Countdown to Iowa

The Iowa caucus is merely 8 days away! Here are some predictions for the initial two states and Feb 5th:

IOWA: (D) Edwards -- he is swooping up the tiny rural districts which give equal voting power to 2500 residents as the larger urban centers... Why Iowa voters have *so* much power is beyond reason!
(R) Huckabee -- his christian charisma seems to sway the evangelicals despite his questionable ideas for a federal sales tax to replace income tax.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: (D) Obama -- Obama's call for change will resonate somewhere. New Hamsphire voters seem to like candidates that change the status quo.
(R) McCain -- he won it in 2004, and currently trails Romney here, but may be able to steal it away with last minute momentum.

Super Duper Tuesday: (D) Clinton -- first female president with "two for one" ballot has a draw for many.
(R) Romney -- seems to get more interest from Conservatives looking for a reasonable candidate. He's flip-flopped quite a bit, but Gulianni seems to not have much going for him other than 911 scare tactics.

Bhutto Assassinated

Pakistan Prime Minister elect Benazir Bhutto was assassinated yesterday. Her father was the first democratically elected leader in Pakistan, and she was the first and only female elected to office there. She spend much of both her terms in exile. Her death occurred in the face of imminent elections to occur only 3 weeks later. Her tragic death risks leaving the region destabilized, or at least further away from moving to a true democracy for sometime.

One interesting observation was the reaction by US leaders to this tragedy. Cable news carried no live statements from George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton. Barrack Obama and Chris Dodd however both quickly came on the air and spoke to how the situation should be handled in a wise way. Mitt Romney also appeared on the air, but was challenged when asked to speak to policy changes he would make in response to this event.

Senator Clinton and Edwards commented the next day. Both called for similar focus points (possible POTUS / VP ticket combination?) -- independent international investigators to determine the exact cause of death and those responsible. Despite the delay of the response, both of these candidates gave good, wise responses. Hillary Clinton was especially scathing towards the Bush administration's strategy in the region.

Las Vegas Democratic Debate Recap

Clinton and Obama reinforced their top two position during the Las Vegas Debate. Clinton really recovered from her setbacks during the past few weeks, and came of strong and collected during the entire debate.

Edwards lost ground and even got booed when he mentioned Hillary takes money from lobbiests in response to Hillary discussing how humbling and historic the possibility of becoming the first ever female president is. She finished her clip by mentioning that 95 year old women wait in line for hours to shake her hand, and say things like "I was born before women could vote and want to live to see the first female president." It almost brought tears to my eyes. Why Edwards would follow that with a weak attack on funding sources is baffling.

Obama did fairly well, but had some obvious slip-ups like calling his proposed 1 trillion dollar tax increase by lifting the income cap for Social Security a tax cut.

Polling numbers

Hillary and the female GOP factor

I agree with this article. Female GOP voters are likely to want to vote for the first ever female president. This really hit home when my mom, a die-hard republican, mentioned she would vote for Hillary if she is in the running. She is really disappointed in Bush, and is a Feminist at heart. I don't think her stance is an statistical outlier -- republican women are ready to show that a competent women can lead the US. So far, Hillary is navigating the Centrist political approach skillfully.

Drexal Debate

Watch the latest Democratic Debate.

The biennial veto

Every other year on average, W. Bush uses one of his most powerful presidential powers: the veto. He has thus far used this power at about 10% the rate of most modern presidents. Twice he used it to stop stem cell research. What is his hot-button issue this time? Childrens' health. He would have none of it. The excuse: to control spending. But what of the numerous bills that resulted in $4 trillion in net spending during his term? Why would a government chose to leave children without health care as the best way to meet the budget? To any rational leader, the most logical place to save money would be to trim down on the cost of war.

Barack Obama and Dick Cheney are cousins

Strange but true, Obama and Cheney are related.

Congrats Al Gore

Al Gore and a U.N body was awarded the Nobel Peace Peace Prize for work on facing the issue of global warming.


Having been bestowed what may be the highest honor possible for political efforts, this award should greatly increase the credibility of those scientists and orators urging the need to reign in human effects on the environment. It should become more difficult for special interests to deny that climate change is occurring and rapidly accelerating. Curious to see if, how, and when Gore could reenter politics -- Hillary's running mate? A go at his own? The later seems unlikely. Suggested mandate to remedy global warming: mandatory telecommuting.

$9 trillion and growing...

The US national debt has grown to over 9 trillion dollars. A wincing democratic congress was faced with raising the debt limit in March. Just servicing the interest on this enormous loan is the third largest expenditure for the federal government every year -- approaching 15% of the total budget each year. Tracking debt growth during presidential terms is interesting: Carter left office with a debt of around $1 trillion. Reagon/Bush quadrupled this amount in 12 years! Clinton slowed the growth to 33% over 8 years. Under W. Bush, it has increased by 57% over 7 years.

Candidate Match-up

This survey tries to find the perfect candidate for you. Just answer a few questions, and who you are most aligned with will be determined.

Troops need a vacation too

In coverage of the war involving troop interviews, a few recurring points often come up:

• Extended campaigns - many of the troops are on their 3rd or 4th campaign. These campaigns are now up to 18 months long, with a mere 2 week vacation inbetween.
• False completion dates - the troops are told they are on their final campaign, and then weeks or even days before they are to return home, are forced to return to duty on a brand-new campaign despite the previous promises.
  
• Extensive stress - troops are working 12 hour days, and those days are putting them in a constant state of stress from car bombs, difficult friend/foe distinction, language barriers, and vague mission requirements.
• Minimal time with family - the 2 week vacation inbetween campaigns does not include the 4 days of transit time on both sides. Also, family members are not always clearly told the exact dates of the 6-10 days their loved one will be in the US. As a result, family may not get the time off work they need, and are only able to spend 1-2 weekend days with their troop on leave.

So the bill in congress to deal with these issues FAILED TO PASS recently. It turns out that the Democrats needed a 60 vote super-majority to get this through, and the Republicans have just enough power left to prevent this from happening.

It seems a common political tactic is to argue about which side "cares about our troops" more. Putting aside the debate over pulling out or not, it seems that giving a stressed soldier the proper amount of R&R should be a priority for the politicians who decide to put the troops in harms way. Somehow, Bush got out of even having to get involved in the decision because of his loyal Republican colleagues in Congress. This is a real disappointment.

Presidential Candidates on YouTube

YouTube has a single page that directs users to the personal channels of many of the presidential candidates:
http://www.youtube.com/members?s=po&t=w&g=-1

Also this "YouChoose" page provides quick links to the candidates views on various issues:
http://www.youtube.com/youchoose

Yahoo Debate Mash-up

Yahoo provides a nice interactive interface for their online debate:
http://debates.news.yahoo.com/.

Democratic Debate

There have been so many debates this year -- it's been great! A complete list of links to the various debates to follow.

2008 SC CNN/ YouTube Democratic Debate (Part 1)


2008 SC CNN/ YouTube Democratic Debate (Part 2)


(Part 3)
(Part 4)
(Part 5)

Early Primaries

The 2008 Primary Calendar has shifted earlier than ever. The two final candidates will be largely determined by Super Tuesday on Feb 5th. The dates may shift even earlier if Michigan moves to Jan. 15th. New Hampshire is required by law to be a week before anyone else, so depending on Michigan or South Carolina, they may have their primary as early as late Dec. 2007!

The Race to '08

Subscribing to PodCasts is an easy and modern way to stay in touch with the political area. Here is a good one:



CNN brings you a discussion of issues relevant to the presidential election in 2008.

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