Christian Political Response

Clinton Fundraiser Endorses McCain

John — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:06:43 +0000

This is not a good sign for Barack Obama. A big time fundriaser and supporter of Hillary Clinton, as well as a member of the DNC Platform Committee formally endorsed John McCain. Below is the press release announcing this endorsement.

LYNN FORESTER DE ROTHSCHILD, MEMBER OF DNC PLATFORM COMMITTEE, ENDORSES JOHN MCCAIN

For Immediate Release
Contact: Press Office

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

ARLINGTON, VA — Today the McCain-Palin campaign announced the endorsement of Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter and member of the Democratic National Committee’s Platform Committee.

“In an election as important at this, we must choose the candidate who has a proven record of bipartisanship and reforming government, and that’s John McCain,” Rothschild said. “We can’t afford a president who lacks experience and judgment and has never crossed party lines to work for meaningful reform. Amid tough economic times and foreign policy concerns, we need someone who is ready to lead. Although I am a Democrat, I recognize that it’s more important to put country ahead of party and that’s why I support John McCain.”

Rothschild, an attorney and businesswoman, supported Sen. Clinton during the Democratic primaries. She will campaign for Sen. McCain through Election Day.

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Humor on the Campaign trail

John — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:15:56 +0000

I always enjoy the campaign season, not always because of the debates and the campaign rhetoric, but for the comedians. Late night talk show hosts and Saturday Night Live tend to have a field day with politicians. Usually the politicians make it easy for them, they say something without thinking or they end up in the wrong place during the wrong time and they look extremely awkward. For example in 1996 when Bob Dole fell off a stage, or in 2004 when John Kerry goes surfing. These are times when the comedian’s role up their sleeve and just go at it. This campaign season there is a lot that be made fun of. For obvious starters, John McCain’s age is going to be perfect for poking fun at. The man is old. For Barack Obama, he has a tendency to say something and then have to retract it. For example yesterday he said, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” While this may be an old saying (I never heard of it) but the timing is rather suspect and he is already coming under fire for this. I am sure that tonight the comedians are going to make at least one comment about his statement. Should Obama have said this, no, not at all. The timing was suspect. Last week Palin makes lipstick remark and now this, the easy connection to make is that Obama was calling Palin a pig. I’m sure he was not, but it isn’t that much of a stretch. Here is a clip of some of the late night talk show hosts poking fun at the campaigns.



A look at the Electoral Map
John — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:17:45 +0000
Now that Senator John McCain has the national lead in the polls and is closing in on Barack Obama in the Electoral College count, he has come out with a new ad trying to increase his lead.  Barack Obama still leads in the Electoral College count if you look at the polls state by state.  John McCain however is closing the gap.  Depending on the poll you look at and the break down of the states, Barack Obama has around 278 Electoral College votes to John McCain’s 260.  Just a few months ago, McCain was barley above the 200 mark and Obama was well in the 300’s.

According to recent polls, Obama is leading in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Washington State, and Colorado.





John McCain is leading is Virginia, Michigan and Ohio.  Just like 2000, Florida is a dead heat, a tie at 48%-48%.  Florida would be the determining factor is the election was held today.  The bump that John McCain has received from the convention and his pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate has put into contention is some states that he other wise would not have been focusing on.  Barack Obama’s lead over McCain in Washington State for instance is just 4%.  Barack is leading in all the states that John Kerry won is 2004.  He needs to do better then this if he hopes to win in November.  Barack Obama will need to pick up one of the battle ground states of Ohio, Virginia, Michigan, or Florida.  If he can’t do this, then John McCain will walk into the White House with the same victory Bush had over Kerry four years ago.

Will McCain’s momentum continue?  We will have to wait and see how Sarah Palin does with the Charles Gibson interview that will start to be aired on Thursday.  Gibson has been given two days to interview Sarah Palin and claims that nothing is off limits in the interview.  How well she does during this interview will go along way in determining whether she was the right pick or just a shocking pick.  The McCain campaign has been shielding Palin from the media since their announcement.  This is her first interview of TV and they had to have spent some time deliberating on which reporter would get the opportunity to be the first to interview her.  Charles Gibson is probably a good choice.  He does not come across as too aggressive and he has a reputation of being non biased.  Unlike Chris Mathews and Keith Olberman.  Both of whom have been removed by MSNBC of covering political debates due to their over whelming bias.

 


       



Bump for McCain
John — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:34:27 +0000
I realize that political polls this far out from an election are not very useful in determining the outcome of the election.  However I do think that the resent results are fairly interesting when coupled with viewership for the conventions.  The recent USA Today/Gallup poll has Republican John McCain leading Democrat Barack Obama by 54%-44% among registered voters.  Couple this with the fact that the Republican Convention had a higher viewership then the Democrat Convention and there may be some momentum building for John McCain.  The Republican Convention was the most viewed convention in the history of conventions.  This kind of flies in the face of common thought.





Everyone is saying that Barack Obama is the media darling and that he is captivating the Americans attention.  However the statistics tell another story, at least with convention viewership.  The other point to take into consideration is that Barack Obama did not get much of a bump from his convention.  This can be attributed to John McCain announcing his pick for Vice President the day after the Democratic Convention ended.  Any bump that Obama would have received was overlooked by the excitement of a Vice Presidential pick.  This was smart planning on the part of John McCain’s campaign and shows the huge advantage you receive for having the second convention.

Nominating conventions are big pep rallies that are designed for momentum building and to drive message home to the American viewing public.  No longer are they used as they were indented; to actually nominate and choose a presidential candidate.  That was done months ago during the Primary season.  None the less, the conventions are good for TV.  In years past TV networks have balked at showing the conventions, they did not think viewership would be high enough and they would rather show reruns.  However this year with such an energetic candidate in Barack Obama, viewership increased and the TV networks, especially the cable news shows received a huge boost in viewership.

The guess only time will tell whether the bump John McCain has received is real or just a short term fascination with his VP pick.



       



The Race For The White House Is On
John — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:32:50 +0000
It is now less then two months away.  The election for the 44th President of the United States.  Last night Senator John McCain delivered his acceptance speech to a packed hall in Minnesota.  The speech which lasted for close to an hour was full of some specifics but lacked the fire and exuberance of Barack Obama’s speech.  This was to be expected.  John McCain is not a motivating speaker, he has lived a motivating life, but he is not going to get you fired up listening to him speak about energy policy or foreign relations.  There is no doubt that he has far more experience and background to be President.  He has been groomed for this position and is definitely ready for the job, the real question is whether he will be able to motivate voters to show up and support him.  Barack Obama can do this; he can lead a crowd and stir them into a frenzy that will follow him anywhere.  The question Barack needs to answer is whether he has a plan and can back up his enthusiastic statements with substance.

It seems that both candidates are trying to hit home the change theme.  Barack wants a change in leadership away from the 8 years of George Bush.  McCain wants a change in direction and the abuse of Washington power.





Barack will claim that McCain has supported Bush over 90% of the time during the past 8 years and does not demonstrate a change from the Bush years.  McCain will attack Obama for wanting change but having no idea what the change will look like or how he will achieve change, or what the impact of the change will be.  The determining factor will be which candidate can most energize their supporters to show up on election day and which candidate did the best job of convincing the American public that they will change Washington and not just be a part of the problem.

Can John McCain stir his party into a frenzy to show up in large numbers on election day, probably not.  But does he really need to, when Barack Obama is doing it for him.  Every time Barack Obama speaks and whips his crowd into a cheering mass, McCain supporters become that much more motivated to work hard and get out to vote.



       



Sarah Palin Speaks
John — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:36:53 +0000

Last night the Republican Vice Presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin gave an electric and well delivered speech to the Republican Convention and the country.  She had in my opinion three goals for the speech and I feel delivered them.  First, she needed to introduce herself to the country.  Before last weekend no one had even heard of Sarah Palin.  Alaska is a state, but we didn’t know who the governor was.  The last thing I heard about Alaska was that their Senator was being brought up on criminal charges, but still managed to win the primary.  Sarah Palin delivered this; she gave the country her background and pointed out who she is, where she came from, and what she believes.





Her second major goal was to show her personality and be likable.  First impressions are key.  Since no one really knew who Sarah Palin was, we didn’t have an impression about her.  Last night she demonstrated her personality.  She showed that she is likable, but with a biting sense of humor.  She did mock Barack Obama.  As I watched her speech it reminded me of a group of soccer moms sitting on the sideline talking about their neighbor’s yard and why theirs is so much better.  She was direct and forceful, but still came across as someone you would like to talk too, and could easily have a conversation with.

Her third goal was to draw comparisons to Barack Obama and herself.  She laid out exactly what her experience has been and compared it to Obama’s.  They are fairly similar.  Neither has been around for a long time in government and her executive experience which he does not have has been running a small town for eight years and then two years as governor of Alaska.  Alaska is big on land, but small on people.  Sarah Palin could have easily summer this up with the following phrase: “Would you elect me to be your next President?  Of course not, I’m not ready and have no experience, so why would you vote for Barack Obama when he is the male version of me.”

Overall Sarah Palin did what she needed to do.  Her star is rising.  While McCain can criticize Barack Obama for being a superstar, McCain may have created one himself in Sarah Palin.



       



Coming to a Theater Near You
John — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:44:58 +0000
Oliver Stones latest movie is about the current President, George W. Bush.  I am planning on watching the movie out of curiosity, but like all of Oliver Stones movies I am also expecting him to take some liberties and try to drum up a controversy and conspiracy theory.  The current plan is to release the movie just in time to impact the General Election.  Just like Oliver Stone and the Hollywood elite to try and put their fingerprints on the future of our country.  Here is the latest trailer for W.




       



Obama Doesn’t Visit Troops
John — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:29:53 +0000
While in Germany Barack Obama decided not to visit injured American troops.  Instead he played basketball.  John McCain’s latest ad makes sure everyone knows about Obama’s choice.




       



McCain’s New Political Ad
John — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:34:48 +0000
John McCain’s latest ad blasts Obama on his flip flopping, but at the same time it seems to agree with his stance on Iraq.





       



McCain’s New Ad
John — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:57:32 +0000
This new ad by John McCain isn’t too bad.  You can tell though that the summer has slowed things down with the campaigns.  The press is all over Barack Obama for having his kids on tv during an interview, not to mention the comment made by Jesse Jackson.  Jesse Jackson, who by the way really is irrelevent in modern politics.  Though there are many people out there who still listen to him for some odd reason, and his propensity for making not well thought out comments could hurt Barack in the fall.