The T-Files

Talking on Anderson Cooper 360 the other night, Obama said the following:

“My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We’ve got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month,” (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/01/obama-defends-natural-disaster-experience/).

Except Sarah Palin is a governor, not a mayor. So let’s run those numbers again:

Obama’s monthly budget is closer to $22 million. The budget of Alaska, about $1 billion a month. Total number of employees on Obama’s team? 2500. Total number of Alaska state employees? 15 thousand.
(http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/whose-budget-is-bigger/?ref=opinion)
You might want to reframe that argument, Senator.

Personally, I would suggest that Obama stop comparing himself to the other team’s sidekick; it makes him look petty. Leave Palin to Biden and stay focused on McCain.

Barack Obama’s quote about Sarah Palin shows he is a classy guy (From Time):

“I have heard some of the news on this and so let me be as clear as possible. I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people’s families are off limits, and people’s children are especially off limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics, it has no relevance to governor Palin’s performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18. And how family deals with issues and teenage children that shouldn’t be the topic of our politics and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that is off limits.”

Tony Sarrecchia

First off, congratulations to me: As subscribers to my blog (http://www.currentevents1.today.com) know, I selected Sarah Palin to be John McCain’s running mate on Tuesday, 3 days before the announcement. While the other pundits weretouting Mitt Romney, Tom Ridge and Joe Lieberman (?)—Drudge didn’t even include her name in his on-line poll–some of us were thinking more strategically. I imagine I will soon be rolling in consulting and advising offers.

Secondly, congratulations to Senator McCain for his wise and bold choice. Sarah Palin is a potent compliment to McCain: She has experience, personality, and youth. Palin has the Chief Executive experience that Senator Obama does not; she is a Washington outsider, which Joe Biden is not; and she has never plagiarized, which Biden has (twice, actually) (“Biden Withdraws Bid for President In Wake of Furor”). What does it say about someone who picks a known intellectual thief to be his second in command? Weren’t there any other qualified Democrats who didn’t try to crib their life story from a British Labor Leader? (Biden’s Debate Finale: An Echo From Abroad)

Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton—which is a good thing. In a Newsweek interview, Palin said that Hillary’s ‘whining’ about the treatment she (Clinton) received during the Democratic Primaries does not help women in politics. Palin also does not carry any of the Clinton baggage—specifically, the old steamer trunk named Bill; neither does she share Clinton’s love for larger and invasive government. Since becoming Governor, Palin has cut pork barrel spending by her fellow Alaskan Republicans, including the funding for the “Bridge to Nowhere”– a $398 million bridge to connect one of Alaska’s outer islands. “”We will continue to look for options (…) to allow better access to the island,”…”The concentration is not going to be on a $400 million bridge.”” (‘Bridge to nowhere’ abandoned ).

Palin also supports drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge as a solution to our current dependency on foreign oil. She told Weekly Standard writer Stephen F. Hayes (To Drill, or Not to Drill) ““One of the pieces of a solution is allowing exploration on that little 2,000 acre plot of land out of the 20 million acres up there in the coastal plain.” The 2,000 acres that Palin refers to is the area that a drilling site would require–”smaller than the size of LAX,” as she puts it. “With new technology and directional drilling and other measures that can be taken today to minimize even that footprint. We know that this can be done safely and this can be managed well.””

However, Sarah Palin is hardly in the pockets of Big Oil. Less than a year after taking office, Palin told the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission that the petroleum profits tax wasn’t ‘working as promised’ (Palin oil tax gets cold shoulder), and levied higher taxes on the industry. The result? This year every resident of Alaska will receive a $1200 check from the oil industry.

How did Team Obama welcome Palin into the race? The first Obama campaign statement: “Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.” Pot meet kettle. As far as I can tell, Obama lacks any foreign policy unless we count his recent rock-star like world tour (t-shirts soon to be available). Hillary Clinton said Obama’s foreign policy experience was a little more than a speech he gave. Joe Biden said, in reference to Obama’s experience “I think he can be ready, but right now I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.” (Biden on Obama)

Palin is Commander-in-Chief of the Alaska National Guard. Obama is an absentee senator. Palin led an ethics committee and forced members of her own party to resign. Obama sat on a board with his friend and known terrorist William Ayers. When Palin was mayor, she reduced her salary and cut resident property taxes by 60 percent. Obama was never a mayor, but he did buy a house next to major campaign donor and indicted slum lord Tony Rezko (8 things you need to know about Obama and Rezko.)

The ironic thing about that statement is that neither Obama or Biden have any Chief Executive experience at any level of government. I know some Obama fans will say, that the statement came from Obama’s campaign, not the Senator. Obama and Biden did make a very gracious statement to Palin a couple of hours later. Of course, the implication then is that either Obama cannot control his team or Obama does not know what his team is doing. Either way, it brings Obama’s leadership skills into question.

As I said in my prophetic blog post: “Conservatives [will] love her because she attends church regularly, is pro-life, and is a lifetime member of the NRA. Centrist Republicans and Democrats will appreciate that, while she doesn’t support same-sex marriage, she is concerned with gay and lesbian discrimination and signed a same-sex benefits act into law (something the previous administration refused to do). Women who feel jilted by the Democrat party, and Obama’s [business as usual] VP choice, should see her as the Republican answer to Hillary: a tough-minded woman ready to lead.” (McCain-Palin, A Winning Ticket)

I am still not sold on McCain as president; his selection of Palin for veep makes this election not only historic, but the most exciting elections in my lifetime.

Commentary by Tony Sarrecchia

Old. That’s how participants in an AP-Yahoo news poll see John McCain.

When people were asked to describe John McCain in one word, the most common was ‘old’. The second response was ‘military service’ (9%) and the third was ‘record, qualification’ (8%).

Things weren’t quite so rosy for Barack Obama. The first word used to describe him was the non-judgmental ‘change’. His second place response was ‘lack of experience’ (13%). And third? ‘Dishonest’ (9%).

According this article: http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-candidate-images “Obama is seen as warm and empathetic and McCain as stronger and tougher”. We get to choose between the somewhat effeminate, shady but hip uncle, or the no nonsense, grizzled grandfather. Thanks, major parties, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

The interesting part of this poll however wasn’t mentioned in many of the reports.

In a survey where the majority of the participants were Democrats (48% versus 36% Republicans) one would expect a large, if not overwhelming, number would vote for Obama if the election were held today. The actual numbers tell a different tale. Of those polled, 40% would pick Obama and 39% would vote for McCain (the rest were spread out over ‘Ralph Nader’, ‘Someone Else’ and ‘Don’t Know’.) A one percent lead for a democrat in a poll where voting democrats lead by 20% cannot be encouraging for the Obama camp. For McCain to rank so close behind Obama indicates that there is growing support among centrist (read that as ‘clear thinking’) democrats for the Old Guy.

As much as people are looking for change from the mediocrity currently in the White House, we should keep in mind that Obama has less than 48 months experience as a actual senator. Fewer months if you count the time campaigning for president, and writing books. Obama himself, on this CNN report, said “I am a believer in knowing what you’re doing when you apply for a job. And I think that if I were to seriously consider running on a national ticket I would essentially have to start now, before having served a day in the Senate. Now, there are some people who might be comfortable doing that, but I’m not one of those people.”

Yet, somewhere between 2004 and now, Obama has garnered that experience? As Oscar Wilde said, “Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.”

Or, to quote Bud Fox’s father from the 80’s movie Wall Street, ‘Course my son did work three summers as a baggage handler and freight loader. With those qualifications, why should I doubt his ability to run an airline?’

Obama did work as a senator for a couple of months—why should we doubt his ability to run a country.

Sources:
http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-candidates-descriptions;_ylt=AuQshnxgb5aeEi7d05faTZBxJZt4

http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-candidate-images

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/07/ask-people-to-b.html

“You’re probably not that good a rapper. Maybe you’re the next Lil Wayne, but probably not. In which case you need to stay in school.” So said Barack Obama while talking to a predominately black crowd in Powder Springs Georgia.

Obama was cautioning students to stay in school and not pin their hopes on a music career or a shot at the NBA. Obama, using a refreshing specific and concrete language rather than his usual empty rhetoric, told them that most of “you brothas” are not “really, really good basketball players,” adding “I know you think you are. But you’re not. You are overrated in your own mind. You will not play in the NBA.”

Kudos to Obama for the direct approach—now if he would just tell wanna-be gangstas to pull up their pants…(that also goes for the white kids in the burbs. Oh, and while we’re at it, turn down the car stereo.)

Obama knows about basketball. Jaymes Song, writing for the AP (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gwsvGknQXu2SINnNoGWy3G2GAuTQD91BB4TG0) said high school b-baller Obama was known as the “Obomber” for his jump shot. Despite that, Obama was delegated to the reserve squad. Obama’s high school coach said Obama may have started on any other team, but “We just happened to have just a team that was pretty loaded.”

In retrospect, Obama knew his limitations: “I could play basketball with a consuming passion that would always exceed my limited talent.” (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gwsvGknQXu2SINnNoGWy3G2GAuTQD91BB4TG0)

Obama stills plays, saying that he would like to put a court in the White House.

He went on to tell the students in Georgia that knowing a foreign language would also increase their chances at future employment. (So would pulling up their pants, but perhaps I am fixating).

This was Obama’s first visit to Georgia and part of his “Red State Express”. By visiting the so-called red states he hopes to gain ground in those states that are trending to Republican contender John McCain.

Sources:

http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/07/08/obama-tells-kids-to-stay-in-school-learn-a-foreign-language/

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/07/obama-slams-hoo.html

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gwsvGknQXu2SINnNoGWy3G2GAuTQD91BB4TG0

A T-shirt sold by Marietta (Georgia) bar owner is being called racist and and offensive. Mike Norman, owner of Mulligan’s Bar and Grill is selling a shirt

featuring cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana, with “Obama in ‘08″ scrolled underneath

that he, Norman, calls ‘cute’. Critics don’t agree.

“It’s time to put an end to this,” said Rich Pellegrino, a Mableton resident and director of the Cobb-Cherokee Immigrant Alliance. He was among about 15 people who protested outside Mulligan’s Bar and Grill Tuesday afternoon against the sale of the “racist and highly offensive” shirts.

Norman is known for his ‘ultra-conservative’ views that he often expresses on signs in front of his bar.

Among his recent musings: “I wish Hillary had married OJ,” “No habla espanol — and never will” and the standard “I.N.S. Agents eat free.”

Norman is offended that so many people are upset by the shirt and insists he is not a racist.

Norman said he sees nothing wrong with depicting Obama as Curious George. “Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears, he looks just like Curious George,” Norman said. He said he did not design the shirts himself but bought them through a Web site.

Read the full story here.

Sources close to the Barack Obama camp say Hillary Clinton will never be offered the vice presidential nomination because Michelle Obama doesn’t like her.

According to a story by Robert Novak on RealClearPolitics, “The Democratic front-runner’s wife did not comment on other rival candidates for the party’s nomination, but she has been sniping at Clinton since last summer. According to Obama sources, those public utterances do not reveal the extent of her hostility.

According to the Top of The Ticket blog at the LA Times,  Obama, when asked about Novak’s column replied, “My wife does not talk to Bob Novak on a regular basis”

The Top of the Ticket blog goes on to say that Ted Kennedy said, of the Obama-Clinton ticket, “”I don’t think it’s possible.”

Michelle Obama was not cited by Kennedy as the reason for his comment; instead, a spokesman for him later said his prediction was based on the “tenor of the campaign” of late.

Source: realclearpolitics.com
Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com

Last week, Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama showed us why he is just another smarmy politician and not the Great Unifier as some have named him.

In a disingenuous speech, marginally designed to distance Obama from his whackadoo minster Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the Senator managed to turn the issue from the anti-American rantings of Reverend Wright to a thinly veiled condemnation of those calling out the Reverend’s words.

Read the rest here.