<p>If he wants to win he needs me, and so far he ain’t gettin’ me. :)</p>
<p>Ilsa, Obama could never get your vote. (And no, I don’t think it has anything to do with race.) And he can win without you. The three articles you posted were two screeds about his opting out of the campaign finance money, and one example of extreme nit-pickery from Factcheck over the sentence in his ad that said: “That’s why I passed laws moving people from welfare to work, cut taxes for working families and extended health care for wounded troops who’d been neglected” FactCheck was worried that that might lead people to think he passed those laws all by himself. Is anyone really that stupid? Is there anyone who doesn’t know that laws are voted on? And he didn’t specify which laws they were, in which jurisdiction! Shame! I think to satisfy FactCheck you’d need to have your radio ads read by those guys who read off the “legal disclaimer” in car finance ads so fast you can’t understand them, to get all of the pointless detail carefully added in. What the article does confirm is that all of the factual assertions in the ad are essentially true.<br>
I don’t think anyone is in danger of misunderstanding what Obama’s role was in those bits of legislation - unless they really, really want to misunderstand.
It’s a bogus “issue.” But you took the time to read the article thoroughly and critically, so you knew that, right? ;)</p>
<p>You know, I’ve applied for need-based financial aid for both of my kids, but if I won the California lottery I’d probably withdraw my application for the coming year. I’d figure that circumstances had changed and I didn’t need the money after all. That wouldn’t be a flip-flop; it would just be my good luck to have come into a lot of cash from a different source. </p>
<p>I don’t think Obama could have anticipated the extent of his ability to raise funds from small donors over the internet, because it hadn’t been done before and it depends wholly on him maintaining a huge advantage in popularity. So he could have hoped to raise all that money, but there is no way he could have counted on it. </p>
<p>Public financing is a carrot-and-stick thing: it’s $84 million in free money contingent on a promise not to spend any more than that. It works because, in theory, its so darn hard to come up with $84 million on your own. </p>
<p>It would be stupid of Obama to make a decision without looking at financial implications – the same level of stupidity that Bush has demonstrated by sticking to tax cuts after getting the country bogged down in a war costing trillions of dollars, and after running up the largest deficits in history. Cutting taxes might have been a good idea when we had a surplus and times were good – and the same level of stupidity that McCain now demonstrates by embracing the Bush tax cuts that he earlier opposed. (Talk about flip-flopping for political reasons?:
</p>
<p>Ilsa, you’re fine with McCain. Together, we could pick McCain and Obama apart until there was nothing left but bones–but the fact is, either one would be infinitely better and more honorable than what’s currently occupying the White House. I happen to think Obama is what the country needs right now … you disagree. It’s what makes America great. And no, I don’t for a minute think your feelings have one iota to do with race.</p>
<p>Please stop telling me whether or not BHO could get my vote. There was a time when he could. It’s gone. It is for a lot of people.</p>
<p>“…but you knew that, right?” No, kluge, I never really know what I know until you tell me.</p>
<p>I’m trying to get a link to BHO’s “trailseal” but it won’t work. If you haven’t seen it yet, it is ridiculous. Does it tell us something about him I wonder?</p>
<p>No, Hindoo, I am really NOT “fine” with McCain. That’s why I’m a little annoyed. I think people are beginning to realize they didn’t “vet” BHO enough. He has many flaws. He may not be all he appeared to be. Yeah, I’m kind of ticked. We could have done better all around. It’s pathetic.</p>
<p>Here is Obama’s “seal”:</p>
<p>[The</a> Great Seal of Obamaland? - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog](<a href=“http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/the-great-seal-of-obamaland/]The”>The Great Seal of Obamaland? - The New York Times)</p>
<p>They’re all flawed, ilsa. Maybe I’m more fine with McCain than you are. You can dissect any candidate, stick him/her under a microscope, and find things you’d rather not know about. Sad, but true. It’s time we start putting aside their personal lives, their ex-wives, our impressions of them as “arrogant,” or whatever, and figure out who represents our own beliefs the best. For me, that’s Obama. For you, it might be someone else. Neither Obama nor McCain is a saint and neither is the antichrist. They’re just human.</p>
<p>Well I AM fine w/ Mccain. I’m glad he’s running. I give him a lot of credit for dusting himself off & jumping back into the race after the despicable way he was treated in 2000. (Please no comments about how “dusty” he is! haha!).</p>
<p>We haven’t had a candidate with his experience & knowledge for as long as I can remember. I know he’ll do a good job. He’s been groomed for leadership since he took an oath on his first day at the Naval Academy at age 17.</p>
<p>And he was given plenty of opportunity to demonstrate his honor, integrity, courage & leadership as a POW. He withstood the challenges of that situation - he’d be a GREAT President - someone we can really look up to - because he DESERVES it.</p>
<p>The hard-line conservatives have issues w/ him b/c he is willing to work w/ dems in order to actually accomplish things. That’s precisely why he’d be the best president we could hope for.</p>
<p>I just hope everyone comes to realize how special McCain really is and what an opportunity we have here. Obama can run again some other time if he wants - but McCain is the one we need RIGHT NOW w/ the world in the situation it is. This will be our last chance to elect a truly great man w/ a LIFETIME of service to our country!</p>
<p>McCain will be a GREAT president - he could rival Teddy Roosevelt (McCain’s hero, BTW). We need to get McCain elected!</p>
<p>Hindoo - forgive me if you’ve expressed this before, but I don’t recall you actually being specific about how Obama “represents your beliefs”. I know we “cyber-discussed” this last night, but did you mention what issues you favor Obama on?</p>
<p>Is it really his platform - or is it the “idea” of Obama?? (Something “new” & “different”?).</p>
<p>Fair question, bz. It’s a combination of things. For one, I’m fairly liberal–and Obama has been described–justly or not–as the MOST liberal guy in the Senate. I was opposed to going into Iraq from Day One, and I disagree with McCain’s belief that now that we’re there we need to finish the job and “win”–which I don’t think is possible from a traditional military standpoint. Also, as much as I admire McCain’s occasional maverick tendencies, his wonderful sense of humor, and his tolerate-no-fools temperament, I fear that he would continue along the Bush track of installing ever-more-conservative Supreme Court justices. I firmly believe we need balance–not a court skewed heavily to the right or the left. … Your final question is a good one. While Obama’s platform is important to me, the “idea” of him is also attractive. He’s young(ish), articulate, intelligent, dynamic, just plain exciting as far as I’m concerned–in addition to embracing some of my important “issues.” … If McCain ends up winning, I’ll be at peace with it. He’s a good man, though I disagree with him strongly on certain things. He will be my president, too–unlike Bush, who I loath with the heat of a thousand suns</p>
<p>If B.O. does win, I “hope” he leaves me with some " change" left in my pocket after all the spending he plans to do!</p>
<p>I feel your anguish–and your concern–TerpDad. But if McCain wins, will any of us have 2 cents to rub together with the eternal war in Iraq, which is helping to bankrupt our country to the tune of … how many billions a month? … The thing that scares me most these days are the gas prices … which inevitably lead to higher food prices and everything else. Ahhhh! I paid $3.81 a gallon to fill up my Subaru Forester yesterday–$40 bucks! … Yes, TerpDad–I know I’ll get no sympathy from you, since California is totally s**** in terms of gas prices. By the way, I love So. Cal. Grew up just north of Pomona. (I’m in Kentucky now.)</p>
<p>^^^$3.81 a gallon!!! That’s a deal. It’s $4.75 here.</p>
<p>Heh, heh. It pays to live in the backwoods!</p>
<p>I understand it’s even higher in the Chicago area. Why is there such a huge price range for gasoline? It seems it should be the same price, more or less, anywhere. But then, I’ve been in Kentucky for a number of years now. Maybe I just don’t know better.</p>
<p>As a nation, if there’s anything we asked for, it’s these gas prices. How can anyone be surprised? I asked a friend of mine years ago after she bought a big old gas guzzler if she was concerned about the gas mileage and she said it didn’t matter because this was America and she could afford it and she “liked to sit up high.” We may all be in wonder about gas prices now, but we should have been “sitting up high” enough to see it coming.</p>
<p>Well, part of the price comes from how much the service station owner has to pay for the property on which his pumps sit and how much he is paying in local taxes. What you see at the pump is the wholesale price + overhead.</p>
<p>I just paid $4.59/gal, $52.00 to fill up. I have some friends who own a restaurant. People have started to cut back on going out to eat. The gas prices are starting to filter down to the small businesses. They’re forced to raise prices to cover the increase in food prices as well as shipping costs on to their customers. It is resulting in less customers. Even their regular customers who came for dinner more than twice are just staying home. This downward pressure on the economy has to stabilize to give the small businesses a chance . Oil is the elephant in the room that has to be dealt with. Alternative energy is nice but will take time to make an impact on our daily lives. We can have both increase in drilling and increase in alternative energy sources.</p>
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<p>That’s what breaks my heart. … I saw my first “Smart Car” today, parked in front of a local pharmacy. It had a “Yes We Can!” bumper sticker on it! Heh-heh. Sorry, for those of you who don’t worship at the Obama shrine like I do. </p>
<p>cartera–I seem to agree with you on everything. … Fortunately, I never bought into the sitting-up-high, gas-guzzler line of thinking. My family has always driven smaller, relatively fuel efficient cars, though I wish my '98 Subaru Forester got a few more miles to the gallon.</p>
<p>Terp Dad - we have had that time and took no advantage of it. Nobody liked the image of Jimmy Carter wearing a sweater and it became a joke, but no one’s laughing now. The image we should have been very afraid of was that of the name of “Condoleeza Rice” written on the side of that Chevron oil tanker.</p>
<p>There’s already talk of electricity prices doubling. I feel sorry for anyone back east whether it be the horrible humidity or freezing temps in the winter. It’s about to get even uglier. The call for more drilling is going to get even louder and the candidate who supports it first will win in November just when that first heating bill comes in!</p>