A Political Glimpse from Ireland

The Words They Use

Hi everyone it is 125am at the moment in Korea which means it is 1226pm on the East Coast. I am back to blogging, sort off, and I apologize to all my friends for not visiting your blogs first but I just wanted to get this post done and get back into my blogging routine. First of all I want to thank Gordon and Big Blue for posting and continuing to keep this blog going while I have been busy, your posts were both great and judging by some of the comments, well received.

Korea is actually amazing and not what I expected in any way or form, the people are really nice though I really need to improve my speaking and reading. I tried to take the bus to into the city today and only realized after 30 minutes that I was heading into the country. Thankfully I got off before I ended up somewhere I didn’t want to be. The language barrier is the biggest issue so far as I often have to resort to hand gestures that I am sure people perceive as: “another crazy foreigner.” I have taken some pictures and I will upload them in due course, but on to the politics.

I have managed to keep track of the politics while I have been here and regarding Sarah Palin, I think she is a smart move for the McCain campaign as evidenced by her energizing the republican base. This energy is only slightly less than the Obama campaign but the problem with choosing her is that Senator McCain can no longer use the experience attack line against Senator Obama because he will inevitably be criticizing his own VP who has minimal experience. Sarah Palin is too radical and conflicts with Senator McCain’s image of a reformer as she is by far more conservative than he is and this is not a good thing.

The New York Times has an interesting comparison up on their site detailing the number of times Democrats and Republicans have used certain keywords. The interesting thing to note from a liberal perspective is that the Democrats are hitting the economy more often than the Republicans which is what the majority of Americans care about at this juncture in the political race. The Republicans have talked about god twice as much as the Democrats but that is no surprise there given that evangelicals always side with conservatives. A cursory glance at this comparison gives me hope, yes I said it , if the Democrats keep hitting the right notes and the Republicans continue on old lines of attack, we are sure to win.

How Much More Historic Can You Get?

One more day before I am off to Korea and I am getting a little bit more anxious, but last night’s speech took my mind off of traveling onto the amazing week the Democrats have had. I am really impressed and I can say that Senator Obama hit exactly the right notes using a mix of issues and rhetoric while telling people why we cannot afford another 4 - 8 years of Senator McCain. This speech was aggressive while maintaining a message of hope and change that has resonated with so many Democrats. This speech, I believe, will be the catalyst to propel the democrats into a victory in November. Even though I will be further away from America in the coming months, I know Senator Obama will be the next President of the United States:

My Economic Ally

The Economy is officially the number one issue on the minds of Americans given the new record price of oil today and other negative economic indicators. Analysts also point out, rightly so that it is the current party that takes the blame for a bad economy. John McCain is running for that party at the moment and he is going to have a hard time justifying current GOP policies that have not done any good for the American economy. Deregulation has allowed American companies to take advantage of the system to “cook the books” and create the current sub-prime crisis that sparked the global economic downturn. The Iraq war continues to cost the American people and future generations of Americans more money that they do not have. Tax cuts to the oil companies have done nothing to prevent the price of oil increasing to $145.44 cents as of today. Companies deserve a certain measure of freedom but you let a dog run free and you can guarantee he is going to  do some damage.

A recent Gallup poll show’s the negativity of each state with regards to the Economy:

This poll clearly indicates how important the economy is to the entire of the United States and the Gallup methodology is as sound as ever conducting a proportional amount of interviews with the States population. This news is the golden egg for Senator Obama because like I suggested above; Senator McCain is going to have a hard time explaining how his economic policies are going to change the economy. Conducting a quick calculation in terms of electoral votes, Senator McCain retains a total of 72 electoral votes based on every state with a negativity score of 55% or less. This would mean a decisive victory for Senator Obama in the most optimistic scenario but a victory none the less in the most pessimistic scenario.

The task for the McCain campaign is to craft an effective economic strategy that veers away from the current GOP set of policies but not so far that Senator McCain distances himself from the Republican base. That isn’t going to happen given this his lack of knowledge on economic issues:

Given The Price Of Gas

The Bush Administration will continue to push for a lifting on the ban of offshore drilling today which will likely only sate the American appetite for oil for 2.5 years at the most. The problem is that the President has only proposed a short-term measure with no thoughts about what is going to happen after we exhaust those oil supplies? I am not against lifting the ban however it should be lifted with intention to keep the price of oil stable while the Government invests greater resources into alternative energy sources. For the moment I would like to draw your attention to two sites that I found during my research on gas prices. The first is gasbuddy.com where you can put in your relevant location data and they will tell you where the cheapest price of gas is in your local area. The second site is pumps.ie which operates similarly to gasbuddy.com with the exception that Ireland is not that big hence there are relatively few choices to choose from:

GasBuddy.com

Pumps.ie

My Hat Is Off To Senator Clinton

Finally Senator Clinton has turned her attention to the more pressing need of the Democratic Party, which is to attack Senator McCain. She has released a new “3am” advert, which you will find here:

This is a very interesting advertisement because if you consider that her poll numbers are declining in PA, she could have run an advertisement attacking Senator Obama but she made the right choice and for that I congratulate her and her campaign manager. This advert showcases the GOP philosophy of non-intervention which simply cannot happen in the current financial crisis. Why should ordinary people pay the price for companies who have packaged mortgages in the form of securities? They shouldn’t and the government should step in and help these people save their homes.

Senator McCain’s campaign immediately released a response to that advertisement that showcased the typical conservative/republican ideology that all Democrats do is raise taxes. The advert proceeds to not even address the issue of how Senator McCain would deal with the current financial crisis but generalizes by stating he would grow jobs etc. How are you going to generate jobs in the USA Senator McCain when companies are situating their labor base in well educated low cost countries? of which the USA is not one of them.