Poor Hillary. Talk about open mouth and insert foot! Maybe I am naïve but I honestly don’t think she meant that she was staying in the race hoping that Obama might be assassinated in June as was Bobby Kennedy. I know it sounded that way and the media and pundits jumped on her but I really think it was more of a case of not being more careful of how she was saying something.
She was trying to defend why she should stay in the primaries and was simply giving examples of other primaries that were still being contested in the summer months. She said that her husband didn’t wrap up his first primaries until June and that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June. Again, she was only trying to point out that Bobby was still campaigning in the month of June, not that she was waiting for someone to assassinate Obama.
What is interesting is how everyone immediately thought the worst of her. It says a lot about her character or at least how others perceive her character that they would even think she might be hoping her opponent was shot. And more than anything else that is why she should never be president. How could you possibly trust Hillary when you believe she is capable of doing almost anything to obtain her goals? And some would say that she has done the unthinkable before to protect herself (think Vince Foster).
Even though Hillary might not have meant she was waiting for Obama to be assassinated I am nervous that there are some who might take her up on that. God forbid, if Obama were to be shot, Hillary could not be the candidate for too many people would remember this statement and say she was the cause. One bright spot is that the majority of Hillary’s most ardent supporters are middle aged white woman. That is the least likely group to pick up a gun and go after somebody. But as they say, it only takes one crazy person and no matter what the demographics every group has at least one nut case.
On the other side, John McCain should be on his hands and knees thanking Hillary for her controversial statement. Late Friday he published his medical records and his wife’s tax returns from last year. It is a typical politician’s tactic to provide potentially damaging information on the eve of a three day weekend when most people have the TV’s turned off and aren’t paying attention to the news. Clinton’s faux pas combined with all the continuing weather related disasters and stories on the high gas prices dropped McCain’s news to the bottom of the stories being reported.
Most people, though. aren’t paying much attention to politics right now. And I must admit that I love this weekend. As a child it meant a big parade in my small town where if I wasn’t marching in my Girl Scout uniform then I could be found with my family under the big tree waving my little flag. And then regardless of how cold it still might be you just had to take a dip in the pool even if it was just a quick in and out. As an adult this was always the first big national holiday since February and I really looked forward to the much needed three day weekend.
As you enjoy your holiday here is a final fun political thought. In addition to parades, pools, beaches and cook outs, this weekend also marks the start of the summer movie season. For me, as for many others, I can’t wait to go see the new Indiana Jones movie. But keep this in mind as you watch Harrison Ford in this action packed movie – this vibrant, energetic, man is just 7 years younger than John McCain!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Some Little Olympic Thoughts…
When they first announced that the 2008 Olympics were to be held in China I was ambivalent about the idea. On one hand it would be a fascinating place and might help to open up the country to other cultures and ideas. On the other hand seared in my memory is the picture of the lone student facing off the column of tanks. So a part of me didn’t think China should be rewarded for their nationalistic and militaristic behavior but I hoped that maybe some good might come of it after all.
Today I am almost glad that it will be there. I think the people in China need something to boost them after the devastating earthquake that has literally and figuratively rocked their country. It will also give the rest of the world the excuse to enter the country. Perhaps now in addition to playing games they might also be able to see and help the affected areas.
I also feel some sympathy for the Olympic Committee. For the first time the running of the flame turned into a political debacle. Tibetan and human right activists protested against China wherever the flame was seen. This caused some hide and seek tactics by the keepers of the flame thereby denying people who had spent hours waiting to simply watch the flame go by.
And yet there was one place the flame was going where no one could follow and would be a public relation coup for the Olympic Committee. On May 8th a Tibetan woman held the Olympic torch at the top of Mount Everest after she and a camera crew scaled this highest peak to literally take the flame to the top of the world. Unfortunately it got lost in the headlines about the cyclone and elections and other news and that is too bad. It really could have been a much needed feel good story.
But then yesterday the Olympic Committee announced a decision that has me angry at them all over again. This time they decided that a double amputee from South Africa who is fitted with fancy mechanical legs is allowed to compete in Track and Field. Excuse me? I don't know if this is one of those politically correct, help the disabled motivated decisions but it is definitely not the right decision. What is next? Someone with a bionic arm entering the discus throwing competition? The list is endless... I do admire the man for overcoming his disability and managing to run much less walk again but he should not be allowed to compete with nonmechanically enhanced athletes. The Olympics should stay true to their original intentions of pitting those gorgeous muscular human bodies against each other in competition. Clothes optional.
Today I am almost glad that it will be there. I think the people in China need something to boost them after the devastating earthquake that has literally and figuratively rocked their country. It will also give the rest of the world the excuse to enter the country. Perhaps now in addition to playing games they might also be able to see and help the affected areas.
I also feel some sympathy for the Olympic Committee. For the first time the running of the flame turned into a political debacle. Tibetan and human right activists protested against China wherever the flame was seen. This caused some hide and seek tactics by the keepers of the flame thereby denying people who had spent hours waiting to simply watch the flame go by.
And yet there was one place the flame was going where no one could follow and would be a public relation coup for the Olympic Committee. On May 8th a Tibetan woman held the Olympic torch at the top of Mount Everest after she and a camera crew scaled this highest peak to literally take the flame to the top of the world. Unfortunately it got lost in the headlines about the cyclone and elections and other news and that is too bad. It really could have been a much needed feel good story.
But then yesterday the Olympic Committee announced a decision that has me angry at them all over again. This time they decided that a double amputee from South Africa who is fitted with fancy mechanical legs is allowed to compete in Track and Field. Excuse me? I don't know if this is one of those politically correct, help the disabled motivated decisions but it is definitely not the right decision. What is next? Someone with a bionic arm entering the discus throwing competition? The list is endless... I do admire the man for overcoming his disability and managing to run much less walk again but he should not be allowed to compete with nonmechanically enhanced athletes. The Olympics should stay true to their original intentions of pitting those gorgeous muscular human bodies against each other in competition. Clothes optional.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Florida, Florida, Florida
The delegate count is beginning to slowly build up for Obama with the magic number clearly in sight for him. Although I don’t particularly care for him I nonetheless am beginning to breathe a sigh of relief. Why? Because I live in Florida and if Obama has enough votes without Florida then Clinton can’t drag this state into a controversial fight for the Democratic nomination.
After the last two elections there were people who absolutely hated my state. Yet to those of us living here it seemed extremely unfair. That whole business of hanging shads and miscounted votes happened in South Florida. Everybody knows that Palm Beach and Miami are partly populated with Yankees; retired New Yorkers, Bostonians and other northerners. It is also a haven for immigrants, legal and otherwise, who may not have a good handle on the English language. But it definitely isn’t representative of the rest of the state.
Nonetheless, Democrats blamed Gore’s loss on Florida, regardless of where in the state you lived. And their anger and bitterness ran so deep that when my state was hit with three consecutive hurricanes in 2004 causing terrible devastation across the state they blamed it on God punishing Floridians for the past elections. Excuse me? You try being huddled in a bathtub for hours on end while not one, not two but three hurricanes come tearing across your front door. There is nothing as unnerving as to suddenly lose power right after your local weatherman announces that the eye of the hurricane was over your hometown. Then as friends and neighbors are cleaning up and making repairs to be told by some scathing Democrats that you deserved it.
They were still angry at us in the 2004 election where Florida was one of the main reasons the Democrats lost, again. If this state is that important to the Democrats you would think they might be a bit nicer to us. But noooooo. After the ’04 loss many of them couldn’t stop saying how stupid we were to vote for Bush again plus to have a Bush as governor, too. I still don’t quite get that strategy. If you want someone on your side you probably shouldn’t call them stupid.
Now here we are in the middle of election season and my state is again in the middle of the debate because Florida leaders moved up the primary date against the party’s rules. The National Republican leaders said they would only count half of the Republican delegates while the Democratic leaders said that they won’t count any of the Democratic Florida’s votes. Even though over 1.5 million Floridians voted for a Democratic candidate they were told that not one of their votes count.
OK, that makes sense. You have a state that has been pivotal in losing the past two elections and you tell them that for this primary their votes don’t even count. I can’t help but think that the National Democratic Committee is still punishing Floridians because of the past two elections. Call it revenge for 2000 and payback for 2004 but I just call it very nearsighted. They will need these votes come November, yet why should the voters turn out for them since the leadership has said they don’t count now in the primaries.
Florida appears to at least have avoided being dragged into an internal party fight for their candidate. Obama Democrats continue to say Florida doesn’t count whereas Hillary’s team wants to count her votes from this state. There were definite signs that the two Democrat groups were going to once again fight over votes from Florida. But as I said up front, luckily it appears that Barack is now in such a commanding lead that even with our votes Hillary still won’t catch up to him. Whew. I feel almost as relieved as I do when a hurricane heading my way turns course at the last minute and goes out to sea. Yet even though we may have missed this one who knows what might churn up come November? I guess we Floridians will just have to hunker down and wait and see what roll we might end up playing this fall. But if we don’t vote for the Democrat’s candidate and they lose for a third time, just call it payback for counting us out in the primary….
After the last two elections there were people who absolutely hated my state. Yet to those of us living here it seemed extremely unfair. That whole business of hanging shads and miscounted votes happened in South Florida. Everybody knows that Palm Beach and Miami are partly populated with Yankees; retired New Yorkers, Bostonians and other northerners. It is also a haven for immigrants, legal and otherwise, who may not have a good handle on the English language. But it definitely isn’t representative of the rest of the state.
Nonetheless, Democrats blamed Gore’s loss on Florida, regardless of where in the state you lived. And their anger and bitterness ran so deep that when my state was hit with three consecutive hurricanes in 2004 causing terrible devastation across the state they blamed it on God punishing Floridians for the past elections. Excuse me? You try being huddled in a bathtub for hours on end while not one, not two but three hurricanes come tearing across your front door. There is nothing as unnerving as to suddenly lose power right after your local weatherman announces that the eye of the hurricane was over your hometown. Then as friends and neighbors are cleaning up and making repairs to be told by some scathing Democrats that you deserved it.
They were still angry at us in the 2004 election where Florida was one of the main reasons the Democrats lost, again. If this state is that important to the Democrats you would think they might be a bit nicer to us. But noooooo. After the ’04 loss many of them couldn’t stop saying how stupid we were to vote for Bush again plus to have a Bush as governor, too. I still don’t quite get that strategy. If you want someone on your side you probably shouldn’t call them stupid.
Now here we are in the middle of election season and my state is again in the middle of the debate because Florida leaders moved up the primary date against the party’s rules. The National Republican leaders said they would only count half of the Republican delegates while the Democratic leaders said that they won’t count any of the Democratic Florida’s votes. Even though over 1.5 million Floridians voted for a Democratic candidate they were told that not one of their votes count.
OK, that makes sense. You have a state that has been pivotal in losing the past two elections and you tell them that for this primary their votes don’t even count. I can’t help but think that the National Democratic Committee is still punishing Floridians because of the past two elections. Call it revenge for 2000 and payback for 2004 but I just call it very nearsighted. They will need these votes come November, yet why should the voters turn out for them since the leadership has said they don’t count now in the primaries.
Florida appears to at least have avoided being dragged into an internal party fight for their candidate. Obama Democrats continue to say Florida doesn’t count whereas Hillary’s team wants to count her votes from this state. There were definite signs that the two Democrat groups were going to once again fight over votes from Florida. But as I said up front, luckily it appears that Barack is now in such a commanding lead that even with our votes Hillary still won’t catch up to him. Whew. I feel almost as relieved as I do when a hurricane heading my way turns course at the last minute and goes out to sea. Yet even though we may have missed this one who knows what might churn up come November? I guess we Floridians will just have to hunker down and wait and see what roll we might end up playing this fall. But if we don’t vote for the Democrat’s candidate and they lose for a third time, just call it payback for counting us out in the primary….
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Why Hillary Should Stay In the Race
Everywhere on the radio, TV and internet people are saying that it is time for Hillary to step aside. For once I am in agreement with Hillary and feel she should stay in the race until the convention. I don’t say this because I think she can win, she can’t. Not unless something so outside of the pale is found out about Obama that it forces him to stand aside and I definitely don’t see that happening. I also don’t think Clinton is staying in the hopes that Obama will pick her as his VP. That isn’t going to happen either.
So why should she continue to stay in the Presidential Race? If she should get out now it would look like she is admitting failure. That Obama is the winner and has beaten her. Admitting defeat or even admit the softer sounding idea of being pushed out is not something either of the Clintons can easily say. Not when she can walk out of this looking like a winner, even though Obama becomes the Democratic candidate for president.
Imagine this…. It is the convention and Clinton stands before all of the delegates, party big wigs and the whole nation via the TV coverage she would be sure to capture. Then Hillary delivers the speech of her life in which she graciously “gives” Obama all of her committed delegates. She then asks all who voted for her to help out Obama for the sake of party unity. Now instead of looking like a loser as she would if she dropped out before the convention she instead appears to be a “kingmaker”. She turns defeat into victory by giving the nation the illusion that Obama becomes the nominee only because of Hillary and her delegates.
If she did this it would totally belittle Obama’s wins. She would effectively have him cornered where he would have to now thank Hillary even though he and most of the world knows that he would have been the candidate even without her help. And if he tries to say as much or complain he would now be the one accused of tearing the party apart and even of being rude to Clinton. Plus if Hillary’s supporters who are angry at Obama end up voting for McCain this would not be Hillary’s fault for she could point to this speech and say she told them to go with Obama. It would then be Obama’s problem for not being able to keep them….
I have no idea if Hillary has envisioned this kind of end but I wouldn’t be surprised if the thought has crossed her mind. But I just don’t know if she can withstand the growing pressure from all sides to step down now. I am not fond of any of the Clintons but a part of me is rooting for her to hang in there and then go out like a winner at the convention.
So why should she continue to stay in the Presidential Race? If she should get out now it would look like she is admitting failure. That Obama is the winner and has beaten her. Admitting defeat or even admit the softer sounding idea of being pushed out is not something either of the Clintons can easily say. Not when she can walk out of this looking like a winner, even though Obama becomes the Democratic candidate for president.
Imagine this…. It is the convention and Clinton stands before all of the delegates, party big wigs and the whole nation via the TV coverage she would be sure to capture. Then Hillary delivers the speech of her life in which she graciously “gives” Obama all of her committed delegates. She then asks all who voted for her to help out Obama for the sake of party unity. Now instead of looking like a loser as she would if she dropped out before the convention she instead appears to be a “kingmaker”. She turns defeat into victory by giving the nation the illusion that Obama becomes the nominee only because of Hillary and her delegates.
If she did this it would totally belittle Obama’s wins. She would effectively have him cornered where he would have to now thank Hillary even though he and most of the world knows that he would have been the candidate even without her help. And if he tries to say as much or complain he would now be the one accused of tearing the party apart and even of being rude to Clinton. Plus if Hillary’s supporters who are angry at Obama end up voting for McCain this would not be Hillary’s fault for she could point to this speech and say she told them to go with Obama. It would then be Obama’s problem for not being able to keep them….
I have no idea if Hillary has envisioned this kind of end but I wouldn’t be surprised if the thought has crossed her mind. But I just don’t know if she can withstand the growing pressure from all sides to step down now. I am not fond of any of the Clintons but a part of me is rooting for her to hang in there and then go out like a winner at the convention.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
The Economy Is Just Fine
The democrats and mass media keep saying how bad the economy is but I just don’t get it. Maybe because 20+ years ago the economy really was awful. In comparison to today’s prices, gas was a bargain back then at $1.19 on average in 1980. But just two years earlier it had been fifty-nine cents. So gas doubled in price in only a couple of years and crossed the psychologically important barrier of $1.00. During the same two-year time period the unemployment rate jumped from 5.8% to 7.1% and by 1983 was at a high of 9.7%. Recently the unemployment rate has been increasing but it still has a way to go before it reaches the highs of 20 plus years ago.
The major economic indicator that I remember was the interest rate. Pretty hard to forget it when the year-end 1980 Federal Reserve interest rate was a whopping 21.50%! On the other hand, the prime rate was recently lowered to just 2.0%. That’s nearly a 20 percentage point difference. You can imagine the interest payments on houses and cars not to mention the rates on credit cards back then!
I graduated from college in 1980 just when the unemployment rate was heading toward nearly 10%, gas had doubled and my credit card company was charging me unfathomable rates. So when the politicians today get all upset over the economy I simply have to laugh.
I think that the media is making a mountain out of a molehill and handing the Democratic politicians a topic to use against the Republicans. Yes, I know that voters said that the economy was a major factor when they voted. But if you are told over and over again that the economy is tanking by people who are supposed to be reliable and trustworthy then you. too, will eventually believe that the economy is down. I just wonder how many people would say that yes the economy is bad for other people, but they are doing just fine.
The major economic indicator that I remember was the interest rate. Pretty hard to forget it when the year-end 1980 Federal Reserve interest rate was a whopping 21.50%! On the other hand, the prime rate was recently lowered to just 2.0%. That’s nearly a 20 percentage point difference. You can imagine the interest payments on houses and cars not to mention the rates on credit cards back then!
I graduated from college in 1980 just when the unemployment rate was heading toward nearly 10%, gas had doubled and my credit card company was charging me unfathomable rates. So when the politicians today get all upset over the economy I simply have to laugh.
I think that the media is making a mountain out of a molehill and handing the Democratic politicians a topic to use against the Republicans. Yes, I know that voters said that the economy was a major factor when they voted. But if you are told over and over again that the economy is tanking by people who are supposed to be reliable and trustworthy then you. too, will eventually believe that the economy is down. I just wonder how many people would say that yes the economy is bad for other people, but they are doing just fine.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Short Retort
Did you ever have a dream in which it seemed like you kept coming back to the same dream over and over during the night? That happened to me last night. I dreamed about earthquakes and continuously seeing a seismograph going crazy with these high jagged red lines indicating a major earthquake. OK. that sort of makes sense since there has been a lot in the news about earthquakes and the potential for big ones in the near future.
Except, where was this earthquake happening in my dream? In Tampa Bay of all places! Now that made no sense at all when I remembered it this morning. All of the earthquake news lately has been in the west or in the middle of the country but earthquakes in Florida is just silly. However, just for grins I googled earthquake and Tampa. To my complete surprise there were lots of posts about an earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico that rattled Tampa Bay in Sept. 2006. OK now that is a little bit eerie. I just might stay away from Tampa for the next few weeks....
Except, where was this earthquake happening in my dream? In Tampa Bay of all places! Now that made no sense at all when I remembered it this morning. All of the earthquake news lately has been in the west or in the middle of the country but earthquakes in Florida is just silly. However, just for grins I googled earthquake and Tampa. To my complete surprise there were lots of posts about an earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico that rattled Tampa Bay in Sept. 2006. OK now that is a little bit eerie. I just might stay away from Tampa for the next few weeks....
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