Obama’s Message to GOP….

So on The Hill’s website, I come across a posting that’s entitled:  “Obama to GOP:  ‘Stop Trying to Frighten the American People.’  You’ve got to be kidding me right?  This notice coming from the President?  He thinks the GOP is frightening us?  That very well may be true, but let’s not throw stones at glass houses Mr. President.  As recently as Monday, Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader from Nevada, had these wonderful remarks:

 

So let me get this straight, Harry, you want to lump together those who were opposed to banning slavery, opposed to granting women suffrage, and those opposed to the Civil Rights Act, to those who oppose health care reform?  I truly believe this is an unfair comparison.  This language could create a feeling of guilt by association in order to pass a bill that a great number of people in this country are against, in its current form.  Way to go Harry!  Way to try to scare moderate members of the GOP, and from your own caucus into voting for your 2,000 page + brick of legislation.

Let’s continue with another example of how democrats are trying to scare those who oppose either the President or the health care reform package.  Remember this video from this past September?  Here’s Speaker Pelosi:

So Speaker Pelosi was concerned about the tone of the rhetoric and making a veiled reference to the Harvey Milk assassination.  Gotta love how the Speaker just goes ahead and tries to intimidate those who speak loudly against health care reform and linking them to violence….  Hmmm……..

And how about this nugget from former President Jimmy Carter:

So according to President Carter a lot of the opposition is due to his race, and that is a concept that isn’t without merit.  You so much as mention racism, it gets people’s attention, and no one wants to be labeled accordingly.  If people are going to be called racist for opposing the President and/or his policies, it would put some fear into people from speaking up.

Essentially, I believe that both parties shouldn’t be in the business of fear mongering us into silence because we may oppose the majority party in their policies.  Let’s have a healthy debate because that’s part of what makes our system work so well.  When one party or another instills fear into the populace for voicing opposition, or debate, our republic will suffer as a result.

NM Newspaper Declares Obama Winner??

You’ve got to be kidding me, right?  I saw this article on CNN’s Political Ticker Blog.  You can read it here.  The New Mexico Sun News, a liberal rag that is publised bi-monthly, has the following headline story:  “Obama Wins!”

Now, I can definitely understand that this paper is published on a bi-monthly basis, however, I don’t think this sort of article should be published before an election even has taken place!  Now is this prediction a leap of faith, a la, Dewey Beats Truman of 1948, or is there some accuracy in this article?  Are they jumping the gun?  Perhaps, but given the current state of the polls, and where Obama stands, I can see some truth in this article, however, I do think the timing is awfully poor with such journalistic opportunism.

Countdown to the Election… 8 Days and Counting

I, for one, have got to say, that I’m glad that we’re in the home stretch for this election cycle.  I don’t know about anyone else, but it seems like this election has gone on longer than any other in history.  It appears as if the writing is on the wall for the GOP and McCain.  To be perfectly honest, I won’t be overly surprised if it does turn out that way.

I have surmised, since the mid-term elections of 2006, that the Democrats could put Mickey Mouse at the top of their ticket, and they would still beat out whoever the GOP nominee would be.  There are a few things about this election that have taken me by surprise, and I’ll list these in no particular order of importance.

First, I was really surprised that John McCain came back and won the GOP nomination.  I was a huge fan of McCain’s back in the 2000 campaign, before I felt he was railroaded by the GOP establishment.  However, this time around, something seems to be lacking from his message.  This cycle, I’m not seeing the John McCain of 2000.

Second, I never would have thought that a freshman senator would defeat the heavily favored Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.  This turn of events really caught me by surprise.  Now, mind you, I’m not a Hillary supporter by any stretch of the imagination, but, I think she, and her campaign, didn’t take Obama seriously enough.

Third, not in a million years did I think I would see John McCain pick a woman to be his running mate.  Granted, there has been a lot of negative press regarding Sarah Palin, but I think a lot of it is unwarranted.  Is she qualified to be president?  Perhaps not, however, I will argue, that she reminds me a lot of Bill Clinton when people said he didn’t have the experience, in particular, in the area of foreign policy, and yet, he was elected president.  In my opinion, governors are more equipped to handle the task of being president than a senator.  I firmly believe there is a very specific reason why our country doesn’t elect sitting legislators to be president.  If we elect Obama to the White House, we’ll all see soon enough, and will get a strong reinforcement of a lesson we need to relearn.  This would be the case even if we elect McCain.

Fourth, I am really dismayed with how the media has been in the tank for Barack Obama.  He, nor his running mate Joe Biden, seem to get any tough questions from the media.  I’m not saying they’re getting a free pass, but come on.  Biden’s interview with a local Orlando news station should speak volumes.  Tough questions aren’t expected by the campaign, and if you do ask those questions, you’re blacklisted.  I think it may be a precursor of how open an Obama administration would be to critical and in depth questions that actually require some thought.

Something that really confuses me is the perception that the Democrats are going to win a landslide victory, not only for the White House, but the Congress as well.  This democratically controlled Congress has passed no meaningful legislation in two years.  I should know, I subscribe to the house majority leader’s weekly legislative schedule.  This Congress is also has the lowest approval rating of any Congress in history!  Yet, despite this approval rating, people are going to elect even MORE Democrats to Congress.  I suppose the biggest question of the day is whether or not the Democrats will get the magical number 60 in the Senate.

I’ve grown particularly tired of the gotcha politics that have embroiled this country during most of the Bush presidency.  I’m not so sure that having a unified government will completely eliminate gotcha politics, all that it will mean, is a highly liberal agenda that will be run by Speaker Pelosi, Leader Reid, and a possible President Obama.  I’m personally not a big fan of a far left liberal agenda, nor a far right agenda, for that matter, however, we’ve gone the path of a divided government, perhaps, our country needs to see what these folks can do, see if they can improve the situation, or make it a lot worse. 

Well, we’ll find out in the next week.  As I mentioned earlier, I will be so glad when it is over, and then we can start talking about solutions to problems, very serious problems that need to be resolved.