State of What Union?

This is probably the best piece of logic that I have seen regarding the US Presidential Elections in Nov. 2008 !!!!

After long and serious thought, I have decided to endorse Senator John McCain for President. I have always voted for the person and have not voted for anyone because some political party was telling me who I should vote for.

We all know the choices by now and, that said, I do believe that the process of selecting a chief executive is deeply flawed. The words 'money' and 'special interests' come to mind, among many others.

Here's the way I see it: Barack Obama, you are a fine public speaker. You are also an extremely liberal Senator from the State of Illinois , which has a long and rich history of political corruption of the first magnitude. You are indeed a child of that system.

You have finally insulted my intelligence far beyond my capacity to tolerate your insults. It has nothing at all to do with your skin color. As a matter of fact, it would be so COOL to finally have an African-American for President. What a great statement that would be to the entire world that we are indeed the greatest country on earth! But, unfortunately, General Colin Powell is not running, and YOU are NOT the man for this job!

Barack baby, you want me to believe that you have never heard the sermons of your own pastor, the Right Reverend 'G-- D--- America' Jeremiah Wright. It is a matter of record that this has been your church for over 20 years. It is a matter of record that you were married there by this very pastor, and that your children were baptized there.

The good Reverend saw fit to visit Khadafy in Libya with you and to give a lifetime achievement award to Louis Farrakhan, of all people. We have all now seen excerpts of his sermons all over the airwaves by now. And you have publicly stated that this man IS your 'spiritual mentor'.

BUT, your pastor is NOT the reason I am NOT voting for you. His words were disturbing enough, but it is your own HUGE church congregation, seen jumping, hooting and howling to his words in the background that disturb me the most. And please don't tell me you attended church there and never once heard a 'discouraging word' in the 20 years you attended there. Don't tell me, that in addition to the good Reverend, that you are now not having anything to do with all those other people seen hooting and howling out in the audience in the background of his fiery tirades. Even Oprah Winfrey got disgusted and walked out. I am no Oprah fan, but still she did the right thing.

Now YOU look me in the eye and ask me to believe that you never heard such language in all the years you attended there! This is like me telling you that I attended dozens of Klan rallies and never once heard the 'N' word. Yep. And Bill Clinton 'did not inhale'.

Yes, Mr. Obama, we all have friends who have said stupid things that embarrassed us, but NOW you have asked me to believe something that is so incredibly stupid that you are telling me that I am just stupid enough to believe you. THAT is the main reason that I will never vote for you.

I am deeply sorry, that in a county teeming with enormously talented African Americans who would make a good President, that the political system has chosen YOU. You are a pathetic and plastic excuse for an American, who will not even salute the Flag during the Pledge of Allegiance. God forbid you ever get near the Oval Office.

Now, did I mention Bill Clinton? AH YES! This brings us to MRS. WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, who this candidate really is, in spite of all the other names she may care to call herself. This 'feminist' piece of work of course would like to be referred to as MS.and we all know who wears the pant suit in that family.

MS. Clinton, it is just as depressing to realize that there are dozens of women who would also make great Presidents. But, fortunately, the horrible state of the selection process has selected YOU. Ms. Clinton, I'm sorry, but you could not tell the truth if we water boarded your worthless A$$! Still you play the role of the 'embarrassed but dignified noble wife'. What utter malarky!

I am not voting for you for a world of reasons, but the main one is the same as my not voting for Senator Obama. You persistently insult my intelligence. It COULD be conceivably possible that you did not know about Monica Lewinsky, extremely remote, but possible if we stretch our imaginations a bit. But you turn around and then ask me to believe that you also did not know about Paula Jones and the legion of other women who were chewed up and spit out by your lecherous excuse for a husband.

Puleese turn off this broken record !!!

But let's set aside your hubby's flagrant pecadillos. The real reason I will never vote for you is that I don't think the country can survive EIGHT MORE YEARS of Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, Sandy Berger stuffing his socks with classified intelligence, Janet Reno's goon squad, and the myriad other corruptions that seem to stick to you like your ugly face. So our former President can't keep his d### in his pants. The REAL issue is that he committed perjury under oath when he lied about it and the pathetically-attempted coverup that followed. Like you, he is totally incapable of telling the truth. He could not do it if you tortured him, and in voting for you, we would get the BOTH of you, all over again -- the same folks who could have taken out Osama Bin Laden over 3,000 dead Americans ago!

And please stop telling me that you have EIGHT years of experience' to lead us. You were the freakin' first lady already, not the Commander in Chief. Jeez! The sum of your 'experience' is that of the most worrisome and incompetent meddling in the history of the White House. You even cursed your pitiful staff and the Secret Service agents who were and still are unfortunately charged with risking their lives to protect your worthless, thieving hide, and all at the expense of other people who have to work for a living.

Your single pathetic platform is to finance the illegal drugs, alcoholism and bad habits of the very lowest and most irresponsible freeloaders in America and to then 'garnish the wages' (your own words) of every law-abiding and hard-working American to pay for it. This disaster you refer to as 'Universal Health Care'.

Where have you been the last 30 years? Did you not see that socialism is a failure wherever it has been tried? Did you not notice that the Soviet Union has collapsed since it gave no reward to those who worked the hardest for the fruits of their own labors to pay for those who will not??

It is interesting to see all the dead bodies that you and your hubby have left in your wake: Suicides, mysterious deaths, cover-ups that make Richard Nixon look like a rank amateur. The utter contempt and unbelievable arrogance of some of your strongest supporters, most notably the recently resigned and disgraced Governor Eliot Spitzer, the epitome of hypocritical and malevolent arrogance gone wild, one of your most ardent, wealthy and powerful political supporters. A man the news media refuses to admit IS a 'super delegate' in your own political machine, a fine example of your own 'adopted' state of New York. No wonder you moved there to run for Senator! The environment there is perfect for the likes of you! Yes, I would vote for a woman, but I will NOT vote for YOU! Which leaves us with Senator John McCain.

John, you are a flawed man. You are a bit old, a bit looney, and you have a notoriously bad temper.

This perfectly qualifies you, in my humble opinion, to lead us for the next eight years. I WANT your trembling hand on the nuclear button. Think about it. We have Kim Jong IL, Chavez and Ahmadenijad all running around like lunatics, threatening America and threatening to plunge the world into nuclear Armageddon. We have Putin and the Chinese blustering and rattling their sabres at us.

I want John McCain in the Oval Office and I want him to be really pissed off at all these other nut jobs around the planet. John, once you are elected, I want you to go into the Oval Office and throw one of your perfect FITS. Jump up and down and throw something through a plate glass window. Rip the drapes down and foam at the mouth a bit. And I want the whole thing on camera so that Ahmadinejad can see it.

I want ALL of these 'world leaders' to lay awake at night and to break out in a cold sweat every time they think of messing with the United States of America. I want the nuclear button sitting right next to the alarm clock on your night stand. I want pictures of this to be sent to Iran, Russia , China ,Venezuela , Cuba , Libya , Syria , Pakistan ,and those other a%$holes in the sheets, the Saudis.

On the domestic front, poor John did try and reach across the aisle to the opposition in a desperate effort to compromise and to get the Congress to do something. You may not agree with his efforts, but at least he TRIED. For all his efforts, all he got handed to him was his head in a basket. The liberals are pissed at him and the conservatives are pissed at him. Just my kinda guy.

I predict that John will select Senator Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Good choice. I want a JEW whose memory of the Holocaust is still fresh in his mind and who is royally pissed off at all of these towel-headed morons in the Middle East to be the next in line if something should happen to John. Shalom, Vice President Joe -- one heartbeat from the Oval Office.

Finally. John McCain knows on a most personal level what it is to suffer horrible torture for years and to see others die, right in front of you, for their love of America. When you ask him about it, he will tell you that what he did was 'nothing special'. Even more incredibly, he states that ANY American who truly loves his country would do exactly the same as he did in that situation. You and I will have a hard time believing that; but the real point is that John McCain believes that about the 'average American'. And that, dear friends and neighbors, is why I will cast my one poor ballot for on election day for John McCain -- warts and all.

That should sum it all up. Once again I don't know who wrote this but I thank them. If you have not been insulted in one way or another, we have a lot in common. As to fear of an insult - no insult can be as great as though who are trying to destroy everything this country stands for. Be careful what you ask for!

2008 Primary Super Tuesday - The March to the White House

On the cusp of Super Tuesday, Barack Obama continues closing the enormous gap he once faced in most key states. His momentum has yet to carry him over the top. Hillary Clinton still clings to leads, sometimes narrow, in the bulk of states in play.

Tomorrow votes will be cast in twenty-four states. In the top ten states, poll data, reliable or not, shows Hillary leading in eight, although by razor-thin margins in California, Alabama, Missouri, Connecticut and New Jersey. Only in New York, Massachusetts and Tennessee does her lead seem secure.

How did the once mighty Clinton machine falter so badly? And will the trend for Obama continue?

Every election is, at some level, a simple conversation between camps. Obama began the campaign by saying he was "new"; Hillary replied that he was "inexperienced"; Obama answered he was a "voice for change"; Hillary countered she was the one to bring the country back to the "optimism, dynamism and entrepreneurship enjoyed during the Clinton Administration."

So went the state of discussions leading up to Iowa. The after losing Iowa and almost failing in New Hampshire, the Clintons panicked and played the race card - injecting it into a contest that had been and should be colorblind.

While Hillary emphasizes in every speech that she will be the first "woman" president, Obama had rarely mentioned race. He ran for the Democratic nomination like a Republican black - never summoning victim status and avoiding racial remarks entirely.

Had the Clintons shut up and let the black voters of South Carolina do their talking for them, the block African-American vote for Obama would have brought the race issue home to undecided white voters, triggering a pro-Hillary backlash. But they couldn't keep quiet. Their oh-so-subtle racial innuendo, philosophizing bout relative roles of Martin Luther King and President Lyndon Johnson achieved in civil rights, landed them in a cauldron of boiling water.

With nothing else new to say, Hillary, in effect, countered Obama's message of change by saying "You're black." When Bill compared Obama to Jesse Jackson, the point was obvious.

Obama parried with great skill in his victory speech in South Carolina by stipulating that the election was about overcoming divisions and coming together as a nation That brilliant move left the Clintons flat-footed.

Hillary's performance in the week after South Carolina was scripted and prosaic - a mere repetition of her rhetorical lines from the past. Like a juke box, she played poll-tested golden oldies all week - hoping we'd sing along with her choruses.

It seems as if the Clintons, lacking dirt to throw, have nothing to say.

On January 7th, Clinton broke down in tears. this display of emotion during a discussion of how she is affected by campaigning for president - was credited with aiding her comeback in New Jersey following an earlier defeat by Obama in Iowa. Is it possible the once great Clintonian strategy team of Carville and Begala are either out-of-ideas or stymied by having to play it clean?

During a campaign speech today, the eve of Super Tuesday, Hillary once again teared up at Yale University. Could it be the tough, strong, wanna-be leader of the free-world is trying the fragile tear routine again to stop the Obama surge? Will President Clinton use tears and pouts when negotiating with world leaders? How about a foot stomp Hillary? If things go really bad will you get the vapors?

Obama's gains still leave him shy of his mark. Tomorrow may bring a deadening roll call of narrow Hillary wins, particularly in the eight caucus states, where her control of the party apparatus gives her an edge.

Hillary has a reserve army of poor, single, white women whose support is intense and unwavering. Will that be enough to pull her through? Or will Obama's surge continue, with his eloquence and positioning on the diversity issue transforming narrow defeats to victories in a host of toss-up states.

The Republican primaries are all but over. John McCain has leads in eight, with Mitt Romney ahead in only his native Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee leading in Georgia. Most GOP states award delegates on a winner-take-all basis, so McCain's lead in delegates coming out of Tuesday should be insurmountable.

McCain's likely nomination is, of course, very bad news for the Democrats. We are told he is, by far, the candidate most likely to beat Hillary in November. The very immigration bill that made him anathema to many conservatives can help him attract significant Hispanic support, while the bitterness of the Clinton-Obama contest is likely to drive many anti-Hillary Independents and Democrats to support the moderate maverick from Arizona. (Remember how anger at LBJ drove many liberals to vote for Nixon against Humphrey in 1968?)

McCain should have little difficulty in consolidating the Republican and conservative ranks behind him - especially if his adversary is Hillary Clinton. Animosity to the New York senator may be just the elixir McCain needs to unite his party.

OR IS HE?

In this time of media intervention of the voting process, with the majority of the power of the radio, television and print media slanted towards the left, is the American voter being convinced that McCain is the Republican who can unite the country to beat Clinton/Obama?

Is McCain being sold to the voters for the exact opposite reason, being that when the primaries are over and the contest begins again, John McCain is the least likely electable?

Let the games continue. Who will find victory? Wouldn't it be nice if it was the American people? Doubtful but it would be wonderful indeed.

Vote early - Vote often ~ Richard J.Daley, Mayor of Chicago ~ 1955 to 1976