I think McCain just became the frontrunner

[joshtpa]

So now you want back in, Sir? I was perfectly happy enjoying my argument with Eore now.

I thought I could have an intelligent conversation with others like Immts on here rather than try and speak with a child.

[joshtpa]

And I also must say, that I just found out about this Ignore button. Thanks Harry Longshanks and the others that PMed me and told me to do what they did with Grogger and just have him ignored.

[DDBowdoin]

is this how they think?

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/20...-you-dont.html

[joshtpa]

Unfortunately it is.

[julie_m]

is this how they think?

That's not how they think. That dude's a B-lister, a British comic, basically a shock jock. He says whatever he has to that will get his name in the news, for self promotion, and it works.

[immts007]

That's not how they think. That dude's a B-lister, a British comic, basically a shock jock. He says whatever he has to that will get his name in the news, for self promotion, and it works.

And he's not really very funny.

Although I thought he was perfect for that part in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

[julie_m]

And he's not really very funny.

Right. Everyone's saying he really bombed on the VMAs.

[DDBowdoin]

but do you feel this will be fuel for the McCain campaign, futhering their position that Obama is a celebrity?

I honestly am not a massive fan of McCain but I can't believe he is doing as well as he is, what did the Obama camp do... they're starting to slip

[ganjagolfer]

i think obama is sexier than palin

[pjsnyc]

but do you feel this will be fuel for the McCain campaign, futhering their position that Obama is a celebrity?

Honestly, I think Obama is just waiting on the debates. I don't think he wants to fan the flames in any way unless he's forced to.

I'd be interested to see what everyone has to say AFTER the debates.

[DDBowdoin]

Honestly, I think Obama is just waiting on the debates. I don't think he wants to fan the flames in any way unless he's forced to.

I don't feel that Obama is a great debater, he's an amazing speaker but doesn't exactly match his orating skills in his debates. It's harder for him since he's not reading something someone else wrote for him.

He's going to have an uphill battle in the debates when they start coming down to gritty policy plans. Saying he's going to cut 95% of taxes for working americans may get him in trouble, he'll need some feasible policies.

[joshtpa]

I don't feel that Obama is a great debater, he's an amazing speaker but doesn't exactly match his orating skills in his debates. It's harder for him since he's not reading something someone else wrote for him.

Very well said. He is a great speaker. But going back to what I was saying before, saying you want change is a great thing. But you have to outline the change and he has not been able to do that, and I am not sure he can.

[DDBowdoin]

his whole theme of change really helped him in the primaries... but now that its the big show you are 100% correct Birdie, it's going to be difficult to turn that into some feasible policies.

I believe its going to be even harder for him considering he has made some significant changes over the last 6 weeks or so that contradict his primary campaign strategy. He wants to change washington but picked a typical, blow hard washington insider as a VP and the meat and potatoes portion of his DNC speech was a typical liberal speech, something the people of America have heard over and over again. So essentially, his change is just a new face with the same plans (not of Bush, obviously, but of liberal democrats in washington)

[immts007]

Sigh. But he has outlined a LOT of the changes he would make. Cutting taxes for 95% of all Americans - increasing the very TOP bracket from 35 back to 39%, increasing capital gains on the top 2 tax brackets (something like 2 out of every 100 returns, so the top 2%).

A return to diplomacy on the world stage rather than strong arm tactics. Getting us out of a War, and hopefully not starting new ones so that we can spend $ @ home on infrastructure, education, and investement in AMERICAN jobs.

A return to respect for the seperation of church and state and less pandering to those who would force their religious viewpoints on a secular government and its public schools.

I have to admit, it is the social issues more than anything else that make me vote for Democrats, and I think it is that way for a lot of people. So along with that, yeah one more change would be that we won't get another 2 or 3 rabidly right-wing supreme court justices.

We won't get a vice-president who believes gays can be "cured", or that books should be banned, or that Iraq is a task from God.

A president who won't subvert the constitution and congress by issuing 'signing statements' along with every signed piece of legislation.

I could go on with this but it feels pretty futile really.

It's really ironic that McCain/Palin are now stealing Obama's thunder and running under the "change" banner themselves. McCain openly talks about how hard people have it and how bad things have been, yet aligns himself with the outgoing administration on almost every single issue. They are the "Original Mavericks". Sigh. Go look at McCain's voting record and see just how often he has been a Maverick. The answer is: almost never.

Are we on the right track? Are you better off now than you were 8 years ago? Do you want to continue to inject religious belief into our governance? These questions may seem cliche but answer them honestly for yourself. And I guess based on that vote for either Barack Obama or John McCain.

[DDBowdoin]

We won't get a vice-president who believes gays can be "cured", or that books should be banned, or that Iraq is a task from God.

No... we'll have a president who belongs to a racist church

oh wait, it's only racism if you are white Just because she belongs to that church doesn't mean she believes everything that comes out of it, just like you'll tell me that Obama is not a racist

[DDBowdoin]

IMMTS - I appreciate the conversation and I respect your opinion but I have to ask you a few questions.

How would cutting taxes for 95% of Americans, raising taxes on the wealthy and more importantly increasing capital gains taxes help our economy? The stimulus checks helped for all of 5 minutues, why? Because if you give 5000 dollars to a normal person, like my parents, they buy a Japanese made TV and frivolous items. Just following a simple economic model, consumption does not equal to savings... savings drives the economy. If you give the same amount to someone who is an educated investor, who unfortunately is probably wealthy, he'll take that money and invest into his portfolio.

Very similar to reagonomics... its terrible to give money to those who need it, but cutting back on those who pay the least and do they least with whatever money they do have will not repair a weak economy.

As for American jobs... well that's a completely different battle.

[Smallville]

Cutting taxes for 95% of all Americans -

What's going to happen when you raise taxes on the "rich people?" (Of which, by the way, I am not even close to)

You think cutting taxes on the 95% of people is going to put more money in your pocket? Think again there, Bubba. When you increase the taxes on the rich people and businesses (FYI the rich people own the businesses) start looking at layoffs. If they are losing money because their taxes just got raised back to Clinton levels or higher, it's gonna be time to start cutting back on the jobs. You think raising the minimum wage was a good idea? Well on paper, sure, but because businesses had to pay more for the minimum wage workers, guess what? They just hire less of them. Or make them work less hours. Yeah, income redistribution works great. I'd rather pay a little more in taxes and keep my job, thank you.

[immts007]

No... we'll have a president who belongs to a racist church

Did you need to be sarcastic?

Seriously can you point to, or quote here, even one 'racist' statement by Jeremiah Wright or a 'racist' position held by the Trinity United Church of Christ? I've heard some political ones, but none that claim that white people as a race are evil, stupid, inferior on any other racist claim. I heard him say "God Damn America" in a rhetorical fashion, kind of like Roberston said Katrina was God's judment... As far as the book banning, that was something she herself investigated with the Wasilla Library as soon as she was elected mayor. She went in and asked how she could get books banned. http://www.time.com/time/politics/ar...837918,00.html I'm an atheist, so I can find unreason and irrationality in pretty much every stripe of "faith", but I went and listened to all the Wright sermons in context and found absolutely nothing threatening in them to me as a white man or a member of the white race. Quite the opposite, I found calls, over and over again, for unity and brotherhood. But I understand that most of America doesn't have the time or even the desire to truly investigate issues like that for themselves, so Obama did what was politically neccessary, he threw Wright 'under the bus' so to speak. On the other hand, I find MUCH to fear from a religion that would 'retrain' homosexuals, ban books, and fight religious wars (and Oh yeah - those again, were Palin's words, not her church's).