Friday, August 29, 2008

The Audacity of Something...and it's not Hope

Obama didn't just "happen" to have his speech on the 45th anniversary of MLK's speech, he planned it that way and I find it cheeky on Obama's part. He could not do it by himself, so he stood on the shoulders of a great man to make himself look better. Despicable.

And how awful he could not follow in MLK's footsteps by having a positive message like him. He was insulting McCain left and right. Bad Form, Strike 2.

The speech, itself, wasn't bad. But it wasn't his best. Even his followers on CNN said that he has done better in the past, and expected his speech to be better this time. He didn't even top Clinton's speech. The Clintons overshadowed him at the DNC. He speaks like a preacher, not a politician.

Also, Obama likes to complain that people misquote him by taking sound-bytes and not the whole quote. He and the Democrats did the same thing to McCain all through the convention:
1) Middle class is under $5 million. When McCain said that, it was a joke. Everyone else knew it was a joke, besides Obama.
2) McCain has 7 houses. He buys and sells houses as income. He does not live in 7 seven houses.
3) McCain knows nothing about economics. Says Obama, who thinks he can lower taxes on 95% of the people, yet spend billions and billions in new programs. He says he's going to go line-by-line in the budget and get rid of failing programs. #1 - He can't do that as President, that is Congress' job. #2 -Even if he could, that won't give you enough money to run the programs that he wants to. He'll have to get the money from somewhere and it won't be from the top 5% of income earners.

Not to mention the Obama campaign's reaction to McCain's pick of Palin. McCain was gracious enough to extend his congratulations to Obama for his moment. Obama (or at least his campaign) turns around and rolls their eyes at McCain's pick.

This man is a great speaker, there is no doubt about that. The way he works a crowd is amazing. He had that crowd eating out of his hand last night. He had them all in tears. I can't name another politician (Not even Clinton) who is able to do that.
But, a great speaker does not also mean a great leader. This man is not a leader. It's evident in his words and his actions. He picked Biden to be a "mentor" for him. He can't breathe without the okay of another. A leader doesn't care if people don't agree with him; he keeps doing what he's doing because he thinks it's for the best of everyone. Michelle Obama says they never talked about running for Senator or President, it was always about helping others. Being President isn't about helping others, it's about running a country.

Did anyone else notice what instrumental piece they were playing after the speech, as Obama’s family and Biden’s family came out to wave to the crowd? It was the theme to the movie “Clear and Present Danger”. I’m sure it was chosen because it sounded presidential, patriotic or whatever, but could it be that someone in Obama’s camp might be trying to tell us something? Ironic.

It wasn't an acceptance speech, it was his farewell speech. He's been down since he chose Biden and McCain just checkmated him with his pick of Sarah Palin. I love how CNN rates her as an "F" pick, saying she's a horrible choice. It just proves how good of a pick she was. It's an interesting game, and I'm willing to bet there's still a few more surprises ahead, but Obama isn't going to win.

And from what I'm seeing about Palin, SHE'S a strong woman I can get excited about.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Obama's VP announcement - his last huzzah?

I can say with absolute confidence now that Obama's on a fast spiral down. He worried me for awhile, and played a good game, but he's not going to win. His much-anticipated VP announcement solidified this for me.

Joe Biden? I must say, I thought he'd choose a woman. Either way, I figured his choice would be based on image, more than anything else. He's white, older with more experience, especially in foreign affairs. Everything Obama needed. A white guy for the "racists" that Obama is convinced are the reason he's tied with McCain and not a shoe-in like he thought he would be. An older guy to trump the "you're-too-young" crowd. A guy with 35 years experience to silence the "but you have no experience" people. And foreign experience to calm down people who can't believe that Obama thinks he can waltz into other countries and just by talking to them will pacify them.

...Or so he hopes.

I don't think the voters will be fooled. Biden has Clinton-disease where he can't control what comes flying out of his mouth, and usually, it's catastrophic. (See: 2 failed campaigns, 1988 and 2008). He's already mouthing off at McCain.

"He will have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at"

Oh yeah. Like any of you big guys in Washington own only one house. Give me a break. I'm sure that this guy flapping his gums and Obama don't only own one house. The guy has been on the job for less than a day and that's what he graces us with? Why not something constructive, like "Compared with McCain, I know more about foreign policy because I've done xyz in my committee, etc..."

The media is calling him "Obama's attack dog". What did you do, Obama, take a page from Hillary's book and pick someone like her husband to stand up for you and do your dirty work for you? What happened to "different politics" and not running a negative campaign? That didn't last long, did it? So how fast will your billion dollar plans go down the drain? Guess what - if you start playing with Hillary's rules, then expect to fall flat on your face like she did.

Not to mention, what Biden has been quoted saying about Obama:
"the presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training", saying that Obama wasn't ready for the Presidency.

That just cracks me up. Sure, your VP doesn't have to be buddy-buddy with you or even really like you, but at least they need to respect you and think you are up for the job. How sad is that. He's the best guy Obama could pick for the job, but Biden doesn't think Obama will make a good President. Obama says he doesn't want a "yes" man. Well, that's fine and all, but you need someone who at least has confidence in your campaign.

Apparently, Biden also said earlier in the season that he wasn't in the race to become VP and if he was offered it, he would turn it down. Nice guy, you have there, Obama. Good luck with that.

What really tickles my funny bone is how Obama promised his followers that they would be the first to know about his VP pick. But seems like it got leaked to the media first, around 1am this morning, so Obama's camp had to send it out as quick as possible, not to disappoint his fans. So he sent them the announcement at 3am. Sounds like a bad Hillary campaign commercial:
"It's 3am. A phone is ringing...". I wonder if his supporters enjoyed that nice wake up call. Hey, maybe it's the metaphorical wake up call we've been waiting for them to have. "I want this guy to ANSWER the phone at 3am, not CALL me at 3am!"

But enjoy it while it lasts. I say this was Obama's last poll boost. It's like watching those Olympic runners. You see them take off and one is way out in front, but you can tell that they came out too quickly and sure enough, 200 meters before the finish line, they die like a mosquito hitting a bug light.

As a runner, I've seen it before - Obama came out too quickly. He used up all of his energy in the first 200 meters, and will have nothing left for the home stretch.

Sources:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080823/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_analysis
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/us/politics/24biden.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin