Where was the famous and much touted day of the election get out the vote power of the GOP?

Why isn’t the name of the Chairman of the GOP, Mike Duncan, a household name?

How did the Republican Party get out done in fundraising by the Democrats?

Where was the Republican presence on college campuses?

Why were the same people running things during the 2006 midterm election disaster still running things in 2008? In a party that is supposed to be the embodiment of merit based success, those that failed in 2006 should have been long gone. In any corporation, that board of directors would have been out….

Why can’t members of the black community name one black Republican… or even know there is an equivalent to the Congressional Black Caucus on the Republican side.

Once upon a time, it was cool to be a Republican. That time has passed.

With a Presidential Nominee and a Chairman of the Party, not to mention the continued idolization of Reagan, the Republican Party has now become my grandfather’s party.

So here is some advice…

1. Find a new image. The Republican party has been the party of the rich white man for the last 50 years, a total shame and a betrayal of what made it great.

Remind people of your history.

Remind people that the first woman elected to Congress was a Republican. Remind people that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. Remind people the Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. Remind people that Susan B. Anthony was a Republican. Remind people that the party that fought to get African Americans and women the right to vote was the Republican Party. Remind people that the Republican Party is the party of equality and freedom for all people. Remind people that the Republican Party is the party of innovation, dynamism and inspiration, not the party of old rich white guys.

2. Find a new Chairman. I suggest someone young and energetic. Michael Steele would be a great choice. Chairman of GOPac, he is universally respected in the Party. A former Lt Governor and Senatorial candidate, he is acutely aware of the minutia and difficulties of campaigning. As a PAC chairman, he is a keen and experienced fundraiser. As an ex-Lt Governor and Senatorial candidate, he is also aware of what image is and how to cultivate one in the media. Add this to the fact that he is also an African American, this instantly dispels the old rich white guy image.

3. Rebuild the College Republicans. Why is it that the college campuses have been taken over by the Democrats and how could the GOP have let the Democrats the first crack at a generation of Americans? Make youth reach out a priority… that is truly the future of the party and generates decades worth of votes.

4. Stop talking about Reagan as if he was President just yesterday and as if he was some sort of current force in politics when he left office 20 years ago… and people under 25 don’t remember him being President at all and those 35 and under just barely do. Reagan is a great figure to point to, but should be treated more like Lincoln than Clinton, who is still current, topical and all voters remember.

5. Clean house, get rid of the campaign and organizational staff that lost you the 2006-2008 elections. The GOP got it’s butt kicked up and down the electoral map by the DNC, not once, but twice. Bad. It’s time to draft some new players….

6. As a correlation to step 5, stop running people like Fred Thompson, John McCain, Duncan Hunter, or even Mitt Romney and anyone else born pre-1949. Though they are all good and honorable men, with much to offer, they don’t resonate with the majority of today’s voters and the image they present is one of the past and not one of the future.

7. Rebuild the party around your young stars. Primarily, stop the take down of Palin and stop it now. Get a hold of your party and get a hold of it now. Bolster people like Palin, Jindal, Cantor, Pawlenty, Steele, Watts and the like.

8. Stop relying on the technology of the 1990′s to get the job done in the 2000′s. The GOP has allowed the communications medium of the future to be taken by the Democrats… how the hell could you let that happen?

Stop relying on talk radio to get your message out.

The GOP needs a network of bloggers and a much larger online foot print. (BTW, Mr. GOP, I am available for consultations and to offer any advice on how to replicate an Obama type take over of the netroots should you decide to move into the new millennium LOL.) They need to increase netroots networks and maximize online fundraising capabilities.

The GOP also needs to gather cell phone numbers and create an SMS messaging program. Their membership databases need to be updated. According to one of my readers, the amount of horribly outdated information in the phone banks was astounding. I am guessing that is what happened to the election day get out the vote effort.

9. Start running a 50 State strategy much like the Democrats did, and start now. There is no reason that the Republican message should not appeal to everyone. The GOP should get off its’ butt and go talk to the people they haven’t visited in 50 years. I have a feeling they might like to see them… or at least some of them will, but isn’t that enough? Making small inroads into voting populations is essential because those small inroads become larger with time. And eventually, you can win states by the 0.5 to 2% margins that Obama rode to victory.

IN CONCLUSION: The GOP needs to remind people of its history, but also to leave its’ history as history. The Republican Party can no longer ride on the legacy of Reagan. They must re-invent itself and become the party of the future.

The Grand Old Party must become the Brand New Party or it will continue to wither away and die.

This is cross posted from my new blog home at http:/texashillblog.blogspot.com, so if you have links, please change them! Thanks!

The attacks on Sarah Palin are horrendously sexist and wholly unfair.

The media is making it seem as if the Republican party is eating her alive and is reporting horrendously ridiculous hearsay as fact. They have even abandoned any pretense at calling the ridiculous rumors “alleged” or “supposed.”

The assertion that Palin had no idea that Africa was a continent with several countries, but was a country with several states is hard to believe at best. This woman is a college graduate from a major university, not a college drop out. This woman is a governor of the largest and one of the most important states in the country. This woman debated international relations with one of the most knowledgeable foreign policy experts in the country, Joe Biden, and held her own.

And yet, the media just accepts the word of “unnamed” sources… omitting of the fact that last week a staffer was fired for rumor mongering and alleging that other staffers had made certain comments that were never made.

Sarah Palin came on the national scene with what is arguably the biggest eruption of support of all time. Even Barack Obama’s meteoric rise took the 4 years from the 2004 convention to now. Sarah’s was massive and it was instant. The Republican base rallied around her and loved her like she was the second coming of Ronald Reagan.

Then the media stepped in.

The first interviews Palin had with Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson were bad… really bad. But then the transcripts came out, and three things came to light.

1. Sarah Palin has not yet learned how to speak in a soundbite media world. Her explanations were longer, a bit more meandering, but solid and logical when taken as a whole.

2. The reporters played gotcha games, asking questions that were intended to trap her into statements without allowing for elaboration.

3. The interviews were HIGHLY edited. Palin’s answers were cut and pasted to other questions, qualifiers were deleted, elaborations were eliminated and anything that would make Palin look like a good competent Governor were eliminated… even down to Couric refusing to address her as “Governor Palin.”

The “News” is no longer an unbiased thing. Unbiased Journalism is dead, and has been for a long time. The News is a narrative, it is a story, and it is a story that is intended to garner ratings. Interviews are part of that story too.

I will let you in on a little secret. If you ever watch an “unbiased” interview with someone or read a “fair” article about someone and you come away with a really good or a really bad impression of someone… it is intentional and don’t you ever believe otherwise.

The left wanted Palin to look like a fool… she scared the bejusus out of them, and so the media began the story that Palin was an idiot through disparaging commentary, manipulated interviews, omission of her positives and derision through “parody.” They created a narrative and now it has gone out of control!

John McCain’s loss is now being blamed on Sarah Palin. Totally Ridiculous.

John McCain faced the most unlikely odds of winning the Presidency… well, possibly ever.

John McCain won the Republican nomination for 3 reasons. First, he is a good, honorable man with a long history of service and is universally admired by both sides of the aisle. Second, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney split the religious and most conservative parts of the Republican base. If not for Huckabee taking votes away from Romney, it is less likely that McCain would have become the nominee. The third reason is that most Republicans realized that McCain was the only one that could have won this election because he was the only one in the field of candidates that could garner votes from the middle… though that did not really translate into support from the conservative base.

The nomination of Sarah Palin was a masterstroke of political maneuvering. Palin instantly ignited the conservative base, divided the traditional democratic bloc of feminists and brought the McCain campaign back into the spotlight.

For the last two months of the primary, once it was obvious that John McCain became the nominee, the Republican side of the election went from being a sideshow to a footnote. McCain was barely garnering back page news and virtually no television coverage, even as he did things and reached out to people as no Republican had done in 40+ years.

In the second and a half it takes to say the name “Sarah Palin” that all changed, and she came out like a fireball… until the media got a hold of her.

Then her support, as planned, began to falter a bit. She went from being loved to well liked by the base, the middle drew back at the wholly unfair caricature that the media portrayed her as being, and the left went into panic mode.

The fact that she fought corruption on both sides of the aisle, that she holds one of the top 5 most powerful Governorships in the country, that she is the Commander In Chief of the only permanently active duty national guard in the country, and that she has the highest approval rating of any governor in the United States… by far, was totally omitted by the media.

The exit poll statistics actually show that, for the people that the VP decision made a difference, Sarah Palin actually garnered a 3-4% boost for McCain. A boost.

The reason that McCain lost was not because of Palin. He really lost because:

1. The absolute and blatant worship and fealty shown to Barack Obama on the part of the media. I wouldn’t even know where to start it was so obvious and shameful. From tingly legs, to greatest speeches of all time that need to be taught in schools, to out and out lies about Palin, to total deletions of positive attributes, to comments such as “the one,” to the total pass given to the Obama/Biden gaffe machine… the bias and lopsided coverage was horrendous. But he almost did.

2. The absolute Iron Albatross of George W. Bush and his administration. An incumbent President of his own party with the lowest approval rating in history is a nearly impossible thing to overcome… but he almost did.

3. Then the economic crash happened. This is what doomed his candidacy. The general public does not understand that the President actually has very little control over the things that happen in the country, but because he/she is the symbol of America and the biggest spokesperson, the President is always the one to blame. The fact that it is really Congress that deals with and manages the minutia of domestic legislation and regulation is totally lost on them. Even though they may consciously understand, unconsciously they need to blame 1 person and not the nebulous “Congress” and so it falls on the shoulders of the President. Besides, the public never expects anything out of Congress, but demands perfection out of the President… thus we get a Congress with a single digit approval rating and yet the onus of the last few years falls to Bush.

4. The conservative/religious right that makes up the base of the Republican party abandoned them. Many of the evangelicals that bothered to vote, in fact, voted for Barack Obama. The conservatives, on the other hand, never really liked McCain that much anyway and didn’t show up at the polls. The turnout in overall numbers were basically the same as 4 years ago, but the numbers of Democrats that showed up and were willing to wait in line to vote far out numbered the Republicans willing to do the same.

The story that the media is not covering is that Barack Obama did not win because he had a mandate from the people, it is because John McCain did not have a mandate from his own party. If you go back and look at the statistics and exit polls, especially in the battlegrounds, you see a distinct weakness in turnout from the base of the Republican party. If the base of the Republican party had turned out in states such as Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia and Florida in the same numbers they did in 2004, then John McCain would have been President. They did not… not even close.

5. McCain’s campaign staff gave up weeks ago. They decided after the economic crash and the last Presidential debate that there was no way that John McCain was going to win, and they just plain gave up. The effectiveness of McCain’s message dropped like a rock because they stopped crafting arguments. I am going to guess that the campaign staffers were having conflicts with Palin because she is such a fireball and was on the attack, but because there were no finely crafted arguments coming from the campaign, she had to wing it. It was incredibly sad that the most effective argument in the last few weeks of the general election came not from the McCain campaign, but from a plumber that just happened to run into Barack Obama in his driveway. With McCain’s staff in total disarray, they only have themselves to blame… but like Barny Frank and Fannie Mae, they can’t allow it to look like it was their fault.

So why is there a frenzy of attacks on Palin? Well, two reasons really…

1. The left wants her attacked and diminished as much as possible to prevent a possible future as a potent force in national politics. She has the potential to become the next Ron Reagan to the Republicans with the honor of a John McCain. Her future is filled with incredible potential and she could follow the same meteoric path that Barack Obama has, even possibly eclipsing him. That is not something that the left can allow, so they have to diminish her as much as possible and the attacks will only get more vicious in the short term because they no longer have to worry about the immediate rejection of those criticizing her and the immediate impact on votes. They are much more free to become unhinged in their attacks now that the election cycle is over.

2. Part of the Republican Party wants to blame everyone but themselves. They don’t want to admit that they were unable to activate the base or even that they lost the base. They want to blame an external force instead of their utter failure as a party to get things done, and while they cannot turn on John McCain, they unflappable Lion of the party, they can easily turn on Palin… the woman that already has the narrative thanks to the left and to the media.

In short… Sarah Palin is being attacked from the left to prevent her from being a super star and from the right so that they can blame someone other than themselves.

Period.

This is cross posted from my blog Texas Hill Country

Mortgages were, like, soooo last year.

The real looming monster in the room that no one wants to admit is there yet are the credit default swaps. If these start going down the tubes, we are completely screwed. Completely.

The problems we face go so far beyond the basic problems of the mortgage crisis, it is hard to even describe the real problems we face in layman’s terms.

On a basic level, everyone broke up their risky stuff into little tidbits and sold them to a bunch of different places… spreading around the risk, therefore supposedly lowering the risk exposure for each party.

Then, at the same time, everyone was buying other places tidbits of risk and paying a premium… because the returns were big and the overall risk was low due to it being spread over a group rather than a single party. And the risk was further minimized because they owned tidbits of risk from several different parts of the financial sector and from several different companies, so if one part had trouble, no big deal… it was balanced out by all the others.

You see, the only way all these little tidbits could pose any real problem is if the whole sector were to grind to a screeching halt. And that could never happen… could it?

Instead of having individual companies running into problems and shutting down, now everyone owns a part of everyone else’s risk… and in the aggregate, those little tidbits of risk add up to a lot of risk, especially if the whole financial system becomes threatened… you know, like now.

So the potential for future problems is immense. Mortgages are just the beginning.

We need a leader with honor, experience and a willingness to work with both sides of the aisle.

John McCain has been in DC and part of the solution for the S&L Crisis, 1987′s Black Friday, the Tech Bubble burst, the collapse after Sept 11th and now the Mortgage Meltdown. He has experience in dealing with both the delicate political and tenuous economic situations.

In addition, much like Obama’s touted “foresight” and speech on Iraq, John McCain put forth legislation in 2005 and warned about the coming meltdown. If we are to give Obama credit that his initial opposition to the Iraqi invasion speaks to some sort of judgement, then this must be trumped by McCain’s prediction of the troubles in the mortgage industry because no one will dispute that the troubles with the economy are by far the most important.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, not so good on the judgement tip. Barack Obama not only stayed silent on the coming crisis, but supported the very groups and people responsible for the crisis. Among those in Obama’s inner circle you can find two former heads of Fannie Mae and the grand dame and architect of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. In addition, Obama has been one of the top recipients of contributions from Wall Street… second only to Chris Dodd. And then there is ACORN… Oh, God… I don’t even know where to begin with these scam artists…

Barack Obama’s complete ignorance and total naivete’ when it comes to real estate and economics has a long track history of devastation. From the boarded up tenements his buddy Rezko left all over the southside of Chicago to the meltdown of the mortgage industry cheer on by his friends, advisors and former employers… Barack Obama is bad for housing and bad for the economy.

This is a big crisis, one that the majority of Americans agree is the biggest crisis we face. We cannot leave it to an ignorant neophyte with a history of destructive decision making that has shown little propensity to change his stance, even less leadership, a near complete lack of bi-partisanship and an affinity for earmarks.

Barack Obama didn’t even want to go back to DC to deal with the mortgage crisis in the first place, didn’t even bother to contact any of the Democrats that were on the fence the morning of the bailout vote… but bi-partisanship and an aversion to earmarks are essential.

John McCain has a long and well documented history of bi-partisanship, one which is lauded by just about everyone in DC including both Hillary and Bill Clinton as well as Joe Biden.

In addition, these bills dealing with the economy need to be free of the clutter, partisanship and politics that earmarks represent. John McCain has never once asked for an earmark… ever.

This stands in stark contrast to Obama and his friends, who wanted to earmark the bailout bill to give ACORN, Obama’s former employer, BILLIONS of dollars and who sunk the vote through their rabid partisanship (ie Pelosi and her rant.)

When facing the precipice of complete economic meltdown, we need someone that has experience, someone that listens to all sides, has the foresight to recognize coming problems, works in a bi-partisan way and does not use crisis situations to earmark and gain political advantage.

We need John McCain.

This is cross posted from Texas Hill Country

It now looks like the “Troopergate” thing is turning into a modern day “Whitewater” in which a prosecutor starts out looking for one thing, doesn’t find anything, then digs and digs and digs, turning over ever rock possible, and all the while starts flinging mud to do as much damage as possible… because it’s not really about a crime, it’s about politics.

It is now well established that Monegan, the state police chief, was fired because of insubordination and fights over budget disagreements. More specifically, Palin claims that the last straw was an “unauthorized” trip Monegan planned to take to DC in order to lobby Congress for funding after Palin refused to provide the funding from the state coffers.

So, here are the newest twists…

First, according to ABC, it turns out that Palin’s office did approve the trip, which meant that Monegan could use state funds to pay for his travel expenses.

The McCain/Palin camp responded with…

…a statement from Randy Ruaro, another aide to Palin…. According to Ruaro, Monegan asked for — and received — approval for the travel without telling Palin’s staff his reason for going. “As a matter of routine, the travel was approved by Mike Nizich … weeks before the actual purpose was made clear by former Commissioner Monegan,” Ruaro wrote.

And now for the second twist…. According CBS,

Monegan told ABC that the travel authorization was explicitly to pursue funding for the anti-sexual-violence program, though the document does not state that as a reason for the trip.

McCain-Palin responded with this in that same article;

McCain spokesman Taylor Griffin said Friday that the travel authorization was for a routine trip, and that state commissioners regularly travel to meet members of Alaska’s congressional delegation.

“He was not authorized to lobby Congress,” Griffin said.

.

Ok, so we have to keep one thing in mind… we are talking about an issue that involves Presidential politics, so we remember that these people are playing on the most hardcore playing field ever.

Presidential elections and the success of the candidates mean power and money for tens of thousands of people across the country. This is not a game, but deadly serious and we have to look at these things with a ver different kind of eye, because in this arena, very little can actually be taken at face value.

So, we have to take a step back from our initial reaction, which is probably something like “OMG, She’s against an anti-sexual violence program?!?!” and think about the dynamics logically… thru another prism.

We have to do what the media refuses to do… peel back the tabloid drama, filter out the partisanship and the spin and look at the who, what, and why.

So let’s start with some questions…

1. What are the reasons that Palin was chosen as McCain’s Vice Presidential Nominee?

Palin was chosen because she is a maverick like McCain, has a record of anti-pork and corruption, is fantastically well versed in Energy policy, instantaneously solidified the conservative base, and also because she is a woman.

2. What is the biggest threat that Palin, as McCain’s VP nominee, poses to the Democratic Party and to Barack Obama?

Of all the attributes Palin has, the biggest direct threat to Obama and the Democratic Party is her gender.

Now, please DO NOT mistake what I am saying. I am in no way saying that McCain picked her beause of her gender.

The similarity in status as a maverick, the intense energy resume and the solidification of the party base were the primary reasons. The religious conservatives love Palin… period. The domestic energy issue rounds out McCain’s international and foreign policy resume, solidifying the fiscal conservative as well as the national security base in the Republican Party. These people weren’t going to vote for Obama, but they may not have ALL voted for McCain but for Palin.

No, the direct threat to Obama is her gender because she has the potential to take votes away from Obama and give them to McCain in large numbers given the VERY unhappy female Democratic base due to the contentious primary season and the passing over of Clinton as VP candidate.

This is worse than people not vote for Obama and going third candidates, which many disatisfied female Democrats had planned on doing until Palin arrived on the scene. The reason is that a Democrat that votes for a third candidate is a -1 net loss for Obama, while a Democrat that votes for McCain is a -2 net loss for Obama because it is one less vote for Obama and one more vote for McCain. This means that for every person that votes for a third party, Obama only needs to replace them with one more voter, but for everyone that votes for McCain, Obama must now replace them with 2 voters… a much bigger problem. Twice as big, really.

3. What are the traditonal “women’s issues?”

The “traditional” women’s issues are children, choice, abuse and education. When politicians focus on women… these are the things they focus on. Well, and healthcare too, but no one seems to be talking about healthcare too much at the moment.

4. How do you stop women from flocking to Palin?

The Democratic Party and the Obama has been in a scramble to figure this out, and have thrown the proverbial kitchen sink at her in the process.

The left has screamed about how she wants to overturn Roe v Wade and teach creationism in schools but these attacks have not worked, so they continue to scream about these things and have moved on to several other attacks in tandum.

They have slanderously lied about her cutting funding for everything from special needs kids to pregnant teenage moms, both of which hit Sarah suspiciously close to home because she has a pregnant teenage daughter and a son with Downs syndrome. These accusations turned out to be not only untrue, but it turns out that she increased funding to these programs by as much as 300%.

Then came the horrendous personal attacks which devolved into everything from calling her white trash pornstar look-a-like, to articles talking about masturbatory fantasy involving a Palin, a threesome and the Constitution. One journalist even sunk so low as to as the question about whether Palin played the “retard card.”

And none of it has worked. Actually, the attacks have seemed to backfire.

5. How does this latest “Troopergate” twist fit into the puzzle?

Ok, so keeping in mind all of the above, we now look at troopergate.

Troopergate’s only implication for Palin was that she was possibly not as squeaky clean on the anti-corruption/clean government issue as she claimed, not an issue that addresses the crisis Obama is facing with the women’s vote… until now.

6. Why should you be skeptical?

You should be skeptical of all the “Troopergate” information for several reasons, but mostly… it’s a political hit job.

We must keep in mind that Monegan was not really fired. He was offered a transfer to a non-cabinet position in another department because of the difficulty in working with him, but decided not to take the transfer and instead opted to leave government employ.

It is also obvious that this man has severe personal issues with Palin. Perhaps he resents a woman being in power and telling him no. He certainly seemed to have a problem with his now ex-wife, who had to have a restraining order issued because he broke into her house, beat her and threatened to kill her. I am not talking about the trooper here, who was an abusive husband as well, I am talking about the Chief himself.

It is also important to note that the apparent basis upon which we find out that the trip was about lobbying for an anti-sexual violence program is the word of Mr. Monegan himself. The reason for the trip is not enumerated on the written authorization for travel, and Palin’s assistant noted that he did not make it clear what the trip was for when it was approved.

We must also take into account the topic that they are giving for travel… could ANYTHING possibly be more damaging to her appeal to women than her being against a program to fight sexual violence?

Much like the cutting funding to pregnant teens and to special needs kids, this just seems too damn perfect in a very specific way…

And we are supposed to just accept the word of a wife beating top cop that has an obvious grudge against Palin and has teamed up with a Democrat for a “prosecutor” that this very special and specific reason was the purpose of the trip that he got fired for? Really?

If this was really the reason for the trip, it is also interesting to note that, while I did notice the price tag for the program mentioned (in excess of $50 million dollars if I remember correctly), the details of the program are non-existant. What exactly was this program? What was it spending money on? What provisions already existed? Were existing provisions already sufficient? Was this really a pork project?

7. What the hell does this have to do with Palin firing Monegan for not firing her ex-brother in law?

The answer? NOTHING.

This is all political theater meant to get an emotional reaction out of you so that you vote out of anger and fear instead of with your heart and your head.

As my new friend Caro says… “Old Liberals have a moral center, it seems the new Progessives do not.”

This is cross posted from my blog at Texas Hill Country

Peeling back the pandering and the rhetoric, I will attempt to answer this genuinely difficult question… “What about Roe?”

I feel the need to make it EXPLICITLY CLEAR that I am PRO-CHOICE and UNWAIVERINGLY SO.  I DO NOT want Roe v Wade overturned and think that, no matter the merits, it is a Stare Decisis decision at this point and should be judged accordingly.

Ok, so now that is out of the way, on the the rest…

Let’s be honest about this… John McCain is a conservative. We cannot ignore that nor should we pretend that he is anything but.

The question that everyone seems to be passing over is “what kind of a conservative is he?”

The answer is that he is more like a Barry Goldwater than he is a George Bush. He is not a “neo-con” that is in bed with the religious right. He is not a “born again” Christian and he is not a fundamentalist Christian. He is a true conservative in that he has a big libertarian streak with the desire to limit the role of the Federal Government in local and personal issues.

Now, let me make this clear… a person can be pro-choice and not support the Roe v Wade decision. They are two separate, but admittedly linked, issues.

To make things as clear as possible, let me explain exactly what the Roe says…

The Roe v Wade decision states that laws against abortion violated a constitutional right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, that a woman had a right to an abortion up to the point where the fetus is viable outside of the womb and set up a “trimester” system. The decision overturned all state and federal laws outlawing or restricting abortion that were inconsistent with its holdings.

Ok, so now with that out of the way, what does John McCain believe about Roe v Wade, what does he want to do about it and why?

First, what does he believe about Roe v Wade?

John McCain believes that Roe v Wade is a flawed decision.

For him, the problem he has with Roe is not really about the result of the decision (the legalization of abortion) but about the legal reasoning behind the decision. He believes that the Supreme Court basically invented a right to privacy and claimed to find it in the Due Process clause of the 14th Ammendment.

To be honest, he has a very good case. He is not entirely wrong. Even though I am staunchly pro-choice and believe that the result of the decision is the proper one, the language Justice Blackmun infers from the Due Process clause in justifying the decision is a big stretch. The legal basis for the Roe v Wade decision is widely recognized as extremely weak and has been subject to criticism not only by the conservatives but even by famous liberal legal scholars such as Alan Dershowitz, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Kermit (Kim) Roosevelt, and several others including Cass Sunstein, an Obama advisor no less.

The Roe v Wade decision is probably the closest you can get to legitimately arguing that judges are “legislating from the bench” because of the tenuous legal basis upon which the decision is based and the sweeping result it had upon the population and culture of the United States.

As an aside, it is also interesting to note that Lawrence Tribe, Barack Obama’s mentor at Harvard Law, is among those highly critical of Roe. In light of this tidbit, the fact that Obama was going to vote for Roberts’ appointment and was prepared to lambast the Democrats for filibustering his appointment until a staffer informed him that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea is quite interesting.

Regardless…

Second, what does McCain want to do about it?

The answer to this is simple. He wants Roe v Wade overturned.

So what happens then? Is abortion automatically illegal?

No, no abortion doesn’t become automatically illegal. (There are like 5 states, like Illinois, that have “trigger laws” that would make abortion illegal, but those were passed in the 70’s and many of those state are far more liberal now than they were then.)

So essentially, nothing happens immediately.

John McCain wants the issue sent back to the states so that they can decide for themselves, which is inevitably what would happen.

Then the states decide for themselves and very few, if any, would enact restrictions.

Third, why does McCain want it overturned?

Does McCain believe that life begins at conception? Absolutely. There is no question of that and he has been quite clear.

Is he Pro-Choice? To an extent, yes.

While he has a zero rating from Naral every year and is personally pro-life, he does believe that the states should decide for themselves. He will advocate for “life” at all times, but he is a true believer in Federalist principles and thinks that states should have the final say on the issue.

He has said more than once that he believes that life begins at conception, but that he supports the rights of others that disagree.

John McCain has also made it abundantly clear that while he is personally pro-life, his opposition to Roe is based upon the flawed reasoning behind the law and the over-reaching power of the bench rather than purely religious reasons.

This is where he diverges radically from people like George Bush and the Religious Right.

He also supports embryonic stem cell research, which is another great philosophical divide between McCain and the religious base of the Republican Party.

Now, we also have to remember that these things take time and a variety of factors have to click just right for Roe to get overturned, so it is not like the moment McCain gets elected that Roe is gone. First, a seat has to open up on the Supreme Court, something that the Roe screaming Obamabots seem to over look that this is not certain to happen, just a strong possibility. Then the appointee has to not moderate once on the bench (which does happen regularly.) Then a case has to work it’s way up through the courts that has the right merits to challenge Roe.

So this is what McCain believes, what he wants and why. Is this ideal?  No, especially not for pro-choice women.

The question of Roe and voting for McCain is a hard one and I understand why. This was a landmark decision and one that even I don’t particularly want to have to fight again….

But here is my question to you… Is the women’s movement so atrophied that the terms Roe v Wade and Women’s Movement are now interchangable?

What about the right for women to aspire to the top positions in the country and not get called silly, dumb, a bitch or a bad parent? What about equality of women in the workplace and in the home? What about respect for women as people in the media, in the home and in the workplace?

If the women’s movement is more than just Roe v Wade and is more about gender equality and respect, then please explain to me how it is that Sarah Palin is not a giant step forward for women?

I am in no way saying that anyone should vote for Palin solely because of gender, anymore than I would advocate that people vote for Obama based on the color of his skin, but that people recognize her for what she symbolizes…  a step forward, not backward.

What is most important to you is for you to decide.

Anyway, so there it is… what McCain believes and some food for thought.

I want to remind you that I am STAUNCHLY PRO-CHOICE and am a DEVOTED FEMINIST before you start commenting!

I want to hear from you, please tell me what you think and how you feel about this subject… just dont start yelling at me LOL.

This is cross posted from my blog at Texas Hill Country

And it scared the bejesus out of the Obama campaign.

The total shock that the media and the Obama campaign clearly experienced at the naming of Palin as McCain’s VP pick showed their arrogance and close mindedness. She had been on McCain’s radar for months. As a matter of fact, even I, a relatively casual observer of the McCain VP search, knew that she was on the short list (and was rooting for her btw).

And so, without having paid attention to the crime fighting small town girl that loves her church and her guns, the media and the campaign surrogates had to start coming up with information from zero. They grasped at straws and started throwing out information without any real vetting or fact checking.

First were the vicious rumors about Trig not being Sarah’s baby, but her daughter’s. Then came the horrendous reports that Palin and/or her husband had committed adultry. And finally came the questions about what kind of a mother Palin would be if she were Vice President… an incredibly sexist sentiment and something that would never had been asked if she was a man.

All of these “reports and rumors” were echoed by Obama surrogates and repeated by campaign spokespeople, though not Obama himself.

Once they realized that the personal attacks were backfiring, the attacks on the “issues” began… only the attacks were far off the mark. First came the reports that she cut funding for Teen Pregnancy programs,  but a quick internet search showed that she actually increased it by 300%. Then came the reports that she cut funding for special needs children, but in actuality she had increased it by 200%.  And my personal favorites were the reports that she tried to get books banned from the library, which is patently ridiculous.   The”facts” were clearly flawed…  they had to find something else.

And then came the wedge issues…. They said she was anti-contraception, which is not true. Then they said she was anti-sex education, which is not true. And all of this was followed quickly by attacks on her religion (a religion shared by a good number of high ranking DNC and Obama Campaign officials mind you), nevermind the fact that she has never once shown any propensity to incorporate religion into any of her policy decisions, much less push for things like school prayer and having creationism taught in schools.

At the end, even Obama himself began to join in, calling her “the former mayor,” making fun of both the size of the town she was mayor of, and the size of the state she is now governor of… nevermind the fact that Biden, Dean, Sununu, Patrick, Kennedy and several other top North Eastern Democrats come from states with a similar population size to that of Alaska.

Diminishing the accomplishments of an impressive woman was not the smartest thing the Obama campaign could have done, especially considering the deep division in the Democratic party over the way Hillary Clinton was treated.  For many of the centrist democrats and Hillary supporters, the attacks on Palin were like the attacks on Hillary Clinton but in fast forward and on steroids.

The attacks were backfiring, but could Palin withstand the storm was the big question.

Palin exceeded all expectations, striking back with amazing strength and a smile that killed. Palin hit Obama hard, making fun of Obama’s claim to fame as a Community Organizer and attacking him on his experience, sending the Obama campaign reeling.

That one joke did 4 things…. It highlighted Obama’s inexperience, brought up the question about what a community organizer does exactly because most of America probably doesn’t know, it painted Obama as an urbanite that is out of touch with rural America, and it painted Obama as a rabblerouser and a trouble maker… a sort of 60’s era radical. None of these images are particularly appealing to rural and small town America.

Stupidly, the Obama fell into the trap and began to compare the experience level of Obama to Palin… an incredibly dumb move that both diminished Obama and bolstered Palin. Comparing the top of one ticket to the bottom of another is never a good idea. It only served to put a spotlight on the experience gap between McCain and Obama.

Now Obama must climb out of the hole that his campaign, the media and himself have created. The fact that Obama is anywhere from dead even to 10 points behind in all the national polls has served as a wake up call and thrown them into panic mode.  The media is on high alert and the narrative is slowly changing.

We shall see if Obama and his campaign keep insulting small town America and those who cling to God and their guns.

We shall see if they keep diminishing the accomplishments of women.

We shall see if they continue to make the same mistakes. Over and over.  And over.

This is cross-posted from my blog Texas Hill Country