15 posts tagged “democrat”

Another blogger recently made some very good comments about third party candidates on one of my blogs.  The basic point was that having a competitive third party candidate most often will not get that person elected but slip the votes between that person and the other party closest to what they stand for. 

If that third party candidate  leans a little left the votes would split between that person and the Democratic candidate. If the third party candidate leans a little to the right the votes would be split between that person and the Republican candidate.  The split would allow the unified vote on the other side of the spectrum to win the election and reduce that third party candidate to the role of spoiler and never really lead to a successful candidate.

In thinking about this, I find the evidence to support this hypothesis to be very strong.  This is worrisome to me.  The party system we have in place is clearly broken and these facts clearly show that there is no hope otherwise.

Maybe if there were to just be one other serious party (along with all of those minor parties that get like one to two percent of the vote every four years) that represented the area closer to the middle.  Not too right, not too left, just in the area near the middle. 

Obviously, there would be conflicts within this party on some issues and some areas that members of this party could possibly never agree upon, but this party would best represent the average American. 

I also think that two serious contenders for the title of president is clearly not enough.  The only alternatives we are left with are ridiculously irrelevant and a waste of our time. 

The only way there will really be change is if the voters come together and vote for someone else from another party who represents the overall values of the people.  That would first require a highly qualified candidate that would attract all of these voters form both ends of the spectrum and was different enough from the other candidates to really represent change. 

The sad fact id that I personally have not seen a person even close to this and I think that the other candidates who are running are in fact simply the spoilers who will devour the campaigns of the parties they used to belong to.

All this talk of “flip-flopping” and supporting evidence from everywhere; can we trust either of these people?  What is going on?  It’s like there is a flip-flop fever going around.

The camps of both major party’s hopefuls for president have been ramping up the rhetoric about the other candidate’s “flip-flops” and inconsistencies.  When one follows the facts, the truth is that both candidates have had major flip-flops over the past year.  Flip-flops big enough to make one wonder; “Who the heck are these people and what do they stand for?”

The truth of the matter is that June and July historically are the months when candidates retool their message and their stands to move a little closer to the center and away from the extreme ends of their party’s ideals to appeal to larger voting segments.

What makes it different this year?  I think there are two things that are different.

I think with Senator Obama, his voting record shows him to be almost as far to the left as one can be, while his rhetoric, campaigning, and speeches make him appear to be very close to the middle and as “The Candidate of Change.”  There a already many huge question marks about who he really is to begin with without him changing the message again.

For Senator McCain, he already has done more and more to alienate the far right within his party over the past eight or nine years and who he really is also warrants a huge question mark from his would be supporters.  Many of the things he stands for and represents already is a hard sell to people in the middle or on the right at any level.  Keep in mind that he represents the same party as the largely unpopular current president which makes his candidacy a hard sell as it is.  He has somehow got to get the support of the right and the middle at the same time when both are skeptical to begin with and he is even going so far as to try to draw from the right betting on the fallout from the Democratic primaries.  For those who are not already set on a candidate or a party (voting for a candidate simply because of party affiliation at this point in history with all that could happen over the next four years is not only stupid but grossly negligent) his message seems to be all over the map and makes him even less understandable to us.

The other reason I think this is such a big deal this year is the fact that there are more mediums that will verify what they are saying and more people who are apt to research such things. 

How many of us have heard something stated by one of the candidates and then by the next day heard and read a firestorm of contradictions stated by the same person as noted on “factcheck.org” or other such organizations. 

What I am saying is that the microscope has grown more powerful for this year’s elections and the candidates are under much more focused scrutiny.  I suspect that if previous candidates had been under the same level of scrutiny as the current candidates history would be vastly different.

Are the candidates “flip-flopping” and still undefined?  Absolutely!  Are these candidates distancing themselves from their own past stands and voting records?  Absolutely?  When I look at both of their past stands and voting records, this is not really a bad thing if we are talking about a true change of heart. 

The problem is, will this newly retooled and refined candidate show up in the Whitehouse if elected president or is it all for votes?  I for one sure do like the candidates’ campaign faces a lot better than what the facts show.

Democrat, Al Gore endorsed Senator Barack Obama yesterday.  Wow, what an awesome speech and would have been a huge help to his bid to be the Democratic candidate for president.  That is if he had done it before Senator Hillary Clinton “suspended” her campaign.

This is an interesting distraction, and gets Senator Obama’s face in the news, but what is changed because he endorses him now.  It is not like some diehard Republican is going to say; “Well, if Al Gore endorsed him, I guess I will too.” 

I am also not too sure what weight Al Gore carries with the independent voters either.  I have to wonder if this is just another publicity stunt that really keeps us from focusing on the true issues.

To be honest I don’t really care if Al Gore endorses him at this stage in the game or not.  What I care about is, what solutions does Senator Obama or Senator McCain have to show for the problems that are at hand.

I think that the time for endorsements and publicity stunts ended at four dollars a gallon, lost homes, and no food.  The time is now for beginning to talk issues.

Plus, what does this say about Al Gore.  He stayed away from committing to a candidate until one had already been chosen and then he shows up and “endorses that person as if he had supported him all along.  As if history should hold that he made the difference in the Obama campaign in 2008.

I do not know Mr. Gore’s motivations, but this does give the impression that he is in it for the publicity. 

What a waste of all of our time.

California Assembly Bill 1819, is a plan to get sixteen and seventeen year old voters to preregister to vote.  This means that these teens would automatically be registered and sent the sample ballots when they are eighteen.  This bill has passed the assembly and is currently in the senate.

Here is the interesting part:  The vote in Assembly split right down party lines with Democrats voting for it and Republicans voting against.

I listened to and read some of the debate for and against this bill and I see merit in both sides of the argument.  I am still undecided on what I think of this idea. 

The thing that struck me in all of this is that the Republican Party in California is in such fear of the late teen voters.  I know that whoever it is that controls the youth controls the future.  Judging by the results of this vote, I am left to wonder if the future holds a one party system for California.

It would seem that the Republican Party needs to do some kind if image make over if the general feel of the party (at least in California) is that an entire generation will be their undoing as soon as they decide to vote.  I am also stunned at the fact that the only plan to combat this is to keep this whole group from voting as long as possible.  That’s it, the whole plan?

The Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, seems to be doing okay and managed to get elected in the first place.  I understand that he started as a public figure, but the state seems to be within the realm of a balance of power between the parties.  It seems like with a little work the Republican Party could restore the balance.  This work may be with those same youth that would be registering under what is outlined in this bill.

As a person who does not like the current party system and all of the partisanship, I have to admit that a one party system made up of one or the other of the major parties really scares me.

I am worried that one whole party is scared of the youth thinking about voting. I am still deciding what I think of this bill.

What is going on in the presidential race?  Democratic Senator Barack Obama went at republican Senator John McCain with both guns blazing in discussing the economy and I began to think:  “Finally, we will get to the real issues.” 

Boy oh boy was I mistaken.  I was all ready for Senator McCain (who is now known for being weak on matters of the economy at the worst time ever for that to be the case) to get with his advisors and start devising strong solutions for our economic woes.  Then I pictured this huge back and forth campaigning where two different plans that would both make some sense would be brought before the American people and we would all be thinking; “Wow, what great candidates.”

This however, was not what happened.  Senator McCain went back to that absolutely stupid “Gas Tax Holiday” idiocy that helped us all understand economy was not his strength.  Then Senator Hillary Clinton supported it also and some of the cooties of being economically illiterate seemed to get on her and her campaign.

I thought; “That’s it?  All of those campaign strategists and speechwriters and whoever else in his political entourage and that is it?”

But, no it was not.  Then he went back to this town hall meeting idea.  I admit it is a pretty cool idea, but seriously, one candidate is just going to dictate how another candidate is going to campaign for the entire summer and this other candidate is expected to just agree and go along with this?  (Is this one of those places where people on the internet us the letters “LOL?”

I personally believe that both candidates that are left from the two major parties have these gaping holes in their qualifications for president (particularly saying lots of things that neither of their voting records support), but if this is the best Senator McCain can come up with against a person with a gift for speaking and a charisma that attracts so many, Senator McCain will be reduced to a straw man for Senator Obama to knock over.

If there are any advisors to Senator McCain reading this, please gather some experts on the economy and draw up something substantial that will appeal to the public. Then spend some time educating Senator McCain on this plan.  Once that is done release him on the public with these fresh new ideas and a solution to a real problem in the here and now.  That will make him a solid candidate and definitely make the race more interesting.

I suppose Senator McCain may have such plans and be keeping them hidden is his grand plan to unleash this weapon of mass destruction on Senator Obama during these town hall meetings, but let’s face it, that is not going to happen.  An I am not sure if it were to happen that the results would be what Senator McCain expects.  I remember a debate between the Republicans that was televised on CNN that had an approval meter that was on the screen the whole time.  The relevant fact here is that almost every time Senator McCain spoke the meter shot down.  That went double when he got excited or agitated.

I think to win, Senator McCain better come up with more than the stuff he has put out there so far.

If Senator McCain does not retool his message, this will be one of those really boring elections where one candidate just sinks fast as soon as the votes start to be cast.  Today I was aghast at his lack of anything to say and found his whole message just plain boring.  

This changes the equation a bit.  If Senator Obama would like to get the vote of the women voters of his party, ignoring the fact that a majority of them (a small majority, but a majority none the less) feel that she should be on the ticket might give him a great deal of trouble later on.

The key to this is the next month or so.  These numbers may move, the question is in which direction?  If people get less interested in her that would seem to be a clear indication that she is not the person that should share the ticket and has lost some of her political appeal through all of the antics of the past few months.

On the other hand if those numbers go up in her favor, Senator Obama’s camp would be foolish to ignore a large voting segment of the party without being able to convince them there is a really good reason for doing so.  The key word in that sentence is “convince.”  His task would not be to find and have a good reason, it would be convincing that voting block that it is a good reason that they agree with.

 I suppose that this would be a good trend to keep an eye on. Which direction will the voters go?  Tune in next time, Same election time, same election channel.

I was thinking about our government and the stalemate that we are in and I thought of an analogy.  What if the goal of the government next week was to screw in a light bulb.

Senator Obama would give an awesome speech about the equality of all light bulbs and discuss how he is going to get everybody light bulbs if elected.

A certain Mr. Wright would suddenly surface describing how different light bulbs are just different and how Senator Obama had to distance himself from him because of politics.  

The media would find every tidbit that could sound strange to listeners from Mr. Wrights speech and play these clips over and over and discuss these clips over and over.

Senator Obama would again try to distance himself from this person.

Senator McCain would ask Senator Obama why he spent so many years in a church with such beliefs about lightbulbs.

Senator Hillary Clinton would have said that Senator Obama does not have enough experience to put in a light bulb and does not really have enough support to screw in a light bulb, but she has finally realized that she is not going to win the Democratic primaries.  So now she will say that Senator Obama, her friend, is well equipped to screw in light bulbs.  But, she continued to campaign because she felt the American people deserved the best light bulb screwer-inner person that there was and she is that person.  The popular vote showed that the American people know who can better screw in a light bulb and voted that way. 

Hillary Clinton supporters would say that the media stated that Senator Clinton could not do a good job of screwing in light bulbs because she is a woman and would want her to keep trying to stop Senator Obama from being the one to screw in the light bulb.

Former President Bill Clinton, would start calling members of the press scumbags and other names for the conspiracy against his wife and for using the light bulb as a tool to help Senator Obama get elected.  He would later apologize but, Senator Hillary Clintons approval rating would take another hit anyway.

The media would have debates and talk show hosts would rip on different people for not getting the light bulbs in fast enough.

President Bush would tell congress to write a bill stating that the light bulb should be installed.  Because the bill idea came from the President, the Democrats would say it is a terrible idea and try to draft their own, somehow different proposal.  The Republicans will write a really long version of the bill and have it read aloud to the entire group to irritate the Democrats.

Senator McCain would say nothing about the President Bush idea (because he has to distance himself from the administration).  The Senator would get in front of his green background with a small handful of supporters (trying to sound like more than they really are) and give a speech repeatedly saying that the kind of changing of light bulbs that Senator Obama wants to is not change at all.  He would then give some reasons why the light bulb that was already there is fine and should stay and then screw up a perfectly good speech by saying it would be okay if the light bulb stayed in for a hundred years.

Senator Obama would reply by saying that Senator McCain just wants to keep changing the light bulbs with the same kind of light bulbs that President George Bush has been putting in which means that electing Senator McCain is just like giving George Bush a third term.

The media would just keep playing clips of Senator John McCain saying he would leave the light bulb in for a hundred years.

The Democrats would fight amongst themselves in drafting their own bill because of the carbon footprint of making the light bulbs and that the light bulbs create.  There would be a huge debate on florescent light bulbs and the fact that their disposal is as big a problem as the footprint of regular bulbs.

The tree huggers will protest outside of government buildings demanding that the light bulb not be put in and that the light bulb is destructive (because they heard all of the news reports about the fight the Democrats were having).

I would take one look at all of this, freak out, turn on my computer and type a blog post. This post would talk about how stupid all of this is and how our government is broken etc.

In the end, the light bulb will not get put in.  Everyone would still be fighting and the whole government would still be in a stalemate. 

Where is (really who is) the person who would just take charge and put the light bulb in. The person who could do what is the best solution to the problem and rally the American people and the media to support what has been done. That person should be president and other like him or her should replace the people that are in our government at all levels.

This is the only way I could think of to describe how ridiculous all of the partisan politics that is going on at this point in history seems to me.  There is a lot going on while at the same time nothing is really happening of substance and even less is getting accomplished.

What a Mess!

Our government is caught up in elections, partisan politics, and all other kinds of political blah, blah, blah.  The problem is that there are no plans to help American Citizens with the troubles we are having now and our government on all sides is caught up in ridiculous distractions that do absolutely nothing for what is going on with American citizens here and now.

President George Bush did his best with the stimulus package, but by the time the checks are getting to people gas is well over four dollars a gallon and the massive amount of people that are unemployed or in fear of soon being unemployed cannot afford to spend their stimulus checks shopping on frivolous knick-knacks simply to stimulate our economy.  This stimulus package was not a great idea and many of us knew it wouldn’t work the way that was planned, but at least it was some attempt at doing something.

President Bush today placed the blame for no other plans squarely on the shoulders of the “Democratic Congress” for not passing his other ideas such as making his tax cuts permanent.

The problem is that the parties are too busy with, ending primaries, preparing for presidential elections, global warming, fuel alternatives that will not be feasible for the average American citizen for five or six years, and so to be worried about such trivial matters as all of us loosing our jobs, spending every dime we have buying gasoline, and loosing our healthcare benefits.

This week we discovered that wealthy people who had good loans (as opposed to a sub-prime loan) were loosing their homes now also (the poster child for this is Ed McMahon of Publishers Sweepstakes and Tonight Show fame), unemployment is again breaking records (at 5.5% according to the Labor Department), the Dow Jones dropped over four-hundred points today, the NASDAQ dropped more than seventy-five points, oil prices broke the one hundred and thirty-seven dollar barrier but is now expected to go over one hundred and fifty dollars a barrel by the Fourth of July, houses are being foreclosed at record levels, the U.S. dollar is hardly worth the paper it is printed on and on and on.

I think I have figured it out, if everybody looses their houses and cannot afford to drive their cars, global warming will be reduced at record levels.  The American Public as a whole will be homeless and angry but at least Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize will not have gone to waste.

Our government officials don’t have time to be worrying about what “drama-queen” Hillary Clinton is going to do.  We are all eagerly awaiting the moment that she informs us that she has lost a race that we all know she has already lost (all except her and her advisors). 

There is endless partisan bickering and finger pointing.

The Democrats are spending all of their time on global warming and trying to prove that the Bush regime did all kinds of secret evils.  If he did or didn’t how is that going to help the economy or price of gasoline.  The guy is in his last few months, the country is going to a place very close to hell (I suppose partially due to global warming) and more than half of our government is focused on being a lynch mob.

The Republicans are busy having President Bush blame the rest of the government for not pushing through his half-baked ideas (but I have to admit, at least there are some ideas) and the rest of the party is busy separating themselves from the President to try to get Senator John McCain elected. 

Senator McCain first said that we should do nothing to help anyone, then he said to do mostly the same stuff that we are doing.  Then his party comes out and says; “Well, the economy is not his strength.”

It is beginning to cost more to go to work than people are making, and after these people loose their homes and file bankruptcy, there will really be no need to spend more getting to work than you make when you get there and these people are going to start quitting and looking for government assistance (and unemployment that will be charges to the people they were working for).  What then. 

I don’t care for or about the parties.  I do not care which one of these lackluster candidates becomes president.  I don’t care quite as much about what is going to happen five or ten years from now when I have to be concerned if my family and I will survive this year. 

I guess in Washington we are simply numbers and statistics unless you are a person running for office.  When that is the case we get attention (in the form of lip service) for a few months and then we are again reduced to pawns in a huge game of numbers.

Both of the main candidates are Senators.  I think the real race is to see which one can come up with something that can be done now (before that person is elected president or not) to help the American people.

Iraq is a war and clearly is not going anywhere in the next few months.  Global warming is the evil to end all evils; I get it!  But, it is going to be much more evil for me and my family if as the planet warms I am homeless.  I understand that we want to preserve the wilderness and the beautiful places and protect these places from all of the evils of drilling.  What is going to happen as the state and federal governments begin to loose funding to protect and maintain these areas because the gasoline is to expensive for their vehicles and they lay off the employees that didn’t already quit because it cost too much to get to work. 

All of the stuff they are worrying about are lower on the priority scale and both the Democrats and the Republicans area doing nothing.  The Democrats keep saying the Republicans are doing nothing about the economy, while they are doing nothing also.  The Republicans are finger pointing because their harebrained ideas are being held up by the Democrats. 

It doesn’t matter who is to blame, the question is who is going to actually do something sensible about what is going on here and now.

Imagine a person on a treadmill in workout clothes with a towel around his or her neck.  That person has on fancy designer running shoes and has a fancy pants MP3 player.  The only problem noticeable when the person is about to turn the treadmill on is that the person is facing the wrong direction reaching backwards to turn the thing on.  What is going to happen?

The Democratic Party’s activities from this weekend should be convincing evidence (when combined with the past few years of what has been done by the Republican Party) that the current party system and those in power cannot possibly produce a good presidency out of this year’s voting.  We need someone else and that person is nowhere to be found.

Let’s slow down and backtrack a bit to the Democratic National Committee mess.

The Hillary Clinton camp has completely lost its mind with desperation and Senator Barack Obama’s camp and the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee are afraid to say so.  The D.N.C. has agreed to seat the delegates from Florida and Michigan but to only give them half votes.  The problem is that the Democratic Party has continued to allow Senator Clinton and her camp to go on with the outlandish demands she makes publicly hoping to create a big enough push by her supporters to force the party to give in to her unreasonable ideas.

The wildest of stupid suggestions I have heard was the idea the Clinton camp proposed to the D.N.C. that Senator Obama shouldn’t get any delegates from Michigan because his name was not on the ballot in that state.  Are these people serious.

Let me get this straight.  These states decided they were not important enough in the primary process so they were going to move their primary forward (the ironic thing is that with all of the ruckus to move primaries forward last year the states that came last turned out to be the ones who became more important).  Other states also had done the same which would make their move less impacting.   These two states decided they would move their primaries in front of the other states even though they knew it violated Democratic Party rules.  The Democratic National Committee informed these states that this was against party rules and would lead to the punishment of not having their votes count for the primaries.  These states moved their primaries anyway.  The D.N.C. stuck to its guns and its rules and did not allow the votes of these states to count with the approval of the candidates.  The candidates agreed also, not to campaign in these states and in Michigan some of the candidates (including Senator Barack Obama) pulled their names off of the ballot all together in support of the D.N.C.’s decision. 

Senator Clinton wins both states, but all of the candidates, including Senator Clinton had already agreed that the votes would not count. Then Senator Clinton turned out not to be the untouchable candidate that she had thought she was by loosing a string of primaries to Senator Obama.  All of a sudden the Clinton camp begins redirecting her campaign efforts to promoting how unfair it is that these votes are not being counted and a focus on getting them counted in her favor.  Her supporters begin to threaten the party saying if things don’t go her way they will vote for the most likely Republican candidate, Senator John McCain.

Why is this even still being discussed?  If the party as a whole cannot make rules that they can follow amongst themselves what business do these people have running our country.

Ave you ever bee in a grocery store or some such place and observed parenting that looks like this.  Little Jimmy, starts touching something little jimmy should not be touching. Mom or Dad or both tell little Jimmy to stop.  Little Jimmy doesn’t listen and keeps touching.  The parent or parents keep telling little Jimmy and then move to threatening little Jimmy.  Let’s say its “Jimmy if you don’t stop I am going to drag you out of this store and spank you!”  Little Jimmy keeps on and eventually breaks whatever it is. The parent says something like “Now look what you did Jimmy” and rushes little Jimmy to another isle and tries to act like it never happened.  Guess what little Jimmy starts doing in the next isle?  Of course, Little Jimmy starts touching more things.

Can our entire country be run like this?

Do not get me wrong, I think that the Republican party has shown clearly over the past few years that they are not capable of running this country, but now we are seeing the Democrats are no more capable than the Republicans.  But, are we content with simply picking the lesser of the evils.

The current Democrats in power are clearly swayed far too easily by pressure from powerful people (like the Clintons) to ignore what is right.  The vote to fully seat the delegates from Florida as voted in January received twelve votes for it and fifteen against.  These twelve people are the problem.  If there is a clear rule and several warnings that say if you do something so and so will be the consequences and within your own party you cannot stand your ground what kind of wishy-washy government would one led by such people turn out to be. 

If Senator Obama is not a strong enough leader to stand up to this sort of nonsense and not only say it is wrong, but get the general public to see it and turn on Senator Clinton for being so ridiculous, he is clearly not ready to be president either.

Of course, it seems obvious, that the fact that Senator Clinton and her supporters act so much like spoiled children who will do anything to win demonstrates that the country needs few things less than it needs this crazy Senator and her folks in office.

I have maintained and will continue to maintain that when you look at the voting records of these candidates and the actions of the three candidates we are flooded with information about, none of the three are a good option.  It is becoming clearer and clearer that a large percentage of the population is voting not for what is best for the country, but for some ideal represented by one candidate or the other regardless of if the person is crazy or will make a terrible president.  Someone somewhere has to come up with a better option for the American People and the good of the country.

Our country and its people are in far to fragile of a time in history right now to be putting a crazy person who has no business in the White House into the position that will most determine what happens to us for at least the next four years because they simply are Republican, Democrat, Black, White, a woman, a man, a veteran, upper-class, middleclass, he or she drinks beer and shots, he or she bowls or doesn’t bowl, that person’s pastor is crazy or not crazy.  We need to find the person who can take the reigns and do what is right from day one and is clearly not what either party has been doing for at least the past few years. 

None of these three are that person!

Just as Senator Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton pulled the sexism and conspiracy by the media cards the supporters of Barack Obama have decided to pull out the ace in the Obama camp hole this weekend:  The race card.  Or is it the “Pastor’s Lost His Mind” card. 

This is unexpected however.  It was not a certain Mr. Wright it was a Caucasian priest named Rev. Michael Pfleger.  I guess all that talk about Senator Obama not getting Catholic support is out of the window (a joke of course but wait until you hear the rest).

He made statement recently like:  There’s “a whole lot of white people crying” because the presidency is within the reach of a black man, and informing us that Hillary Clinton is crying because “there is a black man stealing my show”, or his favorite Hillary quote “I’m white and this is mine”. 

The real humor is in the fact that this is all support that Senator Obama doesn’t really want, but it keeps finding not only him, but finding it’s way into the media.  He has been trying to work feverishly to distance himself from this person and his comments, but here we go again.

You have to ask yourself if these people are actually supporters of his or some kind of political double agents sent in to sabotage his campaign.  It seems that all of the strongest supporters of all three of the candidates cannot help but doing things that hurt the one they are supporting. 

Are we all ready for a few weeks of listening to sermons from Reverend Pfleger.

The current primaries give me the sensation of being a three ring circus.  It starts with an announcer and a big build up.  Then all sorts of things start happening, too much to even follow.  But, soon one main attraction starts then another in the next ring, and then a third in the other ring.  When that happens you just have to keep switching from ring to ring watching what is going on until you get bored with that one then you move your eyes to the next ring. 

I believe that the extended nature the prolonged Democratic primary and the desperate nature of Senator Clinton’s actions have been too much for supporters of all three candidates.  Their supporters have all resorted to pulling the most divisive of cards  from their bags of tricks.