Obama the Socialist?

Sen. John McCain’s new dig at Obama is that he wants to “spread the wealth” and that that makes him a socialist.

When I heard this, and learned that people could actually be buying into this, I laughed. 

Firstly. If anyone, and I mean anyone, supports an NFL team that isn’t successful and calls Obama a socialist or “redistributing the wealth” they might as well give up on the “socialist” NFL.

The NFL has revenue sharing you see. What that does is it takes all the money it makes from TV and distributes it amongst the teams. Major League Baseball, AMERICA’S pastime, does the same thing. 

Look. Obama may be very liberal, and I understand that doesn’t sit well with a lot of people. But to believe that he wants to redistribute wealth and make America a communist state? Really? Does anyone pay attention? Do people realize that a BAIL OUT would be the same thing? Doesn’t McCain support the bail out? 

I believe John McCain, like Republicans in the past eight years, has been put in a tough place. George W. inherited an America that had some problems, but those problems were probably overshadowed by the good economy. But, the dot com boom finally busted and 9/11 happened. I don’t know how unlucky you could get to start a presidency. 

Something similar happened to McCain. See, the conservative way of doing things isn’t doing so well right now. After eight years of George W., people are sick of Republicans. This will be mirrored by the way the Senate races go. McCain is the leader of an unpopular party and happens to be a very liberal conservative, if that makes any sense at all. 

McCain had to solidify the base, which is what the Palin pick did, and he’s done that pretty effectively with his new “socialist” message. I suppose it worked, but you don’t have to go that far.

It especially hurts when Obama is not going to raise taxes for the middle class. 

Basically:

Obama is not a socialist.

McCain has no choice but to say these things.

Don’t fall for campaign spin from EITHER CAMPAIGN. 

To further the above point, McCain isn’t Bush.

Don’t stick to one news source.

I think my last point is the best one. Don’t only watch MSNBC because the ultra liberal view can blow your mind. Don’t watch too much CNN cause they are slanted to the left a little as well, though it’s not as obvious. Don’t watch too much Fox News cause there is far too much yelling, and I don’t think it’s good to watch people yell a lot. 

Ultimately, I got off track here… but everyone needs to look things up for themselves and ratify their sources before listening to one thing and running with it! Gah.

Sexism vs Palin

I’ve been hearing a lot of noise this election. And I mean a lot. For instance, the McCain campaign is sending out noise that the media and even Obama are being sexist when they’re being tough on Palin. Well, guess what: they’re not.

Obama, Biden, and McCain have all been involved of this process for nominating our presidential nominees for months. Palin is a fresh face who is a NO NAME. No one knows who the hell she is. So, what’s the reaction? Well, we want to know who the hell she is. So what does the media do? They explode and try to find out as much as they can about the Governor from Alaska. 

Another thing, the whole issue of her daughter being pregnant. No one went and pried into her personal life to find that out. The McCain campaign let that information out into the public to avoid it being a problem later on. There it is. Now stop complaining.

Let the media do it’s job. Let them find out all they can about Palin. If she is going to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency we deserve, and should, know everything we can about her.

There’s also a little issue about Obama and his “you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig” remark. Well, it was a joke. It was a bad joke, but it’s a joke. This joke was talking about policy. Although Obama should still watch what he says as the McCain campaign seems to have a ten man team waiting in the wings to chug out another TV ad whenever needed.

Can’t we please forget the sexism and racism from the media and focus on issues and the candidates character? I mean really, the only sexism and racism in this election season will come from voters.

What It Takes

If you were to have the opportunity to compete for your dream job, would you? Would you do whatever it took to get that job? 

These are the questions that should flutter in your head as you look at the coverage of the election this year. Sure, American politics can get dirty and Republicans and Democrats may go at it quite a bit, but that’s what it takes. Who wants it more?

Often, we admire people who put their hearts and souls into attaining something they dream of. In fact, we tend to admire athletes and sports teams that do whatever it takes to win. Teams that scratch and claw their way to the top. Even when they have little chance, or everyone tells them they can’t do it they do it anyway. Look at the past two Super Bowl champions, the New York Giants and Indianapolis Colts. The Giants were going against the undefeated New England Patriots and no one thought they could do it. Yet, they did. The Colts had a horrendous run defense, yet they turned it around and won it all.

This could be what’s happening to the McCain campaign.

I was watching Obama’s interview on Countdown with Keith Olbermann and something interesting caught my ear. Obama said something to the effect of: I believe the American people will realize McCain represents the past and Bush policies. Now, either Obama is being way too political or he’s making a huge error. To beat McCain, he’s going to have to smash the American people over the head with constant links to the current President. Not only that, but he’s going to have to do one important thing.

He’s gotta keep it simple.

McCain is doing his job and is doing it well. He’s up in the polls, his VP pick is dominating the current media coverage, and he’s finally united and energized his base. John McCain is leading his party and leading it well. He’s actually doing it a lot like the NY Giants did. He’s scratching and clawing. He’s even resorted to hiring former enemies. Enemies that ran against him in 2000 when he ran against George Bush in the primaries.

Before the Republican National Convention, all the pundits had counted McCain out. He had no chance, Mitt was going to take it. Well, McCain easily cruised through the primaries and became his parties nominee. Now, he’s closing in on November with a lead in the polls. His VP has been a hit so far and his ads work. Sure, they might not all be true (when do politicians tell the whole truth anyway?), but they work.

In the end, he could come up short. Look, his VP pick’s honeymoon period still isn’t over, but if she passes all the tests and remains a rock star he has a very good chance at becoming our next President.

And all he’d be doing is whatever it takes.

Stealing McCain’s Thunder

Sarah Palin is the new Barack Obama.

It’s true, it really is. With a couple speeches, the Alaskan Governor and ‘hockey mom’ has energized the Republican party and has brought new attention to the GOP’s ticket this election. Before Palin, McCain was looked at as kind of boring and… well… old. But now, ooh but now he has the young and attractive Palin. She has a family, she’s a ‘hockey mom,’ and she’s very conservative. Basically, she’s everything Republicans want.

She’s basically the Republican Obama. Obama is essentially everything the Democrats want, except of course for some female Democrats who want Hilary Clinton. 

Both Obama and Palin even have one thing in common: inexperience that people consider a bigger deal than it actually is. 

They aren’t totally the same though… I mean, Obama’s biggest scandal was Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Palin’s biggest scandals are yet to come out. The biggest one being Troopergate. Was it an abuse of power or not? We’ll find out Oct. 10th. 

Despite all this, she’s stealing McCain’s thunder. But it’s understandable. She’s new, she’s fresh, and she can give a good speech. She has all the right elements. The same thing the Democrats said about Obama when he started winning support. Oh, but, be careful. Mrs. Palin actually challenged the media during her RNC speech, so… I wouldn’t be surprised to see a whole bunch of dirt brought up in the coming weeks.

Here’s the laundry list of potential dirt:

Leaving the city she was mayor of in debt.

Teaching creationism in school.

Calling the Iraq War a ‘task from God.’

Banning books from a library.

Supporting the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it.

Being supportive of earmarking.

Troopergate.

Rebuilding the Republican Party

Astounding is the word I think after watching the Republican National Convention, and it’s not because of Sarah Palin’s speech. It’s not because of Rudy Giuliani’s speech. It’s not even because of John McCain’s acceptance speech.

It’s because Bush is no longer welcome.

He didn’t attend the convention. Instead, he stayed in Washington, D.C. and addressed the RNC via satellite. 

In tonight’s acceptance speech, McCain didn’t even reference him by name.

They’re slowly rebuilding themselves. 

The choice of Sarah Palin excited the conservative base and started the rebuilding. Conservatives suddenly became excited for the ticket that they were once skeptical of. Now, I understand not all conservatives like Palin because of her lack of experience and certain scandals brewing about her, but I digress.

McCain has capped off this rebuilding by essentially denouncing Bush in his speech tonight.

There’s a question remaining, however:

Will the rebuilding and the mentioning of ‘change’ actually work?

The Nation Will Move On

Effective on June 14th, 2008 same-sex marriage will be recognized in California.

And Americans will get used to it.

People are naturally afraid of change, and I do believe that is one of the biggest reasons same-sex marriage isn’t popular… well, besides religion too.

But ultimately, people will get over it and I do believe same-sex marriage will be allowed all around the country and conservatives will stop using it as a talking point in their politics.

Why do I say this?

Because in reality, there is no true debate against same-sex marriage.

Look at Massachussetts. Nothing bad has happened there. There have been no reports or anything of anything bad. In California, nothing will happen. People will get on with their lives.

As for the sanctity of marriage, current divorce rates in the US are at about 50%. That’s not very sanctimonious.

Spain, South Africa, the Netherlands, and Canada have all legalized same-sex marriage. And ALL of them have lower divorce rates than the United States.

This nation will move on from same-sex marriage as a political talking point and be a world leader in it as well. As soon as the majority of states allow same-sex marriage, the more other countries will begin to allow it.

Support the war, not the troops?

That’s exactly the message presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain sent when he did not vote or support the new GI Bill.

The new and improved GI Bill would essentially allow the troops to get enough money through an additional Patriot Tax that would allow them to go to a four year college.

This is vitally important for the troops because a lot of them come back home and become homeless and suffer from mental illnesses.

Can you guess another person who doesn’t support the bill?

George W. Bush.

Guess he truly is supporting the Bushian policies of the past.

The Bane of the Democrats

Is Hillary Rodham Clinton.

She is pushing, and pushing, and pushing that Michigan and Florida be counted. There is one problem, and I find this upsetting: Obama and Clinton AGREED, yes AGREED not to campaign in Florida and Michigan because they broke party rules.

Clinton AGREED to this, but now for her own personal gain and to no benefit of the party she is absolutely hurting the party in every conceivable way. She agreed not to campaign in those two states, but now that she “won” the states she wants them to be counted. And by “win” I mean being the only big name on the ballot in Florida with an upstart no one knew in Obama as the opponent and her being the ONLY person on the ballot in Michigan.

The more Clinton talks the more she stirs the emotions of the voters in Florida and Michigan and the worse Obama looks even though it’s not his fault. He simply complied with the request of the party, as did Hillary.

But Hillary is a victim of double talk on this. She’s changing her tune and it makes her sound good. But it hurts the party in the long run.

Note to Mrs. Clinton: do the Dems’ a favor and stop. Double talk again and downplay the votes of Michigan and Florida. Howard Dean’s plan has always been to seat the delegates after a candidate has been selected, but guess what? He can’t do that with you in the race.

This hurts the Democrats chances in November as Obama is in Florida trying to appease voters. He’s going to need that state in November against McCain, but the Republicans will have a field day there if this doesn’t get resolved soon.

Hillary, please think of your party and concede defeat.

Superdelegates, please end this.

It’s only going to get worse.

This is why you need to be educated.

Or you will look like a complete and utter fool and become a YouTube sensation.

For some background, President Bush was in Israel and in a speech to the Knesset he essentially took a shot at Obama and comparing him to Hitler appeasers. McCain then took it a step further and compared him to Neville Chamberlain.

Obama has said that he would be fine with talking with Iran and negotiate with them, and basically using diplomacy to get Iran to end it’s nuclear weapons program. That is what McCain and Bush were referring to when calling Obama an appeaser.

Here’s the vid I’m talking about:

Obama captures 9 more superdelegates

And he brings the Democratic primaries an inch closer to ending.

One of the ’supers’ was a former Clinton supporter as well. If the majority of the ’supers’ support Obama this primary season could end as soon as two weeks from now.

In the meantime, Obama and McCain have essentially begun the general election swapping blows on whether Obama is endorsed by Hamas and if Obama is age-ist or if McCain is losing his bearings.

Oh, boy… there will be some fun come November.

Even more fun considering McCain’s pastor supporters may be more controversial than Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Rev. John Hagee, a McCain endorser, has claimed Hurricane Katrina was created by God to punish New Orleans for its homosexual sins.

On the other side, Rev, Rod Parsley has called Islam a “false religion” and has essentially called on Christians to wage war on the religion.

Right, now it’s time to sit back and wait for the backlash… I mean, there has to be backlash. Right? …right? Media? Hello?