Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Mistake of the Day

McCain suspends his campaign and wants to delay the debates to take on the bailout plan. All this while Obama is doing better in the polls. So no ads will run for the next several says, no fund raising and we’re only 41 days to the election. I think this is a big mistake.

I realize he wants to look like a bipartisan leader, but this reminds me of when Bob Dole quit being a senator to campaign against Clinton. That didn’t work out well.

Of course, it may impress people. It remains to be seen if it will work to his favor. So far it’s given his critics more ammo to attack him.

I also think he should run, not walk, to the debates. He has the chance to really outshine Obama. The Debates have turned the tide of many an election.

Obama, on the other hand, tried to save face this morning claiming he called McCain first with the idea of bipartisan action. But McCain is the one with a history of doing that, not Obama. I find his claim questionable.

For whatever reason, the polls show people think Obama is better suited to handling the economy. But he has offered no ideas or leadership to date, and has basically punted the whole thing until after the election.

Which may be why McCain is trying to look like a man of action now. But since most people are opposed to the bail out, if he champions it too much, it lead to a backlash.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

A Rare Moment of Truth

Bill Clinton was on the view yesterday and was actually frank and honest. He’s obviously not an Obama supporter from these clips (watch the one that follows the first one, too).

It’s refreshing to see him this way. I voted for him the first time because I felt we needed a “change”. I will never do that kind of thing again. Change is worthless if the change is bad. People voted for Jimmy Carter for a change, too. Look how that worked out. Obama would be another Carter at best. And to those of you too young to remember Carter, trust me, he was the worst president imaginable. The economy under Carter was far worse than now (Wall street isn’t the economy, it’s only a small part).

But here, Clinton comes off non-partisan. Which is extremely rare of him. I can like him when he;s like that. I wish he would be that way more often.

Monday, September 22, 2008

The Smear Machine

It seems Obama’s people have been running a professional smear campaign against Palin from the beginning. Which is not unlike tactics he used against Hillary earlier this year. And similar to tactics he has used against opponents all through his political career.

His campaign manager David Axelrod is famous for his “Astroturfing” skills. That is, creating a manufactured grassroots support. What’s at issue here are possible FEC violations, not just the massive ethical problems. If Obama’s campaign is behind this in any way, it needs to be exposed. This is some of the dirtiest politics I have ever seen. Stuff like this needs to be exposed for what it is.

Kudos to the Jawa Report for breaking this story.

UPDATE: The culprits are trying to cover their tracks.

Another UPDATE: Charles Martin examines the way these Palin rumors spread. There’s definitely an organized force behind them.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Testify Dujour

[Source]

More hilarity here

Bad News for BamBi

It seems the Bradley effect is still in play. A large chunk of Democrats and Independents probably won’t vote for Obama because of his race. The current polls are misleading.

The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 — about two and one-half percentage points.

More than a third of all white Democrats and independents — voters Obama can’t win the White House without — agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don’t have such views.

I don’t think race plays role in most people’s thinking and this study bears this out. But one third is still more than enough to hurt his chances when you consider the polls are so close and many Hillary voters will not vote for Obama.

We’ll only know for sure come election day. Which is almost here. 

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Outrage DuJour

Remember when the Democrats were so concerned about the government looking into people’s emails? I guess they don’t mind it when someone with Democrat leanings look into Sarah Palin’s and blast it all over the internet. Then they get all gleeful about it.

I see Scientology activists Anonymous have decided to become political hackers. Too bad they’re not bipartisan about it. The real dirt is over on the Obama side where a lot of his past is being covered up. Including some acts which border on treason.

The media continues to over scrutinize a vice presidential candidate while ignoring serious problems on the other side of the ticket.

The Democrats will blame racism on Obama’s failure to win in November, but the writing is on the wall. The Democrats continue to make themselves look ugly, mean spirited and spiteful in every election. That turns people off. I know that I would probably abstain from voting for Obama, even if I agreed with his policies at the point, based on all the disgusting, unfair and quasi-criminal actions I’ve seen this year.

The Democrats and their media minions are out of control. And they are propping up one of the weakest candidates since Michael Dukakis.

When they lose, they’ll only have themselves to blame. But of course, they will blame the “stupid, racist” Americans. Whatever.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Six Weeks

Well, OK, seven.

Seven weeks till we learn, hopefully, who our next president is.

So far, as the weeks wind down it’s trending more and more toward McCain. The question is, will that continue? McCain’s dipping a little at the moment and the race has been very close for the last few weeks.

Obama now has the disadvantage on the electoral college. He’s either tied or within the margin of error in traditionally blue states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania. That’s not good for him.

And there is always that unknown factor called the Bradley effect, where black candidates poll higher than they get real votes. I think Obama has shown in places like Iowa that is not an issue. But in places like Michigan or Eastern seaboard states, that may prove to be a major issue.

The media is trying to bring down Palin, but she’s not the one running for president and Obama seems to finally get it. He’s started attacking McCain, blaming him for the latest Wall Street problems. Of course, neither McCain or Bush is responsible for the failings of companies which should have known better. The problem with our so called Capitalist society is it will almost always bail out big companies that fail if they think the economy will be effected too much. So what you have is a kind of corporate safety net that ordinary people rarely get themselves.

This is where I think regulations are not always a bad thing. Sometimes you need them to prevent companies from being this reckless. On the other hand, when politicians set the rules, it often results in things like Sarbanes/Oxley which seriously impact companies and makes it a lot harder for small companies to be profitable because of the insane amount of paperwork and auditing it requires. Regulations like that are something Democrats favor, though McCain is also talking new regulations and investigations. Once again, politicians are like cops. They react to problems after the fact. They may take a stab at prevention, but most of their time is dealing with cleanup.

I don’t see a lot or helpful answers coming from either side on the Wall Street problems, but McCain offers tax relief to corporations which will in turn help them keep people employed and possibly hire more. Obama wants to punitively tax and regulate them, which will have the opposite effect.

The problems of today will be inherited by whoever wins. Let’s hope it’s the best man for the job. 

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Democrat War Room

[via Jim Treacher]

First he picks on a woman with five kids, then he picks on a crippled vet. Next Obama attacks Palin’s dog.

Castro was a community organizer who promised a better health plan. Reagan was a governor.

Friday, September 12, 2008

In Their Youth

This looks like an earlier picture of Obama in that Kenyan garb than the on from a year or so ago. It must have been from his first trip over there.

I wonder if he picked on disabled people then, too. 

Dem Doom Redux

Years ago I talked about the Dem Doom, how Republicans were going to sweep into office and the Democrats would be pushed out. That more or less happened. But then the Republicans did such a horrible job in office. the Dems were able to get back into the majority. But after record low approval ratings for the Democrat led congress (9%) and a bogus candidate who’s looking more lame by the day, that may change.

Party leaders have been hoping to strengthen Democratic control of the House and Senate in November, but John McCain’s jump in the polls has stoked fears of a Republican resurgence.

A Democratic fundraiser for Congressional candidates said some planned to distance themselves from Mr Obama and not attack Mr McCain.

“If people are voting for McCain it could help Republicans all the way down the ticket, even in a year when the Democrats should be sweeping all before us,” said the fundraiser, a former Hillary Clinton supporter.

“There is a growing sense of doom among Democrats I have spoken to . . . People are going crazy, telling the campaign ‘you’ve got to do something’.”

Oh the pain! The Pain! To think, a Republican might win (even though he’s to the left of Bush) and the Dems might lose their majority instead of increasing its numbers. Gosh, how scary.

Maybe they should have nominated Hillary after all. Things would have been a whole lot different. But they seem have a problem with women. Look how they treat Sarah Palin.

Then again, Nancy Pelosi has set a bad example as leader of the House.