Instead of voting to give him a Turbo Tax for Dummies handbook, the US Senate voted Mr. Geithner into position of the Secretary of the Treasury.  To check the voting of each Senator, click here.   Kudos to the following Democrats who decided to break ranks:

Byrd (D-WV), Nay
Feingold (D-WI), Nay
Harkin (D-IA), Nay
McCain (R-AZ), Nay

For those Virginia Senators (you know who are, there are only two of ya!), I’m watching ya and counting down until the next election!

Saw this bumper sticker in the parking lot at the mall.  Very funny.

_

Obama picked Joe Biden, at midnight on a Saturday.  Weak.

I’ve noticed an old practice politicians have employed has become more and more common.  Bury the bad news on a Friday afternoon and announce big plans on a Monday morning.  Last monday I was expecting Obama to announce his pick simply because his campaign has been so disciplined about following this doctrine.  The timing of this pick could simply mean that Obama didn’t want to knock the Olympics off the front page…but the Olympics are on the sports, not political pages.  The last politician to announce news on a Friday was John Edwards, and that was to hide his shame and embarrassment.  See that is kind of news you announce on a Friday.  Either Obama is embarrassed to pick the guy who called him articulate and clean, or, more likely, his other options didn’t pan out.  Here is my email from yesterday morning to a colleague who shall remain nameless after he suggested it was Biden or Kaine.

Smart money is on Kaine.  My buddy in Virginia says that really puts Virginia in his column.  Biden, goodness how depressing would that be?  Biden made no headway as a candidate, so what does another old Senator bring to the table?  I have to think Hillary is waiting until 2012 during which she may have a much easier primary, making her ascension much more Nixonian.  Sadly for America, 4 years of McCain followed by 8 years of Clinton is a likely scenario.  Kaine may be the only Veep pick with an impact besides Clinton.  If Clinton buys in Obama certainly wins but she won’t go and he won’t ask.

I have a feeling we have a 1 term president either way here, with far too many problems inherited from this admin and congress.  It’s hard being #1 and Americans simply aren’t willing to work hard enough to stay on top economically, I fear.  No amount of government bailouts can change that.

Ok, perhaps I should have wrote, “Obama’s smart money would be on Kaine.”  Hilary is running again in 2012, the purpose of which seems to be to keep Fox News and the rest of the right wing media in business.  I hope I’m wrong about McCain being a one term president, and a one-term pledge by him would be very foolish…two years and he is a lame duck, people.

Besides Hilary, Kaine was the only pick to bring any impact to the table.  He’s young, but I doubt that would hurt the ticket much.  Biden is merely a sacrificial lamb here.  The primary season showed us that bottom up support, which tends to support local mayors and governors, trumps broad based top-down (e.g. media driven) “consensus”.  Consensus said HIlary and Guiliani were supposed to be the nominees.  And the Senatorial consensus on Obama was upset time after time in Massachussets, West Virginia, and other states.

Now, if McCain were cynical and a bean counter, he’d pick Sarah Palin, because we all know white women scream like Banshees in fear of the Irack Hussein Osama!  I don’t think McCain is that simple minded.  McCain will pick someone he likes who he can trust…I think that rules out Romney, though he is a real team player and would be a good attack dog.  His business acumen would be a real asset that McCain acknowledges he needs.  Sadly it seems that he’d pick Lindsay Graham, simply because the guy is McCain’s wingman.  Period.  McCain is a pilot and he wants a good wingman.  So to all the governors out there, buzz off, this is an executive race about legislative power.

I’ve run into a lot of flak from colleagues who treat McCain’s proposal to lift the federal ban on offshore drilling as if it were a suicide pact.  Woe is freakin’ us, bros.  Relax, if your state doesn’t want to drill, like Florida or California, it won’t.  However, if your state does want to drill for oil, like perhaps Virginia, new business and tax revenues comes to both your state and federal gov’t, and you have more high paying jobs in your  state that Americans are willing to do.  If you live in a state that wants to drill, and you don’t, you can call your local congresscritter.  That’s called federalism, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  This is the easiest slam dunk proposal I’ve heard from McCain and I can’t see how it isn’t a winner.  I expect more like this will come out and haters will come out in droves in the media…and in my building.

The only criticism I’ve heard from Obama and the media is that “drilling will only reduce the price of gas by a few pennies.”  Well, #1 how do they know, and #2 wouldn’t citizens rather more of the money you use to put gas in your tank go to Americans rather than Saudi Arabia or Venezuela?  When the best criticism against a policy is, “it isn’t as good as you say it is” then that really isn’t a criticism.  To quote Marcellus Wallace: “That ain’t no kind a answer”.

A new(?) non-profit organization, McCain Source, is running “informative” commercials about…you guessed it…John McCain. The latest commercial that I saw was one that informed me that McCain voted not to extend coverage to uninsured children, but I already new this. What was really informative was what was implied: McCain does not care about children! Who actually buys this stuff? I love children, the elderly, the oppressed, deer that accidentally die when crossing the road…To prove this, do I have to provide free healthcare, free education at Harvard, free food, free housing, guaranteed job, and subsidies or tax rebates from all the guilty rich people? BS.

McCain Source is run by Progressive Media USA, a 501C4 issue advocacy organization who informs the public “about the risks of conservative policies and leaders” and counters the “right-wing message machine”. They claim to be non-partisan and I think that is a reasonable claim, don’t you? Anyone know about these folks?

An aside on healthcare: I am certainly not confident in the nominees’ abilities to carry on an intelligent conversation regarding healthcare. As such, I predict that there will be many “health care” ads, articles, and propaganda that pray on the fears of the ignorant.

Last week, Bloomberg ran an article about McCain’s meager (when compared to Obama) campaign fund-raising. Just looking at the numbers, it just doesn’t look that good for Mr. McCain.

Is this enough of a reason for McCain take a second look at Mr. Rolling-in-the-dough Romney? Or shall we rest on the old adage, “Slow and steady wins the race?” Anyone have any ideas about McCain’s lackluster performance in the fundraising arena?

What shall we take away from campaign fundraising? Is Obama’s windfall due to the fact that so many people do not like Hillary; are his supporters trying to buy his nomination? Time will tell how much money the dem nominee will continue generate after the nomination is wrapped up.

Now why would anyone think that the NY Times has an opinion on the matter?

A closer look at who’s running

Also in Politics:

• Where the candidates stand on the issues
• Election results to date
• Continuous coverage of the 2008 election

So Hillary looks twenty years younger than she is, Obama looks proud and somber, and McCain looks like a raving mad lunatic. No slant here at all. LOL. This is just too much.

This is funny…

John McCain is refusing to renounce the endorsement of a prominent Texas televangelist who Democrats say peddles anti-Catholic and other intolerant speech.Instead, the Republican presidential candidate issued a statement Friday afternoon saying he had unspecified disagreements with the San Antonio megachurch leader, John Hagee. Hagee endorsed him at a news conference Wednesday in San Antonio.

“However, in no way did I intend for his endorsement to suggest that I in turn agree with all of Pastor Hagee’s views, which I obviously do not,” McCain said in the statement.

His campaign issued the statement after two days of criticism from the Democratic National Committee, the Catholic League and Catholics United.

Democrats quoted Hagee as saying the Catholic Church conspired with Nazis against the Jews and that Hurricane Katrina was God’s retribution for homosexual sin, and they recited his demeaning comments about women and flip remarks about slavery.

Especially when you compare it to this.

Farrakhan has drawn widespread attention in the past for making anti-Semitic remarks, including calling Judaism a “gutter religion.” In recent years, officials with the Nation of Islam have said they favor unity and tolerance among religions, and Farrakhan now often quotes the texts of other religions in his speeches.

Officials with the Nation have long argued that Farrakhan’s comments are often taken out of context.

During Tuesday’s debate, Russert pressed Obama about whether he accepts Farrakhan’s support. The senator responded that while both he and Farrakhan live in Chicago, that’s where their ties end.

Now compare this guy to this guy.

Anyone still not think Bernie Goldberg MIGHT have a point about bias in the media?

I think it is becoming very evident that endorsements aren’t nearly as valuable as their recipients would like them to be.   This is why I’m so excited to hear that Clinton is ready to roll out some Texas endorsements. 

McCain has the endorsement of every Senator in Washington and 165 Southern Governors past and present; I think he’s expecting to announce that Ronald Reagan and Jesus Christ are going to be campaigning with him in Texas along with Governor Perry.

And still he can barely get the majority of the Republican vote in any of the States he plays in…and that’s among REPUBLICANS!

Clinton has a 30 year old machine working and slaving for her day and night, and with an INSANELY popular Democratic Governor stumping for her she STILL gets her ASS kicked in Maryland.

But at least she has promised us that she’s going to raise the minimum wage to $9.50.  Still waiting to see if McCain agrees with her or not.

If the election comes down to McCain and Obama…McCain should assuredly fight to limit the number of debates on the schedule.  I’m sitting here watching him read his script, and I weep for the party…the guy behind him should be instructed to look at the corner of the Senator’s eye instead of reading the script along with him.  This is elementary.

My friends…this might just be ugly.