The following interview, from Glen Beck's Website, should convince anyone that Gov. Palin may not yet be ready:
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/17080/?ck=1
The scary thing is that Gov. Palin's syntax was probably cleaned up to some degree.
Mrs. Dunham
I think all Obama supporters' thoughts and prayers are with the Obama family and Mrs. Dunham at the time of her grave illness.
Grandparents being the remarkable people they are, I am sure Mrs. Dunham is more proud her Grandson is an honest, decent man who married a fine woman and is raising a wonderful family than any of his other attainments. However, I hope she able to see her Grandson elected President.
Education
This is a critical issue.
No Child Left Behind seems to be more of a "Jinku" or a "Kaplan Course" approach to education and, thus, a stop-gap. I remeber Hedrick Smith wrote about 13 years ago that our system works well for Talented and gifted ("TAG") kids and Special Ed kids and fails everyone else. I don't think that is untrue, although I am neither a parent nor a teacher ... and generally avoid associations, too.
Charter Schools seem like a good idea, but there seem to be recurrent fraud and abuse issue. Private contractors like The Edison Project seem to fail everytime they get a turn-key contract.
I can't think of a more important issue and I can't think of anything with a smaller range of workable solutions.
Does anyone have any thougts?
The Third Debate
Some thoughts on the Third Debate:
---"Sen. Government?" Is he any relation to "Barrack America?"
---That someone who probably has a USAA auto insurance policy in his pocket is extolling the virtues of individual over group insurance is indicative of a Health Care Reform Plan that appears to exist to fill space on the McCain'08 web-site. That this is nonsense is an understatement. Sen. McCain should have adopted the House Republicans' reform plan, which is largely cribbed from the Obama Plan with Medical Savings Accounts crammed in.
---No, Sen. McCain, Sen. Obama is not advocating a single-payor system. He has a market-based reform plan like yours. The difference is that his could work.
---I hate to tell you this Sen. McCain, but we are a lot more leveraged than we were in 1929 and taxes will have to go up to avoid the wheels from coming off. The real question is on whom and when? Sen. Obama understands that and you don't.
---If you think registration anomalies by ACORN are a major threat to the fabric of American Democracy, you don't have a lot of faith in American Democracy.
---Joe the Plumber needs a better accountant. However, he will also need a good press agent.
The Current Crisis
Everyone is a fan of Schumpeter's "gales of creative destruction" until they need shelter from the storm. Everyone loves the free market, until they have made their nut and want to "lock it in."
The Second Debate
I have only two thoughts on last night's debate:
a) Sen. McCain has no interest in domestic policy other than the necessary (but insufficiant) effort to reduce earmarks: and
b) how can anyone with USAA policy (policies?) coverage on his car(s) say with a straight face that an individual will get a better deal on health insurance than a group?
Battle of Las Guasimas, Cuba, 24 June 1898Joseph Wheeler, a commander of Confederate Cavalry in the West during the Civil War, appointed a Major General of Volunteers by President McKinley, creeps out the officers and men he leads in the Cavalry Division, most of whom were children during the Civil War or who were born since, by yelling, in the excitement of the the first major fighting of the war, "Let's go, boys! We've got the damn Yankees on the run again!"When Bill Ayers was a member of the Weather Underground, Barrack Obama was not only eight years old and deeply concerned with collecting Hot Wheels Cars and playing soccer with his friends: he was living in Indonesia. For this reason, Sen. Obama probably lacks a memory of Huntley and Brinkley talking about several of Ayers's peers blowing themselves and a Greenwich Village Brownstone up in 1970. Thus, when Mr. Obama, an aspiring politician in the early to mid-1990s, gained Mr. Ayers's support, he probably was happy to have the support of a well established progressive and educator in Chicago. He was probably glad for an opportunity to serve as a Board member of a respected, high profile progressive charity.Just as Joe Wheeler's staff probably knew Wheeler had taken a "Rebel stand," Sen. Obama probably knew Bill Ayers had been a "1960s radical." Like Joe Wheeler's staff prior to the Battle of Las Guasimas, he probably did not know what that meant.Many of us, most of us, have associations with people who were not always on the same side. I was a Lieutenant in the Army in the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1980s. Like most Army officers serving in Germany, I had many conversations with older Germans, all of whom seemed to have served on the Eastern Front, about how to fight a war of maneuver. Some of the insights were very useful.Solders and Marines serving in Iraq today work with Iraqi Soldiers and Militias who had been in Saddam's Army or who had been insurgents.The fact that our Soldiers and Marines serve with these men does not make them Baathists or Salafists. The fact that I listened to these old German Soldiers' insights and comments does not make me a Nazi. The fact that Sen. Obama served on a board, 30 years on, with a man with a radical past does not make him a radical.To try to present this association as such does indicate that Sen. McCain's Campaign has lost its way.
Gov. Sarah Palin did fine in the debate, but not good. She was telegenic, media savvy and personable. She was not well informed or presidential.
Gov. Palin has apparently made a habit of not answering questions in debates during her political career in Alaska, relying instead on homey platitudes, gentle wisdom and cutting, snarky asides. It did not transfer well on the national stage. She gave the impression of not being able to answer the questions (outside of energy policy), rather than not wanting to answer them.
She performed well on the questions on energy, answering with both knowledge and an engaged passion. This befits her unusual background as both a former State Oil and Gas Commissioner and the wife of an oil field worker. Sen. McCain could have gained the benefit of both this knowledge and Gov. Palin's "It Girl" buzz with conservatives by naming her his Energy Secretary designee, while avoiding unfortunate bumps like the Gibson and Couric interviews. That he didn't do this is a sign that Sen. McCain both lacks a strategic sense and has no feeling for personnel matters, neither of which bodes well for his potential performance as President.
Sen. Biden did well, avoiding being either pompous or condescending. He is among the most knowledgeable people on foreign policy matters and would have made an historic Secretary of State, in my opinion.
There were a few things that Sen. Biden should have emphasized that he didn't. Every time Gov. Palin said he was talking about the past, he should have said that if Sen, McCain and Gov. Palin had offered new ideas in their platform, he would talk about the future, instead of looking to the past as prologue. Every time Gov. Palin mentioned she had cut taxes, he should have simply stated that anyone whose state revenues were almost entirely dependent on oil revenues who did not cut taxes probably should not be in public life, let alone running for Vice President.
I don't think Gov. Palin's performance helped the McCain ticket appreciably and did not hurt it appreciably. Where Gov. Palin will benefit the GOP will be in galvanizing the Conservative Base that was demoralized in 2006. I think this, along with a "throw the bastards out" sensibility resulting from the Bailout, will throw some close House races to the Republicans.
A Democrat controlled White House and a Republican House in troubled times might prompt both sides to work together ... hopefully.
NOTE: Should Sen. Obama offer the Energy Secretary position to Gov. Palin? She is qualified, it would appear bi-partisan and it would erode her credentials with the Conservative base.
