Mark Sanford has supposedly agreed to repay his travel expenses from the trade mission trip to Brazil that was extended to Argentina at his request so he could meet up with his lover.  He certainly wasn't traveling alone.  He should have to pony up for the expenses for ALL members of his trade committee traveling party that incurred additional travel costs by going from Brazil to Argentina.  The Argentina trade meetings apparently were quickly put together at Sanford's request and nothing in terms of business has resulted from the additional costs that South Carolinians incurred from Sanford's illicit liason.

During Obama's run, I followed events closely on the internet and greatly enjoyed communicating with TPM's community.  Inspired by Obama's creative use of the internet, I'll try to swing my election through the cyber crowd. 

Recently, my buddy submitted my recipe for fajita brats to a Johnsonville Brats contest.  We were one of 10 semi-finalists to receive two Green Bay Packers game tickets and to participate in pre-game judging.  We have made the finals and the winner is decided by internet vote.

Take a moment, please, and visit this page:

http://jsonline.upickem.net/engine/Votes.aspx?contestid=4250

Vote for the Fajita Brats (lower left recipe) by clicking the radio button and clicking the Save Vote button. You can zoom in to read the recipe.  In the video photo, my buddy Jeff is wearing the #66 Nitsche jersey and I'm standing to his left.  We're standing on Johnsonville's semi-truck grill truck outside Lambeau Field.  Sorta like standing outside the Pearly Gates.

I've never begged for recommendations before, but I now realize that one tosses his pride out the window during an election.  Give me a rec and take a moment to vote.  In these troubled economic times, I promise "Two Brats in Every Pot!"     

  

 

I just finished watching a video clip of Gov Palin at the Republican Governor Association's shindig and I flashed back to my student pilot days.  Listening to Palin reminds me of flying a small plane.  While piloting the plane, you look to the horizon and steer a general course to your destination, rather than making small, herky jerky corrections. To listen to Palin, you have to hear to the horizon:  if you listen to each word in her sentences, your mind is jerked left and right by the redundancies, inconsistencies, lost threads, and head-shaking statements.  You must simply steer your "earcraft" towards the end of her press conference.  When she's finished, your craft pops out of the fog, you orientate your position, reflect on what you think you thought you heard, and head for a safe landing somewhere.   

My old dog Jessie, a yellow lab mix who showed up on our doorstep as a half-starved pup and stayed her life, used to nose into my bedroom every morning shortly after 5 a.m. and stick her nose into mine.  She'd patiently give me a few moments for a bathroom break and to get my boots on before we'd head out into the early dawn for our daily walk.  We'd walk a loop through the fields along the fence lines and cut through the woods.  We had two or three routes and we'd walk them forward and reverse for a little diversity.

On our trail, Jessie would always follow in front.  She was compelled to be ahead of me, but when we reached a fork in the trail, she would always turn her head slightly and peer back at me for an indication of the direction I was heading.  At times, I would get her started up one fork and quickly move to the other trail.  Once she realized I had moved a different direction, she would dash quickly across the trails to once again get in front of me.  To an outside observer, she seemed to be leading our walks, but she was simply following out front.

Sarah Palin is the type of politician who follows out front.  From what I've read, Alaska underwent an evangelical rise in the 1990s.  Palin followed this lead and brought an anti-abortion campaign to the mayoral race in a small town, an unheard of means of campaigning.  She also declared that she'd be the town's first christian mayor, although previous mayors had been christians.

Palin never turned down an earmark as governor.  Once nominated as McCain's running mate, earmarks were no longer positive and Palin lied repeatedly about her support for the bridge to nowhere.  On the campaign trail, Palin has the ability to sense the direction of the crowd and follow it out front.  She reflects the crowd she's addressing.  She doesn't lead, she doesn't offer a new direction, she doesn't possess any unique knowledge or show the ability to persuade someone who disagrees with her to meet in some middle ground.  She can talk about Real America, she can shout Socialism to an angry crowd.  She can't change the direction or attitude of that crowd; she can only leap to follow in front.

While she is eyeing 2012 for her presidential run, she poses no threat to be seriously considered.  She can't follow out front of two or more separate groups at once.  She is limited to one crowd, one direction.  A true leader can bring those disparate groups together by laying out a new message and direction to unite the groups.  Palin, as a follower, can only reflect one message.   

 

I'm listening this Sunday morning to XM Radio's POTUS channel and Joe Biden's address on Oct 13 to a New Hampshire crowd.  I give a tip of my hat to Joe Biden.

Upon Biden's announcement as VP candidate, all the pundits had to say was that Joe was a gaffe machine.  Instead, Joe has been spot on.  His debate performance was sterling.  On the trail he hasn't drawn a bit of negative coverage to himself:  none.  Compare that to his GPO VP rival.  During his NH speech, he was gracious, funny, articulate, and completely focused on the important issues facing the country.  His contrasts to McCain's positions were strictly based on the issues.  No character assasinations, no rumors, no innuendos. 

I've always liked Joe Biden.  In these past weeks, I'm growing quite fond of him and I hope he finds the next 8 years as Obama's VP to be the crowning achievement of his long, illustrious political career.

Can anyone clarify for me who would fill Obama's and Biden's Senate seats should they win the Prez election? Do both Illinois and Delaware have Democratic governors, and would those governors make the appointments? Just busy counting my chickens...

McCain is trying hard to tie Obama to William Ayers, and by association paint Obama as a terrorist sympathizer.  In reality, McCain regularly associates with a more dangerous man, Phil Gramm, an economic terrorist.

Gramm and his deregulation policies have done far more damage to the American public than the Weather Underground ever did.  Gramm was front and center in the savings and loan deregulation fiasco.  Gramm also introduced the "Enron Loophole," effectively under the cover of darkness.  His role in that legislation wiped out the life savings of thousands of Americans. 

Yet McCain will not respond to the question of whether this economic terrorist will serve in his administration, a black mark against his judgment.

McCain's campaign has been a shambles, but the strangest move has been to turn Sarah Palin into an actress.

Go to YouTube and search Palin Alaska Debates.  Watch some video of her during those debates and other posted videos of her speaking before small groups of Alaskans.  Her accent is dialed way back.  There are no you betchas, no gosh darns, no winks.  Her viewpoints aside, she comes across as a capable speaker, an administrator.  If she would have spoken like this during the Biden debate, McCain might be picking up independents and moderates.

Instead, McCain's camp created a sitcom role for Palin:  Hockey Mom Goes To Washington.  During the Biden debate, I could see her slip between Hockey Mom voice and her normal candidate voice.  To make her "one of us," McCain's camp dumbed her down for prime time TV.  Palin overplays the Hockey Mom role, but with ratings like that, she takes home the Emmy.  And come November, McCain and his team, in large part due to Palin's performance, simply goes home.

(President Bush has said that when his second term ends he looks forward to making some money, noting how Bill Clinton has -ahem- earned $100 million in six years as an ex-President.  Fast forward to 2009.  Following a quick speech as headliner at Bob Jones University's Bigotry Fest, Bush finds slim pickings on the lecture circuit.  Now, we find him walking on stage in the Herbert Hoover Auditorium in the Millard Fillmore Building in Branson, Missouri.  Ladies and gentlemen:  Georgie the President Guy!)

"You all like baseball?  I love baseball!  Before I was the President Guy, my daddy called baseball Commissar Peter Uber... Peter Uber... Pete the Bossman!  That's what I called him, The Bossman!  I paid 1.9 percent and got a 10 percent share of the Texas Rangers!  Them other fellers never knew what hit 'em.  That is doing bidness!  I hit 'em with my Harvard BMA.  I was President Guy for that team, too.  Traded away Sammy Soso.  Turns out he weren't so soso.  He hit 600 homers and the Rangers never sniffed the playoffs.  F*#ked R Up!

"My daddy loves baseball too, so he said I should really be President Guy of the United States and give up the Rangers.  Daddy said the country needed a uniter, not a divider, someone to unite the Haves with the Have Mores.  So Daddy hooked me up with Uncle Dick Cheney and the Have Mores.  I ain't figured out yet just where the hell Havmor is; I know it ain't around Dallas none.  I became the first bidnessman President Guy with a Harvard AMB!

"Uncle Dick let me bring my best friend, our pool boy Alberto Gonzalez.  Alberto!  Sounds like a big 'ol cigar.  Uncle Dick said I should make Alberto a Terny General, so I made him a General, only he didn't get no uniform.  Uncle Dick handed us a Constitution and told us these was the rules.  Well, that Constitution was all written in cursive!  We couldn't make heads nor tails of it!  We decided we'd do whatever we'd want.  F*#ked R Up!

"Being President Guy was hard work.  At first, I weren't sure what to do, but Uncle Dick splained to me that as President Guy I was responsible for moving the wheels of guvmint.  He gave me a 21-speed Trek mountain bike.  Ever day right after breakfast Condi would pack me a ham and cheese sammich and I would hop on that bike and move those wheels of guvmint while Uncle Dick stayed behind in case anyone called on the telephone.  I'd get back round supper time, Uncle Dick give me a pat on the head and tell me the guvmint rolling like it ought to now.  F*#ked R Up!

"Being President Guy was some good times, too.  I was having birthday cake with little Johnnie McCain after some big storm hit New Orleans.  My buddy Turd Blossom wanted some pictures of me in the big airplane, so we took off and they snapped a bunch of pictures of me while I looked out the winder at New Orleans.  If I can be serious for a moment here.  I'll never forget what I seen.  Everwhere I looked, there was brush needing clearin'!  One end of the city to the other, brush everwhere!  I hope you consider donating to my charity Brush Clearin' For Humanity.  F*#ked R Up!

"Well, that's all I got time for, folks.  I'll be here next week, and the week after, and the week after.  Just remember, whether you give your best shot or not, just F*#k R Up!"          

A couple things caught my eye during the debate.  McCain's body language was remarkable.  Shortly into the debate, I realized that he just wouldn't look at Obama.  This debate format was a hybrid between an open town hall style meeting and the old, ridiculous "you have 60 seconds to respond, 30 seconds to rebut" debates of past campaigns.  This should have played better to McCain's alleged strength, but last night he simply looked rigid, tense, and pissed.  He didn't squeeze out a single milli-second of humor.

My "whoa" moment came early, and I can't even remember the topic.  McCain was speaking and Obama forcefully cut him off, and McCain let Obama get away with it!  It was an Alpha Dog moment.  McCain dropped his head, Obama charged on rebutting McCain.  That immediately established Obama as an equal player on the stage. 

I was a bit surprised by CNN's flash poll result which gave Obama a large victory.  I think McCain's surreal campaign suspension / save the day in DC stunt and Palin's Couric interview may have set the foundation for some of the immediate high scores for Obama.  The independents have been marinating in McCain / Palin juice all week.  Obama didn't need to prove himself as presidential during the debate because he's the only candidate who looked presidential last week. 

Finally, the debate format was a tremendous improvement. Kudos to Jim Lehrer.  Candidates had time to actually get into some depth.  I would have liked to have seen more interplay between the two candidates, but McCain's unexpected rigidity prevented that.  Unfortunately, (and likely wisely) McCain's camp negotiated to keep the VP debate as the old style where candidates don't address each other.  Imagine Palin and Biden speaking in this format! 

Ever notice how creationism should be taught in school along side evolution because it's important that the kids be exposed to more than one school of thought?  And how that contrasts with abstinence only sex education, which is the only school of thought that should be taught, and that actual sex education and discussions of contraception is information that teens need not be exposed to? 

I just saw a clip of Cindy McCain speaking with George Stephanopolous in which Cindy actually says that Palin has foreign policy experience because Alaska is across the sea from Russia.

I feel I've awakened in Bizarro World.  What's next?  Will the GOP arrange a Disney World trip for Palin so she can pass through the Small World exhibit before the Biden VP debate?

What frightens me is speaking to my friends.  They don't follow this election that closely, don't visit various sites.  I spoke with one of our vendors, a great guy, a blue collar small business owner, and asked if he'd seen the Obama convention speech.  During our conversation, he said that he'd like to know where Obama got his money to buy a $4 million dollar house.  When I mentioned that Obama had written two best selling books and had gotten multimillion dollar advances for them, my friend said he didn't know that.  That seemed to allay that one suspicion, but he won't be voting for Obama. 

For each person on this site, there are dozens more who pay no attention to politics except for the occasional wild rumor email.  Lots of work for Obama to do yet.

Every four years, the pundits point out that the nominated candidates' first major "presidential" test is the selection of a vice presidential candidate.  That selected person must have the experience and gravitas to step in should the elected president become unable to continue in office. 

John McCain failed miserably in this test.  His choice of Sarah Palin is an obvious pander to the perceived disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters.  Does anyone believe that a candidate whose longest term in public office is a couple of stints as a city council member in a town of 7000 is ready to be Commander in Chief?  And this running mate is campaigning with the oldest person ever to run for president?

This is not America first.  This is political pandering at its worst. 

Now, the Right will claim that Obama is only three years older and has not much more experience on the national level.  The difference is that Obama has run a 19-month campaign and has been elected by his party to head the ticket.  Millions of people, your humble blogger included, has voted for him and donated to him.  He has effectively earned his position by gathering this support.  McCain's VP choice, however, is merely a tactical choice, a pander, to bolster a flagging candidate for president.  Let's quiz Sarah Palin on world leaders and conditions, this person who thinks creationism should be taught in the classroom.

Hillary needs to jump in.  She's a definite heavyweight; she needs to put down this pretender. 

I received my $600 Chinese loan today and I immediately stimulated British Petroleum with $52 "hardly earned" dollars.  As I have no offspring myself, I'd like to personally thank the kind reader's present and future grandchildren for repaying this unsolicited payment to me as its seems unlikely that any serious effort to pay off our crippling national debts will occur in my lifetime.

While I also plan to stimulate the local tire dealer before winter, I can't help but feel I'm part of a larger shell game.  I get a few hundred bucks, the dear reader gets a few hundred bucks, the top 1 percent get billions in tax cuts.  Thousands of homes are in foreclosure; the corporations that created the mess received billions in payouts and the CEOs maintained their million dollar salaries.

Mr. Obama needs to be quite vocal in pointing out that McCain's beloved tax "cuts" without spending cuts are simply tax deferments payable by the middle and lower classes.  Reagan's voodoo economics state that massive tax cuts benefiting primarily the wealthy will increase government revenues so much that what logically would result in a deficit will magically produce a surplus.  Mr. Obama, I beseech you, have your fine, efficient staff produce a simple graph that shows how voodoo economics has produced $200 billion (or more) annual deficits every year under Reagan, Bush, and Bush, and that these three presidents are responsible for $7 TRILLION of our $9.5 trillion national debt.  Am I alone in believing that the Piper must be paid?

Normally, I wouldn't accept a check from an institution with such checkered finances, but I figure as long as the Chinese are backing it, I'll accept the check.  Keep your little ones away from soft drinks and fatty foods and provide them with plenty of exercise.  In two or three decades, they'll thank you daily for the added endurance as they work that second or third job.   

Speaking before a group, McCain recently strongly avowed - twice - that he would never surrender in Iraq.  This begs the question: to whom would he never surrender?  To Maliki's government?  To Sadr's militia?  To the handful of insurgents planting IEDs?  If McCain was pressed to answer this, I'd wager he'd say Al Queda, which most knowledgeable observers say is a very tiny presence, but which McCain and Bush believe lurk under every stone.

In truth, McCain has conflated surrender with troop withdrawal.  For him, any servicemen leaving Iraq equals a U.S. defeat.  Couple this with the ill defined metrics for success (we'll stand down when they stand up; success is a fully functional Iraqi government) and McCain truly is preaching an One Hundred Year War. 

Mix in McCain's and Bush's recent criticism of the new GI bill.  For them, 3 years of service, even in a combat zone, is not sufficient sacrifice for a service man or woman to receive a college education.  Massive deficit-causing tax cuts for the wealthiest remain a top priority for the Right; a chance for a better future for the folks actually fighting for this country requires a bit more sacrifice, please.

McCain is the wrong man to head the military at this time.  We need a leader who can correctly access the situation, who can set honorable, clearly defined and achievable metrics for success, who can avoid the sophmoric "patriotic" chest beating; and who has the courage to take decisive action regardless of personal consequence.  That ain't McCain.