Two Hillaries

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"Southern Clinton"
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"Washington Clinton"
The fact that Hillary thinks that acting will get her elected as our president is an insult to our intelligence. Her accent was fake, coached, and forced (and annoying!).

Some are saying that her southern rant was a quote taken out of context. This is false, you can see the full video of her speech on youtube, she was quoting someone, but the accent stayed throughout the speech.

Fake Candidates

A very interesting video has been posted on nytimes.com about Rudy Giuliani. It suggests that Giuliani, who is typically a loose cannon, completely changes his persona when he campaigns.

This is odd because the whole theme of the video was that it was great how restrained Giuliani can be on the campaign trail.

Do we really want a president who is a completely different person than who we voted for? In that case how about everyone vote for me, and get Dennis Kucinich in the White House, what's the difference?

It is odd that we all know that candidates do this, and we really don't even care.

This takes us back to the humorous example of Hillary Clinton using a thick southern accent when speaking to southern voters, and a New York accent when in New York.

Regardless of why they do it, it is misleading.

The whole purpose of a campaign is to show your true self, which is why campaigns last so long. Most candidates end up weeding themselves out like Howard Dean (hoooohahaaaa!!!).

The argument that suggests candidates change their persona during elections to be more "like the people" is ridiculous. If they are like 'us,' then they don't have to fake anything.

When I see John Kerry trying to hunt, flashing as many 'thumbs up' as humanly possible to the core of photographers who were summoned into the wilderness makes me a bit queasy.

We know when candidates are acting, it is not a secret. Why do we let them get away with it?

I just can't wait for the hooooohaaaaaaaa!!! moments of 2008.

Is Hell Freezing Over?

Democrats, Republicans, (Joe Lieberman) AND President Bush are all working together on the much talked about comprehensive immigration reform bill.

I will not break down the bill because it is still in the works. But the current bill would grant 12 million illegal immigrants legal status. I have a feeling that this bill will not make it's way through the channels.

But it is good to see everyone working together on an important issue that is long overdue for reform. We will finally get to see the results of working together.

See the New York Time story.

The Democrats are Getting Serious

It only makes news is Obama and Hillary do it, so here it goes.

Today both presidential front runners announced their support for cutting off funding to our troops at war. Obama supports such a measure “to send a strong statement to the Iraqi government, the president and my Republican colleagues that it’s long past time to change course.”

This is in support of a bill by Sen. Feingold, of McCain/Feingold "fame." Maybe Mr. Feingold should stick to campaign finance legislation, because his bill calls for troop withdrawal to begin within 120 days...haven't we traveled down this dead end road too many times already this year?

Legislation that calls for troop withdrawal will never be signed by President Bush. If Congress uses the "purse strings" and cut off funding for the troops they will look like they do not support the troops. With so many Senators running for president, they don't want to look unsupportive which is why cutting of the funding will never happen. It is just a threat.

The only solution that I can see both stubborn parties agreeing to is the benchmark legislation, in which the Iraqi government must meet benchmarks in order to keep our troops around. But even this has its flaws.

Willard's Millions

On slow news days (Saturdays) I tend to find out things about the 2008 candidates that I didn't know.

All you hear about Mitt Romney is that he is Mormon, believe it or not there is more to good ol' Mitt than his Mormonism. Did you know that Romney's first name is Willard, and his net worth is around $350 million?

Willard aside, that is a pretty healthy net worth, I had no idea he was that wealthy. That's like Scrooge McDuck, Trump, Perot, Forbes wealthy. In my mind that gives him extra points because he made it himself. Anyone that can create that amount of wealth is a smart person, and can manage a lot. Two qualities that a president should have (go ahead insert Bush joke here).

No word on if he swims around in his dough like Scrooge.

Giuliani plays political chicken

Rudy Giuliani (who for some reason has begun to use his middle initial) announced that he favors abortion rights, gay rights, and restrictions on guns. In other words, he announced that he will not be winning the primary.

I have to give credit to Giuliani for not listening to the fat cats in the smoke filled back rooms and showing what he really stands for.

Unfortunately this will lead to his downfall in the primary election. Typically only far right wingers (in Republican primaries) vote in primary elections. A right winger will not vote for someone who supports abortion rights, let alone gay rights, and gun control.

Rudy must be feeling that he has to try something new (tell his real views) to separate himself from the pack of candidates who are hard to distinguish.

I hope that this version of 'political chicken' works out for Giuliani, I would love to see someone with different views than their party win a primary.

House rejects 9-month withdrawal

Today the House rejected a bill that would require our troops to be withdrawn from Iraq within 9 months. The big question is not why did the largely anti-war Congress reject such a bill, but why are our elected Representatives wasting their time drafting such bills.

Don't their constituents have other pressing issues for them to deal with? I'm sure voters didn't elect their members to office so they could waste their time drafting bills that are guaranteed to get nowhere.

A much less dramatic bill, the timetable bill, was vetoed by the president. Why would anyone in their right mind think that a 9-month withdrawal bill would even make it to the president's desk?

Congress needs to compromise with each other and draft bills that are not a waste of time and paper.

al-Rubaie visits Washington

According to the New York Times, yesterday the Iraqi national security advisor Mowaffak al-Rabaie visited Washington to try to convince lawmakers, "... that early withdrawal would lead to chaos."

Mr. al-Rabaie meet with numerous lawmakers, including many Democrats who have taken the popular "we need to withdrawal now" stance. In those meetings al-Rabaie explained to the politicians (who have never been to Iraq) that troop withdrawal deadlines are unrealistic and would embolden the enemy.

This whole Democratic stance on Iraq is like a 'bandwagoning fan.' They want to withdrawal now because the intelligence for the reasons to invade were false. Its as simple as that.

If a politician was asked today if Iraq would be better off if our troops were withdrawn today (and if they were guaranteed a re-election regardless of their answer) they would say NO.

If you look at the number of Iraqi civilians, and the number of Iraqi military and police (who are not even trustworthy and efficient yet) it is obvious that they cannot defend themselves against the terrorists. Hell, our troops are having a tough time at it. Do you really think if our troops left that all of a sudden the Iraqis would become sharp shooting GI Joes? Give me a break.

If we left, Iraq would become a terrorist training camp. We do need change our attack of this war. We need to go on offense. You can't win a war on defense.

Fred Thompson for President?

-Washington DC - "Dunt Dunt"

President Arthur Branch? If he does run, expect to see him down the stretch. Most people don't know that Thompson is a former Senator, not just the DA on Law and Order.

This would be a very interesting campaign. On top of the fact that a former or sitting Senator has not been elected president since JFK in 1961 (others were VPs, or not purely elected), it will be interesting to see how a well known actor will fare in a presidential bid.

Thompson is a great communicator, something I think the American people will demand of the next president. I don't know yet if he is taking the typical cookie-cutter republican stances on the issues, he is sitting back and watching before he attacks.

He is doing the smart thing by not announcing his candidacy as far in advance as the other candidates, he knows that it is not necessary to do so. He is showing the public that he is "interested," but is not sure if he wants to run. It gives the public the "want what you can't have" feel, making him seem more in demand.

He will be as popular as all the other candidates the week that he announces due to his celebrity, he wants to ride that wave into next November.

It has been proven that actors make good politicians. I'll write the lines, you can read between them.

Bipartisan heat on Iraq?

After President Bush vetoed the timetable bill this week(he called it a 'date for failure,' which I liked), Congress and the president are trying to compromise on a bill that sets benchmarks for the Iraqi government. What a novel concept.

Didn't the founders of our country create a three branch government so that the decision makers ("deciders") would have to compromise? If we wanted a dictatorship we wouldn't have Congress. It is obvious that the president doesn't want to pull out of Iraq, and it is obvious that Congress wants to pull out of Iraq. So how about they quit trying to convince each other that they are right? How about a compromise?

If Congress and the president don't start working together two years will go by with no progress...hmmmm could this be what Congress wants so they get a new Democratic president?

It obviously is or they wouldn't be spinning their wheels passing bills that the president has guaranteed to veto. They're just wasting time, doing the popular things even though they know nothing will come from it.

It will just make all Republicans look uncooperative and will pave a golden road to the White House for the Democratic nominee in 2008.