2008 Presidential Poll

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The 2008 Presidential election is one for the history books, the year of firsts. The democratic nominees at least, bore the distinct flavor of revolution. They were young, hip, and above all, the first of their kind. But where did McCain fall in this race of radicals?  This year’s election is as much about groundbreaking candidates as it is about the economy and the war in Iraq. As we watch the race unfold modern historians are poised to record either a continuation of the norm or America’s first black president. With uniqueness being the undertone of this race how can McCain, your traditional old white republican, hope to compete…Well, he can pick a female running mate and that’s just what he did.
Sara Palin, a first term governor of Alaska, was chosen this Friday by McCain or at least his political advisers, to stand beside this aging candidate in the race for the White House. Not necessarily chosen for having sound political views, nor for an impressive political background, no her gender is what put her name on the ballet. She is the ‘wow’ factor McCain’s champagne so obviously lacked. With this attractive woman at his side, he can stand against Obama and declare he too is pushing the boarders of the norm.
His motives are rather simple in origin. He need a to associate himself with a new, breaking from tradition to entice young voters. But beyond that this was a ploy, poorly executed however, to gain Hillary Clinton supporter’s votes. Both Clinton and Palin are women, isn’t that enough? Isn’t that what her supporters wanted, to see a woman in a top job? In this he was wrong. It was not her gender that excited voters, but her experience and her capability, two things Palin lacks. She is a naïve beginner and a vicious political jungle. She may turn out to have good views and integrity, but with out the understanding and experience to back her up, she won’t last a minute in this predatory world.
Now the question is why her in particular? There are a plethora of perfectly capable and seasoned republican women who would ultimately boost McCain’s political views and also give him that edge that is at the center of this election. Why not choose someone who would fill in his weaker spots and would be a qualified leader in the invent that she was need as Commander in Chief?
Whatever his reasoning we, the people of America, have our candidates, a black man and a seasoned senator vs. an aging republican and an inexperienced women. We must wait and see which revolutionary pair takes the cake and the presidency too.

By: Landis Grenville

Palin is considered a rising star in the Republican Party. She is the state’s first female governor, the mother of five — and at 44 is its youngest chief executive.

Born in Idaho, Palin moved to Alaska with her parents, to Charles and Sally Heath, when she was 3 months old.  She grew up in Wasilla, just outside of Anchorage, and played on the Wasilla state championship girls’ basketball team. She was crowned Miss Wasilla in 1984 and was a runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant. Palin studied journalism and political science at the University of Idaho and graduated in 1987. She eloped with her high school boyfriend,  Todd Palin, in 1988 to save money on an expensive wedding. She helped out in her husband’s family commercial fishing business and appeared occasionally as a television sportscaster.Palin won a seat on the Wasilla City Council in 1992 as a new face and a new voice, and by opposing tax increases. Four years later she was elected mayor at 32 by knocking off a three-term incumbent. At the end of her second term, party leaders encouraged her to enter the 2002 race for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Against veteran legislators with far more experience, Palin finished second by fewer than 2,000 votes, making a name for herself in statewide politics. She was elected Alaska’s youngest and first woman governor in 2006.  Sarah and Todd Palin have five children: boys Track, 19, and Trig, 4 months, and daughters Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7. Track Palin joined the Army last September and will deploy to Iraq on Sept. 11. Palin gave birth to Trig, who has Down syndrome, in April and returned to work three days later.

The Almanac of American Politics 

Excerpted from Politico.com:

As president of the Harvard Law Review and a law professor in Chicago, Senator Barack Obama refined his legal thinking, but left a scant paper trail. His name doesn’t appear on any legal scholarship.

But an unsigned — and previously unattributed — 1990 article unearthed by Politico offers a glimpse at Obama’s views on abortion policy and the law during his student days, and provides a rare addition to his body of work.

The six-page summary, tucked into the third volume of the year’s Harvard Law Review, considers the charged, if peripheral, question of whether fetuses should be able to file lawsuits against their mothers.

…Read the full article here.

Our question: How many opinions you held in school have changed as you’ve aged? Is it relevant to examine decades-old writing in the context of a political campaign? You decide…

Oh, no, not another “town hall” meeting.

Or at least, that’s how I first reacted when I learned Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church intended to host an Obama-versus-McCain town hall forum at the evangelist’s California church.

But the rules, this time at least, seemed intriguing. Warren intended to ask each candidate one-on-one questions for one hour, with the rival offstage unable to hear questions and answers. The second candidate would then come out and answer the same questions in the same order.

Obama, via a coin toss, went first, and answered the often simple, straightforward questions carefully or, as many in the mainstream media later reported, in a “nuanced” way. And then came McCain. He came across as funnier, more personable, more thoughtful, more specific and, for the most part, more direct.

Some highlights. Warren asked the candidates to define “rich.”

Obama: “If you are making $150,000 a year or less as a family, then you’re middle class, or you may be poor. But 150 (thousand dollars) down, you’re basically middle class. Obviously, it depends on region and where you’re living. I don’t know what housing prices are doing lately. I would argue that if you’re making more than 250,000 (dollars), then you’re in the top 3, 4 percent of this country. You’re doing well. Now, these things are all relative, and I’m not suggesting that everybody who is making over 250,000 (dollars) is living on easy street.

“But the question that I think we have to ask ourselves is, if we believe in good schools, if we believe in good roads, if we want to make sure that kids can go to college, if we don’t want to leave a mountain of debt for the next generation, then we’ve got to pay for these things. They don’t come for free. I believe it is irresponsible intergenerationally for us to invest or for us to spend $10 billion a month on a war and not have a way of paying for it. That, I think, is unacceptable. Under the approach I’m taking, if you make $150,000 or less, you will see a tax cut. If you’re making $250,000 a year or more, you’re going to see a modest increase.”

McCain: “I don’t want to take any money from the rich. I want everybody to get rich. I don’t believe in class warfare or redistribution of wealth. Let’s keep taxes low. Let’s give every family in America a $7,000 tax credit for every child they have. Let’s give them a $5,000 refundable tax credit to go out and get the health insurance of their choice. Let’s not have the government take over the health care system in America.

“And, my friend, it was not taxes that mattered in America in the last several years. It was spending. Spending got completely out of control. We spent money in a way that mortgaged our kids’ future. My friends, we spent $3 million of your money to study the DNA of bears in Montana. Now, I don’t know if that was a paternity issue or a criminal issue. But the point is, it was $3 million of your money.

“So it doesn’t matter, really, what my definition of ‘rich’ is because I don’t want to raise anybody’s taxes. I really don’t. In fact, I want to give working Americans a better shot at having a better life.”

Iraq? Obama called his decision to oppose the war “difficult,” given — at the time — the popularity of the president. McCain said: “Not long ago in Baghdad, al-Qaida took two young women who were mentally disabled and put suicide vests on them, sent them into a marketplace and, by remote control, detonated those suicide vests. If that isn’t evil, you have to tell me what is. And we’re going to defeat this evil. And the central battleground, according to David Petraeus and Osama bin Laden, is Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and Iraq. And we are winning and we are succeeding, and our troops will come home with honor and with victory, and not in defeat.”

Story by Larry Elder

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Iran’s missile tests sparked a new foreign policy row in the US presidential race, with Republican John McCain demanding tougher sanctions and Democrat Barack Obama urging rugged diplomacy.

The presidential rivals sketched sharply different approaches after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard test-fired a missile capable of reaching Israel, provoking global condemnation.

“We have lines of communication with the Iranians and they are many,” McCain told reporters in Pennsylvania, saying Iran had already been offered a sheaf of incentives to change its ways.

“Their behavior has obviously not changed — the time has now come for effective sanctions on Iran,” McCain said.

Senator Obama argued for a carrot-and-stick policy of tightened sanctions and a more robust diplomatic effort by the United States to persuade Iran to halt its nuclear program.

“Through its nuclear program, missile capability, meddling in Iraq, support for terrorism, and threats against Israel, Iran now poses the greatest strategic challenge to the United States in the region in a generation,” he said in a statement.

“It’s time to offer the Iranians a clear choice between increased costs for continuing their troubling behavior, and concrete incentives that would come if they change course.

“The threat from Iran’s nuclear program is real and it is grave. As president, I will do everything in my power to eliminate that threat, and that must begin with direct, aggressive, and sustained diplomacy.”

McCain rebuked Obama for his failure to vote for a Senate measure last year that branded the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.

“It’s my understanding that this missile test was conducted by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard,” McCain said.

“This is the same organization that I voted to condemn as a terrorist organization when an amendment was on the floor of the United States Senate. Senator Obama refused to vote, called it a provocative step,” he said.

Obama aides said he thought the Guard should be designated a terrorist group, but balked at “aggressive” language in the resolution which he warned could be used to justify the use of US forces in Iraq to strike Iran.

It also said McCain’s stance on Iran had been proven ineffective.

“With Iran now spinning 3,800 centrifuges, threatening Israel, meddling in Iraq, and funding terrorists, the current policy toward Iran that Senator McCain has fully supported is clearly failing,” said Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan.

The Illinois senator also drew fire from McCain for his offer to talk directly to the leaders of Iran and other US foes, but he countered that only sustained and forceful US engagement would work.

“Working with our European and regional allies is the best way to meet the threat posed by Iran, not unilateral concessions that undermine multilateral diplomacy,” McCain said in a written statement.

“Iran’s most recent missile tests demonstrate again the dangers it poses to its neighbors and to the wider region, especially Israel,” McCain said.

But Obama countered that the Iranian crisis was being exacerbated by a lack of active US diplomatic action.

The McCain campaign seemed to sense the dramatic missile tests could provide an opening to question Obama’s perceived inexperience.

“Senator Obama’s actions and his words don’t match,” said Republican Senator John Thune, a McCain supporter, on a conference call.

“This is where there is tremendous contrast with Senator McCain, who clearly understands the threat, who has demonstrated that over a long period of time, and who, I believe is ready to be commander-in-chief on day one.”

The long-range Shahab-3 with a conventional warhead was among a broadside of nine missiles fired off from an undisclosed location in the Iranian desert.

The firing comes at a time of growing tension over Tehran’s nuclear drive, which Iran insists is aimed solely at generating energy but the West fears could be aimed at making an atomic bomb.