Ding! Ding! Ding!

Early clubhouse leader for line 'o the day!

Vince, I've always said NB readers are the coolest cats around ;-)

Mica, I've actually just changed the picture of Hillary's glare to one I grabbed from last night's debate. Hope you agree it illustrates the genre equally as well, and it has the advantage of coming from the same event.

...before the real race even starts.  McCain clearly shows improvement in his ability to listen to other's views and to adjust his demeanor to the situtation at hand. 

I for one am not disillusioned by Barak Obama's talents at public speaking and commanding a crowd.  There are people who have the inate skill set to sell anything to anybody.  Look at the some of the leading tyrannts in the world past and present.  All are captivating public speakers -- Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Amedinajahd, Vladmir Lenin, Mao Tse-tung, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Josef Stalin to name a few. 

What is so sad about American politics is that the debates are not debates.  On every issue, all we hear is how wrong America is, how bad the Republican party is, and how the candidate has a plan.  What plan?  A meaningful debate would first lay out facts with which we can agree (as a stipulation in a legal proceeding).  Once common ground is established, candidates can set forth their plan for solving a problem and why they believe their plan is best.  Let the jury (voters) decide! 

Instead, we have a popularity contest built on platitudes of empty promises of a utopian society trying to be all things to all people.  No, we cannot all get along as those seeking to represent us continue to divide us along racial, social, and economic lines.  Government intervention (read "funding") cannot solve all problems and societies that elect those who promise utopia financed through income and wealth redistribution have always found misery, shortages, and hopelessness. 

I find Hillary's lack of debate and public speaking skills amusing.  How many times over the past seven years have we heard those suffering from BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) equate the President's intelligence with his speaking style?  Too numerous to count perhaps?  Supporters fawn over Hillary because she's bright, yet she is a horrible public speaker.  More telling about Hillary is that her campaign imploded because she's probably a poor executive and cannot make decisions.  She is calculating, but not disciplined and principled.  Neither is Bill, but he could get away with it.

In all fairness, Obama is not an empty suit.  In fact, he is very bright, which makes him all the more dangerous.  Why is he so shallow on substance in his speeches?  American voters repeatedly and overwhelmingly reject socialism as a solution to our social and economic challenges. If anyone thinks that a majority of Americans believe government should become more involved, why the outcry over the Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London, Connecticut?  Americans want to be secure in their property and do not want government to tell them what they can own and how they should spend their money. 

Obama is disciplined and principled.  What a surprise it will be for America when they wake up and find out his agenda for change is not what was advertised.  God willing, we will never see that day.

Think about Obama's message and his audience.  Then, consider this quote: 

In China, although in the main socialist transformation has been completed with respect to the system of ownership, and although the large-scale and turbulent class struggles of the masses characteristic of the previous revolutionary periods have in the main come to an end, there are still remnants of the overthrown landlord and comprador classes, there is still a bourgeoisie, and the remoulding of the petty bourgeoisie has only just started. The class struggle is by no means over. The class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the class struggle between the different political forces, and the class struggle in the ideological held between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie will continue to be long and tortuous and at times will even become very acute. The proletariat seeks to transform the world according to its own world outlook, and so does the bourgeoisie. In this respect, the question of which will win out, socialism or capitalism, is still not really settled.

On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People  (February 27, 1957), 1st pocket ed., pp. 51-52.

--  Mao Tse-tung

I hear you, MB, but hope you'd agree that for most people tuning in, Cool Hand Barack came off the winner.

did he really say all of that?

I would like to read that, and sutff it in the face of my friends who are voting for him

 "...will seek a global ban on the development of fissile material"

for shizzle my nizzle

I was a professional twice over - an analyst and a therapist. The world's first analrapist