A disturbing trend may be on the rise at Republican rallies. It is one thing to state that your opponent may have character issues or may not be the best choice to serve as President of the United States. It is something else entirely to stoke a fire that may incite violence against a sitting United States Senator who is the other party’s nominee for President. Today, in a rally in Clearwater, FL., at a speech given by Governor Palin a man reportedly said “Kill Him” in reference...

Governor Sarah Palin’s attack on Barack Obama and his connection with Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not the wisest course of action for her or the McCain campaign. The connection between Obama and Wright have been the focus of the MSM for several months and is considered old news. Over the weekend Palin asked Bill Kristol the following question, “To tell you the truth, Bill, I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had...

Governor Sarah Palin proved that she belonged on the Republican ticket tonight. Although there were questions not answered or sidestepped (bankruptcy and consumer credit), I thought she handled herself well on the big stage. This was not a game changer for either side. Biden was understandably more knowledgeable on policy issues like the War in Iraq and the Financial Crisis. Palin was strongest on energy policy and was pretty on top of her facts about Biden’s and Obama’ voting records...

I just watched the Palin Supreme Court answer from Jonathan Martin’s Politico blog and I have to say that I am not surprised by her answer. As many of you know, I am a Republican and it is sad that my party’s nominee for Vice-President didn’t know the duties of the office until a few weeks ago. Is it any wonder that she did not know any Supreme Court cases besides Roe v. Wade? This crash course in American civics is not going well for either Palin or McCain. However, I do not...

Unlike other debates, the Vice Presidential Debate between Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin is going to be more of a poker game than a chess match. Biden clearly has more experience than Palin but he has to be wary of forcing any type of confrontation. If he pushes Palin, he will be portrayed as sexist and his every word will be examined under that lens. When you have flopped the best possible poker hand, you should never push your opponent out of the pot, instead let them overextend...

I’m not too good at this blogging game. Most of my online colleagues have filed stories on their reaction to the debate and the subsequent poll numbers that have indicated a shifting on independent and swing voters towards Senator Obama. However, I tend to reflect on events and try to provide some historical context to this campaign cycle. In this case, I am reminded of two prior untested Democrat nominees and how their electoral success was enhanced by their performance in their first presidential...

I usually don’t post more than once in a day but this was too good to pass up. Anyone remember this little picture… If I only had a picture of McCain leaving the failed negotiations on the bailout at the White House. Mission (Not) Accomplished…time to get back to campaigning.

Here I go again – allowing my MS Word program to get me into trouble. I am a Republican, I am ticked off and I want a Do-Over. I have gotten spoiled over the last 28 years of my party putting together a strong national ticket of competent leaders who are able to win elections. Since I was 18 years old, from Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush, we have only had one sub-par presidential candidate. Heck, that wasn’t even Bob Dole’s fault, Bill Clinton was just Bill Clinton. If Bill were...

Panic. It is something that happens to the best of us for different reasons. I have a fear of heights and small places. Put those two fears together, in an airplane for example, I have experienced panic attacks that are intense and thankfully brief. Several times in this campaign, John McCain has made decisions one could explain as motivated by panic. The decision to name Sarah Palin as his running mate has been questioned by many people on the left and the right of the political spectrum. ...

It has been reported that Team McCain has shut down editorial press access to Sarah Palin. Most of the response from the MSM and the blogs have been negative and has revolved around current and potential conflict issues between the press and John McCain. The McCain campaign is fully aware of the risk and I think they have made a wise choice to limit access to Palin over the next three days. McCain is going to be on center stage for his political life on Friday. If he does not perform well, this...

Last week, Joe Gandelman wrote an interesting piece regarding the AP – Yahoo News poll taken last week that addressed racial discrimination on the part of some Democrats in their decision whether to vote for Barack Obama. My question to the pundits is the following: did you really need a poll to tell you that some white Democrats are still racists? Perhaps these politically-knowledgeable people did not take an American history course. For those historically-challenged people, here is the story...

What is wrong with earmarks? If Senator Biden is correct that paying taxes is patriotic, what are we paying taxes for? My guess is that Biden would answer that government allows us to provide services for citizens that we as individuals can not do for ourselves. We pay taxes to fulfill the promise of the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States. For those of you who have not had the time or need to read it recently, here it is for your information: “We the People of the United States,...

Barack Obama went to Hollywood last weekend and raised $11 million dollars. This should not be a surprise because every four years the entertainment community ponies up big dollars for the nominee of the Democrat party. In 2004, Barbra Streisand headlined a fundraiser for John Kerry, and Kerry was as far away from Hollywood glitz as you can get. John McCain gave the typical Republican response of separating Hollywood from the rest of the continental United States. Although I am a registered Republican,...

The first step in accepting you are an addict is to admit you are one. Therefore, I have to say that I too have been addicted to the Sarah Palin story. Unfortunately, like crack cocaine, the experience has left me depressed and I exhibit paranoid behavior towards pigs and lipstick. This (hopefully) will be my last post on this subject. I am very disappointed in Barack Obama. For almost two years, he has been at the helm of a disciplined campaign that came out of nowhere to achieve the biggest...

Tomorrow, I will be back on my regularly scheduled rant of all things political. Today, on the 7th anniversary of 9-11, let’s take about three minutes to remember that all of us (Republicans, Democrats, and Independents) are citizens of the greatest country in the World! God Bless America!

Over two weeks ago, after Barack Obama’s decision to select Joe Biden, I made this prediction: “Bong, Bong, Bong – does anyone else hear that? That ominous sound is the bell announcing the TKO the Democrats have just given themselves. This year was not supposed to be a contest; heck, just two months ago most pundits were talking about how large a coattail effect Obama would have in House and Senate races across the country. As I see it, Obama will be lucky to be even with McCain on Labor Day;...

Last week, the Republican Party nominated Governor Sarah Palin as its nominee for the Office of Vice President of the United States. Although she has made several public appearances since accepting the nomination, Governor Palin has not been available for interviews by the media. The McCain campaign has put her on media lockdown until it believes she is better prepared to respond to policy questions. Excuse me, is this “My Fair Lady” or the selection of a person one heartbeat away from running...

What would John Wayne or Audie Murphy have said if they had ever run for President? I think we saw the political equivalent of “Marshal Rooster J. Cogburn” gearing up for his last battle against the enemy of good folks everywhere. Many of my colleagues have written insightful posts on Senator McCain’s speech last night, so I have decided to skip the message and focus on possible public perception issues for the Republican Party for the last eight weeks of this election cycle. McCain’s speech...

As I watched Governor Palin’s speech, I had to make sure that my DVD player wasn’t on by mistake. Her Alaskan accent reminded me of the movie “Fargo”. Part of that movie was filmed in the Twin Cities. If you haven’t seen the movie in a while, it is a great slice of life in Minnesota and North Dakota. This YouTube video is hilarious…take a minute and check it out. Enjoy!

As I watched Rudy Giuliani’s speech last night, something he said made an impression with me that may have escaped the notice of other people, the fact that Governor Sarah Palin has more executive experience than all three of the men from both parties. Giuliani stated “as far as I’m concerned, the first day she was mayor, she had more experience as an executive than — than Obama and Biden combined.” Well, John McCain does not have one day of executive experience either. According to...

As I listened to the unfolding drama that is Governor Sarah Palin, one of the stories I heard was how she was picked for the number two slot on the ticket. The story goes that McCain’s staff informed him that if he picked Senator Joe Lieberman, the Republican Party faithful would revolt at the Convention. At the end of the day, the pick of Sarah Palin was primarily due to a case of peer pressure. I thought that is how you pick a class president in grade school; not how you choose a person a...

Last week, the Democrats had one mission to accomplish and that was to nominate Barack Obama. This week, the Republican Party has three main issues to address to have a successful convention: attack Barack Obama, nominate John McCain, and introduce Sarah Palin to the American people. Refuting the vision Barack Obama laid out Thursday night is important because no one has really given any significant airtime to deflating the rhetorical balloon he floated from Denver last week. In nominating John...

Yesterday, I went off on John McCain over his pick for V.P., Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. However, there is an upside for McCain in his unorthodox decision; no one is talking about Obama’s speech of Thursday night. The downside of this equation is the microscope of the right is focused on vetting his V.P. pick, instead of drilling into the lack of details provided by Obama in his grand vision of America. In fact, on Real Clear Politics.com, I found only one negative column regarding Obama’s...

John McCain has announced that Sarah Palin, the first term Alaskan governor, will be his running mate. I know I am going to get in trouble over this but I have got to let it out. It is official: John McCain has just had his first moment of dementia. As I looked at the possible signs of this terrible disease, I found the following symptoms: • irrational decision making/judgment • memory retention issues • unclear thinking/reasoning I am not poking fun at this terrible affliction. In fact,...

Barack Obama called out John McCain in his speech tonight. Obama gave a Michael-Douglas-type of invitation to John McCain. In “The American President”, Douglass’ character (President Andrew Shepherd) spent most of the movie getting beat up by his Republican challenger Senator Bob Rumson, played brillantly by Richard Dreyfuss. Towards the end of the the film, Shepherd calls out Rumson by saying “If you want to talk about character and American values, fine, just tell me...