GLENN: Where do you think we are as a nation today? If we don’t wake up soon, we don’t turn our lives around, where do you think we are as nation?

GRAMMER: We’re in a crisis of a Civil War basically, just not a shooting one. That’s been my feeling for some time now. I was honestly, I said it years ago but I mean, the guy that did anything to really bring us together was Osama Bin Laden and that’s a pretty awful situation. And, you know, when people were going down in those planes, and I knew several people on board, they weren’t Republicans and Democrats. They were Americans. And I attended several memorials where actually they were used as opportunities to punch George Bush around and I thought, already? This is already happening? I mean, there’s a sickness. It’s like decay from the inside, and it scares the hell out of me. I mean, otherwise rational, you know, cordial human beings have lost their minds about — I recently spoke at one of these McCain campaign things and I said simply that in my community it has been impossible since George Bush was elected to have anything but a tortured and dysfunctional conversation. I mean, it’s as though we stand in completely different worlds and that does still make me nervous.

GLENN: But we do. You know, to kind of go off on your Civil War thing, I was, two weekends ago I met with a guy who was I believe the first person to say a global terror network. That was his phrase. And he said this is not — we’re treating this like a police action. This is not. This is a global terror network. And I said to him, I asked him, you know, where are we in our history, where do you think we are. And he said, people don’t understand. We’re in 1860.

GRAMMER: Oh, yeah. There you go.

GLENN: We’ve got to have a leader that steps to the plate that says united we stand, divided we fall, and can actually unite us.

You can read the full transcript of the interview on GlennBeck.com.

Insiders listen here.

If McCain doesn’t start pointing out to the America public who Barack Obama is, and what he actually represents then we might be in serious trouble.

First, knock it off with the "corporations are evil" bit.

Stop it. Just stop it. That stuff is for Progressives and Populists like Bill O’Reilly.

I don’t know if you really believe it, or if you think it plays up to the middle, but it’s not helping the situation. Wall Street could not - would not - have done what it did if Congress had not first pursued bad policies and ideas that made the problem possible, then made it promising.

Knock it off with the bipartisan foolishness. Congress is the prime mover here. It created this mess.

The Media has been lying to you all these years. They don’t care about you, and they only care about bipartisanship when it gives Progressives cover for stupid policies. Nobody cares. You care, maybe. But absolutely nobody else. Moreover, your base - which you desperately need - is not amenable to hearing you trash Capitalism. Not at all.

If I wanted to hear a bunch of Mini-Me Communists rant about the evils of corporations, I’d go back to being a Progressive and I’d sign up for one of Bill Ayer’s classes. Too many of us left that swamp too long ago for us to want to wade through an acre of the decaying filth of discredited ideas to come vote for you on the other side.

So quit it.

++

Now, I just read this article from U.S. News. If this is the case, and you’re doing it because it’s what your strategy team advises, keep them on board, hire new people and listen to the new ones. Because your old ones are wrong.

If this is your idea and it’s why James Pethokoukis says it is, get a coach to fix it. Because you are going to lose.

The article states that

1. this is too complicated a problem to inform people
2. there are racial components to the issue (or appear to be)
3. the campaign believes the time is better spent talking about taxes, energy and healthcare.

Every single one of these ideas is a mistake, and wrong to boot.

Let’s start from the top. The people will be informed one way or the other. They can be lied to - which is the intention of your opponent and his Mainstream Media arm - or they can be told the truth. But you’re going to have to do it. The truth does not win out unless you make it win out. So, here it is; internalize it:

THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM IN 5 EASY STEPS

1. For various reasons, including buying votes from groups like ACORN, Congress wanted to wildly expand home ownership to the poor. So it passed laws that distorted the market, causing problems to build up over time. Bad regulation was piled on top of bad regulation in a Dr. Seussian junk tower of half-baked legislative ideas.
2. People including Bill Clinton, Congressional Republicans and Yourself warned about this growing problem as early as a decade ago and all the way up until the crisis.
3. Lenders and borrowers thought they were protected, so they overleveraged. Homebuyers seeing a brand new market thought prices would always go up, so they borrowed more than they should have.
4. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, empowered and protected by Democrats who were on the take, including one of the worst offenders of all - Barack Obama - pushed the problem out of control.
5. The whole house of cards came down because it was unsustainable, and now we all have to pay.

That’s it. That’s the whole story in a nutshell. I wrote that in 3 minutes off the top of my head. You can memorize it in 15. It’s the structural framework of everything. Everything else is just a detail. Try it. Find a detail and you can almost always find a place in that structure to hang it on. And you can tell the American public to go online and look it up for themselves. They don’t know. They don’t even know to look because the Media is concealing it as best it can, and your opponent is flat-out, bald-faced lying about it.

And I don’t use the word "lie" lightly.

Lesson: the problem wasn’t deregulation, it was the wrong kind of regulation. The Democrats in their role of Philosopher Kings - built this golem. They nurtured it and coddled it and now that it’s gone loose all over the countryside, they want to blame it on the rest of us. No. Do not let them do this or you will lose. And you will deserve to lose.

THERE IS A RACIAL COMPONENT TO THIS ISSUE

Who cares? There’s a racial component to this entire election. And you are not going to fix it, change it or alter it. It’s there and you can do nothing about it. Nothing. You lost that hill the moment the Democrats went from Hillary to Hopey-Changiness. Go right around it. Americans are already being called racists for not supporting a man who chose race for himself, so there is no tangible evidence you will lose anything by telling the truth. The people who were already preferring race over substance and the facts already cast their vote months ago. You are not ever going to get them back. Ever.

You want a military analogy? Here: Island-hop. Don’t fight battles you can’t win. Go right around them and starve them for resources.

The simple fact: this is not about race, it’s about fooling the poor into over-extending themselves, then taking pay-offs in Congress in political support and actual currency to keep the whole putrid affair running. Congress let them down, and it doesn’t help anyone to pretend otherwise. If Obama wants to call this a race issue, call him on making it one - loudly and clearly, so that everyone else can hear it - and get back to the fact that it hurts poor people of every stripe: Caucasians, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Women… Everyone.

YOU THINK IT’S MORE IMPORTANT TO TALK ABOUT TAXES, ENERGY AND HEALTHCARE

No. It’s not. Because if the economy goes south, the rest of this doesn’t matter. If we let a Democrat control the White House and the Democrats control Congress, America will be on a spending Bacchanalia the likes of which it has never seen. The institutional problems at the heart of our economic unrest will not be fixed and this will happen again, likely as not when the bill for Social Security comes due, another foolish Progressive pyramid scheme nobody has the guts to face.

++

Now, if you think the economic crisis is hard to explain, then you haven’t looked at the tax code lately. Moreover, if Obama and you go back and forth on his, nobody will know the difference. Nobody knows all the differences. Taxing, tariffs and the economic effects of bad legislation are such byzantine issues you cannot inform anyone of anything. They think the only taxes are income and corporate taxes. They don’t realize that shifting interest rates and costs from one group of people to another or increasing inflation are also taxes. And you aren’t going to educate them.

Here are your talking points on taxes.

"As a rule, the Republican party has always been for reduced taxes and reduced spending. We lost our way under Bush. But the thing to remember is that this is the Democrat’s way. They love to take money out of people’s purses and spend it. It’s what they do.

Traditionally, they were tax-and-spend. Even if you can believe that net balance of all taxes under Obama will fall - not just income taxes as he is trying to lead you to believe, but the net balance of all your taxes - Democrats will only have changed to less-tax-and-more-spend. Their complaints about Bush are that we are in a deficit. They have no complaints about the taxing or spending other than that we’re not doing enough of it. That’s not the Change America has been Hoping for or needs."

That’s it. That’s all you need to say about taxes. If you want to provide details, send them to the website or give up a detail. Stick to the narrative and move on to more important problems.

++

Here are your talking points on energy.

"Let’s face it. Like all Progressives, Barack Obama has an ideological dislike for the Petroleum Industry. (Did you get that? Petroleum Industry. NOT oil.) He even said once that he has no problem with the kind of high gas prices that disproportionately hurt the poor and working Americans. He’d rather have China, Russia and other less-than-ideal partners supply us with oil than have America produce more. And that’s dangerous.

I, John McCain, am all for alternative energies, and my plan supports them. All of them. Oil, gas, coal, hydroelectric, solar, wind, tide, nuclear. But unlike my opponent, I want to make sure that we don’t crowd out new technologies. Government isn’t as smart as my opponent thinks he and it is. So we want to make sure that innovations we haven’t thought about have room to grow."

Learn it.

++

On healthcare. The simple fact is that you cannot out socialize Barack Obama. He’s to the left of Congress’ only Socialist. So if they zig, you’re going to need to zag. You need to differentiate in the public’s mind, and counter with a proposition that sells to both their worries and their values.

Here are your talking points on healthcare.

"The biggest cause of the economic meltdown wasn’t the market. It was the government. Now they want to take control of your health. The free market brought us tens of thousands of new drugs that save lives. It brought us the MRI. It brought so many innovations that the rest of the world - including Europe and Canada relies on us to do most of it’s R + D. Right now people from Canada and Europe flock to America for treatments.

Socializing healthcare - which is what the Democrats and Mr. Obama want - will ensure that the system stagnates. Again, the problems we have aren’t from deregulation. They’re from bad regulation. You all know that government rarely solves one problem without creating at least one new one.

Our problems are mostly financial. Our solutions should deal with finding smart market solutions to rising costs for Americans today, while keeping innovation alive in America so that our children don’t just have healthcare, they have better healthcare than we could have imagined at lower cost. That’s what America does. And that’s why the world depends on us to make healthcare and healthcare innovations available to it."

Attack. Attack, attack, attack. But do us all a favor. Point the gun at them, not us. We’re tired of friendly fire, Mr. McCain. We’re sick of having our own party shoot us in the foot.

The Bailout bill gives the Treasury Department $700,000,000,000 of monopoly money to use in hopes of buying up bad credit loans and freeing up the financial markets of all this bad credit. Our financial system just lost it’s ability to fail. In my opinion not having the option of failing will mean more bad decisions in the future. Five , ten, or twenty years from now we will look back at this day and realize that it was a HUGE MISTAKE.

HOTAIR: Breaking: Bailout vote underway; Update: 218; Update: 263-171

Update: Sugary Senate pork made the medicine go down: 263-171 as the gavel comes down, with some 90 Republicans voting yes. The Dow has suddenly dropped by 80 points or so, but I think I know why - it’s pessimists like me unloading their portfolios to capitalize on the post-bailout spike ahead of what they expect will be another downturn next week. (I didn’t unload, but thought about it.)

The Dow is bouncing. It has gone negative, now it’s back in the positive.

You can read the entire text of the H.R. 1424, which is U.S. Senate’s version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008, and Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008. The 451-page bill is a part of a proposed bailout of United States financial system

Update: Now that economic bailout plan has been finally passed in both houses, and sign into law what kind of impact will this have on the Presidential election and the many congressional contests around the country. One of the reasons congressmen voted No on a similar bill on Monday was because they feared that they would lose the support of their constituents. Is one month long enough time for the voters to forget about this debacle of a bill?

Romney’s Speech - It wasn’t as effective as Fred Thompson’s last night.

Quote of the night so far is from Mike Huckabee - “Palin got more votes as Mayor than Joe Biden got as Presidential Candidate.”

The crowd seemed very responsive to Mike Huckabee’s speech.

Everytime that Palin’s name is mentioned the audience goes crazy. She gets the loudest pops.

Hawaiin Governor Linda Lingle is on the stage now. Governor Lingle is doing a good job introducing us to Sarah Palin.

Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City is speaking now. He says that this election is the most important. He says that this election represents a turning path. He says that we the people get to decide which way, not the media, celebrities, but the people.

Giuliani is likening this election process to a job application process. We have to make this decision, and we have to make it right. He says there is one man who has dedicated his life to the US, tested, by crisis. John McCain is a true American Hero.

Giuliani is talking about McCain experience as a POW. He says that America comes first.

“He has proved his commitment with his blood”

Giuliani takes jabs at Obama’s experience as a community organizer. The crowd chants “Zerobama” He says that Obama couldn’t vote yes or no, “it was too tough. He voted present.” The crowd boos. Rudy said he didn’t know he could vote present in NYC. He says that Sarah Palin didn’t get it as governor. He says it’s not good enough to be present, you have to make a decision. The crowd roars.

Giuliani is now talking about Obama in US Senate as a celebrity senator, with no leadership or position. He says he’s never run a city, state, business, or military unit. Obama has never lead people in crisis. They are chanting “Zerobama” again.

“Not a personal attack, but a personal fact. Barack Obama hasn’t lead anything. Zero, Nada”

Crowd is chanting Zerobama again!

“Tough times require tough leadership. This is no time for on the job training.”

“John McCain is ready to be Commander in Chief. We will be safe in his hands. Our children, and our country. No Doubt!”

The crowd is roaring again.

“Change is not a destination, just as hope isn’t a strategy.”

Giuliani says that McCain will bring jobs and prosperity. He will reduce taxes, reduce government, expand free trade, and he will lead us to energy independence. And he’ll do it with an all-of-the-above approach, nuclear power and offshore drilling.”

“Drill Baby Drill!”

“We need John McCain to save the economy and make sure it grows. John McCain will keep us on offense against terrorism at home, and abroad.”

Crowd is on its feet.

Giuliani says that the Democrats never said Islamic Terrorism. He asks who they are insulting? Terrorist.

He says that they rarely mentioned the attacks of Sept 11. 2001. He says that the Democrats are in the state of denial. He says that John McCain can face the enemy. He can win, and bring victory for this country.

Giuliani points out that McCain supported the troop surge in Iraq. He says that if Democrats gave up in Iraq, they gave up on America. The crowd boos when Giuliani said the Democrats said the war was lost. He asks who won then, Al Qaida, Bin Laden? The crowd boos. He says that John McCain got it right, and Barack Obama got it wrong. He says that John McCain was most associated with the surge and it was unpopular. He says that other politicians would change their position out of self interest. He says that Obama promised to take public financing, until he broke his promise. He says that Obama was against wiretapping before he voted for it. He says if he were Joe Biden he would want to get that VP thing in writing. The crowd roars again.

Giuliani said that John McCain would rather lose an election then a war. He talks about Russia/Georgia conflict. He said that John McCain proclaimed that we are all Georgians. He contrasts that to Obama, who said that both sides were equally responsible, then he changed his position and suggested that the United Nations security council could find a solution.

The crowd chants “Zero!”

Giuliani then said that Obama changed his opinion three days later to match John McCain’s. Giuliani said that next time just call John McCain. McCain, knows something about foreign policy. He says that Mccain will open up the party to new people. Sarah Palin is a choice for the future. He says that John McCain is a look forward. He says that Sarah Palin is the new generation. She is the best and most popular. He says that she has more experience then the entire Democratic combined. She’s been a mayor. He says he is sorry that Sarah Palin’s hometown isn’t cosmopolitian enough. He says, maybe they cling to religion there. He says the first day Palin became Mayor she had more experience then Obama and Biden combined. He says that Alaska can be proud for having one of the best governors with 80% approval rating.

He says as a former US Attorney he is impressed how she took on corruption. She has no fear and stood up for what is right. She is shaking up Alaska that hasn’t happened in forever. And with John McCain and Sarah can you imagine how they are going to shake up Washington?

“Look Out!”

“One final point. How dare they question whether if Sarah Palin spends enough time with her children and be vice president. How dare the do that. When did the ever ask a man that question? When?”

He says that party is best when they are expanding freedom, make sure people have freedom here and abroad, giving workers the right to work. Parents should choose where their children should go to school. And he says they are the party who believes in America’s success. He quotes Reagan in saying that it’s a shining city on the hill, a beacon. He says we get a chance to vote for a great president and woman who proves that she can governor.

“Let’s shake up Washington and move this country forward”

VERY GOOD SPEECH!

Sarah Palin has taken the stage. She’s getting a very long ovation from the crowd. There is a sign that says “Palin Power.” The press around the podium is Micheal Phelps large.

Sarah keeps saying thank you so much. The crowd is still cheering and chanting Palin. On the screen behind her is the Liberty Bell.

“Mr Chairman, delegates. I will be honored to accept our nomination as vice president to the United States”

Tonight is the night. Sarah Palin is going to make her national primetime debut at the Rebuplican National Convention. From what I’e heard so far, Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin’s story is amazing. She’s not a lifelong politician. Shen went from being a PTA member at the Wasilla, Alaska schools to fisher with her husband to Mayor of Wasilla then governor of Alaska. Now she is the Vice Presidential nominee for the Republican party.

ST. PAUL (Reuters) - Sarah Palin has dominated the Republican convention for days without saying a word, but on Wednesday she takes the spotlight with a prime-time speech that will introduce her to American voters and try to answer questions about her experience and life story.

Since John McCain made the virtually unknown Palin his choice for vice president, the Alaska governor has been the center of a media storm fueled by disclosures about her unmarried teenage daughter’s pregnancy, a probe into her role in an Alaskan official’s firing and questions about her political record.

Palin’s anti-abortion and pro-gun history have excited conservatives and party activists but the appearance on Wednesday will be the first chance for voters nationwide to judge her for themselves.

More…

(AP) Palin’s experience - she has been mayor of tiny Wasilla, Alaska, and has served as the state’s governor for less than two years - has been questioned since McCain chose her last week. The process that led to her selection has been criticized as hasty because McCain had met her just once before he offered her the job.

Palin also is the subject of an ethics investigation involving the firing of the state’s public safety commissioner after he wouldn’t dismiss her former brother-in-law, a state trooper. Her efforts as mayor to gain millions of dollars in federal funding through the so-called “earmark” process appeared to be at odds with the McCain message of fiscal reform.

Her personal life became a topic of discussion after Palin revealed that her daughter was pregnant. Yet her candidacy has excited Republicans at the convention and across the country, in part because she has earned a reputation for taking on entrenched interests in Alaska and is staunchly pro-gun and anti-abortion.

“Give her a chance to make her first speech, give her a chance to do her first interview,” said former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the convention’s keynote speaker.

“Of course it’s going to be high stakes,” Giuliani said in an interview Wednesday with “Good Morning America” on ABC. “The media is ready to pounce on any mistake. … She looks to me like she’s got tremendous confidence, got tremendous ability as a speaker.”

The RNCC released excerpts from Sarah Palin’s speech:

“I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better. When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too. Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities. …

“I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country. …

“Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems - as if we all didn’t know that already. But the fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all. Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we’re going to lay more pipelines…build more nuclear plants…create jobs with clean coal…and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources. We need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers. …

“Here’s how I look at the choice Americans face in this election. In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.”

My favorite excerpt is the third paragraph. Presidential Candidates have been saying, “We are going to be energy independent in 10 years” cliche for the past 30 years. It’s time for someone to say exactly what our nation needs to do in order to become energy independent. 

John McCain was right - this is exactly who we need.

Gov. Sarah Palin will be a Grandma!

Earlier today Alaskian Governor and Republican Vice Presidential Candidate, Sarah Palin announced that her 17-year-old Daughter Bristol Palin is 5 months pregnant. The news of the pregnancy comes after several smear attempts by leftist bloggers who tried to prove that Sarah Palin’s youngest son was actually her grand-son. The leftist bloggers used outdated photos and unconfirmed accounts that seemed to show Sarah Palin not pregnant in the months before Trig was born.

With the news that Bristol Palin is indeed pregnant it puts to rest this ridiculous smear.

ST. PAUL (Reuters) - The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.

Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin’s five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said.

“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us,” the Palins’ statement said.

“Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support,” the Palins said.

The Palins asked the news media to respect the young couple’s privacy.

“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media, respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates,” the statement concluded.

MCCAIN KNEW

Senior McCain campaign officials said McCain knew of the daughter’s pregnancy when he selected Palin last week as his vice presidential running mate, deciding that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way.

She was for the “Bridge to nowhere”

In Sarah Palin’s introduction speech she said that she told congress “Thanks, but not thanks for that ‘Bridge to nowhere.” USAToday has uncovered quotes from 2006 when Sarah Palin was still Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

“We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge, and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that’s so negative,” Palin said in August 2006, according to the Ketchikan Daily News.

The Anchorage Daily News quoted her in October 2006 as saying she would continue state funding for the bridge. “The window is now, while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist,” she said.

Asked why she supported the bridge, Palin’s communications director Bill McAlister said, “It was never at the top of her priority list, and in fact the project isn’t necessarily dead … there’s still the potential for improved ferry service or even a bridge of a less costly design.”

She changed her mind, he said, when “she saw that Alaska was being perceived as taking from the country and not giving, and that impression bothered her and she wants to change it. … I think that Sarah Palin is someone who has the courage to reevaluate situations as they developed.”

Wasilla, which in 2007 had 9,780 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, hired a lobbyist in 2000, public records show, paying him about $36,000 per year. In 2001, Palin was quoted in a local newspaper crediting Silver with helping secure federal funding for Wasilla.

Yes, Sarah Palin was for the Bridge before she was against it. However, in the end she made the correct decision. I think it’s very important for community and government leaders to constantly re-evaluate their positions. Sarah Palin was able to step back from her personal beliefs and see the country-wide impact of the legislation that would have built that bridge. She sided with the position that pork barrel projects should be handled by the states - not the federal government.

She’s Dan Quayle!

This attack has to be the most idiotic. Mort Kondrake, executive editor of “Roll Call” likens Sarah Palin’s “inexperience” to that of Vice Presidential Dan Quayle.

Look, I think that this selection was a testament on John McCain’s part to his belief and his own longevity. You know, he plans to fill out his term.

This woman is utterly unqualified to be president of the United States. She is the Dan Quayle of—she’s worse than Dan Quayle. Dan Quayle at least had served as a senator and was, you know, and was conversant with national issues.

Barack Obama has been running for president for years and years now, and has been thinking about national issues. He has an agenda and all of that.

Look, she has positives, political positives. She seems like a very nice woman, a very strong woman. And, you know, she is a reformer, and she is doing great work in Alaska for two years.

But, you know, she is going to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. John McCain is a 72-year-old man who has had two bouts with melanoma. Her chances of being president are fairly significant. You don’t appoint somebody with so little experience to that kind of job. It’s irresponsible, it seems to me.

Sure, he may have had troubles spelling. In the age of spell check I’m sure everyone spelling abilities have dwindled. Even after serving four years as Vice President of the United States, the democrats still harped on Quayle’s inexperience. At the time of being electing VP in 1988 Dan Quayle had the same amount of experience in Washington as Obama has today.

Even so, I thought the whole point of the Obama campaign was to “change” the “hope” of Washington by electing an “outsider.” Why all the sudden did Obama become of Washington? Sarah Palin is the only person for both parties who has had an ounce of executive experience. In the time span of 16 years she has gone from city council member, to mayor, to governor. She knows the people.

Palin was vetted!

Another one of the major points of argument against the selection of Sarah Palin as Vice President has been the assumption that the McCain team didn’t properly vet the governor. It has since come out that this assumption is not true. McCain’s team did vet her.

ST. PAUL, MINN. (AP) - Sarah Palin’s path to the Republican ticket started with her name on a list _ and a team of some 25 people poring through public records searching for trouble spots without her knowledge. Then came the 70-question survey and a nearly three-hour interview.

The review officially ended Thursday, when John McCain asked the Alaska governor to be his running mate.

In the days since, Republicans and Democrats have privately questioned whether the Arizona senator chose the first-term governor without fully looking into her background. McCain’s campaign has vehemently defended the review.

Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., the lawyer who conducted the review, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that Palin underwent a “full and complete” examination before McCain chose her. Asked whether everything that came up as a possible red flag during the review already has been made public, Culvahouse said: “I think so. Yeah, I think so. Correct.”

Yesterday John McCain announced Alaskian Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. I’ve been spending the past 24 hours consuming as much information that I can find about her and I have been impressed. The news media keep saying that Palin is a “Game Changer” in this year’s presidential campaign - and I do agree. Before she was added to the Republican ticket I wasn’t sure if I could vote for McCain, now I’m 98% certain that I will be voting for McCain/Palin come November.

Here is the text from Palin’s speech:

Governor Sarah Palin: “And I thank you, Senator McCain and Mrs. McCain, for the confidence that you have placed in me. Senator, I am honored to be chosen as your running mate. I will be honored to serve next to the next president of the United States.

“I know that when Senator McCain gave me this opportunity, he had a short list of highly qualified men and women, and to have made that list at all — it was a privilege. And to have been chosen brings a great challenge. I know that it will demand the best that I have to give, and I promise nothing less.

“First, there are a few people whom I would like you to meet. I want to start with my husband, Todd. And Todd and I are actually celebrating our 20th anniversary today, and I promised him a little surprise for the anniversary present, and hopefully he knows that I did deliver.

“And then we have as — after my husband, who is a lifelong commercial fisherman, lifetime Alaskan — he’s a production operator. Todd is a production operator in the oil fields up on Alaska’s North Slope, and he’s a proud member of the United Steelworkers Union, and he’s a world champion snow machine racer. Todd and I met way back in high school, and I can tell you that he is still the man that I admire most in this world.

“Along the way, Todd and I have shared many blessings, and four out of five of them are here with us today. Our oldest son, Track, though, he’ll be following the presidential campaign from afar. On September 11th of last year, our son enlisted in the United States Army. Track now serves in an infantry brigade. And on September 11th, Track will deploy to Iraq in the service of his country. And Todd and I are so proud of him and of all the fine men and women serving the country in uniform.

“Next to Todd is our daughter Bristol; another daughter, Willow; our youngest daughter, Piper; and over in their arms is our son Trig, a beautiful baby boy. He was born just in April. His name is Trig Paxson Van Palin.

“Some of life’s greatest opportunities come unexpectedly, and this is certainly the case today. I never really set out to be involved in public affairs, much less to run for this office. My mom and dad both worked at the local elementary school. And my husband and I, we both grew up working with our hands.

“I was just your average ‘hockey mom’ in Alaska. We were busy raising our kids. I was serving as the team mom and coaching some basketball on the side. I got involved in the PTA and then was elected to the city council and then elected mayor of my hometown, where my agenda was to stop wasteful spending and cut property taxes and put the people first.

“I was then appointed ethics commissioner and chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and when I found corruption there, I fought it hard and I held the offenders to account. Along with fellow reformers in the great state of Alaska, as governor, I’ve stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the Big Oil companies and the ‘good old boy’ network.

“When oil and gas prices went up so dramatically and the state revenues followed with that increase, I sent a large share of that revenue directly back to the people of Alaska — and we are now — we’re now embarking on a $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.

“I signed major ethics reforms, and I appointed both Democrats and independents to serve in my administration. And I’ve championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress thanks, but no thanks, on that “Bridge to Nowhere.” If our state wanted a bridge, I said, we’d build it ourselves.

“Well, it’s always, though, safer in politics to avoid risk, to just kind of go along with the status quo. But I didn’t get into government to do the safe and easy things. A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not why the ship is built. Politics isn’t just a game of competing interests and clashing parties. The people of America expect us to seek public office and to serve for the right reasons. And the right reason is to challenge the status quo and to serve the common good.

“Now, no one expects us to agree on everything, whether in Juneau or in Washington. But we are expected to govern with integrity and good will and clear convictions and a servant’s heart.

“Now, no leader in America has shown these qualities so clearly or presents so clear a threat to business as usual in Washington as Senator John S. McCain. This — this is a moment when principles and political independence matter a lot more than just the party line. And this is a man who has always been there to serve his country, not just his party.

“And this is a moment that requires resolve and toughness and strength of heart in the American president. And my running mate is a man who has shown those qualities in the darkest of places and in the service of his country. A colleague once said about Senator McCain: That man did things for this country that few people could go through; never forget that. And that speaker was former Senator John Glenn of Ohio. And John Glenn knows something about heroism.

“And I’m going to make sure nobody does forget that in his campaign. There is only one candidate who has truly fought for America, and that man is John McCain.

“This is a moment — this is a moment when great causes can be won and great threats overcome, depending on the judgment of our next president. In a dangerous world, it is John McCain who will lead America’s friends and allies in preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“It was John McCain who cautioned long ago about the harm that Russian aggression could do to Georgia and to other small Democratic neighbors and to the world oil markets.

“It was Senator McCain who refused to hedge his support for our troops in Iraq, regardless of the political costs. And you know what? As the mother of one of those troops and as the commander of Alaska’s National Guard, that’s the kind of man I want as our commander in chief.

“Profiles in courage, they can be hard to come by these days. You know, so often we just find them in books. But next week when we nominate John McCain for president, we’re putting one on the ballot!

“To serve as vice president beside such a man would be the privilege of a lifetime, and it’s fitting that this trust has been given to me 88 years almost to the day after the women of America first gained the right to vote.

“I think as well today of two other women who came before me in national elections. I can’t begin this great effort without honoring the achievements of Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and, of course, Senator Hillary Clinton, who showed such determination and grace in her presidential campaign.

“It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.

“So for my part, the mission is clear. The next 67 days I’m going to take our campaign to every part of our country and our message of reform to every voter of every background, in every political party, or no party at all. If you want change in Washington, if you hope for a better America, then we’re asking for your vote on the 4th of November.

“My fellow Americans, come join our cause. Join our cause and help our country to elect a great man the next president of the United States. And I thank you, and I — God bless you, I say, and God bless America. Thank you.”

]]> http://www.halfthepolitics.com/2008/08/30/mccain-announces-sarah-palin-as-running-mate/feed/ http://www.halfthepolitics.com/2008/01/22/breaking-fred-drops-out-of-race-we-endorse-mitt/ http://www.halfthepolitics.com/2008/01/22/breaking-fred-drops-out-of-race-we-endorse-mitt/#comments Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:42:56 +0000 Joe Brooks http://www.halfthepolitics.com/2008/01/22/breaking-fred-drops-out-of-race-we-endorse-mitt/

Fox News, CNN, among other various news agencies are reporting that my previously endorsed Fred Thompson has dropped out of the race. Fred was the best conservative candidate besides Duncan Hunter running for President on the Republican side of things. now that Fred is out of the race I have to endorse someone else.

As if this really means anything. I endorse Mitt Romney. Sure he may have changed his stances on issues, but at least now he’s on the right side of those issues. I believe America’s “Hope” is now possible with only Mitt Romney as president.

The Last Fred Says?

Fred08.com:

“Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people.”

The mean beast known as Global Warming may have some competition in destroying the world. So says LiveScience.com in this article:

SAN FRANCISCO—Global warming may not be the only thing melting Greenland. Scientists have found at least one natural magma hotspot under the Arctic island that could be pitching in.

In recent years, Greenland’s ice has been melting more and flowing faster into the sea—a record amount of ice melted from the frozen mass this summer, according to recently released data—and Earth’s rising temperatures are suspected to be the main culprit.

But clues to a new natural contribution to the melt arose when scientists discovered a thin spot in the Earth’s crust under the northeast corner of the Greenland Ice Sheet where heat from Earth’s insides could seep through, scientists will report here this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

“The behavior of the great ice sheets is an important barometer of global climate change,” said lead scientist Ralph von Frese of Ohio State University. “However, to effectively separate and quantify human impacts on climate change, we must understand the natural impacts too.”

The corner of Greenland where the hotspot was found had no known ice streams, the rivers of ice that run through the main ice sheet and out to sea, until one was discovered in 1991. What exactly caused the stream to form was uncertain.

“Ice streams have to have some reason for being there,” von Frese said, “and it’s pretty surprising to suddenly see one in the middle of the ice sheet.”

The newly discovered hotspot, an area where Earth’s crust is thinner, allowing hot magma from Earth’s mantle to come closer to the surface, is just below the ice sheet and could have caused it to form, von Frese and his team suggest.

“Where the crust is thicker, things are cooler, and where it’s thinner, things are warmer,” von Frese explained. “And under a big place like Greenland or Antarctica, natural variations in the crust will makes some parts of the ice sheet warmer than others.”

For all those who are have been brainwashed into the Global Warming movement this article provides hope. Global Warming can still be blamed!

What caused the hotspot to suddenly form is another mystery.

We all know how the story goes: God creates Earth in 7 God-days. After sometime God grows bored with all the animals and plants and decides to create a new species in his own image. Man and Woman instantly appear in one of Earth’s most fruitful and glorious gardens. They frolic for a bit, play games like “hide-n-seek” and “rock, leaf, and sharper rock”. Woman suddenly has an urge to bite into the forbidden fruit. Man and Woman become very rich from their apple farm. Man suggests that they should invest their money into an automotive company that produces only SUVs. Woman agrees, only if they can put some money into the aerosol hairspray industry.

Many years later as Man and Woman are enjoying their retirement vacation to some arctic location they witness a horrifying tragedy. A 200 pound chunk of ice from a melting glacier falls and crushes a waddling group of penguins.

From CTA.ca:

The world’s penguin population is virtually melting away as a direct result of global warming, according to a new report from the World Wildlife Federation.

The new study, Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change, was released to coincide with the United Nations climate conference taking place in Bali, Indonesia.

Nooo! Not the penguins too!!

It suggests that four penguin populations are suffering serious losses due to the shrinking ice shelf, said Julie Langer, of WWF Canada.

“What we’ve looked at is the four populations that actually breed on the Antarctic continent and they are experiencing declines overall — sometimes what you might call population crashes,” Langer told CTV’s Canada AM.

“They’re in a completely disrupted state because of the huge temperature increases that is happening in the Antarctic continent.”

While climate change seems to be having an impact around the world, the effect is most pronounced in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, because the climates are so sensitive to any temperature shifts.

“The poles are actually warming four or five times faster than the rest of the planet,” Langer said.

“You’ve heard about global warming but it’s acute at the poles. As the temperatures increase, the ice melts. When you have less ice at the edge of the continent, you have less algae, less krill, less food for the penguins.”

I know there are people out there who don’t want to hear this… but taxation and carbon credits is not the way to solve Global Warming and the death of the penguins. Instead, we should ride this out. Sure, we can make more fuel efficient environmental friendly vehicles and whatever else that makes you feel good. But, it’s inevitable that the climate is going to change. The Earth has gone through many different phases and it’s not going to stop - EVOLVING - (OH NO, not that word!) just because man says so.

When I was in school they always told us about the different rabbit species separated by a river. Maybe it’s time for the penguins to learn to adapt to the changes and I dunno, learn how to survive the climate change?