Time for a Field Trip

Now that Gov. Palin's the pick, how about a field trip to ANWR?

The Gov. could be the official docent. Even more impressive would be to have union member husband Todd be the guide since he has actually worked on the north slope.

McC can then learn for himself that drilling up there can be done and can be done right.

The important thing is to make a huge production of it. Take the press. Invite Brokaw, Williams, & Couric. "You went with Barry to Berlin, you should come with me. Let me give you the home town tour of ANWR from one who knows it." Invite O'Reilly, Rush, Matthews, and that guy on CNN. Invite Oprah and the girls from The View. Fill up that huge Straight Talk Express plane with a bunch of pressies and crank up the "North To Alaska".

To make it really good, invite Barry to come along. Invite him to do so from the stage at the GOP national convention. A bipartisan, patriotic, post-partisan thing to do.

The important thing is to take advantage of this issue.

No, the important thing is to start drilling up there.

Pick Palin, McC

My pref. is Governor Palin, Mr. McC.

Young, attractive. Oh by the way, did I mention she's a woman. Her integrity is impeccable, her values strong. Talk about outside the beltway--Alaska's as far as it gets. She recently signed into law a bill that will advance the construction of a new natural gas pipeline from Alaska.

She has five kids, the oldest in the Army, the youngest in diapers.

She's tough, honest, and McC's kind of gal. Wouldn't that be somethin'?

Here's the draft Palin blog. "New Energy for America".

This One for McC

Here's a blurb I posted over on The Chaliceblog in the comments section of a post asking folks to predict who will win in November. My prediction is McC.

Barry was doing well when all a candidate had to say was, "Pull out of Iraq." Now, it's much more complicated. They did the poll in the spring. The poll said people want change. My prediction . . . come November, apres le primary-frenzy, people won't want change just for change's sake. They'll want to look a little deeper. And what they'll see in Barry is not what they really want in a President. Or, at least, what they're willing to risk.

Here it is, my presidential prediction from The Chaliceblog:

If you believe in systems theory, you believe that systems resist change. Last spring everyone on both the right and left agreed the mess in Iraq was our biggest problem. There was enough focus on that one issue for enough people to agree that change was less scary than status quo.

Now Iraq has fallen from the headlines. Is there enough focus on our problems for America as a system to overcome its resistance to change? Our problems are many and great--the economy, energy, the environment, Supreme Court Judges, health care, social security/medicare, education, race relations, blah, blah, blah. But in such times of stress, my argument is that people will be even more resistant to change, even more afraid of taking a chance.

What's changed is focus. There's not a laser clear focus on one issue that produces enough fear for the system to overcome its resistance to change. Not among enough of the voters.

Enough voters will be laying there in bed waiting for that Ambien to kick in, worrying that the economy's bad but will raising taxes really fix it? Gas prices are high but will refusing to drill or to build nuclear plants help that? Health care is a mess but is turning more of it over to the government going to make it better or worse? Oh, and did I mention that he's black. And untested.

And it's not just the individuals within the American system who will fear change and vote against it. It's all the special interests and powers that be, corporate and otherwise, who will fight to keep what they've got.

I think it will be McCain because by the time all the attacks and fear mongering is done, the fear of change--the fear of the unknown--is what will actually decide the election.

10:31 PM, August 26, 2008

Poll Changes

Can't say exactly why I haven't been writing. Been out of town some. Internet was down for a few days due to a defective cable modem. Time to get back into it, tho.

Last posting on July 29 had the projected electoral college vote count at 204 for McC and 334 for Barry. It's now 266 for McC and 272 for Barry. Remember, 270 wins it. McC's picked up 62 in just three weeks. Virginia and North Dakota are dead heats with McC getting those electoral votes in this particular count. All this from The Hedgehog Report blog.

At the Intrade futures market where one can put down real dollars on the election, McC can't seem to break above $40 with a close today of $38.60 while Barry has recently dropped from a high in the high $60s range back to a close today of $58.90. Intrade it turns out is very accurate in its election predictions. I believe it correctly predicted every US Senate race in '06.

It's great fun to watch.

Democrat Nightmare

Here's the nightmare scenario:

Obie ends up with more primary delegates.

Billary ends up with more popular votes if we count Michigan and Florida.

Obie ends up with more popular votes if we don't count Michigan and Florida.

Dems can't agree about what to do with Michigan and Florida. Michigan and Florida Dems feel screwed, turn away from the political process or switch to McCain.

The battle begins for the Super Delegates. Billary starts buying Super Delegate votes with promises of cabinet positions, dates with Bill, ambassadorships, and support for legislative pork.

Dean, Pelosi, Reid, Gore, Kerry, Kennedy, all call on Super Delegates to make up their minds to avoid a convention bloodbath. But it's the Dems: no one's in charge. Delegates hold out--the pork barrel line forms at back door of the smoke-filled room of the Billary campaign HQ. Why not linger? Why not wait for a super-sized pork meal?

Obie's African American supporters feel screwed and turn away from the political process. McCain goes crazy to the middle, offers olive branches to African American voters, and sees his support in that community grow from seven percent to 15 percent.

Obie's nutty left wing supporters feel screwed and go crazy. Some turn away from the political process, some start a third party, some revert to their earlier ways and re-bomb the Pentagon.

Billary's bitter, gun-toting, church-going supporters feel screwed and turn to McCain.

The Democratic Convention gets its highest TV ratings ever.

A Class Act

There's an article in today's New York Times that's worth the read. John McCain's son is a Marine who recently returned from a tour in Iraq. The McCains have tried very hard to keep this quiet (which makes me wonder why I am even posting this). In fact, the McCains asked the Times not to publish the article.

At one of the New Hampshire debates, McC was asked a question by a woman who had lost her brother to an IED in Iraq. Later, McC and his son, who at the time was days away from leaving for his tour in Anbar, visited her at her home without the presence of any reporters or cameras. What a visit that must have been.

In yet another class act, Cindy McCain arranged for a special visit to her son right before he was to leave but he refused to see her bc. he thought he would be the recipient of special treatment that the other Marines in his unit could not share.

Hot Times in the Old House Tonight

Watching John McC on stage tonight giving his victory speech with wife Cindy by his side, all that came to mind was that there's going to be some hot sex in the McCain house tonight. The kind of sex reserved for sailors returning from the sea. Celebration sex.

You could just see it in their eyes--the happiness of a hard campaign waged and won. I mean this in the most complimentary way. They deserve it. Who would have thought last September 1st that they'd be where they are?

Billary tonight? I don't think so. Probably not much goes on in that department these days.

And the Obamas? They're too worried to have that sort of celebration. Hard to have celebration sex when you're shaking in your boots from Billary on your heels.

This brings me to one of the reasons I've always been a fan of McCain. He's a man. A manly man--a fighter pilot, a man with a temper, a rebel in many respects. A sailor. I had the pleasure of being an eye witness to what I now refer to as his suicide speech in Virginia Beach in 2000. He went into the heart of Pat Robertson country the week of the Virginia primary and attacked the religious right, said the Robertson/Falwell-ites were too far out of the American main stream and hurt the Republican party on the day of the general election.

I knew what he was doing. He knew he was going to lose in Virginia after having been smeared in South Carolina the week before. His speech was aimed at the the voters of Michigan who were voting in their primary the following week. So he went for it. Said what he believed. Caused audible gasps from the God Squad audience. But I've always admired him for the gutsiness.

He's gotten a little smarter since then, a little more diplomatic maybe. But at the same time, he's still a manly man.

And tonight? They have much to celebrate.