Category: Politics

… the Sarah Palin effect.  A news story today from Reuters notes a poll that show white women voters shifting their support from Obama to McCain as a result of the nomination of Sarah Palin.  WTF?  Do these people have any clue whatsoever about Palin’s position on any issue of significance?  She is the polar opposite of Obama, Clinton (either one), Biden, or any other prominent Democrat.  So how could anyone who previously supported (or even seriously considered supporting) Obama or Clinton now shift their support to McCain due to the addition of Palin.  I just can’t imagine a rational line of thought that would yield that result.

I was flipping through the Parade magazine from Sunday’s paper, when I saw this headline “Would You Vote for a Moron?” I then expected to see a picture of W along with some poll results related to his intelligence, or lack thereof. Reading the first sentence made me realize that the article was about Mitt Romney. Huh?

The headline was actually “Would you vote for a Mormon?”

That made me laugh. Not only at my misreading, but at the fact that over half the voting public had already voted for a moron, so why would voting for a Mormon even be an issue. Am I to assume that most voters would prefer a moron over a Mormon?

I didn’t get my hopes up and I was rewarded. In the local races, most of my preferred candidates won and the school bonds were approved. At the national level, Democrats won control of the House while control of the Senate awaits a recount in Virginia. There is renewed hope, but it is just hope.

After the 2004 election I was seriously concerned that our nation might not recover from the Bush era. We won’t known for years, but at least now there is hope. As long as we have a two party system, we are far better off with power split between them. One in control of Congress and the other in the White House. I doubt that it matters which is where. When one party is in total control, then they drive the bus into the ditch. With power split, then only the necessary items get accomplished. Sanity is more likely to prevail.

On a related note, I listened to most of the President’s press conference today. I admit that I have avoided the President’s comments as much as possible for the past two years. Today I was reminded why. He is an idiot and this infuriates me. His idiocy isn’t the problem. What infuriates me is being reminded that over half of my fellow voting citizens chose an idiot to be President of our country. Twice. It’s not like he is a closet idiot. Every time that he opens his mouth and tries to put three sentences together his idiocy is apparent. This is an obvious example from today:

Somehow it’s seeped in their conscience that, you know, my attitude was just simply stay the course.

How could we have possibly thought that he wanted to stay the course?

And another gem:

And so the fresh perspective on what the American people here today is we’re constantly looking for fresh perspective.

This man is the leader of the free world.

This article indicates that the President can now declare federal martial law on a whim.

I’m hesitant to get too worked up over political matters. After 2004 I was hurt, angry, and generally unhappy with life. I don’t want to go back to that, but I can’t fully ignore the issues of the day.

A posting on Slashdot led to a video of the Charlie Rose show. In the second segment, the authors of a new book titled Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War discuss some scenes from the book. Their comments just reinforce statements from others. The Bush administration ignored dissenting interpretations of intelligence data. Once it was clear that their were not any WMD, the adminstration was neither surprised nor concerned. Bush was just out the get Saddam and that was done. Anything else was inconsequential.