I never thought I would say this, but Karl Rove wrote a very impartial and meaningful article in the WSJ and I agree with him. I ask the liberals to hold their breath for a few moments and actually read the article and while you are it take a bitter pill and actually hear the Palin speech ( I recommend her recent speech on her return to Alaska, less crowd and fewer chants of “Palin, Palin” to raise your blood pressure) and you will see why she is such a big hit. It is not the words coming out of her mouth it is the way she delivers them. I am reminded of the Reese Witherspoon character in “Legally Blond”.
While I do agree with Karl Rove about how Obama should not be attacking Palin and why it is a losing proposition for him, I believe the Obama campaigns conundrum is how do you respond when Palin has completely sucked all the oxygen of media coverage and seriously thrown them off their message. The interest that she has evoked and because of this reformist aura around her, she has actually been able to define Obama rather then it being the other way around. The egos in Obama campaign just could not resist the temptation to take a few pot shots at her.
I think it would be in Obama-Biden’s interest to resist the urge to take shots at Palin and keep the attacks on John McCain. The media frenzy would die down in a few days and it may die quicker if they don’t keep making statements about Pigs and Lipsticks giving the McCain campaign even more fodder. You have to give to the McCain campaign that they have been able to control the message very well.
Moreover the left wing should stop hyperventilating about how John McCain could pick Sarah Palin, instead of somebody experienced if they want to win this election. I think part of the reason why Democrats are so off message is because they didn’t think Sarah Palin was a worthy opponent. They were expecting somebody formidable with a lot of experience and instead got given a replica of the right wing Barack Obama. How do you tarnish their Obama without tarnishing your own.
Sooner or later people will know she is just another politician. When the dust settles, Barack Obama does not want to come out more bruised then Sarah Palin.
He should stay above the fray and keep his focus on John McCain. His fighting for the Presidency not the VP’s spot
Why does the American voter feel the need to relate to the President and do anything with him? Why do we feel we need the President to be like us and yet we elect ones that are nothing like us. We elected one, eight years ago that people felt they could have a beer with, now we are rooting for one who according to Amity Shales (author, columnist and senior fellow, CFR):
Women want to have fun with other women. Palin seems like someone you would run a 10k with.
Are you kidding me, you wanna have fun with her invite her to your house for drinks, arrange a get-together with your kids, run that 10K you want to with her or better yet go on that moose hunt, why do you want to vote as my VP??
This constant need to be able to relate with the President is giving us one mediocre President after the other. I admire the American, can do spirit, as much as the other guy but don’t tell me that everyone is cut out to be the President. If by chance we do come across somebody who may be smarter then us we deride him as “Elitist”, we complain “he talks to us instead of talking with us”. The last president that we felt we could relate to, happened to be of the same caliber as the rest of us and therefore, his gift to us is an unfinished war, record deficit, mounting debt, crumbling infrastructure, lost jobs, a weakening economy and an inability to solve our problems because he turned us into sulking children who cannot talk through our problems. His solution to all our problems was tax cuts and more tax cuts. Forget about the fact that soon we would not have any income to pay taxes on.
How about this time we elect somebody who is, better then us. Who is, more capable then us. I don’t want a drinking buddy or a running mate or a hunting partner, I need a President who will make sure 4 years later I will still have a job.
John McCain runs an ad completely distorting Obama’s vote on sex education for children and the media runs the news with the headline “Obama aide questions John McCain’s honour“. Are you freaking kidding me? Have they completely lost their mind? How about saying what is true “John McCain has sold his soul to win this election” or ”John McCain takes a chapter from George Bush’s book”. The same Karl Rovian tactics that brought down John McCain’s campaign in South Carolina in 2000 are now being used by John McCain himself against Barack Obama.
When will the media start playing an impartial role and start reporting the news based on its merits. When they are not completely fawning over Barack Obama, they are reporting half truths and lies about the other campaign.
After going for months how he would run a clean campaign and how he is different from George Bush, McCain has even stopped keeping up the pretenses. He is milking his POW status, everytime he opens his mouth and now with Sarah Palin on the ticket any kind of criticism is either questioning his patriotism or being sexist.
The Senator should hope that Sarah Palin will deliver him the Presidency, because, the way he has run his campaign, he has completely lost respect among independent minded people. I not only question his honour, I also question his judgement.
This is the same John McCain who introduced an immigration reform bill but then buckled under pressure from the right wing of his party. He wants to lead the country but only wants to listen to right wing.
This is the same John McCain who wanted to reform the electoral process but now has the same people run his campaign that he tried to shut down in 2000.
This is the same John McCain who wants to do something about climate change but then goes out and selects as VP, somebody who questions whether human beings are even responsible for climate change.
This is the same John McCain who wants America to have a comprehensive energy policy, but the only policy he can come up with is the slogan “Drill, baby drill”. Let me ask the Senator – Would this oil production be controlled by the government i.e nationalised or be sold on the free market? If it goes on the free market how on earth does this solve our energy needs, as whoever pays the highest price gets the oil, which is no different from what we have today. This does nothing to alleviate our energy needs as it is no different from what we have today. You can increase the supply of oil all you want, all it does is increase the demand for oil. Like I wrote earlier drilling in ANWR only means cheaper oil for the Chinese.
John McCain is a perfect example of when single minded focus on one single issue can become tunnel vision. Senator McCain is now so vested in the outcome of the Iraq war, that he is losing focus on the war that needs to be fought against Al Qaeda. This war is small and highly mobile. It involves part old fashioned sleuthing, part law enforcement and when need be special operations. The war, McCain wants to win is not the same as the one that America needs to win. He accuses anybody and everybody who wants the Iraqi security forces to take on more responsibility, and the Shite dominated Iraqi government to reconcile with the Sunnis, as unpatriotic and wishing for American defeat.
The over simplification of the challenges during the year and half of campaigning has made McCain forget what Islamic terrorism is? Now everything happening in the Middle East or any other part of the world if Muslims are involved gets clubbed under the umbrella of Islamic terrorism.What Sen. McCain has forgotten is that if America’s war is against Al Qaeda and Islamic insurgents who want to attack us, then we must fight them where they are, in Afghanistan. Iraq has already realized that supporting Al Qaeda is not in their interest, that they do not share the same ideology as them. Their marriage was a marriage of convenience until it dissolved when they turned against them and defeated them with the American support. Now America needs to put pressure on the Iraqis to reconcile and wean them off their dependence on Americans for everything.
America’s distraction in Iraq has only allowed Al Qaeda and the Taliban to regroup and become more powerful in the mountains along Pak-Afghan border. The rag tag groups of these insurgents are becoming increasingly emboldened and attacking NATO forces with increasing ferocity. The recent tensions with Russia also, increase the possibility of the Russian secret agencies wanting to arm the Taliban and other groups in order to create more problems for the NATO and American forces.
Senator McCain should be commended for pushing for the troop surge in Iraq which has led to US military successes in Iraq, but correcting a wrong should not be considered as some brilliant move especially when a lot of other, very brave Americans in the military lost their careers for saying that we did not go their with enough troops to begin with. Senator McCain wants to keep the American troops in Iraq until we win and are able to come back with honour. What he has repeatedly failed to show, is what our victory in Iraq means and what would it look like? Without the Iraqis reconciling, American forces would never be able to leave the country as any kind of security and power vacuum would only act as a fertile ground for the growth of Al Qaeda. Recently there were reports from Anbar province after the handover to the Shite dominated security forces of increasing hostility between the Shite security forces and the Sunni militia which was responsible for defeating the Al Qaeda in that area. The Shite dominated government security forces do not trust the Sunnis and vice versa.
Its time for the Iraqis to shed their own blood and treasure for their own country and time for Senator McCain to support a deadline.
I just heard Cindy McCain’s speech. She appeared to be a very smart, articulate, very well travelled, compassionate woman. She studied at USC, California and has done a lot of charitable work. Her views while being conservative are reasonable. A lot of this must have, at some stage, rubbed off on John McCain. How does he then go out to pick Sarah Palin, a book banning, religious zealot who thinks Iraq war is a mission from God, that the solution to America’s energy problems is to drill bay drill and then drill some more, that just because she sold a symbol of excesses of her own party on Ebay it some how makes her a maverick and a reformer.
I am beginning to think Karl Rove may have been right, this is a political choice rather then governing one.
I thought after eight years of George Bush, America would have had enough of this single issue insanity and was ready forsome comprehensive leadership on all fronts. We had two solid candidates whose policies were in the middle, you may not agree with everything they may say but you understood the logic behind it. For those who have read my musings before I would have been happy with having either of these two candidates as the President.
Obama may be short on experience but he has some solid ideas, and team capable of delivering those. He gained my respect when he took a stand against the so called gas-tax holiday whileeverybody else pandered. I didn’t agree with him on demand for a timelinefor troop withdrawal from Iraq as I believe we need to solve the mess we created but then again the cynic in me saw it as a pander to the left wing. I hoped that he has enough smart people around him to make him see the logic against such a move and his position evolved with time.
John McCain is a true American hero, with policies and ideas enough to the center to lead atleast 80% of Americans. At the end of the day Americans don’t care about just one issue(or atleast I hope).He has the capability and the experience to once again raise America’s credibility in the world after eight years of George Bush, and show the leadership to resolve the issues facing us at home. He may have his shortcomings on the economy but hey that is why you have advisers.
But during the past few months John McCain has taken a sharp turn to the right. He has given up on unifying the country and decided to consolidate his base. John McCain has all of sudden decided that it is more important for America to worry about issues like abortion and gun control then worry about jobs and food. He went ahead and picked a moose hunter from Alaska as his running mate.
He decided that it was more important for people to pay less in taxes, then for their money to mean anything. So while you may have more dollars in your paycheck they don’t go as far as they used to when its time to put food on the table. What good is the tax cut I got under Bush when all it did is increase our debt, and decreased the value of the US Dollar. I may be taking more money in terms of dollars but it sure isn’t buying a lot.
He decided that it was more important to have a women as his running mate just for the sake of it while taking away their right to choose. What good are the children when you don’t have a job to raise them and food to feed them? For them it is important only to give birth to human life but once you are born you are screwed. What kind of logic is that?
He decided that it was important to scare people that the other party would take away their guns.What good are the guns when you don’t have healthcare when you fall sick? Is the 2nd amendment going to pay for your medical bills? An equal number of Americans are either uninsured or underinsured as compared to gunowners. What about their rights? I am for your right to 2nd amendment if you are for a women’s right to chose.
John McCain has decided that it is more important for Americans to fill their Hummers then leave behind a world that is inhabitable for the next generation. Why is it, that the party of life is also the first one to deny that we are destroying the planet?
Why is it that the party that is for free trade, then turns around and doesn’t want anybody to come in and live in their country. We will take your cheap labour and your cheap products but we don’t want you coming in no matter what you have to contribute. They keep forgetting that this is a nation of immigrants.
He decided that it is time to bash government, a government he surely has been part of for the last eight years. We just went through eight years of government watchdogs being systematically neutralised in the name of smaller government to the point where we have nobody inspecting the food that is being imported into the country, we have toys being imported with toxic levels of lead, we have tyres being imported which don’t meet safety standards, we have crumbling infrastructure all across the country with crumbling bridges. We have a government which wasn’t able to provide emergency services to a whole city during hurricane Katrina.
I am just venting because I was listening to the speeches from the RNC last night, listening to them yell and scream, how big government is bad for us. I kept wondering where these people were during the last eight years because they didn’t seem to realize that they were the ones in power during six out those eight years and the remaining two they will not let anybody else do anything. They are the government.
They keep screaming how they have protected us from any terrorist attacks during the last 6 years, but I guess it is OK if you die in a hurricane or when a bridge gives way underneath you. We will not allow any foreign terrorists to kill you, we will kill you ourselves, that seems to be their motto.
None of the commentators on CNN are as good and effective in delivering the Democratic message as Roland Martin. His defense of Obama and his message is as good as any right wing commentators who are so effective ind delivering their own message. His comments are concise and hard hitting and I love the fact that he is the only who comes across as he is actually angry. Everybody else is their because they love to hear their own voices.
Roland stay angry, we need to be angry to actually affect change.
Sarah Palin’s speech to RNC convention has been good so far, its funny, laced with enough jabs at Obama, Biden and the Democratic Congress. I don’t like anything i hear but it is still a good speech, considering she has no national experience. Looks like those hours of practise have paid off. Cindy McCain could not have been happier, seeing the sigh of relief she let out after Palin was finished. Question is when there are no teleprompters to read from, would she still be able name Ahmadinejad on the map. This election is turning quite intriguing, either way we are going to end up with two really inexperienced candidates, only i agree with one more then i agree with the other.
After hearing all the speakers at the RNC convention harp on VP nominee Sarah Palin’s executive experience, Sen. McCain has decided to pull his name from the top of the Republican ticket, and run as VP to Sarah Palin, given her extensive experience as the mayor of Wasilla and then the governor of Alaska. As the Senator mentioned that since he had never managed any kind of a budget and never had to make any executive decisions, he felt he did not have enough experience to be running for the top job in the land.
Welcome to my blog, a result of the 2008 Presidential election. Never have I been so involved in politics and learnt so much about myself and others, as I have during this campaign. I think there are no conservatives or liberals in the real world. They only exist on TV and radio.
I am a moderate and independent. I don’t believe that anything in this world is black and white. We are just not afforded the luxury of simplicity as everything lies somewhere in that grey area. There is some good and some evil, everything else is in the middle.
Therefore, I am for limited use of capital punishment, and for a women’s right to choose.
I am for those so called enhanced interrogation techniques, but not for legalizing then. I believe if their is truly that scenario of a ticking bomb, hey by all means.
I believe human behaviour is responsible for climate change. I am not sure that Global warming is the only result of it though, as I think it is too narrow a term to encompass everything we are doing to the environment.
I am a fiscal conservative and thereby for smaller government and fewer entitlements but do believe we need to pay our fair share of taxes, I just don’t want to see my taxes wasted by the government.
I am for open borders all across the world. If you are for free trade and a global economy and against immigration you are only avoiding the inevitable.
There are things you make agree with this on this blog and things you may not. If you agree great drop me a line, if you don’t, feel free to drop me a line and tell me why. I will give you a chance to change my mind or you can give me a chance to change yours.
1independenthinker
