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).

The conventions are over. The balloons are popped and the confetti has been cleaned up. The candidates have been nominated. Everything is now ready for the stretch run to November 4.

The media will play the contest between now and November 4 as a horse race. They will give us poll after poll of the national horse race. That national horse race poll is entirely useless when looking at Presidential elections. In looking at Presidential elections, you have to look at the individual races in all the 50 or 58 states, depending on which candidate you are talking about. The winner of the most electoral votes will win the election for President. The national polls that the news media gives us do not tell us how each candidate is playing in Surprise, Arizona or Greeley, Colorado. The only way to know that is to have a poll taken within the individual states. Those polls are taken and are tracked at politico.com. Before the conventions, Obama was up by about 273-267 or something like that.

With the infusion of energy in the McCain campaign by the selection of Sarah Palin, who knows how it will play on November 4. I am confident that McCain/Palin will defeat Obama/Biden by a comfortable margin. I have been wrong before, both ways. I have predicted Democrat victories that Republicans won and Republican victories that Democrats won.

Obama has run on his “change” idea for a long time. But for Obama, it is just talk. McCain and Palin emphasized that during the Republican convention. They stated that you cannot find one case where Obama worked to change anything at any time in his life. There are numerous cases of both McCain and Palin working to change where they were. Obama has no legislation with his name on it. McCain has many landmark pieces of legislation with his name on it. Gov. Palin worked to change the “good old boy” network in Alaska and accomplished her task. She made Alaska government more responsive to the people than it had been in many years. If you want change, look at the people that actually made change happen. Don’t look at someone who promises you change, but talks about expanding what is already there.

There are two major issues in this election. The first and most important is the security of this country. If you compare the experience between the two candidates for President, you find that one has worked to secure the country and the other has done nothing. If you look at the running mates, Biden has talked about surrendering in the war against Islamo-Fascism. Sarah Palin has not made many public statements about the war, but she did support deployment of the Alaska National Guard. She, at least, made an effort to secure the country, however small. Obama and Biden have talked about nothing except surrender since they were presented with the problem of Islamo-Fascism.

The second big issue is freedom. McCain and Palin are for reducing the size of government or at least stopping the growth of government. Obama and Biden are for massive expansion of the federal government. Every time you expand the government, you decrease your freedom. People generally want to be free to choose for themselves what to do. Obama and Biden want to be their fathers and tell people what to do with their lives. I do not want to be told what to do. I want the freedom to choose my doctor. Give me more freedom, not less. That means a smaller government at all levels. I am tired of government regulation.

There is a natural urge for security and Obama/Biden promise that security to the people. But, there is also a natural yearning to be free to choose things for yourself. The only way to get the second yearning is to vote for McCain/Palin. It remains to be seen how many real Americans there are left in this country. A real American does not like to be told what to do. A real American chafes under governmental authority. A real American would never vote for Obama/Biden because what they offer is snake oil. A real American would vote for freedom at home and strength against tyranny. To get that, a real American must vote for McCain/Palin.

Last night, we were treated to the future of the Republican Party. Sarah Palin talked at the Republican convention and did a fantastic job. She built up John McCain, gave a history of her rise in politics, told where she and John McCain want to take the country and also ripped into Barack Obama and Joe Biden. In other words, she hit all the right notes in her first big speech as a Vice-Presidential nominee.

As an avid sports fan, I am going to use an analogy in regards to Sarah Palin’s rise in politics. When Major League baseball teams have a player they want to groom, they start the player in a level they can handle. When ready, they move them up. When the player is ready to play in the Majors, they usually play them first before the home crowd to give them that little extra boost. Sarah’s rise is much like that. When she was a Hockey Mom and a PTA President, she was in the equivalent of the Rookie leagues in baseball. When she was a Mayor of Wasilla, she was in class A or AA ball in baseball. When she became Governor of Alaska, she was now in AAA ball. As a candidate for Vice President, she is now in the Major Leagues. Her first talk is before the home crowd at the Republican National Convention. Now, she will go on the road and face hostile crowds and difficult questions. She has shown she has the moxie to handle difficult situations and will continue to do so.

In today’s Arizona Republic, there is a picture of a woman holding up a sign with the words, GI John/Superwoman, written it. I loved the sign as it tells a good story.

The quote of the day at Lucianne.com is: “She was put on this earth to do two things: kill caribou and kick butt. She's all out of caribou.” I love that statement. It puts Sarah into perspective on what she will be doing for the next two months.

An interesting thing happened during her speech, the teleprompter stopped working for a time. Sarah never missed a beat. If that had happened to Barack Obama, he would have been reduced to trying to talk instead of talking. In Sarah Palin, we have someone who can communicate much better than the supposed master at communicating, Barack Obama. She talks like someone who is used to doing things. Obama talks like someone who likes to himself talk. Sarah talks directly to the listener, whether in person or at home. Barack talks to something that I am not sure even he knows what. Sarah’s speech will be talked about and remembered for weeks, if not years. Barack’s speeches are remembered for two hours or less. Sarah says things. Barack talks about talking about things.

One of my favorite lines in her talk is this, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.” That hits Barack Obama right between the eyes. Nobody knows what a community organizer does. Everybody knows what a Mayor does and everybody respects Mayors that get things done. Sarah Palin got things done as a Mayor of Wasilla. That is why they still love her in Wasilla.

Sarah also added this about people from small towns that Barack Obama talked about in San Francisco, “I might add that, in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they're listening and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening. No, we tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.” This should play well in the small towns all across America and hurt Barack Obama in those same small towns.

The best line of the night had to be: “What's the difference between a Hockey Mom and a Pit Bull? Lipstick." I love a pit bull with lipstick and Sarah Palin will deliver the goods for America. The Democrats were thinking that this was just another “beauty queen” (Miss Wasilla, 1984). They have much more to handle than they were bargaining for. Dennis Prager said that she should have requested 3 debates between her and Joe Biden. If there were 3 debates, Joe Biden would be toast in all three. The Democrats are probably worried about the one debate right now.

Tonight is the night that Sarah Palin will come out to the full floodlights and be greeted as the Vice-Presidential nominee of the Republican Party. This is her opportunity to shine on a national stage with all the world watching. She had her coming out last Friday and did an excellent job. She needs to continue that spirit when she communicates tonight.

The left is very afraid of her. They are afraid of everything that Sarah Palin stands for and exhibits on a daily basis. As a result, they have had all their big guns pointed toward her since she was picked. So far, the scandals have been minor and insignificant. The Obama media was surprised by the pick and had not done the dirt digging necessary at the time. They are digging under every stone and dirt clod in Alaska to find anything they can hang on her. On her rise, she has made enemies. These enemies are very eager to bring down the person that brought them down. The problem with her enemies is that they are proven liars and cheats. Therefore, their testimony is not exactly the most reliable testimony you could find.

Barack Obama is even feeling the heat from Sarah Palin. Yesterday, he compared his running his campaign to her being a Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. In his comparison, Obama said that Wasilla had about 50 employees and a budget of around $11 million. Obama then said that his campaign had 250 employees and spent $30 million in one month. Barack Obama felt that his 18 month campaign made him more qualified than her 6 years as Mayor of Wasilla. Obama neglected to mention that she has 18 months as Governor of the State of Alaska. The State of Alaska has about 2500 employees and a budget of about $11 billion. As a Governor, she also has responsibilities beyond just overseeing the 2500 employees of the state. She also is commander of the National Guard. She is closely involved with oil leases and environmental issues. When Obama runs his campaign, he does not have to do anything except run his campaign. His comparison was off the mark. When you make a real comparison, he looks like the new boy on the block and she looks much more experienced.

Sarah needs to be herself in the speech tonight. Forget what all the pundits think what she should say. She needs to tell her story and flesh out the unknown points that we have about her. She needs to stand above the firestorm about her family and its typical family problems. If you look at any family you will find people with problems. Even when you look at people who we hold up as excellent examples, their children often have problems. If you look at the children of church leaders, they typically have problems. Why should children of politicians be exempt from the problems that beset families all over the country? The families of politician should be off limits to the press. If the family members impose themselves on the campaign, then they are fair game. Michelle Obama is a good example. But, Obama said his children are off limits to the press and the press put them off limits. Why should there be a different standard for Republican nominees? There should be the same standard for both party’s nominees. If you attack the children of one candidate, you should attack the children of all candidates. The press will never do that because you never attack the children of a Democrat. They do not even want to question what Michelle Obama says, even though she is a major part of his campaign. They will question everything Cindy McCain says, even though she is a very minor part of his campaign.

The double standard shown by the media will come back to haunt them and the Democrat Party that they support so much. People will see through the fraud and deceit that the media puts the Republicans through and the kid gloves and love they give to the Democrats. In this election the media does not even pretend to be fair and balanced. The media is in full bore for Barack Hussein Obama and nothing anybody can say will persuade them that there is another worthy candidate in the race.

I for one have completely turned off the “main stream” press. I have not watched a TV news program for almost three years now. I used to be a news junkie and would get my news anywhere I could find it. Then I realized that the TV news was completely left wing and I was not getting news. I was getting propaganda. This propaganda is just the same today as Josef Goebbels was putting out between 1933 and 1945. He used to say that if you tell a big lie often enough, people will believe it. The Democrats learned their lesson well and are repeating what Goebbels taught them. I am not calling any Democrat a Nazi. I am just saying that the Democrat media is using the same propaganda tactics that were pioneered by Josef Goebbels and the Nazi regime.

The Democrat attack dogs are out to destroy Sarah Palin. Just like with Clarence Thomas, they cannot let a woman (black) be voted (selected) to the highest offices in this country without their help. Sarah Palin is a threat to everything that the far wing left believes. They believe that if you are a woman, black or Hispanic, you have to go through affirmative action to get ahead. When you get ahead, you have to give due credit to the Democrat establishment that allowed you to succeed. Sarah Palin does none of this because she did not follow that path at all.

Sarah Palin is as far from what the left thinks is the “ideal” woman as you can be. Their ideal woman is someone who has sex with many men. She has had numerous abortions. She must have achieved success by being allowed to enter a man’s world because of her politically correct ideas. Sarah Palin got to the top because she was the best person for the job at every level. She also believes that if you have political capital, you spend it as soon as you can and lo and behold you have much more political capital.

The left cannot attack Sarah Palin directly except for her pregnancy. They are attacking her because she rode on an airline when she was pregnant with her child. That is such a terrible sin that she should never be allowed to do anything. Give me a break! Lots of women fly on airlines all the time with no ill effects on their children.

The left is attacking Sarah Palin for not having her last son, Trig. They are saying that her daughter Brigit had the child and Sarah is taking credit for having the child. That is just downright stupid. There are lots of pictures of Sarah Palin as Governor of Alaska while she was pregnant. That is just a stupid argument that never should have seen the light of day.

The left is attacking Sarah Palin as a hypocrite. They say that because she promotes family values and her daughter Brigit is pregnant, she is a hypocrite. Sarah Palin is showing her support for family values with her statement about Brigit’s pregnancy. She said in effect that she supports Brigit and the life she is bringing into the world. She also supports Brigit for her choice to marry the father of the child. That is pro-life and pro-family values. To do anything else would have been a hypocrite. Sarah Palin is supporting family values. The left also says that because teaching that sex before marriage is wrong failed with Brigit that you should not teach it to any young person. The fact that it works for most people does not even enter the thought processes of the left. They are just concerned with destroying the people that have values.

In the future, they will attack Sarah Palin because her husband had a DUI a few years ago. He has paid his price to society and the topic should be over. There are already rumblings that Sarah’s support for values is being attacked by this indiscretion by her husband. Any attack on a member of her family is not appropriate. She has not put any member of her family forward in the campaign. If she puts them out front like Barack Obama puts Michelle out front, then that person is worthy of attack. If the person is kept back from the campaign, the press should not attack a member of the family. They should concern themselves with Sarah Palin and her record, just like they would do with any male candidate for the job.

The problem is that the left cannot let Sarah stand. They have to try and bring her down. They tried to bring Clarence Thomas down when he was nominated to the Supreme Court. They have constantly tried to tear Justice Thomas down continuously since he was confirmed. They will do the same with Sarah Palin. They cannot allow a woman to stray outside of the orthodoxy that permeates the Democrat Party. If women learn that they do not have to rely on the Democrat party to succeed, the Democrats would find themselves a second class party real quick. That is why Sarah Palin needs to succeed and prove her left wing critics wrong.

The pick of Sarah Palin still excites me today, one day after the pick. The more I find out about her and what she has done, the more I like her. She has stood strong for conservative principles against special interests and the good old boy network her entire life.

I found out yesterday that her nickname in Alaska is: Sarah Barracuda. That is because when she has an opponent, she attacks like a barracuda. Barracudas are known for their fierce attacks. They are probably more ferocious than a shark, just a lot smaller. Growing up, when a barracuda run was on there was no more fishing in the area. Sarah Palin is like that with the culture of corruption. When Sarah is on the prowl, there is no more corruption that sees the light of day. The people involved with the corruption do not like being found out and fight back. But, most people do not like corruption and the dishonest people usually lose.

Sarah is pro-life. When she was pregnant with her fifth child, her son Trig, she found out that he had Down’s syndrome. She refused to abort him. That is a testimony to her commitment to the pro-life position. Many people would have aborted a Down’s syndrome baby. They take more work because of the mental retardation that usually is associated with Down’s syndrome.

Her husband is also interesting. He has won the Alaska Iron Dog competition four times. That says a lot about his commitment to physical fitness and training. He is a steelworker.

Many people, Democrats, are trying to say that Sarah Palin does not have the experience to be Vice-President. Sarah Palin has two years executive experience as Governor and four years as Mayor of Wasilla before that. I heard on the Mike Broomhead show this morning an analogy that describes the lack of experience argument between her and Barack Obama. You are going to hire a driver to drive your NASCAR vehicle. You can choose between a mechanic in the pits (Obama) or a relatively inexperienced driver (Palin). Any person with any sense would pick the person with driving experience. That is the difference between the experience between Obama and Palin. The other difference is that Obama is asking to drive the vehicle and Palin is going to be the co-pilot. That means she will learn how to do everything so that if the time should arise, she would be ready. The experience argument leans heavily in favor of Palin. Karl Rove also said that she has two years executive experience and he has three years in the Senate, most of which were spent running for President.

The pick of Sarah Palin opens up a lot of doors for the McCain ticket. I was a very lukewarm voter for McCain prior to this pick. I had said on many occasions that I would never vote for McCain again. Then, the Democrats put up somebody so terrible that I have to vote for him. This pick makes me want to walk over broken glass to get to the polling booth to vote for McCain/Palin. There was a caller to the Mike Broomhead show that said basically the same thing. I think that the excitement will just grow and grow for the McCain/Palin ticket over the next two months. This was such an inspired pick. I feel for the Republicans passed over, but Palin is the right pick. The other possibilities were good picks, but would not have created the excitement that Palin does.

The Democrats are trying to scare everyone by saying that she would be only a heartbeat away from the Presidency. That is true of every Vice-President. The Democrats are trying to say that McCain will die in office and that Palin would then be President. In my mind, that would be a good thing, not a bad thing. If John McCain were to die in office, having someone like Sarah Palin as Vice-President would be reassuring. If the Democrats were trying to scare me, they just made me more secure. Now, if they were trying to scare me, they could have said that Joe Biden is only a heartbeat away from the Presidency. That would be a nightmare.

John McCain trashed conventional wisdom yet again. He selected Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, as his Vice-Presidential pick. The conventional wisdom had McCain selecting Romney or Pawlenty depending on whether Michigan or Minnesota was deemed more important. By selecting Sarah Palin, John McCain did not go for a single state; he went for the whole enchilada.

On the way to work, I got to hear part of Sarah Palin’s speech in Ohio. She outlined her growth in politics from a Hockey Mom to Governor. In almost every stop along the way, she encountered corruption and people that were afraid to do things. She has tried to clean up every political nest when she came upon the scene.

In her speech, she made the comment that any ship in harbor is safe. But to accomplish anything, the ship has to risk the sea. Politics is much like that. Many politicians are afraid to take risks because they are afraid of offending someone. Sarah Palin has not been afraid of offending people; she has rolled up her sleeves and turned out the dead wood.

She is married to a man who is a Native American. She has a child who has Downs Syndrome. She is a Life member of the NRA. She loves the outdoors and is comfortable hunting and fishing. She loves moose burgers. There are pictures of her hunting and fishing. She is a former runner up to the Miss Alaska beauty contest. That cannot hurt her with the male voting public. But, she is tough as nails when it comes to corruption. Joe Biden will have his hands full when he has to debate her in the Vice-Presidential debate during the campaign. She is articulate and full of spirit. Biden may have lots of words, but Sarah Palin knows how to use them effectively.

What will the pick do to both campaigns? The McCain campaign will receive a big boost in energy from the selection. Sarah Palin is a solid conservative and is pro-life. She also will energize women to vote for a Republican. That is something that Republicans have a difficult time doing. Republicans usually win the male vote and lose the female vote. The selection makes this election historic. No matter which party wins the election, there will be a “first”. There will be either the first black President in history or the first woman Vice-President in history. That is enough reason to make the election exciting.

What this election does to the Democrats is cause them some real problems. They were having some problems attracting votes of women in the first place because of Barack defeating Mrs. Clinton. Then, Obama did not even consider Mrs. Clinton as a Vice-Presidential pick. Mrs. Clinton made Barack Obama look bad with her good speech at the convention. She did not sound like the harpy that she usually does when making a speech. Then, John McCain selected a woman as a Vice-Presidential pick. Women who were upset with Obama over his non-selection of Mrs. Clinton may just throw him under the bus and support a woman as Vice-President. Blacks support Barack Obama for President even if they know that he will destroy the country. Women could very well do much the same thing in supporting a woman for Vice-President. This did not happen when Mondale selected Ferraro because Mondale really had no chance to get elected. In this election, either Barack Obama will be elected President or Sarah Palin will be elected Vice-President. Right now the polls have the two neck and neck. Of course, this is prior to the selection of Sarah Palin. This selection should give John McCain/Sarah Palin a big boost in the polls.

Sarah Palin did do one thing I am not sure that I would have done. She did give tribute to the two women in politics that went before her, Geraldine Ferraro and Mrs. Clinton. That was a class thing to do. My distrust of anything Clinton would probably have prevented me from doing such a thing, but I am proud of Sarah Palin for acknowledging the work of those that have made it possible to think of women in the highest offices in the land. The more I hear from and of Sarah Palin, the more I am sure that John McCain got this one right. Barack Obama flubbed his chance to get it right and selected a safe choice. McCain went out on a limb and picked a risky pick that could bring big rewards or a disaster. I think he got more than he bargained for.

The Democrats have nominated the most unknown candidate in the history of the United States of America. In the past, we have always known a lot about a candidate prior to their nomination. Or, we learned a lot about the candidate during the nomination process. In Barack Obama’s case, we did not learn much of anything.

The campaign has let us know that he is from Illinois. He graduated from Harvard with a law degree and worked in Chicago as a “Community Organizer” (whatever that is). He is married with two children. The campaign will admit that he knows Bill Ayers, but insists that Bill Ayers is just a regular guy. The campaign insists that Barack Obama is a “Christian”, even running ads in the Bible belt touting that fact. But, whenever Barack is asked about being a “Christian” he does not seem to know much about his faith. The campaign will acknowledge that Barack was born in Hawaii and lived for a time in Indonesia. Beyond that, we know little about Barack Obama.

We do not know what Barack Obama has accomplished in his lifetime. As a legislator he has never sponsored any legislation. There is no record of Barack ever leading the charge on any issue in Illinois or in the US Senate. Nobody knows what a community organizer does or what Barack Obama did while he was a community organizer.

The people that have surrounded Barack Obama raise red flags. Most of them are communists or terrorists or both. Many of his advisors and close friends have had suspect financial dealings. The person responsible for most of his fundraising is Tony Rezko. Tony Rezko has been convicted of securities fraud that is fraud in working with financial companies. Many of those companies gave money to the Obama campaigns.

Barack’s spiritual life is suspect. His pastor for over 20 years and the person that married Barack and Michelle was Jeremiah Wright. Jeremiah Wright has been disgraced recently for preaching separation theology and hate towards the United States. Barack sat in that church for over 20 years and never noticed that the sermons were leaning heavily towards the separation theology and hate towards the US. That says something about Barack’s judgment. Jeremiah Wright has been thrown under the figurative bus and is a non-entity with the campaign. He started as its spiritual advisor.

Bill Ayers is becoming more prominent with recent news that Bill Ayers started a foundation. This foundation handed out grants to churches and educational institutions. Barack Obama sat as the head of one part of the foundation. Since it is the only executive experience by Barack Obama it is important to know how he handled the position. It also opens up the connection between the Weather Underground founder Bill Ayers and Barack Obama. The Weather Underground was a terrorist organization in the late 1960’s and the 1970’s. The bombed the White House and targeted the Pentagon, Congress and Police Offices across the country. Bill Ayers still thinks that the Weather Underground did not do enough during their reign of terror. But, it would be interesting to know the connection between Bill Ayers and Barack Obama and how close it really was/is.

What there really is with Barack Obama is an empty slate. The Democrats will try to paint a positive picture on the empty slate. The Republicans will try to paint a negative picture on the empty slate. Whichever one is successful will win the election. Since there is more information that is negative or raises questions, the Republicans have the easier job. The Democrats will have to paint the picture using smoke and mirrors. That usually does not create much of a successful picture.

The Democrats wordy attack dog Joe Biden will try to paint a negative picture on John McCain. The problem that Joe Biden has is that people already know a lot about John McCain. It will be much more difficult painting a negative picture on someone who people already know than it will on someone that they do not know.

Last night on my way home from work, I listened to Mark Levin. He was talking about Michelle Obama’s speech to the Democrat convention and where the talk came from.

In her speech, Michelle Obama said that a quote from Barack Obama struck a chord within her. The quote had to do with things as they are and things as they could be. It turns out that the quote comes from a book written by Saul Alinsky called, “Rules for Radicals”. Saul Alinsky was a communist activist in the 1940’s and 1950’s in Chicago. He tried to overthrow the US government. Obviously, he failed to complete his task. But in his efforts, he came up with some rules to help those that follow him succeed where he failed. Those rules he put in the book, “Rules for Radicals”.

If you read “Rules for Radicals” and come to chapter two, you will find a template for Michelle Obama’s speech. Her speech is not word for word from chapter two, but the ideas in chapter permeate her speech. Much of the soaring language in her speech was used in chapter two of the book.

That would tell me that Michelle Obama did not hear the words from Barack Obama or at least the words did not originate with Barack Obama. Michelle may not know that her talk was basically chapter two of “Rules for Radicals”. She may really believe that she is just repeating what Barack had told her in speeches. But, Barack has to know that the ideas in Michelle’s speech did not originate with him. It is convenient for him not to tell where the ideas originated. If he told the world where the ideas came from, he would never be elected to anything. He has to try to palm off the ideas as his own, but anyone that has read extensively would know where they really originated.

I must give complete credit for this insight to Mark Levin. There is also an article in World Net Daily at worldnetdaily.com that also talks about this connection. It has been noticed by some people. The information will spread. People like me will spread this information and everyone will eventually know where the talk came from.

Further insight into Saul Alinsky is that many Democrats subscribe to his plans as outlined in “Rules for Radicals”. Mrs. Clinton has also used tactics and rhetoric that is contained in the book. Many other leading Democrat Party politicians are currently using the plans. If the plans are carried out completely, they would result in a Soviet Communist like state in the United States. I am not calling Mrs. Clinton or any other Democrat a communist. I am just saying that Saul Alinsky was a communist. His plans were for an eventual Soviet style communist state in the US. Many leading Democrats are using his words and tactics to gain power. It is not a stretch to reach the conclusion that their goal has to be a communist state. That may or may not be their goal; I am not privy to their innermost thoughts. I am just adding up two and two and reaching a logical conclusion. The conclusion may not be correct, but with all the information currently available, it is the only conclusion that I can draw.

If you look at the plans that Barack Obama has once he takes power, you can see the goal is to create a socialist state. The difference between a socialist state and a soviet state is very slim. The only difference is that we select leaders in a socialist state and in a soviet state we do not select the leaders. The effect on the population is generally the same, grinding poverty and unemployment.

Since the Democrats are carving themselves up at their convention, all discerning eyes turn to whom will John McCain pick as his running mate on Friday. Since he knows who the Democrats picked, he can select someone who will really help the ticket. Joe Biden did not really help the Democrat ticket in putting states into play or taking them out of play.

John McCain can pick the conventional person and has two good choices. I am biased, but his better choice would be Mitt Romney. Romney is a better speaker, better fund raiser and puts more states into play and takes some out of play for the Republicans. The other safe choice is Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. He is almost as good a choice as Romney. He is just not as conservative and only puts Minnesota and Iowa into play. Romney puts Michigan, Colorado and Nevada into play and takes Arizona out of play. Romney also can raise huge amounts of money. Tim Pawlenty will not get the pocketbooks to open up as much as Romney would.

OR McCain could do something unconventional and pick a minority or a woman. The best minority to pick would be Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. The women are Sarah Palin of Alaska and Kay Bailey Hutchinson from Texas. Selecting Bobby Jindal shows that the Republican Party includes minorities and puts them into top positions. This might help with the Hispanic vote; it will do nothing for the black vote. Bobby Jindal would be an exciting choice. Bobby Jindal will almost certainly be President one day. It just might be too early for a 37 year old candidate.

The two women could cause the women’s vote to move toward the Republicans. Traditionally the Democrats win the female vote by 10-15%. Barack Obama currently is only leading in the women’s vote by about 5%. Picking a woman would most likely make deep inroads into that Obama lead in the woman’s vote. McCain might actually win the woman’s vote by selecting a woman as a running mate.

The two candidates are contrasts. Sarah Palin is young and exciting. She is full of energy and would run rings around Joe Biden in their debate. She is smart and articulate. She is willing to stand up to the federal government as a Governor. That is something most Governor’s are not willing to do. Kay Bailey Hutchinson is a strong conservative. She has executive experience in the private sector which will help as being a Senator does not give you executive experience. Her drawback is the fact that she is not exciting. Also, she was indicted by a Democrat Prosecutor for some political misconduct. That was dismissed because of no evidence. But, it would be brought up if she ran for Vice-President. In my mind, Sarah Palin would be the better choice of the two female candidates.

Who would be the best for McCain to pick? The safest choice would be to pick Mitt Romney. Picking any of the other candidates except Tim Pawlenty would show that McCain might be trying to shore up some perceived weakness. Of the rest, the best choice would be Sarah Palin with Bobby Jindal very close behind. Kay Bailey Hutchinson would show that McCain is concerned about the female vote and that he is pandering. That is not a good sign. Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal are two people who will be running for President in the future with good chances to win. Why not give them a chance now? Both are a little on the young side, so it may be an election too early for either one.

My guess is that McCain will pick Mitt Romney. It makes the most sense and gives him the best chance to win in November. Palin and Jindal would also give him the good chance to win, but without the financial boost that Romney puts in the equation. That is why I believe that John McCain will select Mitt Romney as his running mate on Friday.

The Democrat Convention is upon us. We will be bombarded with Democrats talking down to us from now until Thursday night when the Chosen One will give his speech at Mile High Stadium. For me that is the lowest blow. Mile High Stadium is where my Denver Broncos play football. I cannot believe it will be defiled by all those Democrats and others coming to hear the Chosen One give his speech. I guess if the Raiders are welcome to come, the Chosen One can come too.

The Democrats talk as if their ideas are the freshest ideas ever to be delivered to the people of the US and the world. If you look at their ideas, you will find that almost all of them are just dressed up versions of ideas the Democrats have been suggesting for the last 60 years. We voters generally have rejected these ideas when they were presented to us in a way we can understand. When they get dressed up with lots of frills, it is difficult to get down to actually what they are proposing. But, when you get the frills off their proposals, you find that they proposed them every election since Franklin Roosevelt’s first term.

Their ideas do not work. They have never worked and they will not work this time. Socialism is not going to work anywhere in the world at any time in the history of mankind. Socialism could work if people were perfect, but if people were perfect there would be no need for government. Socialism is very simple to define in the big terms. It is take from the rich and give it to the poor, so everyone will have the same amount of things regardless of how hard they work and how important their work is. There will always be a need for people to do a job that is more dangerous. If they do a job that is more dangerous, they should be paid more to do the job as compensation. There are other jobs that would have to be given more weight due to education or management or some other guide. Socialism ignores all of that and says everyone should be equal. This is equality over liberty. That is backwards. It should be liberty over equality.

The Democrats love to talk about how enlightened the Europeans are. They love to say that the Germans do this or the French do that. That is just fine that the Germans and French do something. That does not mean that we have to adopt that same policy here in the US. We are Americans. We left Europe behind in 1776. We stopped worrying about what Europe did in 1776. Do not bring up what other countries do or do not do. That is unimportant when discussing what the US should do. We should look to what different states have done under Democrat administrations to find out what the US would be like under a Democrat administration. The best example is Michigan. Michigan has had a Democrat governor and legislature for a long time. The Michigan economy is the worst in the US. Do we want that for the country?

Democrats love to talk about how much they love the poor and downtrodden in life. They only do this when they need their votes. When the votes get counted, the poor and downtrodden are forgotten. The Democrat party is really the party of the rich and not just the rich, the Super Rich. The Democrats love to talk about how much they care for minorities. Do they ever do anything for these minorities that they say they care about? No, all they do is increase their handouts. Increasing their handouts just encourages them to do more of what they are doing, which is sit around and do nothing. Democrats should be required to put up or shut up. Unfortunately, they blame all their failures on the Republicans and the ignorant in the US believe the Democrats.

I for one am tired of hearing the Democrats talk about doing all sorts of things to help the “working people”. They can help the working people right now and they refuse to do anything. They can vote to authorize drilling for oil in ANWR and on the outer continental shelf and to build nuclear generating plants. This will instantly reduce the energy costs for “working people”. They refuse to do anything because if they do they lose the huge amounts of money they receive from the environmental economic destruction groups. That shows us where their bread is buttered. We should vote them out of office and show them where their bread “really” is buttered. Money is not everything. It helps a lot, but it can be overcome with determination.

Barack Obama picked Joe Biden as his running mate last night. This has to be a gift to the John McCain campaign. There are a lot of reasons to pick Joe Biden, but there are a lot more not to pick Joe Biden for Barack Obama.

Joe Biden is the consummate Washington insider. The Obama campaign has tried to picture John McCain as the Washington insider. Joe Biden has been in Washington about the same length of time that John McCain. He is younger, but he was younger when he started being elected. He was first elected at 29. For John McCain at 29, he was still in the Hanoi Hilton.

Joe Biden ran for President in 1988 and tried to run as the experienced candidate. His most memorable commercial pictured him as experienced and said that this job is too important to learn on the job. He was talking about Michael Dukakis, but could have been talking about Barack Obama. The McCain campaign came out with a commercial that quotes Joe Biden as basically repeating everything he said about Michael Dukakis when talking about Barack Obama. The commercial also has Joe Biden saying he would be honored to serve on a ticket with John McCain. That will be a difficult quote to live down for the Democrats.

One of the main reasons that Joe Biden flamed out in his attempt for the Presidency in 1988 was plagiarism. He took whole speeches by a British politician and used them as his own. When he was called on it, he denied that he used the speeches. Careful analysis (putting the two speeches side by side) showed that the two were nearly identical. After being shown to be a fraud, he withdrew as a Presidential candidate. For most of us, he was though to have gone back to civilian life. Then he started showing up on Rush Limbaugh’s show as “slow” Joe Biden. That is because he just never seems to understand anything, even when it is laid out for the world to see.

The Biden selection shows some desperation on the part of the Obama campaign. They are losing ground to McCain. They need to stop the bleeding quickly. Their thought with Biden is that he is strong where McCain is strong and that will fix the problem. Their bigger problem is that Biden makes a lie out of their “hope and change” agenda. Of course, the “hope and change” agenda was nothing more than a big lie in the first place. When you look at the speakers that Obama has selected for the Democrat convention, you see how much “hope and change” he really intended. Every bad Democrat idea from the last 30 years will be trotted out as part of the “hope and change” agenda. Every one of those bad ideas has been soundly defeated in the past by voters and will be defeated again.

Mrs. Clinton gave Obama the best chance at victory in November. The problem with Mrs. Clinton is that Barack would have to have food tasters and car starters as part of his official group of advisors. With Joe Biden, that will not be a problem. But, Obama never seriously considered Mrs. Clinton. He only said that he was because he wanted to keep the Clinton people quiet. They would not raise much of a stink of their person is being considered seriously for a position. When they figure out that she was never even looked at as a running mate, there will be some dissention in the ranks of the Democrat party.

Joe Biden is a gold mine of quotes for the John McCain campaign to mine. He is a loose cannon when it comes to his mouth. His clip disparaging the immigrants from India owning 7/11 stores will be played over and over. That will not help Obama with the immigrant population.

One thing the Joe Biden selection by Obama does is loosen the need to get the McCain running mate selection exactly right. It is still important to get it right, but a small error will not be fatal. Had Obama selected Mrs. Clinton, the need to select the exactly right Republican Vice-President would be crucial. John McCain announces his Vice-Presidential choice next Friday. Who it is remains to be seen. He can go exciting and select Sarah Palin of Alaska or Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. Or he can go conventional and select Mitt Romney of Massachusetts or Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. That is the choice I am waiting to find out.

Barack Obama without a teleprompter is a train wreck waiting to happen. Two times in the past two days, he has compared the US to China or Russia and found us wanting. That is not the kind of person that we should want to represent us as President of our great country.

First, he compared the window dressing the communists did to prepare for the Olympic Games to what we deal with here in the US all the time. His exact quote was:”Everybody's watching what's going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics. Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure.  Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business you're starting to think, ‘Beijing looks like a pretty good option.’” Does that sound like a person who will promote American interests above that of China’s interests? It does not consider that a large portion of China’s population is living at starvation wages and in poverty that we cannot imagine here in the US. It does not consider that the environmental laws in China are the worst in the world. Does Obama want us to do what China has done? If so, we do not want him as President. We do not want half of our population living in starvation. We do not want our environment polluted as badly as China’s environment is polluted.

Second, Barack Obama compared the Russian invasion of Georgia to our invasion of Iraq. There is one similarity, we both invaded another country. That is the only similarity. We invaded Iraq after taking the issue to the UN for uncounted votes of condemnation for Iraq. We gathered 30 other nations to give us support of one kind or another prior to our invasion of Iraq. After our invasion of Iraq, we turned over the running of Iraq to Iraqi citizens and took a back seat. The Russians on the other hand invaded Georgia entirely by themselves. The Georgian citizens are being arrested and put in jails. Russians are ruling in Georgia, not Georgians. Barack Obama thinks that these two were equivalent. He does not seem to have the moral clarity to see the difference. He does not see that we freed 25 million Iraqi’s from bondage and the Russians have put 4 million Georgians into bondage. That is the same? I don’t think so.

Barack Obama seems to require a teleprompter to do his thinking for him. Without the teleprompter, he is lost like a deer in the headlights. You never know what will be coming out of his mouth when he is left to think on his own. He comes up with comparisons that are not equivalent. He comes up with silly ideas to save us oil, like tuning up our cars. Modern cars do not need tune-ups. They only need the spark plugs replaced after a period of time, not a complete tune-up. That is only for cars built before about 1985.

When the Presidential debates will be held in the fall, it will be interesting to see if Obama gets to have a teleprompter. If he does not get to have a teleprompter, he will be lost and anything can come out of his mouth. I suspect that the Democrat operatives will pump him full of talking points and tell him not to stray from the talking points. We will know if when asked a question he does not expect, he will change the subject to one of his talking points. McCain does not need a teleprompter. He just tells it like it is and does not have to rely on certain talking points. He will come across in the debates as genuine. That will be a big boost for his candidacy. The Vice-Presidential debate will also be interesting. If Obama picks dull Joe Biden as expected, that debate will also be a loser for his team.

We do not need a President that has to be led around by advisors all of the time. We need a President that can make decisions on his own and stick to them. That is why a candidate’s moral compass is so important. Barack Obama does not seem to have a moral compass or at least have one that works very well.

It was not supposed to happen this way. The chosen one was supposed to have a huge lead going into the Democrat convention. At the convention, he would show everyone why he is the chosen one and the rest of the world would bow at his feet and the Presidency of the world would be his.

Oops! Don’t tell the Democrat kool-aid drinkers, but John McCain is either within the margin of error or ahead heading into the Democrat convention. On the Michael Medved show yesterday, some callers still believe that it will be a landslide victory for Obama over McCain. They could not tell Mr. Medved why it would be a landslide, but they were convinced that Obama had some secret plan that would be revealed too pull out the victory.

Right now, Obama has almost 100% of the main stream media behind him and cheering him on. He has more money than John McCain and is spending it in larger advertising buys in key states. Wherever he goes, he gets the “star” treatment, adoring crowds and lots of press. John McCain has had to endure stops where there is only one reporter and one photographer (New Hampshire). With all that advantage, there is no reason that McCain should be within 10 or even 15 percentage points of Barack Obama. What is going on?

What is going on is that Barack Obama is not selling his message to the American people. Why is he not selling his message to the people? He is making lots of unforced errors. He is making errors that only an inexperienced person that is not sure of his message could make. Obama is a skilled politician; he defeated the Clinton machine, probably the most powerful machine in Democrat politics since the days of Tammany Hall in New York. When Barack Obama has a teleprompter, there are few politicians in America today that can match his skill. Without a teleprompter, Barack Obama is lost. He tries to be everything to everybody. That is impossible in a political campaign. You have to take stands. Whenever you take a stand, you will please some people and anger some people. You just hope that you please more people than you anger over the course of the campaign.

Barack’s trouble is that he is afraid of alienating even one voter. That is why when he is asked about abortion, he stumbles around trying to find an answer that will not offend anyone. He should just state his position and go on. That would be honest. Honesty is not part of the Obama playbook. He just tries to have it all ways on all issues and that is impossible. Many issues are an either/or proposition. When you try to have both positions on an either/or issue, you sound weak and indecisive. That loses you votes even when the person might agree with you.

The reason that Obama is trying to have it all ways on all issues is because Obama is a radical leftist. His political background puts him on the far left fringe of Democrat politics. When even Democrats think that you are far left, you are really far left. If Obama came out and said what he really wants to do to the country, he would lose in a landslide not seen since Ronald Reagan and maybe even worse. He has to try and hide what he wants to do if he wants to be elected.

The Democrat convention starts on Monday. The list of speakers is a list of speakers from at least the last four Democrat conventions. The first two days are the Clinton days, Bill speaks on Monday and Mrs. Clinton on Tuesday. Then we get to the Obama convention. Obama has been hinting that he will select a running mate soon. I am beginning to think that the talk has been just that, talk. He has to get the Saddleback performance flop off of people’s minds. The best way is to tease people about who he will select for his running mate. In my opinion, Obama’s running mate means less to his campaign than McCain’s means to McCain’s campaign.

It is looking like the campaign is McCain’s to lose. At first, it was Obama that had all the cards. Obama played them poorly and now McCain holds the upper hand. If McCain plays his hand properly, McCain will be President. McCain needs to select a strong conservative running mate that is pro-life. Then, he needs to keep the campaign on foreign policy issues. The Russians are helping keep foreign policy issues front and center in the campaign. There will be others between now and the election in November. The thugs in the Islamo-Fascist fringe will try to intimidate us by doing something spectacular before the election. That will help to keep the focus on foreign policy issues. McCain will win in November with a comfortable victory. Not a landslide, just a comfortable victory, probably 290-250.

The pressure is getting to Nancy Pelosi and her minions in the Democrat Party. Last weekend in a talk show, she said that she would be open to voting on a bill that would open to drilling on the outer continental shelf if it contained other provisions. That is a crack in the dam. Up until that point, she had resisted any talk of voting on any bill that talked of drilling on any portion of the outer continental shelf.

What Nancy Pelosi meant by allowing drilling on the outer continental shelf is that she would allow drilling off the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. The vast oil reserves that are known to exist are off the coasts of California, Florida and Alaska. If you notice, the lists are not even close to the same. There is probably oil off the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, but nothing like the amount of oil off the coasts of California and Florida.

Nancy Pelosi also wants other provisions written into the bill that authorizes drilling. These provisions would punish oil companies and make it economically stupid for the oil companies to drill for oil. Their taxes would go up by a huge amount and their tax write offs for searching for oil would be reduced, thereby increasing their taxes yet again. These provisions would be added to punish the oil companies for making a “profit” from selling oil. Oil companies make about an 8% profit for selling their oil. That is about average for all American companies. There are a lot of American companies that make a lot more money per unit than oil. Oil companies are just singled out because they are environmentally “bad”. Therefore, the Democrats can demonize the oil companies and not be bad.

Nancy Pelosi’s idea of a bill to drill for oil would do little to solve our oil problem. The amount of oil found would be minimal. The additional provisions would also derail the idea that we would get enough oil to make a difference. What we need is a “clean” drilling bill. By a “clean” bill, I mean a bill that only considers drilling and maybe other sources of energy like nuclear electrical generating plants. It should not include additional taxes or other disincentives to increasing our oil supply.

We need to address the energy problems in this country now. We have not built an oil refinery in this country in over 30 years. We have not built a nuclear electrical generating plant in this country in over 30 years. There are many countries like Japan and France (of all places) that generate almost all of their electricity from nuclear power. Nuclear power is the cleanest source of electrical power available. It does not pollute and it generates as much power as you need 24 hours a day. Hydroelectric power is close behind, but it is subject to droughts. If you get a long drought, you may have to reduce the amount of hydroelectric power you generate.

The nuclear power plants would reduce our need for oil power plants. This would make more oil available for use as gasoline and diesel fuel, also reducing our dependence on foreign oil. The only drawback to nuclear power is the long time it takes to build one and the resistance from the environmental community. The environmental resistance is really one that I do not understand. Nuclear plants do not pollute. But, the environmental movement is not about the environment, it is about destroying the economy of the United States.

Nancy Pelosi’s acknowledgement that she is receiving pressure to vote on drilling is a good sign. We need to keep up the pressure and maybe we can get a vote on a bill that will be targeting the right target. Pelosi’s bill shoots at a target off the range. We need to get her to let us vote on a target where the oil is.