Deficit spending means a debt owed to someone, whether it is owed to a foreign entity or to ourselves. Money borrowed must be repaid. Selling trillions of dollars in Treasury bonds to China or to anyone else means we are borrowing with the understanding that we will repay the debt. Ultimately, if the spending becomes too reckless, our lenders will begin to seriously question our ability to pay, and to express concern over the falling dollar with which they will be repaid. After all, what good is being repaid on a debt when what you are being repaid with is essentially worthless? Where Obamanomics is such a radical departure from Keynsianism is the size of the deficit – it is virtually inconceivable that it will ever be paid back. The rhetoric coming from the president and his administration that such spending and deficits are “unsustainable” and ”unacceptable” ignores the fact that they continue to spend and increase the deficit with even more programs and projects, all the while declaring that this is the most certain path to full recovery and “sustainable job growth,” etc., etc… It is all utter nonsense.

To be fair to Mr. Obama, those who blame him in full or in part for creating the “Obama Recession” are as foolhardy as their counterparts who blame Mr. Bush. One must also understand that had Mr. McCain been the current occupant of the White House, the situation would be very much the same because of the prevailing mentality among the political elite that only government is big enough to solve such dire economic problems. And, while the actions taken by both Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama have certainly contributed the worsening of the situation over the long term, neither one bears full blame for its cause. They do, however, deserve blame for failing to clearly see the best path toward a solution, which is letting the natural laws of economics and human nature work instead of propping up a bubble with fiat money and regulations aimed at benefiting the politically well-connected to the detriment of everyone else. Bad regulations and monetary policy brought us to this place, and more of the same is quite obviously not going to help. Whether the entities favored by the proposed new regulations and legislation are big Democrat donors or big Republican donors is immaterial. Those with money and access to power will benefit to the detriment of the rest of us, no matter how flowery the language of “hope” and “change.”

According to the AFP, Mr. Obama “stressed that the actions taken by his government had ‘helped to stem what could have been a disastrous situation for the economy,’ adding that ‘we are starting to see stabilization and indeed some improvement.’” Accordingly, one might be inclined to argue that ballooning the national debt to $12 trillion, and attempting to force passage of a national healthcare bill along with a Cap-and Trade tax bill piled atop of unfounded – and unfundable - government obligations already at $106 trillion is the actual disaster. Indeed, the vast majority of the blame for that unfundable debt of $106 trillion does not belong with Mr. Obama but, rather, with his predecessors going back to President Johnson. Regardless of who gets the blame, however, is the sad reality that the figure of $106 trillion is proof that these government obligations are inconceivable to the rational mind, and adding the current U.S. national debt of $12 trillion to this figure simply makes the further point that the government itself is insolvent, because even if every man, woman and child in this country were taxed at 100% for a decade, that amount could never be paid off. Hence, Mr. Obama defers to Mr. Bernanke’s strategy of monetizing the debt and massively inflating our currency in doing so – the epitome of Keynesian theory. Sure, the Treasury will be able to pay off the numerical figure of its’ trillions in debt bonds with “dollars” created out of thin air, but those dollars won’t be worth anything by the time that happens. Massive inflation only benefits the party who has to pay the debt. Everyone else suffers.  (Continued...)

Or, would he prefer to remain in the Democrat majority of the Senate come January 20? Or maybe he’s even sending out feelers for a Cabinet post in an Obama Administration… It is getting hard to tell. In fact one could possibly argue that he doesn’t really want it. After all, how many opportunities has McCain had to call into question Obama’s stealth past, his socialist and terrorist connections, his complete and very obvious lack of any academic work that might offer even a minute view into that the man is really thinking and how he views the world – and he has passed nearly all of them by until last week. Indeed, even going on the attack for Senator McCain seem to mean letting you running mate do the dirty work. It is not an abnormal thing to have the candidate at the top of the ticket try to remain above the fray and appear more “statesman-like” while their running mate goes for the jugular. 

Here’s where I have a problem with McCain’s alleged strategy: he’s not going for the jugular and I don’t think he will. Worse, I believe it’s not that he wouldn’t, it’s that he believes he shouldn’t. Senator McCain, a career navy man who has more than served his fair share of time in combat and the living hell of North Vietnamese POW camp, no doubt understands very well the essence of combat. Whether the combat is military or political the goal of combat is victory, and one achieves victory in only one of two ways: one forces the enemy to surrender, or one destroys and terminates the enemy. 

Given the stakes in this election and the fact that they have just been raised immeasurably higher by the recent government actions to nationalize massive segments of the private economy, which McCain himself supports, one would think the Senator would be fighting as hard as he can to destroy and terminate the enemy rather than simply try to force him to capitulate and surrender, and this most especially so given the fact that Obama is undoubtedly the most dangerous man ever to position himself for a takeover of the US Government. I say takeover, rather than “seek election” because in seeking election one does not employ miscreants to engage in vote fraud on a massive scale, nor does one celebrate little children being forced to sing propaganda songs about “hope and change,” nor does one remain conspicuously silent on the subject of youths dressed in fatigues performing paramilitary drills in public schools while shouting out Obama’s plans for “change.”

The thing I am finding truly disturbing is that right now he appears to be fighting for neither capitulation nor destruction of the enemy. In fact, just within the last couple of days Senator McCain has actively defended Obama. His admonished his own supporters for demanding he hit Obama harder over his connection to terrorist William Ayers, and then called Senator Barack Obama an inherently good and decent man who loves and believes in America.

Senator, I beg to differ wit your assessment of Mr. Obama, and here’s why:

1. Inherently good and decent men do not enable infanticide;

2. Inherently good and decent men do not remain silent when their supporters threaten to bring criminal charges against anyone who speaks ill of The One;

3. Inherently good and decent men do not remain silent when children are being exploited for political purposes;

4. Inherently good and decent men to not go out of their way to hide their past;

 5. Inherently good and decent men to not remain silent when children are indoctrinated into politically extremist views by those who are entrusted with their care and education’

6. Inherently good and decent men would not have spent 20 years in a racist, anti-American “church” listening to their pastor incite hate in the name of Christ;

7. Inherently good and decent men would admit to their past associations with extremist groups like ACORN, would admit to the roles they served, and denounce attempts to win an election by fraud;

8. Inherently good and decent men do no associate with admitted and unrepentant terrorists;

9. Inherently good and decent men would denounce their endorsements by Marxist and socialist groups, as well as foreign terror organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah;

10. Inherently good and decent men would not actively try to subvert the foreign policy of the sitting President (however misguided he may be…);

11. Inherently good and decent men would not subvert the Constitution at every opportunity;

12. Inherently good and decent men would not subvert their own nation’s sovereignty to a world body like the UN;

13. Inherently good and decent men speak plainly about what they believe and what they want to do;

14. Inherently good and decent men do not actively sanction the suppression of free speech;

15. Inherently good and decent men do not devalue human life to the equivalent of a “mistake”;

16. Inherently good and decent men do not engage in corrupt activity and then point fingers at others;

17. Inherently good and decent men would admit to past mistakes and ask forgiveness;

18. Inherently good and decent men do not play the “race-card”;

19. Inherently decent men do not incite race-riots through their surrogates;

20. Inherently good and decent men would speak the truth.

There is nothing good and decent about Barack Obama. He is a monster who enabled infanticide simply so he could continue to rake in campaign money and support from Planned Parenthood. He was an “academic” yet never published any professional work, only is self-crafted and spun autobiography. He has denied associations anyone with an internet connection can validate that he had, he refuses to answer questions on almost every facet of his life’s story, and he received not merely a free pass but the adulation and love of the smitten masses who have been waiting for “the One.” History shows time and again when a man come out of nowhere and ascends to high office without vetting and proper examination, the consequences can be most severe. And now with the perfect storm brewing economically, socio-politically, and culturally, we have in Obama the most extreme and dangerous ideological zealot every to seek the Presidency, and a man who has employed masterfully the teaching of his master, Saul Alinsky – deceit on a massive scale, because one cannot divulge who they really are lest they be rejected. Hence the necessity of pretending to be like everyone else; to lie, cheat and steal, to employ thuggish threats and corruption, and to deny everything with a smile while playing the “race-card.” 

The fact is that we no more about Sarah Palin’s 17 year of daughter’s pregnancy and Sarah’s newborn son Trigg than we do about Obama. But John McCain believes he is a good and decent man. The man who as President would utterly destroy what is left of capitalism and liberty in this country is a “good and decent man?” 

While I had been a “fence-sitter” or a “nose-holder,” in less than lukewarm support of this ticket, with this statement coming from a man who portents to be a conservative and a maverick, I can stand it no longer, because with such a statement McCain has as much as openly admitted that he will not rock the boat in Washington, he will not cross the line that counts, he will not be a real maverick when it comes to truly standing up for what is right. And most disappointingly of all, in admonishing his supporters he makes it clear that he will not go for the jugular and fight to terminate Obama’s chances at the White House with the arsenal he has available to him. He will not use all the weaponry at his disposal to bring this combat to a victorious conclusion for the American people. He will not put his country first – for fear of offending fence-sitting Democrats and perhaps losing their support. At this point, in my own opinion, the only reason McCain can call himself a maverick is because he has fought conservatives every inch of the way. 

Like many others out there, I can take a lot and compromise to a point. My line in the sand has been crossed. And, I am now more than ever convinced that if this republic is to survive as a free society, it will be because the third parties run the Democrats and Republicans out of town and make the Constitution the law of the land once again. Anything less will be un-survivable after an Obama Presidency. Continued capitulation to Obama’s Chicago socialist propaganda machine is merely a policy of appeasement that will only serve to undermine the cause of the right. I am now convinced that McCain does not have it in him to fight Obama to the death, so to speak. We all know the MSM is in the bad for Obama, and that Obama is a vey intelligent man with a massive underground extremist organization determined to hand him the Presidency licitly or illicitly – by any means necessary. 

And now we know that the GOP leadership will roll over and cut the best deal it can with these traitorous thugs while leaving the rest of us with false hope. I will not be fooled. I know the GOP cannot be trusted any more than the Democrats. If the future of this republic is in any way to resemble the glories of her past days, the only viable way to set this course is through independent candidates, third parties and merciless phone and email assaults on Capitol Hill. I, for one and for what it is worth, will be throwing myself into third party activism and campaigning. If I had money I’d be throwing that too. It is far better to begin and end the revolution with the ballot rather than with the shedding of blood which should be avoided at all costs, although I am not at all convinced that the government, especially under Obama, would be able resist the temptation to fire the first shot. May God help us in our righteous cause of Liberty.

Have you seen the news? Have you been watching the financial sector self-destruct? Did you hear about the latest $85 billion bailout of AIG? Did you hear Dana Perino’s briefing from the White House today? Here’s a little exchange that caught my attention:

Begin transcript

“Q And to the people who say, you know what, AIG should have failed so that you clean out the system and you don't delay whatever recovery -- you have a bottom and you start to move up. What do you say to that?

MS. PERINO: Well, we remain concerned about other companies, and that's why the Secretary of the Treasury continues to work with the team to see if we can stem any other losses.

But they're -- as I said, they're taking this on a case-by-case basis, and we will have to continue to do so; at the same time, looking at what we do to make sure that the taxpayers, to the greatest extent possible, are protected. But the considered judgment here was that if you don't take the recommendations of the senior economic advisors, who are very experienced and have decided on decisive action that can help stem the tide of broader economic damage, that that's the best thing that we can do to try to help protect all taxpayers in the long run.

[W]e are dealing with very challenging times and Secretary Paulson -- I'm sorry, the Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, and the President's economic advisors had determined that there were some -- some of these companies were so big that to allow them to fail would have caused even greater harm and damage to the economy.

So the goal has been to take action where necessary to promote stability and strength in the marketplace, so that we can prevent or limit more damage to the broader economy. In all cases, the President has wanted to make sure that the taxpayers are kept foremost in mind. In these agreements, if you look back, the shareholders have been wiped out. A lot of employees have lost their jobs. Management has been replaced. And the taxpayers will be paid back first.

While no one would have liked to have ended up in this situation, you have a government that is willing to lead, act where appropriate, and govern, to make sure that we limit broader financial harm to the economy.

Q You say taxpayers will be paid back first. They may not be paid back at all.

MS. PERINO: Well, that is true. And that is why we take great care in making sure that President has asked a lot of questions, to make sure that his economic advisors have thought things through, have made the best determination and have moved forward. But I think the tax -- I think the argument is that the taxpayers might be harmed even worse if the economy was -- if we allowed it to just have a lot broader damage.

And we think that the actions that have been taken were appropriate ones. I believe that Treasury thinks that they will be able to pay the taxpayers back. But it's just going to take us some time to work through this crisis.

Q Where does it stop? (The Bailouts)

MS. PERINO: You know, I would be misleading you if I knew. What we are doing is taking this on a case-by-case basis, evaluating each one carefully.

Then there was this exchange that really caught my attention:

Q Dana, what do you say to Americans who are looking at the AIG deal and saying, we don't have a free market economy; how can you call this a free market economy?

MS. PERINO: We do have a free market -- the free market is alive and well, and we have systems in place here in our country to be able to deal with shocks to the system like this. And Secretary Paulson and the Fed Chairman have taken action where they think necessary in order to prevent broader shocks to the economy.

Look, the market has had a lot of information to digest over the past several days, and it's going to take a little bit of time for us to see where this goes. But I think the considered judgment -- the collective judgment of most people today is that the action they took last night on AIG was the right move.

Q And to the people who say, you know what, AIG should have failed so that you clean out the system and you don't delay whatever recovery -- you have a bottom and you start to move up. What do you say to that?

MS. PERINO: Well, we remain concerned about other companies, and that's why the Secretary of the Treasury continues to work with the team to see if we can stem any other losses.”

End Transcript

Is it just me, or is everyone in Washington kind of sticking their collective heads in the sand and pretending that waving the flag around and pontificating on what little they know of the Constitution and the actual limits and constraints upon governmental authority relative to the economy, they will be able once again to bamboozle the people into thinking that big-daddy Uncle Sam will make everything OK?

It is disgusting, it is unconstitutional and it is very, very disturbing. And I am one very, very pissed off American today. I don’t usually use such language on this blog, but I just don’t know any other words to describe how I feel – OK I do, but if I use them they’ll throw me out of here.

I am pissed off that everybody in DC says they didn’t see this coming, but the evidence shows otherwise.

I am pissed off that every branch of the government is deliberately exceeding its Constitutional authority and doing whatever it feels like with impunity, because they think that the people are so apathetic that if they just throw us a bone here and there we’ll simply ignore their gross transgressions.

I am pissed off that these politicians and bureaucrats pretend like there is nothing wrong with calling our system a "free market" economy while at the same time they are messing with it from the Fed and thereby making it anything but free.  The fundamentals of a strong economy are indeed ther, and it would work if only government would let it instead of trying to constantly manipulate it.

I am most pissed off that no one will speak the truth in DC! How stupid do they think we are? Am I the only one who feels insulted? 

When you look at the players in this meltdown and trace the money and people, you get back to Clinton’s pandering to minorities and the poor and pushing that multiculturalism nonsense that the progressives love so much. You also inevitably get back to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – two unconstitutional quasi-government agencies that cost taxpayers a bundle and make rich bankers richer and hook up members of Congress with a money machine that is akin to an ATM, so that these behemoths will never die, cause no one wants to turn off the money spigot.

I have no problem whatsoever with people getting rich, but not on my dime - not at the public trough.  And, I want to know why the former executives of Freddie and Fannie are still getting paid to stay on for the "transition."  Only in Washington DC can you ruin the financial sustem of the nation and get rewarded for it.  Freddie Mac’s Richard Syron and Fannie Mae's, Daniel Mudd are still getting paid, even though they knew what was going on.  You and I both know that if they worked for a true privately held firm, they'd be persona-non-grata and awaiting indictment and trial.  But there will be no trial.  Probably no hearings either.  nancy Pelosi is a big fan and recipient of Fred and Fan's lobbying money.  Imagine that!

You also have career political hacks that would sell their souls for money, dark amoral people who can smile and put on a look of concern and lie right to your face and mean it at that moment. People like Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Jamie Gorelick, Franklin Raines, et al.

You have people who do not give a crap about people like you and me because they are better than us – they work in DC. They are members of Congress. They are bureaucrats.

They are all liars!

You have a guy like Obama who’s bemoaning greed and avarice on Wall Street, and talking nonsense like this: “’Since this turmoil began over a year ago," the Illinois senator said, "the housing market has all but collapsed. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had to be effectively taken over by the government. Three of America's five largest investment banks failed or have been sold off in distress. Yesterday, Wall Street suffered its worst losses since just after 9/11.’ He said McCain and President Bush subscribe to the same approach: ‘support ideological policies that made the crisis more likely, do nothing as the crisis hits and then scramble as the whole thing collapses.’”

Wow! Suddenly he’s outraged about Freddie and Fannie. Gee, he didn’t seem too upset over the fact that he has accepted $126,349 in lobbying money from Freddie and Fannie since 2004. In fact he’s the Number Two recipient of money from those two abominations. And let me put it in the proper context for you: the list at opensecrets.org was compiled from 1989 to 2008. Obama is second on the list. Chris Dodd is Number One, having received $165,400 since 1989. Obama received $126,349 in just four years, and half of that time he’s been running for President.

Why the hell isn’t anyone except those of us on the blogs talking about it? Why won’t McCain bring it up? I don’t know – maybe he has, but I haven’t heard about it.

This stuff isn’t secret – it’s all public information.

And now McCain goes and disappoints me terribly by flip-flopping on the bailouts in just 24 hours. Yesterday at this time he was against them. Today he says it was the right decision. Helloooooo! How the hell is tacking $85 billion onto the taxpayer’s tab to bail out foreign interests the right decision? Oh, you didn’t know that? Yeah, AIG is a multinational corporation whose holding company, which was the entity bailed out, is backed 85% by foreign central banks. Where is the outrage? Where does it stop?

It’s wrong and it’s unconstitutional! McCain ought to know better!

Where does it stop? It won’t unless the people make them.

This has prompted me to do something different: I am writing several articles in various parts not only about this financial meltdown, but also on my take on our economy and the Constitution. I’ll be posting them in several parts, each with a disclaimer, because it is possible that without first reading the preceding parts, a current post may not make much sense. 

To my readers, I thank you for reading and I apologize for my ranting format – and language. I would also ask that, if you can, to please let me know when I post these multi-part articles if they flow and work for you – if they are coherent and lucid, so to speak. 

Until tomorrow, I’ll be pissed off and writing…

Or, are they suffering from a bit of buyers’ remorse from their excessive secularization and collective devolution into socialist nanny states and wants us to become just like them? Since the Republican National Convention last week and the shift in momentum, European socialists and socialists throughout the world seem are lamenting the obliteration of Obama’s lead in the polls by the McCain-Palin ticket. There is a rising clamor abroad, you might say, incredulous that Americans could possibly make such a grave mistake as to NOT elect Obama. After all, polling data in many European countries show that Obama would be elected there in landslide victories, and we all know how “progressive” they are now, don’t we?

In fact, now there are not-so-veiled threats of pending severe bouts of “anti-Americanism” emanating from the four corners of the globe. OK, it’s mostly leftists trying to disguise themselves as non-leftists, but whatever. An article in Britain’s Guardian UK online tries to make that point as if to scare Americans in to electing Obama’s corrupt socialist political machine in November. The article is entitled, “The world's verdict will be harsh if the US rejects the man it yearns for: An America that disdains Obama for his global support risks turning current anti-Bush feeling into something far worse.” Are you shaking in your boots yet? Good. I’m not either. It gets better, though. Here’s the first sentence: “The feeling is familiar. I had it four years ago and four years before that: a sinking feeling in the stomach. It's a kind of physical pessimism which says: ‘It's happening again. The Democrats are about to lose an election they should win - and it could not matter more.’”

After several paragraphs bashing Sarah Palin and making McCain out to be George W. Bush Jr., the author Jonathan Freedland writes this gem: “Remember, this is a woman who once addressed a church congregation, saying of her work as governor - transport, policing and education – ‘really all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God.’” Remember this folks: cultured, enlightened and properly progressive European politicians would never address a church of any kind, nor entertain the thought of acknowledging God in a public venue, because Europe acknowledges no God – only Allah. And don’t you soon forget it, or they’ll put out a Fatwah on you.

But here is what is probably the best reason NOT to vote for Barack Obama on November 4: “But what of the rest of the world? This is the reaction I fear most. For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any American politician in living memory. Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama would win it handsomely. If the free world could choose its leader, it would be Barack Obama.” (emphasis mine) 

And if McCain-Palin win we can expect the cold-shoulder from our comrades in Europe “For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is yearning for.”

In a poll of 22,000 of our fellow global citizens, “49 per cent across the 22 countries preferred Senator Obama compared with 12 per cent preferring Senator McCain.”

I bear no ill will to our friends in Europe or anywhere else, for that matter – at least toward those who are not trying to kill us. The problem that the rest of the world is suffering from is that the rest of the world is not America. The do not understand us, they do not think like us, they can neither conceive of nor truly grasp what makes one “American.” They never will. 

We are different from the rest of the world. Always have been. Always will be. Most of the time we are willing to work well with others, but sometimes we find it necessary to go it alone, regardless of world opinion, because at the end of the day those 22,000 people polled in Moscow, and Berlin, and London, and Paris, and Khartoum, and Beijing, and Singapore, and Seoul, and Beruit, and Gaza, and Amman, and Istanbul, and Riyadh are not Americans. 

The Europeans cannot understand us because they have sacrificed their Liberty for comfort and security – and obtained neither. Europe has devolved by choice into a continent rife with socialism or the kind that would make Karl Marx proud. They have become one giant bureaucracy that dictates to every aspect of daily life. This is something that, when it comes right down to it, is inconceivable and unconscionable to Americans. For all of our differences and eccentricities, the one thing we Americans all have in common is that we cherish our Liberty; and, even though there are those among us who even now are misled, misguided and deluded into thinking that we can achieve a benevolent government run welfare state to care for our every need, provide our security, bring a lasting peace to the rest of the world and still retain their Liberty, we respectfully make our case, the case for Liberty, and try to enlighten them as to why they are wrong. That is the American way, a way that other peoples cannot understand. 

Many have come to understand that socialistic government programs must by their very nature as dictated by the purpose for which they are created, encroach upon the Liberty of the people. Government authority and Liberty are diametrically opposed forces, irreconcilable except for law. A free people cannot relinquish only “a little” Liberty; a people is either free or it is not. 

With all due respect, the continent of Europe has forsaken Liberty for the vain promises of arbitrary government authority, and it is failing them. Europe is in decline, economically, morally, socially, militarily, politically and in any other way one can imagine, and it has been in decline for decades. When one trusts in government, any government – no matter how well designed – to fulfill roles never intended for government one is bound to be disappointed. The Europeans want Obama because his vision for the future is Europe, and they understand that. They revile resistance to such “enlightened” positions as radical or extremist because they have become so secularized by their own government systems that they cannot understand Americans’ willingness to fight and die for such things as going to church on Sunday.

Europe chose socialism and is now paying the price, and that price is the decline and ultimately the death of nationhood and liberty. That is where Obama’s vision will lead us if we allow him to. So, if you really need another reason NOT to vote for Obama on November 4, just look to Europe.

McCAIN AND OBAMA CAMPAIGNS

With the expected news of a poll-bounce for the GOP in the wake of the Republican National Convention comes the unexpected, albeit much welcomed news for conservatives that the McCain-Palin ticket has pulled ahead of Obama-Biden. Real Clear Politics averaged the major poll results and came out with McCain at 48.0% and Obama at 45.6%, a 2.8% lead for McCain. The pollsters from whom these averaged results were taken ranged from CNN/Opinion Research and Rasmussen Tracking polls showing the two candidates tied at 48%, to a USA Today/Gallup poll showing McCain ahead by ten points at 54% to Obama’s 44%.

Clearly the McCain-Palin ticket has succeeded in stealing Obama’s thunder, but a 2.8% lead is still a statistical dead-heat, and although the GOP ought well to take a measure of pride in surpassing Obama in the polls for the time being, gloating and/or complacency could prove fatal.   Momentum has shifted, but the deal is far from sealed. So how does the McCain-Palin ticket seal the deal? This is a difficult question with many potential answers.

First, it is noteworthy that in the weeks prior to the Republican National Convention Obama was generally the frontrunner. The week just after to the Democrat convention in Denver saw Obama ahead by as many as 8 percentage points (Gallup). The week prior to the DNC event in Denver revealed a general trend of an Obama lead, but that lead only ranged between 1 and 4 percentage points. This is significant, because in the weeks beginning 01 July and ending 25 August, Obama was up as high as 9 percentage points the week of 13 July, but averaged only a 4 to 5 percentage point lead until the week of the Democrat convention. In the days immediately following the Democrat convention Gallup Tracking and CBS had Obama with an 8 percentage point lead over McCain, while Hotline/FD gave him a 9 percentage point lead. On the low end, a CNN poll result showed Obama with only a 1 percentage point lead that week.

PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL

Why is this significant? It is significant because at no point in the several weeks leading up to the Democrat National Convention was Obama leaving McCain in the dust, which is what one would expect if things in this country were perceived as being really as bad as Obama campaigns on. Indeed, there is real discontent with President Bush as he currently has a 32.8% approval rating with 64.0% of voters polled indicating disapproval of his administration. With a disapproval rating twice that of the incumbent Republican’s approval rating, one would rightly assume that voters should be flocking to Obama in droves. Despite the messianic coverage of Obama by the mainstream media, this is apparently not the case; and, this is a very interesting thing, because in general, one can view approval ratings and disapproval ratings of the incumbent President as a referendum on the party as a whole during a combined general and presidential election year. 

This next set of numbers, however, is very telling about the current electoral climate when looked at in context with numbers cited above.

CONGRESS AND GENERAL ELECTION PREDICTIONS

First is the Real Clear Politics Congressional Job Approval average of four polls over the period from 12 to 31 August. The RCP average gives Congress a meager 17.8% approval rating and a staggering 73.8 disapproval rating. The approval ratings for Congress were as follows: Quinnipiac from 08/12 to 08/17 16%; LA Times/Bloomberg from 08/15 to 08/18 17%; Hotline/FD from 08/29 to 08/31 at 18%; and FOX News from 08/19 to 08/20 at 20%. The disapproval ratings show FOX News and LA Times/Bloomberg at 73%, Quinnipiac at 74%, and Hotline/FD at 75%. 

This next set of numbers is very telling, again when taken in context with the previous results. 

The polls for use in predicting the emerging trends for the general Congressional electoral results for November averaged by Real Clear Politics from 15 August through 07 September give Democrats a 5.4 point advantage with 45.8% of the vote over the Republicans an average of 40.4%. The two extremes were the NBC News/Wall St. Journal poll conducted between 08/15 and 08/18 that show Democrats likely gaining 47% which is 11 percentage points above the Republicans 36%. The other extreme was the USA Today/Gallup poll conducted between 09/05 and 09/07 showing the Republicans up 5 percentage points likely gaining 50% of the vote to the Democrats 45%. It is noteworthy that the remaining three polls in the RCP average, Democracy Corps, Hotline/FD, and FOX News showed marked advantage for the Democrats, with that party polling ahead 5, 7, and 9 percentage points, respectively. 

SUMMARY

1. Emerging trends for the General Election: Beginning with the last batch of numbers, these clearly show that the Democrat Party has the overall advantage going into the November general Congressional election with the combined RCP average showing them up 5.4 percentage points over Republicans. Clearly the result demonstrates a widespread dissatisfaction with both Congress and the Republican Party. This is interesting because it is indicative of a distorted perception that the Democrats in Congress are doing a better job that the Republicans, when this is clearly not the case as evidenced by the Congressional approval ratings.

2. Congressional Job Approval: The interesting factor here is that the Democrat Party is the majority party in Congress that the polls show overwhelming dissatisfaction with. Congress gets a 73.8% overall disapproval rating and is ruled by the Democrat Party, yet the emerging trends above show this same party with a 5.4 percentage point advantage over Republicans going into the general election.

3. Presidential Approval: President Bush and his Republican Administration are disapproved of by voters by a margin of 2 to1, or 64.0% overall disapproval to 32.8% overall approval.

4. Presidential Campaigns: On 7/01 Obama had a 5.9 percentage point lead over McCain. His lead decreased to 2.3% on 8/04, and then climbing back to 4.8% on 8/12, dipping to 1.2% on 8/20 the week prior to the Democratic convention and then climbing to 6.4% on 9/02. Immediately upon entering into the Republican convention, and following the significant development of McCain announcing Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, Obama’s numbers began to fall off from a 6.4% lead on 9/02 and continued to drop as momentum appears, at least for now, to have shifted to the McCain camp with a 2.4% lead as of 9/08.

CONCLUSIONS

Clearly this is as tight a race as has been in recent history, with the poll results showing mostly a statistical dead heat once these polls are averaged together. What is certain is that the announcement of Sarah Palin’s addition to the Republican ticket served to give the GOP a definitive boost in the numbers, and once both candidates’ acceptance speeches were delivered at the GOP convention, erased Obama’s lead and put the McCain camp ahead. This is largely due to the fact that Palin is viewed by the conservative base of associated with the Republican Party as a solid conservative, fiscally and socially, and is also seen as a true reformer with a proven record.

That notwithstanding, the McCain ticket is clearly hurt to some degree to whatever extend the Obama-Biden camp can sell the argument that McCain is the equivalent of President Bush, a fellow Republican with a 64.0% disapproval rating. This is where things get as interesting as they do confusing. While the high rate of dissatisfaction with President Bush and his administration can be understood as a referendum on the entire Republican Party, and so while it is no surprise that the polling for emerging trends and predictions for the general Congressional elections gives the advantage to the Democrats, the advantage is not as large as one would think, a mere 5.4 percentage points. What is truly interesting here is the fact that Congressional disapproval ratings are averaged at 73.8%, down only slightly from a high of 77% in July. 

What this data show is that the country is still sharply divided politically. But what is more surprising is that given the increasing overall dissatisfaction with President Bush, the numbers have not swung more steeply in favor of Democrats. The data suggest a strong distrust of both parties as evidenced by the President’s disapproval rating, but no solid referendum for a different direction even while the RCP average taken between 08/19 and 09/07 that only 20.0% approve of the direction the nation is going in, with 75.7% disapproving.

For McCain, this is all good news and for Obama it is worthy of concern. For both campaigns it is worthy of very careful attention and much reflection. Obama, a highly charismatic person and eloquent speaker, has yet to complete the sale to the American voters. Given the state of dissatisfaction with government in general, Obama ought to be clobbering McCain, and yet he has barely pulled out a lead better than a statistical dead heat when all the poll results are averaged together.

McCain has seen momentum shift in his favor, and this is largely due to his choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, he acceptance speech, and his follow up acceptance speech which reassured the conservative base by telling them what they needed to hear to get behind the ticket, and making an appeal to undecided voters. What is certain is that prior to the GOP convention, most conservatives were very leery about McCain and if even inclined to support his candidacy did so only grudgingly and as an affront to Obama. 

What is equally certain is that by choosing a staunch conservative reformer who is solid on social and fiscal issues of concern to the conservative base, who is relatively unknown and who is a woman has undeniably galvanized and energized that same base and thereby the whole of Republican Party. McCain drastically increases his chances at victory if he stays to the right, and in picking Palin he has signaled his intent to do exactly that. What the campaign needs to do next is to take the message to the people that the Democrats are the majority party in the Congress they so disdain and hammer the point home with voters to disassociate the Republicans from the failures of a Democrat controlled Congress.

McCain must also be careful not to be perceived as being George W. Bush redux, which ought not be too difficult a task; especially in making the case that he and Palin are the candidates of real reform and change, especially on wasteful government spending. If McCain-Palin can accomplish these things, they can easily beat Obama in November. The conservative base is largely on board now, and so the sale needs to be taken to the undecided’s and independents. 

Clearly the Palin pick has put Obama-Biden in a box in a way they never saw coming, and they are still reeling and assessing what is the best move and direction to proceed. McCain put them there and only he can keep them there. Right now it’s his race to lose, though far from over.

The McCain camp’s announcement of Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) as his running mate could not have provided a more stark contrast to the Obama-Biden media love fest just endured in Denver. Amid the inevitable speculation by media types over who would be McCain’s pick for VP in the hours before the announcement, there was a very noticeable lack of the same type of intense hype and hoopla of the Obama Campaign’s leading up to their 3:00AM text message announcing Joe Biden – the only possible choice after he made it abundantly clear that it would never be Hillary. 

Lets face it: if everything that Obama and the Democrats were saying were true, Obama would be killing McCain and headed toward a landslide. A Gallup poll reported August 30 that Obama leads McCain 49% to 41%. Obama has some post-convention momentum, this is true, but momentum does not equal substance; and without substance there is only empty hype, and that is exactly what the Obama-Biden ticket is behind its claims of hope and change. If you want real hope and change, look to McCain-Palin, because this bold choice of choosing Sarah Palin for the number two slot on the Republican ticket matters a great deal and will have positive consequences that will reverberate through the halls of Washington D.C. for many years to come.

If you think about it, you can well imagine the party bosses joining in with McCain’s advisors in pulling their hair out while collectively shrieking a blood-curdling “NOOOOOO!” upon learning of McCain’s intention to name Sarah Palin as his Vice-Presidential running mate. I am quite sure you could hear that same shriek coming out of the Obama camp, because Palin embodies everything Obama claims, but isn’t. And after all, we all know that the first electable woman VP or President just HAS to be a Democrat because they’re so diversely unified, right?

Obama claims to be the agent of “change” yet chose a running mate who has been in the U.S. Senate since Sarah Palin was nine years old. That’s change? To be fair, Obama really does believe in change. He wants to change how much money hard working Americans are allowed to bring home. He wants to change the tax system so that even more of your wealth is redistributed. He wants to change to a government run health-care system that will take care of all Americans – one need only look to how poorly the VA medical system cares for our veterans (of which I am one) to see how disastrous this plan for change will turn out. Most disturbingly, and this is a crucial issue for traditional God-Country-and-Constitution loving conservatives, Obama would change our collective understanding of God to be One who has no place in the public arena (except when running for elective office) and Who would sanction racism, and socialism, and would condone the senseless slaughter of newborn infants in hospitals named “Christ.” THAT is how Obama would change America, and conservatives know it.

In marked contrast Sarah Palin is a breath of fresh air to a Republican Party that has all but lost its way. Indeed, it also says quite a lot about McCain. If nothing else, it shows the conservative base that he is still ready to listen – and he heard us loud and clear!   And he did what is best for the country in choosing Sarah Palin. Why? We all know what the Constitution says and what it means. So does Sarah Palin. We all know that big government doesn’t work, and so does Sarah Palin. In fact, she has actually done something about it – unlike Obama - by saving the state of Alaska millions of dollars by selling state owned executive aircraft, disbanding a security detail she didn’t need, vetoing pork-filled bills from the state legislature, and actively leading the charge as a champion of real ethics reform – to the extent that she all but obliterated the old-and-corrupted Alaskan Republican machine and defeated an incumbent Republican in the gubernatorial primary. That’s change.

She has spent the last two years making the tough executive decisions that Obama cannot know or understand, because he has never made them. A former state senator has nothing at all on a governor. She turned down hundreds of millions in Federal pork projects for the waste that it is – the same type of earmarks that Senator Obama brought to Illinois, to the tune of over $1 billion. She has not endeared herself to oil companies because she holds them accountable environmentally and financially. She is ardently Pro-Life, Pro-Second Amendment, Pro-Constitution. She is a working mother of five who did not attend a privileged Ivy League school or receive special favors to achieve what she has. She did it all the old fashioned way – she earned it. Every bit. That’s change.

Sarah Palin gets it. She is a traditional conservative who understands us because she is one of us. She also understands very well what is at stake, and that is presumably why she accepted McCain’s invitation to join him on the Republican ticket. She is one of us, and knows better than most just how far the Republican Party has strayed from its core principles in recent years: just ask her about her dealings with the Bush Administration and “Fedzilla” interfering with her states’ rights, and the battles she has fought with them over the issue of drilling in ANWR, among other things. 

She knows that she is in a position to galvanize the conservative base and to ultimately reform a party that has drifted so far to the left that it doesn’t even know what it stands for anymore. She knew she had to accept. She knows that she has to take a major role in shaping the future of a great nation at a crucial moment in its history. For this greater good, she is willing to make many sacrifices and bear a heavy burden. For America. She is a leader, unafraid, unapologetic, and undeterred. 

Why does Sarah Palin matter? Why is she so important? Because not only could she be the factor that keeps Obama and his socialist agenda out of the White House, but she could be the only one who can bring true conservatism back to a Republican Party run amok with misguided ideals and compromises and that is at times indistinguishable from the Democrats. 

As far as the experience question goes, I’ll take someone who has served two years as governor after working her way there. Every now and again throughout history comes an unknown individual who becomes a great leader because they answered their country’s call and rose to the occasion. Lest we forget, practically no one outside of Missouri knew who Harry S. Truman was until FDR died.

Sarah Palin is the right choice. She has the substance and doesn’t need the hype. She will rise up to meet the occasion destiny offers her. Perhaps it is our time that has come, Mr. Obama? And just think: in 2012, wouldn’t it be something if the first woman President of the United States were a conservative Republican? But for now, all conservatives need to rally the troops and the wagons around the McCain Palin ticket to fend off the attacks from the Left, for we know that the Left will bash her – they have to, because she is everything their candidate is not.

Yet one more reason not to pay any attention celebreties when it comes to politics.  Madonna  [I know, shocking, isn't it...] has discovered yet one more method of drawing attention to herself: comparing a guy like John McCain to Mugabe and Hitler.  Now, I'm definitely not one who's all "rah! rah!" on the McCain bandwagon, but please.  Comparing a man like McCain to the likes of these two murderous thugs?  But that also goes to show jst how stupid Madonna is - she left out Stalin, and Mao, and Ho Chi Minh, and Fidel Castro, and Che Guevera, and Hugo Chavez - Oh, wait, my bad:  these guys are all heros and revolutionaries!  Silly me, I forgot - that whole revisionist history thing. Check out the comments from the Euro-pop crowd - they eat this stuff up since they've been re-educated.  I think that this sort of things truly speaks for the "progressive" agenda: it has no substance and no truth.  Poor, poor progresives - I guess in nominating Obama, this is really all they've got....

Really. Think about it: Kerry has represented Massachusetts in the Senate since 1985. Who were all the other real-potential running mates? Kerry HAD to pick the southerner because two wacky “progressives” on the Democrat ticket just won’t win the White House. Fast-forward four years. Obama HAD to pick Biden to balance his inexperience. After all, Joe Biden has been in the Senate since 1972 – “Change” indeed! Great! So now we might get an inexperienced President with a Vice-President and chief advisor who has been in Washington since the stoned age. Sounds a bit like… nevermind. 

Seriously, though: Joe Biden was the only logical pick. You know it, I know it, any anyone who has been paying attention lately knows it; so, my question is, “Why all the hype for something that really wasn’t a mystery to begin with?” The answer: LACK OF SUBSTANCE!

Change! Change! Change! Change! Change! Yes We Can! Hail the Messiah! Now that we have the running mate, on with the MSM love-fest!   Hooray! Hooray for CHANGE! 

You know, there was a time when a political party’s convention actually meant something, and that time was not really so long ago. But alas, now our bubblegum pop-culture has usurped out political process along with everything else. The result? What used to be a noble and excited event – the choosing of a candidate to represent a party and a people to run for President of the United States – has been reduced to a rock concert where there are days and days of hype and drama building up to the main event – the Keynote Speech. At least that’s what it will be for McCain. Obama’s is more likely to be his coronation.

You will remember his speech in Boston in 2004. That is, you remember he spoke, but what the hell did he say? Exactly my point. We all knew in 2004 that this guy, this Obama, would be a rising star, but who expected the Clintons to allow him to beat Hillary? My point here is this – there is no substance to either of these men – not that I am thrilled to death and jumping for joy over McCain. Like I said before, if he gets my vote it will be because he is clearly the lesser of two evils. So, in the interest of fairness, I feel it my obligation to examine what Joe Biden will bring to the Democrat ticket.

Senator Biden’s positions are really not that far off from Senator McCain’s on many issues – which scares the living hell out of me. The biggest different between the two is on the issues of abortion and the Second Amendment.

Biden is, naturally, a pro-abortion Democrat. Of course. He is also a “practicing” Catholic who claims to accept the teachings of he Church on faith. All the teachings, that is, except the one on abortion and the sanctity of life. As a Catholic myself, I take great offense to these charlatans who want to wear their Catholicism on one sleeve to court votes and their overt willingness to kill babies on the other sleeve in order to advance their career. I find this to be a substantial character issue, but I will take that one on at another time. Suffice it to say for now that proclaiming one’s love for Christ on the one hand and enabling the holocaust of abortion on demand on the other is inconsistent at the very least. In my view, which is the view of the Catholic Church, the two are irreconcilable, diametrically opposed. 

Before moving on, I just have to give two brief examples of why I believe this abortion issue to be one of character: 

 Accepts Catholic Church view that life begins at conception

Source: Meet the Press: 2007 "Meet the Candidates" series Apr 29, 2007 

Q: You have changed your position on abortion. When you came to the Senate, you believed that Roe v. Wade was not correctly decided and that you also believed the right of abortion was not secured by the Constitution. Why did you change your mind?

A: Well, I was 29 years old when I came to the US Senate, and I have learned a lot. Look, I'm a practicing Catholic, and it is the biggest dilemma for me in terms of comporting my religious and cultural views with my political responsibility.

Q: Do you believe that life begins at conception?

A: I am prepared to accept my church's view. I think it's a tough one. I have to accept that on faith. That's why the late-term abortion ban, where there's clearly viability.

Nominees should agree on Constitutional right to privacy

Source: 2007 South Carolina Democratic primary debate, on MSNBC Apr 26, 2007

Q: As president would you have a specific litmus test question on Roe v. Wade that you would ask of your nominees for the high court?

A: I strongly support Roe v. Wade. I wouldn't have a specific question but I would make sure that the people I sent to be nominated for the Supreme Court shared my values; and understood that there is a right to privacy in the United States Constitution. That's why I led the fight to defeat Bork, Roberts Alito, and Thomas. [Emphasis all mine]

WHAT??!! Once again, we must endure sophistry from the mouth of a politician. Only that didn’t make any sense to me. Hey, at least he didn’t outright lie like Obama no his vote to kill the “infants born alive” bill. But, I digress. 

On gun control issues well, he’s a Democrat. This guy can find a right to murder babies within the privacy clause in the Constitution, but “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” means we shouldn’t be allowed to have guns. Someone else is going to have to explain that stuff to me, because I’m at a loss. These guys make my brain hurt.

It is very sad what has happened to politics in this country. It is sad that everything has become a mode of entertainment and a vehicle for ratings and advertising. I thought a lot and talked a lot about this while I was at the Florida Gun Show today. What is happening to America? We’ve been overhyped and over-indulged, and now come November – no matter who wins – we, the people, lose. We are set up for a very sore disappointment.

There are a great many issues that need to be addressed, but can we get through all the hype and rock-star stuff? Instead of McCain’s houses can we talk about SPP, or Georgia and Putin, or Iraq and the –Stans, or what the impact of socialized medicine will have on an already taxed economy? Can we talk about what Obama and Biden’s definition of change will really mean for this republic? Of course not, because there is no substance to most of their ideas, and where there is substance it is of the stuff that could potentially ruin this nation. Perhaps the Obama-Biden Administration can be summed up in these two statements: 

From 27 April 2007

“We also have to look east, because increasingly the center of gravity in this world is shifting to Asia. Japan has been an outstanding ally of ours for many years, but obviously China is rising, and it’s not going away. They’re neither our enemy nor our friend. They’re competitors. But we have to make sure that we have enough military-to-military contact and forge enough of a relationship with them that we can stabilize the region.”

From 21 August 2008:

OBAMA: “Everybody's watching what's going on in Beijing right now and the Olympics. Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are all vastly superior to us now, which means if you're a corporation deciding where to do business, you're starting to think, Beijing looks like a pretty good option.”

Hey, the trains ran on time in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union too. Hooray for CHANGE! Change indeed.

However, even though things could presumably go very badly for us conservatives this November, all is not yet lost. We can still take control of the future. After all, we out number them. And who knows, in the short term, maybe it will be to our advantage to have an unmitigated disaster in the White House and on Capitol Hill with Comrades Obama and Pelosi running things. How do you say, “Conservative sweep in 2010,” in Chinese?

I, like many others, have been wildly unenthused about our choices for President this election cycle. I was definitely in the Ron Paul camp and would have been able to settle for Huckabee, but McCain? I was a McCain supporter in 2000; that is of course until the Neo-Con wing of the Republican Party torpedoed his chances at the White House with some really unscrupulous ads in South Carolina. Since then McCain seems to have wandered about between cheering on Bush, Cheney and the other highly decorated beneficiaries of the Great Deferments of the Vietnam War era, and at other times cozying up to the likes of Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold on issues of immigration and amnesty. One thing is for sure regarding McCain: he is a man who will surprise you if you are paying attention. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by his performance on Saturday night during the Saddleback Civil Forum with Rick Warren.

A couple of days before the forum I was sitting in traffic behind a car with all sorts of bumper stickers covering it’s rear-end – you now the kind, with all the anti-war slogans surrounding a gigantic image of commie-criminal Che Guevera that reads, “PEACE!” Anyway, one of the stickers caught my eye. It simply read, “McSAME.” I chuckled and at first thought that it was clever. Then I thought some more about it and now, after seeing McCain come alive during this forum, I think that who ever thought up that slogan has an aversion to reality.

Let me state for the record that I am NOT an enthusiastic McCain supporter. I have issues with the Senator, as do most of you. If the election were held today and I were to give him my vote it would be a vote against Obama to avoid the unconscionable disaster that will be sure to follow the current administration should he become President. 

McCain may not be to my liking on every issue, but then again, who will be? One of the pleasant surprises coming out of Saturday’s forum, at least for me, was to discover just how completely different these two men – McCain and Obama – truly are. Obama seemed to hem and haw and talk circles around issues, almost like he wanted to avoid answering the important questions at all cost. Wait a minute – that’s exactly what he wanted to do. I don’t know: perhaps a choreographed rehearsal and a teleprompter for the main event would have helped him. Maybe it’s just me, but this guy seems to be completely lost without his teleprompter to tell him what to say.

In contrast, McCain appeared, at least to me, to only waffle on one question regarding embryonic stem cell research – which I do find troubling. Otherwise, he was very direct and to the point. He answered the questions. At no point was the contrast between these two men more stark than when the question, “When do you believe life begins?” was asked. Obama fluffed off the question with a lame, “that’s above my pay grade.”   McCain said without hesitation, “at conception.” Throughout the forum, McCain answered directly, concisely, and unashamedly made his positions known, while Obama was obviously going out of his way to hide his true positions. Darkness cannot withstand the light of Truth now can it, Senator?

McCain is no Bush. I’m not going to blame George Bush for having grown up in a privileged family – would it were that we could all be so fortunate. McCain, however, was able to convey in one hours’ time a life of service and of sacrifice the like of which should make both Bush and Obama crawl under the nearest rock. I’m not going to re-hash McCain’s military record and sacrifice as a POW, for these things speak for themselves, and they speak volumes. No, McCain has live a long life devoted to serving his country with honor and integrity. Obama has served less than 200 days of actual time spent on the floor in the U.S. Senate and before that was a street activist and professor of U.S. Constitutional Law where he taught his students about how the Constitution is a living document whose meaning and intent changes over time (God help us!). Bush was an outstanding governor of Texas (I was living there from 1998 to 2000), but he quite obviously didn’t care for military service seeing as he just stopped showing up for drill. I can personally attest to the fact that flying jets can get old after a while. Bush also grew up having the very best of everything – right down to education and career. I don’t blame him for these things because that is just the way it is when your grandfather is a highly respected and powerful U.S. Senator and your dad is a former Congressman and CIA Director, among other things. Seriously, who can blame the old man for taking care of his kids?

But, these are the things that shape the very core of who you are, these kinds of life experiences. If you have had everything handed to you on a silver platter and never really had to work hard or sacrifice, then you can’t really appreciate what success means, because for you it was a forgone conclusion. Likewise, if you’ve been sitting in a church where an extreme version of Marxist liberation theology has been preached for the entire twenty years you’ve been there and it is that type of theology that has driven you to activism in the political arena, again it is these types of things that shape the very core of your being. 

McCain, much more so than these other men I believe, truly understands and appreciates liberty and freedom in a way that these others – and most of us – cannot even begin to fathom. In his answers to the two last question posed, “Why do you want to be President?” and “What would you say to those who would oppose me asking you these questions in a church?” To the very last question he responded without hesitation, “This election is very, very important. Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.” To the former question he said, in part, “I want to inspire a generation of Americans to serve a purpose greater than their own. I believe that America’s best days are ahead of us. This is a time for all of us to come together. I have always put my country first. I put my country first when I had the honor of serving in the military; I put my country first while serving as a member of the House of Representatives and later in the Senate. Americans believe its time to put our country first. I will go to those places where I know they probably won’t even vote for me and promise them that I will be everyman’s President.”

The most impressive moment for me, however was when McCain was speaking about what America means to him, how blessed we truly are as a nation, and how other nations around the world who do not have what we have – liberty, freedom, valid law – want to look to us and emulate us. I took the following from marketwatch.com:

"Our Judeo-Christian principles dictate that we do what we can to help people who are oppressed throughout the world. I would like to tell you that I still think that even in the worst places in the world today, they still harbor this hope and dream someday to be like us and have freedom and democracy. We remain, my friends, the most unusual experiment in history and I'm privileged to spend every day of my life in it. I know what it is like to be without it."  Wow.  That statement left me stunned.

My other differences with him aside, I think it can safely be said that John McCain is a man who understands profoundly the value of liberty, very much in the same way our Founding Fathers did. He has experienced tyranny and has survived its inhumanity. He is, I think, an inherently decent man who wants to be President because he feels strongly that it is his duty. On Saturday night I saw a John McCain that I had not seen since 2000. We need to see more of this John McCain and less Obama-worship on the evening news (yeah, like that will happen). Here is a guy who will commit to appointing originalist justices to the courts, to vetoing legislation filled with pork, and to preserving our sovereignty at all costs.

Right now, for me, it is more a case of the lesser of two evils, but the more I get to see of a John McCain who visibly believes in what he is saying and is not just pandering to a particular demographic, the more I could me inclined to become excited and inspired.

The question is this: do we want a President who understands sacrifice and suffering, who understands the intrinsic value of liberty, who understands what is worth fighting and dying for, or do we want a president who goes out of his way to hide his true positions in a Christian forum. One man says he will fight to preserve our liberty, and right now I am inclined to believe him. Time will tell. One thing is for certain, however: Obama will bring us to places we don’t want to see and force this nation to make choices of life or death for our republic. The groundwork has already been laid through a government that has become such a monstrosity that it can no longer be kept under restraint, for the advancement of his type of misguided Marxist ideology. 

For those who are of the mind to sit this one out because they think that McCain is either too far to the left or is too much like Bush look at the issues. McCain is no Bush, and Obama is no McCain. There is far too much at stake – indeed the very future of our republic. Right now – and this could change –but right now, I defer to McCain’s answer to the question posed on how do we deal with evil in the world. He said, “Defeat it.” And there it is. Defeat evil. Defeat Obama.