As we get closer to the election Tuesday, I read quotes from and hear from more Republicans concerned about "checks and balances" in the federal government. Republican candidates across the nation are using this line to try to convince voters to support them. In reality, they know they have little to run on.
An email from my brother, a Republican voter in Texas who claims not to be interested in politics much, today put it this way:
Getting back to my brother, the misrepresentations he throws me floors me at times. It’s like he only watches Fox News and camps out online on Free Republic. It’s not like he is a backwoods gun nut – he has a degree in mechanical engineering, tho it is from Texas A&M.
Just out of curiosity, has Obama accomplished anything of value for America? I know on the books, he has been a Senator for almost 4 years...but only served about two years as Senator...the last couple of years he has been campaigning. He has had probably one of the best run campaigns...although up front he agreed to use only the Federal campaign fund program which would have limited him to about $82MM...he broke that promise and has raised around $750MM in funds.
Some of those funds are questionable...for anyone who raises that kind of money, you will have some questionable funding. He talks of 'change' and new direction, yet he too has had a large number of negative ads, he sent 30 plus lawyers to Alaska to get dirt on Palin, he has contributed funds to Acorn to illegally register voters, etc.
His wife has stated that she has never been proud of America...yet we are the most sought out country that people try to flock to in order to leave their own country. Obama, the Messiah (as Rev. Wright calls him), was raised as a Muslim by his father for the most impressionable years of his life (per the book written by Obama).
Palin, has been a Mayor, Governor of the only state that has a ready response military to react to any attacks from Russia. She has the most current military knowledge/briefing of any Governor in the Union. She has faults, as does anyone, but she also has the most experience on her resume of any of the four (pres. and VPs on both sides).
Obama's economics is to only tax people over $300K, no $250K, no $200K and now the Obama camp is on record saying $150k. As a senator he voted for an increase of taxes to those making $45K or more. If he is going to socialize healthcare for 41 million Americans and give back $2500 to every American paying health insurance, where is that $$ coming from. Small businesses are already going on record, saying they will have to cut jobs if Obama is President and follows thru on his policy...they will not be able to afford it.
Look at Cal and New York...two of the most liberal policy states in the Union. Both are bankrupt and asking for Federal assistance to bail them out. They do not close the door on illegals and they give all the American benefits to those criminals.
Obama comes off better on the TV and in speeches...he doesn't have the scares that McCain has from his military back ground. It is funny how people will discriminate against McCain based on age but dare not on Obama due to Religion (22 years under Rev Wright's racist views, race (which his campaign has brought up more than any other group), etc.
I really don't trust Obama...too many skeletons in the closest and his record of anti-white, anti-christian views is disturbing to me. Also, as the most liberal person this close to President, it really concerns me what a 100% one party in Washington would do. I also, would not want a 100% Republican Washington...that too would greatly concern me. I believe in checks and balances.
I'm not wild about McCain, but I believe the House and Senate will go Demo. and I feel McCain will provide great leaders, standards, military background, and just plain common sense to issues. He has stood up against the popular ideas (from either party) to vote for what he believes is right. He has a good history of ideas that he has stood for and voted for.
Whew. Where do I start? Here is my attempted reponse:
I know you care about the country and where we are going, but c'mon, where are you getting all these misrepresentations - from Fox News and the National Review?
I take my points from AP and other news reports, which I believe are more accurate than Fox and the Republican party. We’ve had eight years of Bush-Cheney, and what of value have they accomplished? They’ve led us to an endless war and deep recession, while ignoring the impact of climate change, which will greatly affect future generations. Their tax breaks have mostly benefited the already wealthy, while middle income Americans have seen their home values, 401ks, and real income decline in value. There are more people in poverty, unemployed and without health insurance now than in 2001.
It’s time to see if someone new can really accomplish something.
The Democrats controlling Congress again isn’t a given. Who knows how those elections will turn out? Even if they do win Congress and the White House, they won’t control the third branch, led by the Supreme Court. The Republicans control the Supreme Court, and under Bush they controlled Congress for six years.
You say you don’t want a 100 percent Republican Washington, either, but we had that from Jan. 2001 to Jan. 2007, and I didn’t hear you concerned about one-party control of the federal government then and about wanting "checks and balances" then. It’s only when the Democrats might control both the White House and Congress that I’m hearing this from you about the supposed need for "checks and balances."
As far as Obama’s accomplishments as a US Senator, he worked with Republican Sen. Lugar to expand a program to locate and dismantle stray Russian weapons of mass destruction left over from the Cold War. He authored a tougher ethics/lobbying reform bill and a law that provides people with more information on how tax dollars are spent. He has worked to help Illinois veterans get the disability pay they were promised and prepared the VA for the return of the thousands of veterans who will need care after Iraq and Afghanistan. He's has also worked on legislation to boost alternative fuels and fuel standards in cars. He served on Senate committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works , Veterans' Affairs, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
As an Illinois state senator, Obama sponsored laws to curb predatory mortgage lending, reform welfare and increase subsidies for childcare. He was chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee.
When Obama was at Harvard, he was selected, based on his grades and a writing competition, as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and later as the first African American president of the Law Review, which is quite an accomplishment. Obama graduated in the top ten percent of his class at Harvard, another accomplishment.
Meanwhile, Bush majored in drunk driving while barely passing at Harvard and Yale, Cheney flunked out of Yale twice and ended up at Caspar College in Wyoming, Palin went to four schools and took six years to get an easy communications degree, and McCain graduated fifth from the bottom of his class at Navy.
So why are you telling your kids to study hard and get good grades when you support the average and below-average students for president? We've had these less intelligent Republicans with supposedly more common sense in the White House a lot longer than Democrats since 1980, and things have only gotten worse. We should at least try to have the smarter candidate in there - it was working under Clinton until he blew it with Monica.
Another accomplishment for Obama of value is that he has taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years. He served from 1993 to 2002 on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which funded development projects, and was founding president and chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. He also was on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.
About Obama’s fund raising, Obama never agreed to only use federal campaign programs. That’s more Republican propaganda. He has raised more like $600 million, not $750M. That shows the level of support for Obama. When Bush was raising $367 million in 2004, I didn’t hear you raise questions then.
Michelle Obama never said she has "never been proud of America." She said, "For the first time in my adult life, I'm REALLY proud of my country." There is a big difference there. That means she has been proud before, but now she is REALLY proud.
I don’t know where you got that Obama was raised as a Muslim by his father. His parents met while attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa. They separated when Obama was two years old and later divorced. Obama's father returned to Kenya and saw his son only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982. In his book. Obama wrote that his father was "raised a Muslim" but was a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met. Republicans have misrepresented this to lie that Obama wrote that he himself was "raised a Muslim."
On ACORN, that situation was blown out of proportion. A few employees faked names to get paid, and most were fired. McCain and Palin are just concerned about it because ACORN is registering a lot of voters who will support Obama. Republican voter fraud and suppression in Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004 and in swing states this year is far more serious.
Obama hasn’t changed his tax plan, as Republicans have lied – see http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/...
On the medical insurance issue, both McCain’s and Obama’s plans would cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years, with McCain’s some $300 billion less, according to the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of think tanks Urban Institute and Brookings Institution. Obama’s plan would cover many more uninsured Americans than McCain’s, according to the Urban Institute. McCain’s plan would pretty much put individuals out on their own to buy their own health insurance.
And small businesses are already cutting jobs. Most people believe Obama has the better plan to restore the economy, which will lead to small businesses adding jobs.
What has Obama ever said that was anti-Christian and anti-white? Rev. Wright said some inflammatory things, and Obama denounced them and even resigned from the church. What has Palin, who has called Obama "Sambo" behind his back, ever done to promote race relations? Even McCain has "joked" about rape, beating his wife and about Chelsea Clinton supposedly being ugly when she was only 18, displaying some disturbing views on women.
Though I don’t think Obama is really liberal and think he will govern from the center, what is wrong with being liberal? Bush and Cheney can be conservative and you don’t gripe about that. Liberals only want what we all profess to in the Pledge of Allegiance – "liberty and justice for all." Most conservatives only want liberty and justice for people like themselves.
I think McCain has a few good ideas, and he has been fairly moderate for a Republican, even though he voted with Bush more than 90 percent of the time. But does McCain’s "good ideas" include giving large tax breaks to oil companies so they can continue to rack up record profits? Or deregulating health insurance like the savings and loans and financial markets? And his behavior in the campaign raises a lot of questions on his judgment, not to mention whether he will die in the White House, if he gets there, and stick us all with Palin as the ultimate joke.
On Palin, she is probably the least qualified vice presidential candidate in history. How do you figure she has more experience than McCain, Biden or Obama?
Let’s see what Palin’s accomplishments are. After finally graduating from college, Palin was a sports reporter in Alaska before running for council in the small town of Wasilla. Her main accomplishment there was to advocate for censoring books at the public library.
As mayor of the town of Wasilla, she pushed to build an ice hockey stadium. She left Wasilla millions of dollars in debt because of the project.
As governor, she focused on oil tax reform and state incentives for building a natural gas pipeline. She fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan because he refused to fire a trooper who was the ex-husband of Palin’s sister. A bipartisan state commission concluded that Palin abused her power as governor and violated the state's Executive Branch Ethics Act when her office pressured Monegan to fire the trooper.
Alaska’s unemployment rate in September was one of the highest in the nation at 6.8 percent, well above the national rate of 6.1 percent. What has Palin done to create jobs there beyond supporting the Bridge to Nowhere, then trying to say she didn’t support it?
Alaska ranked third highest behind South Dakota and Wyoming for the rate of young people residing in juvenile detention and correctional facilities in 2006. Some 430 youth per 100,000 were incarcerated in 2006, well above the U.S. average of 295. What has Palin done to keep young people from going to jail beyond insisting that young women have babies even if they are rape or incest victims?
Alaska also has a higher than average percentage of children living in families in which a parent does not have full-time, year-round employment, at 42 percent. And Alaska has a higher than average percentage of people without health insurance, at 18.2 percent. What has Palin done to help people gain health insurance and decent jobs?
Palin has made some disturbing statements that show her ignorance, such as not knowing what the vice president of the United States does, then later wrongly saying that the vice president runs the Senate. During the debate with Biden, Palin couldn’t address many of the questions. She claimed to be a fiscal conservative, then spent $150,000 of campaign money on high-end clothes and accessories for her and her family.
Deepak Chopra is right when he says that Palin is "the reverse of Barack Obama, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses."