Fund raising

President Bush may be unpopular with the GOP rich. He has attended 36 fund raising events that have brought in nearly $68 million for the party and its candidates.

The End Of A Conservative Era?

Sometimes in life it is better to keep your mouth shut. McCain insisted that Obama had failed as a candidate by not going to the Middle East. So Obama goes and gets a rock star’s treatment even by the US troops, and the Iraqi government agrees with his time table. The Bush Administration is left with its opposition to the time table and was furious with the Maliqi government, so the prime minister said he was misquoted and mistranslated. The problem is that the translator was his own aide.

George Bush II has criticized the Wall Street drunkenness that has led to the last economic crises. Where has he been in the last seven years?

One good side effect of the recession we are in, even the conservatives have begged the federal government to save the housing industry and Fanny and Freddie. Finally we have put to bed that silly economic philosophy of Milton Friedman that the market can rectify all problems. He did so much damage in the emerging nations that one would have assumed most people understood nonsense. Maybe also we can stop reading those excruciatingly long and boring Ayn Rand novels that praise selfishness and duplicity. So much for right wing prophets.

Speaking of prophets, John Lennon "the most overrated man on the planet" once said the Beatles were going to be bigger than Jesus Christ. Now he says that he was misunderstood, some forty five years ago, he is really a follower of Jesus. Not exactly a prompt rebuttal.

Odd & Ends This Week

Poor John McCain looked confused when some reporter asked him--if insurance covers Viagra why not birth control pills.

The New Yorker's cover of Obama is less troubling than the inside analysis of his early career in politics.

While the Administration is chastising those who want a timetable for withdrawal out of Iraq, the Iraq government is demanding just such a timetable.

What Change Looks Like

Barack Obama is complaining that his liberal friends have misunderstood his movments to the center. That is what happens when you look like you are changing your positions on Iraq, telephone survelliance, campaign financing and faith based social work.

Is Obama The Right Candidate?

The New York Times has listed the top search terms used most for the presidential candidates. This tally tells one what the topics users were most interested in. The top search terms used by views for McCain are health care, environment, oil prices, education, global warming; For Obama it was abortion, education, global warming , heath care, and immigration.

Talking heads are still resurrecting Hillary as a possible veep for Obama. After all she did carry half the Democrat votes and half the delegates, especially in non caucus states. The recent article in Vanity Fair argues that Hillary lost because her major advisor, Mark Penn, tried to turn her into a tough talking male type and avoid the softer woman's image. The article by Gail Sheedy also makes a case that Bill was totally off the reservation, with disastrous results after South Carolina.

Poor John McCain does his thing with a trip to the nation of Columbia, and the major story there is the release of the long held hostages. Appearing with Joe Lieberman later, he looked very old.

Obama must be convinced that he has the liberal vote locked up. In the last several weeks, he has so turned to the right that one can't figure out what is happening to the campaign. He promised a new poltics, but we are getting the old Bill Clinton-Dick Morris trangulation where the Democrats take conservative positions. As Harry Truman once said if the Amerian people have a choice between the Republicans and Democrats who talk like Republicans they will choose the real thing.