Re: Sally Ride Endorses Barack Obama

On Sun, 02 Nov 2008 02:13:09 GMT, in a place far, far away, Brian
Thorn <bthorn64@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

Anyway, a Kay Bailey Hutchinson wouldn't have energized the
base in any way.

What he would have lost in the base (not much in the end, I suspect),
he'd have gained in independents and Reagan Democrats. That support
vanished with Palin's nomination.

Nonsense. Palin is the most Reagan-like candidate since Reagan.

Like it or not, Republicans can't win without a lot
of enthusiasm from the Evangelicals, which McCain now has.

And it hasn't done him much good. Before Palin, McCain was behind
Obama by 2-4%, now some polls show him down 10%.

That's not because of Palin. It's because of the financial meltdown
and his response to it. He was ahead of Obama after the convention,
right up until the financial stuff.

Yes, the polls are
all over the map, but they were before Palin as well. On average, he's
farther behind now than he was in August.

Its time for the Republican Party to try a new strategy. I was hoping
McCain would do that, but in the end, he fell back on the Bush
Playbook: preach to the bible-thumpers, alienate everyone else.

I'll take
the chance that Congress will keep President Obama's more extreme
ideas from being enacted.

Why do you think that that chance is non-zero, expecially if
Reid/Pelosi have a filibuster-proof majority?

Not all Democrats will go along with Obama on the more extreme
concepts. Reid and Pelosi are definitely not that popular in the
Party, and they all have to answer to the folks at home, many of whom
are from moderate districts. Look what happened with Pelosi's original
Bailout legislation. 20% of her own Party said 'hell, no.'

That won't be enough to keep it from passing if they pick up a lot of
seats. Just as one example, you think they're not going to get card
check, which will decimate small business by unionizing it?

And even if some of his less extreme ideas are enacted, it would be
disastrous. His policy prescriptions to increase taxes and reduce
free trade, for the current economic situation would be combination of
Hoover and FDR, turning a recession into a depression.

The problem is, McCain's proposals look like more of the same we've
had under Bush,

Not to me.

and we're on the brink of a massive recession because
of it (particularly, tax cuts in wartime, which McCain wants to
continue.)

There were no tax cuts. There were only tax rate cuts. If the rates
hadn't been cut, there would have been a much bigger recession in the
wake of the bubble pop and 911. Raising tax rates right now would be
nuts.

Frankly, I find it really nutty for a Republican to vote for a man
with a fundamentally Marxist outlook,

I disagree that Obama is fundamentally Marxist. Very far-left,
certainly.

Oh, so that's all right, then.

Maybe we need that to remind the populace exactly what
Republicans were supposed to be about, back before the Party was
overrun by Evangelicals.

You don't seem to understand that it's a ratchet. If an
Obama-Pelosi-Reid regime (e.g.) give votes to currently illegal
aliens, what are the chances that Republicans will ever regain power?

with a huge majority in
Congress, because he doesn't like "bible-thumpers." Just what is it
that you fear the "bible-thumpers" are going to do in a McCain
presidency (particularly since he still won't have control of the
Congress) that would make you vote for Obama?

For one, nominate more far-right justices for the Supreme Court. I
thought "Maverick" McCain might not do that, but now he seems to be
firmly in their pocket, the price of winning the election (should he
do so) but some prices are too high.

WTF are you talking about? Do you really consider John Roberts "far
right"? And even if, against all history, McCain did attempt to
appoint a "far right" judge, do you imagine that he'd get through a
Democrat Senate? It's completely unrealistic to think that a McCain
in the White House would be able to much of anything for the "bible
thumpers."

I can (sort of, but not
really) understand not voting, but *vote for Obama*?

I don't believe in the "not voting" bullsh*t. And I'm sure not voting
for Nader or Barr.

So you're going to *vote for Obama*? (He asked, again.)

I'm not a Republican, but I'm flabbergasted at all this fair-weather
Republicanism.

Hey, I voted for Dole, even though that was a lost cause all along.
:-) If McCain had stuck with his maverick history, I'd still vote for
him, but he has thrown that away in his quest to become President.
This isn't the same McCain we saw in 2000. Not at all. He doesn't even
look much like the McCain who was in the Senate in 2006. Now he looks
disturbingly like Bush, going so far as to *quote* Bush the day the
the Credit Crisis hit, with that "the fundamentals of our economy are
sound" line. (What lunkhead in the McCain campaign told him to say
*that*?)

I wish he hadn't done that. I wish that he'd voted against the damned
bill. McCain is an economic ignoramus. But at least he doesn't know
about economics, whereas Obama thinks he knows about it, but
everything he knows is wrong. McCain will at least have competent
economic advisors.

Go read the history of Hoover and the Depression (and then FDR
prolonging it). That's the future if Obama gets his way. At least if
we can belief his campaign platform.
.

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