Hillary Admits Obama Can Win

(April 16, 2008 ) – Like I was sayin… some people can’t make up their minds.  For several months part of Hillary Clinton’s argument about why she should be the Dem nominee is that she had a better chance than Barack Obama at beating the presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.

The facts are somewhat different.  For several months, many polls show McCain beating Clinton by as many as 12 points.  Other polls have shown Clinton winning by as many as 5 percentage points.  Currently, the Real Clear Politics average has has McCain up by 2.6%

The same polls show McCain over Obama by as many as 6 points, but with Obama over McCain by as many as 12 points.  The current Real Clear Politics average has Obama over McCain by 0.6%

The raw numbers show Obama with a better chance of beating McCain than Clinton.  However, a convincing argument can be made that both the Dem candidates are in a statistical tie with John McCain.

Tonight in the first Dem debate in several months, Clinton stated when asked if Obama could win in the fall, “Yes, yes, yes”.

It would seem that over the last few weeks when given the chance, the Dem candidates often weaken their own argument as to why they should be the Dem nominee.

At one point, Obama was almost assured the Dem nomination.  However, his recent statements about small town voters have hurt him and will force uncommitted super delegates to look again at Clinton.  The next few weeks should prove to be interesting in the race for the Dem nomination.

McCain Calls for Tax Holiday

(April 15, 2008 ) – Like I was sayin… I can use a few more holidays.  GOP presidential candidate John McCain is calling on congress to have a gasoline tax holiday from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

The proposal would eliminate the 18.4 cent per gallon federal tax on gasoline and the 24.4 cent per gallon on diesel fuel.  He also called to release oil from the strategic Petroleum Reserve to further ease gas prices.  The democrat party will most likely be against it either because they will call it reckless or they will say it doesn’t go far enough (you heard it hear first…).

Note also that the democrats also have outlined a proposal to increase the gasoline tax by 50 cents.  However, they won’t push for it until after the elections.

The announcement came as part of McCain’s detailing some of his economic plan.  Some of the other details are as follows:

–Raise the tax exemption for each dependent child from $3,500 to $7,000.

–Require more affluent people — couples making more than $160,000 — enrolled in Medicare to pay a higher premium for their prescription drugs than less-wealthy people.

–Offer people the option of choosing a simpler tax system with two tax rates and a standard deduction instead of sticking with the current system.

–Suspend for one year all increases in discretionary spending for agencies other than those that cover the military and veterans while launching an expansive review of the effectiveness of federal program.

Note that both Senators Clinton and Obama are for reducing the child tax credit from $3,500 to $3000 as part of their massive tax increase they refer to as “elimininating the Bush tax cuts”.

Voters need to keep in mind that the economic plans of the candidates impact them by either lowering their tax bill or increasing it.

It will be interesting to see how many people come out against lowering gas prices by eliminating the tax temporarily.

Carter to Support Obama?

(April 05, 2008) – Like I was sayin… when it rains it pours.  Former President and super delegate Jimmy Carter has hinted that he will support Obama for the next president.

As the Clinton campaign fights to maintain a lead in PA, convince “super” delegates to support her, and looks to find ways to steal some of Obama’s pledged delegates, there are more and more indications that it just might be over soon.

While speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Jimmy Carter indicated that he might be an Obama supporter.  Carter indicated that his children and grandchildren are all pro-Obama.  He went on to say that as a “super delegate“, he won’t say who he supports, but that the reporters could probably make a guess.

Clinton has indicated that she will continue to fight on even to the dem convention floor if needed.  Based upon recent trends, I would venture to say that the dems will have a very interesting primary on their hands.

Every Vote Counts, Unless You Voted for Obama

(April 4, 2008) – Like I was sayin… some people will do anything to win.  Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is looking to pick up a few more votes.  The problem is these votes already belong to Obama.

As the Dem party tries to avoid a fracture, Hillary Clinton looks to push the party over the brink.  Not only does she believe that she legitimately won Michigan when she was the only candidate on the ballot, but now she believes that she is entitled to some of the delegates that Obama won in other states.

In a fund raiser the other day, Clinton indicated that she might look to persuade some Obama pledged delegates to switch to voting for her.  When Dem voters cast their ballots in the primary elections, the percentage of votes are split among the delegates.  So if Obama wins a state 60% to 40% and a state has 10 delegates, 6 delegates go to the convention to vote for Obama and 4 go to vote for Clinton.

However, the rules don’t state who the delegates must vote for.  The delegates are however, selected on their loyalty.  The way it is supposed to work is that you are basically voting for who you want to go to the convention and vote for the nominee. 

The same thing happens in the general election.  If the Dems win your state, then the Dem party selects a number of people equal to the number of electoral college delegates to officially cast their votes for president.

Clinton hinted that since the rules don’t state who they must vote for, she can go after them and get them to switch.  So if Obama won your state 60/40 getting 6 of the delegates, Hillary would like some of those 6 to vote for her at the convention overturning the will of the voters.

In her remarks, she indicated that the delegates should support who they think is the best person to win regardless of what the voters want.  Is this the type of person we want leading our country? 

Does she feel the same about the general election?  If the dems win the White House by a slim electoral margin, is it ok for some of the delegates to switch to McCain because they believe he might be able to better answer the phone at 3:00 a.m.?

For those of you that lean toward supporting democrats, is this they type of country you support?  Your party has a process in place to overturn your votes by having super delegates.  Now you have a candidate that could win that believes it doesn’t matter what the voters want, but what a select few believe is best.

This calls Clinton’s character into question as it is doubtful that she believe that if she wins the white house, it would be ok for the delegates to cast their votes for McCain and overturn the election.  However, she probably believes that it would be ok if McCain wins that the delegates switch to her or Obama putting the dems in the white house.

I do not believe that this is the kind of “experience” we want in the White House.

More calls for Hilliary to drop out

(March 29, 2008) – Like I was sayin… it ain’t over until the lady sings.  More and more prominent democrats are calling for Hillary Clinton end her campaign for the dem nomination.

In the last few days, several prominent democrats have urged Clinton to bow out clearing the way for an Obama nomination.  Senator Chris Dodd and Senator Patrick Lehey have both indicated that they believe there is no way for Clinton to secure the nomination and have called for her to end her campaign. 

This week, speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi urged the “super delegates” to back whomever has the most popular votes.  The DNC chairman, Howard Dean, has called for the “super delegates” to declare which candidate they support by July 1st in an effort to avoid a nasty convention floor battle.

Clinton has vowed to keep up the fight even to the floor of the DNC convention.  The DNC would like to avoid a nasty fight which would turn off independents as well as some dem voters.  However, Clinton will not bow out so easily.

John McCain seems to be benefiting from this the most.  As the two dem candidates continue to take shots at each other, they unwittingly provide McCain ammunition for the general election.  This week, Clinton put forth the argument that Obama has received the most cash from companies involved in the sub-prime mortgage business.  That is debatable depending upon how you slice the data, but in any case, McCain received the least cash from those companies compared to Clinton and Obama.

It will be interesting to see how far the dems are willing to drag their party down in order to secure the nomination.

Clinton and Obama spar over Sub-Prime Donations

(March 28, 2008) – Like I was sayin… the devil is in the details.  Yesterday, Hillary Clinton accused Barack Obama of taking more cash from the companies involved in the current sub-prime mess.

 However, it depends on how you slice the list of donors.  Here is a great article from the WSJ that breaks it down.  Apparently, if you limit the list to the top 10 issuers of sub-prime mortgages on different dates, either Clinton or Obama received the most.

The problem that the Clinton Campaign overlooked is that over all, Clinton has received slightly more money from the sub-prime industry with $2.8 million for Clinton and $2.67 million for Obama.  On a side note, John McCain only received $1.28 million.

It is almost unbelievable that the Clinton Machine would make such a mistake by trying to point this out.  Firstly, they have received more money from sub-prime players than Obama.  Do they really still believe that people will just take what Clinton says as the truth without checking it out?  In the past this may have been the case, but will the popularity of Obama, the Clintons can no longer rely on the MSM to push the Clinton agenda across the board.

Secondly, with either Obama or Clinton facing McCain in November, this is a gift to McCain as if taking donations from companies that make bad financial decisions is wrong, McCain comes out the best.

This just seems to be another miscalculation by the Clinton Campaign that will hurt them in the end.  It will also end up hurting the eventual Dem nominee.  Clinton has been accused of being willing to do anything to win and this seems to be the case even if it drags down her party.

Sniper Fire and Other Lies

(March 26, 2008) – Like I was saying… fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, you might be a liar.  Hillary Clinton says she hasn’t “mis-spoke” in years, but the record is a little more unforgiving.

Here is an article I found on real clear politics by Dick Morris.  The article lists a number of items she “mis-spoke” about in the past and has admitted to “mis-speaking” about including:

• Chelsea was jogging around the Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. (She was in bed watching it on TV.)
• Hillary was named after Sir Edmund Hillary. (She admitted she was wrong. He climbed Mt. Everest five years after her birth.)
• She was under sniper fire in Bosnia. (A girl presented her with flowers at the foot of the ramp.)
• She learned in The Wall Street Journal how to make a killing in the futures market. (It didn’t cover the market back then.)

It also has a great list of things that she hasn’t admitted to and probably never will.

She keeps saying that she has negative ratings because people don’t think she is human.  I believe that her record makes her less likable than the rest of us.

Hillary not sure if she was greeted by sniper fire or an 8 year old

(March 25, 2008) -  Like I was sayin… if they get caught in a lie, they can always blame their memory.

Democrat presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, has been trying to convince us that she is ready on day one to be the commander-in-chief.  However, her recent comments would seem to indicate otherwise.

 One of the qualifying ”experiences” she puts forth is a trip to Bosnia in the 90’s where she had to dodge sniper fire while running to her vehicle rather than attending a welcome ceremony.  However, I have seen several articles like this one that contradicts her story.  Apparently, rather than running for cover, she was greeted by the Bosnian president and an 8 year-old-child.

She is now saying that her memories different than those of her staff and that she only misspoke.  So which was it, sniper fire or an 8 year-old?  Hint: the 8 year-old doesn’t sound like “bang”.

Can we trust somebody that is willing to out and out lie about an event in order to win?  The even more troubling question is can we trust the presidency to somebody who isn’t sure if that noise is the phone ringing at 3:00 a.m. or a tank rumbling through the white-house?  What about somebody that confuses an 8-year-old for a sniper?

Pork Spending to Continue

(March 14, 2008) – Like I was sayin… they love to spend our money.

For years, presidential candidate John McCain has been against pork barrel spending in congress.  Pork spending is when a senator attaches an amendment to a spending bill to pay for pet projects.  Yesterday, John McCain voted for a 1 year moratorium on pork spending which failed to pass.  Obama and Clinton also voted for the bill even though they had over $390 million of earmarks in fiscal year 2008.

The issue that most Americans have with the practice is that the spending is attached to defence and other spending bills without debate.  There is also a lack of accountability of who benefits the most from the pork spending.  For instance, if my construction company donates or raises 100k for a political campaign and a pork item spends 10 million on a new cancer care wing of a hospital that my company builds, it pretty much is a payback at the expense of the American tax payer.

Citizens Against Government Waste, a non-partisan watch dog group, 71 senetors voted against the measure to stop pork spending for 1 year.  From the site, you can contact your senator and let them know what you think.

Hillary, Tell us about your experience again.

(March 11, 2008) – Like I was sayin… I’ve been to the hospital, but that doesn’t make me a doctor.

I am often taken back when I hear Hillary talk about her years of experience and that she is ready on day one.  She also talks about her years of leadership experience.

I know that Bill put her in charge of his administration’s national health care effort.  That was an utter failure.  But what other things has she done that makes her qualified to be the President?

She often puts forth statements about her vast international experience.  I have read that she didn’t have a security clearance, didn’t sit in on National Security meetings, and never sat in on meetings in the white house situation room.  Just how did she get this experience?

She also talks about all these travels for international trouble spots.  Here is a great article from Greg Craig, a formal director at the State Department.  The article sort of tears holes in many of Hillary’s claims.

When it comes down to it, she doesn’t have much more experience than Obama in international affairs.  I know she flew lots of places, but I don’t want her to be a pilot either….