So the official election results have been available for several days now:
http://www.washco-md.net/election/2008Gen.htm
And to no surprise the McCain / Palin ticket won the majority in the county. What amazes me though is the fact that so many people in this area thought they would actually benefit from John McCain. I read the following in an article in the Herald Mail a few days ago:
David Peters, 27, of Hagerstown, disagreed. He said a majority of Washington County residents voted for McCain because the Arizona senator had more experience.
“(McCain) knows more about politics,” Peters said. “Obama didn’t know a lot. All he wanted to do was raise taxes. I wouldn’t have liked that. Now, it’s going to happen.”
I would love to know if David actually is making more than $250,000 per year. My money is on he is not making even a third of that. The simple fact is that Western Maryland average incomes have never benefited from republican policy. The vast majority of people out here are not executives but working class folks that need all the breaks they can get. When the median household income hovers around $35,000 per year, I find it hard to believe why someone would support a candidate whose tax plan pretty much only reduced capital gains taxes on people who make a lot of money with investments.
The fact is that most people did not choose McCain because they thought he "is the better man" as the article suggests. People in Washington county chose McCain and Palin because they hold much more conservative religious beliefs and he has Military service on his record. While there is nothing wrong with either, it is hard to say if they make him a better man than Barack Obama for leading a country. The presidency is about making policy, not determining Military strategy and tactics on the ground, nor is the presidency about setting the religious standards in this country.
When it comes down to who is the better person for the presidency, the better person is the one who can energize people, talk eloquently, rally the support of foreign nations and present a much more inviting face to the rest of the world. Not to mention make intelligent policy decisions without relying on only one strength to guide them such as military experience. It's time for America to realize that in order to be effective, we must utilize diplomacy but maintain the threat of military force, utilizing it only sparingly as needed. As Teddy Roosevelt said, "speak softly and carry a big stick."
Better to have people fear what you could do, then show what you can. I think Barack will understand this along with the rest of his military and policy team. I think this is something that someone not so ingrained in the military culture of the country can truly understand and utilize to great effect.
So do we have the best person from the candidates possible entering the White House? Yes, I think we do. Is he young and somewhat untested on the world stage? Absolutely. Is this such a bad thing? No it is not. Barack has a lot to prove and a lot to live up to, but bringing a non-insider attitude to the White House is a plus. He also has the presence of mind to surround himself with some of the greatest political and military thinkers of this era which will provide him with advice for the situations he has never faced in his own life. This will be a collaboration, a truly team effort and one that should make us all proud since pooling the strengths of individuals is what makes America so strong. I believe we will be proven to be strong once again in the coming four years as well.
So John McCain needed to pick someone that offset his age to ensure people felt like there was continuity plan for the presidency. Unfortunately, he picked a corrup governor from Alaska with daughters that appear to be trying to match Jamie Lynn Spears for teen pregnancies.
Both Bloomberg and the AP are already running stories about how Sarah Palin's own supporters are saying she in unqiuallified for the job. I especially love the CNN story about her daughter's pregnancy and how they are so happy she is going to have the baby and become grandparents. Whatever. No one goes to their 17 year old daughter and says "I'm so proud of you for having a baby even though you are unmarried, clearly have no common sense and we are going to be grandparents at 45!" The fact is that now she has put McCain in a tight spot already since apparently the uber-conservative right doesn't teach the abstinence only method very well at all and now his vice president's daughter has gone and gotten herself pregnant at 17. Yep, things are starting off well for the GOP in this race already.
Now I am just waiting for the connections between her and Ted Stevens to be reported on and she really will become the dead weight that she clearly appears to be. Honestly, what the heck was John McCain thinking when he did this? I don't think this is quite as brilliant as some conservative pundits were saying if you ask me.
It was, in this reporter's opinion, the most interesting moment in today's Clinton campaign phoner with reporters. Responding to the release of HRC's new TX TV ad, which asserts in no subtle terms that only she has the experience to deal with a major world crisis, and, relatedly, to keep your children safe, Slate's John Dickerson asked the obvious question:
"What foreign policy moment would you point to in Hillary's career where she's been tested by crisis?" he said.
Silence on the call. You could've knit a sweater in the time it took the usually verbose team of Mark Penn, Howard Wolfson and Lee Feinstein, Clinton's national security director, to find a cogent answer. And what they came up with was weak -- that she's been endorsed by many high ranking members of the uniformed military.
Take a listen ...
Hotline On Call: Pregnant Pause
Was there ever any doubt that Hillary Clinton didn't actually have any foreign policy experience or any crisis experience? Just because she worked for a giant corporate law firm and then sat in the White House for 8 years being the cold witch that everyone know she is at the time does not mean you have any real experience. Her actions after her husband left the White House have only emphasized her cold, calculating attitude of doing anything that will get her ahead whether or not it is morally or ethically right. This kind of experience should make you worry that she will do the same thing if she were to be elected, once there she will just continue to do the same old thing.
There is no experience here, there is none to be found. The fact is that she does not really have any more experience of her own than Barack Obama. The only experience she has is sitting and watching her Husband get impeached in front of the entire world and then staying with him so her own political ambitions could be realized. This is exactly the kind of experience that we should be running away from as fast as we can, after all, would you want someone answering the phone in the middle of the night cutting a deal that only advances their own personal agenda?
Sen. Barack Obama swept the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska and Washington state Saturday night, slicing into Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's slender delegate lead in their historic race for the Democratic presidential nomination.The Illinois senator also won caucuses in the Virgin Islands, completing his best night of the campaign.
"Today, voters from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast to the heart of America stood up to say 'yes we can'" Obama told a cheering audience of Democrats at a party dinner in Richmond, Va.
Barack Obama | Change We Can Believe In |
We are so close, all we need is to keep this momentum alive and we will succeed in ushering a new generation into American politics, one that is finally for the people of this United States.
Maryland Democrats my message to you is to not be afraid of the message of hope and inspiration. Do not fall into the experience trap that Hillary Clinton has laid for you must see past this weak argument. Experience is a tiny fraction of what is needed to be a president, all you need to do is look at our current administration to see this truth. It is far more important to motivate, lead and inspire the people of our nation and spur them to action. We need someone who will look at our foreign policy and get our relations with the rest of the world back to where they should be while at the same time taking a more rational approach to the terrorism question.
A president is the public face of this country, they are the person that the rest of the world sees as our head of state, they are the one that people hold the breath for when they speak. Hillary Clinton is not a person that is going to have people listening to what she has to say, she does not have the ability to energize and unify people around a cause or an idea. The thing that many of us forget is that just because she is a woman des not mean she is the right woman for the job. While I admire the fact that she is doing this well in a strongly contested race, she is not the speaker Bill Clinton is and she is far to polarizing for this county.
Only Barack Obama has the ability to unify and do not worry about him being unable to navigate the political minefield in Washington DC. Not only has he been a Senator, but the President has many assets to call on when support is needed and Barack's biggest asset is his ability to move people, even the old establishment in DC. If we are able to make this happen and get Barack to the White House we will see a new day in this country, a day when young Americans stand up and push for progress, a day in which older Americans see the potential of this country which has been shuttered for so long, a day when we can go back to being an American versus a conservative or a liberal.
