An Unhappy Voter

The Presidential races are in the news a lot lately, and they will be until after the election in November.

The New Hampshire primary is coming up on Tuesday. Barack Obama and John McCain are leading in most New Hampshire polls.

After hearing and reading story after story about all the candidates and watching some of the debates, I have to ask the question, “Are these people the best we have running for President?” I have strong doubts about these candidates changing anything. Most lack leadership skills. Many were born with “silver spoons” and they started out life with a “leg up” compared to most.

Sometimes it makes one wonder where American went wrong in the process of selecting our leaders.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I was “an undecided voter.” After this weekend, I think I can change that to “an unhappy voter” because there are really not too many great choices. I will vote. I always do, but I may have to vote for the lesser of two evils.

With that being the case, here are my thoughts about most of the Presidential candidates:

Barack Obama: He makes some great “canned speeches” and he makes his audience want to believe. His debate skills are terrible, so that tells me that under a stressful situation, he might fold like a house of cards. He has little experience. Since he’s been in the senate, he’s spent most of his time campaigning for President. I’d like to see him run again in eight years when he has some experience.

John McCain: He’s a straight talker to some, and he’s a jackass to others. I lean toward the latter. He’s a veteran, which gives him some positive points with me. But will he change anything after being in D.C. all these years?

Hillary Clinton: I never voted for Bill, but I like Hillary better. I am also afraid of some of her ideas. I do believe she could hit the ground running if elected.

Mitt Romney: Does his hair ever blow in the wind? His people have not worked on his appearance to make him more like the average Joe. One has to wonder if he has he ever gotten his hands dirty? Seems like a typical rich kid, who has too much time on his hands and decided to run for President. He angered me when he compared his sons campaigning to personnel serving in military.

Mike Huckabee: He was the Wal-Mart candidate (nobody shops there, but the parking lot is always full) Now he’s in the bulls eye. He plays a mean bass guitar, so he may get the bass guitar voters. Maybe he places a little too much religion in his messages to some, but that’s fine with me. Would the voters elect him?

John Edwards: I like him, but he is too liberal. I do think he would make a good attorney general. Edwards and Romney have nice hair. Maybe they have the same stylist?

Rudy Giuliani: There’s a lot of crap piling up on him. He may have miscalculated the earlier races and may never catch back up. Once I thought he might be the only Republican who could beat Hillary. Hillary may not make it to February. Rudy may not either. Rudy would make America safer.

Fred Thompson: When I think of Fred, I think “Oh what could have been.” He kept people waiting and lost momentum. He does not seem like he really wants it. Fred and Rudy have no hair. Adam Schiff was a better D.A. than Arthur Branch.

There are other candidates (Paul, Richardson, Kucinich) but they are not too competitive at this time, but they make it interesting.

Yes, the choices are slim for this voter. I would like for one of them to say or do something that would lead me to believe in them – something that would grab me – make me take notice – energize me – make me proud to support them. That has not happened yet.

Published in: on January 7, 2008 at 1:57 pm  Comments (1)  

The Bowl Games

Well, so far the first four Bowl Championship Series (BCS) games this season have been mostly a bust to say the least. The big one is left and that’s tonight. Some of the non-BCS games were really exciting, but one would expect that the BCS games would be the best. No so this year.

Something really needs to be done about the post season in major college football.

There are five BCS games, so 10 teams make the BCS and each game pays $17 million to the teams selected. Yes, $17 million.

One would think all the top ten teams would have made the show. #1 would take on #2 and so on. Not so fast my friend, there are deals between conferences and rules that prohibit more than two teams from the same conference. Listed below are the final BCS standings before the bowl games were awarded:

1. Ohio State 11-1
2. LSU 11-2
3. Virginia Tech 11-2
4. Oklahoma 11-2
5. Georgia 10-2
6. Missouri 11-2
7. USC 10-2
8. Kansas 11-1
9. West Virginia 10-2
10. Hawaii 12-0
11. Arizona State 10-2
12. Florida 9-3
13. Illinois 9-3

First up in the BCS was the Rose Bowl with #7 USC and #13 Illinois. USC slammed Illinois 49-17, a winning margin of 32 points. It was not even exciting to watch, but I did. Illinois was in this game because the Rose Bowl folks needed a Big Ten team to fill the Rose Bowl requirement since Ohio State was playing for the national championship.

Second was #10 Hawaii and #5 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Georgia completely shut down Hawaii 41-10, a winning margin of 31 points. I went to sleep. Last year Boise State showed that smaller schools with weaker schedules can compete. Hawaii was a setback for these schools with this showing.

Third we had #9 West Virginia taking on #4 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. West Virginia took care of business beating Oklahoma 48-28. It was closer than the first two BCS games with a winning margin of 20 points. I went to bed in the fourth quarter. I thought Oklahoma was better than this. They were Big 12 champions.

In the fourth game, we finally had an exciting contest. #8 Kansas beat #3 Virginia Tech 24-21 in the Orange Bowl. No matter how much the fans of Kansas celebrate this victory, Kansas should have not received a BCS bid because they lost to #6 Missouri. Kansas did not win the Big 12 North, Missouri did.

The average margin of victory for these first four BCS games was 21 points. This is not what the BCS promoters were hoping they would see.

Tonight’s BCS Championship game will pit #1 Ohio State and #2 LSU. We can only hope it will be a close game. I think LSU will win. They are healthy now. It may not even be close.

I have to mention that #6 Missouri was left out of the BCS, and they pounded unranked Arkansas 38-7 in the Cotton Bowl, a winning margin of 31 points. This bowl paid about $3 million to the two teams. Missouri should be in the top five when the final polls come out. Missouri got hosed by the BCS folks, and they took it out on Arkansas.

Although the BCS games have mostly been a bust, the 2007-08 Bowl season had some worthwhile games. Here’s hoping the major college football leaders take some time and put together a playoff system that incorporates the bowl games into a playoff format. Let’s take the top 16 teams (select them by their average place in the BCS, AP, USA Today, Coaches, and Harris polls) and play it out on the field to decide who the real National Champion is.

Published in: on January 7, 2008 at 9:43 am  Leave a Comment  

Stupid Stuff

I read many newspapers on-line and visit various websites each day. Sometimes I think some of the things they write about or report on are really stupid. Then, some of the people commenting on the issues say stupid things. Yesterday and today was chocked full of stupid stuff (in my humble opinion).

Stupid Stuff Part I

Hey, let’s ask a stupid poll question: Our glorious Montana News Station (CBS) is running a poll about the Burns/Tester senate race of 2006. They ask the question, “If you voted for Jon Tester, and you knew former Senator Conrad Burns would not be indicted, would it have changed your vote in November 2006?”

Dumb. If this is the leading news station in Montana, what does that tell you?

Being the concerned and involved citizen I am, I thought of some better questions for Montana’s News Station:
1. “If you voted for Libertarian Stan Jones, and you knew former Senator Conrad Burns would not be indicted, would it have changed your vote in November 2006?”
Jones took 10,377 votes. Burns lost by a little over 3500 votes. Combined, Jones and Burns took about 51% of the vote to Tester’s 49%. It would be nice if Montana had a law that says the winner has to get 50% plus one vote to be declared the winner, but that’s for another day.
2. “If you voted for Jon Tester, and you knew he would not end the war in Iraq, or get a powerful seat on the senate appropriations committee as promised by his party, would you have voted for Conrad Burns?”

Stupid Stuff Part II

The O.J. angle: The O.J. angle is used by people when they lose. In one of the comment sections of the on-line newspapers that carried the Burns is innocent story, someone commented, “O.J. was found innocent, too.”

Murder, politics. Yes, I see similarities. O.J. at least had a day in court.

Stupid Stuff Part III

Say something “kind of nice” when you screw up: The Great Falls Tribune chimed in today with a sort of feel good editorial about the Burns issue. They probably did this to make their editorial board feel a little better as they were happy to jump on the beat Burns bandwagon with a can of gas and a lighter in 2006.

From what I have heard, without Burns clout on defense and military construction committees, Malmstrom may be toast. Missiles have been removed, no new missions have been obtained, and housing construction was cut, as well as defense funding. As people leave the Great Falls area, which means less money in advertising and subscriptions, the Tribune may have to lay off some people. Let’s start with the editorial board!

Stupid Stuff Part IV

Politics means never having to say you’re sorry: When asked about Burns being cleared in the Abramoff deal, the Chairman of the Montana Democratic Party decided not to apologize, but continued the campaign theme of 2006. He was quoted by the Montana News Station saying, “Regardless of what the Justice Department has found, Montanans know that Conrad Burns’ relationship with convicted felon Jack Abramoff was wrong, and the voters agreed with that position last cycle.”

In easier terms, I believe he was saying, “We lied to the voters and we won, so stick it.” Next election will the voters believe anything your party says?

In closing:

I leave you with this quote from a great man named Forrest Gump, “Stupid is as stupid does.” We’ve had plenty of that in the last couple of days.


Published in: on January 4, 2008 at 10:57 am  Comments (2)  

The Fun Begins: Campaign 2008

I have not made up my mind yet about who I will support for President, but I enjoy watching the results come in. I am officially an undecided voter. Iowa was tonight, and I’ll bet Iowans are glad this caucus is over.

Huckabee wins the Republican caucus. In what must be a big blow to the Romney campaign, all the news stations are reporting that Mike Huckabee will win. Romney has been in Iowa what seems like forever, pumping millions into his campaign there. Romney has second in the bag. McCain and Thompson are fighting it out for third, and Ron Paul is holding down fifth place.

Obama won the Democratic caucus. Clinton and Edwards are fighting it out for second, with a slight edge to Edwards. All the others are far behind.

So, it looks like Huckabee and Obama will have the momentum going into New Hampshire.

Toast???

For the democrats, Richardson, Biden, Dodd, Gravel and Kucinich are probably toast, but may stick around for another week or longer just to have some fun. On the Republican side, Hunter is toast. Giuliani did not campaign much in Iowa, so he’s in it for a couple more weeks. We’ll see if he can pick up some momentum.

Published in: on January 3, 2008 at 9:05 pm  Comments (1)  

Cleared

In what was probably a painful article to write for the reporter, and one that will be even more painful for many editors and publishers in Montana to print, the Associated Press is reporting that former Senator Conrad Burns has been cleared in the Abramoff probe, according to the Justice Department.

Many times in 2006, it was apparent that the reporters in Montana were hoodwinked into believing press releases from the opponents of Burns and totally ignoring the facts.

Three reporters for the AP, Lee Newspapers and the Great Falls Tribune seemed to be camped out at the Democratic headquarters in Helena copying and pasting their press releases into their stories. They routinely cited “unnamed sources” and “sources close to the investigation” in what was some of the worst journalism I’ve seen.

Oh well, the democrats won the big prize by 3750 some votes, giving the democratic candidate the U.S. Senate seat with less than 50% of the vote. All is fair in love, war and especially politics.

Maybe a lesson has been learned by the Montana media? I doubt it. Life goes on…

Published in: on January 2, 2008 at 6:57 pm  Comments (2)