This election season has gotten so bad that the other day I had two women come to my door and I was relieved that they were Jehovah's Witnesses. A co-worker today had twenty messages on her answering machine. I have enough mailers to, well, I'm not sure what one does with 500,000 sheets of paper. So without further ado, here's what's on my mind.
-My plan for tomorrow is to get up early, head to the polling place at 7:00 AM as soon as they open so I don't have to wait in line for 90 minutes like my roommate Becky did, or see a 4-hour long line wrapping around an entire shopping mall like my roommate Nick did. (I know I could have mailed it in, but it's just not the same.) Then I will come back home, read news and radio stuff until going to work at 10 AM. At 7, I will get off work and dip into my election night scotch bottle, in honor of my and Senator McCain's Scottish heritage. ( I'd drink something in honor of Obama too, but I don't know what they drink in Kenya or Kansas. Besides, I'm not a wine guy which he seems to be.) At this point I will most likely also talk Bob off of a bridge and get calls from people rubbing my face in the results (which is cool, because I totally deserve it).
-I expect Obama to win by 4 points. The electoral college will probably be a little more one-sided than this. I don't feel like doing the math, but I think McCain will hold Florida , lose Colorado, and Ohio and Virginia are toss-ups. I don't think North Carolina or Nevada will be quite as close as the others I mentioned. Obama will win Pennsylvania by a thin margin, but not razor-thin, I think 4-6.
-The exit-polls will once again show the race as being more one-sided than it really is.
-Hopefully Dan Rather will be on the air. He's always hilarious on these things.
-The Democrats will not reach 60 in the Senate, but they might as well. They'll have 58 or so, so for all intents and purposes it will be filibuster proof since it won't be hard to find 2 Republicans on most bills. I don't want either party to have a majority that big.
-If Obama loses, much will be made of the fact that he lost among white males. What will be ignored will be the fact that he will probably get a higher percentage among this demographic than Al Gore or John Kerry, two of the whitest individuals I have ever laid eyes upon. The last Dem. to win this group was (I believe) Jimmy Carter in 1976.
-McCain will take a slightly larger percentage of Democrats than Obama will of Republicans. This won't matter much because the raw number of Democrats has increased since '04 and the number of Republicans has either shrank or not grown as fast (don't remember which and don't feel like researching it).
-The big X-factor right now is that a lot of polls are showing 8-11 percent undecided. What is that? These polls were taken this weekend. Who still hasn't decided? I think McCain will take more of this slice of voters than Obama, but not enough to make up the gap.
-Look for both sides to accuse the other of either inflating or suppressing votes. Look for me not to believe either side until solid evidence emerges (or, more likely, doesn't emerge).
-Is the period supposed to go inside the parentheses or outside?
-I honestly don't believe "blood will run in the streets" in either scenario.
-Too bad about Obama's grandmother. Would have been nice if she'd have been able to see her grandson elected president. It's weird that Obama's parents are both dead with him such a young man, but McCain's mom is still alive and getting speeding tickets with him being an old geezer. Not a political thought, just one of those oddities of life.
-George Bush will be in bed by 10 PM whether the race is decided or not.
-Who the Hell let Dick Cheney out? To campaign in Wyoming? Wyoming? Honestly?
-Obama has a truly kick-ass speech ready to go, guaranteed.
-If McCain loses he'll probably be "uncensored McCain" for the rest of his life, the way Barry Goldwater was toward the end.
-Either candidate will wind up governing from the center-left.
-All day Tuesday right-wing radio will talk about the inaccuracy/ bias of polls. Left wing media will be in a celebratory mood, only to turn hateful if things don't go their way. If McCain loses, look for the right to blame his centrism and try to move the party further right with disastrous consequences the way the Democrats did between 2000 and 2004.
-I think McCain will do better among white women than Bush did, but not by much. The idea that women will be turned off to Palin do to her anti-abortion stance has been pushed in the media. This flies in the face of every study I've seen. Most show men as being 4-7% more likely to identify as "pro-choice" than women, and vice versa for the "pro-life" position. Actually now that I think about it I don't remember what percentage Bush got since the scotch is taking effect, but I think McCain will do a point or two better.
-Nobody ever went broke underestimating the youth vote. Everything tells me this year will be different, and I think that could be the difference between a 3-point squeaker and a 7-point walk in the park.
-The latest tape where Obama (apparently) says something about bankrupting anyone building a new coal plant did not come out soon enough to cost him Pennsylvania or influence Ohio. (note: I haven't heard the context yet, so this could be yet another case where he was pontificating about something only to have his words ripped completely out of context to make him sound like an evil godless communist.)
-I don't really believe he's a communist, but it's fun to joke about. If the left is allowed to call me a Nazi all the time, I should be allowed a little exaggeration of my own. It's all in good fun.
-My uncle will be torn. He always votes for whoever the UAW tells him too. They take care of him so he does what they say. He also doesn't care for black people all that much. (He's not genocidal, or a believer in segregation, just a run of the mill racist. This is a bad thing but I wanted to differentiate the degree of bigotry.) He will vote for Obama, but he won't want to be reminded about it. My dad will needle him about it, probably wearing the Obama shirt I bought him.
-My dad will be among the Democrats voting for McCain. He may be the only person in the country who believes Bush should be tried for war crimes, but is voting for McCain. As he jokingly put it, "I'm not voting for John, I'm voting for Cindy."
-Whoever wins will not do worse than Bush. I'm not going to say that they couldn't do worse, which is completely illogical, just that I don't think they will. I realize this is setting the bar incredibly low, but you have to take one step at a time.
-Anyways, it will be a historic day. Whoever wins has a big job in front of him and will need all of our prayers. Good night and may God continue to bless America (and, what the Hell, everybody else too, just this once.)
Monday, November 3, 2008
One Question.
I was thinking lately: if I could ask each presidential candidate one question (and maybe slip them some kind of drug so I would be assured of an honest answer) what would they be? In my case each question would play to a strength of the opponent. Here they are:
-To Obama: "What is the most difficult situation you have ever been in? How did you get through it?" ( I realize this is 2 questions) Basically what I'd like to know is how would he deal with a crisis. He seems like a pretty calm guy, but most of what I've seen of him has been pre-packaged to say the least. So I'd like to know his thought process, how he's reacted to tough circumstances, etc. I'm wondering whether he's faced down adversity. Obviously, I wouldn't have to ask McCain this question. So...
-To McCain: "What is your vision for the role of the federal government over the next decade? And how is it different from that of President Bush?" (also 2 questions). This question is heavily dependent on the aforementioned drugging. I'm not even sure what kind of answer I'm looking for here, but I'm not talking about details like tax rates, etc. It's a question about his general philosophy; what would change fundamentally? This is an area he has been lacking in and it will probably doom his chances tomorrow. Again this question plays to Obama's strength which is his clear vision. This vision is of a Federal Government that is stronger and more active in every area of life. It is a vision is borne out in every policy position or proposal on his website. It is also a vision that scares the Hell out of me, since more power has never meant less corruption or greater accountability, and this is a vision that is diametrically opposed to my own. That being said, any vision beats no vision every time, especially in uncertain times like those we currently face.
Anyways those would be my questions, and as I've pointed out to people this is the one election where I will feel more pity for the winner than the loser.
-To Obama: "What is the most difficult situation you have ever been in? How did you get through it?" ( I realize this is 2 questions) Basically what I'd like to know is how would he deal with a crisis. He seems like a pretty calm guy, but most of what I've seen of him has been pre-packaged to say the least. So I'd like to know his thought process, how he's reacted to tough circumstances, etc. I'm wondering whether he's faced down adversity. Obviously, I wouldn't have to ask McCain this question. So...
-To McCain: "What is your vision for the role of the federal government over the next decade? And how is it different from that of President Bush?" (also 2 questions). This question is heavily dependent on the aforementioned drugging. I'm not even sure what kind of answer I'm looking for here, but I'm not talking about details like tax rates, etc. It's a question about his general philosophy; what would change fundamentally? This is an area he has been lacking in and it will probably doom his chances tomorrow. Again this question plays to Obama's strength which is his clear vision. This vision is of a Federal Government that is stronger and more active in every area of life. It is a vision is borne out in every policy position or proposal on his website. It is also a vision that scares the Hell out of me, since more power has never meant less corruption or greater accountability, and this is a vision that is diametrically opposed to my own. That being said, any vision beats no vision every time, especially in uncertain times like those we currently face.
Anyways those would be my questions, and as I've pointed out to people this is the one election where I will feel more pity for the winner than the loser.
My View on Colorado's Ballot Initiatives.
I'm voting NO all but one ballot measure. Here's a brief rundown of why:
-Amendment 46: Banning Affirmative Action. My vote: NO
I'd be all for getting rid of any kind of racial preferences or quotas as I think they wind up hurting those that they are intended to help. This is not, however, something I'm particularly passionate about. If this bill passes it will most likely mean a long court battle culminating in the Supremes declining to hear it, having already ruled in the University of Michigan case, and the state will have spent a lot of taxpayer money in the meantime.
-Amendment 47: "Right to Work". My vote: NO
I don't believe the state should be allowed to tell unions and businesses what kind of agreements they can or cannot enter into.
-Amendment 48: Redefine "Person" to Refer to Any Fertilized Egg. My vote: NO
In my view this goes way to far, not just banning abortion but perhaps birth control, stem cell research, etc. Also, this will likely be struck down by the courts after a long, expensive battle as being in conflict with federal law. Couple this with the fact that we are about to elect a president who is somewhere to the left of Kruschev on this issue, and clearly believes in more control by the central government (I'm going by actions here, since his actions and words do not match each other on this issue).
-Amendment 49: Allowable Paycheck Deductions. My vote: NO
This one is intended to weaken the unions of public employees. I'm against this one because it can be argued that unions are even more necessary to public employees than those in the private sector since the government often faces no competition for the services it provides. This makes it more necessary for the employees to have a strong organization on their side. It's not like firefighters, police officers, etc. can go work for a competitor (not without relocating anyway).
-Amendment 50: Raising the Stakes Limits in Colorado's Gambling Towns. My vote: YES
I view gambling and lotteries as taxes on the poor and the ignorant, for the most part. This amendment will raise the betting limit on blackjack and other table games from $5 to $100 (There are other provisions, but all minor issues). If people want to lose their money faster, I'm all for it. The extra revenue will go to community colleges and the towns themselves, so it's win-win as long as people keep going up there to lose.
-Amendment 51: Raise Sales Taxes to Help the Developmentally Disabled. My vote: NO
I feel kind of like a heartless bastard on this one. However I'm used to it because one of the more fun things about being a conservative is being treated like you are evil (Nazi, racist, imperialist, etc.). Some people can't handle this but I enjoy it, particularly because of the absurdity of the claims, i.e. checking identities is racist, less government spending is racist, every other policy I support makes me morally equivalent to past practitioners of genocide, you get the idea. The real reason I am voting against this is in favor of a county measure just like this one, and voting for both would be a larger increase than I'd favor. The county measure is a bigger increase but goes towards public safety and a new jail. As long as there are people who need to be locked up, I will support funding the facilities needed to do so.
-Amendment 52: Using Severance Tax Revenues for Highways. My vote: NO
This is a detailed measure that would shift money to highways from other areas. There are about 5 or 6 pages of details that don't hold my attention. For that reason, and because it could lead to less flexibility in spending, I'm voting no.
-Amendment 54: Limiting Contributions from Government Contractors. My vote: NO
Why single out one group of corrupt political contributors?
-Amendment 58: Severance Taxes on the Oil and Natural Gas Industry. My vote: NO
This one would raise taxes on people customers of the oil and natural gas industry. It says it will raise them on the companies, but those taxes (just like all business taxes) will be paid by the customers. Since I don't view the prices as being too low right now, I am voting no.
-Amendment 59: Education Funding and TABOR Rebates. My vote: NO
Again, I'm evil so I have to vote against education and for tax rebates. I agree TABOR has been a major disappointment, but one thing that annoys me lately is the unwillingness of some to call a tax increase a tax increase. The preferred euphemisms are "end tax breaks" ,or "close the loophole", or whatever phrase is most useful to obfuscate what is really happening. This amendment would raise taxes by not giving taxpayers rebates, but would use the money on education (P-12) spending. So, combining the tax increase factor with the bad wording of the amendment, I can't vote in favor of it.
-Amendment 46: Banning Affirmative Action. My vote: NO
I'd be all for getting rid of any kind of racial preferences or quotas as I think they wind up hurting those that they are intended to help. This is not, however, something I'm particularly passionate about. If this bill passes it will most likely mean a long court battle culminating in the Supremes declining to hear it, having already ruled in the University of Michigan case, and the state will have spent a lot of taxpayer money in the meantime.
-Amendment 47: "Right to Work". My vote: NO
I don't believe the state should be allowed to tell unions and businesses what kind of agreements they can or cannot enter into.
-Amendment 48: Redefine "Person" to Refer to Any Fertilized Egg. My vote: NO
In my view this goes way to far, not just banning abortion but perhaps birth control, stem cell research, etc. Also, this will likely be struck down by the courts after a long, expensive battle as being in conflict with federal law. Couple this with the fact that we are about to elect a president who is somewhere to the left of Kruschev on this issue, and clearly believes in more control by the central government (I'm going by actions here, since his actions and words do not match each other on this issue).
-Amendment 49: Allowable Paycheck Deductions. My vote: NO
This one is intended to weaken the unions of public employees. I'm against this one because it can be argued that unions are even more necessary to public employees than those in the private sector since the government often faces no competition for the services it provides. This makes it more necessary for the employees to have a strong organization on their side. It's not like firefighters, police officers, etc. can go work for a competitor (not without relocating anyway).
-Amendment 50: Raising the Stakes Limits in Colorado's Gambling Towns. My vote: YES
I view gambling and lotteries as taxes on the poor and the ignorant, for the most part. This amendment will raise the betting limit on blackjack and other table games from $5 to $100 (There are other provisions, but all minor issues). If people want to lose their money faster, I'm all for it. The extra revenue will go to community colleges and the towns themselves, so it's win-win as long as people keep going up there to lose.
-Amendment 51: Raise Sales Taxes to Help the Developmentally Disabled. My vote: NO
I feel kind of like a heartless bastard on this one. However I'm used to it because one of the more fun things about being a conservative is being treated like you are evil (Nazi, racist, imperialist, etc.). Some people can't handle this but I enjoy it, particularly because of the absurdity of the claims, i.e. checking identities is racist, less government spending is racist, every other policy I support makes me morally equivalent to past practitioners of genocide, you get the idea. The real reason I am voting against this is in favor of a county measure just like this one, and voting for both would be a larger increase than I'd favor. The county measure is a bigger increase but goes towards public safety and a new jail. As long as there are people who need to be locked up, I will support funding the facilities needed to do so.
-Amendment 52: Using Severance Tax Revenues for Highways. My vote: NO
This is a detailed measure that would shift money to highways from other areas. There are about 5 or 6 pages of details that don't hold my attention. For that reason, and because it could lead to less flexibility in spending, I'm voting no.
-Amendment 54: Limiting Contributions from Government Contractors. My vote: NO
Why single out one group of corrupt political contributors?
-Amendment 58: Severance Taxes on the Oil and Natural Gas Industry. My vote: NO
This one would raise taxes on people customers of the oil and natural gas industry. It says it will raise them on the companies, but those taxes (just like all business taxes) will be paid by the customers. Since I don't view the prices as being too low right now, I am voting no.
-Amendment 59: Education Funding and TABOR Rebates. My vote: NO
Again, I'm evil so I have to vote against education and for tax rebates. I agree TABOR has been a major disappointment, but one thing that annoys me lately is the unwillingness of some to call a tax increase a tax increase. The preferred euphemisms are "end tax breaks" ,or "close the loophole", or whatever phrase is most useful to obfuscate what is really happening. This amendment would raise taxes by not giving taxpayers rebates, but would use the money on education (P-12) spending. So, combining the tax increase factor with the bad wording of the amendment, I can't vote in favor of it.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Upcoming Posts.
Over the next week or so I plan to start getting back to blogging on a regular basis. Here are a few things I'm thinking about blogging about.
-I am taking a paid holiday from work next Wednesday and will post my post-mortem on the election. This will most likely be several posts to include: my analysis of the numbers and what they mean, the key turning points of the campaign, and most likely separate posts about how Obama won and how McCain lost.
-After the election is over, and I'm no longer fixated on the horse-race aspect, I'll probably find myself moving a little closer to the center. The campaign season (I think do to the competition factor) seems to push people a little further to the poles, and I have been no exception.
- I am going to continue to pretend that they are not having a college football season this year.
-I'm working on a post about the difference between fairness and equality, how the two are not the same and in certain instances can be antithetical to each other.
-I'm planning to post pics of my new AK-47. If Obama follows through with his plan to bring back the "assault weapons" ban, I hope to sell it at some point in the future for a tidy profit.
-I'm looking for some kind of widget that will show a tally of how much money I've saved, how much I've prolonged my life, etc. since I quit smoking 2 weeks ago.
-I intend to write about my political journey over the past year or two, how I went from far right to center to inching leftward to moving back to somewhere a little right of center.
-I'm going to try to right about things that aren't overtly political, but that piss me off about our "post-adulthood" society in general.
-If McCain wins I will be insufferable and you should consider yourself lucky you don't have to be around me. If Obama wins, I will take credit for predicting it in the very first post I wrote on this blog in either late December or early January.
-I am taking a paid holiday from work next Wednesday and will post my post-mortem on the election. This will most likely be several posts to include: my analysis of the numbers and what they mean, the key turning points of the campaign, and most likely separate posts about how Obama won and how McCain lost.
-After the election is over, and I'm no longer fixated on the horse-race aspect, I'll probably find myself moving a little closer to the center. The campaign season (I think do to the competition factor) seems to push people a little further to the poles, and I have been no exception.
- I am going to continue to pretend that they are not having a college football season this year.
-I'm working on a post about the difference between fairness and equality, how the two are not the same and in certain instances can be antithetical to each other.
-I'm planning to post pics of my new AK-47. If Obama follows through with his plan to bring back the "assault weapons" ban, I hope to sell it at some point in the future for a tidy profit.
-I'm looking for some kind of widget that will show a tally of how much money I've saved, how much I've prolonged my life, etc. since I quit smoking 2 weeks ago.
-I intend to write about my political journey over the past year or two, how I went from far right to center to inching leftward to moving back to somewhere a little right of center.
-I'm going to try to right about things that aren't overtly political, but that piss me off about our "post-adulthood" society in general.
-If McCain wins I will be insufferable and you should consider yourself lucky you don't have to be around me. If Obama wins, I will take credit for predicting it in the very first post I wrote on this blog in either late December or early January.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Debate BINGO II
I'm doing this in a little different format this time. I've got 12 phrases or words from each candidate, and will pick 16 of them to put on one card. (these may be any combination 8-8, 12-4, etc.) So here is my list.
Obama:
-"Failed policies of the last 8 years"
-"Al Qaeda"
-"Renewable energy"
-"Regulation"
-"Tax on health care benefits"
- "Government that works for you."
- "Middle-class"
- "$250,000"
-"Scare tactics"
-"Hope"
-"Working Americans"
-"Warren Buffett"
McCain:
-"Judgment"
-"Reach across the aisle"
-"Petraeus"
-"Liberal"
-"Corruption"
-"Reform"
-"Fannie Mae"
-"Ronald Reagan"
-"KGB"
-"Earmark"
-"Capital Gains"
-"Ebay" (I just have a feeling about this one.)
Obama:
-"Failed policies of the last 8 years"
-"Al Qaeda"
-"Renewable energy"
-"Regulation"
-"Tax on health care benefits"
- "Government that works for you."
- "Middle-class"
- "$250,000"
-"Scare tactics"
-"Hope"
-"Working Americans"
-"Warren Buffett"
McCain:
-"Judgment"
-"Reach across the aisle"
-"Petraeus"
-"Liberal"
-"Corruption"
-"Reform"
-"Fannie Mae"
-"Ronald Reagan"
-"KGB"
-"Earmark"
-"Capital Gains"
-"Ebay" (I just have a feeling about this one.)
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
My Debate BINGO cards.
This is something I'm going to do to keep myself entertained during tomorrow's Presidential debate. The momentum all seems to be headed in Senator Obama's direction. I'm about 75% sure he'll win at this point, barring something good happening economically for a change or McCain being able to jump-start his campaign again. This doesn't look like it will happen given the recent focus on Bill Ayers, a strategy which seems very likely to back-fire. I'm also sure there will be nothing new revealed to me about either candidate. (I've listened to them, researched their voting records, read all of their books, etc.) I've decided to keep the debate interesting by playing debate-BINGO. So I've made a card for 16 of each candidate's most overused phrases and will check off a square each time they say one. I'm interested to see who fills their card first.
These are McCain's:
1)"maverick"- This one was used up a long time ago.
2)"naive"- I will count it if he says "naivete" as well.
3) "surge"- This one of course will only count if used with regard to Iraq.
4) "General Petraus"
5) "clean coal"- I'm going to confess here. I have no idea what the difference is.
6)"voted against funding the troops"- This one won't have to be word for word. If the first three are used, but with some other term for our armed forces, I'll still count it.
7) "reached across the aisle"- I like it when he uses this phrase because I can always hear teeth grinding to the right of me.
8) "on the job training"- Because he doesn't need it, and the other guy probably does, get it?
9) "country first"
10) "earmark"- I'm actually going to do a word-count on this one.
11) "nuclear"- How cool is it to actually have a Republican candidate that can pronounce this word? It's been a while.
12) "reform"- Another one I will be keeping a word-count on.
13) "my friends"- I kind of like this one actually. Makes him seem like a really bad-ass version of Mr. Rogers.
14)"liberal"- People on the right say this word with as much scorn as people on the left say the word "oil".
15) "experience"- Hey, why not? If you look at the last 50 years, the less experienced guy hardly ever wins.
16) "second highest corporate tax rate in the world" -Did you know the United States has... well, I guess you do now.
Now for Obama.
1) "change"- This one was so obvious I almost left it out. I will do a word count on this one, only counting it if it appears more than 5 times.
2) "hard-working Americans"- This is my current least favorite political cliche'. It has replaced the terms "middle-class" and "working poor" which actually, you know, meant something.
3) "failed policies of the last 8 years"-This is the phrase that will most likely carry him to the big 270. I will also be keeping a word-count on this one
4) "tough diplomacy"- This one is so vague as to be absolutely meaningless, but people seem to be buying it. I see saying that you'll "use diplomacy" to solve the Iran crisis as being about as helpful as saying you'll "use economics" to solve the mortgage crisis.
5) "from the bottom up"
6) "3rd term"- No need to re-invent the wheel here, just keep running against Bush.
7) "top 1%" -An evil group of people, aside from Hollywood celebrities and Warren Buffett.
8) "green jobs" - We will also accept "5 million new jobs". Hey why not promise 10 million? or 100 million? People who believe government creates wealth, rather than just moving it around will probably be even more impressed.
9) "ethics reform"- At which point I will laugh. A searchable database to see all the ways our money is being pissed away? How did the Republic survive so long without this guy?
10) "Dick Lugar"
11) "hurting"- as in "people are hurting" or "hard-working Americans are hurting"
12) "corporate greed"
13) "regulation"- I will only accept this if it is specifically referring to the mortgage/financial crisis.
14) "NATO allies"- A cooler sounding way of saying "Europe".
15) "tax cuts"
16) and no list would be complete without the obligatory "opposed this war from the beginning"
Ultimately, this winds up being one election where I feel sorry for the winner. I also want to throw in a plug here for Bob's new blog, it looks promising so far.
These are McCain's:
1)"maverick"- This one was used up a long time ago.
2)"naive"- I will count it if he says "naivete" as well.
3) "surge"- This one of course will only count if used with regard to Iraq.
4) "General Petraus"
5) "clean coal"- I'm going to confess here. I have no idea what the difference is.
6)"voted against funding the troops"- This one won't have to be word for word. If the first three are used, but with some other term for our armed forces, I'll still count it.
7) "reached across the aisle"- I like it when he uses this phrase because I can always hear teeth grinding to the right of me.
8) "on the job training"- Because he doesn't need it, and the other guy probably does, get it?
9) "country first"
10) "earmark"- I'm actually going to do a word-count on this one.
11) "nuclear"- How cool is it to actually have a Republican candidate that can pronounce this word? It's been a while.
12) "reform"- Another one I will be keeping a word-count on.
13) "my friends"- I kind of like this one actually. Makes him seem like a really bad-ass version of Mr. Rogers.
14)"liberal"- People on the right say this word with as much scorn as people on the left say the word "oil".
15) "experience"- Hey, why not? If you look at the last 50 years, the less experienced guy hardly ever wins
16) "second highest corporate tax rate in the world" -Did you know the United States has... well, I guess you do now.
Now for Obama.
1) "change"- This one was so obvious I almost left it out. I will do a word count on this one, only counting it if it appears more than 5 times.
2) "hard-working Americans"- This is my current least favorite political cliche'. It has replaced the terms "middle-class" and "working poor" which actually, you know, meant something.
3) "failed policies of the last 8 years"-This is the phrase that will most likely carry him to the big 270. I will also be keeping a word-count on this one
4) "tough diplomacy"- This one is so vague as to be absolutely meaningless, but people seem to be buying it. I see saying that you'll "use diplomacy" to solve the Iran crisis as being about as helpful as saying you'll "use economics" to solve the mortgage crisis.
5) "from the bottom up"
6) "3rd term"- No need to re-invent the wheel here, just keep running against Bush.
7) "top 1%" -An evil group of people, aside from Hollywood celebrities and Warren Buffett.
8) "green jobs" - We will also accept "5 million new jobs". Hey why not promise 10 million? or 100 million? People who believe government creates wealth, rather than just moving it around will probably be even more impressed.
9) "ethics reform"- At which point I will laugh. A searchable database to see all the ways our money is being pissed away? How did the Republic survive so long without this guy?
10) "Dick Lugar"
11) "hurting"- as in "people are hurting" or "hard-working Americans are hurting"
12) "corporate greed"
13) "regulation"- I will only accept this if it is specifically referring to the mortgage/financial crisis.
14) "NATO allies"- A cooler sounding way of saying "Europe".
15) "tax cuts"
16) and no list would be complete without the obligatory "opposed this war from the beginning"
Ultimately, this winds up being one election where I feel sorry for the winner. I also want to throw in a plug here for Bob's new blog, it looks promising so far.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Quick Hits 10: A Star is Born.
Here is my semi-complete rundown of my take on the events of the RNC week. And what a week it was.
-We started off the week with many on the left and in the media drooling over the prospect of Hurricane Gustav wrecking the Gulf Coast and ruining the RNC. The sense of disappointment on Monday night was palpable. It was sad and amusing at the same time.
-Bobby Jindal really seemed to be on top of things in the few days leading up to the storm.
-That picture of Governor Palin holding the M-16 is probably the hottest thing I've ever seen in my life.
-On Monday afternoon I went to cnn.com to get the latest info on the storm. The top 3 stories on the web page were about Bristol Palin's pregnancy. The fourth was about the hurricane. No ideological agenda there. It's too bad the baby's father isn't John Edwards. If that were the case the mainstream media would have declared that it "wasn't news" and the LA Times would have banned any discussion about it on their website.
-I'm not sure if the McCain campaign was laying an ambush for the Obama campaign, hoping that they'd rail against Palin's inexperience, but if it was they walked right into it. I thought it was funny that Obama supporters of all people cared about experience, and I knew she would probably address this when she spoke, but I was completely unprepared for the devastating manner in which she did so.
-The press release from the Obama campaign deriding the fact that she was the "mayor of a town of less than 9,000" was probably ill-advised given the earlier comments Obama has made with regard to "guns and religion" as well as the statement that Americans embarrass him because we can't speak more languages. I for one would like to see the U.S. government run more like that of a small town. You know, with spending restraint, priorities, etc.
-I'm glad my parents' professional lives don't hinge on what my judgment was like at age 17. Aren't you?
-I liked the fact that Obama seemed genuinely pissed off when he told the reporters that peoples' children should be off-limits. Of course he was completely ignored by the press, who apparently decided they still haven't sucked enough blood yet.
-Now, on to the convention itself. I thought the three-day format actually wound up being better. The major speakers were kept but there wasn't nearly as much filler material. This made for much better television, in my opinion.
-I noticed that they didn't do a lot of fake-diversity stuff like they have in the past few. In the 96-04 conventions it seemed like they had every black republican in the country sitting within 50 feet of the stage, in an effort to make the party look more diverse. Black voters, however, were not fooled by this. This time they just said "ah screw it. Let's just put all the hot chicks up front." Which brings me to my next point.
-I thought it was a very good-looking crowd. It seemed like every crowd shot had some very attractive women in it. By contrast, a lot of crowd shots in Denver reminded me of the bar scene from Star Wars. What does that have to do with anything? Nothing. It's just the kind of thing I notice.
-Another contrast was the people being celebrated. Nearly every speaker or video was celebrating achievement. They had videos of past presidents, Medal of Honor winners, etc. and a lot of the speakers were people who've built successful businesses. The Democratic convention, on the other hand was a celebration of victimhood. It seemed like every other person to get up there was somebody who'd lost their job, gotten sick, or lost their health insurance. I understand that victim status is the highest honor the Left can bestow, but after that you'd think the unemployment rate was 30% and there was no such thing as "health insurance". Are we in rough times economically? Yes. Are we living in some kind of Dickensian nightmare? No.
-I was hoping the Bush appearance would get canceled entirely and we would only see Laura. I was also glad that Dick Cheney was not seen, heard from, or mentioned the entire week. Hopefully this keeps up until the election.
- Fred Thompson's tub-thumping speech on Tuesday was the best I've ever seen him give. He wasn't that passionate when he was the one running for president. The part about taxing businesses was funny and on-target at the same time.
-Liebermann better hope there's a cabinet position waiting for him if McCain wins.
-I felt sorry for the woman trying to speak when Papa Bush walked in and the crowd cheered for several minutes before she could start speaking.
-Mitt Romney did absolutely nothing for me in his speech. He sounded like his party was the one that had been out of power for 8 years. Huckabee was good as always.
-I knew beforehand that Rudy was going to be coming after 'em. Rushing the passer, if you will. He did not disappoint. "nothing. nada." His shots on Obama and Biden were a hit with the crowd. I thought he would be a pretty tough act to follow, and that Palin would have a hard time topping him. I couldn't have been more wrong.
-After several days of talk about her inexperience and people on the left questioning McCain's judgment, I expected that Governor Palin would give a pretty good speech and hit on some of the areas where her resume' matches up pretty well to Senator Obama's. I was not prepared for what came next. She gave the best speech of the convention season. That's right, better than Obama's. And it was perfectly set up by all of the inexperience talk. This allowed her to go on the attack without coming across as being quite as mean. I remember thinking during Obama's speech that there were a few softballs he left hanging over the plate that could be hit back if the GOP was on it's game, like the line about him and Biden "fighting for you". She hit all of them out of the park. She was very conversational, not preachy. She came across as very confident, and from everything I've gathered over the past few days, she has absolutely electrified the base. For example, the next morning Michael Reagan wrote a column entitled "Welcome Back, Dad." Yeah, that's what we're dealing with here. I can't believe the Obama people didn't see this coming with all the inexperience talk. I also found it ironic that the Obama people are now saying that it's not about personality. If that were the case Hilary would be the nominee.
-I also like the fact that she talked about her family and the media, but didn't come across as whining.
-They made a big deal about the Bush speech writer, who I'm sure was thrilled to finally write one for somebody who can actually speak.
-There has been a run on the Kawasaki 704 glasses frames that Sarah Palin wears.
-I saw an article in an actual "respected" newspaper criticizing the way her hair was done for the speech. I'm not going to claim a double standard or anything, but the morning after Biden spoke I don't recall reading the phrase "hair plugs" one time in any newspaper story.
-I was afraid going in about overdoing the Vietnam stuff, and it was mentioned by every speaker, but I'm not sure you can tell the McCain story without talking about a formative experience like that. I mean five and a half years is longer than I've lived in Colorado, which seems like a long time.
-Senator Graham actually did less for me than Mitt Romney.
-Pawlenty wasn't bad. "Who voted against securing loose nukes in the former USSR?" (paraphrased). That one passed unanimously as I recall as well.
-I would have done more to point out the details of those 2 ethics reform bills Obama touts. One had 47 co-sponsors and passed the Senate unanimously. The other had 18 and passed 96-2, with 2 senators not voting. Not exactly tough legislation that has to be rammed through. If Obama had vehemently opposed them it would have made zero difference. Zero.
-The Cindy McCain video was very moving. She is clearly not a professional speaker, and I think the speech was not written very well in terms of being easily delivered. There were too many multi-comma'ed sentences. That said, the actual content about her charity work over the years in some of the most miserable places on the planet was incredibly touching. I can't help but contrast this to Mrs. Obama who was excellent in delivering her speech but whose biggest applause came because she doesn't hate America. I think a lot of the Michelle stuff has been unfair, but the way this went off kind of reminded me of her earlier statement.
-McCain started off kind of slowly and looked a little distracted when all the idiot protester stuff happened at first. It's kind of funny that to some people on the left, trying to interrupt and shout down a man while he's giving a political speech is actually considered an exercise in free speech. I wonder if a persons brain can atrophy to that level simply from lack of use, or does it require ingesting narcotics on a constant basis for a long period of time? Liberalism will always bare any burden to defend your right to agree with it. Okay, maybe it isn't fair to blame liberals for this one instance since most of the people I saw were from a Communist front group known as Code Pink(perhaps best known for donating $600,000 to the families of Fallujah insurgents).
It still makes me regret not carrying out my plan to disrupt the Obama speech. I know I wouldn't have been able to sneak a sign in, but security has no way of knowing that someone's going to get naked and try to run around the stadium. Missed opportunity, I guess.
-Would you be in any hurry to tackle a naked guy? I can't say I would.
-Anyways, back to McCain. I thought he got a lot better as the speech went along. Some of the domestic policy ideas mentioned in the middle of the speech sounded interesting and will hopefully be rolled out in detail once we get into debate season. This is one area where I think the Democrats are the ones living in the past. They'd like to try to stuff the Globalization Genie back into the bottle and go back to a time when manufacturing jobs were the back-bone of the economy. So would I. It just isn't going to happen, I'm sorry to say. His speech got better and better the closer he got to the end. When he ended with the call to service with the crowd going absolutely nuts and multiple shots of crying people, it was the best imagery I've seen from the right in a long time.
-All in all I thought the convention was well done, but without as much economic focus as I would have liked to see. It was also strictly about McCain and Palin as opposed to the party as a whole. This was kind of weird as well. Whether the enthusiasm can sustain itself remains to be seen, but it looks like another long night November 4th.
-We started off the week with many on the left and in the media drooling over the prospect of Hurricane Gustav wrecking the Gulf Coast and ruining the RNC. The sense of disappointment on Monday night was palpable. It was sad and amusing at the same time.
-Bobby Jindal really seemed to be on top of things in the few days leading up to the storm.
-That picture of Governor Palin holding the M-16 is probably the hottest thing I've ever seen in my life.
-On Monday afternoon I went to cnn.com to get the latest info on the storm. The top 3 stories on the web page were about Bristol Palin's pregnancy. The fourth was about the hurricane. No ideological agenda there. It's too bad the baby's father isn't John Edwards. If that were the case the mainstream media would have declared that it "wasn't news" and the LA Times would have banned any discussion about it on their website.
-I'm not sure if the McCain campaign was laying an ambush for the Obama campaign, hoping that they'd rail against Palin's inexperience, but if it was they walked right into it. I thought it was funny that Obama supporters of all people cared about experience, and I knew she would probably address this when she spoke, but I was completely unprepared for the devastating manner in which she did so.
-The press release from the Obama campaign deriding the fact that she was the "mayor of a town of less than 9,000" was probably ill-advised given the earlier comments Obama has made with regard to "guns and religion" as well as the statement that Americans embarrass him because we can't speak more languages. I for one would like to see the U.S. government run more like that of a small town. You know, with spending restraint, priorities, etc.
-I'm glad my parents' professional lives don't hinge on what my judgment was like at age 17. Aren't you?
-I liked the fact that Obama seemed genuinely pissed off when he told the reporters that peoples' children should be off-limits. Of course he was completely ignored by the press, who apparently decided they still haven't sucked enough blood yet.
-Now, on to the convention itself. I thought the three-day format actually wound up being better. The major speakers were kept but there wasn't nearly as much filler material. This made for much better television, in my opinion.
-I noticed that they didn't do a lot of fake-diversity stuff like they have in the past few. In the 96-04 conventions it seemed like they had every black republican in the country sitting within 50 feet of the stage, in an effort to make the party look more diverse. Black voters, however, were not fooled by this. This time they just said "ah screw it. Let's just put all the hot chicks up front." Which brings me to my next point.
-I thought it was a very good-looking crowd. It seemed like every crowd shot had some very attractive women in it. By contrast, a lot of crowd shots in Denver reminded me of the bar scene from Star Wars. What does that have to do with anything? Nothing. It's just the kind of thing I notice.
-Another contrast was the people being celebrated. Nearly every speaker or video was celebrating achievement. They had videos of past presidents, Medal of Honor winners, etc. and a lot of the speakers were people who've built successful businesses. The Democratic convention, on the other hand was a celebration of victimhood. It seemed like every other person to get up there was somebody who'd lost their job, gotten sick, or lost their health insurance. I understand that victim status is the highest honor the Left can bestow, but after that you'd think the unemployment rate was 30% and there was no such thing as "health insurance". Are we in rough times economically? Yes. Are we living in some kind of Dickensian nightmare? No.
-I was hoping the Bush appearance would get canceled entirely and we would only see Laura. I was also glad that Dick Cheney was not seen, heard from, or mentioned the entire week. Hopefully this keeps up until the election.
- Fred Thompson's tub-thumping speech on Tuesday was the best I've ever seen him give. He wasn't that passionate when he was the one running for president. The part about taxing businesses was funny and on-target at the same time.
-Liebermann better hope there's a cabinet position waiting for him if McCain wins.
-I felt sorry for the woman trying to speak when Papa Bush walked in and the crowd cheered for several minutes before she could start speaking.
-Mitt Romney did absolutely nothing for me in his speech. He sounded like his party was the one that had been out of power for 8 years. Huckabee was good as always.
-I knew beforehand that Rudy was going to be coming after 'em. Rushing the passer, if you will. He did not disappoint. "nothing. nada." His shots on Obama and Biden were a hit with the crowd. I thought he would be a pretty tough act to follow, and that Palin would have a hard time topping him. I couldn't have been more wrong.
-After several days of talk about her inexperience and people on the left questioning McCain's judgment, I expected that Governor Palin would give a pretty good speech and hit on some of the areas where her resume' matches up pretty well to Senator Obama's. I was not prepared for what came next. She gave the best speech of the convention season. That's right, better than Obama's. And it was perfectly set up by all of the inexperience talk. This allowed her to go on the attack without coming across as being quite as mean. I remember thinking during Obama's speech that there were a few softballs he left hanging over the plate that could be hit back if the GOP was on it's game, like the line about him and Biden "fighting for you". She hit all of them out of the park. She was very conversational, not preachy. She came across as very confident, and from everything I've gathered over the past few days, she has absolutely electrified the base. For example, the next morning Michael Reagan wrote a column entitled "Welcome Back, Dad." Yeah, that's what we're dealing with here. I can't believe the Obama people didn't see this coming with all the inexperience talk. I also found it ironic that the Obama people are now saying that it's not about personality. If that were the case Hilary would be the nominee.
-I also like the fact that she talked about her family and the media, but didn't come across as whining.
-They made a big deal about the Bush speech writer, who I'm sure was thrilled to finally write one for somebody who can actually speak.
-There has been a run on the Kawasaki 704 glasses frames that Sarah Palin wears.
-I saw an article in an actual "respected" newspaper criticizing the way her hair was done for the speech. I'm not going to claim a double standard or anything, but the morning after Biden spoke I don't recall reading the phrase "hair plugs" one time in any newspaper story.
-I was afraid going in about overdoing the Vietnam stuff, and it was mentioned by every speaker, but I'm not sure you can tell the McCain story without talking about a formative experience like that. I mean five and a half years is longer than I've lived in Colorado, which seems like a long time.
-Senator Graham actually did less for me than Mitt Romney.
-Pawlenty wasn't bad. "Who voted against securing loose nukes in the former USSR?" (paraphrased). That one passed unanimously as I recall as well.
-I would have done more to point out the details of those 2 ethics reform bills Obama touts. One had 47 co-sponsors and passed the Senate unanimously. The other had 18 and passed 96-2, with 2 senators not voting. Not exactly tough legislation that has to be rammed through. If Obama had vehemently opposed them it would have made zero difference. Zero.
-The Cindy McCain video was very moving. She is clearly not a professional speaker, and I think the speech was not written very well in terms of being easily delivered. There were too many multi-comma'ed sentences. That said, the actual content about her charity work over the years in some of the most miserable places on the planet was incredibly touching. I can't help but contrast this to Mrs. Obama who was excellent in delivering her speech but whose biggest applause came because she doesn't hate America. I think a lot of the Michelle stuff has been unfair, but the way this went off kind of reminded me of her earlier statement.
-McCain started off kind of slowly and looked a little distracted when all the idiot protester stuff happened at first. It's kind of funny that to some people on the left, trying to interrupt and shout down a man while he's giving a political speech is actually considered an exercise in free speech. I wonder if a persons brain can atrophy to that level simply from lack of use, or does it require ingesting narcotics on a constant basis for a long period of time? Liberalism will always bare any burden to defend your right to agree with it. Okay, maybe it isn't fair to blame liberals for this one instance since most of the people I saw were from a Communist front group known as Code Pink(perhaps best known for donating $600,000 to the families of Fallujah insurgents).
It still makes me regret not carrying out my plan to disrupt the Obama speech. I know I wouldn't have been able to sneak a sign in, but security has no way of knowing that someone's going to get naked and try to run around the stadium. Missed opportunity, I guess.
-Would you be in any hurry to tackle a naked guy? I can't say I would.
-Anyways, back to McCain. I thought he got a lot better as the speech went along. Some of the domestic policy ideas mentioned in the middle of the speech sounded interesting and will hopefully be rolled out in detail once we get into debate season. This is one area where I think the Democrats are the ones living in the past. They'd like to try to stuff the Globalization Genie back into the bottle and go back to a time when manufacturing jobs were the back-bone of the economy. So would I. It just isn't going to happen, I'm sorry to say. His speech got better and better the closer he got to the end. When he ended with the call to service with the crowd going absolutely nuts and multiple shots of crying people, it was the best imagery I've seen from the right in a long time.
-All in all I thought the convention was well done, but without as much economic focus as I would have liked to see. It was also strictly about McCain and Palin as opposed to the party as a whole. This was kind of weird as well. Whether the enthusiasm can sustain itself remains to be seen, but it looks like another long night November 4th.
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