In case you missed it, I wanted to let you know there was a debate on TV last night. If you want to watch it in its full glory, RealClearPolitics.com has the video as do a number of news outlets but let me give you some high lights. They spent the first half hour or so of this First debate talking about the Economy and the current situation. Both candidates seem to be where they were at the beginning of the week… which is almost nowhere, on this issue and the bail out. Obama wants to cover more people then necessary with the plan and McCain hopes he can sign something. Personally, I think its a bunch of poo either way you look at it. I shouldn’t be paying for someone else’s mistakes. Its not right.

After that the discourse moved to Foreign Policy and while McCain did pretty good (it is after all his forte) Obama wasn’t too bad at reciting the lines that had been prepared for him. McCain actually seemed to be more off the cuff than Professor Obama did at times and he appeared calmer than one would expect while the Great One appeared to be on the defensive most of the time and was seemingly flustered for most of the debate.

Of course, I don’t think that agreeing with Sen. McCain so often during a debate where you need to show your differences was a good plan of attack. There wasn’t even a hint of sarcasm in his agreement. Someone needs to revisit the chapter on proper debating.

In all, I wasn’t too impressed with either candidate, its a shame that Bob Barr or Ralph Nader weren’t invited, I think they could have livened things up (especially with the way Barr refers to himself in the third person). It was fun watching the feeds on Twitter (a remarkably liberal community) though and I think this weeks Upcoming VEEp debate is going to be more fun.

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Who ever said that double standards do not exist in politics was not talking about American Politics. Sure, each side seems to have their fair share of “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” however, none seem to be as obvious as the double standards this years democratic field wields. In part, this blatantly obvious in the media’s coverage of the Obama/Biden ticket in comparison to the McCain/Palin ticket. The disdain the media displays towards anything non-obama is absolutely mind numbing. However, even the candidate’s own spin on issues seems to be a huge double standard.

For instance, the current claims by Obama paint McCain to be against government reform and regulation of the financial industry when in fact The EXACT OPPOSITE is true. In 2005, McCain authored a bill calling for the Reform and oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (what fun names!). A bill that the Democrats called ridiculous. In fact, had the congress acted on McCain’s bill three years ago, then a large part of this down turn may have been prevented (or at least it wouldn’t be as bad as it appears to be today). Instead they did the opposite. The Democratically controlled House called for less regulation and urged lenders to make loans to people they knew could not afford to pay them off.

In large part, this current economic downturn is due to the Democrats in congress who think its a RIGHT for a person with less then adequate means to own a house. Now they’re trying to blame this on McCain and the GOP when its a largely liberal problem. Rep Barney Frank tried passing the blame to the GOP when its clearly not the GOP’s fault at all. Talk about double standards.

Another nice double standard took place at the end of last week when Rep Charles Rangle from NY called Gov. Palin disabled. Of course, the Honorable(?) Rep from NY is claiming thats not really what he meant, but come on. Really?? He’s also facing heat from the right side of the aisle for owing back taxes (whats the point in being a congressman if you have to pay taxes right??) and some other minor infringements that would have had a republican crucified by this point.

Given all the double talk and standards that the Democratic leadership like to play with, its no wonder that they’ve managed to screw the pooch on their control of the house in the two years they’ve been there and have garnered an approval rating lower than the current President’s. Something that should have been pretty hard to do…

edit: I came across two good articles today I wanted to share, one about Palin and Obama—What Really is Wisdom? @ Realclearpolitics and the other is about Is Obama Another Dukakis? at the Slate. Both are good reads!

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In case you missed it last night, Obama made his acceptance speech last night and while it reads to be a fairly good speech and the critics have all had nothing but praise, as I read through it, it reeked of the same old Democratic rhetoric that they’ve been spewing for years. Promising change, promising more government interference in your life and promising more wealth redistribution. The funny thing is that he wasn’t too specific in how he’s going to pay for it all.

I won’t go in to the fact that its not the Government’s job to provide for me and my own, nor is it expected. The problem lies in the fact that as a country we’ve strayed from the beliefs that helped form this country more than two centuries ago. The willingness to work hard has been thrown away and its become an “Its my right” country.

It wasn’t unexpected that the GOP was spinning the speech as soon as it started. The Dems will be doing the same thing next week in Minnesota. Its expected. They managed to do a good job poking holes in the promises (its not the government’s job to help automakers, the Japanese and European automakers aren’t having a problem at all) Obama was making. It will be interesting to see (if he makes it to the office) how many of those promises actually materialize. For S&G if you want to see how Obama voted while in the senate (he missed more than 50% of the votes this year) head over to Project Vote Smart.

I did like the fact that McCain congratulated Obama on the historic feat he accomplished (he did manage to become the first black man nominated for the presidency) and the fact that the acceptance speech was on the anniversary of King’s I have a Dream speech.

In other FLIPPING AWESOME news, McCain is set to announce that Sarah Palin is going to be his VP Candidate. She’s a relatively new governor for the State of Alaska and she seems to bring a lot to the table as a candidate. It will be interesting to see exactly how this plays out and while I didn’t watch more than five minutes of the DNCC, I’ll be tuned in to the GOP Convention every night.

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Day two of the DNC Convention is under way in Denver (lovely city! Shame about the Liberals though) and I have to wonder (as many outside the liberal mindset do) if the Dems should be feeling any buyer’s remorse yet or if that will set in after the close of the convention on Friday. Thousands of liberals will wake up Friday morning with that cheap wine hangover haze wondering what led them to sleep with the campus fatty.

Part of the problem stems from the fact that they’re pulling behind a virtual unknown in the realm of politics. Another issue may be the fact that his VP candidate has publicly said that Obama is not ready to be President. Then there’s the fact that as far as the two of them (Obama/Biden) go, there is little difference ideologically (they have almost identical views on everything) and there isn’t much for the moderate Democrat to stand behind.

Biden’s track record is proven and he’s fairly well liked inside the beltway. He knows his way around Washington politics and has even made a run a the office himself. He’s fairly well suited for the position. Obama on the other hand, may be little more then fancy rhetoric. Can anyone name *ANYTHING* productive that he has done during his tenure in the senate? ANYONE??

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Despite his claims earlier in the week that he “isn’t the guy”, it appears that Joe Biden is in fact the guy. Its interesting to note that Obama choose someone who just a year ago said that “Barack Obama is not ready to be president”. What prompted the change? Well, maybe the fact that he’s now Number one to Obama’s Captain Pickard. Maybe the fact that he thinks Obama may not last long in the office and this is his chance to become President. Who knows.

What is apparent is that this move by the Obama Camp provides some much needed Foreign policy experience to a group that was lacking. Its known that Obama does not have the strongest (or any for that matter) FP background, being a 2nd year Senator from Illinois and this adds some much needed depth to his campaign. Is it enough?

A poll earlier this week had McCain up by 5 points, however at this point in the race it could go either way and I’m not too thrilled about either main party candidate (did you know that Bob Barr is running?) and I’m getting tired of picking the lesser of two evils. Obama’s Social Welfare programs do not bode well for the country (bordering on bringing mass socialism to the States) and I’m not too keen on another 4 years of the same old GOP drivel.

Maybe if a democrat is elected President, the rest of the country will wake up and realize the mistake they made by giving control of the House to the Dems. Things seemed to work remarkably well when Clinton was in the White House and the GOP held the House. Unfortunately, I think that this political season will have too big an effect on the future of America.

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Sometime last week, Obama unveiled a new “logo” while he was speaking to the Democratic leaders. Surprisingly enough, this logo didn’t last more than a week. Hailed by Obama supporters as “insightful” and “inspiring”, the new logo took on the current presidential seal and made many question the reasoning behind it.

When I saw it, and when I read an email floating around about how he would like to change the National Anthem, it made me really question what else he would change about our country and the answers I came up with scared me.

Its true, he studied Marxism in college (anyone who took a Poli Sci course did) but he took more from the reading than most. Its also true, that he doesn’t wear the Flag pin or put his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is sung. He wants to see “health care for all” something the government shouldn’t be controlling at all and in a time when many Americans are looking for new and inventive ways to be able to afford gas, food and shelter, he wants to increase the funding for many government programs by raising taxes.

But the problem with Obama isn’t necessarily the fact that he wants to do all of these things, its nice to see a candidate that wants to see things done rather than toe the party line (oh, wait, thats what he’s doing!). Don’t get me wrong, McCain isn’t too much better in that regard either and its a tough call for me as to who to vote for this November. But if it comes down to voting for a Senator who’s been proven in both battle and the Senate or one who is still considered a relative new comer to the DC scene, I may just have to move to the Cayman Islands.

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It would seem that the democratic candidates are doing a better job at destroying their party then the GOP ever could. I haven’t written much about politics (or anything lately) since Huckabee was knocked out of the race, but the way Clinton and Obama go after each other, they seem to be doing little more than dividing the liberal base more than before.

Much to the point is the fact that Obama is (for all practical purposes) the nominee, yet Clinton still refuses to acknowledge that or step aside and let him move on. Bill Clinton was on record the other day talking about the fact that Clinton supporters are more against Obama then before. While this means some good news for McCain, its only good if they actually come out to vote. Lets see how long this infighting in the Democrat party can last. Maybe it will take some heat off the general election.

Either way, its a good thing that the popular vote does not decide the president…..

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While one party stands united behind a candidate (Poor Mike!) the other is decisively split on who they think will best represent them. Unfortunately for us, that means more bickering between the two Democratic (socialist) candidates for at least another month. I was looking at the math and it seems this race could go on for months, or at least right up to the DNC. It’ll be interesting to watch, but will it help or hurt the Democrats over the long haul in this election?

I could see it going either way. The good thing for the Republicans is that they can unify behind one person well before the GOP meets to formally nominate their delegate. This unity in the party can only help strengthen the resolve the GOP should have to make right the mistakes of the past 12 years (since 1996) and to forge a cohesive vision for where this country needs to be. I’d like that vision to include more personal freedom, changes to the tax structure that include less personal and business income taxes, and an overhaul of the Social Security Admin and the health care system in this country from the current system to a privitised system.

For the democrats to unify, it may be a little harder unless both Clinton and Obama end up on the party ticket (something Clinton has alluded to, but I think that Obama might have an issue with it). It seems that people either love or loath the candidates this year. If you love Clinton, you dislike Obama, if you love Obama you dislike Clinton. I feel the Dems have a longer way to go to reach party unity (no matter how hard Howard Dean tries) in this election cycle. Not to mention, that they haven’t delivered on any of their promises either…

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Almost 6 months after Obama appeared in the Halloween edition of Saturday Night Live (SNL) Hillary made a stop on the set and met face to face with her twin played by Amy Poehler. Clinton was on in response to two sketches the troupe has done now based on some of the more recent debates where the anchors seem to give preferential treatment to Obama and play hardball with Clinton.

While I agree she does have a bit of a point, that it seems unfair that they’ve chosen their Golden Boy and this time around its Obama, I do think that if she really wanted to have any affect on it, she should have made an attempt earlier in the season to make an appearance (Granted, the strike took SNL off line for a while).

For instance, Huckabee is a favorite on almost all the late night talk shows, making appearances on Colbert, The Daily Show, Late Night with Conan, The Tonight Show and others. This appearance by Hillary almost seems to be a last ditch effort to gain votes coming in to the crucial Ohio and Texas primaries tomorrow. But who am I to judge??

On another note, I seem to have made up some of my PR loss from the fall when I dropped from a 4 to a big, fat zero. Now I’m sitting happy at a 3 while Gruntled is still an Oh!

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