Whenever I describe my political views, I generally state: “I am socially liberal, financially conservative”. This means I generally vote for conservative Democrats and Liberal Republicans. I am not into extremes. One of the main reasons I tend to lean Republican is: fiscally the Republican Platform makes more sense to me. As a businessman and an individual, I have studied the pros and cons of a free market society and I believe in most cases, the free market is the best way to insure growth and prosperity for ALL citizens.
Today I am scratching my head wondering how the fiscally and socially conservative Republican Party has seemingly overnight turned into a socialistic society. Those on the Democratic side of the street claim the bailouts being proposed and executed (a good word for it) is simply cronyism, which is completely absurd. I believe the real issue is the current Republican Government (good old GWB) is attempting to stabilize the economy in a fairly transparent effort to bolster support for John McCain. First and foremost, I do not believe McCain needs that sort of help, secondly, IT IS STUPID, DESTRUCTIVE, AND EXACTLY WHAT WE DO NOT NEED!
Read more…
I am trying to keep up with all of the idiotic partisian crap flying around the 2008 Presidential Campaign, and I certainly expect most of the mainstream press to slant their stories to favor the Democrats (in fairness, I expect Fox to slant things a little to the Republican side of the house). Today I came across a Time-Blog.com posting from Karen Tumulty.
John McCain’s campaign has begun lambasting Barrack Obama over his choice of advisers, in the ad Tumulty references, they are going after Frank Raines (Former Fannie Mae chief). In Tumulty’s “report”, Tumulty alleges that the McCain ad is displaying ” Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.”
Tumulty uses the image of a smiling Barrack Obama and a somewhat sinister picture of Raines as evidence that the McCains ad “Plays the race card”. What a bunch of political bullsh*t. Go figure that Time-Blog.com is “In partnership with CNN”. I am more balanced in my own made up blog than this idiot is.
Read more…
I received a digg alert this morning, informing me that Vanity Fair has published a list of this years most powerful and influencial people (the story can be found here). On this list Steve Jobs comes in at number 4 and Mick Jagger at number 60. All in all an interesting list as lists go. The list is topped by Vladimir Putin, who given the recent events in Georgia and Russia is probably a good choice. But wait a minute where is George Bush? He is the President of the United States of America, arguably the most power country in the world? “Well”, I think to myself, “maybe it is just the liberal press being liberal again”. But wait, Barrack Obama and Hilary Clinton did not make the list? Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are number 9 on this list!?!? No American Leader or potential leader is in the top 100? What a bunch of idiots. What warped political agenda would cause Vanity Fair to exclude the President and Vice President of the United States of America AND the two presidential hopefuls from this list? Even given the mainstream presses bias towards the left, certainly Barrack Obama should have made the list? In any event, I think they got it wrong and I truely believe any sitting President of the United States of America should be in any top 10 list of the worlds most powerful and influencial people (regardless of party).
For some inexplicable reason, John McCain added Sarah Palin to his ticket as his Vice President. I have thought a lot about WHY he would do such a thing. Many of my friends seem to think that this is a death blow for the McCain presidency. I am not sure. Since this is front of mind for me today, I thought I would attempt writing an op-ed piece, although I have never formally written ANY “piece” for publication outside of technical journals.
Pros:
- Palin will help with the far right wing conservative vote. Palin is anti-gay marriage and pro-life (two things McCain apparently is not)
- Palin is a young 48 44 (offsetting McCains clearly advanced years)
- Palin is a raising star in Republican Party, clearly charismatic with a varied background which should make her appealing to “Joe and Jane Public” (Just call me Joe)
- In case you missed it, Palin is a woman. Perhaps McCain is thinking this will help him with the female vote? (I for one believe this country is prepared for a female Vice President! Heck if Hilary was not so despised, she would have had a reasonable shot at being president!)
Cons:
- Palin has limited experience in politics: She has served as governor of Alaska for only two years, with little government experience beyond that (Not necessarily a bad thing)
- Palin is governor of ALASKA! I love Alaska, it is beautiful, but certainly our 49th and least populated state is not strong resume material – The democrats will pick this apart in the coming months.
- In case you missed it, Palin is a woman. (”What?!??!” you are thinking, “dummy listed that as a Pro!”). This one is a double edged sword. I believe McCain will draw some support from the female moderate democrates he would not have otherwise had, he also will lose some support from the more sexist moderate male democrates who might otherwise have voted for McCain.
I am not certain how much Sarah Palin will help McCains presidential aspirations, though in aggregate, I think it might have helped him. What would help him more is Gustav not causing too much trouble during the Republican National Convention.