Odds And Ends

The right-wing seems to be grasping at straws in trying to find something to attack the White House on. They are now trying to accuse Joe Biden of being racist because he talked of Americans being re-chained (which made perfect sense in the context he used it -- regarding Wall Street being deregulated by the GOP). And Senator John McCain decided he would pile on by saying the president should replace Biden as his running mate.

But the White House had the perfect comeback for that suggestion. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said:

I have great admiration for and respect for and a long relationship with John McCain but one place I would not go for advice on vice presidential running mates is to Senator McCain.

Considering the pick McCain made when he ran for president, I don't think he should ever be paid any attention when vice-presidential choices are discussed. Picking Sarah Palin was the biggest blunder any candidate has made.

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I am simply amazed by the ease and frequency with which Republican presidential candidate Willard Mitt Romney lies. It's like he expects everyone to forget what he said yesterday so he can sound good today (with truth not even being an after-thought for him).

On Wednesday, in response to Biden's statement about the Republicans wanting to de-regulate Wall Street, he said that "no one is talking about deregulating Wall Street". The problem with that statement is that Romney himself has repeated called for repeal of Dodd-Frank (the financial reform law passed in 2010 which put some weak regulations on Wall Street actions).

Repealing Dodd-Frank is without a doubt de-regulating Wall Street, so he has indeed been talking about de-regulating Wall Street. It's just another Romney lie -- one in a long list of lies.

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The trial of the Fort Hood shooter has been put on hold by a higher court. Why? So the court can determine if the Ft. Hood trial judge can force the defendant to shave off the beard he has grown "for religious reasons". This defendant murdered U.S. soldiers on a U.S. Army base and probably faces execution for that -- and the trial judge is worried about a beard? How stupid can you get?

Compared to the issues this military court should be addressing, the stupid beard is of no importance at all. Let him keep it, and get on with the trial.

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The Republicans are still fighting to protect the rich from having to give up the tax cuts given to them by the Bush administration. They have threatened to go so far as to deny tax cuts for ordinary Americans (the ones who really need tax cuts). What kind of money are we talking about for the rich. Well, at least 57 of the top 100 CEOs in this country are getting over a $1 million a year thanks to the Bush tax cuts (and creating no jobs). The chart below shows what the top five made in income and get thanks to the Bush tax cuts. It's ridiculous.

Bill Clinton Vs. The NFL

The Democrats have done a little shuffling of their convention speakers. Normally, the vice-presidential candidate will speak on the next-to-last night of the convention, while the presidential candidate speaks on the last night. This traditional arrangement gives the vice-presidential candidate one of his few moments in the sun (the only other one being the vice-presidential debate). But this year, both the vice-president and the president will address the Democrats on the last night of their convention.

Now this was not done to slight Mr. Biden in any way. In fact, he wholeheartedly agreed with the decision. Why? because the next-to-last night of the convention will have to compete with the opening of the NFL season -- and even worse, the featured game has the Dallas Cowboys facing the New York Giants (two very popular teams with huge fan bases). Mr. Biden, not known as a great orator to begin with, would have basically been speaking to no one outside the convention hall.

So what were the Democrats to do on that next-to-last day of the convention? They couldn't just call the whole thing off because a football game was being played. They needed a "heavy-hitter" so to speak -- someone who was well liked enough to get at least some viewers to tune in the convention. And the person they got to deliver the big speech for that night was Bill Clinton.

Now this is not a bad choice. A recent Gallup Poll shows that more than two-thirds of the population has a very favorable view of Mr. Clinton (about 66%). His popularity has been growing recently, and that 66% ties his highest rating ever received (which was shortly after he took office in 1993). And Clinton is a very good speaker. This was probably the best the Democrats could have done.

Will it work? Probably not. Political conventions are not huge ratings winners in the best of conditions, and I doubt the convention viewership will be anywhere close to that of the NFL football game. I'm a political junkie who loves to watch the conventions (especially the Democrats), but I have to admit that my TV will be tuned to the NFL game like most of the rest of the American viewing public. I like Bill Clinton (and on a different night I would love to hear him speak), but it's the Cowboys versus the Giants!

Palin Ignored The Questions

Conservatives all over America have been holding their breath and biting their fingernails, worrying about the Biden-Palin debate. Palin had proven in the last couple of weeks that she's just not very good at thinking on her feet and answering the hard questions. If she couldn't answer questions in an interview, how on earth was she going to survive a debate?

Well, the McCain campaign had an answer. They told her to ignore the questions asked and just keep hammering on memorized campaign themes. That way she wouldn't have to do any actual thinking to come up with reasonable answers. And that's what she did.

That wasn''t a real debate last night. A real debate has two people debating, and last night there was only one -- Joe Biden. Sarah Palin didn't even bother to make an attempt at answering most of the questions she was asked (and sadly, the moderator didn't try to make her stay on topic). If Palin didn't like a question (or more probably didn't know the answer), she simply changed the topic and gave one of her little memorized speeches.

It was a pretty pathetic attempt at debating, but after her interview gaffes it was probably the best the McCain campaign and Republicans could hope for.

Obama Chooses Biden

Well, the wait is over to see who Obama would choose as his running mate. He has chosen the senator from Delaware -- Joe Biden. He may not have been the person I would have chosen, but then the choice was Obama's to make and no one else's. Now he has chosen, and it's time to get behind the ticket and see if we can't get them elected in November.

At the very least, Biden is very intelligent and he's a fighter. His personality won't let him take attacks without fighting back. This is a good thing, and if Obama is smart he won't try to curb that. Turn Biden loose and let the senate pit bull go after the Republican candidates.

McCain has shown a propensity for gutter politics in this election, and Biden is a good choice to take him to task over his dirty tactics. He's already started well by accusing McCain of having given "into the right wing of his party and yielded to the very Swift Boat politics he once so deplored."

The Democrats now have a ticket, and it's a good one. Let's get them elected.