Sen. Clinton on O’Reilly Factor (1st half)

She should have made that appearance during her February 11-state losing streak (Both she and Obama have avoided the Fox News Channel like Superman avoids Kryptonite. Which makes no sense sine FNC draws more viewers than MSNBC and CNN combined. Why the Democrats haven’t figured that out in the 5+ years Matt Drudge has been posting the ratings on his website, I have no idea. Maybe they only read the Drudge Retort!). Some plusses for Bill:
· Got her to indicate that Payroll Taxes (i.e. FICA, Social Security) would likely increase to maintain the current benefits.
· Beat her up about energy – her “NO” votes on increasing fossil fuel production are a significant factor in our rapidly rising energy costs. We haven’t developed alternative sources yet -
· Questions that had depth – about Rev. Wright – he didn’t let her get by with “Let the voters decide or her standard “Look it up on my website”
· Universal Health Care – she is still clinging to “Barack’s plan won’t cover everyone” – he focused on the exorbitant cost and the fact that 2 of the BLUEST states, CA & NY, couldn’t figure out how to finance UHC.
· Rebutting her claim that America needs a “fighter” in the White House. We don’t need a fighter – we need a LEADER. It’s difficult to gauge that now because candidates are expected to have detailed plans on so many different things (that the government shouldn’t be involved in) that the candidate’s words become those of the “handlers”. Bill expressed his opinion (correct assessment to me) that she was losing in this portion of the race (and ultimately this would be a deciding portion).

Some counter-punches & topics that I would like to have seen:
· She talked about how great the economy was during the 90’s (that Bill O. did well while the Clintons were in charge) – he could have pointed out that they’ve done pretty well while Bush has been in charge; it also would have been good to point out that things weren’t as rosy as she paints them. The Tyco, Worldcom, and Enron accounting debacles all occurred then (forcing passage of SOX in 2002). And the NASDAQ is still not back to its 2000 high. That tech bubble was a pretty big one. If she is going to point to the housing bubble as a housing crisis, then I’m going to point back to the tech bubble.
· She mentioned that American families aren’t well off. Well, what percentage of them have amenities like Cable or Satellite TV service, High Speed Internet Service, HD Game Consoles, boats, RVs, ATVs, Jet skis, etc. now vs. 2001?
· What will Mr. Clinton’s role be? After all, he’s raking in TENS of MILLIONS of DOLLARS, mostly from companies based in OPEC nations. They raised a TON of money for his 1996 re-election in China – now she’s complaining that too many American jobs are going there? What the heck did she expect?

Sniper Fire in Bosnia

So Mrs. Clinton landed in Bosnia amidst sniper fire in 1996. Her tall tale grew over the past 3 months until earlier this week the military pilot and CBS News gave their versions of the trip - which were much more accurate (there's a surprise).

Some questions for the Senator and her campaign staff members that came up with this great idea:

1. Why would any responsbile secret security or military servicemember direct passengers to sit on flak jackets? It might save your butt, but it's not designed for that. It's designed to protect vital organs in the torso.

2. Did she or her campaign think to run it past one of the military generals or admirals that are in their camp? They should have advised against the tall tale - knowing that our professional military wouldn't conduct an opposed landing of Mrs. Clinton's party. And why haven't those professionals spoken up against Mrs. Clinton throwing the military under the bus? How can she claim she's ready to be Commander-in-Chief on Day 1?

3. What was next - was she going to tell how she was Jack Bauer before there was a Jack Bauer character - taking out snipers while debarking the plane?

Some unposted thoughts

I wrote this in December but didn't post it. Thoughts on Ohio State and HRC.

Ohio State’s Opponents

I found this while scrolling through the HD sports listings online. Saturday 12/15/07 @ 12:00ET Presbyterian College Blue Hose vs Ohio State Buckeyes on the Big Ten Network. What, there wasn’t an on campus intramural opponent available? I didn’t realize that FB Coach Jim Tressel was tasked to setup the basketball schedule as well!

“I’ve got Editorial Support!”

That was Sen. Clinton on the Today show on 12/17/07, referencing the Des Moines Register editorial endorsement (I’m curious, what percentage of the voting public reads newspapers like that these days?), while hoping viewers weren’t paying attention to Sen. Lieberman (2000 Dem. VP nominee) endorsing Sen. McCain for the Presidency. Mrs. Clinton is so confident, she even appeared on the Fox News Channel! (I can’t hide my sarcasm) She is still sinking in the quicksand aftermath from her all-Kerry circular answer/non-answer to the driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants question at a Democratic Debate in Philadelphia a LONG TIME ago. And now she’s counting her Senate service like dog years – we need one heck of a Senate Pension lock box if 7 years in the Senate equals 35 years of service.
Then her husband is on the CNN Website (don’t worry, I reached it from Matt Drudge’s page) claiming that the first President Bush will tour the world with him to undue the damage that the current President Bush is doing to the country in the international community. Has WJC completely lost it? Not too long ago, he revised his Iraq position. Remember, he was for regime change and launched missile strikes against Iraq in 1998. In 2003, he supported President Bush’s actions against Iraq (quoted in Time Magazine). Does his understanding of the word IS not enable him to understand that the Fox News Channel IS the leading cable news network and they WILL and DO report on his inconsistencies. They weren’t on the air in 1992, and were just launching in 1996, so it is an organization that he didn’t have to be concerned about while he was a candidate. CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS won’t be able to ignore Mr. Clinton’s inconsistencies this time around.

Super Tuesday & CPAC Reflections

I’m referencing CPAC since that’s where Mitt Romney bowed out and John McCain attempted to reach out to conservatives. McCain has been choice #1 for me for about a month; I arrived at him after performing deductive analysis rather than inherently being in agreement with him (I caucused for Obama as part of the ABC (Anyone BUT Clinton) Alliance. After Super Tuesday, I didn’t see a path for Romney to achieve the nomination, though the lack of a path is significantly influenced by the outcomes from three large-delegate winner take all states that McCain (or any Republican) has next to no chance of winning in November (NY, NJ, CA). Of all the Republicans referencing Reagan, I think Romney had the best chance of succeeding in Reagan’s footprints, but his conversion to conservatism was abrupt. (He might have earned my #1 choice if he had a longer track record of being guided by conservative principles) Reagan’s conversion took some time (as in decades). Romney would be wise to emulate Reagan’s activity between his tenure as Governor (CA) and Party Nominee.

McCain – we’ll be able to observe the effectiveness of reaching out to the other side. Immigration, Campaign Finance Reform, No Child Left Behind, Gang of 14 are a few of the issues where McCain has compromised on conservative principles. I do think those are examples of leadership, but I also have concerns about the direction of such leadership. And what are the chances that media outlets like the New York Times will endorse him in the General Election? That entity would endorse convicted drug-dealer former Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry over Sen. McCain for President.

So Mrs. Clinton had to “loan” her campaign $5 MILLION dollars? Where did that money come from? As Senator, she’s in the 100K-200K range. Her husband was in the 200-300K range while President. Even if your investments pay off like Whitewater and Cattle Futures, those salaries don’t turn into having chunks of $5 MILLION dollars lying around. Especially when they had all of those legal bills to pay and those 2 houses to buy after leaving the White House in 2001 (and they didn’t have any home equity to cash in, having lived in Arkansas-provided housing prior to moving to D.C.). Did this money come from the likes of Norman Hsu, the Daly City, CA postal workers, or some Saudi Oil royalty? IF it has Saudi Oil roots, then how can HRC be all upset w/ Big Oil? Big Oil might just be the force keeping her afloat in the campaign. And now she wants to debate Obama every week? If I’m Obama, I don’t take that unless I can guarantee a question that will cause her to outcircle Sen. Kerry like the driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants did last October. At least Mrs. Clinton finally exhibited some honesty about HillaryCare when she said she’d approve of garnishing wages to fund her health care plan. That is code word for ADDITIONAL FEDERAL INCOME TAX. I think the people who want universal health care should move to Canada and try it out for awhile. Then they can come back to the USA and share what they learned. I can see a benfit to disconnecting health care from employer benefits, but am not sure how painful that would be to implement. But I would be in support of improving the process in that manner. Just look at the cost of Lasik eye surgery. It has significantly dropped in price and seems to be of high-quality, and IT IS NOT PART OF MOST EMPLOYER COVERAGE. When will a conservative candidate recognize this and use it?

No Crying or Coughing in Politics

What the heck is going on out there? Mrs. Clinton's hopes dimmed before the New Hampshire, so she teared up. It worked, and when Obama's surge continued into Super Tuesday, she did it again. Someone finally got the message to her to stop cackling when asked a tough question. We should send all of those tapes to the CIA. They won't have a need to waterboard any prisoner - just loop Mrs. Clinton's cackling! Just be sure to issue the CIA agent some hearing protection so that our national asset doesn't go insane. So today she started coughing when KTVU asked her what Mr. Clinton's role would be if she became president. She came down w/ a persistent cough to refrain from answering! (2 days after doing this on Stephanopoulos' show). Is she going to do that when Ahmadinejad or Putin surprises her? The American people need to know what Mr. Clinton's role will be. I'm sure he'll spend MANY more nights at the White House than he has spent the past 8 YEARS in her, er, their Georgetown home. And how many Foreign Donors to the Clinton Presidential Library will visit the Lincoln Bedroom on his behalf? Didn't we learn our lesson allowing the satellite technology to the Chinese in the 1990's?