Barack Obama for President

Today, Elizabeth Hasselback, speaking at a Palin rally, falsely accused Barack Obama for being a hypocrite for supporting equal pay for equal work while supposedly not paying his women staffers equally. How did Hasselback (or whoever gave her the information) determine this? Well, they took the combined salary of all the men and divided that total by the number of men and compared that to the salary of all the women and divided that total by the number of women. I guess it never occured to her that this is an illogical way to look at the data. (And here is the data on Barack Obama’s senatorial staff payroll).

Now, using our thinking caps we can all see how Republicans are just desperately trying to find some attack to nail Obama with and they miserably.

Now, these are two of Obama’s staffers. This is the amount of salary they made over 6 months. Hmm, seems to me that JOAN made more than NICHOLAS. Now, unless Joan and Nicholas have some weird parents, it looks like the woman makes more than the man.

If you look at all the Staff Assistants on his payroll you will see these employees worked for Obama the entire 6 months.

Now, the lowest salary is $13,999.92. The people who got paid the lowest salary are named ERIC, JASON, and INDIRA. So individually, more men than women got the lowest salary. So why does Jeffrey get paid more than Indira? Well Jeffery has worked for Obama since July 10th, 1006 (not counting his internship). Indira has worked for Obama since March 26th, 2007. Seems rather clear why Jeffery would make more than Indira for the same position. He has more experience.

Mary, who is the highest paid female staff assistant (and 2nd highest paid staff assistant overall) only makes $15,999.96 compared to Jeffery’s $18,000. Why is that? Well, Mary has worked for Obama since January 3rd, 2007. So she worked for Obama longer than Indira but less than Jeffery. So it seems to make sense that Mary would get paid more than Indira but less than Jeffery, doesn’t it?

And this goes under the assumption that if you have the same job title that you will have the same responsibilities (something that cannot necessarily be assumed).

It is obvious that the Republicans are reaching now. I really think we all need to sit back question Mrs. Hasselback’s view.

On the Rush Limbaugh show, Sarah Palin discussed the ACORN voter registration issue by saying that there is “more to the story” than the media is letting on. She also said:

“Obama has a responsibility to rein in ACORN,”

Of to claim that Obama is responsible for another organization is a complete logical fallacy. But that is typical of Republicans. And the claim that there is “more to the story” is another Typical Republican Tactic. She doesn’t actually KNOW that there is more to the story, or else she would have said what is left to be reported. She just blames the “liberal media” for not reporting the supposed additional part of the story that she doesn’t even know, and probably doesn’t even exist.

The Obama campaign responded by saying that the McCain/Palin campaign is using a:

a starkly political maneuver to deflect attention from the reality of the suppression strategies pursued by national, state and Republican Party committees.

And apparently, this is all much ado about nothing. The ACORN spokesperson was on Greta last night and discussed the thousands of problematic voter registration forms:

We registered nationwide 1.3 million folks over an 18 month period, employing some 13,000 workers during that process. And during that time on a weekly basis, a by-weekly basis, we identified and tagged potential problem voter registration forms. At that time, we notified local boards of elections of those problematic forms.

What we’re hearing about today, Greta, is the accumulation of those forms over an 18-month period that some folks are wrapping in an umbrella of fraud. And that’s just not the case.

These are forms that we identified, we brought to the local board’s attention, and we know that they might be problems and ask for the local boards to identify them.

So they did what they were supposed to do by submitting the information to the election boards, yet the Republicans are attacking them for it WHILE not talking about the voter suppression that takes place within their own party. Again, typical Republican tactics.

Ah the desperate GOP is at it again. They cannot win on the issues so they have to win by using smear tactics.

The GOP is going to file a campaign finance complaint against Obama for exceeding federal limits and receiving donations from foreigners even though they have no proof he has accepted funds from foreigners.

Sarah Palin says that Obama is “palling around” with terrorists but never said the name of the terrorist (even though she was referring to Ayers). Now, why not say the Ayers name? Well obviously because if you leave the name out the people might think that you are talking about Islamic terrorists. And, of course, there is the small tidbit that Obama and Ayers are not “palling around”. But Palin won’t let the facts get in the way of her attacks against Obama.

How many more false statements will the McCain/Palin campaign (and the GOP) have to make before people view them as the little boy who cried wolf?

The House didn’t pass the bailout bill, and now they are working to pass the reworked Senate version. Was this the worst of Washington or the Best of Washington.

Biden said that the bill was neither the best nor worst of Washington. But over the last 8 years Bush has given us the worst economic policies we’ve ever seen. He then smartly moved to point out the differences between the campaigns.

Palin said that our economy is hurting and started discussing how it can hurt regular working people. However, she then said that the Federal government has not provided the needed oversight and needed reform.

Really? Palin is calling for more oversight? I thought McCain was for deregulation.

Palin lost this question at the end. The fear of the families was a good start but bringing contradicting McCain and bringing up his campaign suspension was unwise.

How as vice president would you work to shrink the gap of polarization which has sprung up in Washington.

Biden brought up his history of bringing people together on issues like the violence against women act, putting more police officers on the street, and working to help fight the Bosnian genocide.  He has friends on both sides of the aisle and can work with them.

Biden then went back to criticize McCain on his statement that the fundamentals of our economy are strong.

Palin responded by saying that the fundamentals of the economy are the American worker and they are very strong. She was trying to be patriotic with that statement. However, as my wife rightly pointed out, the unemployment rate is high (especially here in Louisiana). I would also add that when we give tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, that it hurts the American worker and helps to weaken the fundamentals of the economy when they have to compete with workers in other countries that don’t share our labor laws.

I will also point out that Palin is trying to bring up reform as her central focus in this debate. So far she has said it 3 times. I shall keep a running tally. (She also started to stumble here).

Palin said that we McCain will bring something “new” to D.C.. That is laughable. (Reform count: 4). I think this answer was a tie though.

Who was at fault for the sub-prime lending market? Greedy lenders or the risky home buyers? What should you be doing about it.

Palin blamed the lenders for forcing people to accept predatory loans for homes that cost more than they can afford. (I am sure that Conservatives will LOVE that answer). (One thing I have to point out… when she said “you’re darn right” I could have sworn she was going to say “you’re darn tootin”).

Palin also called on “Joe Six Pack” and “Hockey moms” to not get into debt. She then called for strict oversight from the federal government over those organizations who manage our debt. Again, she called for more oversight. Isn’t John McCain against regulation?

Biden brought up that 2 years ago that Barack Obama pointed out the sub prime problems. Shortly after, according to Biden, McCain was surprised that there was a sub prime mortgage problem (personally I would need to see that fact checked). Biden brought up that McCain was always for deregulation. Biden brought up that McCain has been consistently for deregulation. He then moved back to saying how Obama will help the middle class and pointed out a story about a person buying gas. Biden asked this person how much a full tank of gas costs. The response? The man didn’t have enough money to ever buy a tank of gas.

Palin brought up a bill that suggested Obama wanted to raise taxes on people making $42,000 a year. Biden immediately stated how it was untrue that Obama voted to raise those taxes and on the bill she was talking about, McCain voted the same way. He also brought up that McCain voted almost 500 times to raise taxes. He then dug the knife in Palin about her avoiding McCain’s constant desire to eliminate regulation.  And when given the opportunity to respond to deregulation, Palin insisted on bringing the tax issue back up. When she finally got to the point “regulation” brought up campaign finance reform and the tobacco industry before running out of time. Really? John McCain pushed for campaign finance reform so that is a counter to Biden’s charge that McCain is against regulation of Wall St? Give me a break Sarah! (And if anyone complains that the moderator cut Palin off in the middle of her response, remember that Palin insisted on talking about taxes and not regulation).

Biden was great on this part and definitely won the round. And Biden gave a great smile in response to Palin in a manner that was not condescending (but im sure the Republican pundits will claim otherwise).

Obama and Biden want to raise taxes on people making over $250,000 a year. How is that not class warfare? McCain and Palin  want to eliminate the tax break businesses get to provide health insurance which some people (like me) have said will increase the number of uninsured. Why isn’t that taking things out of the poor?

Biden says that Obama’s plan is called fairness. That the middle class is struggling and need a break in taxes. Nobody under Obama’s plan who make less than $250,000 a year will see any (Federal) tax rise. (I put Federal in parenthesis because under Louisiana tax code, an decrease in Federal taxes increases your state taxes owed). He said that 95% of the people making less than $150,000  will get a tax break. He said the middle class is the engine of the economy. By stating that when the middle class does well, the wealthy do well, he emphasized Obama’s “bottom up” theory. Finally, Biden said that the wealthy will pay no more than they paid under conservative icon Ronald Reagan.  A brilliant move.

Palin immediately called the Obama/Biden plan “redistribution of wealth” and said that the middle class and private sector needs tax breaks. Well, under the Obama/Biden plan the middle class does get tax breaks! I don’t think Palin listened.

Palin then defended McCain’s idiotic tax plan as “budget neutral” to government. You can read here why McCain’s healthcare plan is a failure. Palin also falsely called the Obama/Biden healthcare plan mandated healthcare and a “universal government run program”. The same link above also explains why Palin is absolutely wrong in her description of the Obama healthcare plan. And Biden’s response? Brilliant! He brought up the same point I bring up on my comparison of the Obama and McCain healthcare plans (that families will have to find some way to replace their $12,000 plan with $5000) and even brought up something new I forgot to include (that any healthcare benefits that are not dropped by employers will be taxed!).

Not only did Biden get the point there, he gets 3.

What promises has your campaign made that it will not be able to keep because of the economic crisis.

Biden said that they will have to slow down their commitment to double foreign assistance. They will also have to get rid of the Republican tax cuts. But we cannot slow up on education and building jobs for alternative fuels. And they wont slow up on their healthcare plans. They will eliminate current wasteful spending including the 100 billion dollar tax dodge that allows companies to put a P.O. Box offshore to avoid paying taxes… something he calls unpatriotic (and he challenged Palin on that directly).

Palin brought up the typical Republican attack on Obama for being critical of him for voting for the legislation that allowed oil companies to get a tax break (that Biden had just criticized) EVEN THOUGH Obama fought that part of the legislation. I guess Palin either forgot about that part or just hopes you do. But Joe Biden didn’t forget… and I stood up and applauded when he gave his response. Biden wins this round as well.

Climate change: What is true? What is false?

Palin said that Alaskans feel the effects of climate change. She said that there are cyclical changes that go along with human acts. She doesn’t want to talk about what caused the problems and she wants to talk about the solutions. Not a bad answer actually, if you believe that there are natural and man made causes.

Biden says that it is clearly man made. He pointed out that John McCain has opposed alternative energy in the past. Obama believes that by investing in clean coal and safe nuclear that we could create jobs and export our new technologies.

Do you support granting same sex benefits to couples?

Biden says yes. No distinction between a same sex and a heterosexual couple (except that gay people can’t get married).

Palin says no if those steps would cause us to change the definition of marriage. Obama and Biden also oppose gay marriage (something I fault them for).

Both candidates lose points on this question, at least in my book.

What should the exit strategy be in Iraq?

Palin told the same “we can’t afford to lose” lie. She should automatically lose for that alone.

Palin criticized Obama not voting for the troops. Biden criticized McCain for voting the exact same way.

Palin again brought up the false line about losing in Iraq. She said that our plan is a “white flag of surrender”. And while Biden correctly pointed out that McCain was fundamentally wrong on all the aspects of the Iraq war, the Democratic candidates still refuse to challenge the Republicans on the “white flag of surrender” B.S.

So because they refuse to say what needs to be said, this round is also a tie.

(I skipped some of the questions because there was really no comment to say beyond the typical response you would expect)

Palin kept bringing up that Obama/Biden cannot bring change if they keep looking back. Well, how can you change what was wrong if you don’t look back and examine it? Yes, it probably will make a good sound bite but in reality it is horribly flawed logic.

Palin kept referring to her position as Mayor as proof of her executive experience. How come she had to hire a city manager when she was mayor?

Oh, and the reform count is at 5.

Single issue that forced a change in a long term view. 

Biden said that it was his view on how to approve Judicial nominees. He used to not believe in judging someone on their judicial philosophy but now he believes that it is a vital role of the nomination process.

Palin said with the exception of not vetoing certain legislation, that she has never had to change her mind.

My conclusions

Sarah Palin did a better job than I thought she would do, and not compared to the low standard that everyone set for her but she did manage to stand up there and not look bad.

However, when it came to the issues, Joe Biden clearly beat her hands down. Sarah Palin just repeated the same old rhetoric she has been stating this entire time. Again, Biden didn’t knock her out and completely hit a home run. Why? Because he failed to defend the charge that Obama/Biden would raise the right flag. Had Biden said:

Obama does not want to raise a white flag and surrender. Obama wants to help raise Iraq up to take care of themselves and has stated the plan we need to take to get them there. And when we raise Iraq to that point, Barack Obama and America will claim victory in Iraq.

For some reason they have not done that yet. Perhaps they are waiting for the final debate to give such a knockout blow. However, Biden did have some very strong jabs against Palin (especially when he called McCain’s plan a bridge to nowhere). He corrected Palin on the typical tactics that she made by attacking Obama for voting for legislation that included a tax break for oil companies when Obama clearly voted against that particular part of the legislation. Unfortunately, that was way to early in the debate and  perhaps those points made will get lost in the entire realm of the debate.

But at the end of the day, if you look at the actual facts of the debate, Biden clearly won.

I absolutely understand why the Republican base (i.e. the extremist religious right wing of the part) are absolutely crazy over Sarah Palin. Not only is she attractive with a lot of charisma. Not only has she accomplished a lot in the political world for a “soccer parent”. She is one of them, an extremist conservative who would ban abortions in the case of rape (even for her own daughter), rejects science, and supports abstinence only education.

Palin is a hypocrite. She (and others) keep saying that her family should be off limits. I agree that the issues regarding her family should be left out of the election. The only relevant point that can be made about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy is that obviously Sarah’s “abstinence only” approach to sex ed did not work with her own daughter. Why does she think it would work with other people? However, as she protests about the media treatment of her family, she parades them around for all to see. If you don’t want your children to be front and center in the campaign, don’t put them there! And even if she didn’t parade them around on stage at the Republican Convention, she had to have known that her family would be put under the microscope (just like Chelsea Clinton, Jenna and Barbara Bush, and all other families of politicians that get treated the same way). If she didn’t realize what would happen, she would be proven to be an idiot.

Palin and her supporters are crying sexism in the media and the blogosphere. I personally could care less what set of private parts she has. What bothers me personally is her issues and ideas for America. And while some criticisms (like how can she be VP with 5 kids) are ignorant and irrelevant, other comments made about her are not sexist at all.

 For example, some have called her a ”cheerleader” for McCain. That is not sexist. Males are cheerleaders as well. Look at our current President. He was a cheerleader as well. Since men can be cheerleaders, calling Sarah Palin one is not sexist at all.

And again, Palin and her supporters show their hypocrisy. If Palin doesn’t want people to make any judgements on her based on the fact that she is a woman, then she needs to not campaign  as if being a woman is at all relevant to her running for this position. She should be calling herself a “soccer parent” and not a “soccer mom”. She should not be saying that the only difference between her and a pit bull is lipstick. I was listening to XM on the way home from Shreveport and I heard the most absurd comment by a bunch of Republican supporters of Sarah Palin who happened to be women. They kept complaining about Democrats and how they are supposedly being sexist over Sarah Palin. They tried to say how Palin is an accomplished woman and that these sexist remarks expose some hypocrisy in the Democratic Party. The final speaker then quoted Margaret Thatcher by saying:

If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.

Excuse me? How can you whine and complain about people being sexist against your candidate and then make a sexist comment yourself and expect people to take you seriously? So again, Palin supporters reveal their hypocrisy.

People believe that Palin on the ticket will bring over Hillary supporters, especially women who wanted to make history with the first female President and will settle for the first female Vice President. Now this is just plain silly. As it has been said, by me and others, Sarah Palin does not support the issues that Hillary Clinton voters support. So any Hillary supporter who would vote for McCain because he picked a woman would be a prime example of someone cutting off their nose to spite their face. It would just be absolute stupidity. And if you are a supporter of womens rights and you are voting for Palin to “make history”, don’t be surprised when the rights your cherish “BECOME HISTORY” when McCain appoints anywhere from 1 to 4 activist conservative Supreme Court justices.

And then there is always her jabs at community organizers. We get it Sarah, you don’t think that being a community organizer is a worthwhile goal. We get that you don’t understand why a person would give up an opportunity to make millions on Wall St. and instead go to Chicago and try and help out poor people who are unemployed. We get that while Democrats look at people who are poor and see limitless potential who just need a hand up, that you and other Republicans look at the poor as a huge burden, a strain on your personal wealth and that the only good poor people are those who blindly follow your fear tactics and rhetoric. We get it!

The McCain/Palin ticket criticizes Obama for wanting change and then they embrace the idea of “change” themselves. However, McCain/Palin brings us no change at all, just a continuance of the failed policies of the Bush Administration and the Republican Party. McCain/Palin says “country first”. Well, in order to be a true leader of our country you have to fight for each and every citizen in our country. Since McCain/Palin rejects equal rights for people who are homosexual, they prove that they would be unwilling to fight for each and every citizen and prove that they are not qualified to lead our country. I say, put every individual citizen of this country first and elect Obama/Biden in 2008!

Sarah Palin thinks McCain will help defend America as President. Well, how do we do that when McCain wants to continue Bush’s flawed policies? You know the ones where we took our eye off the ball with Al Queda and allowed them to get back to pre-911 levels?

Sarah Palin worries about her son having a good President. Don’t worry about that, under Barack Obama, your son will have a chief executive who will make sure to lead with diplomacy and use your son as a last resort. Unlike Bush, he wont be looking to start a fight with countries that didn’t even attack us. President Obama wont take his eye of the ball when it comes to Al Queda and has committed to going after Al Queda and the Taliban when elected President.

Palin says that every woman can walk through every door in America. Well, only recently did this new conservative court slam the door in the faces of women seeking to fight discrimination charges by ruling that the 180 days that you have to file a discrimination lawsuit is not based on the date the person finds out they are discriminated against, but the date that the discrimination started. So if a person has been discriminated against for 181 days, the company can keep discriminating and the person has no more legal recourse. This is the kind of rulings we will continue to have if John McCain is elected and nominates more activist right wing Supreme Court justices. With these right winged justices, doors will keep getting slammed right back in the faces of hard working women who only want equal pay for equal work. I guess Palin would just consider this “whining”.

Sarah Palin spoke of spending 40 billion dollars to build a pipeline. Wait a second, a Republican is supporting the Government spending money to do something? Shouldn’t that sort of thing be left to the private sector? Where is the outrage of the fiscal conservatives earlier in the convention who said that government is not the answer? Yes, the Republican audience applauded both in a supreme display of hypocrisy.

Sarah Palin thinks we need to produce more oil and gas. She claims that Alaska has a lot of energy. Of course, she failed to mention that the energy currently drilled for in Alaska is shipped to Asia. So if more energy is drilled, and that energy is sent to Asia as well, how does that reduce our reliance on foreign oil exactly? That’s right! IT DOESN’T!

Sarah Palin lied when she claimed that Obama would reduce our security, but he will go after Al Queda.

Sarah Palin lied when she claimed that Obama doesn’t want us to produce energy. Obama just wants to produce alternate energy.

Sarah Palin lied when she claimed Obama wants to raise taxes. He would reduce taxes for 95% of the people. Perhaps he would increase the tax burden on the top 5% (who are currently benefiting from the irresponsible Bush tax cuts).

Sarah Palin claims that McCain doesn’t run with the Washington Herd. How can that be true with the line of bull he keeps giving us?

And one thing Sarah Palin didn’t do… she didn’t explain why we should be secure with the idea that she will be one heartbeat away from the Presidency.

I don’t want to get into all the tabloid type speculation about whether Sarah Palin or Bristol Palin is the mother of Trig Palin. Nor do I want to go into the just announced fact that Bristol Palin is currently pregnant. I will leave that to the others and I will take the stance that unless a blood test is given that we will just go with the name that is on the birth certificate (which I assume is Sarah Palin).

What I do want to go into is the decisions that Sarah Palin made as a pregnant woman. See, my wife is pregnant at the moment as well (it’s a boy) so I have become familiar with what you can or cant do in pregnancy.

Here is the initial article that describes what went on with that trip.

So lets go through the time line (and opinion of a doctor) of what Sarah Palin did while pregnant.

She claims she flew from Texas to Anchorage after she was having contractions and leaking amniotic fluid.  This simply doesn’t make sense.

I am a physician and I deliver babies (my last delivery was about 36 hours ago).

…

There is very little chance that a 44 year old woman who was pregnant with her fifth child would last 8 hours with ruptured membranes and contractions.  Especially when the baby was approximately 4 weeks early; She would have delivered this baby on the plane.

…

Playing the back seat doctor here, my advice would have been get in the car and go to the nearest hospital with a maternity ward.  This is called Premature Preterm Rupture of Membranes (PPROM) and it is dangerous.

…

10:30pm - Palin arrives in Anchorage (approximately 22 hours after membranes ruptured, you start to get worried at 12 hours).

11:30pm - Palin checks into Mat-Su regional in Wasilla, Alaska.  (It seems kind of strange that she wouldn’t have gone to Providence in Anchorage which has the highest level maternity care in the state.  You would want a child with genetic defects to be delivered in a bigger place with more services available.)

…

If she knew her child had this disorder and got on a plane with leaking amniotic fluid, then she shows incredibly poor judgment.

First and foremost, my wife was told to not travel in the 3rd trimester. No air travel. What was Palin doing traveling to Texas on a plane in the first place?

Next, if my wife was having issues with her pregnancy, we would have never gotten on a plane. We would have went directly to the nearest hospital to make sure that she was OK. Ambulance to the nearest hospital: Good Decision. Airplane to hospital in Alaska: Bad Decision.

And that is the the bottom line here. We have a woman with several children already who, if we assume that her explanation of the facts is true, she made extremely bad (and risky) decisions about her pregnancy. These correct decisions would have been common sense but apparently she lacks the common sense to go to a hospital if something strange is happening with her pregnancy. Apparently she lacks the common sense to get a second opinion of another doctor if questionable advice is given. Apparently she lacks the common sense that would keep her from traveling long distances while pregnant.

So why should we believe that she has the common sense required to be our Vice President and be one heartbeat away from the Presidency?

And if McCain lacks the judgment to pick someone with common sense as VP, then why should we assume that he has the common sense required to be President?

Just sayin…

John McCain has picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate. This is good news for the Obama campain. Why? As V-P, the experienced Palin would be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. McCain will no longer be able to attack Obama for “lack of experience” because look at who he picked!

I have a feeling that while McCain is looking to Palin to solidify the conservative vote, he may also be trying to get the disgruntled Hillary voters who wanted a woman President. I doubt it will work. Palin is far too conservative (being pro-life and anti-gay) to attract Hillary supporters.