Category: 2008 Election

Dave Kopel talks about some inaccuracies the Brady’s have put forth in the ABC News article.  Namely the statement:

“For John McCain to be the political candidate of the NRA shows how things have changed,” Helmke said.

First off, the NRA hasn’t endorsed McCain’s candidacy, and I don’t have any reason to believe that such an endorsement is forthcoming, though nothing would surprise me considering how stunningly bad Barack Wolfgang Amadeus Obama is on this issue.  Secondly, as Dave points out, McCain on the gun issue is really no worse than Bush, who indicated in 2000 that he would sign a renewal of the assault weapons ban.  Bush apparently has also supporting closing the gun show loophole.  McCain at least opposes renewing the assault weapons ban.

That’s basically Uncle’s reaction.  I don’t have much to add myself.

From Bruce:

As if you needed further proof that voting for Obama is a lot like opening a MySpace account. If you’re over the age of 25 and doing either of those things, there’s something wrong with you.

I’ll admit, I have an account, but I don’t use it.

This has already made the rounds, but I wanted to link to Obama’s record on guns that the NRA has put together because each link gives it a bit more Google Lovin’, so when people search on terms involving Barack Moons over Mihami Obama, it comes up with the truth.  I’ll also add this to my highly searched page showing here.

Kevin says if that happens, he’s voting for Bob Barr.  If McCain actually did that, I would do the same at that point.  That would basically be a message from McCain to the Republican base “I don’t need ya!” in which case, fine.  We’ll see in November.

But I think Newsmax is trying to make a non-story here.  “We don’t talk about our vice-presidential possibilities. But he added: ‘I appreciate Mayor Bloomberg enormously and the great job he’s done as mayor.” in D.C. speak is hardly an indication that Bloomberg is being seriously considered.  My money is going to be someone who the base feels good about, but who won’t scare independents and pissed off Hillary supporters.

John McCain has pissed in too many coffee pots in his own party to win with just the party base, so he’s going to have to court independents and Democrats if we’re not going to have to get used to saying “President Obama.”  He’s not going to come out and say “No, I am not considering your Jewish Mayor” when he’s visiting New York City, which is full of Jewish voters who probably liked Hillary, but who might be offended that Obama’s spiritual mentors associate with anti-semites.

Nonetheless, he can’t win without some of his base, and Bloomberg is too far to the left to bring any of the Republican base along for the ride.  If he does pick Bloomberg, I will vote for Bob Barr too, but I feel pretty good that he’s not picking Bloomberg.

Rachel Lucas has a very thought provoking post on the election, and says she understands now why people feel they can’t vote for McCain.  I can understand why people feel that way.  I swore a number of times after McCain took this position or that position that could never vote for the guy, but Obama’s success sobered me up on that count really quickly.  I also don’t think Rachel’s analogy between kids using pot and voting works quite neatly.

The reason is that the goal of a parent that doesn’t approve of kids taking drugs is to keep them from taking drugs.  There is a chance that the parents buying pot for their kids, so they have control over it, underestimate their ability to influence the behavior of their children.  They are essentially abdicating their responsibility with no strong evidence that they actually can’t keep their kids away from drugs, and I suspect you’d find a lot of these parents actually don’t have a problem with kids experimenting.

Except for the rare nail biting election, your individual influence over the outcome of an election is infinitesimal.  Elections are acts of collective expression, not an act of parenting, where a significant measure of responsibility and control over the child is maintained.  Either Obama or McCain are going to be taking up residence in the Oval Office next year.  There is no possibility of a different outcome that’s in the space of reality due to the collective nature of the process.  If an analogy to parenting is to be made, it’s a choice between your child dying of cancer, or having to undergo painful treatments that may or may not save their life.  The responsible parent would opt for treatment, because standing back and letting the cancer kill your child is not something a responsible parent would do.

We may not like the choice, but the outcome is decided.  Obama or McCain.  Take your pick.

The last broadcast of HamNation.  Mary Katharine is moving on to bigger and better things.  It’s good to go out with a bang:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BtJG0BonMQ[/youtube]

Crap like this scares the hell out of me:

Dismiss it all you like, but I’ve heard from far too many enormously smart, wise, spiritually attuned people who’ve been intuitively blown away by Obama’s presence – not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence – to say it’s just a clever marketing ploy, a slick gambit carefully orchestrated by hotshot campaign organizers who, once Obama gets into office, will suddenly turn from perky optimists to vile soul-sucking lobbyist whores, with Obama as their suddenly evil, cackling overlord.

Here’s where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.

The reverence of Ronald Reagan that you get from conservatives can get kind of old sometimes, but you will never hear something like this from a Republican or libertarian.  We do not worship our politicians.  We don’t want them to help us find a new way of being.  We do not want them to help us evolve.  Generally, we want them to leave us the hell alone to live our lives.  Obama can try all he wants, he doesn’t speak to my soul.  He is just a man.  Repeat after me lefties: he is just a man.

I’d say thanks to Instapundit, but now I will have to spend the rest of the night trying to restore my faith in humanity.

A lot of folks have mentioned that it’s momentus that for the first time we’ve nominated an African American to head up a major party presidential ticket, and I agree.  But we’re not really past the whole race thing until doing that isn’t momentus, and, in fact, the person’s race isn’t even a campaign issue.  We’re not quite there yet.