Why Nuclear Weapons Prove Obama Is A Faithful Husband!

I’ll give the president this.  He does NOT like to take the easy way out. 

Case in point, today I read that he’s revamping US nuclear weapons strategy to make it less vague.  He’s going to move the US towards a policy of a more narrow use of nuclear weapons. 

According to this NY Times article online at MSNBC:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36185431/ns/politics-the_new_york_times/

the president even has the US not using nuclear weapons in the case of certain biological attacks.

Now I’m no blood-loving hawk and I generally think the less we rely on nukes the better.  On the other hand, I’m not some hippy dippie tree hugger who doesn’t believe that we in fact have some enemies that look to hurt us.  9/11 taught us that much.

Mostly, I’m no expert on nuclear weapons as effective deterrents, but I kind of liked a vagueness to our policy.  Sure, it’s not the perfect moral policy. But, I do think it helps to keep our enemies a little unsure of what our exact policy is.  Why spell out when we wouldn’t use nukes?  Isn’t that just asking for trouble?

For all any of us know, this may in fact be the right policy decision.  I for, one, was none to comfortable with the last adminstration’s attitude of shooting first and asking questions later. 

But, if I’m asking questions then I can only begin to imagine what mileage the talk radio right will be getting out of this.

President Obama’s decision on nuclear policy is debatable.  What’s not debatable is that short-term it’s awful politics.  It plays right into the hands of the stereotypes the right-wing media loves to dole out. 

It wasn’t the easy road.  That would have been doing 800 other smaller and non-controversial things.  In the president’s mind though, I’m guessing it was the right road.

And so here’s the point.   Long wait!  I know. 

But, if this president is so willing to take on the tough tasks, not take the easy way out, and stay committed to doing what’s right, than I’ve got one last guess about him. 

This is probably a man who is faithful to his wife. 

Either that or he’s addicted to taking huge risks.   Wait, that would be another of my favorite presidents, Bill Clinton.

Maybe Democrats Aren’t Stupid After All!

With tonight’s historic votes, Democrats may have finally pushed healthcare reform across. In the process, they might have also proven that they’re not completely stupid after all.

On this blog, I’ve argued that Democrats had no choice but to vote yes and get healthcare reform done.  After all, this November they’ll be facing Republicans reminding all of America about the Democrats’ push for healthcare win or lose.

The fact is that history is written by the winners.  So, as I see it Democrats had a choice, they could either run in November as the majority party who failed to pass healthcare reform, which the Republicans would have spun as a failure to impose socialism or worse on America thanks to the kindly GOP.

OR… They could go into November’s elections as the majority party who actually got something done.  Sure, half the country is pissed right now.  But, that won’t last.  Already on the local news, I saw a woman interviewed on the street who opposed healthcare reform but now that it passed said “she hoped it would be good for the country.”  That sentiment will be more and more the case as time goes by.

What people are REALLY mad at is incumbents on both sides who seem to be less and less able to get anything of real substance done.  Well, wake up America.  The Democrats just got substantial.  They’ll now go to the polls as the party that opened up health care to 30 million people AND got rid of the whole “pre-existing conditions” thing.   Not too shabby.

So, yes, there will still be people angry about this so-called “power grab” and expansion of government intrusion into our lives come November.  My guess is that that group is the fringe.  A very very large fringe, but a fringe none the less.  And remember, you don’t have to win elections by anything more than one vote. 

Now, the president needs to focus even more on jobs and the economy.  Then, the Democrats can claim true momentum come  November.

And the GOP?  Oh yeah, they’re the ones who are fine with the government requiring us to buy auto insurance, but feel that requiring that everyone has health care coverage is a nake power grab.  Nevermind that that naked power grab just opened up health care to millions and made it illegal for your insurance company to deny you coverage due to “pre-existing conditions” also known as “you might cost us too much money so we’d rather than you die as soon as possible”.

I think we’ll be talking more about that fractured logic come November.

Hey Idiot Democrats! Don’t Let Abortion Kill Health Care For All!

I believe that abortion should be legal.  I also believe everyone should have access to decent health care.   But now, there are some abortion rights supporters in the House of Representatives who are willing to see health care reform go down the tubes if the reform legislation bans federal dollars from paying for abortions.  Not making it illegal just not paying for it, mind you.

These are people who are willing to keep 30 or so million people shut out of access to healthcare unless it covers abortions.

Is abortion really the issue to get stuck on?

As I said, I believe in the right of a woman to abort her pregnancy and don’t want to see women have to resort to back alley abortionists.  But, honestly why should 30 million people suffer if the federal government isn’t willing to cover what was ultimately a personal mistake made by two people that they after the fact want to undo.

I’m not judging here.  Mistakes happen.  I get it and I’m no saint.  But, for the 30 million not covered by health insurance right now, the mistake isn’t theirs so much as a function of our broken health care system and values.

What we’ve lost both between our two major parties and EVEN WORSE within each party itself, is the art of compromise.  This will never be a perfect bill.  No one is going to be 100% happy with it.  That’s just the fact if it stands any chance of being passed.

So, for the idiot House Democrats threatening to vote no over abortion coverage I suggest this or a lobotomy. 

Why not pass the bill which benefits all of us ultimately by giving 30 million access and getting rid of pre-existing condition bans now and continue the debate of abortion coverage after health care reform is enacted? 

After all, something is better than nothing here and it’s always easier to tweak something once it’s law than starting all over.  Anyone for another year of health care debate?  Nah?  Didn’t think so.

A lot of Democrats are nervous about their election prospects in November should health care reform become law.  The political truth is that it’s a lot easier to go before the voters as a winner versus a “politician who tried to engineer a government takeover of healthcare but lost“, which will be the Republican spin.

If on the other hand Democrats go to the polls as winners in the health care battle, the Republicans will have to take a moment to explain how they fought against eliminating pre-existing condition bans.   Good luck on that one, GOP!

When Barak Obama was elected he talked a lot about bringing people together.   We assumed he was talking about Democrats & Republicans. 

The reality now is that he must unite Democrats.  He must turn them into winner even if the victory isn’t perfect.  And even the ones who are idiots and are willing to squander the opportunity to achieve something of historic benefit in the name of a objections based on a narrow interest group.

Let common sense  and compromise prevail!

Congress Yucks It Up While Wasting Our Time & Money! Proof!

Republicans in the House recently tried a stalling tactic that the Democrats got around by hiring a speed reader.   In the end, everyone had a bi-partisan laugh riot.  And the American people have the proof that both parties aren’t working hard enough to get us back on track…

Republicans Still Foxy After All! In Shocker They Pause Spending Bill!

Let’s put it out there.  I think a lot of what the GOP has done since the election of our new president is wrongheaded.  They have seemed tone deaf and in denial about the desire for change the election signaled.  I get that they were shut out of drafting the stimulus legislation in the House, but giving only 3 GOP votes on the stimulus bill strikes me as self-defeating.  When our economic nightmare is over, people will remember who was helping and who was playing politics. 

For the GOP there will be a price to pay at the polls.

So it struck me as quite a shock to find out the GOP is still foxy after all.

This morning I read how the Republicans had stopped a $400 billion spending bill pregnant with 8,000 earmarks in its tracks.  I had recently written that Obama was making a mistake not challenging all the earmarks in this bill and that the representatives involved should be ashamed.  How, at this time of crisis, do we let business as usual play out to the tunes of several billion dollars of unnecessary spending I asked. 

I guess the GOP was asking for the same question.  At this point, they’ve stalled the legislation.  Good for them and maybe us.   Stopping earmarks now has to be a winning political issue and if we can chisel out a few billion of waste from the $400 billion in spending than perhaps we can put it to better use or at least into my bank account (that last part is a joke for those of you from the IRS…)

Anyway, the president is pretty foxy too or slick as I also recently wrote.  He’s a bright guy.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see him turn around on this bill and join the Republicans fighting against that bill.

That’d be bipartisan after all….

A Shock Jock Runs The Republican Party! And That’s Only The Second Worst Thing To Happen To Republicans This Week!

On the heels of the ELECTED head of the Republican Party apologizing for nothing to blowhard Rush Limbaugh comes more bad news for the GOP.  A Wall Street Journal poll reports that the president that Limbaugh hopes fails currently has his highest approval ratings ever.

After six weeks on the job, according to this poll, Americans overwhelmingly approve of the job the Obama Administration is doing.  Americans, the poll finds, are blaming Republicans for the lack of bipartisanship in our nation’s capitol.

Boy oh boy, that’s bad news for the GOP.  Looks like the GOP’s “principled stand” against Obama’s stimulus package is being read by Americans for what it truly is… politics as usual.  Republican leadership just doesn’t get it.  Now is not the time for back in the day politics.  Now is the time for new ideas not old platitudes.

No amount of election losses  can get it through the thick heads of the GOP elite.  The mood in the country has changed and it’s not changing back quickly.

Michael Steele would have been much better off telling Rush he’d never cow tow to him rather than embarrassing himself by apologizing to a guy who is busy defending the polices that most Americans think got us into this economic mess in the first place.

It’s too bad because America could use a second party of new ideas right about now…

Risky Games! Does The President Or The GOP Have The Pulse Of The Nation?

I think it was soon after being elected that Barack Obama started making statements about how we needed to get the economy going again and so his administration wasn’t going to spend much time worrying about our record deficits.  The logic was job was to get America working again and once that was accomplished it’d be easier to cut our massive deficits.

As far as I could tell, Obama’s logic was widely accepted as reasonable.  People were willing to give him a short term pass on the deficit problem.  Most politicians would have stopped right there.

President Obama we may be finding out isn’t just any politician.  The President is proving to be a truly ambitious guy and a risk taker to boot.  Not only is he putting billions of dollars towards stimulating the economy, now he’s planning on cutting deficits at the same time.  Basically, he’s increasing spending massively while pledging to cut drastically.  That’s going to be one difficult trick to pull off.

These are tough times.  These are times that demand ambitious plans.  Perhaps our best bet is a comprehensive approach that tackles many of the big ticket items that ail and drain our economy:  Iraq, Afghanistan, deficits, health care, the auto industry, infrastructure problems.  I can go on…  So, maybe it’s all tied together and President Obama is wise to try to tackle it all while he’s still got the political capital to do it.

For the country’s sake and his own political future, he’d better be right.  Obama is persuring a high risk/high reward strategy.  If things work out, he may end up as one of our most accomplished leaders.  If the economy doesn’t turn around and if he’s unable to bring down the deficits, he risks being labeled as someone who could not deliver on bold promises made to a country in need of some good news. 

Obama could have chosen a safer route and everyone would have understood.  I admire his refusal to do so and pray that he’s right.

Speaking of the right… The GOP is clearly playing their own version of a high risk/high reward strategy.  Putting some context on  it, it’s very clear that at least in the House, Democrats have not been governing in much of a bi-partisan manner.  Republicans simply haven’t been given much input into writing bills like the recently passed stimulus package.  Furthermore, the GOP doesn’t have the numbers to block the Democrats from shutting them out.  So, y0u can understand why they’d be a bit grumpy.

Still, the GOP decision to stand idly by while the country continues to struggle is a big risk.  If things go well for them, things will go bad for the country.  That means that the GOP will be able to say “see, we told you so”.  Hmmmmm….  I wonder if the country is going to give them points for being right in the end or if people will wonder how the Republicans they elected to represent them could have sat out on the sidelines while things got worse and worse?

These are not ordinary times and so ordinary politics just won’t do.

Let’s look at the flip side, let’s say the economy improves.  What will Republicans say then?  Won’t the public remember a new president who spoke about bi-partisanship only to find very few Republicans willing to work with him at a time when the country needed them most?  Sure, as I noted earlier in this post, the Democrats in the House aren’t playing nice either.  The question is will the general public remember that?

Obama is clearly taking a massive risk.  Yet, I can see clearly how there’s a potential upside.  The GOP on the other hand is pursuing a risky strategy that seems destined to either leave them with no potential upside or very little even if they end up being right and Obama’s policies don’t improve the economy.

Perhaps Republicans aren’t understanding how bad time are?  How can some GOP governors say with a straight face that they might turn down stimulus money?  I’m suspecting that if I’m a struggling conservative everyman in a conservative state where services are being cut  at a  time when I need them and my governor is refusing aid, I would not be happy about it.  In times like these ideological concerns quickly give way to the practical.  Maybe that’s what the GOP isn’t grasping.

On the drive home this evening, I was listening to talk radio on NPR.  A small business owner called up and said she’d always been a Republican but can’t stand to see her party doing nothing during this crisis.  She told the host and his Republican Congressman guest (whose name I didn’t catch – my bad!) that the GOP keeps saying small business will lift us out of this mess.  The caller said she’s done all she can and now it’s time for government and politicians to help.

Listen, I know it’s NPR, but if the caller truly was a Republican than the GOP just might be in real trouble.  It really calls into question whether the party has the pulse of the nation.

My guess is no.

Breaking News! Turns Out Economy Is Not Cyclical!! It’s Just Shaq-tastic!

When talking to my many Republican leaning friends and acquaintances over the years, I’ve often heard about all the good Ronald Reagan (may he rest in peace) did for the U.S. economy.  When I inevitably bring up Bill Clinton’s economic record to these same friends, I usually get dismissed very quickly.  It’s typically with something along the lines of “everyone knows the economy is cyclical.”  Then when further pressed, these same Reagan fans will go to statements like “the president has nothing to do with the economy”.

And that’s when they’re in my trap.

I usually bust out something like, “OK, so if the president has nothing to do with the economy than how can you give credit to Reagan for America’s boom in the ’80s?”.  Most of the time, there’s some hemming and hawing, but pretty quickly most Republicans throw Reagan under a bus and chose to defend the position that the economy is cyclical.  Among my Republican pals, this belief is more closely held than even the esteem in which President Reagan is held.

So, for a lot of people, “the economy is cyclical”.  Free markets are the key to everyone’s prosperity goes the thinking.  Suddenly though, a lot of these GOP types are re-thinking.  Re-thinking to the tune of billions and billions of dollars.

President Bush and his cronies as well as the Democrats in government are doing an awful lot to try to right the economic situation.  Are they doing the right things?  Darned if I know.  Like John McCain, the economy isn’t my bag, man.

That said, I think that for those people who believe the economy is simply cyclical this has to be a wake up call.  The reality is that our markets never were and will never be 100% free markets.  Government has a role to play.

It’s like a playoff game in the NBA or NHL or any sport.  You want the refs to let the guys play the game.  You don’t want the championship to be decided on some tippy tap lame as@ foul call.  On the flip side, you don’t want to let the game degenerate where someone like let’s say Shaq can just run over people at will with no risk of a foul being called.  That’s not fair either.

So, it’s a fine line for sports’ refs.  And it’s a finer line for the government.  The government should have a role in the free markets that we Americans hold dear.  The government, like an NBA ref, needs to make sure to let business do what businesses need to do in order to succeed.  But, like not letting Shaq steamroll his way to an NBA championship, the government needs to curb the excesses of the companies that choose to undermine the free markets America provides by cheating their way to success.

The government needs to be involved, which means the president needs to be involved.  It’s even better when he or she actually understands the issues related to the economy.  Ultimately, it does matter who’s president.

Americans have found that out the hard way recently.  Eight years of bad Bush policies along with plenty of blame to go around to the Democrats in Congress, have helped us get into this financial mess our nation is currently in.

Suddenly, President Bush has discovered that he matters when it comes to the economy and it’s not ALL just about cyclical turns in the almighty free markets.  He’s got a job to do and he seems to be trying to do his best at it.

I don’t know whether to be happy or scared…

GOP’s Shocking Dissappearing Act! AKA WTF Does John McCain Have Against My Blog?

So, today brought another surprise from John McCain.  Now, he’s going to show us how he’s large and in charge of Wall Street’s financial crisis.  McCain announced that he’s planning on suspending his campaign to go back to Washington DC to help hammer out a bi-partisan resolution to the proposed financial bail out.  And oh, by the way, unless a deal is reached before Friday (mere hours from now) he’s saying he’s not going to debate Barack Obama after all on Friday night.

Here are my immediate impressions:

Is it me or is a lot of the Republican campaign this year based on just not being around?  First, you have Sarah Palin’s refusal to talk to almost any reporters.  Always a good sign when your future VP is thought so inexperienced that she can’t handle the press corps.  And now, McCain has figured out a way to duck Obama perhaps not so coincidentally just as the polls were starting to head back in Obama’s favor. 

The right is calling it putting country first and believe that after 26 years of pushing for deregulation that he’s now committed to being part of fixing a mess (he helped create in some part in my opinion) over his ambition to win the White House.  The left is calling it a cynical move for a failing candidate who is looking for headlines as his poll numbers are falling.  Frankly it could be a bit of each.

But that said, I am struck by the McCain campaign’s seeming lack of faith in their candidates.  Between hiding Palin, then dumbing down the debate format for her and now John McCain suddenly bailing on the first debate, it sure appears like there’s a lack of confidence in what they’re selling.

Whether that’s true or not, I think it’s now beyond debating that John McCain does have an impulsive maverick streak in him.  He’s a risk taker.  He took a gamble when he went with Sarah Palin.  Now, he’s taking a risk by rushing to DC and bagging out on the first debate.  You may not agree with John McCain and you may not believe that his maverick-ness wil lead him to change the culture in Washington, but you just can’t deny a McCain presidency would certainly have entertainment value.  We’re seeing John McCain’s decision making process.  There’s an impulsiveness and he clearly enjoys the big surprise move (but who doesn’t?).  Whether that makes him best suited to lead our nation we will each have to make our own decision on.

Finally, I think McCain is out to get this blog.  Seriously.  He’s forever throwing a wrench into my plans.  I had my DVR all set and was certain I wasn’t missing a minute of Friday’s toe to toe match up.  It clearly was going to be a big moment in the campaign and I wanted to be able to spout off on all of it, the drama, the good lines the lines that didn’t work, who did what right and who did what wrong.

Now, of course, I’ll be busy trying to scrounge up some topic or other to ramble on about.  It might even be good.  Check back on Friday to be sure!

But, it won’t be the same…

Now, it

John Edwards Is More Clinton-Like Than We Knew! (AKA Penis Takes Out Another VP Candidate!)

I’ll admit it.  I’m a John Edwards fan.  I thought his message during the Democratic primary season was the one that offered up the most hope for the largest group of Americans – those of us stuck somewhere in the middle.  Edwards’ message, which to me always echoed Bill Clinton’s campaign themes, was that he actually cared about average Americans who played by the rules and worked for a living.

These days, government is funded by and in the pocket of major corporations and the mega-rich, so they of course get taken care of. (Edwards himself took every opportunity to hammer this home and I admired him for it)  The poor get some, but probably not enough attention and in between the rest of us struggle to tread water economically.  This was Edwards message.  I think I’m not exagerrating when I say this was clearly his passion.

Although he ended up not winning the nomination, I do think his campaign could rightly claim that he’d greatly influenced the messages coming out of the Clinton and Obama campaign juggernauts.

Unfortunately, today we found out that John Edwards has some other similarities with Bill Clinton and it involves a whole ‘nother kind of passion.  Personally, I’ve always taken more of a European view on politicians and their sex life.  My feeling is I’m not voting for them for their marital skills.  I’ll take a cheating spouse who’s an effective leader over a faithful spouse who can’t get things done on behalf of the people he or she represents.  Basically, I feel cheating is between a politician and his wife unless either me or my wife is somehow involved personally (which so far we’ve happily managed to avoid).

That ALL said, cheating on your wife while she battles cancer is pretty tacky.  Bill Clinton was and remains a once in a lifetime American politician.  Clinton, through his charisma, determination and it saddens me to say a certain lack of shame, was able to survive admitting to multiple affairs.  For all their similarities, John Edwards is NO Bill Clinton.  The cancer factor, the fact that he’s a lawyer and most people are skeptical of them to begin with and his non-Clintonesqe lack of charisma add up to John Edwards being done.

John Edwards will not be a VP candidate this year.  John Edwards will never be president.

Based on his message and passion, Edwards cheated not only his wife, but America out of the good he could have done.  Remember, just because the guy turns out to be a creep doesn’t mean his message is automatically wrong.

Everyone deserves a second chance and here’s hoping that John Edwards is smart enought to make the most of his.  He can start by sparing his wife and us the spectacle of further admitions with his shell shocked wife at his side…

Here’s a link to a post I wrote about Edwards during the primaries for those interested:

http://fullcontactsports.wordpress.com/2008/01/06/john-edwards-won-the-debate/