About Me

Name: LowDownCentral
Biography
Loading...

Create Your Own Blog Find Other Townhall Blogs

Comments

Archives

Obama's Nemesis

Obama hopes to cross the finish line before the greatest threat to his victory catches up with him.
Barack3.jpg picture by LDCuploads07

by Lance Thompson

Here we are, a few days before the election, and Barack Obama finds himself in a very tight race with his most potentially devastating opponent–himself.

In the long campaign that is coming to an end, Obama has knocked off Democrat rivals like the once-sure-thing Hillary Clinton and his own running mate, Joe Biden. Then, when the GOP chose its standard-bearer, Obama ran rings around the incompetent campaign of John McCain.

But now, as time runs out, Obama hopes to cross the finish line before the greatest threat to his victory catches up with him. The threat comes from the real Obama, the Obama that the mainstream media has shielded from public view, the Obama that Americans are only now getting to know.

This is the Obama who attended the racist, America-hating sermons of Reverend Jeremiah Wright for twenty years, then claimed that he was unaware of the nature of those sermons. This is the Obama who won his first political races by bringing lawsuits against his opponents to have them pre-empted from the race. This is the Obama who started his political career in the home of terrorist William Ayers, served with Ayers on the boards of community organizations, and maintained a relationship with Ayers over the years. This is the Obama who was the attorney for ACORN, whose campaign gave $800,000 to ACORN, who was a community organizer for ACORN. ACORN is under investigation in fourteen states for voter registration fraud, and was also instrumental in coercing lending institutions to make shaky loans that contributed to the financial meltdown.

This is the Obama who believes the Constitution of the United States is fundamentally flawed and demonstrates a "blind spot" that must be corrected. This is the Obama who wants to take money from those who earn it and give it to those who don’t. This is the Obama whose campaign received the second-highest amount of contributions from disgraced Fannie Mae directors, and blames the financial failure not on the duplicity of those directors, but on Wall Street greed.

The candidate Obama has successfully denied the existence of the real Obama, with the indispensable collaboration of the media and the inexplicable reluctance of John McCain to engage on those issues. But glimpses of the real Obama continue to leak out. Tapes of Reverend Wright caused Obama to abandon successive positions–first standing by Wright, then expressing surprise at the content of his sermons, then cutting off all contact. He has gone from characterizing as a "professor of English" the man whose Weather Underground terrorist group bombed the United States capitol and the Pentagon

More recently, Obama erred by telling Joe the Plumber that his goal as president would be to "spread the wealth." This week, statements by Obama from 2001 indicate that he blames the Supreme Court for not endorsing income distribution. Tape of the same vintage show Obama characterizing the Constitution as flawed, and containing a blind spot. Obama’s socialist principles are increasingly evident and undeniable.

The real Obama views this country as flawed, unfair, and cruel. The real Obama wants to remake the nation to fit his image. The real Obama is the only remaining obstacle to the victory of the candidate Obama.

If candidate Obama wins the election, there will be no further need to hide the real Obama. The mainstream media will not challenge or criticize him, as they do reflexively with Republican presidents. Alternative media like FoxNews, talk radio and conservative blogs will be muzzled with the Fairness Doctrine. Democrat-controlled Congress will fill the empty judicial seats on federal courts with liberal judges, who will uphold the changes the real Obama plans to make.

The candidate Obama is hoping that most Americans don’t meet the real Obama until after the election. Every voter who gets to know the real Obama before November 4th makes Obama nervous. Because if Obama is not an enemy of the United States, he is at least friendly with and sympathetic to this nation’s enemies. His Republican opponent is not. Whatever John McCain’s faults, no one has ever had to wonder about his fidelity to the United States of America.

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

The Manchurian Voters

The left has erected a fortress around Obama, and armed their super hero with a Teflon-coated thick skin to counter-weight a disarming smile.
BOWH-1.jpg The Chosen One picture by LDCuploads07

By Rose Pedenko and Tanya Simon

The MSM and the powers that be in the Democratic Party have proven Sir Isaac Newton’s theory wrong: What goes up does not necessarily come straight down.

The stratospheric rise (or holy ascension, as the liberal knee-benders prefer to think) of Barack Obama is unprecedented in modern and perhaps even ancient history. It has changed the laws of political physics so radically that the once reliable landscape of hero monuments in our nation’s capital is being overgrown by scraggly liberal ivy.

In trying to make sense of non-sense -- or explaining the unexplainable – we have concluded that the country has either lost its collective mind or millions of liberal alien pods were left beside our beds as we slept at night.

We have sought reasonable answers to reasonable questions but have been met with mindless, predetermined phraseology from the largely ignorant, or bombastic and grandiloquent rhetoric from the liberal elites – all of which has been translated and boiled down to two words: “change” (apparently for the sake of change) and “hope” (that the end of George Bush will solve all their problems).

This Obaphenomena defies logic, whether cursory or scientific.

From their well-crafted new age brainwashing, the media have embedded their chosen leader in our collective conscience to a level of omnipotence. That measure has taken hold of voters’ minds like the spiny tentacles of a Stone Age octopus.

But Barack Obama is not The Manchurian Candidate as some in the right media have lightheartedly speculated. No, it’s a million times worse: It’s his followers who are The Manchurian Voters.

There are useful idiots and then there are useful voters. Perhaps they are one and the same. Not even criticism based on facts can bring him or his followers back down to earth. Those useful voters then prey on enervated Republicans drawing the politically fatigued into their ultimate political solution.

At the recent Alfred E. Smith Charity dinner in New York City, we heard Obama joke about not being born in a manger, or really being from Krypton, fathered by Jor-El.  The Chosen One laughs, giggles, grins, chortles, chuckles and snickers with the best of them. Yet, despite his attempt to come across as the guy next door, the humor is peppered with disingenuousness because he really does believe he is awesome.

Barack Obama has never been content with the possibility of changing America, but has now announced “We will win this election and, you and I together, we're going to change the country and change the world."

What exactly is he referring to? The last time we heard that type of phrase was from Adolf Hitler – “Today we rule Germany. Tomorrow, the world.”

For months, the best conservative political writers have taken aim at his campaign, but they have been shooting blanks. All manner of fact-based rhetorical weaponry has been deflected by their newly minted super man. The ordnance of conservatives has consisted of well-researched facts, recorded video clips, television/newspaper interviews and campaign speeches of That One. But the left has erected a fortress around Obama, and armed their super hero with a Teflon-coated thick skin to counter-weight a disarming smile.

As the Church Lady used to say on Saturday Night Live, “Isn’t that special?”

Drawing up from scratch a cartoon hero versus a realliving hero (like John McCain) is not difficult when aided by a journalistic shield. But a nation of Useful Voters –that is an accomplishment. The Manchurian Voters have been armed with rhetorical slings and arrows, albeit of crude material, to use on family, friends and co-workers. Their sheer numbers are a force the weakest cannot resist.

Entertainment industry moguls, A-List ignoramuses and television behemoths, like Oprah Winfrey, all possess the ability and wherewithal to dazzle, mesmerize and transmogrify political fence sitters with make-believe fantastic characters like Barack Obama. As luck would have it, even his name sounds other-worldly. They offer limitless and unedited exposure for his thoughts and opinions in all forms of communication. In light of this gratis coverage, it remains a miracle that John McCain has come this far and a clear testament to his ability, even without the full support of his base.

The liberal objective: to vanquish all remaining opposition to their subversion of America.

Why have average Americans seemingly chosen to ignore Louis Farrakhan’s proclamation that Obama isThe Messiah? Why has Obama’s judgment with regard to his dubious and unsavory associations not been called into question by Democrats? Why are his connections to the mortgage meltdown ignored by the MSM? Why is his utter lack of executive experience to assume the office of president dismissed out of hand by liberals?

Because they can. Because they have The Manchurian Voters. If they can use fantasy and fiction to create their invincible leader, we can use histrionics to describe our utter disbelief.

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

The Accusation Game

 They plan to muffle conservative voices.
 
FairnessDoctring.jpg picture by LDCuploads07

by Lance Thompson

It has long been a Democrat tactic to accuse Republicans of whatever unprincipled, illicit or deplorable act that they themselves are about to perpetrate. This tactic has been repeatedly employed with great success, and is about to pay off with the grand prize of the Presidency.

The Democrats paint themselves as champions of free speech. The broadcast news networks, MSNBC, CNN and the major newspapers and news magazines all support the Democrats. Only FoxNews and talk radio are free of liberal bias, yet even these outlets are unacceptable to Democrats. Thus, Democrats plan to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine, a regulation that requires media outlets to present balanced views. This regulation will not be applied to the already liberal-leaning news outlets, but to talk radio, whose conservative voices the Democrats cannot bear. Democrats ask for votes to protect free speech even as they plan to muffle conservative voices.

The Democrats pose as friends of the working man, touting the Employee Free Choice Act as evidence. But the Free Choice Act is precisely the opposite, removing the requirement of a secret ballot from union elections. Under the Free Choice Act, union representatives can confront employees, not only at work, but in public or at home, and coerce them to sign cards in support of joining a union. The Democrats, who have the overwhelming support of unions and their pension funds, are no friends of employees, but are the bought servants of union bosses.

For years, Democrats have fought to ease or remove identification requirements for voting. Accusing Republicans of trying to disenfranchise minorities, Democrats have passed legislation that allows people to vote without identification, without a permanent address, without pre-registration. With each new statute, the validity of elections is eroded.

The Democrats have steered taxpayer funds to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). ACORN is the group that Barack Obama strongly supported, steered funding to, and worked with as an attorney during his community organizing days in Chicago. ACORN’s co-founder, Wade Rathke, was a member of the Students of a Democratic Society, the organization from which the terrorist group Weather Underground sprung. ACORN is currently under investigation in fourteen states for fraudulently registering voters who are already registered under other names, already registered in other states, deceased, or don’t exist at all. The long-term campaign to ease registration requirements make possible the wholesale manufacture of bogus votes. The votes ACORN manufactures are Democrat votes. Thus, as Democrats ask for your vote to fight disenfranchisement of minorities, they are in fact using your votes and money to disenfranchise you.

Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden, along with the usual Democrats in Congress, have blamed the current financial crisis on rampant deregulation during the Bush years. Vote Democrat, they say, and they will restore the regulations that will repair the economy. In fact, it was over-regulation that caused the housing crisis in the first place. The Community Reinvestment Act, passed under Carter and enlarged under Clinton, coerced lenders to make loans to people who could not pay them back. Incidentally, they were helped with this coercion by the people at ACORN. Over-regulation forced banks to make risky loans, yet the Democrat solution is still more regulation.

These Orwellian tactics–seeking to take away our rights under the guise of protecting them–have been part of a long-standing and effective campaign to seize power. Seizing power is also something the Democrats accuse the Republicans of, because that is what the Democrats are about to do. They will defraud the American electorate, secure the White House and Congress, and fill the judicial branch with liberal judges. The direction of the country will be decided for at least a generation.

Ordinarily at this point, I would say that’s why this election is so important. Unfortunately, our side is limited to only one vote per person.

Contact Lance Thompson at: lancet@q.com
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

The Party of Weenies Deserves to Be Roasted

We have but one opportunity left to confront Barack Obama...  live and unfiltered by liberal malarkey.
 
421px-roastingmarshmallow.jpg picture by LDCuploads07

By Rose Pedenko and Tanya Simon

The party of Ronald Reagan is looking more and more like those persons who stand idly by and watch strangers get mugged. Except the “mugees” are members of their own party.

We would be putting it mildly if we said we’re sick and tired of hearing so-called conservatives (are you listening, John McCain?) tossing about docile rhetoric at his opponents the way nymphs sprinkle flower petals on a placid pond. We hoped McCain would throw down the gauntlet, swing away at Obama and show no mercy. As a military man, he knows well the country we love is at stake, and this is no time to worry about hurt feelings. The anger “out there” is palpable and he needs to address it today.

We’ve heard horrendous statements from liberals, such as when they compared George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler – and they got away with it. We never heard a word from our party renouncing this extremism.

We are appalled by film footage from New York City of Americans for Obama actually booing, shouting down and flipping off Americans for McCain.

It’s clear and beyond doubt that the liberal media have taken over this country, and moderate-to-conservative Republicans have only themselves to blame. They haven’t stepped up confidently to the plate and swung with all their might at every pitch with a home run in mind. Rather, they just bunt and hope to get to first base. That’s not good enough if they want to score enough runs to win the crucial series, especially if the opposing infielders are allowed to step over the foul line and are never called on it.

What is wrong with the Republican Party? There is no grit and anger, no snap and snarl. We are literally in the fight of our lives but the party is holding back, waiting for that “perfect pitch.”

Where were all the wealthy Republicans the last 50 years when Liberals purchased controlling interest in media concerns, such as television networks, major metropolitan dailies, movie studios, etc.? Liberals have steamrolled their insidious propaganda over the American psyche.

All we can do is preach day in and day out to the choir in the church of Republicanism, on a few radio stations and online journals. That forum is not now, nor will it ever be enough to turn back the tide because this tsunami of liberalism has all but washed away the few strong conservative voices. And those voices could be squished like bugs by a Democrat majority when the so-called Fairness Doctrine sails through congress after the election.

We have been hammering, yammering and all but screaming about the squeaky-wheel gets greased mentality of the left for the last two years. But have our elected officials, party leaders, and their consultants, really listened to their constituents? NO.

The Republican candidate has offered us little in the way of unique or substantive recommendations and assurances for us to stand behind him wholeheartedly and with complete confidence. His slogan, “Country First,” is an excellent choice to describe his patriotism, but it also serves as a contradiction of his intentions. He straightforwardly ignored supporters’ polls and pundits with a hand on the conservative pulse, all of whom overwhelmingly favored Mitt Romney as his logical running mate.

With all due respect to Mrs. Palin (who we admire tremendously), no one can convince us that many Republicans in congress were not aware of the impending credit meltdown. On the contrary, it was a bomb waiting to explode, and they knew it. Who, then, was better equipped than Romney, with his financial genius (and as a Washington outsider), to stand up for our side? We, and the majority of our co-conservatives, practically pleaded with the nominee to bring Mitt onto his team, but John McCain allowed his maverick ego to get in the way of “Country First.”

Our anger and fear doesn’t begin or end with McCain. On his radio show very recently, Howard Stern played a tape of random interviews of Obama supporters in New York, who weren’t even aware of what they were agreeing to. All they heard was Obama’s name, and automatically answered, “Yeah,” “Uh-Huh,” and “Okay by me” to every question the interviewer posed, despite the fact the interviewer had juxtaposed McCain’s policies for Obama’s. It apparently matters not that Louis Farrakhan publicly proclaimed Obama as their Messiah – the Chosen One. That is what angers and frightens us – that few seem to notice.

These New Yorkers are not isolated voters, but are more than likely a good representation of the majority of ACORN-induced registrations. We are equally tired of the race card being shouted out every time we open our mouths to breathe. Republicans, as a whole, are not, nor ever have been, the party of racism. Red Alert: When and if the Bradley Effect should occur, it will not be Republicans in the voting booth.

Senator McCain’s performance in the first two of three critical debates was embarrassing. The old saying “nice guys finish last” endures for a reason. A presidential debate is for engaging in a formal argument of the issues, not a recitation of talking points. His performance was and is critical -- because we have but one opportunity left to confront Barack Obama on the issues and on his questionable alliances before a national audience - live and unfiltered by liberal malarkey.

Say what you will about the liberal leaning moderators, they cannot outsmart a smart candidate.

If John McCain is unable to close the deal for the Republicans tonight, it won’t be long before our party becomes the hangout for the lonely and the desperate, where we’ll all be banging into each other, for God knows how long, like billiard balls on an uneven and hostile surface.

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Health Insurance Bad for Your Wealth

Nationalizing health insurance, as Obama advocates, or finding new ways to pay for health insurance, as McCain would like, will fuel the continuing increase in health care costs and reduce the array of services available to health consumers.
HealthcareGroup.jpg picture by LDCuploads07

by Lance Thompson

During the second presidential debate of this campaign, Senators McCain and Obama were at pains to explain the merits of their respective health plans. Obama seeks to bring all people under one plan to capitalize on economies of scale. McCain plans to bring market forces to bear on medical costs by giving consumers a tax credit to apply toward any medical plan they choose. Though McCain’s plan is marginally more sensible, neither addresses the root cause of high medical costs, which is medical insurance.

Imagine a small community of twenty or thirty people. In this community there are two doctors. Each charges his patients for each service as it is rendered. The doctors are roughly equal in skill and experience. Obeying the law of supply and demand, the doctor who charges less for his services gets more business, and thus forces the doctor who charges more to lower his prices to compete for that business.

An entrepreneur in the community decides to start his own business. He tells people that none of them can be sure when a costly medical visit will be required, and that none of the other members of the community are responsible enough to put money aside for such an emergency. But he offers an answer–medical insurance. Instead of paying the doctors on the occasion of requiring medical service, residents pay the medical insurance provider a fixed amount each month, allowing them to add medical costs to their monthly budgets. When a medical service is required, the insurance agent will take money out of the funds he has collected and pay for the service.

Several consequences result from this arrangement. Since medical costs are the same to the patient whether he uses them frequently or infrequently, demand for medical services increases. Since medical costs are the same to the patient whether he avails himself of elaborate procedures or simple, he chooses the more elaborate. Since medical costs are the same to the patient, whichever doctor he chooses, each doctor may raise his rates without fear of competition from his colleague. The two doctors, wishing to maximize the revenue from their practices, can raise rates without driving away business.

The insurance agent, however, wishes also to maximize his own profit, and seeks to reduce the amount of money he pays for medical services. He may try to force the health providers to lower their rates, but he is dependent upon them for his livelihood. The doctors can in return threaten to cease providing services, which would put the insurer out of business as well.

So the insurer seeks relief on the other side–from the insured. He must either raise the rates of insurance or limit access to the health services covered. In the first event, the consumer, who can exert no pressure on the costs of health care, must pay more. In the second instance, the consumer may not be able to gain access to certain services at any cost.

More importantly, the health care expenditures of the small community, which once supported two doctors whose prices were kept down by competition, now supports two doctors and an insurance agent who are free of market pressures, and can raise their rates at will.

Likewise, in the larger world we live in, Americans’ health care expenditures must not only support health care providers, but also a vast, multi-billion dollar health care insurance industry. This industry does not provide care, produce medicine, or perform medical procedures of any kind. It is merely a processor of fees, but the hundreds of thousands of people and hundreds of companies which provide health insurance or administer managed care are all part of America’s health care costs.

The appeal of medical insurance is that each person is protected from extraordinary health care bills, and instead pays a set amount each month. But if such bills are inevitable as an individual ages, and all patients will eventually need expensive care, then the insurance agency must charge enough so that those costs can be passed on to each customer. Thus the insured will still fully pay those costs, in addition to an amount which pays for the vast insurance industry, and allows that industry to make a profit.

If only a limited percentage of health care customers will require expensive care, then those who will not require such care will be subsidizing those who will, and health care for those people will be an unnecessary expense. And if healthy lifestyle choices such as diet, exercise, and environmental factors can reduce the chances of requiring expensive medical services, then Americans would be better off incorporating those choices in their lives, and opting out of paying insurance premiums inflated by those who do not make those choices.

Eliminating health insurance and managed care, and allowing Americans to pay for their health services as required will eliminate the cost of a vast industry from health care bills and further reduce costs by allowing the free market and competition to keep prices down. Doctors who provide better care will be able to charge more; those with lesser qualifications will be forced to charge less. Access to health services of all kinds will be guaranteed, with those who require the highest level of service compelled to pay the highest prices.

Nationalizing health insurance, as Obama advocates, or finding new ways to pay for health insurance, as McCain would like, will fuel the continuing increase in health care costs and reduce the array of services available to health consumers. This is the path both presidential candidates have chosen to follow. It is a placebo whose psychological benefits are certain to wear off shortly after the election.

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Obamapox

Hostile liberal organisms (advisors) emanated from the viral vector that was Fannie Mae...
Obamapox.jpg picture by LDCuploads07

by Rose Pedenko and Tanya Simon

There is a vaccine for nearly everything: typhus, influenza, polio, the pox – or so we thought.

A new pestilence has reared its ravenous head and has enveloped the U.S. with such wildfire speed and intensity that even the American Medical Association cannot cope with this contagion: the Political Plague, or as it is better known - Obamapox.

Symptomatically similar to louse-borne typhus, Obamapox produces a smoky or lazy state of mind. That effect was obvious in the faces of the crowds following his gratuitous thank you speech in Munich, – the vacant stare, wild-eyes and incoherent babble. That’s where the global outbreak of Obamapox was initiated and has since grown into a pandemic – and the hysteria is now reaching worldwide proportions.

As we all know, the human body requires a proper, balanced diet to remain in good physical shape. But the body politic of this country has been starved nearly to death due to a complete lack of the one vital nutrient to keep it healthy: Ethics.

The monumental federal bailout was believed by Congress and the president to be the antidote to this epidemic. It turned out, in fact, to be hopeless compensation from the start. Their $700 billion anti-serum has proved more poisonous than the meltdown itself: 401(k)s being wiped out; savings and pension benefits, wiped out; real estate values and ownership, wiped out. The worst hit has been our hopes, dreams, and faith.

Everyone except those we elected heard the branches of our tree of liberty creaking and then breaking off under the weight of misguided egalitarianism. Only now are they racing blindly armed only with squirt gun-sized syringes to stop the plague they, themselves, have caused.

The Democrat-controlled Congress (that monkey house where the occupants grunt and groom one another) is the hot zone of this plague: Ground Zero. The host and major carrier of this pox on our economy is none other than Barack Obama.

And where is Obama during this mega-crisis? No doubt safe and warm in an antiseptic, germ-free (Teflon-coated) environment where nothing and no one are allowed in. The secondary hostile liberal organisms (advisors) emanated from the viral vector that was Fannie Mae, but Obama learned quickly to insulate himself from that nexus.

Obama even debates in a sterile bubble of safe words and phraseology designed to distract from the virulent liberalism which evolved from his far left-wing radicalism to camera-ready moderation via the smoke and mirrors provided by the mainstream media.

Like any pestilence, it has infected both liberal and conservative Senators, Congressmen and campaign workers. At the other end of the spectrum, teachers are indoctrinating and contaminating children from K to 12 with a new strain specifically designed to infect future generations. Politics took for granted our immunity, which was financial dominance. But it was politicians like Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank (and insiders like Franklin Raines) who plundered that dominance: our hard-earned money that we placed for safekeeping in their hands. And then the liberal media purposely mangled the emergency sirens that were ringing dangerously louder on a yearly basis to make them sound as though all crises of every nature were emanating exclusively from the Oval Office.

Despite this mounting catastrophe, congresspersons continue to live in selfish luxury and generous pensions while the taxpayers who support them are falling wayside by the thousands. George W. Bush is guilty of over-spending. But directly after the Democrats seized power in 2006 and proclaimed “there’s a new game in town,” Speaker Pelosi’s first order of business was to demand a large private jet be at her disposal, and chauffeured limousines on both coasts for an entourage of family, boot polishers and other toadies.

Recently, in the middle of the initial bailout vote, Pelosi alone coughed up enough partisan sputum to spread Obamapox to Wall Street, causing the Dow to drop like a fiery stone.

The Democrats were so all-fired angry about spending, which is the major reason they were voted back into power. Yet Nancy Pelosi couldn’t wait to get her manicured mitts onto taxpayer money to satisfy her diseased greed – every penny of which is funded by taxpayers. She fell ill with Obamapox almost immediately. The only inoculation she had availed herself of was against the Hillary strain.

The first sign of infection is deafness to reason, which comes early and has nasty side effects. At its most malignant stage, those directly exposed to Obamapox (many photo-op Democrats in Congress) degenerate into Obamania, the final stage before being institutionalized.

The Surgeon General says the long-term prognosis for survival is not known, but, in most cases, it appears to be terminal or until honest Republicans and Democrats burn the House down and start over.

 
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Moderates Don't Score

John McCain needed a decisive win. But to do that, he needed a decisive platform. 
debateglove.jpg picture by LDCuploads07

by Lance Thompson

In the Tuesday night debate, John McCain needed a decisive win. But to do that, he needed a decisive platform. As a moderate Republican, he hasn't one.

McCain landed one solid punch on the financial crisis when he placed the blame for the mortgage meltdown squarely on the Democrats who coerced banks to lend money to those who couldnt pay it back. Such provisions were passed under Democrat presidents Carter and Clinton. In the same answer, McCain mentioned that Obama had received the second highest amount of contributions from Fannie Mae executives in history. This was the fight conservatives had been waiting for.

But Obama ducked most of the hits and moved on. McCain, having tossed a bone to the conservatives, never returned to the hard-hitting tactic, and repeated his populist rhetoric about greedy Wall Streeters. McCain had taken the gloves off, and he quickly slipped them back on.

Obama presented McCain with a tremendous opportunity while discussing Iraq. Obama said that Iraq was a misjudgment, a mistake, a case of taking our eye off the ball. Then, Obama answered a question on military intervention by saying that we all would have liked to have intervened to prevent the holocaust, and we should all support intervention in cases of genocide.

McCain could have said that genocide was exactly what was happening in Iraq prior to our liberation of that country. Iraqis lived in terror under a pitiless dictator who used poison gas on his own people, and was systematically killing, starving or driving out the Iraqi Kurds. That is the definition of genocide. How could Iraq be a mistake if it met the conditions of Obamas policy for military intervention? McCain let this one slide.

Later, an audience member asked if health coverage should be treated as a commodity. Both Obama and McCain took this opportunity to present their health care plans, but neither answered the question. McCain, who went second on this one, should have said, "Yes, health care should be treated as a commodity, because commodities respond to the laws of supply and demand. Only the free market can contain the costs of medial care. Health insurance insulates the consumer of health care from the provider, and costs, consequently, have risen steadily. As long as there is an intervening authority, whether private health insurer or government provider, health costs will continue to rise." McCain brushed up against this principle in his $5000 health insurance tax credit, but it was far from a direct hit.

The problem is, McCain is close to Obama on several issues. They both overstate the impact of global warming. They both still blame Wall Street for the financial crisis. They both voted for the astronomically expensive bailout. They both are soft on illegal immigration. McCain is a moderate; Obama, though he poses as a moderate, is a true liberal. In this case, it gives Obama an advantage. His political base knows he is one of them, and supports him absolutely. The conservative base knows McCain is not one of them, and their support is halfhearted.

McCain is capable of a bare-knuckle campaign, as he demonstrated in his primary battle against Mitt Romney. But when it comes to the main event, he is tentative and cautious. With less than a month to go and in view of discouraging poll numbers, now is the time to release the warrior within if John McCain still thinks America is worth fighting for.

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Bailout Rock

Treasury Secretary Henry "It’s Now or Never" Paulson went from "Mellow Yellow" to a "Whiter Shade of Pale"
 
BailoutRock2.jpg picture by LDCuploads07

By Rose Pedenko and Tanya Simon

Hey, all you cats & kittens out there in funny money land, the clock is tick, tick, ticking. It’s almost time we hit the mattresses and harvest that stashed cash we’ve been storing for a rainy day, ‘cause our savings and 401(k)s’ might be Blowin’ in the Wind, and then it’s going to be See You Later, Alligator from our Pension Funds.

The Dow Jones had its 19th Nervous Breakdown when the The 3-Gs (Good Guys & Gals in Government), better known as Strangers in the Night, did a Shake, Rattle & Roll and voted “no $$$$-ING way” to bail out the credit market a/k/a the Space Oddity– that was famous for its jingles We Can Work it Out and My World is Empty Without IOUs, Babe.

Treasury Secretary Henry It’s Now or Never Paulson went from Mellow Yellow to a Whiter Shade of Pale when the American people rang up their reps and sang our anthem, I Fought the Law and rejected his $700 billion Eight Miles High bailout compromise. Then Representative Mike Pence of Indiana cut through the Purple Haze and announced: “The American people rejected this bailout, and now Congress did likewise.”

Would the underlying message to Congress be: You Can’t Always Get What You Want?

Just when we thought the Smoke on the Water was clearing in the violin section of the Democrat party, Dazed and Confused Barney Frank must have had a Psychotic Reaction when he issued the statement: “The Republicans killed this.”

Back in 2004, during A Day in the Life of the illegal bookkeeping hearings, Barney Frank said “you seem to be saying well there are areas which could raise safety and soundness problems. I don’t see anything in this report that raises safety and soundness problems.” And just like that Frank figured: There Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.

And who can ever forget Maxine California Dreamin’ Waters at those very same hearings declaring: “Mr. Chairman, we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and in particular at Fannie Mae under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Frank Raines.”

Is it Just My Imagination or was Maxine telling Raines Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough?

If that weren’t enough, and With the Tears of a Clown, Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry Bernanke, warned of “grave threats” to the global financial system if Congress rejected the plan. Apparently, his Paint It Black warning was met with the Sounds of Silence by the Comfortably Numb (up for reelection) Congress who were unwilling to hop on the Last Train to Clarksville and vote the wrong way just before the General Election -- wishing we all could, once again, be The Way We Were.

The If I Had a Hammer (and Sickle) Democrats and God Only Knows Republicans hammered out a compromise measure entitled “The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 with a Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On from both sides of the aisle. They’d still be shakin’, but they took a couple of days off before Takin’ Care of Business.

Certainly, Representative Jeb Hensarling (R) of Texas thought The Times They Are A’Changin’ when he declared the bailout might put the nation on the “slippery slope to socialism.” In practically the same breath, please Say It Ain’t So, Rep. James Langevin, Democrat from Rhode Island, said “we must ensure hardworking people will have access to financing for mortgages, as well as auto, student and small business loans.”

The American people believe little in Sympathy For The Devil that is Wall Street and are Crazy for another Congressional Hard Day’s Night of negotiating.

It was widely reported that President George W. Bush was disappointed with defeat of the bailout bill. He was Wishin’ and Hopin otherwise and last overheard saying I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction).

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack With No Particular Place To Go Obama, made a token phone call to the real working senators saying Please Please Me .

Gaffe-prone Senator Joe Biden asked his running mate Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?

On Needles and Pins and with rolled up sleeves, Senator John I Feel Fine McCain insists A Change Is Gonna Come.

 
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive
« Previous1Next »