Larisa Thomason, aka “Countrycat” at Left in Alabama, wrote what was judged to be the best column in support of Barack Obama in a Huntsville Times competition.  It was published in today’s paper.  Her column, which I have not been able to find online yet, was well written and void of the adolescent hyperbole and general inanity that permeates Left in Alabama.  Not surprising as she tends to be one of the few reasonable individuals there.

Thomason’s piece struck quite a contrast with the accompanying pro-McCain piece.  The pro-McCain piece was actually more of an anti-Obama column, while Thomason’s was generally pro-Obama.  I think it highlights the dissatisfaction rank and file conservatives have with the Republican nominee.  There just aren’t that many positive things to say about him.  Sure, I agree there are plenty of reasons to oppose Sen. Obama (although I think there are far fewer than most of my conservative brethren), but until conservatives find a credible candidate who can articulate why conservative philosophy is superior its going to be hard to get excited and root for your own candidate.  (Just for fun I’d like to see commenters try to advocate for McCain without mentioning or even alluding to Obama.)

I must take issue with two items in Thomason’s article, though.  She trotted out the “95% of American families will get a tax cut” nonsense.  I’ve been over this before.  You cannot “cut” taxes for people who don’t pay taxes.  Obama is proposing a give away, an expansion of using the tax code not only as a means of wealth confiscation, but as a vehicle for outright wealth redistribution.  He will push the percentage of taxpayers who either pay nothing or actually get paid themselves over 40%.  To claim he is “cutting” taxes on 95% of families is pure rubbish.

Thomason chides McCain’s tax plan saying that “his plan gives the top 0.1% an extra $22,000 per month.”  I’ll ignore the class envy aspect of that statement and focus on the word “gives.”  It illustrates an all too common belief among liberals.  The way taxes actually work is that individuals earn money through profitable ventures, which may include selling your labor.  The government then takes a portion of your earnings.  If the government decides to take less they haven’t “given” you anything - they have merely taken less.  Barack Obama is the candidate who intends to “give” - from the achievers to the non-achievers.

I’m sure you’ve seen some form of this analogy.  Let’s say you are a school age child.  Every day on the bus ride to school a bully threatens you and takes your lunch money, all $5.  One day the bully happens to be in an uncharacteristically nice mood and he only takes $3.  In a liberal’s mind the bully has just given you $2.  In your mind he has still taken $3.

Just the same, despite our considerable political differences, congrats to Larisa for performing her craft well and contributing to the political discourse in a positive manner.

The red letter links at the top of the Drudge Report right now highlight an end game attack on Obama based on some comments he made about the coal industry earlier this year.  Obama said, “… we would put a cap and trade policy… So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”  The McCain campaign is using the comments, which are available on an audio recording, against Obama in coal country by saying Obama wants to bankrupt the coal industry.

It’s a smart political move, although I think it is quite disingenuous.  McCain, much to the chagrin of conservatives, has himself been an ardent supporter of a complicated, costly cap and trade system that is similar to Obama’s.  So basically McCain is attacking Obama for explicitly stating what a plan both of them support would do.  And to think this is the best guy that the Republicans could find.

Joe Perry of Aerosmith endorsed John McCain. He’s Livin’ on the Edge:

“I’ve been a hardcore Republican my whole life,” he told the Herald. “My mother and father drilled into me from the very start that if you work hard and be positive, you’ll get what you’re working for. I guess I’m living proof of that.”

BTW, Aerosmith is Back in the Saddle, but it’s not the Same Old Song and Dance:  Guitar Hero Aerosmith is expected to be one of the top-selling games this Christmas (the Guitar Hero franchise has sold more than $1.3 billion since 2005).

Joe Perry on Guitar Hero Aerosmith:

“We’ve put a lot of ideas into the game so that fans can have fun interacting with our music, getting inside our body of work and learning about the band’s history,” said Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. “It’s great for rock since the record companies are struggling to make sense of how things are changing. Fans want to get and experience music in new formats—and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands. It’s what’s happening now, and it’s only going to build more momentum in the future. It’s a massive change for the music business.”

Plus, Joe Perry makes ‘Rock Your World’ Hot Sauce.

Sarah Palin’s campaign slogan in her 2006 Governor’s race was “New Energy for Alaska” and she has certainly brought New Energy to the GOP. 

I like ‘retail politics’: the door-to-door, talking to people, and especially BBQ kind of politics.  I volunteer at GOP Headquarters (Whitesburg and Airport by Publix); I also volunteered during the 2006 and 2004 election cycles at Parkway Place Mall (talk about retail politics). Compared to my prior experience, I can report that more people are coming in now asking for signs and bumper stickers than I’ve ever seen. Note to the Madison County GOP - you’re going to need more signs…

And these people are energized!  People came in wanting to give money, volunteer their time, get signs and stickers, and just talk about how much McCain and Palin mean to them.  Did you know that John McCain smells nice?  I didn’t either until today…

Somewhat surprisingly, the energy is not just for Palin. She was the spark, but people have been reminded of just who John McCain is, and they remember that they like him - and that they have enormous respect for his service and for his character.

Not so surprisingly, the women I met love Sarah Palin and they appreciate McCain for choosing her for his Vice President.  They appreciate men for their whole-hearted support of Palin; this pleasantly surprised some women I spoke to, I think that they weren’t expecting such a warm response…  Hmm. Smart, well-spoken, attractive, and she hunts and fishes…

Caroline Glick wrote The Master Strategist describing McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin in strategic terms.  Glick is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy and a former Captain in the IDF.  Here’s the lead-in to her analysis:

Both the challenges of war and the challenges of politics are challenges of leadership. And both military strategists and political strategists agree that the most basic leadership challenge in both arenas is to know and understand yourself - your strengths and your weaknesses - and to know your opponents and their strengths and weaknesses. While this may seem like basic common sense, it is quite amazing to see how often it is ignored.

The rarity of this sort of strategic wisdom in the public sphere was brought to a fore this week in the political uproar generated in by Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain’s selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running-mate. McCain’s selection of Palin was remarkable because in selecting her from a list of possible choices, he made a decision that embraced rather than ignored this most basic challenge of leadership.

OMG!

I watched John McCain’s speech, and whoever said that he wasn’t comfortable making speeches should’ve watched it too.

Rousing.  The speech was absolutely powerful.  McCain started well, got into some policy and comparisons, took on both parties for corruption and ineffectiveness, then gave the most rousing finish to a speech I’ve seen since Reagan.

Too bad some Code Pinkholes tried to disrupt the speech.

McCain owns the ‘Maverick’ label.  He noted some policy areas where Republican positions are clear winners:

“My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance. His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor.” I’ll add the details: McCain wants to make health insurance portable - make it like life insurance or car insurance where an individual chooses the best plan from competing companies, rather than the current system of having health insurance provided by employers, or worse - the Democrat plan for universal single Government payer Socialist health care.

“Education is the civil rights issue of this century”; “Senator Obama wants our schools to answer to unions and entrenched bureaucracies. I want schools to answer to parents and students. And when I’m President, they will.” This is an area where Democrats fail their black constituency - ask a black parent about “No Child Left Behind” transfers out of failing schools and chances are you’ll get a positive response - however, crediting George Bush might be going too far…

Cut taxes… Drill for more oil, nuclear power, all of the above…  Victory in Iraq, Russian invasion of Georgia… Me and everyone getting weepy for McCain’s POW story, then BAM!

Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

BTW, the FoxNews camera settled twice on local delegate Dr. Dean Brandon, who was featured in the Huntsville Times a few days ago. Dr. Brandon (and his partners) run the best pediatric dentistry office in town. He’s a super guy IRL.

Reactionary beat me to the punch with a post on John McCain’s pick for VP: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.  Last night I contemplated writing a post speculating about who I thought McCain would pick and who I wished he would pick.  Palin was at the top of my wish list, but I presumed he would go with Romney or Pawlenty.  Both would have been relatively safe, although uninspiring choices.  I also feared he might go with Lieberman under the assumption that conservatives would pick him over Obama regardless and he might pull over enough Dems to win.  Ends justify the means logic.  Basically I assumed Palin had no chance.

When I walked past the TV today at work and saw the announcement I was ecstatic.  It was an absolutely brilliant choice and Palin delivered big time with her speech.  Certainly much hype will be made over her being the first GOP female VP ballot and first female VP from either party with a legitimate shot at winning (I’m sorry, but Ferraro’s 13 electoral vote tally is quite poor).  And rightfully so.  But Palin is a strong choice not because of her gender, but because of who she is, what she stands for, and what she has done.  Lifetime NRA member.  Stood up to corruption in her own party in Alaska.  Opposed the “Bridge to Nowhere” - the most glaring symbol of earmarking run amok.  Mother of five, including a son about to deploy to Iraq.  Eats mooseburger.  Did I mention that she is quite fetching as well?

For the first time I became excited about voting for McCain - and I don’t often get excited about voting for anyone.  Up until that point I was simply comfortable with the idea of voting for McCain.  I called my wife later in the day and she asked if I had heard the news.  She proceeded to tell me that she watched Palin’s speech and liked her so much that was herself excited to vote for McCain.  That means something because my wife was even less enthusiastic about McCain than I was.  I wonder how many other women also got (or will become) excited about voting for McCain because of Palin.

I’ve really enjoyed watching the left, including MSNBC, fumble about trying to tear down Palin.  There are two talking points: she is inexperienced (that is incredibly rich) and she is under investigation by Alaska Democrats.

The experience argument is laughable.  First of all Palin is not at the top of the ticket.  It takes some kind of nerve for a party who put Barack Obama at the top of their ticket to offer any criticism of the experience of the opposing party’s VP choice.  What is really amusing is that Palin still has more executive experience than the entire Democrat ticket.

The “scandal” is such a yawner that I can scarcely believe the Dems are making a fuss over it.  Basically the story is that individuals in Palin’s administration pressured the public safety commissioner to fire a state trooper who happened to be Palin’s former brother in law.  The commissioner didn’t, so he was fired along with the state trooper.  An investigation of the trooper revealed that he used a Taser on his stepson, illegally shot a moose, and drank beer in his patrol car.  He also allegedly made threats against Palin’s family.  So this is the Democrat’s poster child for Palin’s lack of ethics.  How quaint.  By the way, Palin ordered the investigation into the dismissals herself and has cooperated fully.  It is quite ironic to see the party whose presidential nominee is friendly with a terrorist try to make hay out of the other party’s VP candidate possibly “abusing her position” by firing a law breaking officer who drank beer in his patrol car.

Long story short, choosing Palin as his running mate was a fantastic decision by John McCain.  VP choices don’t usually mean that much.  When Obama announced Biden as his second fiddle his supporters dolefully talked about his foreign policy credentials.  But McCain has brought excitement to his campaign with his choice.  This decision might just get him into the Oval Office.

WOW!

I just watched Sarah Palin’s speech - she is an absolutely wonderful choice for Vice President. She is right on issues, she is a great speecher, and she exudes confidence.  She also has more executive experience in her own right than does Obama…

I’ll observe that Palin used a phrase to describe her will to serve: “A Servant’s Heart”.  Our own Wayne Parker refers to the same phrase in his speeches.  The phrase is from Matthew 23:11-12.

The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Compare that to the ‘Exalted One’…

UPDATE: Thanks for the link C-SPAN. Note that I combined the words “speech” and “speaker” to coin the word “speecher”; it’s supposed to be humor…

According to Rasmussen Reports John McCain has a commanding 55% to 37% lead over Barack Obama in Alabama.  Biggest stat from the poll: 61% of voters view McCain favorably, while 57% view Obama unfavorably.

In the Senate race Jeff Sessions is crushing Vivian Figures 58% to 31%.  Sessions has a 64% favorable rating.  A whopping 65% of respondants said, “Who the hell is Vivian Figures?”  OK, I made that last one up, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was pretty close.

The following post reminded me of this clip from Blazing Saddles:

Great movie.

From the New York Times:

We know that operatives in modern-day presidential campaigns are supposed to say things that everyone knows are ridiculous - and to do it with a straight face.

Still, there was something surreal, and offensive, about today’s soundbite from the campaign of Senator John McCain.

The presumptive Republican nominee has embarked on a bare-knuckled barrage of negative advertising aimed at belittling Mr. Obama. The most recent ad compares the presumptive Democratic nominee for president to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton - suggesting to voters that he’s nothing more than a bubble-headed, publicity-seeking celebrity.

The ad gave us an uneasy feeling that the McCain campaign was starting up the same sort of racially tinged attack on Mr. Obama that Republican operatives, some of whom work for Mr. McCain now, ran against Harold Ford, a black candidate for Senate in Tennessee in 2006. That assault, too, began with videos juxtaposing Mr. Ford with young, white women.

I’ve dealt with the ridiculous dust up over the Harold Ford ad before.  This preemptive shout of racism is a bit curious, though.  The Times is staking out the claim that including young, white women in an ad with a black man, in this case Barack Obama (a half black man who identifies as black), is racist.  This is despite the claims that Obama has strong support from young, white people (presumably including women).

What I would like to see the McCain campaign do (and they will not do it) is to produce an Obama ad showing nothing but black people with Obama.  Oh, just imagine the shouts of racism then.  The Times would most certainly denounce the ad by stating that the evil Republicans are trying to trick voters into thinking that Obama is going to favor blacks or create an all black government.  It would just be fun to expose each and every tactic that the erudite liberals beliefe is racist.  I bet in the end you would find that any ad beyond a blank screen would be deemed racist.  Of course, aren’t blank TV screens black…

So you can’t put young, white females in ads with Obama - it would be racist.  I’m quite sure that you couldn’t put blacks in an ad with Obama - it would be racist.  Japanese folks can’t put a monkey in a spoof political ad for a cell phone - it would be racist.

Geez, the list of things you can’t do or say when it comes to the Holy One is getting longer by the minute.