Last words on the election

The voting is about half-over and I'd like to get some things out before the results are in.

I still think we are in for a landslide for Obama.

Months ago I suggested McCain agree to run only for one term. Today I heard Paul Begala say that if McCain had done that, the outcome might be different. Remember where you heard that first!

Palin - while I was happy with the choice on some levels, she has not helped. She only kept some folks in the GOP camp who were unhappy with McCain. I don't think she brought new people in. She just gave the existing "choir" something new to sing about. If Hillary was the opponent, then Palin would have helped more. Against Obama, she has not helped and this may be more the fault of the party people who told McCain how to run his campaign. I think when this is all over, people will say Palin cost McCain a chance but I think those who managed her will be more at fault than her own lack of experience and verbal stumbles along the way.

I hope that before we do this again, things change with the way we elect our President. If the founding fathers had known about negative ads, attack ads, direct mail, robo-calling (add your own favorite to this list), they'd have written things differently. It may have come from a Jim Carrey movie but I'd like a balloon to follow every candidate around and when they stray from the truth, it lights up and says "Liar, liar!" Same for the media - if they twist a position to make a point about their favorite, the same balloon should light up.

People criticize Obama for using so much money (I heard $700 million) to run. McCain on the other hand took a bunch of our money using Federal matching dollars or however that system works. I think the funding issue needs to be looked at again. I don't see why we should pay in one way or another for somebody to run for office. But I also don't think one single euro or piaster or drachma should be allowed to make into the coffers of any candidate. I think some of the campaign finance laws are stupid. But there should be plenty of ways to prohibit foreign money from getting into the mix. If we can track bad meat all the way back to a farm in some state through tagging etc. to keep our food supply safe, surely we can track money coming in to a political campaign. Plus I think $700 million is obscene.

Regardless of the final outcome, I'll be glad when it is over.

Once more with feeling

Nothing new but a re-stating of an old idea.

I heard two people arguing back and forth about Obama and Clinton this a.m. on NPR and one thing they both said stood out: Either one of them represents a major change from the Bush 43 administration. So with that in mind I repeat some earlier advice and ideas for Sen. McCain:

1 - Lay low until the convention.
2 - Raise tons of money and horde it for the fall campaign.
3 - At the convention make the best speech of your life which will include:
a) a promise to not run again - to only serve one term no matter what and
b) announce that your choice for Veep is a woman, Hispanic or African-American. If you can find someone who gets two out of those three then all the better.
4 - Don't feel it is being disloyal to distance yourself from Bush. Make your case on Iraq and stick with it. At the end of the day, sticking with your own idea, opinion - even if not one shared by everybody, is better than doing a John Kerry ( I voted for the war but I was really against it so then I voted against it because I really was ...) I think people still respect strong opinions if you stick by your guns rather than flip-flopping all over the place.

If McCain had a Karl Rove-type person I'd send this to him/her but since I don't know that contact this will have to do.

I can almost guarantee if he manages to do #3, he wins in November.

If not, then it's going to be a close race or maybe not even close at all.

My thoughts on the GOP side of things.