The polls right now are volatile. They change radically from day to day. That means there is a large part of the people that have not made up their mind on who to vote for. I read on Hugh Hewitt that the number of undecided voters is about 18. That is a lot of undecided voters.

The undecided voters want to make a change from George Bush. We have had 8 years of George Bush and the media has drummed it into everyone’s mind that even one more second of a George Bush term would be unacceptable. In looking at the candidates they see two different choices.

Barack Obama is an unknown factor. Even though the main stream media has been building him up for the last two years, voters do not know much about him. That is because there are large parts of his background where the main stream media will not go. We are still unsure of where he stands on a lot of the issues. The Democrat party has put out a lot of white papers that say what the Democrat party wants us to be, but Barack Obama has been very vague about what he wants. It does not matter much what the Democrat party wants once Barack Obama gets into the White House. He would be calling the shots and the Democrats would line up behind him.

John McCain, on the other hand, is well known. He has been around for a long time. His big problem is that he is a Republican like George Bush. I think that McCain has effectively defined himself differently than George Bush. That should help. The economic problems right now are playing into the hands of Obama and hurting McCain. It is easy to lay the blame for this at the hands of Bush. He is the President and the President gets the blame for everything that goes wrong.

Unfortunately, the truth is not that Bush is at fault. George Bush and the Republicans tried to reform the mortgage industry in 2003 but were stopped by the Democrats who said there was no problem. The Republicans also warned of the crisis in 2004 and 2005, again they were stopped from doing anything by the Democrats in Congress. Also, the reason this miss is so bad at all is the fact that the Democrats saw an opportunity to try social engineering without any danger. So, the Democrats passed bills that required the lenders to give loans to people who could not pay them back. We are now reaping the problem that the Democrats put into play years ago.

Both sides have an opportunity to take advantage of this “crisis”. Obama has to keep the focus on the Republicans as the problem. McCain can come in as the fiscal conservative and be the savior of the system with minimal governmental input. That would be the way for McCain to win this election. If McCain plays this right, he can cement his fiscal conservative credentials and blow Obama out of the water. Sarah Palin can continue to pile on during the Vice Presidential debate over the big spender Joe Biden. Right now, it is McCain’s election to lose.

The financial crisis hit a week or so ago and I have been reluctant to write much about it. There are a number of reasons for that. First is that I am not much of a financial whiz. I get by and know some about insurance and real estate as I passed exams to be licensed in both. My knowledge is basically at the local level where the individuals interact with the insurance or real estate, not the big behind the scenes deals that are involved in this financial crisis.

Second, a Republican President and his Treasury Secretary are proposing things that do not sit well with me and I had to find out more about what they wanted to do. My natural instinct in this mess was to say, “Let the companies fail and let the chips fall where they may”. That may sound harsh, but all financial institutions involve some risk. Things fail all the time. Stocks go up and stocks go down. People make millions and people lose their shirt. That is the way capitalism works. My instincts told me that this is what should happen in this case. I was being told that this case was different and if something was not done disaster would occur.

The details are now coming out about what the Treasury Secretary wants the Congress to authorize. It boils down to a $700 billion blank check to do whatever he/she deems necessary. There would be no control over how the money was spent and no way to stop the Treasury Secretary from doing something he wanted to do. It specifically says that the decisions by the Secretary cannot be reviewed by any court or commission. I do not like the sound of that one. Nobody should ever have complete control over that amount of money with no oversight. Everyone that handles money should have someone looking over their shoulder to make sure that their decisions are correct and in the best interests of the people. This takes off all those controls.

The bill also tells Wall Street that they can go ahead and do fraudulent deals; the government will take care of you when it goes belly up. That takes the risk factor out of the equation. Wall Street speculators will have all of the profit to gain and none of the risk. Think about the possibility of fraudulent deals that would be done to have the government take care of their loss. That is also something that just does not sit well with me.

Having my money on the hook to bail out people who knew what the risk was just seems wrong. The people that were involved in these deals should be made to feel some of the heat from the problems associated with the deals. I can see buying the debt after the people involved with the deal absorb the loss, first. The way this proposal seems to be written, the government assumes all of the loss. I understand that the government will purchase the notes at par (value of the note). Then, assume any loss in value after purchase. The notes should be purchased at current market prices, after the loss is already assumed by the company and/or the individuals involved. That would make me feel better about buying up all these notes. It would also save the government millions of dollars, probably even billions of dollars.

The people that were involved in buying and selling these fraudulent securities should be made to pay some price. I am not sure what the penalties should be, but each person involved should have some sort of a penalty given out. The owners and/or CEO’s of the companies are ultimately responsible for what went on under their watch. They should pay the biggest penalties, like a permanent loss of license and a large fine, maybe even jail time. The smaller operators that handled the day-to-day operations that allowed these fraudulent transactions to be made should lose their license for a short time. This would teach everyone involved that dealing in fraudulent securities is something that will hurt their pocketbook. But, there should be penalties for all involved.

I am not trying to be harsh. I am just trying to mete out justice. If I was dealing in fraudulent securities as an insurance agent or real estate agent, I could go to jail or lose my license or both. Why shouldn’t the big players have the same penalties over their head? I really do not care whether the person is a big donor to the Republican or Democrat parties or both parties. I do not care how rich or poor the person is. If I as a local person was involved in fraudulent deals, I would pay dearly. They should pay dearly for doing the same thing, only worse.

Should the government bail out these companies? I really am not sure of the overall answer to the question. I think the companies should be allowed to fail. If that would lead to financial ruin for the entire country, I would have to reconsider my previous statement. I do not believe that a failure of one or more of these large companies would destroy the American economy. I believe that Americans would respond with newer and better ways of doing business. Bailing out these failed companies will just reward failure and lead to continued failure in the banking business.

I agree with many Republican lawmakers that if this big bailout goes through, we need to start on a way to finance it. We need to push for drilling in ANWR and the east coast and the west coast on the continental shelf. The increased oil income would go a long way to pay for the cost of this bloated bill. With this increased oil income, we should also push for increased use of nuclear power. This would help us pay for the cost by decreasing our use of foreign oil and keep that money at home to pay for the costs of this bill.

The Democrats are trying to sneak through bailouts of their favorite groups. That is positively the wrong thing to do. If those things get put in the bill, the bill should be vetoed no matter what would happen to the companies involved. Democrats would have only one reason to put those companies in the bill and that is to make us more dependent on government. We need to wean us away from government.

Over the weekend, the Arizona Republic printed a story about the Western Governor’s climate initiative. It is a proposal to attack “global warming”. There were numerous errors in the report. The biggest of which is the fact that global warming is not, repeat not, occurring.

The earth has for millions of years warmed and cooled on a regular basis. There have been times when it has been warmer than today and there have been times when it has been cooler than today. Some times when it was warmer than today were when the dinosaurs roamed the earth and when the giant mammals were around. Both of those periods of history were prior to any man being on the earth, so man had nothing to do with the fact that the climate was warmer than it is today. During the time man has been on the earth it has been warmer and cooler than today. It was warmer than today during the middle ages. That is what allowed the Renaissance. The people had enough food to start to do things other than agriculture. There were settlements in Greenland for 300 years. Those settlements would not be possible today, without importing food. During the Middle Ages man was around. But, the technology was so primitive that it could not have contributed to causing it to warm up.

There have been times when it has been cooler than today, most commonly during ice ages. Man was not around for most of those. During the last ice age, man was around and was not even modern humans, yet. There was a “little ice age” that occurred between about 1600 and 1860. This could not have been caused by man as the technology available during most of the time was primitive and not able to produce carbon emissions or any other emissions on a large enough scale.

As an example to show how silly the argument that man is the cause of global warming, let us give you an assignment. The assignment is to raise the temperature of the earth one degree centigrade. How would you do it? You have complete control of all industrial output of all countries on earth. If you removed all controls on emissions, you could not put out enough of any pollutant to raise the temperature one degree centigrade. One active volcano puts out more pollutants than all human activity put together. There are usually a hundred or so volcanoes active at any single point in time. That means volcanoes alone are putting out over 100 times the pollutants as humans. So, if you decided that you wanted to lower the temperature by reducing emissions and stopped all emissions, you would still have 99%+ of the emissions still being produced each year. In other words, you would have no control over the environment.

Al Gore and his followers say that carbon dioxide emissions are the cause of global warming. First, carbon dioxide makes up 0.003% of the atmosphere. That means that something that is almost microscopic in size is making a major change, I somehow do not believe that is possible. Second, plants use carbon dioxide to produce food for us. Plants can use up to 6% carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We are nowhere near the capacity of the plants to use the carbon dioxide that is available. If carbon dioxide got above 6% then we might have a problem, but we would sure have a lot of food production.

The biggest thing in whether the temperature goes up or down is water vapor. Since people do not control water vapor Al Gore and his minions do not want us to even know about water vapor, much less consider it as a possible source. The other big source in whether the temperature goes up or down is sun spots. If there are a lot of sun spots, the sun is hot and our temperature goes up. If there are few to no sun spots, the temperature goes down. The last report I heard was that we have had a series of no sun spot activity on the sun. That means our temperature should go down, and guess what, it has.

This report in the paper made it sound like global warming is a fact. It is not a fact it is a fallacy. They made it sound like the earth is getting hotter, it is getting cooler. They said we should do all sorts of things that would destroy our economy in order to stop the earth from warming up. All we have to do to stop the earth from warming up is keep doing what we have been doing. The earth is getting cooler. The last year in which the temperature was going up or staying the same was 1998. My granddaughter was born in 1999. She has lived her entire life without experiencing a year of the temperature going up. She may live her entire life without it happening. In 3-5 years it will be so obvious that even the global warming people will have to admit it. They will insist that they were sure it would get cooler all along and that we have to destroy our economy in order to stop global cooling. You just wait and see. I can hardly wait. It should happen some time in the next 3-5 years.

The financial markets are in turmoil. The government is taking over financial institutions at a breathtaking rate. The mortgage market is in the tank. It sounds like a disaster movie. The Democrats are ecstatic over the prospects of a terrible economy giving them the Presidency and the Congress. If the public is asleep, that just might happen. But, if the public is alert at all, they will realize who got them in this mess and turn them out of office. That will spell disaster for the Democrats.

What do I mean that if people realize who got them in this mess they will vote Democrats out of office? What got us in this mess is government regulations. When the government stayed out of the mortgage market, everything worked well and the mortgage market was extremely stable. Then, the Democrat party started talking about banks redlining certain areas. Those areas were those with very poor repayment histories. The Democrats passed legislation requiring that banks loan money in all areas and to people who do not have good credit histories. The banks knew what would happen from the start. If you loan money to people with poor credit histories, you get poor repayment of home loans. If you get poor repayment of home loans, you get foreclosures. If you get foreclosures you get bank failures. That is exactly what has happened.

What is the solution to the mortgage mess? Less government regulation will get us out of the mortgage mess. Of course, it will also mean we will be back to not loaning money in areas with poor credit histories. Those areas are almost exclusively minority population groups.

People have to make a choice: do they want banks that are solvent or do they want everyone to get a loan regardless of their credit histories? That is the $64,000 question. The answer to that question will tell us where our country will go in the future. If we go the solvent bank route, America will be great for a long time. If we go the “everyone gets a loan” route, there will not be an America for my grandchildren to inherit. This election will determine which America will inherit the future. John McCain will try to give us the solvent bank future. Barack 0bama will give us the no America future.

Democrats are crying that the problem is lack of regulation that caused the problems with the banks. That is not the problem. The problem is loaning money to people who cannot pay back the loan in the first place. Then the banks consolidated these bad loans together and called them good loans. They sold these bad loans that they called good loans and people are losing their shirts. It is easy to see what happened. I can see it and I know little to nothing about economics.

Who will be the best at reforming the Washington mess? Let’s look at the candidates and see who has a track record on these issues. Barack 0bama has been in the Senate only three years and has received more loans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any other Senator other than the Democrat chair of the committee that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That chair would be Chris Dodd of Connecticut. Joe Biden is high up on that list also. They are part of the problem. On the other hand, John McCain has not received any loans from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Two years ago, John McCain warned of just an event taking place like we are seeing today. Nobody acted on the warning. John McCain would be part of the solution, if given a chance. Sarah Palin has not been in Washington and is not on the list at all.

What is the Democrat controlled Congress doing about our economic mess and our energy problem? Nothing! They are adjourning until after the election. They could not come up with any solutions, so voted to go on recess until after the elections are over. This is the kind of leadership we would be subject to if Democrats are voted into office in Congressional races. They would ignore or run away from major issues and problems. Then, they would blame everything on the Republicans that are trying to get things done and solve the real problems facing the country.

I hope that people are looking at what is going on with the Democrat controlled Congress. It is the least productive Congress since the “Do-Nothing” Congress of 1948. Harry Truman ran against the “Do-Nothing” Congress and won. Our current Congress is only interested in blaming President Bush for everything under the Sun. When faced with issues that require them to act, they adjourn and go on vacation. I hope the public is watching and learning from the experience. Voters in Democrat controlled Districts are usually asleep at the switch. Of course, they usually vote in numbers that exceed living voters, but only Republicans commit voter fraud. If Republicans tried to commit voter fraud, it would not succeed because they would bungle it horribly. Only the Democrats have perfected the way to steal the election without being caught.

In my email this morning, I received a message. The message states that on October 5, Joe Biden will step down as the VP candidate for the Democrat party stating health problems. The health problem that will sideline Mr. Biden will be an aneurism. This will occur just after the Vice Presidential debates on October 2. When Mr. Biden announces his decision to step down, Mrs. Bill Clinton will be appointed to replace Joe Biden on the ticket.

I do not know if I believe the rumor. There are many reasons not to believe the rumor. First, any campaign that replaces the VP candidate usually loses in the election. Second, Joe Biden is a very vain individual and would be unlikely to admit a fault if it existed. Third, how could this rumor be so specific about what will happen this early?

That the rumor is out there this much before the proposed announcement date is bad news for the Democrats. It shows that the announcement is a lie, but what else is expected from Democrats? Changing VP candidates with a month to go in the campaign is not the way to win elections. If they were going to make a change, they should make a change now. That would give them two more weeks of campaigning for the ticket that they want elected.

Joe Biden is talking for the campaign right now. If he is not going to be the VP candidate, he should be replaced so that whoever will be the candidate can speak for the campaign. Joe Biden is known for shooting off his mouth and saying things that everyone on his team regrets. Today he said that the Democrats plan on raising taxes on everyone who makes more than $250,000 per year. He said it was a way to show your patriotism by paying higher taxes. This is the kind of thing that Joe Biden does that will sink a ticket very quickly. If he is not going to be the Vice Presidential candidate, I would recommend getting him off the ticket before he does irreparable harm to the ticket.

What would a change do to the race? Sarah Palin has energized Republicans like no other candidate in recent memory. She has energized even the most right wing Republican to go out and vote Republican. She has energized all parts of the religious right, no matter what their particular religion is. Other candidates somehow energized different segments of that base, she gets all of it. That support will not evaporate. In fact, with Mrs. Clinton in the race that support will intensify. The difference Mrs. Clinton will make will be on Democrat women. Those are women who are moving to McCain/Palin to vote for a woman. If 0bama gives them a chance to vote for a woman, most would stay with the Democrats. Many would see through this scenario and realize what it is. The replacement of one candidate with another is just a way to help bail out a sinking ship. Few people like to stay on a sinking ship.

The interesting thing about the timing of this announcement is that it is scheduled for just after the Vice Presidential debate. That way Mrs. Bill Clinton could not be made to look like a fool by another woman. That is probably why they are waiting. The Democrats would not want to have people compare Mrs. Clinton to an accomplished woman. That would show that she did not rise to political heights on her own. Mrs. Clinton got to where she is because she was married to a noted philanderer, Bill Clinton, the former President. Without him, she would be some hack lawyer in some third rate law firm as she has no real talent.

All in all, I think this attempt to stop the massive leaking in ship 0bama will be like all his attempts to fix problems, a failure. 0bama does not understand what the problem is, so he cannot fix the problem. Putting a woman in as a Vice Presidential candidate now, is not going to solve his problems. Not selecting Mrs. Clinton when he had the chance was when he made the serious error that will cost him the Presidency. This will be seen for the cheap political trick that it really is.

I believe that if enough of us talk about the plan to replace Joe Biden with Mrs. Clinton on October 5, it will not happen. If this plan has any chance at success, it has to be believed by most of the American public. If most of the American public knows that it is going to happen, then the trick will backfire and less people will vote for him. It would be a real gamble to make the change. My best guess is that because of the advanced publicity it will not fly.

There was an allegation that Barack 0bama tried to get Iraq to stop troop drawdowns until after the election. This allegation was made by an Iraqi. After they were made, the 0bama campaign did its usual attempt at a denial by trying to disparage the author instead of denying the charges. That makes one think that the charges probably have some truth to them.

If there is truth to the story that Barack was negotiating with Iraq before he was President that could constitute an act of treason. Any American that negotiates with a foreign government without the permission of the current elected administration is guilty of crimes against the country. At a minimum, the passport of the individual should be taken away so that they cannot leave the country. The problem is that this administration is very lax on what it allows Democrats to do. Nancy Pelosi went and negotiated with Syria without permission and nothing was done. That also was an act bordering on treason. When she got back, nothing was done.

In attempting to deny the charge, the 0bama campaign tried to deflect the charge by bringing up a couple of other pieces of information, then denying them. They then went after the author of the article that spilled the beans on the meeting between Barack 0bama and Iraqi officials. Since 0bama was way ahead in the polls at the time, the Iraqi officials listened and endorsed 0bama’s ideas. The campaign situation has changed and 0bama and McCain are tied in the polls. This has caused the Iraqi’s to change their opinion on 0bama’s ideas on American troop withdrawals.

After looking at the “denial” from the 0bama campaign, they basically confirmed the essence of the allegations in the article. We all know that 0bama did meet with Iraqi officials when he was in Iraq. This article is just the first of the leaks on what was discussed in that meeting.

Barack is going around acting like he is President. On his world-wide tour he even had his seat on the plane monogrammed with the title: President. There is something wrong with a candidate that thinks he has the election so in the bag that he presumes to take the title of President months before the election is even held. He even met with leaders of foreign countries as if he was President of the United States. All of this with a campaign plane that had the American flag removed. There is something wrong with that picture.

This revelation should disqualify Barack 0bama from being President of the United States. If the information gets out to the general public and the general public understands what happened, then he is finished as a candidate. Unfortunately, too many people are voting for him because he is black. The governor of Kansas said just that yesterday. If a person of any other race was running on his resume, they would have been out of the race a long time ago. He is still in the race because he is articulate and he is black. There is no other reason. People cannot tell anyone what he has accomplished, which is nothing. The only thing he has accomplished is defeating Mrs. Bill Clinton in the primary elections. That is an accomplishment that he should wear as a badge of honor. Other than that, he is in trouble if you ask anybody what he has done.

If you ask anybody what he will do, you will get answers all over the place. Nobody really knows what he wants to do. There are a lot of papers out that say the Democrat party is for this or that. But, 0bama has not said much about what he plans to do to destroy the country. All he will talk about is hope and change. Then, people project on his hope and change message whatever they want to hear. I project that he wants to return to living by the Constitution of the United States. Then, I remember that he is a Democrat and that would never happen with a Democrat in office. I think you get the point. People put on him whatever they want a President to do. They really do not know what 0bama will do when he becomes President. There are clues out there if you look. People that follow him do not look for the clues; they only hear hope and change.

The devastating claim that Barack 0bama negotiated with Iraq has not really been denied by the campaign. That is enough to disqualify him from being President. Will anybody look to see the truth? I doubt that it will happen. Too many people are too starry eyed to see the truth. If people fail to see what this man really is, we could be in for real trouble in the next four years.

This morning on the Mike Gallagher show, I heard him interview Michelle Phillips. Her latest book is, “Londonistan”. It is a book about how England is ceasing to be England because of the number of Muslims that have immigrated and the lack of resistance by the English people.

In the interview with Michelle, they brought out some interesting facts about “Community Organizers”. Michelle had done research on the community organizing in Chicago and what involvement Barack Obama may have had. We have little direct information on exactly what he did as a community organizer, but we have some information on what organizations he was with.

First a little history of community organizing in Chicago is in order. Saul Alinsky is generally considered the father of community organizing in Chicago. Saul Alinsky was a communist who believed that the workers needed to be organized to defeat the powerful. To organize the workers, you had to find workers who were angry about something and organize them to some banner. Then you can work to expand those beginnings. Saul Alinsky started two groups, one of which was ACORN. ACORN is one of the groups that Barack Obama worked for in his community organizing time in Chicago. Saul Alinsky died in 1972 so there is no evidence that Barack Obama ever met Saul Alinsky. Alinsky did write a book called, “Rules for Radicals”. In the book he writes the steps necessary to take over the country. Many leaders of the Democrat party follow in the footsteps of Saul Alinsky and his “Rules for Radicals”.

During his time in Chicago, Saul Alinsky also worked with the Weatherman Underground. He taught them how to be a terrorist group. The leaders of the Weatherman Underground were: Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dorhn. After the Weatherman Underground broke up and the government botched prosecution of the Weathermen, Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dorhn got married. Ayers and Dorhn are college professors in Chicago. She teaches law and he teaches English. A neighbor down the street is: Barack and Michelle Obama.

After Barack left school and went to work in Chicago, he started working for ACORN. After working for ACORN, he started working for a law firm that specialized in low income housing. Barack was asked to serve as a Chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge Foundation, started by Bill Ayers. They gave out about $50 million to groups in Chicago like: Father Pfleger, Jeremiah Wright and others.

When Barack Obama wanted to start a political campaign, his first fund raiser was held at the home of Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dorhn. He received a lot of the legwork for his campaign from the groups that he supported with funds from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge Foundation; Father Pfleger, Jeremiah Wright and their followers.

Barack Obama has followed the model set out by Saul Alinsky in his book. The only modification to that model was the inclusion of the black separation theology preached by Jeremiah Wright. In the campaign for President, the black separation theology has been down played. If you look you can still see dim outlines of the black separation theology in his general philosophy. You see the typical Democrat tax and spend philosophy that is prominent, but in the background is the black separation theology.

All of this information about Barack Obama is easily obtained. The main stream media could find this out if they spent even 5 minutes investigating Obama’s background. They will never do this research because they want him elected President. That is obvious and the whole world can see it. Unfortunately, the main stream media cannot see that everyone sees their bias. The main stream media believes that everyone thinks of them as non-biased and impartial.

One other question that has bothered me for a few weeks is: Why are there no women in Barack Obama’s inner circle? John McCain has lots of women in leadership positions, including Vice President. Barack Obama has none. This is just a thought to throw out on the waters and hope for a return some day.

Hurricane Ivan roared into Texas and up into the middle of the country leaving wreckage in its wake. It damaged a few drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and the refineries will be closed for a few more days. This highlights the problem we have in this country with drilling and with refining.

First with drilling, having a few drilling rigs out of commission for a while will cause severe problems in producing enough oil for the country. If we had oil being produced on the east coast, the west coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, we would not have a problem with a few drilling rigs being out of commission for a while. The Democrats are talking up their drilling plan as the plan to end our dependence on foreign oil. The only problem with their plan is it leaves out the areas where we know the biggest oil reserves are. That is like knowing that there is a thick vein of gold in mountain A, but you leave it out of your plans to dig for gold. You may still find gold, but you could find more gold and find it quicker if you included mountain A in your plans. That is the problem with the Democrat plan. They leave out the areas around Florida and California. Both areas are known to have extremely large amounts of oil. Leaving them out is not good planning. Hopefully, the Republicans in Congress will be able to put some language into any drilling bill that would authorize drilling where there are known oil reserves.

Second, refining capacity is severely cramped in this country. The refining capacity has barely kept up with demand. The biggest reason for this is the fact that there has not been a new refinery built in the US in over 30 years. They have enlarged the capacity and efficiency of the refineries we do have, but no new ones. The other problem with the refining in this country is that the refining is all done in one region of the country. That means when we have a Hurricane like Ike, we have a problem with refining capacity. The refineries will be offline for about a week to ten days. That is much too long when the refineries barely keep up with demand as it is. This will put them behind the proverbial eight ball for the near future. We need to increase our refining capacity in more areas than the Gulf Coast area of Texas and Louisiana. Smaller refineries spread around the country would be a wonderful addition to our use of petroleum.

The other problem the Gulf Coast people now have is a loss of electricity. The Gulf Coast areas use primarily oil fueled electric power plants. If we had nuclear power plants spread around the country, the power grid would able to withstand a dip from one sector. Right now, if all power lines to the Gulf Coast region were restored there would not be enough power. We need to increase our output of electricity. The most environmentally friendly way to do that is to build nuclear power plants. They produce cheap clean electricity. We do not have enough of these. We have plenty of the coal and oil power plants; we need clean, nuclear plants.

One other thing that has not been noted during this natural disaster along the Gulf Coast is the lack of oil spills. Even though some oil drilling platforms were damaged, no oil leaked from any platform in the entire Gulf of Mexico. That says something for the technology that we use today. If any oil had leaked from any of the platforms, you can bet that the news media would have had a field day. Since they did not report anything about the oil platforms, other than that some were damaged, we can assume that the current platforms worked well.

Unfortunately for the country, the message will have completely passed the Democrats by. They will completely miss the message that Ike left with us. The other thing to note is that there is no big problem like there was in New Orleans and Louisiana when Katrina hit. There are Republican Governors in Texas and Louisiana now. They handled the situation quickly and efficiently. There are bound to have been problems, there were people involved. But, overall things worked very well. It tells the country if you want to be prepared for problems ahead, do not elect a Democrat.

There is a sure sign that the Democrats believe that they are in trouble. They are floating a trial balloon to see if changing from Joe Biden to Mrs. Clinton would change their chances. Joe Biden started it all by saying that Mrs. Clinton would be a better choice for VP.

Changing VP candidates in the middle of a race is always bad politics. Every time it has occurred the party that did it lost the election. Unless there is a death, it is better to stay with the pick you made than change to another pick. It shows that you are desperate and in trouble. In Joe Biden’s case, he has not hurt the chances of the Democrats winning the election. He just has not helped in overcoming the Palin bounce that McCain received. If McCain had picked Romney or Pawlenty, we would not be talking about changing Joe Biden for Mrs. Clinton. As much as I like Romney, he would not have helped the ticket as much as Sarah Palin has helped the ticket. I am not sure anyone could have done as much.

The last time a major party changed VP candidates in the middle of a race was in 1972. McGovern had selected the Senator from Missouri, who bowed out after being nominated because he had received treatment for mental health. McGovern then went on to a crushing defeat at the hands of Richard Nixon. No-one has talked about changing VP candidates until now. They really must feel that they are in trouble to consider changing VP candidates.

If they change VP candidates they have to come up with some story on why Joe Biden was removed from the ticket. Joe Biden is very self-centered. He has hair plugs and an extremely white perfect smile. He takes excellent care of himself. They cannot use the excuse that he is in ill health; nobody would believe that for an instant. The only story people might buy would be that his wife is ill. The conservative media would be all over that one to check to insure that she really had an illness. If the Democrats just cooked up an illness as an excuse to get Joe Biden off the ticket, it would destroy any chance of a Democrat victory in November. They could not conceal that for two months. They could not say that Barack Obama made a mistake. They are promoting Obama as Jesus. Jesus would not make a mistake; therefore Obama cannot make a mistake like that.

If you wonder where I got the Obama is Jesus reference, a Tennessee member of the House of Representatives got up in the House and said that Jesus was a community organizer and Pilate was a Governor. Obviously referring to the fact that many on the left believe that Obama is the second coming. There are numerous references on the left to the fact that they believe that Barack Obama is the Messiah. That is why conservative talk show hosts refer to him as the dalibama, Obamamessiah, and other biblically associated names.

The Democrats are caught between a rock and a hard place. They want to replace Joe Biden, but have no viable option. They are falling further behind almost every day. Barack Obama is making more mistakes as he tries to stop the campaign from taking on water. Joe Biden is being the Joe Biden that all Republicans hoped he would be when he was selected. Democrat congressional candidates are starting to distance themselves from Barack Obama. This is especially true if the candidate is in a Republican leaning area or one that is typically competitive. All of these are signs of a campaign in real trouble. Changing VP candidates would be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It might look a little different, but the result will be the same.

Changing the Vice Presidential candidate is a sign of desperation. The Democrats should only pull that trigger if they feel a huge defeat coming on. It would not change the overall outcome, but might stop some of the loss. What I mean is instead of losing by 30 points; they would lose by 20 points. The second part of the equation is whether Mrs. Clinton would even want to be on the ticket. She wants this ticket to fail. If it fails, she gets another shot in 2012. If it wins, she has to wait until 2016. Time will have passed her by in 2016. She is reaching the upper end of when candidates usually win the Presidency now. If she had to wait 8 years, she would have a much more difficult time convincing voters that she was still relevant.

Sarah Palin had her first interview with the national news media yesterday. The interview was done by Charles Gibson of ABC News. It was a typical “gotcha” interview by a liberal news person on a conservative politician. It was also a tough interview with tough questions. If the news media asked the same tough questions to the liberal politicians, the public would have a much higher opinion of the national news media. Because they do not ask the same tough questions to liberal politicians, but give them softball questions, the public does not trust the news media to give them correct information.

How did Sarah do in the interview? She did an excellent job. She answered every question directly. What showed that the interview was a “gotcha” interview were the questions about the “Bush Doctrine”. As Dennis Prager explained on his radio show today, there are at least 5 things that could be considered the Bush Doctrine. So, when Sarah was asked if she agreed with the “Bush Doctrine”, she asked if Charles meant Bush’s World view. To a liberal that thinks that there is only one “Bush Doctrine”, that showed that she did not know what the “Bush Doctrine” was. To everyone else who knows that there is no defined “Bush Doctrine”, it showed that she was asking for a clarification. When she finally got the clarification from Gibson that he meant that if a country was going to invade the US, we would take pre-emptive action. She then said that if the intelligence indicated that we were about to be invaded, we should take immediate action. Her answer was direct and to the point. As Dennis Prager stated, the definition of “Bush Doctrine” that Charles Gibson used was also used as early as the ancient Greeks and probably before that. That means the “Bush Doctrine” as defined by Charles Gibson has existed for thousands of years before President Bush was even born.

The interview as aired by ABC News was choppy. The reason it was choppy was that ABC News edited it down. They have every right to edit the interview, but they did it in such a way to make Sarah Palin look bad. People see through the attempts by the news media to make conservatives look bad. People also take umbrage when people attack a conservative woman for no reason. The rules of chivalry and the mores of western society make it unseemly to hit the woman. If she puts herself in the ring to fight, she should expect to be hit. People will also accept fair hits on the woman. That means that attacks on things she has said would be legitimate attacks. Attacks on her family would be unfair attacks. In other words, things she has control over she is fair game. Things she has no control over should be off limits. Those areas are off limits when discussing liberal politicians of both sexes, why not a conservative woman as well.

The more the left hits Sarah Palin with these unfounded attacks, the more the public sees the left for what it is. People are flocking to the McCain/Palin ticket because they are disgusted at the disgraceful behavior of people that call themselves Democrats and the news media. This is causing more and more people to decide to vote Republican in this election. Just before I got to work, I heard a gentleman from Ohio who stated that he had voted Democrat in every election since he was 18. He is 63 now and has been a Union President. He is going to vote Republican and he is encouraging everyone he knows to vote Republican as well. People like that are going to make a huge difference in this election. I have a feeling that the election is not going to be as close as the Obama people want it to be.

Obama is showing that he is an empty suit. Without a teleprompter, he is lost. The Democrats got stars in their eyes early in the election cycle. When they started to wake up, it was too late to make a change in their Presidential pick. Mrs. Clinton would have been a much more difficult candidate to beat than Barack Obama. She has a stronger resume. She has been through the wars with her husband. Obama is a good speaker, he looks good and he is black. Other than that, there is nothing to help people want to vote for him. His Vice Presidential pick is even saying that Barack made a mistake picking him. That is not good when you are trying to encourage people to pick you because you are the best candidate for the Presidency.

Sarah Palin changed everything when she said yes to John McCain. It is telling that she did not even question whether she was qualified to be President. That speaks volumes on her confidence and leadership ability. All of that showed during the interview with Charles Gibson. If she does as well with the next round of interviews, she will help McCain win in a landslide. Liberals are trying to scare everybody by saying that if McCain dies in office we will have Sarah Palin as President. If that unfortunate event should occur, I have only one thing to say: BRING IT ON!

Cracks are appearing all over the Democrat team running for the Presidency. Yesterday, Joe Biden suggested that Mrs. Clinton would have been a better choice for Vice President than he was. That is really a way to build confidence in your Presidential pick by saying that he made a mistake by picking you. I think Joe Biden has been hit so hard so many times in the past two weeks that he does not know which way is up. His nickname is not slow Joe for nothing.

Slow Joe Biden also suggested that people who support stem cell research love special needs children more than people that support the pro-life position. That is a really stupid statement. He is saying that destroying a human being to save a human being is loving someone more than wanting that person to be born in the first place. What planet is he from? Allowing a life to live is the only true way to prove that you love someone. You cannot love someone who you do not allow to live. Killing one life to save another life does not sound like a good position to be in either.

Also, Barack Obama is still trying to dig himself out of the lipstick on a pig statement. He said that Sarah Palin was the lipstick and John McCain was the pig. That is still not digging himself out of the statement. Also, the Democrat National Committee has the lipstick on a pig reference on their website and definitely refers to Sarah Palin with the comment. Obama should just acknowledge that he said it and made a mistake. He should then apologize and all will be forgotten. By trying to dig yourself out of a hole, you usually dig yourself into a deeper hole.

Some people in Alaska have taken the pig statement and made it a positive for Sarah Palin. They held up a sign that said: “PIG=Palin is Great.” That was a big hit in Alaska and I assume it will show up at more Sarah Palin events in the future. All the time reminding people that Barack Obama tried to slander Sarah and lost.

When the Presidential candidate starts trying to run against the Vice Presidential candidate of the other party, the candidate is in trouble. Presidential candidates should duke it out at their level and leave the Vice Presidential candidates to duke it out. All candidates for Vice President try to bait the Presidential candidate of the other party into running against them. That assures their party of victory in November. Since Sarah Palin got Barack Obama to run against her without even firing a shot, she is obviously the victor in this contest.

With McCain/Palin pulling away or even in state after state, what does that do to the prospects of the Senate and Congressional candidates? Right now there is no polling that I have seen to support any position. But, my feeling is that as people start turning to a Republican at the top of the ticket and as the Senate and Congressional candidates support McCain/Palin, there should also be a surge toward the Senate and Congressional candidates as well. That means that the Republicans should pick up every Congressional seat that was traditionally Republican. That, in and of itself, should cause the Republicans to gain enough seats to almost take the House. If they pick off some traditionally close seats, the Republicans could take over the House. The Senate is a different matter entirely. At best, the Republicans could hope to break even in the Senate races. They took 22/33 races in 2006 and are defending far more seats. It is probably most likely that they will lose a seat or two if McCain/Palin wins a close race. If McCain/Palin wins big, the Republicans just might hold their seats. Which ones they win and which ones they lose might change a little, but the overall mix might remain about the same. If we get a Reagan type of landslide where McCain/Palin wins 49 states, all bets are off. The House would almost certainly be Republican and the Senate could be closer.

Things are looking up for McCain/Palin. The Democrats are in disarray and do not know what to do. That problem will not last for the next two months, but enjoy it while it lasts. The good news is that both Obama and Biden are walking gaffe machines without their Teleprompters in front of them. If they feel they are in trouble, they would be more likely to make more gaffes. As the time draws short, if the Democrats are polling badly in most states, look for a major gaffe fest coming from both Obama and Biden. I look forward to the debates as there are no Teleprompters. That puts Obama and Biden at a very distinct disadvantage. They also would have to make up ground on the McCain/Palin team. That would cause them to come up with gems that would haunt them the next day. I love this election since the conventions!

On the way to work today, I was listening to Dennis Prager. He was talking about the reference Barack Obama made to lipstick and a pig. For those unaware of what Barack Obama said, “If you put lipstick on a pig…it is still a pig.” Many people believe, including those in attendance at the event, that Barack Obama was referring to Sarah Palin. Why do people believe that? Sarah Palin said, “What is the difference between a Hockey Mom and a pit bull? (Pause) Lipstick!” The people that believe Obama was referring to Sarah Palin grab onto the lipstick comment as their proof.

Dennis Prager does not believe that Barack Obama intentionally made the connection between Sarah Palin and the pig like his audience did. Dennis does not believe that you intentionally come to an event and do something like that. I will give Dennis credit for that. Most people would not do something like that. But, Barack Obama has a history of doing junior high school prank stuff in talks when he is in trouble. When he was being pressed by Mrs. Clinton, he rubbed his face with his middle finger when he referred to her. That is a juvenile response. This reference is also a juvenile response, if true.

Joe Biden was also at an event yesterday (the same day the pig reference was made). He also made a lipstick comment when talking. Is that a coincidence? I do not think so. It sounds like collusion between the two candidates to put negative comments about Sarah Palin in veiled terms by referring to lipstick. That way they can deny that they were referring to her at all.

This just shows that the Democrat candidates are still rattled by the selection of Sarah Palin. I heard a clip of a liberal news person. She talked about Sarah Palin as if she came from some other planet. She had a baby shower for her fourth child at a gun range. She likes to hunt and fish. The person she interviewed said he had never seen her shoot anything, but she was comfortable around guns. He did make reference to the fact that she particularly enjoyed fishing. The news person sounded like a person that would do all of these things was the nearest thing to a redneck. Unfortunately for the news person, it describes a large section of the voting public.

The Obama/Biden team has a lot of private investigators looking into everything that Sarah Palin has done in Alaska. So far, they are only turning up things that endear her to the general public. The liberals think they are terrible things, but conservatives and moderates love it. Whenever they find someone who does not like what Sarah Palin has done, the person has usually been convicted of some crime that Sarah uncovered. They have been looking under every stone for three weeks and have found nothing. It looks like they are not going to find anything. The only possible thing that could hurt Sarah Palin is an investigation by a Democrat who is actively working to elect Obama President in Alaska. This report is due out just before the election. Since it is a highly partisan investigation it will undoubtedly contain some bombshells. After the bombshells are investigated they will turn out to be like those of Robert Earle in Texas, not worth the paper they are written on. Robert Earle’s investigations ended up charging people with crimes that were not crimes when the acts were committed. He got a lot of press when it was announced and he destroyed the political career of Tom Delay, but he also destroyed his career. I predict that similar things will happen with this investigation in Alaska. If it is released when the Democrats want it released, it will contain very damaging appearing material. It will be written to be as damaging as possible. After it is reviewed by an independent investigator, all charges will be dropped. But the damage to the country would have been done. That is very much what the Democrats hope will happen. Republicans in Alaska are asking that this Democrat operative be removed and an independent person be appointed.

This investigation is looking into the Governor’s involvement in the “Troopergate” scandal. That is where a State Trooper used a taser on his stepson and drove drunk in his official car and various other misdeeds. The Governor’s office, not the Governor, requested that this Trooper be terminated. The person in charge of the State Troopers denied the request. The person in charge was then moved to another job in the Alaska government. Governor Palin has denied having any involvement in this incident at all. She requested that the investigation be made to clear her and her office of any involvement. Democrats demanded that they appoint the investigator. That person was named before Sarah Palin was selected as Vice President. The date for release of the investigation was then set by the Democrat operatives just a few days before the November election.

If the Democrats have their way, a “scandal” will erupt just prior to the election. I believe that the Republicans have enough sway in the state to at least get the release date moved until after the election. Their request for an impartial investigator is reasonable. Any reasonable person can see that this is the best way to handle this sensitive situation. Unfortunately, Democrats are not reasonable people at this time. Most are unable to disconnect any negative comment about Barack Obama from racism. We shall see how this works out.

The Democrats are in some disarray. They did not take campaign financing because they believed that they could raise $100+ million in July, August, September and October. The Reports are in and they are falling further behind on their fund raising. They raised only $77 million in August. They had hoped to raise $400 million for the campaign and another $150 million for the congressional campaigns. They are going to fall way short of even the campaign goal. That means that Barack Obama is going to be spending time on fund raising while John McCain will be spending time campaigning. That gives McCain a huge advantage in targeting the locations that need his presence. Obama has to go where the money is and cannot worry about where he needs to campaign.

Sarah Palin has also thrown them off their game. On the surface, you would think that she is everything that they say they want. Unfortunately for them, she is a conservative. As a conservative, she has to be destroyed. Women cannot be allowed to stray from the plantation. They have to be taught a lesson when they stray away from the Democrat plantation where they also keep blacks and Hispanics.

Another thing has popped up in the last week, Barack Obama and his team just might be exhausted. They have been campaigning non-stop for President for almost two years. That has to take a toll on the candidate and the staff. John McCain had a period where he was down and had to look at his campaign. He started over with a completely new staff. His staff is decidedly fresher than the Obama staff. The crisp way that Obama handled things a year ago is gone. They are responding to things hysterically instead of with intelligence. There may be something to the exhausted rumor that has started in the last week. That is no way to start the sprint to the finish line. You want your team to be as fresh as possible in this final sprint.

The exhausted argument could be used to answer why Obama is making so many gaffes in unscripted occasions. He just does not seem to be as sharp as he was 12-18 months ago. Running for President is hard work. It takes a lot out of you to always be at the top of your game. You cannot make any mistakes if you are the candidate for President. If you do, they are magnified and broadcast to the world as proof that you are unfit. Too many gaffes and you are deemed unworthy by the people casting the deciding votes.

It is interesting that nobody is even looking at Joe Biden right now. People look at Obama, McCain and Palin. They listen to every word that those three make and analyze what they say. Biden is left out of the mix. My question is: why? If he is so qualified to be Vice President, shouldn’t people listen to what he says. But, the last thing he said was that the Democrats were going to try George W. Bush for crimes after they get elected. That is no way to show you are qualified to be Vice President. That has never happened in the history of the country and should not start now.

The polls are showing a definite shift towards McCain/Palin. The Democrats do not know how to handle it. Their first reaction is to deride the people choosing to vote for McCain/Palin as stupid. That does not endear them to the people that are making the choice. It makes the choice permanent and makes it almost impossible to dislodge them from that choice. The Democrats second instinct is to trash McCain/Palin with the most outrageous things they can think of. The more outrageous the better is the watchword. If something sticks, then McCain/Palin is destroyed. If nothing sticks, then you go back to the drawing board and come up with another plan.

Democrats with their backs against the wall can be humorous. They will do all sorts of wild things that show their true colors. They always accuse the Republicans of making them do these outrageous things. The Democrat kool-aid drinkers believe it every time. The American public does not drink the Democrat kool-aid regularly. As a result, they will tend not to believe the Democrats when they pull that trick.

In my opinion, if McCain/Palin play a smart campaign, the race is theirs to lose. They have the momentum and should be able to use that momentum to carry them to victory. I know that 24 hours is an eternity in politics, but the Democrats are starting to come unglued. That is always a good sign. That usually signals a good victory in the coming election. I only hope that the McCain/Palin ticket has enough coattails to bring in Republicans in the House and Senate. That would be a big upset if they win seats in the Senate instead of losing them. Democrats would be destroyed to have that happen. It can happen if people decide that Obama/Biden are also the same type of people that are running for the House or Senate. The Republicans should pick up some House seats as they lost some “safe” Republican seats, like the one just north of my district. But, it would be great to have at least one part of the legislative branch of government.

Over the weekend a lot happened to the political fortunes of the two parties. First, the polls indicate that the Democrats got almost no bounce from their convention (their second in a row) and the Republicans received a big bounce from their convention. The polls now have McCain somewhere between 3 and 10 points ahead of Barack Obama with less than two months to go. The Arizona Republic buried this news deep inside the first section. As they say in politics, a day is forever. Things will change back and forth in the next two months, but one thing is clear, Obama will not run away with the election. If Obama was going to run away with the election, he would be far ahead right now. McCain could win big, that remains to be seen. The Sarah Palin effect has yet to be analyzed. I think that when the story of the election is written, it will all turn on the selection of Sarah Palin as Vice President that turned the tide in the favor of McCain. The overreaction by the media helped cement Sarah Palin as the darling of the public.

Second, Barack Obama made another gaffe on a TV talk show yesterday. In talking about religion, he said, “…my Muslim religion.” That will confirm for many that Barack Obama is a closet Muslim. Others will now doubt that he really is a Christian. The saying goes that you cannot conceal a lie all of the time. Sooner or later the truth will come out in an unscripted comment. This could have been one of those times. Or Barack is trying to lure the McCain campaign into calling him a Muslim. He had stated earlier that the McCain campaign is trying to paint him as a Muslim and that it was not true. The McCain campaign shot back that they have never ever called him a Muslim. Obama has had to back off his statement that McCain called him a Muslim. This could be bait to get McCain to do so. I do not think that McCain will rise to take the bait. I think that they will just let this one fester on talk shows and in the blogs. That is where it needs to be discussed. The McCain campaign should focus on the issues, not on whether someone is a Muslim or not.

Third, it is also note worthy that the Republican convention was watched by more people than the Democrat convention. Also, McCain talked to more people than Obama talked to. Now the lead is only a few hundred thousand out of almost 40 million viewers, but that he was even close is news. Sarah Palin came in a close third about a million viewers below McCain and Obama.

Fourth, when you start looking at the polling in the different states you find some interesting facts. The most interesting is that McCain/Palin is only 9 points behind Obama/Biden. A couple of weeks ago that margin was close to 20 points. The selection of Sarah Palin seriously cut into the margin that Obama has in California. If McCain could take California, Obama would have no chance at being elected President. There are too many states that are reliable Republican states that give Republicans a fighting chance in every election. Republicans only have to take one or two swing states to win the election. Democrats have to have a series of events happen to take the election. The series of events do not seem to be happening for Obama.

My hope is that the tide that seems to be tending toward McCain/Palin continues. I have a feeling that it will. More and more people are seeing the media for what it has become the attack dog for the Democrat Party. As a result, people are turning to the alternate sources for their news and getting it from conservative voices. Once people get the truth about Obama/Biden they will not support them. That will continue the trend toward McCain. My current estimate for the Electoral College is about 300-240 for McCain. I may revise that again if California appears to be trending Republican.

On the way into work, I listened to the Mike Broomhead show on KFYI. In listening to the show, he gave me an idea on how John McCain could win the election in a landslide. If John McCain pledged to veto any bill that came to his desk with an earmark attached, he would transform the race. Talk about change in Washington. That would be a huge change. It might anger some of the Republican elite, but so what. It would endear him to the Republican base and almost all of the independents as well. McCain already has a reputation as someone who does not use earmarks. This would be entirely believable and the public would flock to McCain like you could not believe.

Barack Obama talks about change, change we can believe in. He never tells us what change he is talking about. So, how are we to believe it if he never tells us what changes he plans to make. Whenever he talks about what he plans to do, they are always bigger government. That is not the kind of change I can believe in or want. Bigger government means less freedom. Smaller government means more freedom. If Obama is peddling bigger government as change we can believe in, I want no part of it. I also think most of the American people would want no part of it, but they would have to understand exactly what he plans to do. That is the problem. Obama talks at length and you cannot find out anything he really said. He tries to have it both ways on all issues. That is impossible.

If John McCain transformed the race into changing Washington by eliminating earmarks, he could do it in an instant. His advisors would most likely tell him not to do this. Some of his Republican peers would tell him not to do this because they like to feed at the trough just like the Democrats. Now, John would have to sell it to the public on why this was a major change. It would not be a difficult sale, but he would have to do the sale. The primary reason to forego earmarks is because it would help restore fiscal responsibility to Washington. Washington politicians as a group have no fiscal discipline. Forcing them to put everything in through the front door would be a traumatic experience for the older hands. But, when they learned how to deal with a loss of earmarks they would have more fiscal discipline. That is because the public would be able to see who did what. No more hiding an earmark behind closed doors. Everything would have to be out in the open and above board. That would eliminate most, if not all, the earmark type projects.

In looking at the candidates, John McCain has not requested any earmarks in his 26 years in Congress. Sarah Palin has stood against earmarks in her two years as Governor of Alaska. In fact, her most famous attack against earmarks was the “bridge to nowhere”. Barack Obama has requested $750 million in three years. Joe Biden has requested billions in his 36 years in the Senate. The Democrats would not know what hit them. They would be completely on the defensive. They would have no defense and would have to try to change the debate to how many houses the candidates have or something like that.

Now, obviously that cannot be the only thing he runs on in the next two months. It would be one that would make the race very interesting. The public would have to believe it. The fact that both Republicans have records against earmarks would bolster the argument. The fact that both Democrats are heavy users of earmarks would work against them in the argument.

John McCain and Sarah Palin will probably win in any case. But, focusing the public on earmarks would enable McCain/Palin to cement the role of change agents. They could say we are going to change Washington this way. The Democrats would have to say, believe us. Nobody will believe someone when one side gives specifics and the other side does not. The side with specifics will always win that argument, even with most liberals (the ones that have not been infected by moveon.org).