links of the day

Food for thought on this lovely, hot summer Friday...

"You are terrifying us"...and no Peggy Noonan isn't talking about Republicans.

My favorite part re: the town hall meetings that have gotten "out of control":

"But you can’t get people to leave their homes and go to a meeting with a congressman (of all people) unless they are engaged to the point of passion. And what tends to agitate people most is the idea of loss—loss of money hard earned, loss of autonomy, loss of the few things that work in a great sweeping away of those that don’t.

People are not automatons. They show up only if they care.

What the town-hall meetings represent is a feeling of rebellion, an uprising against change they do not believe in. And the Democratic response has been stunningly crude and aggressive. It has been to attack."

Speaking of town hall meetings...check out these recent Rasmussen polls.

First - "Sixty-three percent (63%) of Republicans and the plurality (48%) of voters not affiliated with either party view the protesters favorably." So what I'm getting is first the obvious - Republicans think the town halls are good & view them as genuine grassroots events. But what's even more interesting to me is that half of unaffiliated voters - independents - also view these events favorably. Makes you go hmmm right?

Second - Going back to the issue at hand, universal healthcare. Turns out a whopping 68% of Americans are actually happy with their insurance coverage (rating it good or excellent)! So...if I were Obama, I would look at that number and say, uhoh. As the old adage says, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Especially when our economy is crumbling as it is.

So there's the bad news - the Democrats & the policy of fear (Obama is cool with you turning in your neighbors if they tell you anything bad about his plan...scary). And there's the good news - most Americans don't want the monstrosity of healthcare. But I would be remiss if I didn't offer an alternative solution, and what do you know? Charles Krauthammer has one today!

The very best part echoes a conversation I had last year around election time, where we asked ourselves, why do employers provide healthcare benefits? Wouldn't it make more sense if healthcare was bought on a free market type basis just like auto, homeowners, life etc?

Take it away Charles!

"There is no logical reason to get health insurance through your employer. This entire system is an accident of World War II wage and price controls. It's economically senseless. It makes people stay in jobs they hate, decreasing labor mobility and therefore overall productivity. And it needlessly increases the anxiety of losing your job by raising the additional specter of going bankrupt through illness.

The health-care benefit exemption is the largest tax break in the entire U.S. budget, costing the government a quarter-trillion dollars annually. It hinders health-insurance security and portability as well as personal independence. If we additionally eliminated the prohibition on buying personal health insurance across state lines, that would inject new and powerful competition that would lower costs for everyone.

Repealing the exemption has one fatal flaw, however. It was advocated by candidate John McCain. Obama so demagogued it last year that he cannot bring it up now without being accused of the most extreme hypocrisy and without being mercilessly attacked with his own 2008 ads."

Daaaaaang. I read "McCain" and laughed. Because I remember that one of the biggest reasons I liked McCain was his healthcare plan. It just made sense! And it still does. I think I'm going to tweet him or something...it's not too late to try a better, more progressive plan rather than the convoluted mess that is being pushed through Congress now.

links of the day

I know, I know, I have been the worst blogger. It's hard because my main motivation in starting a blog was to write about my experience training & running a marathon. Now that it's over, I've lost a lot of motivation to continue blogging. I can't even seem to finish blogging about the marathon itself! And then my other motivation was the election...and then that ended and didn't have quite the finish I was hoping for. But I'll try to catch up...

I was reading through the news today & came across 2 realllly good article about Obama's poor performance with the presidency so far. I have tried to really give him a chance, but I just don't believe he is leading this country the right way. I do give him props for opening the White House up more to technology - the online town hall was a cool idea, even if he didn't really tell us anything new through it.

Anyway, I find this article on CNN really revealing. Because now I know it's not just me that feels this way. There are so many good quotes in this article that I won't regurgitate here, you just need to read it yourself.

And here is another good article and guess what the title is? "On Spending and the Deficit, McCain was Right." My favorite part:

The point was that Obama was promising so many things that to pay for them he would eventually have to raise taxes on people making far less than $250,000. Look out, McCain warned -- someday he'll come after you.

And now that's where we appear to be headed. At some point, Obama will likely have to bow to those in his party who say he must raise taxes if he wants to pay for health care and other expensive initiatives.

Yeah, I can't WAIT til my already meager salary gets even more taxed by the govt. Yippee.

deployment: yay!

And the volunteer deployment has a happy ending.

Tipped off by one of my Floridian aunts...McCain beat Obama by 5% on election day in Florida. So, it looks like my 4 days of work & the countless hours put in by fellow deployees (is that a word?) made a serious impact! :) hip hip hooray!

But as we know, Obama won Florida, and he did it by outdoing McCain 11% in early & absentee voting.

Which brings me to wonder: were there any early/absentee Obama voters who wanted to change their minds on election day? Or, how many of these early/absentee voters were Acorn related? Just throwing it out there, even though it doesn't really matter at this point.

Huckabee at Fair Tax Rally on Sunday

I did not attend the McCain/Chambliss rally today...hey, I do have a day job. I did catch some of it on CNN, particularly McCain's Arizona joke, the same one he told on Jay Leno the other night (really pretty funny).


But there is another rally this weekend, and I'll probably attend. Mike Huckabee will be there along with Chambliss.


Please join Senator Saxby Chambliss and Governor Mike Huckabee for a Fair Tax event like you've never seen before!

FAIR TAX RALLY!

Special Guests Include...
US Congressman John Linder and
Nationally Syndicated Radio Host Neal Boortz!

Sunday, November 16th, 2008
2:30-4:30 pm
Gwinnett Center - Grand Ballroom
6400 Sugarloaf Parkway
Duluth, GA 30097

Please RSVP to RSVP-at-Saxby-dot-org and indicate "Fair Tax Rally" or call (678)589-4888

McCain in ATL Thurs

To help Saxby out. I really love McCain for this. Down but not out, and still fighting for what he believes in: country first.

John McCain is coming to Atlanta to help Saxby!
Republican Presidential nominee John McCain, along with Senator Johnny Isakson, Governor Sonny Perdue, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, Secretary of State Karen Handel, Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and many other elected officials will be in Atlanta on Thursday, November 13th for a Victory Rally to help support Saxby Chambliss in his runoff for Senate. The event will begin at 4:30PM.

The rally will be held at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, located at 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30339. This event is free for all to attend. To RSVP, please email RSVP-at-Saxby-dot-org. For more information contact Justin Tomczak at Justin-at-Saxby-dot-org.

deployment day 4: rollercoaster ride

So my last day volunteering on the McCain/Palin campaign started off with...you guessed it. Phone calls. I made phone calls all day as that was still top priority. Unfortunately I probably had the least success that day with phone calls. I did have one really good call: "are you voting for McCain?" "you betcha! (with Palin accent)" In total for 4 days, I made over 1600 calls.

Emotions were high throughout the day. Their was a frantic air in the room as we feverishly stormed through pages and pages of voter sheets. The bank was really full all day, and I was always encouraged to see new faces who stopped by to make phone calls after they voted for McCain. After phoning for 8 hours, I switched it up to sign duty. I figured the phone calls weren't going to make much of a difference with only a couple hours left at the polls. Maybe by waving signs I could get someone to vote for McCain while they drove to the polls.

Check out this cute baby holding a McCain sign with the help of the mom:


Our little island:


I made another friend and I was digging her pom pom headband:


Once the polls closed, we headed inside to make more phone calls, this time to the Florida panhandle, since their polls were still open. I got a lot more response there for McCain, which was encouraging. And then the moment we had all been waiting for..."WE'RE DONE!!!!" No more phone calls. We thought we were going to make calls out to Colorado and Nevada, but they got assigned to other HQs. So that was it. Done. Finished. Cheers all over and then the pizza & beer all around. Haha. It was a great time of celebration in the collective effort we had put forth. I certainly felt accomplished!

And then...we watched the various news outlets as they started calling states for each candidate. We also had a fair share of "insider" types who knew the real numbers and would update us before the news did. We would cheer for McCain, we would shake our heads in disappointment, we would stare at the TV in shock, we would look to each other in comfort, we would speak out in strength that there was still hope...feeling all kinds of different emotions and always hoping for the best. It was great being in the company of all my fellow volunteers and sharing election night with them. Although I do have to say that I greatly missed Ryan & Raegan and wished I could be at the big party in ATL with them. Although the room cheered for Saxby, it just wasn't the same as being back in the Peach state with my favorite Republicans.

I can't remember what time it was, but once Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Iowa went for Obama, one of the insider guys closed his laptop and said "it's over." The room quieted down and people started to leave. I figured it was time to make my exit as well. I had brought clothes for the victory party over in St. Pete...but I just had no heart to go over there.

And so that was my last day on the McCain/Palin campaign. It was a wild ride.

election night

I'll have a more in detail post tomorrow about my last day volunteering on the McCain/Palin campaign here in Tampa & Hillsborough County. It truly was an amazing, rewarding, hard, fun, crazy, emotional time. A lot to process. I'm so thankful for the opportunity. I just don't have the heart do it right now! :(

I just wanted to do a quick post on how much my heart aches for America right now. I feel like this is not my country any more. Or it's not the country my founding fathers revolted to create. I look ahead to the next 4 years with so much fear and uncertainty. Although I almost hope that Obama does so badly that it would wake this country up and turn us back to our roots. Is that bad?

No one has called Florida yet, and I have seen Hillsborough turn red, then blue. I hope it turns back to red. I really have a good feeling that McCain can carry it. If he can at least do that, that would make my time here all the more amazing.

election day

An email from John McCain:

My Friend,

From the time I entered the Naval Academy at age seventeen I have been privileged and honored to serve my country.

Throughout my years of service, I've been faced with challenges where I could have taken the easy way out and given up. But I'm an American and I never give up. Instead, I choose to show courage and stand up and fight for the country I love. Today, I am asking you to stand with me and to fight for our country's future.

Our country faces enormous challenges and our next president must be ready to lead on day one. My lifetime of experience has prepared me to lead our great nation. I'm prepared to bring solutions to our economic challenges, bring our troops home in victory and improve our nation's healthcare system.

Time and time again, my country has saved my life and I owe her more than she has ever owed me. I have chosen to show my gratitude through a life of service to our country and tomorrow, you will have a choice before you.

I humbly ask you to make the choice that will allow me to serve my country a little while longer by casting your vote to elect me as your next President of the United States.

Finally, I ask that you never forget that much has been sacrificed to protect our right to vote. We must never forget those Americans who, with their courage, with their sacrifice, and with their lives, have protected our freedom. It is my great hope that you will exercise your right to vote as an American tomorrow.

I thank you for your kind support, your dedication to our cause, and most importantly I thank you for your vote.

With sincere appreciation,

John McCain

deployment day 3: hope on the front lines

I just wanted to share a couple stories wtih you from the phone bank tonight.

First, I got this household:

Does that name look familiar? Haha. No relation, but I thought it was a funny coincidence. When I called, the person on the line was speaking all in Spanish, so I had to get someone who could communicate with them. Boy, am I sooo glad we called them back. The family is Cuban, and they said they are all voting John McCain because they've seen what socialism looks like and what it can do to a country. The woman talked for sooo long, she was so enthusiastic about McCain. And it reminded me of a lady I saw a the rally this AM who had a shirt that said "McCubans for McCain" and when she walked in, she said "I just pray to my Lord every day that he wins!!" There is SO much enthusiasm here for McCain, across all different demographics. It's so encouraging!

Then, I got to speak to a man about his support of McCain. He said "we always vote Republican, you can look me up, I donated $1000 this year." Haha. But then what really made me happy..."we have about 100 family and friends and we are ALL voting John McCain." YAY! Sure, we get our fair share of no answers, answering machines, hang-ups, etc...but when we get calls like this, the whole dynamic of our room changes and everyone can feel the change in the air.

Ok one last phone story...I talked to one woman and asked her about an additional voter in her household. She said unfortunately that her daughter was currently voting for Obama, but that she was fighting for her to vote McCain. I wished her luck and told her I knew she could win that fight! I love encouraging people and it was great to share the struggle with her and give her a little bright moment in her day. It's not just us volunteers. Everyone is and needs to be getting out the vote for McCain. It doesn't matter where you are, if you're voting for McCain, do whatever you can to get even more votes for him. Each one counts, and we need every one we can get!

And the whole time I was at HQ, people were outside waving signs. Cars were honking all day and there was tons of cheering going on. (although there were some meanies who flipped the bird or cussed out some of our volunteers - what is up with that?! I never see Republicans treating others so badly) It's like a big party, everyone is so pumped. I'm nervous about tomorrow, but I have a lot of hope that McCain is going to take this state! :)

deployment day 3: McCain

So, this probably goes without saying, but today is the most awesome day of campaigning yet (and it's only half over even though I've been awake for 8 hours already)!! I actually got to see Senator John McCain and (hopefully) the next President of the United States. It was an exhilarating, overwhelming experience. To see him after watching on TV for so long, and seeing pictures for so long...to actually be in the crowd and be so close, it was really cool! But don't worry, I'm not going to go all gushy like this Obama supporter and say that it was the most memorable moment of my life (it wasn't) and that I'm so glad this day has come, the govt is going to pay my mortgage and fill my gas tank (how could anyone possibly believe that?!)

Anyway, I digress!! Sorry. Everyone has been talking about that Obama supporter and just how crazy people are thinking now, they're not even looking at the issues.

I woke up at 4:30 am. Yeah, I haven't woken up that early since high school for a state literary meet. Haha. Drove on down to Raymond James Stadium. After some organizational issues & down time, finally went through the mags (where there was this really handsome Secret Service guy...), got my volunteer credential, and then did sign duty with a new volunteer friend. We had to confiscate any homemade signs, because they block the camera views of the stage when people hold them up.

Here's everyone going through the mags when the sun was starting to rise. I thought the sky looked really pretty.

After the mags, everyone was guided toward the stage area:

Check out all the remotes.

The stage starting to fill up...I was loving the huge American flag. We said the pledge of allegiance and everything :)


After doing that for about an hour, we switched to helping the caterer carry all the food in for the traveling press. And then I basically guarded the food from the local press (the traveling press pays for the food, so if it wasn't there when they arrived...they would not be happy). It was cool being in the press section for a while, not too crowded (until the traveling press arrived), and I got to watch them making their reports, taping, etc.

The main press riser:


The press area:

Once the traveling press arrived, that meant the Straight Talk Express was pulling in, and the crowd went wild!

After the bus pulled in, I made a beeline out of the press area toward the stage. I didn't want to be so far away! Call me a bad volunteer, hehe. I tried to get a good spot in the crowd. It was hard because I'm so short and am not good at pushing people around, but I tried my best! First, former Buccaneer Mike Alstott took the stage, got the crowd going:

Cindy is so beautiful! I hope I have the beauty & grace that she has when I grow up. Joe Lieberman, Lindsey Graham and FL Gov Charlie Crist also there.


Then McCain got the crowd so pumped up. And he doesn't look, sound, or act old at all! He seems so young & dynamic to me. I enjoyed hearing him speak and was encouraged by how much fight he had in him. This race is definitely not over.

Crowd cheers "Nobama! Nobama!" then "USA! USA!" Then McCain talks economy: "I'm going to make government work on a budget, just like you do."


"Obama's running for redistributionist-in-chief, I'm running for commander-in-chief ...I've been tested, I passed the test."


Closing remarks: "stand up & fight!"


Then the speech was over and McCain took on the rope line. I tried so very hard to shake his hand, but like I said, I'm not very big nor am I good at pushing.



And that was my morning. McCain's off to 6 more states today, I think. Congrats if you made it to the end of the post. I just ate some lunch, took a shower, and now I'm going to power nap before heading back to HQ for more phone calls and whatever else needs to be done!

deployment day 2: rudy giuliani

Today's highlight was definitely seeing Rudy Giuliani:

My aunt and cousin went along with me to the Get Out The Vote rally with Rudy Giuliani at Square One Burgers. As you can see from my video (yes, I succumbed to YouTube), Rudy had some great things to say and punctuated it with his trademark wisecracks and humor. He is really a delight to hear. I'm surprised that no network has picked him up for a type of political satire show.

We had really great seats. When we walked in, it was about half full. Aunt Debbie was resourceful and found some chairs that we strategically place behind the front & center table. It was pretty awesome! Then as we were sitting, I said "I wonder if Gov. Crist will be here..." and then lo & behold, my hunch paid off! Surprise guest Gov. Crist!

Cheering for Rudy again!

Taking a picture of Rudy meeting the press...we were on the other side of his vehicle hoping to shake his hand when he got in, but he ended up getting up on the press side :( Oh well!

And then me & Gov. Crist became best friends:

Then it was back to HQ for more phone calls:

The view out HQ front doors. Not too shabby eh? :) Right along the bay.

The phone bank room where I've been spending a looooot of time:

Then later in the afternoon, we headed to Raymond James stadium to go over logistcs for the McCain Countdown to Victory Rally tomorrow. (Gates open at 6 am, McCain will go on around 9 am, and former Bucs player Mike Alstott will also be there.) Here's a preview of what's to come tomorrow!

I couldn't believe I was seeing one of the Straight Talk Express buses right before my eyes! I tried to sneak on with a couple other volunteers...yeah we got denied.

Country first! Can't wait to see these bleachers full and McCain in front tomorrow!


If you can, tune in to any of the news networks to see our Countdown to Victory rally down here in Tampa. 9 am!!

deployment day 1: 500 phone calls

Oh. my. gosh. I am so tired. I don't know about this politics thing. I made 500 phone calls in 11 hours today! We were using registered voter lists from the registrar's office...I don't think they were very accurate. I probably got half wrong numbers/moved addresses as I did live people and correct voicemail boxes. If I were to ever hold a position of influence, I think I would trash the records and require everyone to re-register with proof of residence before each election. I mean, I called a guy who has been dead for 3 years now!! 3 years! Imagine that awkward conversation. "Hi may I speak to so and so?" "uh, that's my dad, and he's been dead for 3 years." "Oh!! I'm so sorry...I uh...uh...thanks for your time!"

I won't get into to many of the details, mostly because I'm totally wiped out right now. The basics are that I called registered voters (rep, dem, ind, everyone) and polled them on who they were supporting. If they were for McCain, I asked them to early vote and gave them more info (except when it got later in the day, then it was all get out the vote on Tues). If they were Obama, I said "thanks for your time, bye!" And if they were undecided, we had a nice little chat :)

Anyway, the long drive down last night...an 11 hour day today. Let's just say I'm SO thankful for daylight savings! I don't know how McCain & Obama teams are doing this for so long. But everyone I met today was pretty nice, it does feel a little awkward being the random girl from Georgia (especially when I asked to turn the GA-FL game on in our phone bank room - we had a nice flatscreen tv - and then GA got their butt kicked. Embarrassing!!). But everyone is so appreciative of the work and I know I made a difference today. Plus the office we're working in is really, really nice. I'll probably take pics tomorrow. I just felt kinda weird being the new girl and taking pictures of everything on my first day...you know?

Ok, tomorrow Rudy Giuliani will be here!

Then Monday, McCain will be here!

It will be worth it I think, just for these 2 events. Because no one ever comes through Georgia...although maybe they should now that Georgia's kind of a toss-up.

AND...here's a little spark of hope for any McCain supporters out there...everyone was talking about this at the office today. McCain now leads Obama in the latest Zogby poll - I was told that this is the same and only poll that predicted a Bush win over Kerry in 2004.

ready to deploy

So today I am driving on down to Tampa, Florida, to volunteer night & day for McCain/Palin. I'm pretty darn excited! I've never done anything like this before, and being in such a hotly contested state will be crazy! Wednesday, McCain was just around the corner from the Victory Office I'll be stationed at. So I hope he or Palin comes back through while I'm there! I am bringing my camera and I hope to have updates every day for you loyal readers. Maybe even some videos! We'll see how much free time I actually get. I had so many other things to blog about from the past weeks that I also hope to catch up on.

Also, I love Charles Krauthammer. I think I've referenced him before on here and in conversations, but really he is one of my favorites. This is from his article "McCain for President, Part II":

McCain is who he always was. Generally speaking, he sees government as a Rooseveltian counterweight (Teddy with a touch of Franklin) to the various malefactors of wealth and power. He wants government to tackle large looming liabilities such as Social Security and Medicare. He wants to free up health insurance by beginning to sever its debilitating connection to employment -- a ruinous accident of history (arising from World War II wage and price controls) that increases the terror of job loss, inhibits labor mobility and saddles American industry with costs that are driving it (see: Detroit) into insolvency. And he supports lower corporate and marginal tax rates to encourage entrepreneurship and job creation.

An eclectic, moderate, generally centrist agenda in a guy almost congenitally given to bipartisanship.

Obama, on the other hand, talks less and less about bipartisanship, his calling card during his earlier messianic stage. He does not need to. If he wins, he will have large Democratic majorities in both houses. And unlike Clinton in 1992, Obama is no centrist.

What will you get?

(1) Card check, meaning the abolition of the secret ballot in the certification of unions in the workplace. Large men will come to your house at night and ask you to sign a card supporting a union. You will sign.

(2) The so-called Fairness Doctrine -- a project of Nancy Pelosi and leading Democratic senators -- a Hugo Chávez-style travesty designed to abolish conservative talk radio.

(3) Judges who go beyond even the constitutional creativity we expect from Democratic appointees. Judges chosen according to Obama's publicly declared criterion: "empathy" for the "poor or African American or gay or disabled or old" -- in a legal system historically predicated on the idea of justice entirely blind to one's station in life.

(4) An unprecedented expansion of government power. Yes, I know. It has already happened. A conservative government has already partially nationalized the mortgage industry, the insurance industry and nine of the largest U.S. banks.

links of the day

Two interesting political links for ya today:

CaucusAnalysis - this is a website put together by a Hillary supporter, Dr. Lynette Long. She has a master's in math and has been studying the data from the Democratic caucuses. Basically, she has amassed a wealth of information on voter fraud in connection to the Obama camp. Amazing stuff really. If you don't want to pore over the whole site (although I recommend it!), you can get a .pdf summary here. In her own words:

This site represents the fruits of my research. It's a work in progress, obviously, and also a central repository for a vast array of data: articles and blog posts from around the web, personal emails to me, interviews with witnesses, affidavits and testimonials, campaign communications, and videos of the caucuses themselves.

I have elected to make this information public. I hope that it sheds light on the caucus process and inspires reform or total elimination of the caucuses. I also hope it gives pause to those Democrats who believe that Barack Obama is the rightful nominee and that Hillary supporters should just "get over it." I have been a Democrat my entire life, but I will not support the Democratic Party at the cost of democracy.

"Almost Everyone Would Do Better Under the McCain Health Plan" - a great opinion article from the Wall Street Journal on how good McCain's health plan is. I like these words - "highly progressive" - doesn't that sound like change to you?

Senator Government

I thought McCain had an awesome last debate. Looked like Obama was on the defensive for most of the time, and McCain got some good lines in. Especially the unintentional (or was it?) moment of calling Obama "Senator Government." Oh man, I laughed so hard! And can we say thank you to Joe the plumber? I was discussing with a friend that we should make "Joe the plumber for Pres!" tshirts. At least this guy knows socialism when he sees it! I'm glad the debates are over, and I'm really glad that McCain had a strong finish. I was disappointed that he didn't push harder on the Ayers/ACORN connection, especially since Obama was straight up lying about the full extent of his associations. (check the facts here and here.)

Watch if you missed it:

conversations

First, from CNN, commentary on 20 ways Obama agrees with Bush. Who is "more of the same" now?

Then...I've been having lots of political conversations lately. I haven't done much of the talking, just more of the listening. I love listening to people, especially in such a tumultuous time. What are people thinking? How do people really feel apart from what the mainstream media is telling us?

At a Young Republicans social, I heard a lot from an "angry conservative" about healthcare. He brought up a good question. Why does your employer pick your healthcare for you? Why is that a good idea?

Over the weekend, I spent some time down South, where McCain-Palin signs abounded and I ran 13 miles around beautiful pecan orchards and farms (more on that later). But I had the privilege of meeting a real Southern boy who is also a big Obama supporter. Thankfully we were able to have a civil discussion over a wide range of topics. What I thought was cool was our total agreement against the bailout. Isn't that crazy? From such different viewpoints of the world, but we both oppose the bailouts. And we also agreed that McCain would do what needs to be done, if Obama were to lose. I was just amazed how similar we were, for being so different.

Then coming home yesterday, I had a good talk with my aunt. She had lots of questions...why isn't McCain making a bigger deal about ACORN? When is McCain going to turn up the heat? What is he waiting for? I didn't have any answers for her. I have many of those same questions. With the homestretch in sight, I feel like McCain's just not going in the right direction.

Anyone else want to share?

21 days til I head to battle!

So it's official! I used my last days of time off (I had already taken off all the holidays & vacation that I had planned for the year...and still had leftover), and I decided to put them to good use by volunteering in a battleground state for McCain-Palin. Since I've voted already, and I had those days to take, and I'll be in Florida anyway after the election for Epcot Food & Wine...I figured, why not? I'm young & mobile & this is a HUGE election. Why not go to a battleground state?

I'm going down 10/31 and requested to be stationed in Tampa (free place to stay with my aunt! who is also a Republican. So she's really proud of me :)). I also requested Jacksonville for 11/1 for the Georgia/Florida game. Hehehe. Ulterior motive?? Nahhhh.

Anyway, I am really, really excited! I can't wait to get down there. I promise to take TONS of pictures. Who knows? I may get to meet McCain and/or Palin!

oh no, he didn't

He did. He said those two words that make me cringe: right and fair.

Now these 2 words are not bad in and of themselves. But how does Obama use them?

"Healthcare is a right." Oh no, it's not! Is it a right for someone to get healthcare when they haven't worked for it? Is it a right for them to be able to get coverage because I end up having to pay for them? It's not a right. I'm sorry. In a perfect world, we would all have healthcare. But this isn't a perfect world, and if you can't get coverage, yes it sucks. I have friends that don't have health insurance right now. But they deal with it. And they're trying to make their situations better on their own. No government intervention. Who in their right mind actually thinks that the government can do a good job providing & managing healthcare for every American? And just how much is a universal healthcare plan going to cost? I don't want to know. And what about my rights? McCain's answer was much better on this: healthcare is a responsibility. Personal responsibility people!!!

And then fairness...the way Obama uses it, he wants everything to be "fair." Well, let me translate that for you. "Fair", in light of Obama's answers in this debate, equals socialism. Redistribution of wealth. He doesn't think it's fair for CEOs to have so much money, or tax breaks. I'm not a CEO and will probably never make that much money, but I don't think it's fair for the government to tax them any more than the next guy, the average Joe 6-pack ;). What is fair is that every American work as hard as they can or want to, and for them to be able to keep what they have earned. That's why this is America, the land of opportunity, where anything can happen. What happens when that homeless guy off the street starts working and makes a better life for himself, moves up in the world, becomes a CEO. Then what? The government under Obama's plan is going to say "Well done worker! Now give us a big old chunk of your income. That's your reward." What is "fair" about that? Nothing. It's not fair for the government to increase the tax burden on so many of us in order to give away more money to worthless programs that don't benefit us directly. Plus, the more money we keep, the more we can spend, and the better off our economy will be.

Anyway...that is my rant for the day. I don't think McCain had a very stellar performance either, and hello! What is this about the govt buying up bad mortgages? Horrible idea.

Here is a great play by play from Michelle Malkin that I think captures the essence of the frustration I felt while watching last night.

And here is the whole debate, in case you missed it:

more on the 1st debate

So...did anyone happen to watch the debate on Fox 5? Yours truly was interviewed before the debate started...I was a little nervous at first, but the questions weren't hard. I don't think I let the Republican party down at all :) We were at the Fulton Co GOP HQ again for the debate. We'll be back there on Thurs for the VP debate between Biden & Palin. Let me know if you want to come with me!

Here's a cool video that puts together all the times Obama admitted McCain was right...12 times. How many times did McCain admit that Obama was right? 0 times. Just something to think about.

uh uh ah ah john is right

Despite what all the media would have us believe, I don't see how any American could have watched the debate objectively last night and not thought that John McCain won it. It may not have been a home run for him, but he was solid. Obama started off well, then with each subsequent round got more stutter-y, more anxious sounding, and couldn't defend his positions. Also a good point was made on Hot Air how McCain referred to Obama as "Senator Obama" and Obama referred to McCain as "John" (and actually once we heard him call John "Tom"). I think the debate really highlighted Obama's inexperience.

My favorite parts:
the many times Obama said "John is right."
When Obama talked about invading Pakistan, and McCain said "you don't say those things out loud."
McCain talked about the bracelet he wears, Obama chimes in "well I have a bracelet too" - did anyone else feel like we were on the playground in kindergarten? My bracelet's better than yours!

Video of the entire debate: