Don't Ignore What Matters

Had an IM conversation with a friend of mine today who after we lamented the poor starts of our fantasy football teams told me the following. For anonymity's sake we'll call him OLM.

OLM : talking about woulda's
OLM: the stock market!!!
OLM: UGH
Me: UGH
Me: i hear ya
OLM: wow man
OLM: im taking a bath on EVERYTHING

It hit me soon after this point of our conversation what this election is really about, real American's well being.

I say this because soon after the above exchange we got into a 20 line discussion about what a joke Sarah Palin is. The Palin pick 9 or 10 days later, is serving as what I feared it would.

She's a smokescreen for what really matters. It even caused McCain campaign manager Rick Davis to say,,,

"This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

The focus needs to be on the IM conversation above and not on the soap opera that is the Palin nomination.

I wrote after Bill Clinton's speech that his messaging is always way better than the Democrats and it's time to go back to Clinton basics.

"It's the economy stupid."

I follow stocks from afar, but people are hurting, 401k's are shrinking, everything that is supposed to be up,, is down,, everything that is supposed to be down,,, is up.

This is what matters, this is what the Democrats have to stay focused on like Barack Obama tried to do with Keith Olbermann last night. The answer to every question should be 'McPalin economics are the same as George W. Bush's.'

In this country,, pensions are a thing of the past. We overwhelmingly rely on the stock market and 401k's to accumulate wealth. If not the market, many are invested heavily in real estate, and that market is almost scarier than the stock market.

So the effect this recession is killing all of us in the pocketbooks right now whether we know it or not.

The Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout was probably necessary, but if the housing market gets worse,, the taxpayers will pay the bill as always.

When I first started following politics it was 1992 and Ross Perot was on TV with his charts talking about the national debt. After turning things around in the 1990's under Clinton and the Gingrich congress (that's for you BKA) we made headway in paying down our debt.

Now after 6 years of single party rule, two years of a Democratic controlled chickenshit congress, and above all the 'have your cake and eat it to' Presidency of George W. Bush, we now have to fear what the future of our economy holds and what happens when our debts come due.

Sarah Palin interviews, liberl or conservative media bias, political process stories,,,

In a different year these might be issues of importance, but this year is different, we have to know what these two tickets are going to do to ensure our futures or if we are going to all be learning Mandarin or Hindi because the Chinese and Indians have lapped us in the world.

POST SCRIPT (3:05PM):

OLM just instant messaged me

"down 275 today"

Shit, and Democrats are worried about Palin interviewing with the media. Talk about the economy and take the message of the election back.

Time to hold these candidates feet to the fire on the economy.

Period.

Convention Hangover

After an intensive couple weeks of politics with the ill conceived idea of back to back conventions,, I am drained from writing and watching anything politics. I watched half of Joe Biden's Meet the Press interview yesterday and couldn't focus.

The result will be a week or so of shorter blogs while I wait for Obama or Palin to say something that fires me up.

Here is what we can say for sure though.

The Democrats decision to have their Convention the week before the Republicans really ate their 'bounce'. The party that gets to go last has the advantage and after the more hopeful message of Denver, the Republicans played it right to blast away and have McCain come in with a more 'unifying' speech at the end.

The publicity stunt of the Palin VP pick also did it's job in the short term to eat into the Dem's convention boost than in years past.

The Palin, I mean McCain convention has apparently given McCain a solid boost heading into this week with a 54-44 lead in the latest Gallup poll.

Those who have read this blog know I talk very little about polls as I just don't believe in them that much. As someone who used to work campaigns I have worked the ground where the polls had us down the night before the election by 3 points and we won by almost 20 points. Have seen polls the day before the election that had us up 15 points and we won by only 5.

Presidential polls carry even less weight for me. We see a 1, 3, or 10 point spread nationally and but as Al Gore learned, the national vote doesn't mean shit. You have to win states and this year there are more states that are up in the air than ever before.

But I for one, am worn out from the last two weeks and want to see all the candidates have to face tough questions and scrutiny the rest of the way.

The conventions were great theatre and watched by millions which encourages me that we may actually have a genuine big turnout.

The race is on and it's gonna be one hell of a ride.

Initial McCain Speech Thoughts

What an uncharacteristically unfocused convention by the Republicans. Now for the record I think conventions are overrated and mean very little in the grand scheme of things. As long as you aren't so negative you should be able to recover from most anything. But after a convention you should come out with a clear message. The Republican party's message was clear, they really like drilling, and the only real excitement they have for their ticket right now, if for their VP nominee.

Let me start out by saying I feel bad for John McCain. For many years until his transformation from Maverick to typical politician the past 2 year I have respected his politics. I didn't agree with them, but as a Democrat I didn't need the video last night to respect what his service meant to the country. I've always and still do respect it. That service however has never really been a factor by the faithful of his own party for the past 8 years who always wished he fell in line with them. It was Karl Rove who spread rumors about him having a 'black baby' in South Carolina in 2000.

Now McCain has fallen in line with them and they still haven't embraced him.

Yes their were people choked up during the harrowing and powerful tale of his awful imprisonment as a POW, but their was tepid enthusiasm for the vast majority of the rest of his speech.

John McCain, a man who has wanted to be the Republican nominee for President since 1996 when he deferred to friend Phil Gramm should have had the joy of a great culmination this week and he didn't get it. By choosing Sarah Palin to appease the radical religious right wing of his party he made the McCain convention into the Palin convention.

In the end the pick may get him closer to the White House, but if he gets there he better watch his back, because the people that are going to come after him are his own party who apparently really want Sarah Palin, someone they hardly know to be the face of their party.

As for McCains speech, I have written here before and many have said, big speeches are not McCain's strong suit. His personal story was too buried at the end of a speech that my guess had many people turning the channel in the middle of it.

His two biggest non-Palin applause lines.

Drilling: Followed by the delegates shouting their favorite phrase of the convention.

"Drill, baby, drill."

They shouted this during Rudy's speech, Palin's speech, and McCain's as well. Let's just say I think that independent voters are more impressed and in line with "Yes we can!", than 'drill baby drill.'

The other line the audience seemed to explode for was when he said "help bad teachers find another line of work."

Now I'm not for bad teachers either. But you have to respect people that go into teaching and the Republican party is now going to fire bad teachers? Exactly how are they going to do this? Is the 'bureaucratic federal government' going to go into your child's classrooms and determine who the bad teachers are. Or are low standardized test scores going to determine a good or bad teacher?

As was the case with the whole week, the Republicans did and said nothing to lay out a plan or vision. McCain wasn't super negative, but as opposed to the tried and true strategies of Rove and Bush, their wasn't a coherent, simple plan that their troops could take to the streets.

They are running a campaign of as Peggy Noonan said yesterday, about narratives. Rove knew this is never enough. Even those that think the how much you want to 'have a beer' with the candidate determines elections, the candidates have to relate to people on things that effect them.

While 'No Child Left Behind' is a failed plan in my opinion, it was an incredible talking point as patronizing as it was.

If the McCain camp thinks 'Country First' will hold the same weight I just think they are four years too late for that message.

The Palin speech was a nasty attack job, but the enthusiasm in the room was palpable. McCain tried to be a bit of a healer, a bit of an attack dog, and a bit of a Maverick last night. The problem with trying to be too many things is that you don't really come off as any of them.

I appreciated his respectful comments about Obama and his supporters, but then he undercut it in typical kinda snide, kinda arrogant McCain.

His attacks on Obama didn't really carry the weight or convincing power behind them that even Joe Lieberman showed earlier in the week. This had been the critique of Obama before he hit his grand slam in his speech last Thursday.

Finally, he did attempt and rhetorically tried to divorce himself from the past eight years of corruption and mismanagement by the Bush administration, but 'Maverick' McCain used to have real passion behind it. This speech was done in more code and lacked real fire.

The speech overall lacked fire and it's because McCain is a candidate in an identity crisis.

He has won his nomination, but lost his convention to his VP pick.

He wants to speak to voters he has had for years, independents, but has had to walk the line to appease those in his party that have never trusted him.

It should have been the week of McCain, a celebration of his Independence and heroism, and instead it was a week about an unknown politician from Alaska, a cloud of a failed leadership by an unmentioned, bumped out of prime time President, and the result is a week not about John McCain.

FIREWORKS?

There were more than a few smartass comments made by Republicans criticizing the stage that was set up in Denver for the historic and powerful Barack Obama speech last week. They criticized the 'foam Greek Columns' mercilessly.

Yet the Republicans had their own odd and cheap stage trick.

Did anyone else notice the screen on stage after the speech that started showing fireworks?

I mean a foam Greek Column or watching TV to watch fireworks on a,,,,,, giant TV?

Brilliant

God Bless Jon Stewart.

Republicans doubting the Palin Pick

Today I came across this video of Republicans Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan who were on with NBC Political Director, Chuck Todd. Their segment ended and went off camera. Their mic's were 'hot' as they say in the business.

For the record they didn't know they would be heard, but much noise was made when Jesse Jackson made comments about Obama talking down to black people, so 17people must be fair and show what some REPUBLICAN's really think about the Palin pick.

Republican Convention Night Two

I sat down and watched the RNC on DVR last night the same way I did the DNC last week.

And as a brawler, that's what I have been waiting for!

No one does kneecapping like the Republican Party. Something I have always been jealous of, I wish my party could veil itself in 'values' and then rip people apart.

Let me start with Sarah Palin.

I thought she gave an excellent speech. Her delivery was much smoother than I expected considering the short time she had to prepare. Unlike my guy Joe Biden, she didn't step on any lines either and got the maximum bang for her buck. It was a skillful speech, and I think she touted the positives of her experience very well.

To steal a Republican talking point, it was an impressive performance from a young, eloquent, and engaging figure.

The issue I had with her and for the entire night was the snide and nasty nature of the evening.

The Republicans are crying sexism and elitism for any critique of Palin which is good strategy. A good strategy until you turn the night into a character assassination of your opponent.

When you fire away like they did you better be prepared to take return fire.

And for the record, if every attack against Palin is sexist, then wouldn't it be fair to call the demeaning of Barack Obama racist?

Let's open up the record of Sarah Palin. Obama has been through the ringer of debates and interviews since he won the Primary in Illinois in 2004. We have made decisions on him as a nation. Some worship him, some are not sold on him, and some hate him. There are many other views people have of him positive and negative.

Digging into her history is what the media is supposed to do. This is what the Republicans wanted the media and a special prosecutor to do to Bill Clinton.

As Obama has stated and I echoed yesterday, going after her family should be off limits. Yet her statements in favor of things like 'The Bridge to Nowhere' before she was against it, is fair game. Her leaving Wasilla $22million in the hole as Mayor is fair game.

If they are so enamored with her, they should say 'bring it on'.

This is the Vice Presidency, the person who could become President!

We should know where she stands.

We should know where she came from and what she believes.

Blaming the media is just an old political trick. Democrats know this trick better than most, as my buddies, the Clinton's, perfected it. Yet the media is supposed to dig and let's be honest, as a nation very few of us know much about Sarah Palin.

There are two questions that have to be asked though after the past couple nights.

First, when is a Republican going to say by their logic, Sarah Palin has more 'executive experience' than John McCain?

Second, when is a Republican going to mention George W. Bush? They bumped the President out of prime time for Joe Lieberman and I didn't hear Palin say Bush once.

Negativity works in politics, but last night flashed back to Palin's political hero, Pat Buchanan. His legendary hateful 1992 speech was what flashed through my mind with Giuliani. Having him go that negative before her was a bad move. I had 20 texts from friends and family, Republicans and Democrats, who said they changed the channel.

To have Palin follow with condescension against a profession I guess we are supposed to mock now, 'community organizers', was overkill.

In the end it will fire up both bases and turn off the moderate voters.

But that was the point of the Palin nomination. It isn't the Hillary voters, it was done to appeal to the Evangelical voters.

The Dems spent their Convention drawing differences to John McCain, but overall went out of their way to be respectful to his service. The 'values' of the Republicans have thus far not included similar respect towards the careers of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

So it is feeling a lot like more of the same after all?

Palin Family Values?

Just over three weeks ago I wrote the following about John Edwards.

More importantly, I feel for the Edwards children that they have to go around their friends and classmates with everyone knowing about their dad's terrible mistake. They never asked their dad to run for office or become a celebrity. Many families have issues like this that are never known publicly.

The Edwards kids are the truly unfortunate victims to their dad's mistake. What
I am saying is that I can care less about John Edwards political career. Yet am madder than hell about what he is putting his family through.

Today my thoughts go out to the latest child victim of their parents political ambition, Bristol Palin.

Bristol Palin is a young girl who like many other kids, made a mistake. I know some would jump on this statement, but yes an unplanned pregnancy at 17 is a mistake.

Since her mother decided to join the Republican ticket it is safe to say that Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan will have less paparazzi following them because the picture everyone will be angling for is that of Bristol Palin.

The tabloid media, both national and international are going to make this kid's life miserable.

So I am left to ask. Is Sarah Palin naive in thinking the media won't mercilessly stalk her daughter? Or is she just incredibly selfish and only concerned about advancing her career?

The answer to that question will come out in the next 9 weeks.

I don't think poorly on Palin for her daughter getting pregnant. Yet, I think Palin is selfish for subjecting her daughter to what is going to be an awful media intrusion. For deciding to leave her daughter for at least 9 weeks during the pregnancy.

A good friend and great blog contributor wrote me an email yesterday and said something I have heard many parents say in some form or another..

"Your job as a parent is to protect you kids. That's like, your main job, your most important job."

Sarah Palin forgot this when she accepted the offer from John McCain and her daughter is about to pay the price.

For the record, I think the TMZ's and National Enquirers are all pieces of crap and any unfair or crude coverage of Bristol Palin will be condemned on this blog. Barack Obama has already said that 'kids are off limits' but lets not pretend we don't know what is coming for Bristol Palin. A tough situation of being pregnant is about to be much worse because of her mother's now nationally prominent position.

The reality is anyone who thinks that it won't turn Bristol Palin's life is going to be turned upside down is delusional and it could have been avoided if her mother put her family first and not her political ambition.

I have already heard people say, 'this judgement is a double standard for women. A man wouldn't get this kind of scrutiny over chasing his dream.'

To this I say, bullshit. I would criticize any man who decided to join a ticket under the same circumstances.

For the record I would also loudly criticize any man who decided to leave his wife with their 4 month old baby to run for Vice President.

Another little known act of Palin selfishness is the fact that people don't seem to realize the actual grind of a campaign. There is almost nothing as tough as running for national office and your time is consumed talking to reporters, talking to crowds, and travelling.

Yet Palin's newborn son is about to have an absentee mother for the next 62 days. Where is the values crowd criticizing this? She either won't see baby Trig (I have to admit a very cool name) or take Trig with her on the buses and planes as she travels to 2-3 states daily.

You can't call it bad parenting that caused Bristol Palin's pregnancy, but it's a selfish parental decision that is about to turn her kid's life upside down.

After tonight's speech Palin will surely be lauded as impressive and her performance and selection as that of a 'game changer'. As all these speeches have been. People in the crowd will be crying and say they just saw history.

Yet for me I will see just another politician who put their own life ahead of that of their family.

Republican Convention Night One

Let me start by saying I thought it weird that the Republican Convention was scheduled for Labor Day in the first place. But I give the RNC credit for cancelling the first night of the convention in the wake of Hurricane Gustav.

So to last evenings coverage. I watched NBC's coverage and was surprised at how bad things came off. I don't know if this happened on other telecasts but when President Bush spoke they only had the White House feed. I mean there was NO crowd reaction to his speech that you could hear. So on the screen was President Numnuts pausing for applause that the viewing public could not see.

The Bush speech was expectedly lame and uninspiring. But it was an incredible slight that the sitting President of the United States was not only given a non-Primetime speaking slot, that he preceded Fred Thompson and a Democrat.

Now many have given kudos to Fred Thompson and I thought he was pretty good overall, but NBC cut in and out of his speech so much that I couldn't get a real flow of it. He also needed a bottle of water, because the poor guy sounded like he was choking to death through the parts that I saw.

Then came Joe Lieberman. I am disappointed with Joe Lieberman. When he was defeated in the Democratic Primary in 2006 I actually gave money to his independent campaign. It was a small donation but despite his war stance I always respected Joe.

The truth is I still respect Joe, but am disappointed in his remarks last night. Advocate for McCain all you want, he's your friend and I respect the loyalty. But to attack Obama who was always so complimentary to Joe (calling him his mentor a few years back) was bad form.

I was reminded that while I like Joe's demeanor he is an underwhelming presence on the stage. The fact that the Republicans had him as their 'Prime Time' slot last night was an odd choice. Maybe it works, but I think they wasted last evening.

Not to mention the excitement in the stadium was pretty dull the whole evening. Much of the upper deck was empty and while Thompson and Lieberman were good, they were very forgettable.

The truth is this, this has become the Palin convention pure and simple. While expectations were low for Biden as he was 5th on the list of must see speeches last week, all the pressure of this convention is squarely on Sarah Palin this evening.

The Paper Maverick

John McCain made a splash by naming little known Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate in Ohio. But a splash is about all he should get credit for as the John McCain I used to respect so much and have always viewed as a true independent thinker used his VP pick to retreat into the kind of expediency of typical politicians like the ones he claims to be different from.


There has been a lot of reaction to this pick. Some are calling it brilliant, some a risk, yet above all people are asking is Palin ready to be a heartbeat from the Presidency. If anyone asks this question about a VP pick, that means its a failure in my eyes.

In the inspiration for much of this blog Aaron Sorkin's West Wing, this situation came up once when they were debating replacing the sitting VP on the reelection ticket. Fictional President Bartlet said he would replace VP John Hoynes because of four words.

"Because I could die."

The VP job gets a lot of flack because much of the job is ceremonial and there are very few Constitutional responsibilities. Yet, the one most important responsibility is to be ready to assume the Presidency.

Above all McCain is getting credit for two things. First, keeping a secret exceptionally well and second, stealing some of the spotlight from the incredible Obama speech the night before. Americans deserve more from their Presidential Candidates than those that can keep secrets on Richard Branson-like publicity stunts.


Palin is a mysterious and intriguing pick who has and will continue to generate a lot of interest. That initial buzz will provide some that people will want to learn about and has the cover, or mirage of being a bold and Maverick-like move.

This move was not at all about being a Maverick, this move was a knee jerk reaction to the incredible convention that the Democrats staged in Denver. This was a desperate pick for a candidate that had spent much of the last month gaining ground. It goes against everything that caused me for years to say I could vote for John McCain.

McCain got the label Maverick by standing up to his own party, by putting his values and judgement before those of his party. In choosing Sarah Palin he abandoned that judgement in order to gamble both his candidacy and if he wins, his Presidency on a person he met only once before choosing her.

Now since I have graduated college I have worked on four campaigns, two advertising agencies, and my current employer. At none of those jobs did I ever have to go through less than three interviews. In some of them I have known the CEO's of the company since I was 14 years old. They viewed their companies or campaigns as too important to really make sure I was the right fit.

John McCain took the process so seriously that we learned last night that he had his most serious conversation with her the Thursday before the Friday announcement. With Hurricane season upon us do we need to be reminded of bad political appointments (Mike Brown) and that qualifications actually matter when it comes to jobs as important as FEMA, the Vice Presidency, or dare I say the Presidency.

People can always tell me that I follow issues more than most people and that most Americans want to relate to the candidates. But this is our country, is it too much to ask that our candidates thoroughly interview the person who would take over the Presidency should something happen to them.

As you may notice I didn't respond to this pick until today. My initial reaction was anger at McCain and I try to not write when I am angry. But anger that McCain has failed in his first test, picking someone of non debatable qualifications who would be able to succeed him.

My second bit of disappointment in him is that the Maverick went against what he really wanted to do. In the past couple days it was clear that he really wanted to take loyal soldiers and eminently qualified candidates in Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge. Yet the radical right mistrusts McCains pro-life credentials so much that they threatened a floor fight against them because despite the fact they both would be qualified VP's they aren't for criminalization of abortion.

Again the ideology of the Republican party dictates the day.

The courageous McCain then sold out his own beliefs and judgement and made a decision that kissed the ass of the James Dobson, Rush Limbaughs, and Richard Lands of the Republican party. These are the people that don't appeal to the moderate or independent voters of this country and the people McCain made his 'Maverick' label by taking on.

The Republicans, and Joe Lieberman can say 'Maverick' all they want this week, but this pick is just the latest sell out move of the artist formerly known as 'The Maverick' John McCain.

Yes We Must,,,, WIN!

If you didn't see the speech of Barack Obama last evening it is one of the rare 'must see' moments in politics. 84,000 people flooded Invesco Field and saw our next President.

Watch the speech by clicking on this link.

It was powerful, it was moving, it was a game changer. While Obama has had his lead chipped away as of late and questions have been asked if he had the strength to stand up to attacks, he answered all those questions and then some.

Obama showed the country last night he is going to take the fight to the Republicans on his turf, on their turf, and on our behalf to take our nation out of the darkness of the Bush debaccle for the past eight years. He has put the Republicans on notice, this is not 4 or 8 years ago, we are not afraid of your attacks anymore.

While I voted for Barack in the primary, I have had a hard time really embracing him at any point of the election. There has been a disconnect for me. I have wondered if someone with more experience should be our choice. I have never bought the JFK or RFK comparisons, and I am a different voter, rhetoric doesn't appeal to me. Actually governing to help people is what I care about.

Seeing this convention has me on board and its time to start fighting harder for Barack Obama to be President. Not just his speech last night which was great. This convention reminded me why my 401K has shrunk, why my money is going less far, why my country has been damaged in the eyes of the World. It reminded all of us, where Barack and Michelle Obama come from, and where Joe Biden comes from.

They may not have lives we relate to today, but their upbringings resonate, and unlike windsurfers or $500 haircuts, it can't be painted that these guys don't care or are out of touch.

For two elections, we let our fears guide us and we let bullshit cloud our judgement. We had candidates who were smart and brilliant men allow street fighters to knife us in the gut. This convention we said as Barack said last night, "Enough".

We saw Michelle Obama, and said, there's a first lady. We saw Joe Biden, and thought, he may not be a huge vote getter, but he is the right person to be VP. We heard Hillary and Bill Clinton tell us of the importance of getting back to a time when our country grows for all of us, and uses the words 'responsibility' and 'accountability', not as slogans, but as ways of governing to lift us all up.

It is important to note, last night is just one speech. There are 9+ weeks to go and anything can happen either way. There will be four debates with a lot on the line for both sides. Conventions don't win elections, but they can lose them, and the Democrats sure as hell didn't lose the election and certainly got a big boost positive for them going forward.

This election is about the future of the country and Barack Obama is that future.

***** As was mentioned by Brian Williams last night, there was a Sorkin-esque tone to the speech last night. Less President Bartlett and more President Shepherd from The American President. Below is the brilliant last speech of that movie.