Saturday, August 30, 2008

A Serving of Gov. Palin, With a Side of Fiscal Responsibility...

Catchy title, eh? I think it might be a book soon. As many of you may know, my major is Political Science. So, for a moment, let's get scientific about politics. Many of you might not even care, which means you're not fulfilling one of your most American and responsible rights as a United States citizen.


The Convention

Hosted at the Pepsi center, and then Mile High Stadium, the Democrats were just that - high. Did Hilary really think she was fooling anybody when she said "Barack Obama is my candidate."? She didn't fool me. No matter how many times Hilary says she is on board with Barack Obama, she isn't. There is obviously underlying discomfort between the two - why wouldn't he have picked her for his Vice President if he respects her so much?
Bill Clinton's speech was simply ridiculous. I don't think I've ever heard a speech geared to elect someone else that turned out to be so selfish. Clinton said so much about himself and his own policies, and so little about Barack's. He spoke about a balanced budget, and he did balance the budget - there's no denying that. However, he did it by cutting the U.S. defense by so much that we hardly spent any money on military defense for this country. It took George W. many years to get the defense budget back to where we could actually fend off enemy intruders - God forbid that were to ever happen.


Obama's VP Pick

Barack Obama - Change We Can Believe In
I used to cringe every time I heard this little phrase. However, as I keep watching and watching, I realize it's just a political ploy. Obama is the same puppet having his strings pulled as anyone else in Washington. First off, his major sponsor is AT&T. I don't know if anyone follows AT&T, but they were just pardoned for committing illegal acts. You see, under the Patriot Act, AT&T monitors your phone calls - every single one. They sit in the room and listen to conversations of Americans to see what's going on. Is this really right? Is this sense of "guilty until proven innocent" really what the founding fathers intended when they drafted the Constitution?
Back to Obama's VP pick. Joe Biden is experienced. He brings a lifetime of experience to Barack Obama's campaign. This is the same experience that Obama claims is bad for Washington. If Obama is running on the theory that Washington is broken and it needs to be fixed, why would he pick the 4th most senior member of the Senate as his running mate? Joe Biden has been there far longer than almost every Senator, leaving him directly accountable for what's happening in Washington.

Joe Biden voted for the war in Iraq.

Joe Biden is a major stockholder in MBNA, one of the biggest and wealthiest banking systems in the U.S.

Joe Biden can use his own words against himself, "That's not change, that's more of the same."


Gaining Traction

John McCain has pushed all the right buttons in the past two weeks. This is not just coming as a McCain supporter, hear me out here.
Barack Obama's biggest strength is his ability to deliver a high caliber, people motivating speech. His speech at the DNC fell short of what most people expected of him. After the DNC, Obama recieved about an 8 point jump in the polls. This put him up on McCain 48% - 40%. This was the minimum amount that the Obama campaign hoped for. Usually the candidate jumps around 10% after their own convention in the polls. The day after Obama made his speech at the convention, McCain revealed his VP pick, essentially stealing the spotlight from Obama's speech. The media had no chance to talk about his speech. This is a huge move on McCain's part.


The Wild Card

A little known candidate from Alaska. Gov. Sarah Palin brings with her a strong track record - albeit short. Her fiscal responsibility has left her well known for "cutting the fat" by limiting ear marks on bills passed through legislature. Her pro-life beliefs back John McCain 100%. Little is known about Palin so far, but I do know this - she's a woman. Try as we might, we will never stop strong feelings from many women voters out there. Many women went to the polls for Hilary Clinton for that very reason alone - they wanted to see a woman in that seat. Now, however, the closest we can get to having a woman in office is having one as Vice President. Voting should never come down to whether the candidate is black, white, man, or woman - but polls show that it sometimes does. I think McCain sewed up many bitter Hilary Clinton supporters with his choice of a female for VP.

Whether it's McCain or Obama, we're making history this election season. I encourage everyone to get active, learn about the candidates. Don't listen to the media, they only give you their side of the story. Now, I realize I was extremely biased in my little ramble session - that was the point. In a world full of liberal journalists, we have to fight back.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That was a well calculated move by the republican marketing department (that is what will determine the winner of this election - the best marketing department) by announcing the VP candidate the day after Obama's speech. And then to announce a woman as his running mate. Shrewd. The republican marketing department took the steam right out of the democratic freight train. The dems have to be careful where they go with this election now. They can't use the gender card and they need to be real careful about the experience card too.

So far I like what I see with his pick. I like her conservative values, she will make McCain look liberal. She will also put the unions in a tough spot since she was once a union member and her husband is still a union member. And we haven't even got to her family values, special needs child and the son in the military yet.

This will turn out to be a great pick and one that turned the election. This will certainly be the most interesting election I have ever seen.

carriegel said...

interesting post.

i thought mccain's timing and pick were brilliant. it took the wind right out of the democrat's sails. everyone from talk radio to the barbershops was buzzing about it. obama's speech was old news.

i thought obama hit a home run with his speech. he didn't hit it out of the park like king did 44 years earlier with his i have a dream speech but i really didn't expect him too.

i have no clue who i will be voting for this fall. my pocket book or obama's promise of change.

could be one of the most interesting elections in years this fall.

Unknown said...

When can we expect to see your CMU full season football predictions? You know the team with the Hiesman candidate.

jporterGOP said...

i'm too busy with homework tonight. i almost didn't have time to watch my boy fred thompson energize the conservative base tonight! woo!