Barack Obama Elected President!

[Roman]

McCain’s solution to health care crisis: Redefine “uninsured”

By: SilentPatriot on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 4:01 PM - PDT

The McCain campaign likes to tell us we’re a “nation of whiners” complaining about a “mental recession,” so it should come as no surprise that their solution to the health care crisis is to simply have the Census Bureau redefine the term uninsured. Seriously. Let John Goodman, McCain’s point-man on health care issues, explain:

“I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime,” Mr. Goodman said. “The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

“So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved.”

Voila! No more health care problems! All those “whiners”out there who are losing their homes due to unmanageable health care bills can sleep sound tonight. The health care crisis is solved! As Michigan Messenger says:

If you’re uninsured, out of money - and not having a life-threatening emergency - you not only don’t exist in John McCain’s world, you’re completely out of luck.

TP, dKos, West Viginia Blue, All Spin Zone all have more.

[Wales2004]

That's what they're inferring and they're being dishonest about it. Besides they've got celebrities like my governor Arnold so they need to give that a rest. McCain's a celebrity of sorts and even had a movie made about him. They need to find some more mature rhetoric than what they keep spewing.

My point about their bias is that they want to hold Obama to a different standard than McCain period. I don't know if it has to do with their politics or simple dislike and in Charles Gibson's case contempt. Maybe they both have some deep seated issues they need to work out but Tom Brokaw should worry less about his colleagues' bias since they're paid to give their opinions anyway and focus on his since he wants to present himself as a serious journalistic model.

I'm not trying to get you to abandon your labels. I just don't care to use them unless I find it necessary because I think it pigeon holes people. I don't really care what anyone thinks of me and I try to be clear that I'm not right wing or left wing or any of that other stuff. I take what would be deemed conservative positions on some issues and moderate to liberal on some others.

For example, I don't believe in abortion. I believe life begins at conception. But I don't believe that the law should be changed because I think it's a terrible idea to undo this specific law. I have friends who've had abortions mostly when they were younger. Even though I don't agree with their reasoning, it wasn't my decision to make and I would never have said don't do it but I would have said I wouldn't do it. I respect that it's personal and I don't see a purpose in backtracking now. The ideal thing would be to deal with the issue of teen pregnancy so that the rate decreases.

[EricaKane70]

I could care less about paris hilton, and I doubt the ones that care for paris care for obama. Majority of paris fans probably can't even vote. Unlike paris obama has substance, if he didn't he wouldn't be the democratic nominee, you don't get nominated just for being a celebrity. You get nominated for your ideas on how to run the country thats why the republican's celebrity theme is ridiculous. God help us if anyone got nominated as president just for being famous, that would be a disaster.

[Wales2004]

Well one can only hope that you are also cognizant of the Republican's fault as well since they are as faulted as their adversaries.

I don't care for either party. I find certain members of both parties interesting.

[George008]

Definitely. I am aware that the Republicans are made up of humans and are capable of making mistakes.

I haven't agreed with everything that Bush has done, but for the most part I think he has done what he felt was in the best interest of the country.

[Wales2004]

The interesting part of all that is that he's done what he thinks is best for the country and he's probably done his best but he made some extremely poor choices that have us in a deficit.

He's also said some terribly stupid things. I don't think he's carried himself as a competent world leader and this country really needs to rebuild its image on the international scale.

I personally feel that Barack Obama can pull that off better than John McCain. I am pretty big on seeing this country have a leader that projects a world leader image and to undo the bumbling George W. Bush has done.

McCain's insistence on getting credit for the surge is a problem for me since the "invasion" should never have taken place....especially since Osama Bin Laden wasn't captured. So Saddam Hussein was killed....why are troops still there? To force American brand democracy on a nation that should be allowed to run itself? They're being enriched now while America falls into China's debt and this makes a lot of sense? And it makes a lot of sense to elect a president who is trigger happy? I think it's time to focus on capturing Bin Laden and ending the occupation since the military is needed elsewhere.

If I were in charge I would do what I thought was best for the country as well. The question is would it be good enough? But that's basically all any president is going to do....one hopes.

[Roman]

Friday, Aug. 29, 2008 01:46 EDT

McCain camp responds

DENVER -- John McCain's campaign has released its response to Barack Obama's speech here tonight. The statement, attributed to spokesman Brian Rogers, reads:

Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama. When the temple comes down, the fireworks end, and the words are over, the facts remain: Senator Obama still has no record of bipartisanship, still opposes offshore drilling, still voted to raise taxes on those making just $42,000 per year, and still voted against funds for American troops in harm's way. The fact remains: Barack Obama is still not ready to be President.

― Alex Koppelman

[JackPeyton]

This is how i felt watching his speach.

He does give a great speach tho. Esp after Bush for 8 years. But i need a hell of a lot more than a nice ad about change and a good speach to vote for someone. The few things Obama has talked about it and actually establsed some kind of plan on it i disagree with him on. I still feel he just talks circles about hope and change without any plan to actually change anything. HOW is he going tog et done what he wants to?

McCain i agree with on some things, not on others, but i do feel he does have an actuall plan.

[Wales2004]

I'm always mystified when I read that McCain has a plan and Obama doesn't. If Obama has no plan then McCain has even less than that. The only specific thing I've heard McCain mention as a plan is the gas holiday tax which isn't a plan but a gimmick.

I find it almost amusing at this point that people throw out that Obama has no plan as a reason for not wanting to vote for him. I would find it refreshing when I hear someone say they just don't like him plain and simple. That to me is a lot more honest since I don't recall ever hearing any candidate running for anything with either a real plan or a believable plan.

I recognize when some politicians say they're going to do this or that they may mean it at the time and they may have every intention of doing what they say and then they get in office and meet the brick wall aka "that's not how we do things." Obama is still at the idealistic stage in his career and is like the new resident at the hospital who is determined to give his/her patients full attention and proper care until his/her older advisor shoots down everything and says just prescribe some pain pills. Maybe he'll have enough fight in him (which is what many hope) to be able to tear the wall down and effect some sort of change.

At least he isn't jaded like McCain who has the audacity to criticize his workmates for taking a break when he hardly shows up for work himself and has the nerve to say he's going to put an end to them doing that as if it will please the public to know that elected officials won't get any summer vacations.

The main reason I've soured on McCain is because I am enlightened on how he treated his first wife. Even though I don't think one's personal life has anything to do with how he/she runs a business, I still see scuzzy behavior for what it is. If I can be down on Bill Clinton for the way I think he tarnished the oval office lying about his "extracurricular" activities and the LA Mayor Villaraigosa for cheating on his wife (John Edwards too), then McCain (former POW or not) doesn't get a free pass.

If the LA Times article I read is correct then he lied to his friend and used his home under false pretenses to sleep with Cindy while deluding his friends into thinking that he and his wife had separated. Whatever I may think of Nancy Reagan, she was at least fierce in her support of her friend and she helped her land on her feet. The fact that this woman waited and agonized while he was a POW and he came back and treated her in such a callous way speaks volumes not to mention what that did to their children. Now he can't even give a real family values speech.

McCain really comes off as quite the bitter and jealous old man. He seems like he wants to extinguish the flames of hope and if all any politician ever does it talks about hope, I would appreciate that a whole lot better than someone he says that it's impossible to be anything other than what you are or have anything other than what you have.

[Roman]

Very well said, Wales.

Who is this Alaskan Governor that now isbeing rumored to be McCain's pick? I just heard on MSNBC that she only has 1 & 1/2 years of experience.

If this is true.......how in the hell can they call Obama inexperienced and pick this woman?!

My problem when it comes to the tax issue is that this has been debunked by many sources, including Fox News of all places.

If they say this is a lie, why is it still being taken as fact?

[Roman]

Sarah Heath Palin (born February 11, 1964) is the current Governor of Alaska, and a member of the Republican Party. She is the youngest and first female governor of Alaska. Brought to statewide attention because of her whistleblowing on ethical violations by state Republican Party leaders,[1] she won election in 2006 by first defeating the incumbent governor in the Republican primary, then a former Democratic Alaskan governor in the general election.

Contents

[hide]

* 1 Family and personal background

* 2 Pre-gubernatorial political experience

* 3 Governorship

o 3.1 Energy policies

o 3.2 Social issues

o 3.3 Matanuska Maid Dairy closure

o 3.4 Budget

o 3.5 Commissioner dismissal

o 3.6 High approval ratings

* 4 Vice-presidential prospects

* 5 Electoral history

o 5.1 Election results

* 6 References

* 7 External links

Family and personal background

Palin was born as Sarah Louise Heath in Sandpoint, Idaho, the daughter of Charles and Sally (Sheeran) Heath.[2] Her family moved to Alaska when she was an infant.[3] Charles Heath was a popular science teacher and coached track.[3] The Heaths were avid outdoors enthusiasts; Sarah and her father would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school, and the family would regularly run 5k and 10k races.[3]

Palin was the point guard and captain for the Wasilla High School Warriors, in Wasilla, Alaska, when they won the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982; she earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play.[3] She played the championship game despite a stress fracture in her ankle, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds.[3] Palin, who was also the head of the school Fellowship of Christian Athletes, would lead the team in prayer before games.[3]

In 1984, Palin was second-place in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant after winning the Miss Wasilla contest earlier that year, winning a scholarship to help pay her way through college.[3][4] In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.

Details of Palin's personal life have contributed to her political image. She hunts, eats moose burgers, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, and owns a float plane.[5][6] Palin holds a lifetime membership with the National Rifle Association. She admits that she used marijuana when it was legal in Alaska, but says that she did not like it.[7]

Palin holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho where she also minored in politics. She briefly worked as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations while also working as a commercial fisherman with her husband, Todd, her high school sweetheart.[3] One summer when she was working on Todd's fishing boat, the boat collided with a tender while she was holding onto the railing; Palin broke several fingers.[3] Outside the fishing season, Todd works for BP at an oil field on the North Slope[8] and is a champion snowmobiler, winning the 2000-mile "Iron Dog" race four times.[3] The two eloped shortly after Palin graduated college; when they learned they needed witnesses for the civil ceremony, they recruited two residents from the old-age home down the street.[3] Todd is a Native Yup'ik Eskimo.[3] The Palin family lives in Wasilla, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Anchorage.[9]

On September 11, 2007, the Palins' son Track joined the Army. Eighteen years old at the time, he is the eldest of Palin's five children.[9] Track now serves in an infantry brigade and will be deployed to Iraq in September. She also has three daughters: Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7.[10] On April 18, 2008, Palin gave birth to her second son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Down syndrome.[11] She returned to the office three days after giving birth.[12] Palin refused to let the results of prenatal genetic testing change her decision to have the baby. "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," Palin said. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"[12]

Pre-gubernatorial political experience

Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council from 1992 to 1996. In 1996, she challenged the incumbent mayor, criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes.[3] The ex-mayor and sheriff tried to organize a recall campaign, but failed.[3] Palin kept her campaign promises, reducing her own salary, as well as reducing property taxes 60%.[3] She ran for reelection against the former mayor in 1999, winning by an even larger margin.[3][13] Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.[10]

In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for Lieutenant Governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a four-way race. After Frank Murkowski resigned from his long-held U.S. Senate seat in mid-term to become governor, Palin interviewed to be his possible successor. Instead, Murkowski appointed his daughter, then-Alaska State Representative Lisa Murkowski.[3]

Governor Murkowski appointed Palin Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission[14], where she served from 2003 to 2004 until resigning in protest over what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders, who ignored her whistleblowing complaints of legal violations and conflicts of interest.[3] After she resigned, she exposed the state Republican party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, one of her fellow Oil & Gas commissioners, who was accused of doing work for the party on public time, and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail.[15] Palin filed formal complaints against both Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who both resigned; Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.[3]

Governorship

Governor Palin visits a wounded soldier in Landstuhl, Germany, July 2007

Governor Palin visits a wounded soldier in Landstuhl, Germany, July 2007

In 2006, Palin, running on a clean-government campaign, executed an upset victory over then-Gov. Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary.[3] Despite the lack of support from party leaders and being outspent by her Democratic opponent, she went on to win the general election in November 2006, defeating former Governor Tony Knowles.[3] Palin said in 2006 that education, public safety, and transportation would be three cornerstones of her administration.[7]

When elected, Palin became the first woman to be Alaska's governor, and the youngest governor in Alaskan history at 42 years old upon taking office. Palin was also the first Alaskan governor born after Alaska achieved U.S. statehood. She was also the first Alaskan governor not to be inaugurated in Juneau, instead choosing to hold her inauguration ceremony in Fairbanks. She took office on December 4, 2006.

Highlights of Governor Palin's tenure include a successful push for an ethics bill, and also shelving pork-barrel projects supported by fellow Republicans. Palin successfully killed the Bridge to Nowhere project that had become a nationwide symbol of wasteful earmark spending.[12][16] "Alaska needs to be self-sufficient, she says, instead of relying heavily on 'federal dollars,' as the state does today."[5]

She has challenged the state's Republican leaders, helping to launch a campaign by Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell to unseat U.S. Congressman Don Young[17] and publicly challenging Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the federal investigation into his financial dealings.[12] Palin supports holding occasional legislative sessions outside the state capital, and municipal revenue sharing to help local governments.[citation needed]

Energy policies

Palin's tenure is noted for her independence from big oil companies, while still promoting resource development.[5][12] Palin has announced plans to create a new sub-cabinet group of advisors, to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Alaska. [18]

Shortly after taking office, Palin rescinded an appointment by Murkowski of his former chief of staff Jim Clark to the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority, one of thirty-five appointments made by Murkowski in the last hour of his administration that she reversed. [19][20] Clark later pled guilty to conspiring with a defunct oil-field-services company to channel money into Frank Murkowski's re-election campaign. [21]

In March 2007, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) as the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope.[22] Only one legislator, Representative Ralph Samuels, voted against the measure,[23] and in June Palin signed it into law.[24][25] On January 5, 2008, Palin announced that a Canadian company, Transcanada, was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant.[26][27]

In response to high oil and gas prices, and in response to the resulting state government budget surplus, Palin proposed giving Alaskans $100-a-month energy debit cards. She also proposed providing grants to electrical utilities so that they would reduce customers' rates.[28] She subsequently dropped the debit card proposal, and in its place she proposed to send Alaskans $1,200 directly and eliminate the gas tax.[29][30]

Social issues

Palin is strongly pro-life and belongs to Feminists for Life.[7] She opposes same-sex marriage, but she has stated that she has gay friends and is receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination.[7] While the previous administration did not implement same-sex benefits, Palin complied with a state Supreme Court order and signed them into law. [31]

She supported a democratic advisory vote from the public on whether there should be a constitutional amendment on the matter.[32] Alaska was one of the first U.S. states to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage, in 1998, along with Hawaii.[33]

Palin's first veto was used to block legislation that would have barred the state from granting benefits to gay state employees and their partners. In effect, her veto granted State of Alaska benefits to same-sex couples. The veto occurred after Palin consulted with Alaska's attorney general on the constitutionality of the legislation.[34]

Matanuska Maid Dairy closure

When the Alaska Creamery Board recommended closing Matanuska Maid Dairy, an unprofitable state-owned business, Palin objected, citing concern for the impact on dairy farmers and the fact that the Dairy had just received $600,000 in state money. When Palin learned that only the Board of Agriculture and Conservation could appoint Creamery Board members, she simply replaced the entire membership of the Board of Agriculture and Conservation.[5][35] The new board, led by businesswoman Kristan Cole, reversed the decision to close.[35] The new board approved milk price increases offered by the dairy in an attempt to control fiscal losses, even though milk from Washington was already offered in Alaskan stores at lower prices.[36] In the end, the dairy was forced to close, and the state tried to sell the assets to pay off its debts but received no bids.[37][38]

Budget

In the first days of her administration, Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account) by the Murkowski administration. The state placed the jet for sale on eBay three times. In August 2007, the jet was sold for $2.7 million.[39]

Shortly after becoming governor, Palin canceled an 11-mile (18-kilometer) gravel road outside of Juneau to a mine. This reversed a decision made in the closing days or hours of the Murkowski Administration.[40]

In June 2007, Palin signed into law the largest operating budget in Alaska's history ($6.6 billion).[41] At the same time, she used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state history. The US$237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects, and reduced the construction budget to nearly US$1.6 billion.[42]

Commissioner dismissal

On July 11, 2008, Governor Palin dismissed Walter Monegan as Commissioner of Public Safety and instead offered him a position as executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he subsequently turned down.[43][44] Monegan alleged shortly after his dismissal that it may have been partly due to his reluctance to fire an Alaska State Trooper, Mike Wooten, who had been involved in a divorce and child custody battle with Palin's sister, Molly McCann.[45] In 2006, before Palin was governor, Wooten was briefly suspended for ten days for threatening to kill McCann's (and Palin's) father, tasering his 11-year-old stepson, and violating game laws. After a union protest, the suspension was reduced to five days.[46]

Governor Palin asserts that her dismissal of Monegan was unrelated to the fact that he had not fired Wooten, and asserts that Monegan was instead dismissed for not adequately filling state trooper vacancies, and because he "did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues."[47] Palin acknowledges that a member of her administration, Frank Bailey, did contact the Department of Public Safety regarding Wooten, but both Palin and Bailey say that happened without her knowledge and was unrelated to her dismissal of Monegan.[47] Bailey was put on leave for two months for acting outside the scope of his authority as the Director of Boards and Commissions.

In response to Palin's statement that she had nothing to hide, in August 2008 the Alaska Legislature hired Steve Branchflower to investigate Palin and her staff for possible abuse of power surrounding the dismissal, though lawmakers acknowledge that "Monegan and other commissioners serve at will, meaning they can be fired by Palin at any time."[48] The investigation is being overseen by Democratic State Senator Hollis French, who says that the Palin administration has been cooperating and thus subpoenas are unnecessary.[49] The Palin administration itself was the first to release an audiotape of Bailey making inquiries about the status of the Wooten investigation.[47][50]

Wooten and the police union alleged that the governor had improperly released his employment files in his divorce case. However, McCann's attorney released a signed waiver from Wooten demonstrating that Wooten had authorized the release of his files through normal discovery procedures.[51][52]

High approval ratings

In July 2007, Palin had an approval rating often in the 90s.[5] A poll published by Hays Research on July 28, 2008 showed Palin's approval rating at 80%. [53]

Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard praised Palin as a "politician of eye-popping integrity" and referred to her rise as "a great (and rare) story of how adherence to principle—especially to transparency and accountability in government—can produce political success."[5]

Vice-presidential prospects

Palin has been rumored as a candidate for the vice-presidency with Republican presumptive nominee Senator John McCain in the 2008 election.[54][55] The rumor was interesting due to her gender, youth, background in government reform, pro-life stance, fiscal and social conservatism, and an approval rating in Alaska generally in the range of 80 to 90 percent. And, Palin is supported by a community of online groups.[56]. However, throughout August 2008, Palin was seen as a dark horse for Vice President due her role in an ethics probe in Alaska.[57][58]

On August 29, 2008, Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends reported that Palin's family departed hastily from Anchorage, Alaska, aboard a Gulfstream jet that landed near Dayton, Ohio, site of McCain's planned vice presidential announcement. They cited the website changeandexperience.com, which also had correctly leaked travel details for Senator Joseph Biden to Springfield, Illinois, for Barack Obama's announcement (August 29, 2008)[citation needed]. An employee of a fixed base operator at Hook Field Municipal Airport was reported as saying the jet had a woman, two teenagers and two men on board and that a couple of white vans met the plane, gathered their gear and took the party to an undisclosed location.[59] In an apparent conflict with the reports, ABC News subsequently reported that Palin's spokesperson said that the governor was at home in Anchorage and had no plans to travel to Ohio on the 29th.[60]

From Wikipedia.

[Ryan]

I watched the networks this morning who guessed it could be her, and they said it's insulting to women to believe they'll vote for McCain just because he chose a woman.

I like the Gov. of Alaska, but for McCain to cry experience, experience, experience....he didn't choose someone who "has" it.

[George008]

check mate

[Ryan]

History has been made again. We could have the first female VP. Go John McCain!

[Wales2004]

Uhm no it's not by a long shot. She's not a match for Joe Biden and she doesn't level the playing field if you match her up against Obama.

It's more or less a ploy to get to some Hillary Clinton supporters and to steal the spotlight since he can't seem to grab hold of it. The media can have a field day asking who she is etc. but I don't think she automatically gets women to flock to him and it probably puts some of the good ole boys in the GOP off even if they have to pretend on political shows that they're fine and dandy with a woman VP.