EDWARDS WELL OUT AHEAD IN IOWA!

After I mentioned the polls in my earlier post, a poll released today shows that my man John Edwards has a 20 point lead over his second place opponent.

In the latest Harstad Strategic poll, John Edwards recieved 36 percent, while Hillary had 14%. Obama was 3rd with 13%. WOW, what amazing star power!

The rest of the poll was as follows:

Tom Vilsack 9%

John Kerry 6%

Joe Biden 5%

This isn't a fluke. This is the second poll which has shown Edwards in the lead. In a poll taken in the middle of 2006, Edwards had a 4 point lead over Hillary.

After a few months of looking over other candidates, I have decided to stick with Edwards as my candidate. The only thing that would make me change my mind is if Gore entered the race. And still, I might stick with Edwards.

But Obama and all his 'star power' isn't transforming into votes. How people talk, I would assume that Obama would have 70% of the Democratic primary votes! How come we never hear that he is constantly in double digit deficits in all of the polls conducted? He is never ahead, and he is never near the front. So why the hype? Again, beats the hell out of me. Maybe people are seeing what he really is, and that is all talk and no action.

Still, if you want to get on the winning team, join us with John Edwards!

Obama losing support.

Many of us have talked about polls and how 'Hillary is at 31% and Obama is at 19%'. We can all agree, that is a 12 point gap.

This is the poll that we always hear about.

But that poll was taken on Election Day.

Now, lets look at the polls since that one was taken:

Pew Research 11/9-11/12- Hillary 39, Obama 23 - 16 point gap.

WNBC/Marist Poll 11/27-12/3 - Hillary 33, Edwards 14, Gore 13, Obama 12. Oh my god, the almighty Obama is 4th!

Opinion Dynamics Poll - 12/5-12/6 - Hillary 33, Obama 12

CNN Poll 12/05-12/7 - Hillary 37, Obama 15



Alright, my point. If Obama is the 'high and mightly' that can 'easily be elected', why the hell is he doing so poorly in the Democratic primarie polls? So, if only, lets say, 17% of Democrats support him, and I am sure that half of that number of Republicans support him, only about 10% of people think he ready to be President. So why all this hype.

It is all the media, and YOU, my friends, are being lead like sheep!

Yes, I have changed my view on Obama.

Hello everyone!

Ok, after the number of attacks on Obama, I have 'kind of' changed my mind about him.

A few months ago, I really opposed Obama because, I thought, he voted for the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. I heard, somewhere, that he had voted for it.

But, after someone mentioned that they thought he didn't vote for this bill, but instead voted against it, I had to do some investigation.

And, sure as hell, he DID vote against the bill.

Damn, I feel like a jamoke!

And, honestly, his vote on this has totally changed my mind about Mr. Obama. I really disliked the man because of this. But now I don't.

Still, do I support him for President? No. I still think he hasn't proven himself and it takes more than just speeches.

Therefore, I have no problems with Mr. Obama. If he is the nominee of the Democratic Party in 2008, I will support him 100%. But, I am still supporting Edwards as of right now.

But, Nate, I don't have a problem with him anymore, happy? :)

Popular vs. Powerful - Bobby the Messiah

In the last few weeks, everyone is talking about Obama. Obama, Obama, Obama. Blah blah blah!

I will admit, the man is popular. He is a person that the press clings to. Why? I still have no friggen clue, but they do. Oh yeah, I forgot, they told us that he was going to have a good speech before they even heard or read it. They think Democrats are sheep, and I honestly think we are!

But this past weekend I went to the movies and watched the movie "Bobby". Just a litte note on the movie though; if you think it is about Bobby, you are wrong. About 10% of it deals with Bobby Kennedy. I left very disappointed.

Still, watching the movie made me realize something.

Well, there is a difference between being a popular politician and, what I would consider a powerful politician.

In our lifetime, or many lifetimes before ours, there have been extremely few politicians that I would consider powerful.

And watching the movie Bobby, I realized the difference.

Barack Obama, along with Bill Clinton and, yes, John F. Kennedy, were popular. People liked to see them, they liked to see them speak. They liked to be in their presence so that they could say "I met so-and-so".

But in the case of Robert Francis Kennedy, the man was powerful. Did he become a powerful politican because of the death of his brother? Maybe. But still, he was a powerful man.

It all started with the Democratic National Convention in 1964. When Bobby came to speak, the crowd stood and applauded him for 22 minutes.

After 1964, Bobby went around the nation as the new Senator from New York and saw how the people of the nation lived and wanted to know their problems. And, unlike so many politican, who act like they care about someone, but appear to be phony (Bill Clinton), one could tell that Bobby Kennedy really cared about the people of this country.

There is one clip of Bobby Kennedy that I remember really well. I don't remember when it happened or where it took place. But in the clip, Bobby walks up to a poor black child that lived in a shack and asked him "what did you have for lunch today?" The boy responded "we haven't eaten yet." Kennedy responed "you haven't had any lunch yet?" The kid simply shaked his head no. Kennedy, not knowing what to say, patted the child on the head. You could tell in his heart that he really cared about the child and didn't have a 'ready made' political soundbite.

But this is just one story of Bobby Kennedy. When Bobby ran for President, he cared for everyone. He cared about that black child, he cared about the elderly, and the 19-year old that was to be shipped off to Vietnam. The man didn't run to 'be President', like so many in our nation have (including the three I have mentioned previously, but we still don't know about Obama). He ran to help people and to help their lives.

So, what made him a powerful politician? Well, lets look at the others that I have mentioned.

In the case of Clinton, Obama and JFK, people wanted to shake their hands and meet them so that they could say they met the man. Were they inspiring? Not really. People liked their policies or didn't like the opponent. Remember, JKF won in a really close election. And I highly doubt that Clinton's 'forgotten middle class tax cut' was and inspirational moment. With Obama, I still haven't found a damn thing about him that is inspirational.

Now lets look at Bobby Kennedy. He always had the look of sadness on his face, like he was powerless in helping his fellow Americans. He had a look that I could imagine Abraham Lincoln having while delivering the Gettysburg Address. Still, people flocked to RFK. People wanted to meet him as well.

Hundreds, even thousands, ran behind his motorcade in the 1968 election to meet the man. But they didn't just meet him to 'meet him'. They saw him as more. When you look at the people in these old clips, and you see them shake his hand, they look more like they are in the presence of the Messiah instead of a 60's politician. People felt hope with him. They felt that the world would change. Even those of who couldn't reach his hand to shake were still in awe over him.

And on June 4th, 1968, when RFK was shot, it seemed that the hopes and dreams of all Americans were dashed. Yes, people were upset when JFK was shot. But there was a certain feeling with RFK died. It changed the nation.

Bobby Kennedy was a powerful man. The last person that might of had this power was Abraham Lincoln. Only once in century do we have a man or woman who shows this power.

Who will be next? It sure isn't Obama!

NObama in 2008!

Well, I am going to start off on this again, but I feel I need to.

In the last few weeks, everyone has been talking about the 'do-nothing' senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.

Everyone wants him to be President. Why? Well, it really beats the hell out of them. Yes, not out of me, but out of them! Most people have no clue why they want him to be President, yet they support him.

Oh yeah, I forgot, a speech. He gave a great speech. That is why he sould be elected. But if you ask any German in the 1930s, they thought Adolf Hitler was a great speaker as well.

Now before you go off and start saying what I KNOW you are going to say, I am not saying that Barack Obama is Adolf Hitler. I am just saying that people who are good speakers are not always good leaders.

Yes, it takes more than words to be a good President.

I think that it is great to see the anti-Obama movements starting to spread around the net. "NObama" mania is starting to take the spotlight.

Do I think Obama could be a good President? I have no friggen idea. I like to see what a guy has done before I vote for him. As Nick Nolte said in the movie 48 Hours "I belive in the Merrit System, and you haven't built up any points."

There are a lot of candidates out there that are electable, like John Edwards, Evan Bayh, Tom Vilsack and others. Yet everyone thinks that Obama is the man! Why?

Besides the fact that he has only been a Senator for a little less than two years, he has never held executive office. True, neither has John Edwards, but the other two I have mentioned have.

Oh, and lets look at this one as well:

On November 1st, 2006 the Chicago Tribune reported that Obama's home in the South Side neighborhood of Chicago was purchased the same day as an adjoining vacant lot owned by the wife of Antoin Rezko an Illinois businessman charged with political influenced peddling and a past contributor to Obama's election campaigns (Wikipedia).

Interesting.....

But, of course, since everyone is talking about him, he must be a big shot in Washington, right? Well, no!

As far as ranking on the committees, Obama is dead last among Democrats on the Foreign Relations and Environment and Public Works Committees. Oh wait, he is second to last on the Veterans Affairs Committee. So, I guess he is moving up.

So, why the hype? One speech. Big deal.

Though I do think there is something deeper.

I feel that a lot of white voters are supporting Obama because he is "more like a white guy than a black guy." They don't want to look racist, yet I feel that the reason many are supporting him is quite racist itself. Basically, he is "a black guy I can live with." Why didn't any of these people support Carol Mosley Brawn (a Democratic Senator from Illinois that, to many voters, made a lot of sense and had 'great speeches', and is, i'm sure, very close to Obama on the issues)? If Mosley-Braun made the "Blue State-Red State" speech, we would have forgotten about it a week later.

Hopefully this Obama hype will start to die down. I think that people are support this guy for ALL the WRONG reasons! They don't really have any good reasons to support him. What has he done in his two years in the Senate that you like? What votes did he cast that you supported? What makes him different from the other Democrats on the issues?

If Obama gets the nomination, I will vote for him, but reluctantly. Maybe I just won't vote.

I know I am not on the popular end of this argument, but please, sit down with your thoughts for an hour or two and really ask yourself "why do I support this guy?"

Oh, and in 2008, he won't be running against Alan Keyes either!

We say that Hillary doesn't stand for anything. At least she tried to pass a universal health care plan under President Clinton.

What has Obama done?

Can the Republicans steal the alternative fuel issue?

I was driving down from Chicago to my parent's place in Southern Illinois the other day. 100 miles outside of Chicago, I was surrounded by corn. 150 miles out, corn. 200 miles out, yup, corn. All the way down to Effingham, all I saw was corn! Corn corn corn!

And, as I am sure all of you know, Ethanol fuel is starting to become one of the top issues in political campaigns.

In fact, here in Illinois, I heard three candidates use the ethanol issue in their commercials. They all talked about how we need to turn to ethanol and stop depending on foreign oil.

I totally agree with these commercials.

Yet, all three of these commercials were run by Republican candidates (Kirk, Biggert, Whitfield in KY). I never heard one run by a Democratic candidate.

This is an issue that the Democrats can get behind, yet, they aren't really talking about it. The 'Ethanol Issue' could really help the Democrats in two ways, one in regards to policy, and the other in regards to politics.

The policy argument:

I have heard people say that ethanol doesn't burn as clean as most boast. Ok, that is fine with me. It sucks, but I can deal with it.

I also heard people say that ethanol is only $.20 cheaper than the current fuel at places that offer the E85. That is true as well. Why is that true though? Because there isn't a high demand for the E85, because there aren't that many cars that run on it. As more cars have the opportunity to run on this fuel, hopefull, the price of E85 will reduce.

So with those two factors in place, there is really not a lot of difference between ethanol and our current fuel. Right? WRONG!

Unlike our fuel that we currently use, this fuel will be produced mostly in the United States. 2/5ths of the worlds corn comes from the US. Therefore, 2/5ths of the ethanol fuel can come from the US as well. We would no longer be an importer, but an exporter. THIS MEANS AMERICAN JOBS!

Also, if ethanol becomes the fuel of choice, we will no longer spend any time or money in the Middle East. Let them solve their own problems. They will find out that their oil is useless and that they will need to come to us now.

The political argument:

This one is a pretty easy one.

Farmers have been Republicans. Farmers grow corn. Farmers want a candidate that can help them sell corn. Democrats strongly push ethanol. Farmers start voting Democrat. Democrats start winning in Nebraska, Kansas and other rural states. Simple!

Yet it is the Republicans running the adds for ethanol.

Democrats need to quit thinking that everyone that supports alternative fuel is a Democratic voter. If we just 'assume' this, we will lose the issue.

So Democrats, be smart. This issue will help us in many ways! Use this issue!!!!