Sneaky little Romney brothers

So apparently the Romney brothers are trying to scrape together enough cash to buy Rudy Giuliani’s old car, which is for sale on eBay and show up to a campaign rally in it. Whether it works out or not, it’s a hilarious idea. Just imagine how much fun they’d be in the White House. This is a side to Romney we don’t usually see, but I find it comforting.

Good natured family fun. What politician has that connection to reality on a daily basis? This is representative of something genuine, something that has been missing from American politics for a long time. These brothers are great. This may not be any sort of definitive sincerity, but it still goes a long way.

Not to mention it’s funny.

NY Giants in role reversal

This time the Giant had the sling and the small stature. He’s still got one heck of an arm though.

If you just came out of a coma, the New York Giants just won the superbowl in the last quarter, with less than a minute on the board. Considering the vast odds they overcame to get to the game and even more to beat an offense that has broken records and had yet to lose a game, it seems just a little noteworthy.

Can we see the same happen in politics? Not with Ron Paul of course, but we’ll see. Both Obama and Romney still have a few tricks up their sleeves. One of them is of course not being liars or political opportunists. That’s always a plus. Once again, I truly fear for this country if the vote comes down to Hillary vs McCain. I don’t trust either of them, regardless of their issues.

Why is it people always forget character when looking for a leader. I know it doesn’t seem like any politician has character in this day and age, but do you honestly think you should vote for someone just on the issues? There’s a lot more to being president than that. Doing whatever you can to smear your opponent, no matter how unethical, undermines that. So does carpet-bagging because you’ve become addicted to the smell of the White House. If you’re not in it for the good of the country, you don’t deserve my vote.

Stay tuned, if time allows I will have something a little more substantial (and less known) tomorrow. You might like it, if you’re interested in things that have the potential to change society as we know it.

McCain isn’t Republican; Obama is sincere

A vote for McCain is a vote for the collapse of conservatism

Take a look here

Now I normally don’t put too much store in Rush, I don’t really listen to him and a lot of people automatically ignore whatever he has to say just because it’s him that happens to be saying it. Hear me out though…he got this from a different source. This is pretty significant…and it means that the polls are wrong. The Republicans are absolutely screwed if McCain gets the nomination. Here, according to Rush’s source, is why:

I don’t know where the blog is from. But the guy was going through the exit poll data and has analyzed it, via the CNN website and their exit poll numbers and he says they reveal some surprising things from Florida. Romney won pro-lifers. Romney won the mainstream religious. Huckabee won the very religious, which is less than one-fifth of the pool.

Romney won the Protestants. Romney tied Huckabee with evangelicals. Romney won the pro-George W. Bush voters. Romney is the primary second choice of Giuliani voters and Thompson voters and McCain voters. Romney won the immigration hardliners. Romney won the upper middle class earning between $100,000 and $200,000 annually. Romney won the terrorism-oriented voters. Romney won the self-identified conservatives and the self-identified very conservatives. Romney won the values-oriented voters. Romney won the white voters. Romney won the tax-cutting voters. As this blogger writes, “In short, Romney won the Republican Party’s idea of itself, and that, too, is a big deal. If you’re white, Protestant, anti-abortion, you go to church on Sunday, you think well of the president, you want lower taxes, you hate terrorists, you make a good living, you want to do something about immigration, you live in Florida; chances are you voted Romney. The question before Florida was whether McCain could win in a closed Republican race, and now we know he can. The question now is whether he can win with conservatives, and in Florida McCain did not.”

As we all know, he won with the seasoned citizens in big numbers. He won with the Latino and Hispanic community in south Florida and Miami-Dade, and he won the moderates and the independents. Now, you had to be a Republican to vote, but you come out of there and talk the exit poll, “Are you a Republican?” “I’m an independent, but I’m a Republican,” and people are proud to say they’re independents. It really impresses the pollsters. So these things just keep adding up, and we find out that McCain is in a lot of these places not actually the Republican candidate, he is the candidate of enough Republicans, but independents and moderates and probably even some liberals. Today’s Washington Post story by Dan Balz and Anne Kornblut includes this paragraph: “Republicans, on the other hand, see the prospect of a clear future in their coalition as a result of the nomination contest. McCain is winning important primaries, but he’s doing so without the support of the party’s conservative and religious base.” Well, what more needs to be said? He is winning for the reasons that we’ve laid out here. He’s facing a fractured Republican field with no candidate galvanizing conservatives. That’s what Romney’s choice is now.

So you can see, McCain won a truly “Republican” primary…but he didn’t do it by being a Republican. I’ve been saying this about Giuliani, and I think I can now safely say the same about McCain: He’s a liberal with an R by his name. He identifies with the independents, has many liberal views, and grabs a few of the more ignorant (or anti-Romney/Huckabee) conservatives, but for the most part he doesn’t represent the Republican ideals.

The party is falling apart. The Republican party is shrinking, it’s fracturing. The Republicans are compromising their values in order to keep the Democrats out of the White House. While sometimes even I am tempted to follow that line of thinking (especially if Hillary gets the nomination), this isn’t good for conservatives. If the party loses it’s identity, this country is looking at a long period of Democratic domination…NOT a breakdown of the party system (which I myself would love to see). While the Democrats have some JFKs, they also have a lot of Kerrys, Gores, and Hillary Clintons…and Teds too.

Now I like to think of myself as an independent centrist, but the facts still remain. McCain is a political opportunist, as is his front-running counterpart. If it all comes down to McCain vs Clinton, I think I might cry.

Barack n’ Roll

The other half of the story comes in the surprising form as a post by XKCD creator Randall Munroe. Randall generally likes to keep quiet on the ideas of politics within XKCD spheres, but he’s made a special exception at this critical time.

If life imitates XKCD, then vote for Barack Obama.

Randall points out Obama’s insistence on open systems, and on letting people keep track of what the government does. He points out that currently the only establishment capable of keeping the government in check is the government itself…something that we can all agree (Bush supporters and haters alike) only leads to corruption in government.

Personally, I honestly think that Obama is the only viable Democratic candidate that is honest and truly wants the good of the people. Now I may not agree with all of his views, but as Randall and other sources will show, he means what he says. He’s not doing this for himself (unlike our current frontrunners), he’s doing it for America.

As bad as some of his ideas may be, and as inexperienced as he may be, I believe that if he gets the White House, he’ll be given the strength he needs. The POTUS is a blessed office. God created this nation and it is a channel through which he brings to pass much good. He will give it’s leaders the help they need, if they are humble and are doing their best to serve the nation. If they have good intent, they will be blessed to handle the difficulties ahead of them. America won’t crash and burn because of one man’s naiveté…it has to earn that kind of punishment.

So after much deliberation and uncertainty on my part, I think I’ve finally got things figured out. I know I’m pitching the underdog here, but that’s just my luck. We must go with what we feel is right and who we feel is the right person for the job. I think I finally know what and who is right.

Obama vs Romney ‘08