Can the Dems get a foothold on the religious vote?

Both candidates sought a religious advantage with their respective VP choices. McCain with the Evangelists by picking Palin and Obama with the Catholics by picking Biden.This article from The New-Yorker explores how it might pay off.

read more | digg story

Drill, baby drill !

Beside " Country First", it was the slogan at the RNC. Most Americans (74%), are under the false impression that off shore oil drilling is the answer to their addiction to oil. A bill will be voted in Congress soon. In 2004, the slogan at the RNC was " 4 more years ", it was more clear than saying we can get ourselves out of a hole by drilling.

read more | digg story

Cheney sees nothing stopping Palin from doing job.

While in Rome, Cheney said that he loved Palin's speech at the convention. Cheney did not do any favor to McCain's campaign by giving his seal of approval to Palin as McCain and Palin are trying to distance themselves from Bush and Cheney as much as possible. Bush's name was not even mentioned at the RNC and Cheney is even less popular than Bush.

read more | digg story

Can Palin also galvanize the U.S. left?

By Ed Stoddard - Analysis ST. PAUL (Reuters) - Sarah Palin is the magnet John McCain needs to attract religious and social conservatives who are not convinced he's one of them. But the little-known first-term Alaska governor is a big risk for McCain to alienate the moderates and undecided.

read more | digg story

McCain Promises 'Change Is Coming': Really?

McCain has the audacity to embrace Obama's theme of " Change " for his campaign. Mainly changing Washington. This takes some nerves, considering that McCain has been a Washington insider for close to 30 years. A 72 years old " agent of change ", who is he kidding?

read more | digg story

David Frum is still not sold on Palin.

Former Bush speech writer and National Review contributor David Frum has huge concerns about Palin on issues. I guess the " small town " appeal that Palin had at the RNC last night is not rubbing on rational Republicans like Frum.

read more digg story

One of Bush's brain for hire wrote Palin's speech.

Matt Scully was the main speech writer for Bush until 2004. The speech that Palin will give at the RNC tonight was written by Matt. This link is an interview of Matt on the National Review for the publishing of his book " Dominion ". What a nice gesture from the president to let McCain and Palin " borrow " one of his brains.

read more digg story

Martin Luther King :" I have a dream" speech.

The full version of Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream" speech. Today is the 45Th anniversary of MLK most famous speech, tonight Obama will give his acceptance speech. May be Dr. King dream is about to become a reality. America has come a long way since 1963.MLK made history then, Obama is making history now.

read more digg story

Is McCain still a racist?

Twenty five years ago, McCain voted against Martin Luther King day to be recognized as a national holiday. He has claimed recently that he regrets his vote. However, he was in his early 50's when he casted the vote already a middle aged man. Is he really sincere now? African-Americans and all minorities should wonder about this before November.

read more digg story

McCain Would Vote Against His Own Immigration Bill

During the Jan. 30, 2008 debate, McCain said he would not vote for the immigration bill he championed six months earlier. McCain's flip-flopping in action.

read more digg story

Senator Biden on Foreign Policy.

This is a detail and factual list of Senator Biden's positions on foreign policy. Most political analysts view foreign affairs as Biden's strong suit. If you are more into substance than catchy one liners and spin, you should read this. This link also includes Biden voting record on the issues and numerous interviews from archive press links.

read more digg story

Would McCain be even worse than Bush on foreign affairs?

The recent crisis still unfolding between Georgia and Russia should serve as a warning for Americans. McCain seems to still live in the cold war era and had a very undiplomatic approach towards Russia. McCain is even more hackish than Bush and even closer than Bush to the neo-cons ideology.The late posturing of McCain in foreign affairs was to create a " League of Nations". Don't we have the UN?

read more digg story

Huge protests expected at political conventions

By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters are expected to jam the streets of Denver and St. Paul at the Republican and Democratic conventions in a noisy counterpoint to the parties' carefully scripted speeches. Some rumors have mentioned the possible use of human waste by protesters against the police.

read more digg story

Obama's tax plan in comparison with McCain's tax plan.

The Obama tax plan would make the tax system progressive by providing tax breaks to those at the bottom of the income scale and raising taxes on upper-income earners ( above $250,000). McCain's plan would make the system more regressive by providing little tax relief to those at the bottom while giving huge tax cuts to households at the very top.

McCain used to opposed the Bush tax cut for the wealthy, he has flip-flopped on the issue, and is now in favor of making it permanent.

The conservative economists claim that measures such as the Bush tax cut stimulate the economy. This position is only valid if you believe in an economical " trickle down effect" of the wealth coming from the top to the bottom.

The systemic problem that we have right now ( a clear example is the Fannie & Freddie bailout by the Feds) is to have an hybrid economic model: Full blown capitalism for the good time ( huge profit for the very few) and socialism in bad times (losses shared by everyone). There is no fairness in this, it is completely illogical, and is collapsing in front of us.

read more digg story

Are Americans a " nation of whiners"?

They are, at least according to former Senator Phil Gramm.

Gramm is a top economic adviser for McCain, he made the statement in an interview with the Washington Times.
He added : " You've heard of mental depression, this is a mental recession ". He went on to peddle the talking points of the Bush administration that " The US was not in an economic recession" and then said in closing " We have sort of become a nation of whinners".

I am sure people losing their jobs, houses and their 401 k's ( if they still have any) will be happy about the ludicrous statement. Today, the numbers were in; the foreclosures were up by 50 % from last year. Is this our imagination, Mr. Gramm? Gas is at record high and the dollar at record low. When was the last time you went to a gas station, Mr. Gramm? Are you aware of the 9 trillion deficit Mr.Gramm?

In politic you are only as good as the people you hire as " adviser", and getting Gramm in his team says a lot about McCain's judgement.

McCain moved quickly to limit the political damage caused by the comment of former Texas Senator Gramm. " Phil Gramm does not speak for me. I speak for me. So I strongly disagree " McCain said.

Yet, McCain picked Gramm in his "team", and quite often,in political campaigns the freudian slips of advisers reflect the real position of the boss. In the case of Gramm and McCain, it shows the disconnect that the very wealthy have with the real struggle of the middle class ( at least what is left of it).

Obama went on the attack saying: " It's not a figment of the imagination, it's not all in your head. I think it is time we have a president who doesn't deny our problems..or blame American people for them."

Is Senator Obama alienating the Progressive Democrats?

Obama, like any Democrats who wants to be elected for president, is making a move towards the " center " on various issues. The 2ND Amendment's Supreme court ruling, FISA court issue. The progressive Dems, his core support during the primary, are not happy about it. He would lose they support if he makes a shift on withdrawing from Iraq.

read more digg story

If Obama wants to win, he will pick Clinton as VP.

Obama has the nomination; But let's face it, Hillary Clinton had 50% of the Democrats' votes.

In order to make sure some of her votes do not go to McCain in November ( some polls indicate that up to 30% of Hillary's electorate could defect to McCain) she needs to be on the ticket.

Some Obama's supporters are very much against the idea. In my opinion, if he picks someone else, it would be a huge, and potentially catastrophic, blunder. Obama needs Clinton for the older demographic, the blue collars and a large percentage of the women's vote.

The Dems are divided right now, between the two camps. The only way to speed up the " healing" process is to have both of them on the ticket.

Obama will need a consumate Washington insider, like Hillary Clinton, to navigate the dark waters of Washington's politic. Hillary is tough and would make a great " enforcer" for Obama.

McCain is focusing his attacks on Obama's " lack of experience", having Clinton on his side would make this type of attacks less effective. After all, she did spend 8 years in the White House and was one of Bill Clinton's key advisers.

Hillary Clinton indicated that she would like the VP position. If Obama turns her down, it would be a very bad mistake and would likely translate into McCain.....in the White House on 1/20/2009.

Is " Maverick", McCain, turning into a trigger happy loose cannon?

President Bush's official heir, McCain, cranked up his aggressive rhetoric towards Hamas over the week-end. He stated : " I will be Hamas's worst nightmare..." and had the audacity to say that Hamas was supporting....Obama in the US elections.

This kind of conterproductive stances remind us of the one made by Bush when he told Iraqi's insurgents to " Bring it on..." a few years ago.

The overall situation in the Middle-East, thanks to the Bush administration reckless policy, is grim. Beside the Iraq fiasco, we have now a civil war brewing in Lebanon, still no prospect of resolution between Israel & Palestine and Turkey attacking Iraq's Kurds within Iraq's border.

Well, at least we know what to expect if McCain is elected; Another four years of " My way or the highway" diplomacy and, yet, another trigger-happy Commander in Chief.

The choice is clear for American voters.

For more info about McCain's statement on Hamas and Obama go read Harold Pollack's article in the Huffington Post @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-pollack/mccains-nonsense-about-ha_b_98786.html

Will demographic be the " Decider " of the 2008's elections?

Senator Obama has more support among younger and urban voters than Senator Clinton does.

On the other hand, she performs better than him in the rural areas, with blue collars and voters older than 65.

At this juncture, the key factor that will decide the November's elections outcome could be pure demographic. Older voters are more " reliable " than the young demographic.

The main question is: Will older democrats ( Clinton's key demographic) vote for Sen. McCain if Sen. Obama is the Dems nominee? If they do, the only way Sen. Obama can defeat Sen.McCain is if the young democrats turn up in record numbers at the polls, in November.

If you are into political polls, you can find more or less any information you need @ http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/2008/national-polls.html

Guest Blog/ Hillary Clinton: The psycho ex-girlfriend of the Democatic party.

Senator Clinton's nomination seems more and more unlikely, yet as more " big Guns" within the Dems pledge their support to Sen.Obama ( George McGovern a few days ago)...she is not giving up and wants to keep going and going like a political Energizer bunny.

This is the blog of David Worthen, an old friend and " partner in crimes " of mine, and his hilarious take on the topic.

" Despite all the math counting her out, Hillary Clinton fervently remains in the race to become the Democratic nominee for President in 2008. She has become the Democratic party's psycho ex-girlfriend and she is not going away without a restraining order.

Its 2:31 AM, the Democratic party is sleeping peacefully when it hears the phone buzz on the night stand. It rolls over and sees " Hillary " on the caller ID....

To read the rest of David Worthen's blog go to: http://madatoms.com/2008/05/edit-hillary-clinton-psycho-ex.html