Just observations, you decide: Recent Comments

Comment on Can't see the forest...

2010-01-23T21:48:23Z

Thanks for the comment. Like you, I'm afraid that there is little hope for any coming together any time soon. Hope we're both wrong.

Comment on Can't see the forest...

2010-01-22T03:26:27Z

Good to see your voice in print again. Quite an interesting perspective, as always. I also see an increase in the dissension of the populace. Hopefully we will soon see a leveling and the issues at hand will find a common ground. Though this is long overdue, I think much time will pass before common ground becomes apparent.

Comment on Answers:

2008-10-27T20:16:20Z

I'm totally with you on dirty tricks on both sides. The most damaging thing I can see to the Obama campaign is the tape of a radio interview that surfaced today which may damage him with some Independents but that was his own doing. I'm going to stick with the 11 percent, although that may be a little soft now.

No doubt there are some in the Repub party who would also like to see the Dems have complete control for the next two years. Unless soon to be President Obama really is the Second Coming, I don't see anyway he doesn't disappoint even his base.

I do think that SP is more capable than many (even in her own party) give her credit. Still, if a woman with the credentials and presence of HC can't be nominated, I don't see SP being nominated. Think it would be great if she would break away from her handlers the last week of the campaign. (And as an aside, I don't give a rat's furry grey ass how much her clothes and make-up cost.)

RINO - I must have slept on the stupid pillow all weekend because that never crossed my mind. Very clever.

Comment on Answers:

2008-10-27T01:43:00Z

I had to laugh about the Republican dirty tricks. On the blogs I read, all the talk is about ACORN and about Obama disabling the credit-card-processing security checks on his fund-raising website. Perhaps the chicanery on the two sides will balance out. I do hope, however, that whoever wins does so by a wide enough margin so that election fraud could not possibly have changed the outcome.

I have to admit that there is a part of me that almost hopes the Dems do get to 60 if Obama wins the Presidency. That would remove any chance of them insisting they would have done a better job if only those nasty Republicans weren't forever filibustering all their wonderful programs. Or, more neutrally, let's give them a chance to try their way and see if things get better.

Whether Palin can win a national election probably depends to some extent on how the Obama administration (assuming there is one) does over the next four years. If it's as disastrous as I believe it will be, she may look darn good in 2012. Also, unfiltered (if you'll pardon the expression) she sounds remarkably sensible. She is clearly conservative in her own views but the policy statements I've heard her made on everything from abortion to gay rights to sex education sound quite balanced and reasonable. If Americans see more of that side of her I think she could do quite well.

I'd say the policies the Dems are talking about pretty much guarantee they won't solve either problem and will probably generate quite a few more. At least this is one case where there's only an upside for my being proved wrong.

RINO - Republican In Name Only, i.e., McCain, paired with a real Republican. (I like McCain but he's hardly a doctrinaire Republican.)

Comment on Answers:

2008-10-27T00:34:21Z

Hello, Elise, thank you for your comments.

1. Actually, were I not taking somewhat into account the view of a liberal friend who is sure that the Repubs are going to pull some "dirty trick" to win, I would go even higher - maybe 13-15%.

2. At one time I thought the 60 might be in reach but I know even some Dems are afraid of giving one party that much power.

3. I don't see Governor Palin running for President. Although she is an excellent campaigner (and a good sport, thought she was great on SNL) and certainly has a base, I don't think she can win a national election; of course, I thought the same about W.

4. Oh yeah, it's a classic case of be careful what you wish for - now Iraq and the economy will belong to the Dems and I'm not sure even with both Houses and the WH they can solve those problems in two years.

5. Like your answer. I'm too obtuse to figure out the "rino" part.

Comment on Answers:

2008-10-26T21:12:47Z

1. Ouch.

2. From your mouth to God's ear - it still leaves the Dems short of the magic 60.

3. Doubt it. Not a good platform from which to launch her 2012 campaign against HRC. My guess is she'll run again in 2010.

4. Yup, especially after Biden's predicted big international crisis and unpopular economic thingy.

5. The 2008 Republican ticket (although you misspelled "RINO").

Comment on If I were his mother I would be so proud.

2008-09-23T22:08:44Z

You are full of thought provoking ideas, although again if I were his mother I'm not sure it's a job I would want him to have.

Can't decide if the so-called hearings this morning were scary, funny or sad.

Comment on If I were his mother I would be so proud.

2008-09-23T21:47:43Z

So can we hire Willumstad to run Paulson's bailout fund?

Comment on Yesterday and today as word of the - at last count - $700 billion

2008-09-22T19:53:54Z

Thanks for your comments, Elise.

I'm not one of those that thinks I would have known any better what to do with the information presented before that Iraq War than those who were there. I certainly never expected HRC to apologize for making her best judgment of what should have been done; nor do I buy into Senator Obama's stance that he is in the clear because he didn't cast a vote. He wasn't there and, trust me, you can't know what you would have done if you weren't actually there. I do think though that situation should be remembered when considering action in this situation.

I am fearful that we are being stampeded into doing something that will burden our children and grandchildren and on and on and on with debt based on the opinions of two men one of whom was working on Wall Street only two years ago. Also, from what I have heard and read so far, Hank Paulson will have almost unfettered discretion and be subject to very little knowledgeable oversight. Plus, the program is growing like mushrooms after a spring rain. Scary stuff.

Comment on Yesterday and today as word of the - at last count - $700 billion

2008-09-22T19:19:58Z

You know, I don't have the same negative reaction to the run-up to the Iraq war that a lot of people do and I *still* found myself looking at Paulson on TV on Sunday and thinking, "You guys just don't have the political capital to convince me we should do what you want."

And what was the deal with Dodd and Boehner on Sunday telling George S that they couldn't "on Sunday morning" get into specifics about what Paulson had said? Is China threatening to crash our economy if we don't liquidify things? If the IMF on our case? And if it's just really, really bad - depression bad - why can't they tell us? Don't they realize being coy about it just makes us all worry more? Or is that what they want?

As for smart, let's not forget that not for nothing is one of the books on how we got into Vietnam called, "The Best and the Brightest". Smart people can suffer from terrible tunnel vision. I just really wish we weren't being pushed to do this now, now, now.