It’s not like it matters much, though.  I live in the state of Texas, which will send all its electoral votes for McCain, no questions asked.  Most of you who read my blog are from either Texas or Utah, which both enjoy a stranglehold by the Republican party in Presidential politics.  So whoever I vote for would be a vote of conscience, without much real meaning.

The electoral college sucks.  It was a 18th century necessity, but not a 21st century one.  It’s no wonder we have such great voter apathy in this nation, since a great majority of American’s votes really don’t count for jack.

From the latest polls, though, it is obvious that the Republicans are going to get spanked this year, and the only question which remains is: How big will the landslide be?  In my opinion the Republican party totally deserves it.  They had 6 years of control of Congress and the White House, and their only accomplishments: No Child Left Behind and repeatedly funding the Iraq War.

McCain’s campaign has not had a cohesive, resonant message for months (no, I DO NOT consider “Joe the Plumber” to be a message), nor did they set up any kind of overarching campaign theme that resonated with anyone from the outset.  They have been spending months and millions of dollars hacking at the leaves, and not striking at the root.  Now, in the final days of the campaign, they are running a fear-based campaign (I’m less bad than that guy).  McCain deserves to lose in a landslide.

My friend Michelle recently articulated her views on this subject, when she described why she decided to cast her vote for Obama:

I am not a democrat and I have never voted for a democrat before. As far as political philosophies go, I am a true conservative. I believe in a limited government. I don’t think it’s the government’s place to regulate personal freedom or morality. …True republicanism, to me is ordinary citizens electing the wisest, most educated and intelligent leaders to govern for them, not over them…

…The Republican Party used to be a party of conservatives and if they had produced a conservative candidate, I would have voted for that person. Instead, the Party has been overrun by a “base” that I neither respect nor identify with. Conservatism has been replaced with a dangerous populism that celebrates an “us vs. them” world view, seeks to erase the line between church and state, and uses fear as a primary motivator. The Republicans have had the last eight years to implement these ideals and the results speak for themselves…

If Obama wins tomorrow, I hope it is proof that:

1. Campaigns based on hope, optimism and the future are better than those of fear, misinformation, and a hunker-down-and-dig-in mentality.
2. The Republicans have moved too far to the right, leaving out the moderates and centrists in many ways.  Bush’s failure to deliver on the promise of compassionate conservatism ended up being a big slap in the face to those moderates who believed in that promise in 2000, and calls into question whether such centricity is even possible with such a crazy, wild-eyed, right-wing base.
3. The Republican party will only be able to win future elections by reaching out, rather than reaching around to pat itself on the back.

The good news is that parties can change relatively quickly.  Remember the mess the Democrats had been in since the mid-nineties?  And here they are, remade as a party and electing a historic candidate to the office of President.  The Republicans will have some work to do, that is if they are truly listening to the voices of me, Michelle, and a whole lot of other people I know who are totally dissatisfied with how they’ve run the joint this year.

This will be my last political post for a good long while!  I’m done thinking about this.

Everyone get out and vote tomorrow.  Remember, if you don’t vote (however meaningless your vote may be), you have no right to complain about anything for the next 2/4/6 years.

What I’m most sick of right now is the “politics of fear” that iEveryone (you know, everyone’s internet-based alter-ego) is completely wrapped up in.

What do I mean by politics of fear?

I have friends on all sides of the political arena, and I get about 5-10 emails or facebook messages a day from them saying “I’m just scared of what <insert other guy’s name here> will do to our country.  And here’s why…”  followed by lies, rumors, speculations, and unsubstantiated drivel!

I, for one, am sick of the false notions and pure crap that is spewing all across the internet about both candidates, campaigns, and platforms.  I’m sick of people thinking that if they just whip their friends up into a fear-induced frenzy with counterproductive, dishonest whisper campaigns, they can somehow influence the election.

More and more, the dishonesty of politics is not in the candidates or even in their campaigns. The dishonesty of politics is making you into an accomplice.  A hack.  A liar.  Yes, you, the faceless people who innocently sit at your computers all day, forwarding email after email of conjectural, unsubstantiated lies which are meant to discredit, defame, and inspire fear in either of the party’s faithful.  You are being dishonest, and I am calling you out.

It’s sad to see that most of these are religious people who pride themselves on their honesty and integrity, but who seem to have no crisis of conscience when spreading rumors and lies about a politician.  (All in the name of getting votes.)

Ask yourself: Can you independently verify it?  Does it really represent your views and stand up for your ideals?  Are you ready to sign your name to that statement you just made?  (At least the media does that.)  Would you stand up and say it in church?  Would you say it out loud? Or would doing so just make you sound like an idiot?

It’s destroying your soul people, and making you look like an idiot.  Wake up.

So why all the politics of fear?  Why do we scare so easily?  We are the United States of Freakin’ America!  Buck up, people!  Get over it.

Remember, we have little revolutions in this country every so often.  They’re called elections.  If we don’t like the way our elected officials are running things, then we can change them.

Together let’s raise the level of political discourse in this country! Let’s get passed party-politics hackery and try to actually address the problems facing our country!

Her ‘attack dog’ act knocked my socks off at the convention, but now I am highly doubtful of her readiness for this meaningless campaign and this meaningless office. The “hockey mom”/”lipstick on a pig” thing is really cute, and a refreshing change of pace for our political scene.  She might still have a bright future in the Republican party (if she doesn’t mess this bid up too much).  I just think she was thrust into this a little too soon.

Her debate performance against Biden was just OK.  She got her butt handed to her in the foreign policy section.  It wasn’t because she didn’t know names, dates, or have personal anecdotes to share – it was her lack of a cohesive response on the way forward in the war on terror.  Her entire answer to the question of the way forward focused on the past, while Biden talked about some realistic, concrete plans for the future.

Palin sounded desperate in her constant attempts to change the discussion from what Gwen Ifill wanted to talk about to what she wanted to talk about: Alaska, taxes, and energy.  Good for her for sticking to her strengths, but I have news for her and McCain… there is a lot more to running this country than Alaska, taxes, and energy.

Plus… she said “nucUlar” twice… And as I always say… twice is no mistake.  This formally puts her in the dog house with me.  (And not the good Randy Jackson “dawg” house, either…)

Sorry Sarah… Can we just be friends instead?

Sorry for the disappointment.

Let me just say that instead, I focused on singing a lot of Karaoke last night.  ‘Nuff said.

For those of you who wondered why I gave so much coverage to the DNC this week, don’t you fear.  I will be putting the same amount of scrutiny into the upcoming RNC.  So stay tuned.

So let’s get into the political roundup:

1. Barack’s Speech

The coronation… err.. speech was just lovely.  Of course, Barack performed flawlessly behind the teleprompter.  That was to be expected. It was inspirational, exciting, and lovely. (except for all those unfunded mandates he proposes)

The real story here is the Convention-turned-Rock-Concert atmosphere of this acceptance speech.  They built an ENORMOUS set for this speech at an insane cost.  They rented a huge stadium, rather than staying in the typical arena.  The democrats made a move here that was very unique, turning boring, old politics into a rock concert atmosphere.

After all, this is the party of the movie stars and rock stars.  Would you ever think to see a Republican ex-vice-president accepting an Academy Award a few years later?  The democrats obviously feed off of the fame thing, which is personally appalling to my sense of humility one should have in public-servitude.  But, I fear it was the right move as far as the image they want to project to the American people.

For years now the Dems have had the image that they can’t get it together.  John Kerry for President?  Ha!  They’ve been a mess ever since Bill left the White House (and arguably since long before that).  This year it’s important for them to project the image that it’s OK to be a Democrat (both for those joining the party and for those who are shadows democrats).  They are, however, shooting for the stars in trying to convince people that it’s cool to be a Democrat, and that Democrats are rock stars.

Ahh.. the many representations…

2. McCain’s Veep

I don’t even know her name, otherwise I would have put it up there.  Oh yes… just looked on Stallion’s blog… It’s Sarah Palin.

Let me share how I feel about Sarah Palin:

… … …

Exactly… I have no feelings about Sarah Palin.  Where did this woman come from?  A one-term Alaska governor?  I hadn’t even heard her named batted around in any of the articles I read.  Thusly, I have no opinion of her, except for the ones people have given me in the last 24 hours…

1) She’s for drilling in ANWR.  Take that for what it’s worth.  All I’ll say about this is: if a tree doesn’t fall in the forest…

2) She’s a woman.  But she’s not a Hillary, so don’t succumb to the notion that she will attract Hillary supporters.  I think McCain will attract Hillary supporters more than this lady will.  Again, though, two historic tickets to vote for.  Either way we’re getting a “first” something.

3) She can talk on her feet better than President Bush.

… And this final one is my own opinion… the only one I have had time to generate on my own:

4) She’s good lookin’!  As I pointed out in an earlier poltiical post, Republican women are generally more attractive than Democratic ones, especially here in Texas.

See you next week at the Republican National Convention!

Joe Biden was the right choice for Obama.  I liked him in the Democrat’s primary race.  He lends experience and gravitas to the Obama ticket, while not overshadowing the top of the ticket (like Hillary would have done).  Now that this is done and the hand wringing is over, it is clearly the right decision.

The question still remains, though: Can two waste-of-skin Democrat senators actually succeed at the top two executive positions of the biggest enterprise in the world?  I’m still not convinced.

The Many Houses of McCain

You couldn’t turn on the news or radio this weekend without hearing the sound clip of McCain telling a reporter that he’d “Uhhh… have his staff get back to him” when the reporter asked how many houses McCain currently owns.  The headline was quickly generated: “McCain Doesn’t Know How Many Houses He Owns!”

Truthfully, though, that’s not the case at all.  It seems to me that a more likely scenario is that McCain didn’t want to say how many houses he owned.  Clearly, a republican candidate for president bragging to a reporter about his investments in a time of economic downturn is a bad political move, and McCain could see that coming.  It was in the way he stammered before dodging the question that he created a whole new problem for himself.  I’m afraid such lapses and stammering might become standard fare for a 70+ year old candidate for president.  So much for straight talk.

The truth is, knowing how many houses McCain owns doesn’t hurt him at all in this race.  Why?  Because that is the great American Dream (read: Myth), that everyone can be rich and own multiple residences!  Why do you think raising taxes on the rich is so hard to do?  Because everyone worries about the day when they too will become RICH!  In this country, it is certainly no crime to be wealthy, and McCain is.

Nancy Pelosi is a Communist

Yesterday on Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw pressed Nancy Pelosi on the issue of energy, and how she now supports offshore drilling, which she had adamantly opposed weeks ago.  Her justification? If we put offshore drilling on the table, we get to put a whole lot of other issues on the table, like tax breaks for oil companies, and even levying new taxes on oil companies for using the oil that “belongs to the American people.”  She went on and on for 5 minutes talking about how these oil companies profit off of oil that “is the American people’s.”

Well, in case Nancy forgot, this country is based on ~240 years of PROPERTY OWNERSHIP, including mineral rights.  In fact, property ownership is one of the most distinctly American things anyone can do in their life.  There is no question that the framers were highly concerned with protecting the rights of private property owners – and oil and mineral rights are no exception.  They don’t belong to the “American people” (read: government), they belong to individual Americans and companies who have made the investment in their future.

And for the record, your super-fake smile really bothers me…