful descriptions for the emerging Afghan-Pakistan confrontation: American liberals can't quite face the fact that if their man does win in November, and if he has meant a single serious word he's ever said, it means more war, and more bitter and protracted war at that—not less. Read Article Here.

This article thoroughly explains the Pakistan problem. The problem being they are an unstable, corrupt, dangerous nation, that has nuclear weapons, wants to wipe India off the map and supports terrorism. This is clearly an over simplification on my part, but I haven't heard to many positive things said about Pakistan. This might be due to the fact the West is currently in love with India or it might be due to the fact that it supports, or at least doesn't stop, Al-Queda.

C.R.E.A.M. - Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch

2008-09-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

Republican John McCain said today the fundamentals of the U.S. economy are still strong despite the collapse of some of Wall Street's top financial institutions and the tumbling of the stock exchange.

Democrat Barack Obama called the turmoil in the financial markets "a major threat to our economy and its ability to create good-paying jobs and help working Americans pay their bills, save for their future and make their mortgage payments." Read Article Here.

As if we need anymore proof, John McCain does not understand anything having to do with the economy. As I write this the DOW is down over THREE Hundred Points due to Merrill Lynch acquisition and the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. When the market is down this much, how can you really say that it is still strong?

What I Fear

2008-09-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

That is what scares the Rev. Howard Bess. A retired American Baptist minister who pastors a small congregation in nearby Palmer, Wasilla's twin town in Alaska's Matanuska Valley, Bess has been tangling with Palin and her fellow evangelical activists ever since she was a Wasilla City Council member in the 1990s. Recently, Bess again found himself in the spotlight with Palin, when it was reported that his 1995 book, "Pastor, I Am Gay," was among those Palin tried to have removed from the Wasilla Public Library when she was mayor.

"She scares me," said Bess. "She's Jerry Falwell with a pretty face". Read Article Here.

This is what scares the hell out of me. That Palin is the new Falwell. That the government will attempt to revert the Nation to the 1950's, where African Americans, Gay's, Women and Intellectuals couldn't live openly for fear of persecution.

Race, Politics and Polls in Ohio

2008-09-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

A striking feature of the University of Cincinnati's Ohio Poll, which was released Friday, was that while McCain is winning the support of 90 percent of Republican voters, Obama is only picking up 82 percent of the Democrats. These differing levels of party loyalty -- which might (note the conditional tense) be attributed to Palin for the Republicans and Obama's African-American heritage on the Democratic side -- partly explain why McCain leads 48 to 44 percent in the survey. (A Quinnipiac University poll gave Obama a 49-44 edge in Ohio over McCain, which underscores why slavishly following the gyrating surveys can be an exercise in frustration.)

But polls, which tend to put the undecided vote in single digits, may understate the volatility of the race. In the Ohio Poll, 19 percent of the state's voters said that they could change their minds before Election Day and another 4 percent were undecided. "I think voters know less at this point about Obama than they do about McCain," said Eric Rademacher, the co-director of the Ohio Poll. "The people who were saying that they could change their minds are those who normally don't pay attention to politics until after the convention." Read Article Here.

Ohio is important to me right now. Partially because everyday I am comparing BU to Miami, but also because Ohio will decide the winner of this election. It has 20 electoral points and is the reason why Kerry lost the election. The article makes me feel a little more optimistic about Obama's chances, but only a little.

Closer to the Truth

2008-09-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

Both major party candidates for president vowed to run a different kind of campaign, implicitly promising a break from the spin-fests that past contests had become. But the close race and the tumultuous media environment in which McCain and Obama now find themselves appear to have crushed those notions.

"When you are seeking people's approval, you tend to tell them what you think they want to hear," said Brooks Jackson, a former Associated Press and CNN reporter who runs the online truth-squad effort Fact Check.org.

Analysts who have studied campaign rhetoric point out that rhetorical excess is hardly new. Plato railed against it 2,400 years ago. But even he might have been taken aback this year, particularly by the GOP ticket's recent comments and advertisements. Read Article Here.

What If and What Will Be?

2008-09-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

I anticipate that most black Americans will believe that an Obama defeat will have stemmed in substantial part from a prejudice that robbed 40 million Americans of the chance to become president on the day they were born black. They will of course understand that race wasn't the only significant variable -- that party affiliation, ideological proclivities, strategic choices and dumb luck also mattered. But deep in their bones, they will believe -- and probably rightly -- that race was a key element, that had the racial shoe been on the other foot -- had John McCain been black and Obama white -- the result would have been different.

This conclusion will be accompanied by bitter disappointment, and in some quarters, stark rage. In the early stages of the Obama campaign, his rival, Hillary Clinton, outpolled him among blacks in part because many didn't believe that he stood a chance of prevailing. Then came Iowa. And the near-victory in New Hampshire. When blacks realized that Obama's candidacy represented a serious drive for electoral power with an appreciable chance of success, they gravitated overwhelmingly to the Illinois senator. Read Article Here.

This is a real question: what will Black America do if Obama loses unfairly? I think that if Obama does lose on issues, then it will be difficult to harbor bitter feelings. However, if his race and all of the smear is the reason why he loses, then I think anger and bitterness will be around for a long time. And then the black and youth votes will certainly change. People who are excited for the election will lose interest. It will show that their vote doesn't matter when the elderly decide an election. I unfortunately believe that his race and the negative ads will be a large part of the exit polls.

A New Round of Attacks

2008-09-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

"So from where he and George Bush sit, maybe they just can't see," the Democrat told supporters and some self-identified undecided voters earlier in the day in Dover. "Maybe they are just that out of touch. But you know the truth, and so do I. . . . We just can't afford four more years of what John McCain and George Bush consider progress."

If Democrats were expecting a dramatic change in words, tone or temperament, they did not get it. While McCain attacked him as a pampered, fading celebrity, a sexist and a desperate bully, Obama stuck to familiar themes linking the senator from Arizona to Bush and Washington lobbyists. Read Article Here.

I think that Obama may have to go harsher than saying McCain will be Bush deux. However, I don't think he should stoop to the awful levels that McCain has. Blatant lies and double speak will not help the nation. If Obama gives up his image of being a new breed of politics and goes completely negative and toxic, I think the voters will vote for McCain who is seen as being patriotic and a "real" person.

I was one of those half-million

2008-09-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

Mr. Obama is not taking public financing — the $84 million cash infusion from a government presidential-election fund that Mr. McCain will receive — so his fund-raising burden is considerably higher than his Republican rival’s.

But almost more important than Mr. Obama’s August total may be the fact that it came partly from a half-million first-time donors, most of them far from having contributed the full $2,300 per person allowed in any general election. Read Article Here.

While not taking public financing is a dicey idea, it certainly has created a greater base for Obama. Over half a million people have decided to donate, I would bet most of whom are young and a $20 donation is not a small amount of money.

Cheney: Keeper of Secret's

2008-09-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

Today the Washington Post is running and expose on Cheney's role in the warrant less wiretaps. It is an interesting and incredible read. It is nothing that is really shocking, other than Cheney kept the program secret from almost everyone. I mean top adviser's seemingly didn't know that this program existed. Here is a little taste:

It was an awkward question. Potenza, the NSA's acting general counsel, and Brenner, its inspector general, were supposed to be the ones who kept their agency on the straight and narrow. That's what Cheney and their boss, Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, told doubters among the very few people who knew what was going on. Cheney, who chaired briefings for select members of Congress, said repeatedly that the NSA's top law and ethics officers -- career public servants -- approved and supervised the surveillance program.

That was not exactly true, not without one of those silent asterisks that secretly flip a sentence on its tail. Every 45 days, after Justice Department review, Bush renewed his military order for warrantless eavesdropping. Brenner and Potenza told Hayden that the agency was entitled to rely on those orders [4]. The United States was at war with al-Qaeda, intelligence-gathering is inherent in war, and the Constitution appoints the president commander in chief. Read Article Here.

My lone question is why would we, as a nation, want to continue practices like this?

Another One Bites the Dust

2008-09-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

Fearing that a failure of Lehman Bros. could topple other financial firms, senior officials of the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department were talking with the struggling company and potential buyers Thursday to try to smooth the way for a sale of the venerable investment bank, people familiar with the situation said.

The 158-year-old Wall Street institution has seen its shares fall 70% in the last three days. A sale of Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. -- at what would be a bargain price -- would make it the second major Wall Street firm to succumb to the nearly 2-year-old mortgage crisis. Read Article Here.

This is a bad sign. Not sure who would want to invest in Lehman Bros. though.

Let the Destruction Continue

2008-09-12T09:28:00.000-07:00

McCain released an ad titled "Disrespectful" that repeated his campaign's theme of attacking Obama as a "celebrity," at the same time casting the hugely popular GOP vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, as a victim. "They" dismissed her as "good looking," said she was just doing "what she was told" and called her a liar, the ad intones. As for Obama, the ad says, "he was the world's biggest celebrity, but his star is fading."

Obama released two ads -- one positive, the other an attack that avoids mentioning Palin but accuses McCain of being out of touch with the country after 26 years in Washington: "He admits he still doesn't know how to use a computer, can't send e-mail. Still doesn't understand the economy, and favors $200 billion in new tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class." Read Article Here.

Good to know that we are back to normal with the candidates, and in particular McCain, are back to tearing each other down and launching negative attack ads. For two men who ran on the idea of change and new type of politics this sure feels conventional. For full analysis of the ads and what the facts are, please check out Factcheck.org.

9/11 and Iraq

2008-09-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

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.

"America can never go back to that false sense of security that came before September 11, 2001," she said at the deployment ceremony, which drew hundreds of military families who walked from their homes on the sprawling post to the airstrip where the service was held. Read Article Here.

Another Day, another story that makes me horrified that this person could potentially lead the country. When even the White House has stopped using the 9/11-Iraq connection, you know it is completely fictitious.

McCain - Nuclear Active Man

2008-09-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

John McCain's plan to revive the U.S. nuclear power industry with 45 new reactors may cost $315 billion, with taxpayers bearing much of the financial risk.

The Republican presidential nominee wants the plants built in time to help the U.S. meet a 29 percent increase in electricity demand by 2030. Industry estimates put their cost at $7 billion each. Barack Obama, McCain's Democratic opponent, is less specific about his plans, saying he wants to ``find ways to safely harness nuclear power.''

Global warming and the rising cost of fossil fuels have boosted chances that atomic energy will supply more U.S. electricity. Public concerns remain about reactor safety and disposing of waste that stays hazardous for millennia. Investment bankers, citing the industry's cost overruns in the 1980s, say they won't finance its long-sought ``nuclear renaissance'' without federal backing. Read Article Here.

While I hate to admit it, McCain is probably right. Of the options, Nuclear is the one that will have the most rapid results. It is also one of the most dangerous. Currently solar/wind/hydro are not efficient enough to provide the increased demand in power. Nuclear is the only alternative energy that could be implemented and have real effects right away. Building plants would provide vital stimulation in the economy and it is low on emissions. Personally I think Obama needs to go for a more aggressive environmental plan. He will likely pick up voters and force McCain to either lose support from people Palin brought over with ANWAR or voters who support his environment friendly policies. It is also the one environmental policy that could leave us with blue hair and fins for hands. So as always it is a mix bag.

Palin's First Interview

2008-09-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

“But it is about reform of government, and it’s about putting government back on the side of the people,” Ms. Palin responded. She started to talk about energy independence, drawing on her experience with oil and gas development in Alaska, when Mr. Gibson interrupted to say, “National security is a whole lot more than energy.”

“It is,” she conceded, “but I want you to not lose sight of the fact that energy is a foundation of national security.”

Then came a few rapid-fire questions, making us wonder if this had been edited or if their exchange went like this in real time.

He asked whether she had ever traveled outside of the United States.

Answer: Canada, Mexico and “the trip of a lifetime” to Kuwait, when she visited soldiers.

Has she ever met a foreign head of state?

“I have not,” she responded, but noted that a lot of previous vice presidents had probably not either. Read Full Coverage Here.

There is Hope

2008-09-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

I read this and saw a little ray of hope:

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama leads Republican rival John McCain in Ohio while McCain is ahead in Florida, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

Obama leads McCain 49 percent to 44 percent in Ohio, the poll said. McCain got 50 percent support in Florida to 43 percent for Obama. In Pennsylvania, Obama has 48 percent support to 45 percent for McCain, a result within the poll's error margin. The three states are important to each campaign, as no one has been elected president since 1960 without taking two of them. Read Article Here.

This is also helps, but I would feel better if there were more solid blue.

The Truth About Biden

2008-09-11T20:02:00.000-07:00

Mr. Obama knew what he was getting when he picked Mr. Biden as his running mate: A veteran of six terms in the Senate, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, an Irish Catholic with working-class roots, a guy who had twice been tested in the arena of presidential politics.

And a human verbal wrecking crew.

This is the fellow who nearly derailed his nascent presidential campaign last year by calling Mr. Obama bright and clean and articulate and who noted that you needed a slight Indian accent to walk into a Dunkin’ Donuts or 7-Eleven in Delaware. Read Article Here.

Everyone with a working brain understood why Biden was chosen. Yes he has experience, even more importantly he is WHITE. White white, snow white even. He is from Delaware and helps make people forget for a minute that Obama is black. While I wish I could say that I think people are beyond skin color, I know that this is completely untrue. If he wanted real foreign policy experience, Bill Richardson was your man. If you wanted to appease the greatest amount of people, Hillary Clinton was your woman. If you wanted people to actually vote for Obama, then it had to be a white man. Most of the nation is not ready for a black man and another minority to lead an office that has only been held by WASPs.

McCain continues to push old politics

2008-09-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign launched a broadside against Sen. Barack Obama yesterday, accusing him of a sexist smear, comparing his campaign to a pack of wolves on the prowl against the GOP vice presidential pick, charging that the Democratic nominee favored sex education for kindergartners, and resurrecting the comments of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

The assault came a day before the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, when McCain and Obama are scheduled to appear together at Ground Zero during a mutually declared truce. That cease-fire is not likely to last long. With the airwaves already filling up with some of the most negative imagery of the campaign, Obama aides hinted that they would save their toughest counterpunch until after Sept. 11. Read Article Here.

Sen. McCain changed his campaign ideal from experience to change. Clearly his idea of change is using his experience to change Obama's mind on being president. After all the horrible things said about him, why would Obama want to be president? Its a cheap shot to continue to fake outrage over sexism, claims that Obama favors sex education for kindergartners and resurrecting Wright. I guess all I can hope is that Obama gives up idealism and goes for the jugular. McCain has plenty of vulnerabilities including lobbying, infidelity and Alzheimer's.

While September 11 does not mean much to me, shouldn't the candidates at least pretend that they care. Shouldn't they not launch the most heinous claims the day before and day after 9/11? Can they just give us a couple days off and remind us why we should care about this election?

Red State-Blue State.

2008-09-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, the presidential campaign they are waging is helping to harden the partisan divisions that have defined the country's politics for a decade or more. Rather than finding ways to bring about real reconciliation, the campaign is fostering the further polarization of the country. Good luck to the winner, who will then try to govern in the aftermath.

Both seem committed to trying to govern in a less partisan way if they are elected. But there may be a certain amount of hollowness to their words on Thursday, given the angry prelude to the day's events. Even putting lipstick on the campaign won't do much at this point.Read Article Here.

At this point I think you have to ask yourself why anyone would want to be President. Seems like no matter what people will be attempting to tear you down and both sides are bitter and hostile to the other. And all the rhetoric on both sides seems to have done little to actually make people change. I live with a fair amount of foreign kids and they do not get American politics. They can not understand how Obama is not way ahead. The only way I can describe it is that we are so entrenched in ideology and afraid of change, that we can not imagine it any other way.

Matt Damon, smarter than you think

2008-09-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

The idea of the first female president being Sarah Palin inspires Fear and Loathing in me