Presidential debate at Ole Miss: energy is key to all

Tonight Sen. John McCain faces Sen. Barack Obama in the first presidential debate down yonder in Oxford, Mississippi, home of Ole Miss and William Faulkner. Ole Miss is straight out of ‘Gone with the Wind’—moss hanging from ancient oaks and residents talking with a Southern accent so defined it makes Jimmy Carter sound like a Yankee. Tonight’s the foreign policy debate and I hope the candidates will talk about energy because that's key to every problem we face. I also hope this won’t be one of those dry, dull, eye-glazing debates. Jim Lehrer is moderating and he’s about as lively as an empty chair, no disrespect intended.

Click to read more ...

C-Span hub gives you the goodies for presidential debate

C-Span offered a remarkable resource for voters and writers with convention hubs for both major political parties, and the network will do the same thing with the first presidential debate on Friday. The C-Span Debate Hub will not only stream the debate live. Blog and Twitter aggregators will keep viewers up-to-date with analyses and responses. There will even be a keyword tree. Wonder if Sen. Barack Obama’s famous ‘uh, uh, uh,’ or Sen. John McCain’s familiar ‘my friends' will be on the list alongside standards like taxes, service and all those other buzz words politics comprise. The hub will have all sorts of bells and whistles.

Click to read more ...

Economic proposal smackdown creates Super Bowl of US politics

Thursday night, key Democratic leaders spoke on C-Span about the “rescue” (aka “bailout”)  proposals. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) looked and sounded exhausted. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) appeared to be short of breath. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) did his usual meandering , and lateraled a few criticisms at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) took his turn, cheerleading fellow Dems and insinuating McCain had put forth alternative plans. A flag should’ve been thrown at Dodd because McCain didn’t put forth any plans. These leaders were followed by a group of House Republicans who basically copped an attitude—because they can. Republicans are taking a cautious tack and this should come as no surprise. The basic creed of the GOP goes directly against government bailouts. And in the middle of all this, the Dems come forth with a new stimulus package totalling $56 billion on top of the $700 billion.

Click to read more ...

Poll shows liberals and media who stereotype GOP women are simply uninformed

A young woman called in to a radio program the other day, and she recounted an experience with a group of older females attending a university forum on women’s issues in Florida. The young woman is a conservative; the older women are liberals. The caller described being verbally mob-attacked by the women, largely over the issue of abortion and of course, over Gov. Sarah Palin as a vice-presidential candidate. It should be pointed out that bearing a child is a choice.

The feministas in that university group assumed all Republican women agree with the young woman who believes abortion is wrong. And the error in that mindset belies a lack of understanding about the GOP. The Republican Party does not fit into the tidy little racial, religious and gender niches the Democrats so handily cater to. Republicans disagree among ourselves, but we tend to be respectful about our differences. The group The Republican Majority for Choice is a perfect example. RMC released poll results in August that were glaringly—perhaps deliberately—overlooked  by traditional media.

Click to read more ...

State grant gone wrong pales in comparison to Obama’s federal earmarks

The State of Illinois is investigating the use of a $100,000 grant awarded in 2001 by Sen. Barack Obama who was serving in the Illinois legislature at the time.The Chicago Sun-Times said, “A $100,000 state grant for a botanic garden in Englewood that then-state Sen. Barack Obama awarded in 2001 to a group headed by a onetime campaign volunteer is now under investigation by the Illinois attorney general amid new questions, prompted by Chicago Sun-Times reports, about whether the money might have been misspent.” The garden didn’t happen. The paper also says $65,000 of the grant money went to the wife of the Obama 2000 congressional campaign volunteer who heads the Chicago Better Housing Association. That grant pales in comparison to federal earmarks requests by Obama.

Click to read more ...

Reid to McCain: Stay away from Washington

Updated on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 8:30PM by Kay B. Day, Editor

Sen. Harry Reid doesn’t want Sen. John McCain to do his job. McCain plans to head to Washington to help fix the economic mess. Reid asked McCain to stay away. Funny thing is last time I looked McCain was still the senator from Arizona. So what's up with Reid?  I think it’s likely Dems are trying to protect their candidate. It’s a risk to try to help fix this situation and Sen. Barack Obama is definitely not going to take a political risk like that, even in the interest of the country. Plus despite the narrative media loves to tell, Obama is definitely not an economics whiz. I confess Reid is one of my least favorite Washington politicos.

Click to read more ...

Relief: McCain suspends campaign, heads to Washington

Updated on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 4:26PM by Kay B. Day, Editor

Updated on Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 12:36PM by Kay B. Day, Editor

Sen. John McCain is suspending his campaign to head to Washington in response to the economic issues surrounding the bailout, and I am a very relieved taxpayer. Because of all the people who could be in Washington right now, McCain needs to be there. For one thing, he’s anti-earmark and he actually tried to get something done before this mess happened. I’m suspicious enough about the current congress I want an anti-earmark politician on the scene, especially after the $24 million they gave the EPA for more education about science, something I thought our schools were already supposed to be doing. If times were good, I’d have less of a problem with that. But times aren’t and additional spending needs to come to zero. If it isn’t essential, spending should be embargoed. Sen. Barack Obama's economics are easy to understand.

Click to read more ...