That’s Democracy

This past week was really interesting.

First of all, I have never seen something like this Obama win. Even though the result itself was not surprising (solid victory on electoral votes, but not a landslide in the popular vote) the reaction all around was similar to a world cup victory in Brazil. Reporters openly cheering (shocker), parties on the streets and people high fiving each other at work. Really amazing and a bit scary too.

I had a chance to speak to many people who voted for Obama. There was always one thing in common when I started to talk about reasons why they voted for the chosen one: Bush. I don’t think the Republicans could have won this election no matter what. It was just one of those times when the weight of power crushes whoever is on top, and this time it was the Republicans (we were lucky not to get 60 dem senators…). The race factor also was huge. Some of the white people who I spoke with had basically told me that this election was in a way an affirmative action on steroids (by the way, it’s no coincidence that Colorado voters said no to a ban on affirmative action). One guy told me that seeing Obama at the top was “our message to the world”. Never doubt the power of white guilt.

However, the really interesting part came when I started to ask these same people about what they expect around Obama’s policies: They think he is not going to be a lefty! They think that his rhetoric was needed just as a marketing stunt and now we are back to business. Another guy who works with me even said: “A Harvard graduate would not be stupid and raise taxes and destroy the economy”.

Interestingly enough, this seems to be the talk line of the Democrat leadership. This is really funny because McCain couldn’t really pin Obama as lefty during the campaign… but now people are apparently recognizing that he is what he is, and maybe trying to put some pressure to make sure he doesn’t go crazy on us.

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I’ve never doubted that Obama is a true believer of the left. But I am not as concerned as I would be if some other lefty, say Howard Dean, had won the presidency. I do think Obama is smart but the reason I think he will not go pinko on us is because he has something much bigger than his ideology driving him: his ego. Some people might not have noticed, but this guy has a big, very big thirst for power. No one goes from state senator to president in 3 years without that. So my thinking is that now that he has the most powerful job on earth, he will do his best to keep it. That means, he will play it safe.

So what I expect here is basically a classic populist. That does mean we can expect a few very bad decisions for the economy (increase in union power, protectionism, bigger safety net) but overall he will have to follow the American mainstream, which is clearly divided but on average is center-right.
I mentioned on a previous post some of my other concerns (Fairness Doctrine and The Freedom of Choice Act), but honestly I would be shocked if he came through on either of those things.

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Differently than our whinny friends that couldn’t get over Bush’s victory, I am willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. I am keeping a positive attitude and most of all, I respect the fact that the majority chose Obama to lead the country. That is the spirit of Democracy: you fight hard to get your way but if you don’t, you have to give the other side a chance to prove you wrong.

You take what you can get in this type of situation. I am still happy to see a black American president, even though I think he was elected for the wrong reasons. The same way I respect religion without actually being able to believe in God, I have to respect the power of the image Obama represents. That’s life.

Most of all, as the new president I respect Obama (also something that our friends on the other side could never do for Bush). Of course that doesn’t mean I have converted to a Democrat or that I will not criticize whatever policies I disagree with (by the way, watch this CNN video – apparently these people can’t even understand this concept of respecting and supporting the president even if it is not your party that holds the job – partisanship has completely blinded them!).

So now the ball is on the other side of the court. I am very curious to see how they deal with our current problems (will we be in Iraq this time next year? Is an Afghan surge on the way? How will our economy look like in 2 years?) and ideology aside, I do hope Obama proves me wrong and turns out to be a great President.

Being part of a truly democratic country is not that easy…but still well worth it.

We will survive

There are losses and losses. If Kerry had won in 2004, it would have been a total and complete disaster. We would have lost Iraq, had 2 new Liberal judges in the Supreme Court, total democrat control since 2006, and might not even had gotten the bailout package approved (minority Republicans would have put a long and hard fight).

Now, if Obama really wins tomorrow things won’t be that bad. First, because Iraq is much more stable and probably ready for a slow pull out so we can send more troops to Afghanistan. Second, the economy is already where it needs to be: on a normal course out of a recession. The next two years won’t be that great (which in some ways is good, since Republicans can pick up some seats on the 2010 congress) but the systemic risk is back to normal.

Of course some things will not be pretty. Obama will probably raise taxes, increase protectionism and might even get some very bad bills through (two big concerns are the Fairness Doctrine and The Freedom of Choice Act). But overall I don’t think Obama will be able to radically change the country. I don’t even think he will be able to get his health plan craziness without some extensive concessions.

And even though is silly as hell, it will be funny to see all the world going gaga over the fact that we will have a black President. Oh, we might even be loved again! Until Obama is confronted with some serious situation that is. In that case, I do think he would not be as weak as other democrats.

So losing is never nice but this might not be such a bad time. We might even get the press out of this current propaganda mode for a change… Who knows, maybe in 4 years people will be done with this fantasy about change and finally understand that you don’t need to vote for a black person to prove that you are not a racist.

Obama Bias is destroying the press

If you don’t believe me, maybe you will believe ABC’s Michael Malone. Best parts:

“The traditional media are playing a very, very dangerous game — with their readers, with the Constitution and with their own fates.

The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few months I’ve found myself slowly moving from shaking my head at the obvious one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television and my laptop computer.

But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I’ve begun — for the first time in my adult life — to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was “a writer,” because I couldn’t bring myself to admit to a stranger that I’m a journalist.
…

But what really shattered my faith — and I know the day and place where it happened — was the war in Lebanon three summers ago. The hotel I was staying at in Windhoek, Namibia, only carried CNN, a network I’d already learned to approach with skepticism. But this was CNN International, which is even worse.

I sat there, first with my jaw hanging down, then actually shouting at the TV, as one field reporter after another reported the carnage of the Israeli attacks on Beirut, with almost no corresponding coverage of the Hezbollah missiles raining down on northern Israel. The reporting was so utterly and shamelessly biased that I sat there for hours watching, assuming that eventually CNNi would get around to telling the rest of the story … but it never happened.
…

But nothing, nothing I’ve seen has matched the media bias on display in the current presidential campaign.

Republicans are justifiably foaming at the mouth over the sheer one-sidedness of the press coverage of the two candidates and their running mates. But in the last few days, even Democrats, who have been gloating over the pass — no, make that shameless support — they’ve gotten from the press, are starting to get uncomfortable as they realize that no one wins in the long run when we don’t have a free and fair press.
…

If the current polls are correct, we are about to elect as president of the United States a man who is essentially a cipher, who has left almost no paper trail, seems to have few friends (that at least will talk) and has entire years missing out of his biography.

That isn’t Sen. Obama’s fault: His job is to put his best face forward. No, it is the traditional media’s fault, for it alone (unlike the alternative media) has had the resources to cover this story properly, and has systematically refused to do so.

Why, for example to quote the lawyer for Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., haven’t we seen an interview with Sen. Obama’s grad school drug dealer — when we know all about Mrs. McCain’s addiction? Are Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko that hard to interview? All those phony voter registrations that hard to scrutinize? And why are Sen. Biden’s endless gaffes almost always covered up, or rationalized, by the traditional media?
….

Bad Editors
Why? I think I know, because had my life taken a different path, I could have been one: Picture yourself in your 50s in a job where you’ve spent 30 years working your way to the top, to the cockpit of power … only to discover that you’re presiding over a dying industry. The Internet and alternative media are stealing your readers, your advertisers and your top young talent. Many of your peers shrewdly took golden parachutes and disappeared. Your job doesn’t have anywhere near the power and influence it did when your started your climb. The Newspaper Guild is too weak to protect you any more, and there is a very good chance you’ll lose your job before you cross that finish line, 10 years hence, of retirement and a pension.

In other words, you are facing career catastrophe — and desperate times call for desperate measures. Even if you have to risk everything on a single Hail Mary play. Even if you have to compromise the principles that got you here. After all, newspapers and network news are doomed anyway — all that counts is keeping them on life support until you can retire.

And then the opportunity presents itself — an attractive young candidate whose politics likely matches yours, but more important, he offers the prospect of a transformed Washington with the power to fix everything that has gone wrong in your career.

With luck, this monolithic, single-party government will crush the alternative media via a revived fairness doctrine, re-invigorate unions by getting rid of secret votes, and just maybe be beholden to people like you in the traditional media for getting it there.

And besides, you tell yourself, it’s all for the good of the country … “

Hope for a change

Ticker: Obama’s lead slipping, polls show

“According to an average of several recent surveys, Barack Obama’s lead over John McCain is down to 5 points nationwide, 49-44 percent — a gap that is 3 points less than it was earlier this week, and nearly half what the margin was one week ago.
…

Historically, however, only one presidential candidate in modern history has come back from the deficit McCain faces to win an election — Ronald Reagan in 1980.”

Well, everyone needs hope. At least until next week

The perfect trap

I think there is a clear (even if sometimes difficult to see) distinction between a crazy partisan and a regular person who follows an ideology: the price you are willing to pay.

For a variety of reasons I think McCain would be a better president than Obama. These go from personal characteristics to the alliances around each party. Republicans are by no means perfect but when you compare them to the Democrats, the correct choice is clear. Now, when I say ‘correct’ what does that really mean? Correct to make me feel better or correct to make the whole country (one would even say the world) a better place and consequently make me better off?

I thought about all of that after reading this article from by Jonathan Alter: Why McCain Won. I know, it’s easy to get completely irritated after a few lines and say “just another piece of trash from this pathetic media”. But for whatever reason, this one really scared me.

Think about what he is saying. Besides the old “whoever votes for McCain is a racist”, he is saying that by not electing a black President we are even more racist now than we were before because we will be negating something that he believes should be inevitable.

It was clear to me that people would understand that just the fact that Obama is where he is should be enough to ‘transcend our original sin’. Maybe I was naive. Maybe we are now in a racial trap created by smart Democrats and months and months of media hype and exploitation of what Obama means to the country. Maybe this trap was just designed too well and a McCain victory would actually hurt more than it would help – or looking at it from the other side, maybe an Obama victory will help more than it would hurt.

I honestly don’t know. In times where most of our problems seem to be related to illogical panic and false expectations, I hope that democracy does show to work again and this next election plays out the best way for the country.

The Placebo

A little connect the dots for your weekend:

Half of Doctors Routinely Prescribe Placebos
Home sales see biggest gain since July 2003
Rebranding the U.S. With Obama

Get it? Whoever wins will be the President during the recovery of this crisis, no matter how pessimistic you go (with a few crazy chicken little exceptions of course).

So I say The One has the chance of becoming The biggest placebo the world has ever seen. And the world will love it.

The world is upside down, indeed

Item 1: Listen to Dr. Doom. Yes, the original one, who used to scare people back in the 70s. He still tries to sound kind of scary (“(this is the) worst recession in the post-World War II period.”) but at the end, he sounds much more like John McCain than Mr. Savior Obama:

Despite those concerns, he says there is room for optimism.

“There are very strong fundamentals, so to speak, underpinning this country,” says Kaufman, whose Jewish family fled Nazi Germany when he was a child. “Perhaps I recognize that more than others, having come here at 10 years old and still having the vestiges of a different kind of environment in my background.”

He says the United States is a strong democracy, and that this country “adapts to change far more easily than most other countries around the world. We do have a big middle class. We still have the best higher educational facilities around the world. We are a country that accepts immigrants one way or the other. We still have a very strong technology sector.

“The fundamentals in the U.S. as a society — as a system — are terrific,” Kaufman says. “It’s just that we get in trouble from time to time, and we have to make sure that we don’t create a society politically or economically that is going to hurt that big middle class.”

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Item 2: Poll Finds Obama Strong With Some Bush Backers

So I ask again: Are these people now following Democrat principles or is Obama a Republican in new clothes?

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Item 3: The fact that LIBOR rates were going up showed up in the news constantly since the mess started some weeks ago. Now magically, all of that stopped. The reason why, of course, is that the Libor is nearing Pre-Lehman Levels. No fun.

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Item 4: Now this is more on the funny side, but still, makes one pause.

Howard Stern interviews Obama supporters and finds out that, heck, they do love the Iraq war, Palin and didn’t seem to care much about stem cell research or the right to choose.

I liked the one who said McCain is “uneducated”. Yeah… Go figure.

Come on now…

Craig thinks Obama would make a good 007

“Obama would be the better Bond because — if he’s true to his word — he’d be willing to quite literally look the enemy in the eye and go toe-to-toe with them”

Seriously. Can you imagine Obama physically attacking anyone? I can see him saying “Folks, let’s talk about this” and that is it.

This campaign is really becoming a joke. I was tempted to create a new category ‘Obama is *not* 007″ but I do have a day job.

How is the game changing anyway?

Powell’s endorsement of Obama is as good as it gets for Dems. This is really what people like to call game changing event, and since Obama was already leading one could say politically this might have been the last drop of water in the bucket.

But I wonder what is really happening here. I mean, you hear Powell’s words and it is all very confusing. When he says that Obama’s economic proposals are better than McCain’s is he saying that he moved ideologically to the left? Or does that mean he thinks Obama is pushing for Republican ideas?

And how about Iraq? Was Powell against the surge? Does he feel betrayed by Bush and wants to pull off no matter what? Again, does that mean Powell has changed or are we inverting the parties here?

He also talked a lot about the Republican’s “shift to the right”. Is he saying Bush’s government was not right wing then? God, he even says that Obama is ‘reaching across the aisle’ (no specifics of course). This is more like the aisle getting up and deciding to move Obama’s way.

In the end, this sounds all like personality politics and plays for power. For whatever reason, some supposedly conservatives are throwing their beliefs out of the window just to see Obama’s ‘transformational figure’ in the White House.

It will be very interesting to see what these people will be saying a few years from now…

UPDATE:
The confusion continues. Apparently Powell has not backed down on Iraq, and continues to say that it was the right decision and a worthy endeavor. Now, how in the world a person who believes in that can vote for a candidate who says all the time that Iraq was and *is* the wrong place to be?

It is easy to try and rationalize things and say that, because things look better now, the idea of leaving is not that bad. But what happens if things get worse? Obama will leave anyway (probably even faster – oh the memories of Saigon), and all the blood and treasure spent till now will be lost.

I wonder what Powell would say then.

They get jokes

Stupid economics

The latest economic proposals from McCain really stink. Things like lowering the tax rate on Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k) plans to the lowest rate and removing taxes on unemployment pay would make almost no difference at all and/or send more wrong signals. However, Obama continues to surpass any challenge and has now come up now with the stupidest proposal ever: remove all penalties for withdraw from IRA or 401(k) retirement accounts.

For a country that saves way too little, to make retirement savings even easier to withdraw is just plain stupid. So much for the smart regulation talk, eh?

Never Forget: The Kerry Debacle

Obama does look like the favorite at this point… However, all this talk about how he won debates is actually good news for McCain. Remember that our friends at CNN told us Kerry won all 3 debates last time?

Polls: Kerry won debate – Bush post-convention lead ‘erased’

Kerry Won 2nd Debate, Polls Confirm

Early poll gives Kerry the edge in final debate

And I am not even starting with the polls… Some as late as Oct 25 showed this:
Poll: ‘Wrong Track’ Sentiment Boosts Kerry – Kerry Gets Help From Voters Who Fear Nation Heading in Wrong Direction

I’d recommend our crisis-loving friends to quiet down and wait. This is not over yet.

Child abuse

Unfreakingbelievable.

Hot-dog! Bubba loves McCain

The former President wants you to know exactly where he stands…

Based on, among others, this one:

Round 1 to McCain, on points

I agree with Howie Carr on this one: “Barack’s leading in the polls, there were no killer soundbites, George Bush is not going away before Nov. 4, and foreign policy is, after all, McCain’s strong suit. But last night anyway, McCain bloodied Obama, again and again.”

I also agree that this will not be a foreign policy election, so yesterday might no help as much. But if Obama keeps mumbling and using weasel words like he did yesterday, McCain might still win.

You can watch the full debate here

Community Organizer Founders!

Ah yes. No good deed goes unpunished. Just because I said John Adams was great Laura Linney had to come out and say that the series was indeed great because it showed “the great community organizers that helped form our country.”

Never mind years and years of fighting wars, organizing a political system and becoming the first 5 presidents of the nation. No, that’s all easy stuff! What was really challenging was to organize soup lines and fix up potholes! But hey, she played John Adams wife on TV, she must know better than me…

Keep them coming Dems! If you don’t you might as well win this election!

Watergate, the good old times

There was this distant past when people actually got arrested when they invaded other people’s property for political reasons. Even Presidents were not immune.

Nowadays it’s a free for all. After all, the hacker who invaded Palin’s personal email account could *never* be a Democrat right? Ah, these crazy kids and their technology!

But what is really sad is how everyone in the media just ignores that this is all stolen data. Hey, what really matters is that Palin could have used her personal email for official purposes!

Where is the ACLU when you need it?

Is 2008 the new 2000?

Current electoral map (I chose some of the toss ups based on trend and historic results – you can create your own here):

Hmm, it looks pretty much like this:

Which was the map of Bush’s victory in 2000. Now, things can change… And if McCain can pull off something like this:
McCain Closes Within Two Points of Obama in Washington

It could still be a landslide…

Obama is not Jesus!

I don’t know if McCain will win or lose because of Palin but one thing is for sure: Palin has turned this campaign upside down and things are getting crazier and funnier. Best of all, Democrats are so distraught that they are actually helping Republicans now in some truly bizarre ways.

Look at what this genius said yesterday:

Just another out of the blue, unprovoked epiphany blurted out by a very scared and frustrated Dem. Republicans couldn’t ask for anything better.

As a special celebration of this wonderful blunder, I have created the category “Obama is not Jesus”, which I hope can be used many more times until Election Day.

Keep it up Dems!

Follow the money, young Padawan

Obama is (was) the third highest recipient of Fannie Mae money in the Senate, after John Kerry and, of course, Chris Dodd. (via Instapundit)

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Budget Deficit Likely Doubled for Fiscal ‘08

Democrats pushing 2nd stimulus of $50 billion; GOP resisting

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“Mrs. Palin used her veto pen to slash more local projects than any other governor in the state’s history. She cut nearly 10% of Alaska’s budget this year, saving state residents $268 million. This included vetoing a $30,000 van for Campfire USA and $200,000 for a tennis court irrigation system. She succinctly justified these cuts by saying they were “not a state responsibility.”

Meanwhile in Washington, Mr. Obama voted for numerous wasteful earmarks last year, including: $12 million for bicycle paths, $450,000 for the International Peace Museum, $500,000 for a baseball stadium and $392,000 for a visitor’s center in Louisiana.

Mrs. Palin cut Alaska’s federal earmark requests in half last year, one of the strongest moves against earmarks by any governor. It took real leadership to buck Alaska’s decades-long earmark addiction.

Mr. Obama delivered over $100 million in earmarks to Illinois last year and has requested nearly a billion dollars in pet projects since 2005. His running mate, Joe Biden, is still indulging in earmarks, securing over $90 million worth this year.“

More here: Yes, Palin Did Stop That Bridge