T Boone Pickens and His Plan.

Golden by Nancy Merkle /
http://small-impressions.blogspot.com/


The largest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind is occurring now.

If you have seen the cable TV specials on Dubai you know to what I refer. They are not building Dubai on foreign mutual fund investments. No, those are American dollars spent on oil. According to Pickens, 700 billion dollars a year is going to the foreign oil producing countries from the United States alone.

I like the Pickens' plan as a step to resolve the energy crisis. Fort Worth should like it very much because it includes natural gas, but it also includes wind power which the US has plenty of, actually, more potential wind power than other large nation.

View a short and very interesting video:

http://www.pickensplan.com/

Pickens also has a Facebook page, if you are interested in joining the cause:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php
.

A Collective Yawn?

It's finally settled in. Election year tired-head. When I get it everyone else has had it for weeks or months. I am in Pennsylvania and I can assure you that TV news may be playing up the Democrat debate wars going on here, but the average guy on the street has lost interest.

Someone suggested a few posts ago that Senator Obama runs the risk of over-exposure. Possibly. But it's more likely voter-burnout, than Obama burnout. He did have 22,000 at West Chester State the other day, but it's true that everyone has had just about enough of this fight. It reminds me of a rubarb on a pitcher's mound, it's fun to see the dugouts clear, but at some point we want to get back to the game.

If I were Senator Obama I would continue to stay above the fray, get back into the Senate for a few weeks and act Presidential.

If I were Senator Clinton, I'd keep Bill by my side. He looks good, they look good together and he stands up for those attacking her. Al Gore made a big mistake when he distanced himself from President Clinton. He is liked by the Democrat base. Her negatives are still too high.

Senator McCain just needs to stay in the game until the Democrats settle on a candidate.

But the best thing they can all do is nothing. It's time for a nap.

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory,

Pat Bagley / Salt Lake Tribune

The Republican Party is doing everything it can to relinquish control of the White House to the Democrats.

Republicans are overseeing an expensive war that is unpopular, indicted congressman, a tanked economy, buyouts of poorly managed banks, foreclosures at an all time high, and a President that is making little effort to connect to the general public. A unified Democratic Party could roll out a Teletubby and win the election . . .

But they insist on looking this Republican gift horse in the mouth, in effect, rejecting the office. If they do lose, Mrs. Clinton will be justifiably excoriated for not deferring to Barack Obama. Her insistence on staying in the race "for the good of those whose voice deserves to be heard," is not only dishonest, but wrong-headed. She knows she can't win unless some revelation about Sen Obama buries him, and if the Rev. Wright thing didn't get him, I doubt anything will.

Democrat optimists argue that what happens now will be forgotten in November. Hmmm, mostly true, but . . .

What will remain is the rancor between the sub-parties. The Clinton/Carter/Lieberman, dare I say moderate wing, versus the Kennedy/Kerry/Obama radical left wing is a split in the Democrat party similar to the split in the Republican party, except for the fact that Republicans make the necessary compromises for the general good. The only possible outcome that would temporarily join those wings is an Obama/Clinton team. If this primary feud continues, that option will become more unlikely. The rift between the two groups runs deep and goes back to the Carter/Kennedy primary campaign in 1976.

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Counterpoint: because of this long-playing primary Democrats are registering voters in record numbers, which could help them in November.

Counter / Counterpoint -- those newly registered, especially in states like Pennsylvania, could end up voting for McCain, a very moderate Republican.

Any thoughts?

. . . mea culpa, mea maxima culpa . . .

Give her her due. Hillary Clinton kept the upbeat attitude going when everyone had her out of the race, including me (I predicted a 6 point victory for Obama in Texas.)

On Tuesday, Senator Clinton made a huge turn in momentum by winning Texas and Ohio. Huge. The numbers are still against her but she probably has stopped the tide of super-delegates jumping on the Obama train.

Can she win? The numbers say almost certainly not, she only netted a 9 delegate gain yesterday, but who knows. We have ourselves a horse race, and I love it.

There is talk now that the Democrats should put a dream team together of Obama-Clinton, a great idea but who gets the top spot?

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A Republican's Plight

As a Republican I can honestly say that I get the appeal of Senator Obama, and I get the appeal of Senator Edwards. But Senator Clinton is another issue.

I'm not a misogynist. I liked Maggie Thatcher and Mother Theresa. I like Condi Rice. I kind of even like Oprah. I love my mother, my sister and my wife. But I don't get Mrs. Clinton, not just her policies, her demeanor grates on me like bad Jerry Lewis jokes. If she wins I'm in big trouble.

How McCain Can Win in November

Cartoon: Dave Granlund

There are three reasons to believe John McCain can win in November. One of them is shown left. If Nader runs and pulls 1% of the total vote, 80% of them would have voted for the democrat. Obviously, that helps McCain, and some big states are sure to be close races, i.e., Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Another has to do with who he is. I watched a McCain television biography on MSNBC the otherday. It showed footage of him being escorted off the plane after landing on USA soil and after spending 5 years in a Vietnamese POW camp. It is moving to watch a110 pound soldier cripple down a plane's steps -- you can not but respect him, regardless of political affiliation.

But back to the POW camp itself. Let me repeat, that was 5 years folks, two of them in solitary. Read one of the Hanoi Hilton stories. It's chilling in its realistic portrayal of pain. He was tortured, abused, and broken. At one point, McCain was offered repatriation because of his father's military status and he refused unless everyone was released. So he stayed. The guy has some character. He survived the ordeal somehow, returned and became a US Senator. That doesn't make him Mother Theresa, it doesn't make him a good President, but it does give him a certain "gravitas" that you have to respect. He hasn't tried to use this suffering for money or power, he doesn't talk about it much. He has none of the Rudy Guiliani, I was there at 9/11 attitutde. He is not trying to be a rhetorician or appeal to everyone. He tells it as straight as any politician does -- and that's his appeal. He is the anti-politician. And that kind of character is a contrast to Barack Obama, whose appeal is newness, change, and let's start over.

The third reason he could win is that he does appeal to the middle, independent voter. I have listened to several talk shows in the last few weeks with a left-leaning bent and I hear people say over and over that they could vote for McCain, and that they might. He's the only Republican since Reagan who had that kind of appeal to Independents.

Can he beat the hi-speed, Barach Obama bullet-train. I don't know but he does appeal to a broader base than Romney, Huckabee, et. al. He's the only Republican that can win in November, and in my view the best one to make decisions about the war and the economy.

She Just Doesn't Get It.

Cartoon by MSNBC's Daryl Cagle

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I have said for at least 2 years that Hillary Clinton would win the Presidential election in November, 2008. Over the last 2-3 weeks I have realized that I am probably going to be wrong. I am surprised by her performance. Neither she or anyone else could have predicted Senator Obama's popularity, but she has responded poorly and her response has been her demise.

"The medium is the message."

Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man / Marshall McLuhan / 1964

Point: Television, to borrow a phrase from Marshall McLuhan's book, is a cool medium. It requires the participant to engage himself, not just in the words heard but in the manner in which those words are presented. It is visual first. Going back to the Nixon/Kennedy debates, critics have realized that the perception of confidence and wisdom is communicated through more than words. Hand movements, hair styles, height, voice inflection, laughs, demeanor, and of course, President Nixon's 5 o'clock shadow create strong, lasting impressions.

Mrs. Clinton and her advisers are not getting it. She continues to whine away at Barack Obama, the media, the Bushes, Republicans and everyone one else who doesn't recognize her divine right to the presidency. Last night's blast at the fact that she got too many "first questions" was a huge mistake and only hurt her. She gained nothing from it. Senator Obama is just sitting there watching Hillary bury herself. Or as the cartoonist shows, standing there watching as she overshoots the mark. Whoever is advising her should be fired immediately. I'm not the only one saying this, even her supporters on the TV newscasts are suggesting she go back to her strengths and start acting presidential.

I'm a Republican. I want her to win the Democratic primary because right now Senator Obama looks unstoppable. But her only chance is to forget her opponent and to attempt to frame the debate around her strengths.

Tomorrow: Senator Obama looks unstoppable now, but . . .
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Well . . I See We're Getting Acquainted . . .

For those of us who consider these political debates sport, it's been a fun few weeks. I and a lot of other amateur pundits considered Hillary a coast-in certainty and it appears that I was wrong. The ripple that was Mr. Obama has become one of those very big Hawaiian surfing waves.

Last week, Senator Obama had 17,000 people show for one of his rallys. 17,000. And he gets those kind of big crowds everywhere he goes. Mrs. Clinton is obviously shaken. She can't gen-up that kind of enthusiasm, and presidential politics is not about rational, calm, reflection, it's about what Senator Obama has. As Chris Matthews (MSNBC) said in response to Obama's audience and his speech, "that's show-biz."

Now, it's still a long way to November. In the next 3 weeks if Hillary doesn't go negative she will have resigned herself to a VP position which will have been agreed upon behind closed doors with the Obama campaign. If she goes scorched earth, the VP is out. I say she'll go on the offensive. This woman wants to be President.

Republicans don't have as much excitement right now. McCain was dead in the water. Almost overnight, he wins or is winning handily. That's presidential politics, it changes very quickly.

Final comment. I was ready to give the Dems this election, but I keep hearing Independents and some Democrats talking about supporting McCain. Interesting. On the other hand, I hear some Republicans talking about Obama. But I think McCain can win this.

(The headline is from the movie, The Producers, spoken by Carmen Ghia to his flirting boyfriend)

Hate Junk Mail? How About Spy-Cam Mail?

Specifically, the cameras at designated Fort Worth
intersections that click and report you in your car running that red light. Then, a couple weeks later, their owners send a notice of violation to your mailbox, including three pictures of the violator (you) and a demand for payment of the $75.00 fine.

Does this bother anyone but me?

I have a few questions. Who's guarding the data? Let's just say someone wanted to impose a picture of my license plate over someone's car that looked like mine? How difficult would that be? Are these documents proof of violation? Can one plead "not guilty"? How do they know my car wasn't stolen? Or, that it wasn't loaned it to a friend?

Okay, it's a red-light violation and not a violation of the 1st Amendment, but there is something annoying about it. Is it all that necessary? Fort Worth is a great town that doesn't need this kind of law enforcement.

(By the way, I didn't receive one, I know someone who did)