How the Democrats Almost Blew It

McCain's selection of Governor Palin was a calculated move to deflect attention from the Democratic convention and Senator Obama's soaring acceptance speech. The Democrats, as did many others, reacted with astonishment to McCain's preposterous selection of a vice president. That reaction was what the McCain campaign and other Republicans were counting on. Because the Republican comeback, which was well-prepared and well rehearsed, was that Governor Palin has more experience and credentials to be president than Senator Obama. As Democrats ranted and raved about this ludicrous statement, the Republicans repeated their mantra about Governor Palin's executive experience and leadership qualities. This led to more outraged reactions which was just what the Republicans needed to deflect attention from McCain's poor judgment and lack of true leadership.

Only Senator Obama reacted calmly and said nothing negative about Governor Palin. If the Democrats had all done the same thing and basically yawned about Governor Palin's nomination, the significance of this event would have disappeared in a puff of smoke. While it's true that Governor Palin is the first woman to be nominated as vice president by the Republicans, the Democrats had previously nominated a woman to be vice president. So what's the big deal? There wasn't any big deal unless the Democrats and other people made one. Governor Palin will bring over a few discontented Hillary supporters, but more importantly she has impressed the Republican right with her gun toting, antiabortion, drill the hell out public land approach. That real significance is within the Republican Party to shore up support among the right-wingers.

In the debates and discussions ahead the Republicans will continue to repeat their mantra that Governor Palin is more qualified than Senator Obama. This will be disputed and argued by the Democrats as it should be. But the only substantive issue is whether Senator Obama or Senator McCain would make a better president. Of course, Governor Palin's incredible lack of experience, the Alaskan legislature meets only 90 days a year, is of significance because Senator McCain is 72 years old and has had cancer for times. That too will be debated. But the Democrats shouldn't blow a gasket over it. Obama shrewdly summed up the Republicans on 60 minutes tonight when he said they're not very good governing but very good at running elections.

Sarah Palin: "I'm Just Your Average Hockey Mom in Alaska

John McCain surprised everyone, including himself, in his selection of his vice presidential candidate. If Senator McCain becomes the next president, Governor Palin who described herself as, "Just your average hockey Mom" will be a heartbeat away from the most powerful office on the planet. And McCain was questioning Obama's qualifications? Governor Palin needs to be told that if something happens to President McCain she won't be playing hockey or watching her kids play hockey.

Senator McCain has made one of most ludicrous decisions in the history of the United States. This is a woman he met with once who is currently under investigation in the State of Alaska for using improper interference in getting her sister-in-law's ex-husband fired. Is that what she's going to be doing as vice president? One cringes at the thought of what she might do as president.

On the Larry King show tonight James Carville and McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer argued Governor Palin’s credentials to be vice president. Ms. Pfotenhauer had a continuous disingenuous smile as she blathered absolute nonsense about Governor Palin's qualifications. Ms. Pfotenhauer appeared to be a windup McCain cheerleader who lost all contact with common sense when she said that Governor pale was more qualified than Senator Obama. As a matter of fact, commonsense did not appear to be an objective of hers. She was on television to repeat rote remarks and accomplish the Republican mission of electing Senator McCain. It is likely the Republicans would continue their mantras about Senator McCain even if he was frozen in ice. The last part would be an apt description of Ms. Pfotenhauer’s smile.

McCain Health Care Policy: Use the Emergency Room

According to an article in the Dallas morning news 15.5% of all Americans have no health insurance. The article went on to quote John Goodman, who helped craft Senator McCain's health care policy, who stated that the numbers are misleading. The article quotes Mr. Goodman " anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

It is almost unbelievable that Mr. Goodman would make such a statement. It shows a callous disregard for the people of this country and a total misunderstanding of the best way to provide health care services. It also comes right out of Senator Obama's acceptance speech where he condemned Republicans for telling Americans "do it on your own." Clearly Mr. Goodman has health care insurance, and as long as he does what happens to everybody else is likely to be unimportant to him.

Mr. Goodman, having put one foot in his mouth, is not content to leave the other one on the ground. He is further quoted by the same article as saying, "So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care."

What an ingenious solution. I wonder why Senator Obama didn't think of it

McCain Will Tax Your Health Care Benefits

An article in the New York Time stated that, "Mr. McCain proposes to eliminate the exclusion of health benefits from taxable income." That's right, the Republican presidential nominee will add a significant tax burden to the middle class. McCain's overall plan is quite complicated and the, "Devil is in the details." Unfortunately, all the details of this plan have not been worked out.

The New York Times article goes on to state:

"In exchange, he would provide refundable tax credits of $2,500 to single people and of $5,000 to families, with the goal of stoking competition in the individual insurance market. The elimination of the exclusion would generate $3.6 trillion over 10 years, according to the McCain campaign, and that money would pay for the tax credits.

While the change would primarily affect those with gold-plated insurance policies, health analysts point out that middle-income workers with conventional coverage could conceivably pay more in regions where insurance costs are high. Over time, that might depend on how the tax credits are adjusted for inflation, a detail Mr. McCain has not discussed."

Although the McCain campaign has gone on at great lengths to explain the benefits of their new health-care plan it is filled with uncertainties. But any way you slice it or dice it, if you make health care benefits subject to taxation, that's a tax increase. The Times article quoted Jonathan B. Oberlander, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “You can argue with lots of merit that it’s a responsible increase, that it takes away an inequitable exclusion, but it’s still a tax increase.”

Liberal Democrats Successfully Electing another Republican

The Liberal Democrats who have given the American people Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, and John Kerry have given us their latest victim, Barack Obama. Instead of searching for Democratic candidate who can win the presidency these people are wedded to the idea that they need to nominate someone who embodies all of their ideals. Unfortunately, these ideals are not shared by the majority of American people outside of the East Coast, California, and Oregon. In fact, it appears the vast majority of working people are unable to identify with Senator Obama.

The South appears to be lost, with only Florida and possibly Virginia in play. What's fascinating about this is that John McCain polls 25 percentage points better than Obama among the working people of the South. It's fascinating because if these people sat down and thought about how they've fared under Republican administrations they would see that they have been ripped off year after year after year. Universal health care is no longer being discussed and the working people of the South are among those with the lowest percentage of people covered by health care plans. They have also been victimized by Republican tax cuts serving the interests of the affluent and very wealthy.

It seems almost inconceivable that a Democratic candidate could lose when the most unpopular president in recent memory sits in office. The Republican candidate cannot remember how many homes he has, whether Iraq borders Pakistan, and other minor details. I live in South Carolina where the Republican ads tell me that the government is broken and John McCain is the man to fix it. How can he conceivably fix policies that were implemented by President Bush which he plans to continue? The Republican attack machine has successfully chipped away at a very bright and capable ideologue who is still trying to explain who he is to the American people after a year of constant campaigning. Perhaps in another year or two he might be successful.

People like Maureen Dowd, who despises Hillary Clinton to a degree that is probably pathological, will surely be delighted when John McCain takes the oath of office. Four years from now Arianna Huffington will be able to advise the next Liberal Democratic candidate on how to be true to his liberal ideals while he goes down in flames.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) Ignores the Evidence

Despite being presented with a variety of documentation that clearly evidences fraud on the part of the Chinese government, the IOC chose to accept Chinese passports as final documentation of the ages of the Chinese gymnasts. This was not an unsurprising result, but a gutless one. Despite the clear documentation that He Kexin is only 14 years old, the IOC decided to duck controversy and not embarrass the Chinese government. The Chinese government statement questioning the veracity of documentation on the Internet was disingenuity at its best. I suppose the purported outrage of the families of these young children was yet one more part of the sham that has been perpetrated by the Chinese government. We all know that governments lie to achieve political and other objectives. We have been subjected to a five-year war in Iraq that was based on misrepresentation of evidence to the people of this country and the world.

There has been the more documentation of He Kexin’s age on the web site of the Internet security specialist who helped bring the fraudulent documentation to worldwide attention. "What you're seeing above is a document which was removed from the Chinese government server www.sport.gov.cn, listing He Kexin's birthday as 1994-1-1, saved in The Internet Archive (last link). The Internet Archive is a U.S. based non-profit organization which collaborates with the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress in its mission to perform historical web document preservation. This is just one more document source to pile on top of Google, Google.cn and Baidu. Take a look at the Google Translated version of the Internet Archive's copy of this document, and try to look up He Kexin's age."

What was noteworthy for me was the worldwide attention to my last two posts. People from a dozen different countries read these posts, even two from China. The issue is settled and nothing will be done. Cheating at the Olympics is far from new, and far from over. Multiple gold winner at the Sydney Olympics, Marion Jones is now serving time in a federal penitentiary for lying about her use of illegal substances. Shot-putters at recent Olympics cannot come close to matching throws from the 1970s when steroid use was rampant. On to other topics.