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Give me something to chew on, please
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CommentNovember 19th, 2008
November 13th, 2008
November 11th, 2008
October 24th, 2008
October 21st, 2008
One can feel the intensity level of the Presidential race jumping a couple of quantum leaps since Labor Day. There was another big leap over the weekend as McCain has surged ahead of Obama in a lot of polls on the strength of Palin.
There is not a lot of policy being debated, slash and burn politics rule the day as voters are getting more and more entrenched in their positions and angrier and angrier at the "ones who are wrong." Whichever wrong one you pick. And note I said it is the fault of the voters, not the campaigns, because it is. People just enjoy bashing each other too much to demand a substantive debate, I guess. The campaigns just feed off of that.
Most of it actually starts from the fringes of the debate, not the actual campaigns themselves, although the Republicans are heavily blaming the media. The campaigns just have to indirectly hint around, and the blogs rush in.
I am getting emails from both sides, of the Obama is a Muslim Marxist and probably some kind of Ayers type terrorist variety. Palin is an evangelical Christian wing nut who is going to set back progress for a century. I don’t really believe any of that.
One thing I find interesting about Palin is that the Republicans, and not all of them mind you, but the ones carrying the numbers over to McCain at this point, loved her speaking style and personality after one speech. This is the same thing that they said made Obama suspicious, too slick, just a good speaker, people were getting carried away with their emotions.
Palin’s preacher has said things eerily reminiscent of the Reverend Wright, that God was angry at America for its sins and was going to strike out his hand against America. I am sure that must be for abortion and homosexuality.
So we have God striking out against us on one side for racism, the other for gays and abortion. Looks like just about a mirror image to me. Everyone wants to punish the other guy, the one who is screwing everything up. And God conveniently is the one doing all the punishing, not the human who is angry. God, the cosmic bellboy warrior.
I don’t think Palin should be held to what her pastor said any more than Obama should be. What matters is what they themselves think and what they are actually going to do. Obama is not going to institute a black liberation government, any more than Palin is going to jail homosexuals.
What we need is a policy debate, and I have never seen a Presidential campaign so far removed from that. Obama is MIA since the GOP pick of Palin, and the McCain campaign is riding the fever of Palin’s attack dog attitude. No need to let facts and policy get in the way of that.
The one meager thing Obama did complain about, his view that Palin was being hypocritical regarding earmarks, doesn’t really hold water. They both have supported them in the past, and they can both legitimately be in favor of reducing them as President.
The real question is, which earmarks are you going to cut, and how are you going to do it? When either one of them starts talking about that, it will be worth listening.
Michael Haley is president of the Napa Valley Taxpayers Alliance. He can be reached at napaeagle@hughes.net. Check out his DailyNapablogger blog also on this Web site.
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kevin wrote on Sep 8, 2008 9:02 AM:
Where did you find information about Palin's church? All I can find are blog entries and the four I looked at had four DIFFERENT churches and different pastors! What is the pastor's name? How long has she attended that church? 20 years like B.O.? Did that particular pastor marry Sarah? Did he teach religion to her children? Was he also a family friend and confidant? "
a teacher wrote on Sep 8, 2008 12:17 PM:
-Iraq either stay and pay or leave and let the chips fall where they may.
-The deficit/government spending: either cut services or raise taxes.
-energy policy: either cripple the environment with fossil fuels and pray for an aleternative sometime in the future or cut back, conserve and work on unproven "alternatives".
None of the solutions to our problems is simple or easy. It's like the Col. in "A Few Good Men": "You want the truth? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH". "
napablogger wrote on Sep 8, 2008 2:23 PM:
Btw, what road am I going down? Expecting the truth from both sides? Sorry I am not an idealogue.
Here's some relevant quotes from the sermon:
On July 20, 2008, the pastor of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's home church, Larry Kroon, delivered a sermon called "Sin Is Personal To God." Kroon, the senior pastor of the non-denominational Wasilla Bible Church in Wasilla, Alaska, used the book of Zephanaiah as his reference point for discussing "that great day of the Lord when God will finally bring closure to human history... a day of wrath." According to Kroon, "all things and all people" are going to bear the brunt of God's "intense anger." "There's anger with God," he proclaimed. "He takes sin personal."
Kroon placed Zephaniah in a modern context, warning that the sinful habits of Americans would invite the wrath of God. "And if Zephaniah were here today," Kroon bellowed, "he'd be saying, 'Listen, [God] is gonna deal with all the inhabitants of the earth. He is gonna strike out His hand against, yes, Wasilla; and Alaska; and the United States of America. There's no exceptions here -- there's none. It's all.'" "
napablogger wrote on Sep 8, 2008 2:29 PM:
I am still in the middle about who to vote for, but I am in no hurry to make up my mind. That is why we have a campaign.
But I have been horrified to see how much lying the Republicans have done about Obama. They are implying that he is a terrorist because he was on a school board with Bill Ayers. I get emails telling me he is a black Muslim marxist, completely disproven.
Now the Democrats are cranking that up because they feel that they have to fight fire with fire, and have started on Palin, today I got an email with the whole Palin tried to ban books thing. Already discredited, but the whole campaign appears that it is going to consist of all these inflammatory emotional charges and counter charges.
Its too bad.
As time moves forward here I am going to try to clarify the issues in my columns and stick to actual issues. "
a teacher wrote on Sep 8, 2008 3:05 PM:
Campaigns go negative because it works. What does that say about us Americans? "
a teacher wrote on Sep 8, 2008 3:07 PM:
What is the purpose of Government?
Are we a collections of individuals or is this group effort?
I would like to see either of the candidates answer those tow questions. "
kevin wrote on Sep 9, 2008 2:12 PM:
If your the best B.O. has on his side, he's toast... "
Sandra wrote on Sep 11, 2008 9:33 AM:
a teacher wrote on Sep 11, 2008 12:25 PM:
"A McCain-Palin ad has FactCheck.org calling Obama's attacks on Palin "absolutely false" and "misleading." That's what we said, but it wasn't about Obama.
Our article criticized anonymous e-mail falsehoods and bogus claims about Palin posted around the Internet. We have no evidence that any of the claims we found to be false came from the Obama campaign.
The McCain-Palin ad also twists a quote from a Wall Street Journal columnist. He said the Obama camp had sent a team to Alaska to "dig into her record and background." The ad quotes the WSJ as saying the team was sent to "dig dirt."
Update, Sept. 10: Furthermore, the Obama campaign insists that no researchers have been sent to Alaska and that the Journal owes them a correction."
It seems that all you want to do is repeat the RNC's talking points. You are lying by ommission, you point out that SOME of what is being said about Gov. Palin is not true, but you have left out the caveats that they include in their analysis. AND you keep leaving out the other important FACT: The Obama Campaign has NOTHING at all to do with this.
It's a shameful tactic. "
Sandra wrote on Sep 13, 2008 4:00 PM:
Hit the Brakes
FactChecking Obama
Taking Liberties in Philadelphia
Reed Reality
Distorting McCain's Remarks
Now I believe I said both sides do it, so how is that repeating RNC talking points? "
a teacher wrote on Sep 13, 2008 5:58 PM:
I thought that ALL politicians (except McCain, of course) run honest, straight forward campaigns that only address the issues that concern Americans.
I thank Heaven for factcheck.org. Otherwise I might never have guessed the truth about Obama. "
glenroy wrote on Sep 15, 2008 11:57 PM:
Palin’s pastor is clearly preaching the ultimate consequences of sin upon his flock based on biblical text of a historical event…that’s what he’s paid to do…he never mentions or encourages damming anything, let alone American, innocents, whitey etc…never implies man‘s right to slaughter fellow man and certainly doesn‘t glorify terrorism.
Night and day difference between the message and the messenger…. "
Bill wrote on Sep 16, 2008 11:10 AM:
Where are the issues in the head lines to day? "It's the economy Stupid." It's who runs the treasury and who runs the Federal reserve that matters not whether sexy mama wears pants suits and eats Polar bears. "
Ruff Limblog wrote on Sep 17, 2008 8:16 AM:
NB, you have a point !
The country is on the brink of a major election, and the voters will decide between two very different directions for the country.
I hope it's a landslide in whatever direction, and that the winners do put the welfare of the American people first.
I'm as partisan as anybody can be, but I both love and served my country... and I want 'America the Beautiful' to prosper.
~Ruff "
ADark1 wrote on Sep 18, 2008 3:58 AM:
After 5 years of litigation, former POW's from IRAQ WON the right to sue Iraq for torture etc.....President Bush vetoed it / Blocked it...chew on that along with the fact that NOW, Troopergate doesn't seem to be going anywhere and it seems they are hiding a few things.
Cain is bashing Obama for a 9 million dollar fundraiser in Hollyweird, even though Cain had a 5 million dollar fund raiser a few days earlier in Miami...
Talk about *Haters*! LOL!
Oh yea Obama has taken away Cain's lead even in the hotly contested states...Its getting better and better.. "