Career Politicians

Isn't it funny how people talk about career politicians. I hate them. I don't trust them. Even if most of their beliefs align with mine, I still think they're mostly skeevy. So, leading up to this presidential election, there has been a lot of talk at my office about politics. I hate talking about politics at work and only offer up points of view if directly asked and only if it's somebody I feel like sharing with. Before either candidate picked their running mate, I had tons of these people agreeing with me that career politicians suck and we need new blood in most offices and seats so that favors don't need to be paid back. "Hell yeah" is the rallying cry. So, the second Palin is announced.....she doesn't have enough experience. Well, she hasn't been in politics too long and look what she's accomplished. I wonder if she was a man if the subject would even be brought up? Joe Biden himself said when John Kerry ran for preident..."he should pick John McCain to run with him". Sounds like a good enough endorsement to me.

Obama, Smooth?

You know, I thought Barack Obama was supposed to be a smooth dynamic speaker. Well, he may be when delivering a speech that he has memorized and has delivered it 100 times before....but off the cuff at the first debate, I was shocked. He stammered and stuttered and sometimes sounded like a motorboat trying to start. I thought McCain was going to look old a feeble compared to the vibrant Obama but I couldn't have been more wrong. I saw McCain's speech at the convention and I cringed about what would happen come debate time. I cringe no more. I am voting for McCain as my political slider is more to the right than the left. The Bush administration got away from the core Republican beliefs that I tend to side with about taxes and spending. I triust McCain to bring that wagon back around, not Obama to add more spending to it. I always say to throw away the 20% fanatical ends of the political spectrum. That leaves 60% in the middle from 21 Left to 79 right with 50 in the middle. My gauge is pinned at about 67 these days. People like to talk about Palin's lack of experience because she's the governor of an "insignificant" state. Hmmmm, was Bill Clinton the governor of New York, Pennsylvania or California? I didn't think so....and he wasn't even the VP candidate.

Palin, Sign Me Up

So, where can I pick up a McCain/Palin sign to plant in my yard?

Palindrone

Holy Cow. Not used to having a female politician that's a looker. Is she, or am I just getting older? I dig the glasses. Big Time. I can't wait to hear her speak tonight as I have yet to even see a news clip of her in action. Depending on what you read, the move to name her is either genius or idiotic. Howard Stern was leaning towards voting for McCain until now. He thinks it's totally irresponsible to have a woman who was just the mayor of a 6,000 person town 2 years ago a heartbeat away from leading the country. He also wonders how she has time to manage all of this with her family and her son with Down Syndrome. Who knows? If a woman with a DS child can be a lawyer or a CEO and work 14 hour days, I suppose one can also be Vice President or President. It's a weird question really. Why should we assume she should be home with her son when we wouldn't if it was the child's dad running for office? I guess it's really the preconception that the mom should be home with the kids, especially a special needs kid. Why is that? I don't know but I have to admit, on the surface Stern's argument holds some water with me. Heck I don't even aspire to be a VP of a company because of the time it would take to put in. I would miss my kid growing up to some degree but I'm a very involved parent. If Dad is home every night at 5-6, why can't Mom hold whatever job she wants? Celebrities always have other people and nannies raise their kids. The real question is, is it any of our business anyway? For all I know, other governors and other VPs have had special needs kids and it's only an issue now because of the 24/7 media. I'm more concerned with her experience. I hear she hates corruption and wants to fight it, yet the case against her for wanting someone fired looks bad. There is talk her daughter was pressured into saying she is going to marry the father of her unborn baby. Again, I'm not sure what this has to do with her ability to lead. What one person believes or follows is hard to push off on their children. Look at it this way......how many politicians that preach family values have children under 18 that are sexually active? Right. All of them that have children under 18! It's only bad if they get pregnant because then everyone knows. In today's age, how can you pick a candidate that doesn't have things you don't want to disclose? You can be the most conservative person on the planet and try to raise your kids to make good choices.....but short of chaining up a 17 year old in their room, how do you stop them from getting pregnant? If she makes a bad choice at 17, is it the Mom's fault? If she failed to use birth control just that once....does it make her mom any less worthy? Think about it....this woman is being judged because her daughter may have had sex one time out of 100 without making sure that jimmy was wrapped. What does one have to do with the other? All of the negative media attention may actually end up working in her favor. I know all the liberal Hollywood types that hate the tabloids are probably enjoying this episode yet they rail about it when it happens to them. I don't know how I feel about it. I want to judge her solely on her record, but her record is more like a vinyl 45 right now. I think if the McCain people think Hilary voters will move towards Palin, they are wrong. Romney or Huckabee would have been safe picks. Tom Ridge was a safe pick. Joe Lieberman would have been a safer pick, but still rebellious. This pick is way the heck out there and like I said in the beginning, it's either brilliant or a brilliant mistake. Time will tell. It's just hard for me to imagine looking at this woman who could be Vice Frickin President of the United States and saying to myself, "Hmmmm, I'd like to see her in her knickers....with her glasses still on".

Eight Houses

Of course hardly anyone is pointing out that the houses belong to his super rich wife technically. I would like to know how many she owned before she married him. The Wallstreet Journal says they are owned by her, but they don't say much more than that. These guys want to argue about who is more out of touch with the American people. They better be careful as now that they have brought it up, it's fair game to be used in reverse. John Kerry "owned" 5 homes totaling $33 million dollars when he ran. Same scenario - owned by Heinz technically. There is also a story circulating that in 2004, Joe Biden suggested to Kerry that he ask McCain to be his running mate! Yup! It's true. It was on Wikipedia under the heading 2004, but has since been relocated in the article, probably by Biden's people knowing how ridiculous it will look if Biden has to now tell us that he isn't right for the job. I'm not going to lose much sleep if Obama wins the election because in some aspect - you can't deny that it may go over better in some parts of the world. That being said, when I go over the checkboxes of what I believe in and what each party typically stands for, I still align myself with the GOP. Read about the Wikipedia entry here. Read the WSJ article here. I've said it before and I'll say it again - elections for me are mostly about picking the lesser of two evils. I'm not sure if I've ever been inspired by a candidate since I started voting. In fact, I have not. I just can't stand how skewed the national media is. I recently heard Jesse Ventura on The Howard Stern Show and Howard was egging him on to run for President. He makes a lot of sense. Then, near the end of the interview, he admitted he thinks there are a lot of 9-1-1 conspiracies and ended up sounding like a crazy person. He went from thought provoking and brutally honest to a coo-coo bird in about 2 seconds. Why can't Steve Forbes be more electable? We truly need a non-politician to step up.

Obama Ralphs After Reading News

Interesting. I guess some GOP'ers in high places finally convinced Ralph to run again this year. I love it that Hilary is getting bitchy about it, then admits "it is a free country". Now if McCain wins a close one, we'll have to hear about how old Ralph turned the tables. Good man, Ralph, see it through. Now the only thing that could make McCain even happier is if Obama wins the nomination and Hilary decides to run as the Green Party representative.

How Should You Vote?

Thanks to Still A Dad for sending in this link. You answer some questions and it gives you your percentage match for the candidates running for President. I haven't completely decided who I'm voting for yet but I'm leaning towards Rudy Giuliani, with John McCain a close second. I took the test and I actually match up better with McCain's statements (55%) than Rudy's (48%). Funny as Hell that out of the 10 or so candidates listed - Hilary Clinton was last on my list with a 15% match. The very creepy John Edwards was the first democrat to hit my radar (shivers!). That dude has skeletons in his closet like I have cookies at Christmas. Get out and vote.