August 18th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics |
I’m a conservative, and while John McCain isn’t my dream candidate, I’ll take him over Obama any day. I’m not one of those I’ll-take-my-ball-and-go-home voters who just won’t vote if my favorite isn’t in the race. What’s more, I’m old enough to understand that the republic will survive four, or even eight years of Obama as president. It will even survive Obama and a Democrat-majority congress.
But there’s a lot of folks this time around who might go off the deep end if Obama doesn’t win. People have really invested in him as a person, not as a politician. Some of that glow is fading, a bit, but it’s still pretty strong. These folks are true believers, and if they don’t get their dreams fulfilled, they’re going to be very, very upset.
Yes, there was a lot of passion in 2000, and 2004 also. But that was passion against Bush, not passion for Kerry or Gore. Let’s face it; Gore is an annoying, lecturing bore, with a large streak of hypocrisy. Kerry is an opportunistic dilletante. No one really loves either of them as politicians; they were Not Bush, and that was enough.
But a lot of folks are FOR Obama, not against McCain. You can see it in the fundraising. Obama’s handlers are very good at promoting the Chosen One image, and that image resonates with his supporters. You talk to them, and they simply can’t imagine anyone not voting for him.
It’s going to be a fairly close election; even Minnesota, which three months ago was a Strong Obama state, is now rated a tossup. Barring some sort of major mistake by either candidate, it’s going to be a furious fall, as the two campaign planes zip back and forth along a line from Virginia to Minnesota, with a side trip to Colorado and New Mexico now and then. Undecided voter’s doorbells are going to be rung again and again, as both sides fight for those precious few votes.
Chances are, there won’t be a to-the-wire standoff like Florida in 2000. But it might come down to a few thousand votes in Ohio, or Michigan, or New Mexico. If it does, and Obama doesn’t win, there are going to be lots of charges of fraud. Never mind that the Democrats wrote the book on voter fraud (don’t believe me? look at the history). People will be in the mood to believe anything. And people who are angry, people who believe they have been cheated of hope, change, whatever–those people will be seething.
November could be very ugly.
Personally, I hope that whoever wins, wins by enough that recounts and court battles aren’t needed.
August 9th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics |
Well the folks over at Versionista.com sent me this email today, I thought I might add some pictures to explain what they found. Senator McCain, the supposed supporter of the troops removed a troop support site from his campaign website. Before and After:
The site in question:
Anyone care to explain this?… BB-Idaho correctly sourced this site in the comments so please do take a look.
July 30th, 2008 -- Posted in Chinese Politics, World Politics |
As much as I would like to talk about the burgeoning federal deficit, the endless series of funny McCain viral videos, universal healthcare; today is about the suppression of human rights in China. How many of us know about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? I spoke to some of my colleagues at work yesterday and asked this very question; not one person could name one article from the declaration.
No country is perfect as a Chinese friend of mine texted me the other day when he read a recent article I wrote concerning China on this blog. That being said, when I think about the human rights abuses that have occurred and are occurring in America, I realize there is no excuse and I do not support places like Guantanamo Bay which violate article 9 of the UDHR:
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
The violations of the UDHR undertaken by the American Government are serious but the difference between the USA and the PRC are that in America and the West we can actually protest these things. When Woeser tried to leave China to receive awards for her poetry, the Chinese government has denied her a passport because as I wrote in a previous post: her coverage of the Tibetan riots perturbed the Chinese Government and they want to make sure that there is one less critic of Chinese policies outside of China.
People cannot protest in China for the fear of threatening “stability” or “harmony.” Any such protests can sometimes lead to lengthy prison sentences as well as possible re-education. What can we do? We can hope that the media will attempt to make a difference when they are covering the games however this is highly doubtful given that Beijing has already broken the promise of complete media freedom:
Reports have just confirmed that foreign journalists working from the Olympics press center in Beijing are unable to access amnesty.org, the Amnesty International website. In addition, The China Debate, a site recently launched by Amnesty International as a forum to discuss human rights has been blocked in China.
A number of other websites are also reported to have been blocked, including Taiwan newspaper Liberty Times and the Chinese versions of both Germany’s Deutsche Welle and the BBC.
The media can be ruled out, so as citizens of the world, we have to pressure our respective governments to push China to use the Olympics to showcase its support for human rights. I must give credit where it is due, President Bush has done exactly that in recent months and I hope he will keep up the pressure throughout the Olympic Games so that we can see some sort of positive impact generated rather then support of the status quo. Today Politics Across The Pond stands with those people in China who want freedom:
This will be the only post available today, I will restore the usual settings of this blog tomorrow. Thank you for supporting this day and please stop by the Dragon Lady’s Den where can you can see censorship at work (could not get the code to work for this site).
July 30th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics |
I have finally replied to all the recent comments and it just hit 1am here in Ireland so I am going to try to keep this short and sweet tonight despite my tendency to ramble. I promised I would steal this video from by buddy Jay over at the Progressive Politics Examiner and so I have:
Immediately when I saw this video, I really thought the McCain camp had released a video to try and compete with the Obama “Yes We Can” video which has been viewed 8 million times on YouTube. However, I was pleased to see it is a parody of Senator McCain hence I can continue to smile. In case you have forgotten the Obama video in question, here it is:
July 19th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics |
Sometimes European support for a particular candidate is often treated with a sense of derision when American’s hear that Europe favors a specific candidate because: “Who likes those European’s anyway…” The truth of the matter is that every single person I have spoken to Ireland has voiced their support for Senator Obama from ad executives in top PR firms, recruiters and your average Irish young adult. The Senator’s message of change has resonated with everyone in Ireland who wish esfor a more transparent EU in the wake of the failed Lisbon referendum. Senator Obama is not only liked in Ireland but in other parts of Europe as well as reported by the latest PEW Global Attitudes Project:
I really wish the Senator would stop in Ireland however I might just be tempted to take the plane over to London to hopefully catch a speech if he is inclined to give one. Some people may ask what is the purpose of popularity abroad? To that I answer that in the dynamic nature of the world we live in, to truly accomplish large goals like climate change, reducing poverty and conserving energy. America needs a leader who is respected by the people of the world as well as their respective leaders, we all know Prime Minister Brown and President Bush are good friends and allies but the fact of the matter is Prime Minister Brown is in a similar situation with record low levels of approval.
Most likely if Senator Obama is elected President, he will be dealing with Prime Minister Cameron who is currently the leader of the Conservative Party in England. David Cameron is also known for his support of the war in Iraq but this is unlikely to damage any potential synergy that he will have with Senator Obama during their meeting this week. A future Prime Minister Cameron would me mindful of the U.K’s low support for the war hence most likely falling in line with an Obama campaign Iraq pull-out strategy. Europe is going to prove to be a critical ally in the coming years as China flex’s its economic power in Africa with the only way to counter that power being closer ties between the EU and the USA.
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