A More Perfect Union

Like Barack Obama, I too was born in 1961 during the nuclear age and the heart of the Cold War. I was a baby during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Kennedy assassination. I was a child during the Vietnam War, the Moon landing, and the race riots in Detroit. I was a teenager during Watergate, the gas crisis, and recession of the 1970's. I was a young adult when the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended. I was 40 years old when the planes crashed on September 11th, 2001. And now, along with all those historic events, we can add the election to the Presidency of the first African-American on November 4th, 2008. Yesterday, the United States of America turned a new page and added a historic chapter in the history of a great nation. The election of Barack Obama as our nation's 44th President forever changes what America was, is, and will be. The significance of yesterday's vote cannot be overstated. It will take years and many scholars to put it in to full context but know this: America has become a better, more perfect Union.

May God bless America and may God bless Barack Obama and Joe Biden as their work has only just begun.

Debate 3: McCain's Wrath meets Obama's Serenity

Last night's third and final presidential debate drew the boldest contrast between the candidates. For an hour and a half the two candidates addressed issues and debated plans. Moderator Bob Schieffer did a great job of allowing the candidates time to answer and rebut the other's statements and charges. What did we learn about the candidates from their tone and styles? How would they act as President for the next four years?

Senator McCain came out of the gates playing the role of the angry grandpa. His voice was strained and often filled with mock sarcasm (did he learn that from Governor Palin?). McCain's body language was stiff and jerky and he seemed to rise and fall with every comment Senator Obama made. McCain's facial expressions changed by the minute and his eyes rolled around in his head several times. If McCain wanted to come across as vigorous, I think he overplayed that card. His actions and demeanor seemed to reinforce the "erratic" characterization of him by the Obama campaign. McCain was on the offense but Obama's defense was better.

Then there was Senator Obama. He was serene and steady. He was composed and never rattled. His body language exuded a calm in the midst of McCain's raging storm. Obama seemed the model of a statesman. He was rational and even smiled occasionally. Yes, he seemed a little sad at times but that seemed to match the tone of the country right now as Americans watch the market go through a meltdown and we keep hearing news about a war that seems to go on forever.

In this last head-to-head debate, Americans were looking at these two candidates trying to judge which person has the right tone and bearing to lead our country for next four years. McCain misplayed his hand and failed to make that case. And this "misplaying his hand" seems to be a pattern by McCain since the Republican convention. His choice of an unqualified person to join his ticket (which he couldn't defend last night and failed to make a case for Palin when the question came up) is one example. His odd decision to "suspend" his campaign and head to Washington D.C. during the beginnings of the financial crisis (but then fail to lead his Republican colleagues) is another example.

Senator Obama won all three presidential debates this campaign season (all the post-debate polls say this). This level of debate dominance rarely happens during a presidential campaign. Now I hope that some civility will return to the campaign trail over the next three weeks. Americans are tired of campaigns waged on fear, hatred, anger, and uncivil behavior. Simply stated, the race is over for John McCain. Please Senator McCain, go out with some dignity still intact.

Joe Wins, Sarah Revives

The first and only VP candidate's debate of 2008 is now history. So what did we learn?

To nobody's surprise, Joe Biden showed that he knows his stuff. He articulated well the differences between the two tickets and was particularly effective in painting John McCain as not the right man to lead the country. He was articulate, emotive, and never condescending or abrasive. He was the model of a gracious statesman. I think he left no doubt in most viewers' minds that he's ready to lead the country if something unforeseen were to happen to Barack Obama.

To some people's surprise, Sarah Palin performed above expectations. I expected that she would present herself well after seeing some of her stump speeches. The question on everybody's mind was: will she look or sound uninformed like she did in some of her recent high profile interviews? Here she exceeded most expectations. She didn't come off as being unintelligent or abrasive. She checked "most but not all" of her condescending speech inflections which give some people migraines. Honestly, I don't like Palin's style as she uses facial expressions and a speech style that tries to be ingratiating. She likes to use folksy words like "gotcha" and phrases like "you betcha" which I feel is best left back in Alaska. But most importantly for her, she made no large stumble or gaffe. Sure she failed to answer a few questions and decided instead to say whatever she wanted which I guess is a "Palin thing." Heck, she even stated early in the debate that, “I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you (Biden?) want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record.” And she did use the name of a Union Civil War general (McClellan) in stead of the actual name of the current commander in Afghanistan (McKiernan). But hey, given what we all saw in the interviews leading up to this debate, it could have been a lot worse. I think she revived her own career and maybe she'll be less of a punch-line for a few days. Personally, I still don't feel she made a strong enough case for herself in terms of being able to lead this country if something were to happen to John McCain (which is the primary responsibility as a Vice President).

Conclusions? Joe Biden won the debate on all the substantive points. Sarah Palin performed better than the extremely low expectations that had been set for her. Biden helped make the case for Obama. Palin helped revive her own faltering national image. But how does any of this help John McCain? I think McCain was the loser tonight and that certainly won't help is stumbling campaign.

*** 10-9-08 UPDATE ***

Someone asked me if I had read the transcript to the debate between Senator Biden and Governor Palin and I responded that I hadn't. So I went back and read some of the actual answers (more like statements) by the candidates. What struck me was just how few times Palin actually answered the questions. If you remove Palin's charming smile and ingratiating tone and just read her answers to the questions, her lack of coherence is simply appalling. She doesn't sound as if she even graduated from college. It's no wonder that her oldest boy is going into the armed services (and not headed to college) and that her oldest girl is knocked-up (and not headed to college). I'll give you just one appalling example at Palin's incoherence:

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GWEN IFILL: Governor?

GOVERNOR PALIN: Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You preferenced your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education and I'm glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more. I come from a house full of school teachers. My grandma was, my dad who is in the audience today, he's a schoolteacher, had been for many years. My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here's a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate.

Education credit in American has been in some sense in some of our states just accepted to be a little bit lax and we have got to increase the standards. No Child Left Behind was implemented. It's not doing the job though. We need flexibility in No Child Left Behind. We need to put more of an emphasis on the profession of teaching. We need to make sure that education in either one of our agendas, I think, absolute top of the line. My kids as public school participants right now, it's near and dear to my heart. I'm very, very concerned about where we're going with education and we have got to ramp it up and put more attention in that arena.

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That is a direct quote of Governor Palin. You can find the entire transcript which includes many of her other incoherent statements at the following link:

Transcript: The Vice-Presidential Debate

This Hillary Supporter for the Obama/Biden Ticket

I opened up my Yahoo page this morning and read the results of a recent poll that made me mad. Here's the poll breakdown:



* THE ASSOCIATED PRESS-YAHOO POLL
* Interview dates: September 5, 2008 – September 15, 2008
* Interviews: 1,740 adults; 1,546 registered voters
* 825 Democrats; 715 Republicans
* Overall, 74 percent of Democrats say they will vote for Obama, compared to 87 percent of Republicans behind the Arizona senator. About 9 in 10 Clinton supporters are Democrats.

I don't understand this reluctance by some of my fellow Hillary supporters to get off the fence and support Obama. Like most Hillary supporters, I too voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. I voted for Al Gore in 2000 (the President by Popular vote). I supported Hillary during the 2008 primaries and I think she would have made a damn fine President. But honestly, I didn't want to see her as a Vice Presidential candidate and I don't think she ever wanted that role.

What bothers me here is that we Hillary supporters align with Obama on issue after issue after issue but some of us are still soft on his candidacy? Obama (like Hillary) supports:

* Creating a timeline to withdraw troops from Iraq
* Removing the tax cuts for the wealthy
* Reproductive rights for women and other pro-women issues
* Universal Healthcare
* Alternative energy solutions and not the "Drill Baby Drill" mentality of McCain. This includes: enacting a Windfall Profits Tax to provide a $1,000 Emergency Energy Rebate to American Families.

And I could go on but just go to Obama's site and read about the issues for yourself at: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

Oh and a couple of words about McCain's VP choice. Sarah Palin is nothing but a Republican stunt (a bone thrown to right-wingers in the Republican party). Yes, she's a woman but she's just a cute, right-winger in lipstick with almost no governmental experience or knowledge of the wider world (got her passport last year). She limped through an interview with the laid-back Charlie Gibson (fact checkers found errors in her responses and "non-responses"). And the only reason Palin has the highest approval ratings of any governor in the country is because she pays Alaskans over $2,000 a year from oil revenues (a program called the Alaska Permanent Fund). In other words, Alaskans are paid to like her.

The McCain/Palin ticket offers nothing for us Hillary supporters. Their proposed policies are mostly an extension of the George Bush Presidency and we don't need another 4 years like the last 8 years. The rest of my fellow Hillary supporters need to wake-up and see what's really at stake here and support the Obama/Biden ticket so that we can put this country back on a sane and progressive heading.

Why Does Senator Barack Obama Hate Michigan?

Senator Barack Obama doesn't seem to like Michigan (I believe he's pointing at our star in the picture). He didn't want to help the democrats of Michigan have their voices heard by supporting some kind of primary re-vote. Of course, that wasn't in his best interest as he was satisfactorily ahead in the delegate count when the issue was brought up (maybe his tune will change if Sen. Clinton wins some more primaries).

But now, Sen. Obama wants to blame the Detroit auto industry for our nation's oil woes (see recent news story "Obama hits Big 3 on SUVs"). This is a well worn leftist doctrine to blame industry for nearly everything. You see according to this doctrine, industry is the faceless enemy out to rob us of our dollars, our freedoms, our future. Well I'm a centrist and I think the leftist doctrine is a bunch of hooey. What Sen. Obama fails to acknowledge is the "personal responsibility of each American" in regards to our environment and economy. The American consumer has had automobile choices (even from the Big 3) over the past decade that were reasonably fuel efficient. The American consumer voted with its pocketbook for SUVs and trucks. Well it is a free market (hear that Sen. Obama) and the American consumer wanted what its appetite demanded - large, hulking vehicles. The automotive companies simply met the desires of the consumers. Funny though, while Sen. Obama throws rocks at the Big 3, he fails to acknowledge that Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW and whole lot of brands also have large, hulking vehicles in their current portfolios. To borrow his own phrase "that's truth-telling" Sen. Obama.

The reality is the the stakes have changed. The world oil market has been infiltrated by speculators (like the housing market was until it went bust). Competition for available oil has increased because of a combination of world population and a thriving economies like those of China and some other emerging countries. Our own refining industry is overburdened. But in the end, we Americans are most to blame. We wanted what our psyches and appetites demanded - bigness. We Americans like all-you-can-eat buffets; biggie-sized meals; large McMansions; and big hulking vehicles. But Sen. Obama doesn't want us to look in the mirror. He would prefer to let us off the hook and shift the blame on to faceless industry. That's a shame. And that makes me question his overall judgment.

If Senator Obama wants to really establish some "truth-telling" in our country then he needs to call-out the American consumer. But he won't. Tell America that it needs to buy (more likely lease) more fuel efficient "available" alternatives (my suggestions besides the obvious hybrids: Honda Fit, Ford Focus, Toyota Yaris or this fall's Saturn Astra). Fuel efficient vehicles are sitting on retail lots across America gathering dust and pollen just waiting for a good home (though I hear a few are finally rolling off the lots since gas recently surpassed $3.50 a gallon). Now that's some "truth-telling" that I'd like to hear from Sen. Obama. Also, he needs to assure us Michiganders that he doesn't hate us.