Step Right Up Folks!

Hopefully everyone took the time to watch last night's presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.




There was no memorable line like "Senator ... you're no Jack Kennedy".

However, there was one odd moment that will make the highlight reel.



Regardless of how it was intended, John McCain's reference to Obama as "that one" is racially suspect at best.




However, there something else that bothered me about this selected clip and the debate as a whole. This was John McCain's repeated use of the phrase "my friends".

In this 1:32 clip alone he uses the phrase twice.

Would it surprise you if I told you that in roughly 45 minutes of allotted talking time McCain used the phrase "my friends" 18 times and "my friend" 4 additional times?

He is obviously trying to borrow a phrase once used sparingly by Reagan in the 1980s. President Reagan used it in his second Inaugural Address.

However, McCain's diarrhetic use of "my friends" makes him come off like some kind of snake oil salesman.




Jingoist, Sarah Palin also likes to shamelessly borrow from Ronald Reagan.

Her repeated use of John Winthrop's “shining city upon a hill” ideal comes from Reagan's Farewell Address to the Nation on January 11th, 1989.

Here is the the problem.

Today's neoconservative Republican in no way resembles a Reagan Republican. True Reagan Republicans from the 80's believed in small government, less spending, and general isolationism.

George Bush has dramatically increased the size of government in everyday life, spent more than any president in office and started a worldwide campaign of nation building.

It is no wonder the bailout bill failed to pass the House Republicans the first time around.




In the end, this is what will finally sink John McCain.




*Forget about retirees who have watched their retirement account vanish.
*Forget about concerned parents who have watched college funds vanish.
*John can even forget about his beloved Reagan Republicans.

Perhaps McCain should have spent less time worrying about famous Ronald Reagan quotes, and spent more time listening to my buddy Bill.

"It's the economy, Stupid"

Pandering with Palin

It is translucently clear why Sarah Palin has been picked to run on the ticket with John McCain.

Republicans are obviously targeting women.

Primarily, the disenchanted Hillary Clinton supporters who are still reeling from her loss to Barack Obama.




Do they really think women are stupid enough to buy into this?

This faux woman has about as many things in common with Hillary Clinton as Bob Guccione has with Mother Theresa.

In fact, Palin has openly accused Clinton of being a "whiner"

*Sarah is fanactically pro-life and pro NRA.

*Palin is also the subject of a legislative probe into claims that she abused her office by trying to get her former brother-in-law fired from his job as an Alaska state trooper.

*In this clip from Kudlow and Co., she addresses this investigation and actually asks the question "What is it exactly that the Vice President does?




*She firmly believes that global warming is not a man-made phenomenom.

*She strongly supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

*She has supported the aerial shooting of wolves and bears in Alaska.




*She politically supports Pebble Mine, an open-pit gold mine which will destroy some of the best trout and salmon fishing grounds in the world.

Are you kidding me?

I can only take a wild guess at the right-wing moron that must have headed up this selection committee?




This choice is so surprisingly bad, that it makes me laugh and simultaneously breathe a sigh of relief.

Sarah Palin stands about as much chance of being Vice President as I stand of being the President.