Category — Presidential Election

The Palin pick is interesting on a number of levels.  Tactically, it was a brilliant stroke.  McCain undercut any Obama bounce from the DNC quite nicely.  He took advantage of the media’s natural love of “buzz” and gave them a fresh target to work on for a couple of news cycles.

Strategically, although it blunts arguments about Obama’s lack of experience, it was absolutely necessary.  Don’t get me wrong, Palin has more executive experience than Obama and Biden put together, but my guess is the general public won’t view it that way.

But how much does experience matter in this election?  The inexperience charge has been floating around Obama since he first started running.  Hillary Clinton couldn’t make it stick.  And McCain wasn’t making much headway either considering that Obama leads most polls and is competitive in some unusual states.  So, why can’t anyone make this point stick?

In Clinton’s case, I don’t think anyone really gave her presidential credit for Bill’s Oval Office tenure.  That left only 2 Senate years difference between the two and a much weaker argument for her. 

Personal experience isn’t the problem for McCain.  The American people’s experience with the compassionate conservative, AKA George Bush, and a badly damaged GOP brand is.  If your perception is that the GOP experience hasn’t been good, you’re much more likely to give a fresh, inexperienced guy a shot.

And that’s why McCain had to shake up the race.  Status quo picks like Romney or Pawlenty weren’t going move the needle.  When you’re ahead, you have the luxury of picking a Biden to run out the clock.  Picking Palin (or something similar) and seizing a reform agenda was smart and necessary when you’re playing catch-up.

End of the speech…Barack delivers it well, but what exactly will he deliver?  No idea! And that’s why I think he’s still got problems.

10:56 PM “So many lives to mend..” but no thoughts on how to do it.

10:55 PM Outdoor venue not doing a thing for me.  Heard it wasn’t great for JFK either.

10:52 PM Barack has too big of a sense of himself.  He really believes he’s Abraham Lincoln. A little humility wouldn’t hurt.

10:49 PM McCain has no record to run on?  If Barack has a record and qualifications to run on, why can’t any of his supporters list them?

10:48 PM “We all put our country first”….Says the man who described himself as a “citizen of the world” in Germany.

10:46 PM  “The times are too serious”…so says the man with a Greek temple in the background who was running a concert at his convention earlier.

10:45 PM Flip-flop alert…”end the war responsibly”?  He said he’d start pulling troops out when he enters office.

10:43 PM I will say that if Iraq wants us gone, we should leave.  They’re ultimately responsible for their country’s well being.  However, no denying Iraqi PM is playing political games.

10:42 PM  Not following McCain/Osama link..how did McCain not get bin Laden?

10:40 PM But how does throwing money at these programs encourage individual responsibility?  The bigger the net, the less responsibility one has.

10:37 PM Health care for everyone with big tax cuts?  How does that work?

10:35 PM Tax cuts for businesses/95% of Americans while investing $150 billion dollars in clean energy?  How does that work?

10:34 PM End oil dependence? Like we can snap our fingers and do that?

10:32 PM Why didn’t the Democratic Congress reward small businesses with tax breaks?  They’ve held Congress for 2 years now.

10:31 PM Finally some specifics?

10:30 PM I am my brothers keeper…sounds like big taxes to me.

10:29 PM Very average speech…just a big list of gripes so far.

10:28 PM Fortune 500 profits make jobs.

10:39 PM Shrink government?  Does anybody buy that?

10:35 PM Stadium was a bad idea.  They could have rocked the house indoors.  Feels a bit dead.

10:26 PM You’re on your own?  Has Barack seen the slate of social and welfare programs we fund?

10:25 PM The real gamble on Social Security is letting the politicians squander it.

10:23 PM  Has Obama seen the latest GDP numbers?  Revised upward significantly…Maybe Phil Graham was onto something.

10:22 PM McCain votes with Bush 90% of the time?  Dick Morris makes a great point about the number of bills commending high school football teams.  A very misleading stat by the Obama campaign.

10:20 PM Lot’s of grievances so far, but no specifics on fixes yet.

10:19 PM First Bush reference.  Are people buying the idea that McCain and Bush are synonymous?

10:18 PM How can we be one “American family” if half the family speaks Spanish? Of course, we all know which half Obama thinks should learn the other side’s language.

10:17 PM The Obama kids are cute.

10:16 PM The only “spirit” Kennedy embodies is Scotch.

10:15 PM Does anybody really believe the Clinton’s want Obama to win?

10:14 PM “Yes we can chants!” are pretty feint.

10:12 PM Barack finally takes the stage.  Maybe my expectations for crowd noise are too high?  Just not impressed.

10:10 PM I guess that was a picture of the “typical white” people grandparents.

10:07 PM Look at Barack’s Illinois state record on law and order issues.  It’s a horror show.

10:02 PM Obama video clearly trying to make the case he’s an American.

10:00 PM Fox not providing coverage of speakers on the stage now. Dick Durbin seems animated though.

10:56 PM Oprah with diamond studded Obama sunglasses?  I’m sure we can all relate. LOL

9:54 PM Love the Britney Spears references.  So much for escaping the celebrity albatross.

9:52 PM Another half hour till the Messiah?  Uhgh!

9:50 PM Obama repeating Kennedy’s outdoor acceptance speech.  Why am I thinking somebody who copies so much history will never make any of his own.

9:48 PM No specifics in Barack’s speech.  No surprise there.

9:43 PM Kucinich latest Democrat unable to answer why Barack is experienced enough to president.

9:38 PM Hurrah!  A picture of the Messiah entering Invesco!

9:37 PM Colmes says Obama right about prosecution of the Iraq War.  What about Obama’s opposition to the surge?

9:35 PM Lanny Davis says McCain is a conservative.  What’s he smoking?

9:33 PM Lanny Davis talking about “wrong direction” feeling in the country.

9:30 PM I tried watching the PBS coverage, but it was way to0 biased.  Fox News FTW!

9:28 PM It’s dead.  There is zero energy on the field.  I wonder if they overreached with the large venue.

9:27 PM Wonder if the shots during Obama’s speech will be different?  You can’t even see the Barack temple.

9:25 PM  Biden says America sucks.  Everyone’s being “knocked down”.

9:23 PM Biden makes a surprise visit.  Must be there to warm them up.

9:21 PM Did Mayor Booker just say he wasn’t aware of Barack’s public statements?  Yikes!

9:19 PM Newark mayor says the energy level is high.  The live shot behind him looks like everyone is sleeping.

9:17 PM Considering creation of my own Barack Obama Buzzword Bingo game.  How many times do you think he’ll say “Bush” and “change”?

9:13 PM Another hour before Obama hits the stage?  Not sure I’m going to make it.

9:08 PM  Saw Stevie Wonder earlier.  Hope Republicans avoid the Democrat’s Hollywood circus atmosphere.

9:06 PM  Could Al Gore have been less inspiring?  I’m surprised I’m still awake.

Somebody please tell Maureen Dowd that we’re voting for a president and not the Grammy’s:

And Democrats have begun internalizing the criticisms of Hillary and John McCain about Obama’s rock-star prowess, worrying that the Invesco Field extravaganza Thursday, with Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi, will just add to the celebrity cachet that Democrats have somehow been shamed into seeing as a negative.

The celebrity glitter surrounding Obama just adds, correctly in my opinion, to the notion that he is not a serious candidate.  Maybe some Americans want George Clooney running the country, but I don’t believe the majority do.

Democrats are worried.  Not panicked just yet, but I suspect they have some Obama buyers’ remorse.  McCain is saddled with an unpopular incumbent, a damaged party brand, a slow economy, and support for an unpopular war.  With those headwinds, Barack Obama should be up by 10 points.

But not to worry says Nancy Pelosi.  A new wave of voters not reached by traditional polling will carry the day.  I think we’ve all heard that one before.

Paul Begala says that Democrats are just too darn nice.  They need to attack more.  He even claims to have written it on his Obama contribution check.  This argument seems strangely familiar from the last campaign—something about swift boats if I recall.

Begala does prove one thing–you can always count on a Democrat to be wholly convinced of his own virtue and goodness.  Obama could claim that McCain was the spawn of Satan himself and people like Begala would still claim Democrats need to get tougher.

And speaking of swift boats, I attribute Obama’s problems to being a John Kerry clone with less experience.  Only liberals put effete liberal after effete liberal on the presidential ticket while expecting different results.

The media says Obama brought Biden into the campaign to hit John McCain between the eyeballs with a pair of brass knuckles.  Yet this “potent” political operative can’t even dodge vice presidential speculation prior to the announcement without lying about it.

So did Barack Obama buy a pit bull or a gaffe machine?  I’m voting for the later.

How could Barack Obama, a man with children of his own, hear a tale like this:

Stanek is the nurse who found herself cradling this baby in her hands for all of his 45-minute lifetime. He was close to ten inches long and weighed perhaps half a pound. It’s just a guess — no one had weighed or measured him at birth. No happy family had been there to welcome him into the world. No one was trying to save his life now, putting him into an incubator, giving him oxygen or nourishment. He had just been left to die.

Yet oppose a law that would offer treatment to this premature child?

I don’t care if the child was a “botched” abortion or not, basic human decency demands they be treated.  But as an Illinois state senator, Obama effectively killed a bill that would allow treatment claiming the bill threatened Roe v. Wade.  However, a bill with the same language protecting Roe v. Wade while offering rights to the child passed in the US Senate 98-0.

Of course, when confronted with that fact, Obama lied and said the language between the bills differed in protecting Roe v. Wade when in fact they were identical.  But the most damning piece of evidence is Obama’s vote.  He didn’t even have the guts to vote “no”.  The man who wants to lead the free world voted “present”.  Will that be an option for him when the phone rings at 3 AM in the White House too?

The Chosen One is clarifying his tax plans.  I suppose we should be thankful since he’s already elected:

He also clarified that that a proposal to impose Social Security taxes on incomes over $250,000 would not start until at least a decade from now.

Assuming Obama is a 2 term president, he’ll control tax policy 2 years after leaving office?  Unless Chris Matthew’s tingly leg can repeal the 22^nd Amendment, it’s bloody unlikely.  And what good is tax revenue a decade from now with the raft of new programs he’s proposing today?

Let’s get real.  A decade long promise is nothing more than a smokescreen.  This guy is going to tax us into the poor house right now.

Pain at the pump might pay dividends for the GOP.  With gas prices hovering around $4 a gallon, obstructing offshore drilling is downright suicidal.  But Democrats would rather side with the Sierra Club than do anything constructive for US consumers.

And judging by Rasmussen’s latest poll, the public is not amused.  McCain took his first lead over Obama with more people trusting McCain on energy policy.  It seems visions of Nancy Pelosi as our planetary savior aren’t so comforting after a fill up empties your wallet.

But don’t shed tears for Nancy.  She’s got a personal energy plan.  While Republicans continue calls for Democratic action, she’s hawking books at the JFK Library.  You have to hand it to Nancy.  She’s always doing the people’s business.

If Obama is a new kind of politician, you could have fooled me. With the polls tightening, he’s decided that a little bit of oil drilling might not be such a bad thing after all:

“If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done.”

That, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what Congressional Republicans have been arguing for, but when The One says it, the media treats it like it’s manna from heaven. Of course, the Times carefully avoids mentioning that Barack’s Party is stonewalling any compromise on drilling in Congress–including turning off the lights and cameras. Must have slipped their minds.

Plus, the Times says Obama’s “shift” is a sign of “political pragmatism” and not a flip-flop. Wonder how they’d call it were McCain on the other end of the issue?

The press’ Obama man crush is reaching embarrassing new heights.  Even when Obama has nothing to say the press can’t wait to praise him for it.  For example, Obama has no concrete plans for the economy, but it still generated 335 articles and counting on Google News.  With the election just a little over 3 months away, shouldn’t he have something to say about the economy besides he’s going to tax the bejesus out of us?  So much for the press being an important part of a functioning Democracy.