Apparently, my blog was not accepting anonymous comments until this morning when I made the fix. See, if more of you had and used a registered account on my blog, this wouldn't be an issue. Someone could have logged in, commented, and told me what the problem was!
The more I think about what's going on with Obama and his position gun control, the more I think that he might end up turning off a lot of the voters that the Democratic base ends up relying on to shore up its support like blue collar white voters. A lot of Democrats might be still enamored of him, but when he reaches the general election and it comes out that he is a flat out gun grabber with no remorse for how his policies would affect law-abiding citizens, he'll end up turning off a lot of voters that might have otherwise considered him. In that respect, Hillary has been smart because she has tried to gain some ground on this issue before it becomes a serious problem for her.
Anyone else starting to feel like Obama is running a pavlovian campaign, where he is trying to see how much he can control the senses of voters by uttering certain words like "change" and "hope?" The women swooning for him at his rallies make me think that if he is, it's working like a charm.
This is one of the only immigration proposals that makes sense. I would love for just once the sort of elitists who think that the only real reason to be upset over the illegal immigration is because of latent racism to answer the question of how upset do they really think the average opponent of illegal immigration would be if we were actually flooded by twelve million Mexican doctors, engineers, mechanics and such. It's because most illegals bring nothing more than unskilled labor with them, and are coming here illegally in droves, that people get so upset about them.
It won't come as any sort of surprise to libertarians and conservatives, but Hugo Chavez has been maintaining a blacklist of his political opponents. I've had to sit through a lecture by at least one left-liberal about how this man is the last, best hope for Venezuela, and then later had to hear about how evil things like the blacklisting that occurred during the McCarthy era were. Not that I am surprised because the left still has an unapologetic sympathy for many totalitarian regimes because they represent the "right ideas" even if in practice these regimes make the worst excesses of America look like a trip to heaven. The ironic revulsion toward Hitler for the Holocaust, while completely ignoring the equal evils of the Soviet Union is just one of many examples.
The difference between "progress" and a hampster wheel is the latter at least burns calories
If I had had a registered account I would have never known there was a problem, and so I wouldn't have been able to tell you anyways.
I think Obama would win easily against McCain. McCain somehow has "hero" status, but it cannot overcome his age or his severe anger issues which will no doubt be brought out to influence the population. And to be honest, I don't want someone with his issues to be in charge of enough nukes to kill a large percentage of the world's population.
It would be interesting to see if Obama could make it to the White House spewing platitudes and emanating good feelings. Its worked for others, such as Jesse Ventura. Just keep saying you will do the right thing and leave out all policy and people will think you will rule the way they would have you rule. See also Colin Powell.
I agree with Erik that Obama will smoke McCain, not because he's so much better than him, but his support is more solid. I sense a lot of ambivalence in McCain's support because many recognize that he's significantly to the left of the party on many issues. Yes, I respect him greatly for what he did in Nam. I'd buy him a beer in a heartbeat at a bar. But that respect for what he did 30-odd years ago doesn't mean squat when selecting a leader for this country.
Obama's gun control position will hurt with the Angry White Male base I read about in the Aspen Times not too long ago. Also, I think that, when people start inquiring deeper into what his real positions are, they'll start coming off this Obama-mania. Same with if they really stop and think about his religious background...if Romney had to defend his, Obama sure should have to defend his too. Doesn't help either when you have racialists like Calypso Louie backing you.
Lastly, for once Zoe Lofgren's making sense. At least she makes more sense than Lois Capps whom I suffered under for a few years. While I am still of the opinion that we need to have an immigration moratorium to assimilate all the legal immigrants that we have right now, I think a preference for educated and productive immigration is the way to go, rather than blindly admitting the overwhelmingly stupid and diseased dregs of Central and South American society like we get right now.
EW,
I don't really have all that much respect for what McCain had to go thru. He has certainly made more than a little benefit off of it and I think that more than cheapens his experience. But further there are tens of thousands of men who served thru-out the war, serving the entire time. I have far more respect for the fact that my step-dad VOLUNTEERED for two tours in Nam, when he didnt have to go.
This is an incomplete posting, sorry. I have to get off to work tho.
I refuse to register. I am a non-conformist. :)
Anyway, might as well start thinking "President Obama, it has a nice ring to it"
It's gonna happen.
Charisma means more in politics than issues.
McCain doesn't stand a chance.
Huckabee, maybe. Paul, unlikely. (Sorry, Mike)
But I've seen his rhetoric. Hillary always looks like a stupid kid when they are done debating. What will McCain look like? An old white man.
Dang it. I am still tempted to vote for the Green Party. I won't vote for McCain.
Which means I will most likely fall for Obama's charms and vote for him.
And the best part is, if they want to take something from me, I can say, "Whoa! Go over to the neighbor's. I'm an Obama supporter." ;)
If you admitted to being an Obama supporter, they would expect you to not only comply, but do so eagerly.
I can tell you right now that none of the Stanford-trained engineers come from Mexico - but it's a fairly good idea to draw for top-tier talent instead dealing off the bottom with Labor.
The Logfgren proposal will definitely light a fire of "Brain-Drain Imperialism!" under the Ambassadors of the nation(s) (*cough*India*cough*) from which those engineers come.
However because of the odd nature of Hinduism and it's central focus on exploiting personal vanity and self-image (as the Democrat party does), most of those guys, no matter how actually and culturally conservative, will vote against self-interest and for the good feeling a Democrat or Socialist gives them rather than a Conservative who represents their actual values. This confluence and tension between Tradition and Modernity is actually an ancient and systemic dynamic in the Hindu Great Tradition (vis-a-vis the local, Little Tradition) and one of the exemplars of how progress is made and not-made on the Sub-continent. Age and Tradition resists change while Youth and temporal Modernity exalts it - and when one passes from one stage to the other the emphasis switches.
Obama's wishful-thinking gun-control position will hurt anybody who owns a gun and can read - it's especially significant to minorities who have clear memories of how Socialists use gun-control to disarm the pliant population before they have their way with them.