Political Frenzy

This is a side by side comparison of the two presidential candidates tax plans that was posted on WashingtonPost.com. Here is the link.

To enlarge it you can click on the image.

Well the RNC has finally concluded and the general election campaign has ‘begun.’

I noticed a few things from the convention.

1. More handmade signs from the crowd
2. I was more bored than when watching the DNC
3. Former rivals of John McCain were saying good things about him! I say this in a sarcastic tone because after Obama picked Biden as his VP nominee McCain made commercials with Biden saying bad things about Obama. I do believe Mitt Romney had some choice words for McCain during their debates. But he was singing like a canary in the Twin Cities. (I’m mocking this because it is something that happens in EVERY political race, but McCain seemed to want us to think only Biden said bad things of Obama.
4. Sarah Palin established herself as an attacker. I found it odd that a women who has less than two years of political experience attacking a US Senator, and former State Senator, but who am I to judge? I say things about candidates and I am not an elected official.

Honestly I was annoyed by Palin’s speech because instead of introducing herself to us (which is what a candidate should do when NOBODY KNOWS HER), she chose to spend her time not just attacking Obama, but mocking him. It was tasteless. I wanted to hear more about what she has done and what her plans for the country are. I don’t want to hear cheap shots at a proven and tested candidate from a woman who most people think shouldn’t have been anywhere near this race. Palin can say what she wants about Obama, but he has been chosen by millions of voters to be there candidate. One man choose her, and it is time to prove to everybody why. It is tasteless for someone who is still trying to get our respect to mock someone like Barack Obama, who has earned it. Because if that is all she is going to do she will just be a flash in the pan.

It was also interesting how the Republicans have starting using the word REFORM all the time now. They might have caught on that we don’t like what is going on in our government! Imagine that!

If they can reform Washington, it’s about time they told us how they will do it. I’m listening!

From what I saw before I fell asleep McCain’s speech was good. He needs to take some risky moves by saying the word reform, which will rattle his base but it will also get him more votes. And the hecklers, or whatever they were trying to do in the middle of his speech to get attention, come on! What are you thinking, let the man speak!

I liked the video about McCain. The man is a hero. But do we really need his wife telling us about adopting a child from Mother Teresa’s arms then tell us about it again 5 minutes later in a video?

I feel asleep during a lot of it, were President Bush or Vice President Cheney there? Because if I supported someone’s decisions 90% of the time that would mean that person is a great politician and I would want him to come and tell everybody how great I would be as his job.

(Matt Sullivan/Reuters)

The choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s VP candidate seems to be confusing everyone, and I’m no exception.

Last Saturday when Obama choose Biden as his VP candidate a McCain spokesman said that it was “a concession” by Obama admitting that his lack of experience means he is not ready to be our president. Then McCain chooses someone with ZERO foreign policy experience? I want to know what that particular spokesman has to say about this.

One of McCain’s main arguments is that he is ready to “Lead on Day 1.” Is Palin?

We can argue about which experience is better, executive (like being a Governor) or legislative (being a Senator) until we are blue in the face. But one thing is clear, having no foreign policy experience is a huge problem. Having no executive experience is tolerable I think. No wars are going to be started because a part of the budget is labeled incorrectly.

It is argued, although not much longer, that Obama has ‘no experience.’ But I can promise you that he is competent in the issues that face America today, and that foreign leaders know and respect him.

Palin, at the moment is not known by foreign leaders. Sure, if McCain tells them that Palin is going to visit and that she is a great women then they will respect her. But wouldn’t they respect anyone if they are told to? McCain can tell a foreign leader that a blogger named Ryan is coming and that I am a great man. But that doesn’t mean I am ready to lead the country (not yet at least!).

I am looking forward to the Vice Presidential debate. Joe Biden has been involved in foreign policy issues for decades, he it going to blow her out of the water.

If something were to happen to President Obama, Vice President Biden could step in and deal with a foreign policy emergency without hesitation. If something were to happen to President McCain, would Vice President Palin be ready?

I’m sure she is a great Governor for Alaska, and it looks like she is a reformer which is what Washington needs. But a vice president needs to know what is going on in the world, not just in Juneau.

I just hate how McCain is showing that he thinks that people who voted for Hillary will vote for Palin just because she is a woman. This is an unfortunate political stunt.

http://www.politicalfrenzy.com/vice-president-sarah-palin/

Sarah Palin

This morning at an event in the swing state of Ohio, with the music from ‘Rudy’ playing in the background, John McCain tapped Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his VP nominee.

Who?

I am very proud of McCain showing that he can think outside the box. Is it risky to pick a female Governor who not many people are familiar with? YES! Which is exactly what the McCain campaign needed. His campaign has suffered a lack of enthusiasm from the start, picking an unknown woman does give it that little bit extra doesn’t it? It doesn’t hurt that she is also a former beauty queen.

Who is Sarah Palin? She got her degree in Journalism from the University of Idaho on a scholarship from being the runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant, she served two terms on the Wasilla City Council, in 1996 she was elected mayor of Wasilla (population 5,470), she unsuccessfully ran for Lieutanant Governor of Alaska in 2002, she was elected Governor of Alaska in 2006. (source: Wikipedia, it’s correct I promise!).

This is a huge risk for McCain, but not as risky if he chose who he really wanted to choose, Joe Lieberman. His party would not allow that, it must be tough to stand up to your party.

I find it odd that McCain choose someone who has so little experience because for months he has been attacking Obama’s lack of experience. This officially takes the issue of experience off the table. I wonder how McCain will attack Obama now.

Palin is known for her record of reform. Another word for reform is CHANGE! Sound familiar? This shows that the McCain campaigns acknowledges that change is needed in Washington. They don’t want the election to be change v. the old ways, and now it won’t be.

Part of me wonders if the pick is to try to grab Hillary voters strickly because Palin is a woman, the other part wonders why McCain had to throw a hail mary.

One person who has to be happy is Tina Fey, she will be busy over the next few months!

http://www.politicalfrenzy.com/mccain-logic/

Youth and experience is bad Mr. McCain?

In response to Barack Obama’s (late night) announcement that Joe Biden will be his running mate, John McCain was quick to attack.

An ad (which had to be put together weeks ago) showed quotes from Biden during the debates earlier this year in which he criticized Obama’s experience.

A McCain spokesman went on TV saying that because Obama picked the experienced Biden it is a ‘concession speech’ by Obama because it shows that he has no experience.

Do you really want to go there McCain?

First of all whoever McCain picks there will be similar, if not more harsh, videos of this new candidate criticizing McCain during the primary. This is politics folks, you attack your opponent and when they beat you, you tell everyone how great they are…it’s weird I know.

Does everyone remember the exchanges between McCain and Romney during the debates? If you don’t you sure will see the clips (immediately) if he chooses Romney as his running mate.

Now to the ‘concession speech’ remark…McCain you need to get some smarter help! This idiot is saying that because Obama chose a man who is very experienced it means that Obama himself is not experienced. If that is so,then why did McCain support the Bush-Cheney ticket?

By McCain’s logic Obama should have picked a retarded person, because that would mean that Obama is so smart he doesn’t need advice.

Also does this mean that because McCain will be picking a younger man that he is too old?

McCain, what does it imply when you have dumb campaign staff say stupid things on TV?

The floodgates are open, nice job McCain.

http://www.politicalfrenzy.com/obamas-1am-text/

The last few days the world waited for the infamous text message from Barack Obama to announce who he has chosen to be his running mate.

The email to supporters to sign up for this text message said that because ‘we’ supported Obama throughout his campaign that we, not the media, should be the first to know about his pick. Personally I thought this was a pretty good idea.

Obama announced that he was going to have a rally with his new running mate this morning in Illinois, so I thought that it would be logical that the text message would be sent out yesterday. This way the press could report on it, leaders could embrace him, and the new running mate could stop being held hostage in his house by the media.

I waited, no text….waited, no text, checked my phone…no text. Obama avoided cameras all Friday, the only time that he spoke was to answer ‘when is the text going to be sent?’ To which he responded, “wouldn’t you like to know!” The talking heads on tv all chimed in saying that it could be sent any minute. Larry King was ready, Wolf Blitzer was ready, even Bill O’Reilly was ready. No text message.

Nightfall… I’m thinking to myself wouldn’t this be the perfect time to send it? No text… Around 10pm all the news channels start reporting that it has been confirmed that Joe Biden is Obama’s pick. Wait a minute! Hey Obama, why is John King on CNN telling me who you picked???? I still didn’t believe it though, I wanted the text message to come so I could know for sure (and I was still holding out for Gore).

1:08 am, my phone beeps…text message from Obama: “Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3pm ET on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word!”

Thanks for waking me up.

How cocky is Obama to think that I want to be woken up by this news?

http://www.politicalfrenzy.com/got-gas/

Today while defending her decision to stay in the presidential race Senator Clinton said,

“We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”

Nothing like a good ol’ Freudian slip!

The Clinton campaign immediately responded to the remark saying, “She was simply referencing her husband in 1992 and Bobby Kennedy in 1968 as historical examples of the nominating process going well into the summer.”

This point of reference is simply not valid.

In 1968 the nominating season was far different than today’s. On June 5, the day of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, there were primaries held in 13 states. It was their equivalent of our ‘Super Tuesday.’

Of course the candidates stayed in the race well into the summer, they had 13 primaries that day!!! By June 3rd of this year every state will have already voted.

Time has nothing to do with this debate; it’s all about numbers. We want Hillary to drop out because it is mathematically impossible for her to win, not because it’s almost June!

Not only was this an extremely insensitive thing to say, but also it is like comparing apples to oranges.

Mrs. Clinton is getting increasingly desperate and she is starting to hurt her public image. Obama is 56 delegates away from clinching the nomination. Clinton’s arguments over the votes in Michigan and Florida not counting are ridiculous and her logic about the subject hurts my brain.

Hillary…..I think it’s time.

This past Saturday I attended a voter registration drive hosted by Barack Obama’s campaign. At 10am the office was packed, with volunteers pouring out the front door. They had to announce that they had ‘too many volunteers,’ and didn’t have enough supplies or places to send everyone!

I was amazed not only by the sheer number of people willing to give up a beautiful Sacramento Saturday to register people to vote and to get out Obama’s message, but mainly by the diversity of the crowd.

Surrounding me were teenage white girls, Muslim men wearing turbans, old white men, middle aged white men, middle aged black women, young black men, old black men and women, and other white college students like myself.

I have before never seen a crowd so diverse all working towards the same goal. Senator Obama’s message is getting across to people from all walks of life, don’t let the hype from Senator Clinton fool you!

Senator McCain is going to have his hands full come November; I wonder what a gathering of McCain volunteers looks like.

Why won’t she just drop out?

There are a number of reasons why Hillary won’t just drop out of the race. Let’s explore a few of them.

First of all, and this is one nobody is talking about, Al Gore has not endorsed anyone yet. We all know that a Gore endorsement would go a long way for either of these candidates. If Al stepped out today and endorsed Hillary publicly what would be the outcome? Would it be enough to get her out of the deepening hole that she is now in?

Probably not

Al Gore is not likely to endorse a candidate who is all but sure to lose the nomination. He wants to put the weight of his name behind his party’s candidate to further boost the candidate’s visibility come general election time. Or does he? Is being friends with the Clinton’s enough to make him endorse Hillary’s sinking candidacy? (NO)

Another reason she could be waiting is to go out on top after a big win in West Virginia next Tuesday, where she has a huge lead in the polls. Clinton is actively campaigning in West Virginia, at the same time I haven’t heard of Obama making any campaign stops out there.

She will use the state of West Virginia to plead her case for the Vice Presidency. She will try to say that Obama cannot win ‘working class voters.’ Which is ludicrous…. (More about this in a future post.)

I have also heard of her campaign coming up with a deal with the Obama campaign to pay off her campaign debt of $20+ million.

The gas tax holiday proposed by opponents Senators Clinton and McCain is nothing more than a campaign gimmick.

Both candidates know that it doesn’t make fiscal sense; they also know that by proposing something like this that the American people will not look into whether or not it makes fiscal sense.

Again, this is an assault on our intelligence as voters. They think that we don’t understand that the suspension of a federal tax would cause long terms economical problems in an economy that is now in recession. The experts that have weighed in on the ‘gas tax holiday’ are even saying that it might not even lower the price of gas for consumers.

I’ll be honest when I first heard John McCain propose to cut gas prices I was happy, but then I realized that it would be a mere band-aid on a bullet wound. Suspending the gas tax for three months will only create more problems. Even if the overall price of gas was lowered by 18 cents per gallon, on a typical 13 gallon fill up that’s a whopping savings of over $2.

Big deal

McCain and Clinton also know that there is no way that the House and Senate could pass the bill in time for the ‘holiday.’ Congress just doesn’t work that fast.

Instead of taking money away from our country’s infrastructure how about we tax the oil companies (over a certain threshold of profit) who despite a ’supply problem’ still manage to make billions of dollars a month in profit ?

After last night’s ‘big’ Clinton victory in Pennsylvania it is now impossible for either her or Senator Obama to claim the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the nomination. What does this mean? It means that your vote no longer counts.

As of today Obama has 1,719 delegates, while Clinton has managed 1,586.

The now infamous ‘Super delegates’ will now decide who the Democratic nominee will be. Isn’t that just great? These candidates raise and spend tens of millions of dollars per month, campaign up and down the country to get their message across to us voters, and it doesn’t even matter if we vote because these ‘Super delegates,’ not you, will now decide who the nominee will be.

What the heck is a Super delegate? “Super-delegates are designed to act as a check on ideologically extreme or inexperienced candidates. It also gives power to people who have a vested interested in party policies: elected leaders. ” (source: About.com). Super delegates were a reaction to Democratic nominee George McGovern in 1972. In the general election McGovern won only one state and a mere 37.5% of the popular vote.

This is another example of how voters are not trusted to pick their leaders. It ensures that the same brand of entrenched politics will always be around.

CHANGE we can believe in? Let’s hope so, because old school Democratic fat cats are not likely to vote for someone who wants to change anything.

Today Senator McCain attacked Senator Obama on public election financing. McCain’s camp said that last spring Obama’s campaign said Obama would “aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly-financed general election.”

Campaigns that are publicly financed means that each campaign would receive around $85 million from a taxpayer financed fund. But if they accept it they are not allowed to raise money elsewhere.

McCain said that Obama should “keep his word to the American people.”

First of all, Obama isn’t the nominee yet, and neither is McCain. So let’s not count the chickens before they hatch (even though on the Republican egg I can see the beak). Secondly an attack on Obama is good news for Barack’s campaign because that shows that the Republicans are already counting on him winning the nomination.

The thing that I don’t like about this type of attack is that Obama has said nothing about using public financing during the general election. By McCain challenging something Obama has said nothing about it makes it look like Obama has already said he won’t use public financing. Ahhh classic politics.

Let’s be honest here, the only reason McCain has brought this up is because he knows he doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell at raising even half the money Obama would. In January Obama raised over $32 million dollars, mostly from small donations. When looking at cash each campaign has on hand, it is not surprise. Obama has over $18 million while McCain has just about $3 million.

If the candidates agreed to both use public financing it would take away a huge advantage from Obama. When his campaign made that comment last spring I’m sure they didn’t realize that they would become a money machine in 2008.

If Obama does receive the nomination he has a huge decision to make. Should he reject his proposal of using public financing and dominate McCain with his millions. Or should he stick to his word and have a level playing field with McCain?

The smart thing for him to do would be to reject the public financing and take the wrath that comes with a flip-flop. McCain won’t have much money to get the message out that Obama flip-flopped in the first place.

I am sick of hearing about how conservatives will not back John McCain. Do these “experts” not realize who votes in primaries? Only hard core conservatives vote in (Republican) primaries! They have chosen John McCain as their man, therefore they have already backed him!

A candidate in a primary wants to be as far to the right (or left if they are a Democrat) as possible to court the people who actually vote in primaries, the people who believe in the extreme values of that party. The fact that a moderate candidate like McCain has won the nomination (I told you so by the way) is amazing.

During a general election, because voters of all parties can vote for the candidates of either party (unlike most primaries where Republicans can only vote for Republicans, and Democrats can only vote for Democrats etc.) candidates tend to bring their views more toward the center to court the Independent and undecided voters, McCain will not have to do this. He is already in the center with much of his views. He took a gamble to state his actual views during the primaries and it has paid off.

A moderate candidate receiving the nod from Republican primary voters is amazing, whoever says that McCain will ruin the party is wrong and needs to read a Political Science 1 book.

After the onslaught of victories on Super Tuesday by John McCain (and the surprise…again…of Huckabee’s victories) it appears that it is mathematically impossible for Mitt Romney to catch up in the delegate race. The McCain campaign released this:

“The remaining contests account for roughly 963 delegates. For Mitt Romney to match our delegate count, he would have to win more than 50 percent of those delegates. And, he would have to win nearly every single delegate still available in order to become the nominee. And, many of these contests are proportional, so Mitt will have to win by big margins in many states to garner every last delegate. For example, in this weekend’s Louisiana primary, he would have to win the with more than 50 percent of the vote in order to win (1191 delegates to win, 963+236=1,199). ”

Even if Huckabee wasn’t in the race taking up Romney votes it would be an impossible task for Romney to catch up. So congratulations Senator McCain and good luck against the Democrats (your gonna need it)!

I have been wondering how Romney stuck around this long, he didn’t seem like a viable candidate to me a few months ago. When looking at his “fundraising” it seems that he has been buying his way to his 2nd place finish.

According to opensecrets.org Mr. Romney has “raised” over $88,000,000, twice as much as Senator McCain’s $41,000,000. We all know that Romney is wealthy beyond belief and has largely self-financing his campaign (giving himself over $35,000,000), but was this a good investment?

I find it humorous at the amount Huckabee has raised in relation to his impact, though January he raised a mere $8,900,000. Romney has spent over $80,000,000 more than Huckabee and it is still a battle between the two!

When looking at the campaign debts category Romney’s number is alarming, he has $35,000,000 in campaign debts! McCain has just over $4,500,000, and Huckabee $97,000. $35 million where does that go? When he loses does he have to pay that himself? What a horrible use of money. He probably could have cured some disease, or saved Darfur with that! The problem is that almost every candidate wishes they had that kind of money!

I want candidates who are so in tune with the needs of the country and can resonate their vision with the people so effectively that they get enough support from the voters. Financing your own campaign is like paying for a hot prom date.

Is the ‘winner take all’ electoral college unfair? The Electoral College itself is not just unfair but inherently stupid, and the fact that if a candidate receives 49% of the vote in a state and will receives zero votes for it is ridiculous.

California Representative Issa is trying to do something about it.

California Counts is an initiative collecting signatures in order to get on the June ballot in California. Under the proposal candidates will receive one Electoral College vote for every congressional district they win.

Under the current system the presidential candidate that gets the highest percentage of votes in a given states receives ALL of that states electoral votes. In some states that only have a handful of electoral votes this is not an issue, but in states such as California it is a major issue.

The winner of California will receive 55 electoral votes. The Democratic candidate ALWAYS wins California. Candidates know this and only come to California to raise money, not to ask for our votes. In the 2004 presidential election President Bush received 44% of the votes in California and received 0 electoral votes for it.

After reading this I wondered if the outcome of the 2004 election would be any different if the electoral college was not a ‘winner take all’ but based on the percentage of votes received. For example, like I said in 2004 President Bush received 44% of the California vote, Senator Kerry received about 54%. If the votes were based on that percentage President Bush would have received 44 electoral votes, and Kerry 54 electoral votes. This is a huge difference!

I broke it down state by state by percentage to see if the outcome would change. The verdict: Bush still won, and all that it did was made the election closer.

There were very few states that the two candidates were not very close in percentage of vote, the difference makers were the big states.

If the electoral votes were based on percentage of actual vote, not ‘winner take all’ President Bush would have received 278 electoral votes, while Senator Kerry would have received 260. The candidate with 270 votes wins.

The actual results were: President Bush 286, Senator Kerry 252

So does this mean that the ‘winner take all’ system is best? NO. If the percentage system was in place during the 2004 election, the candidates would have campaigned far differently than they actually did. They know which states they will win or lose automatically, and spend their time accordingly in states that they can win. If they knew that they need to appeal to all voters, we would see vastly different campaigns, and the outcome would reflect much closer to what the voters actually want.

I strongly encourage all California voters to sign the petition at www.calcounts.com.