Category: Daily Dose

Despite his extreme support for John McCain the Democratic party appears to have forgiven Joe Lieberman. After being the Veep nominee in 2000, Senator Lieberman has had quite a “ride” but appears to have survived. President-elect Obama is believed to have chosen not to “seek vengeance” and it appears as though the majority of the elected officials in his party have backed his stance despite their dislike for Senator Lieberman’s actions. The Democrats need every vote they can get, given that the filibuster proof 60 seats in the Senate is not likely at this point. Sen. Lieberman on the other hand wants to “hold on” to his Chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Govt. Affairs committee.

His survival does imply a marriage of convenience, but it most certainly an indication that the new President believes more in re-conciliation, than retribution and settling of scores. That in itself is a welcome, positive sign.

Since the defeat in the recent US elections, the Republicans have returned to the drawing board to do some serious soul searching. Some Republicans prefer to use “math” to console themselves. Meanwhile, several young faces strive to jump to the top of the list for 2012 starting with recently transformed “media loving” Sarah Palin. The Democrats would simply love to see Sarah Palin as the future of the Republican party as there is no better way to further marginalize the GOP.

Thankfully, there are still a few sensible voices in the GOP who believe that its time to reach out to the moderates among electorate rather than let the GOP become a marginalized party of the social conservatives. Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota raised another very interesting point (in a veiled reference to the party’s obsession with Ronald Reagan) when he said “But Ronald Reagan was president a long time ago. A lot has happened since then.”

It will be interesting to see where the GOP heads in the months and years ahead. The party could chalk out a more sensible direction or simply hope that the Democrats stumble and self-destruct sometime over the next few years.

McCain is behind in the polls by double digits. The Democrats are “almost” starting to celebrate — announcing the death of Rovian politics among other things. With the Presidency almost in the bag the focus seems to have shifted to hitting the “magic 60” in the U.S Senate.

But then …..one Astrologer (and possibly others) seems to think the stars favor McCain. If you are in the Obama camp this can be reminder not to take chances and continue to maintain the momentum.

The Obama campaign raised a mind-boggling $150 million in September. I recall reading that the Obama campaign might have trouble matching the McCain campaign with its 84M Federal funding. But the September numbers are truly astounding. From $66M in August (which then a record), the Obama campaign has surely knocked this one out of the park. My guess is that many who had planned to contribute all along jumped on board before its too late while repeat contributors did their bit as well.

…Mr. Obama had added 632,000 new donors in September, bringing the campaign’s total to 3.1 million. The average contribution, Mr. Plouffe said, was $86….”

This record does raise some very interesting questions about the future of public financing and campaigns in general. Is this the end of public financing the way we know it? Is every future candidate going to reach out to the directly to the voters to finance their campaign? Is technology the center-piece of the strategy for all future candidates?

There is no doubt that Mr. Obama’s campaign is easily one of the best run campaigns in recent times. If Senator Obama brings the same amount of consistency, discipline and innovativeness (if he were to become President), there is room for genuine hope that he can turn the US around from its current multi-pronged mess.

p.s: The call for investigations into Obama’s money sources will likely re-surface, now that Senator McCain campaign is clearly run out of steam/ideas.

Check this out. Senator McCain referred to his opponent as “That One” in last night’s debate. This is new logo is in response to that comment! I thought this was pretty funny.

I was surprised to hear James Carville say that “these two men deeply dislike each other”. It’s obvious that Senator McCain deeply dislikes Senator Obama, but there was little to suggest in last night’s debate (or prior to that), that Senator Obama dislikes Senator McCain. In fact, I think Senator Obama has remained very restrained and never really displayed his dislike, if any, for Senator McCain.

John McCain was scheduled to appear on the David Letterman show the other day. Under the pretext of having to deal with the financial crisis in Washington, Senator MacCain cancelled his appearance at the last minute. David Letterman appears to have been really ticked off.  Check this out. Its hilarious!

While the McCain campaign continues to hide Sara Palin from the media (barring the ABC disaster and the Hannity “softball circus”), it is good to find  other forms of communication that provide insights to America’s potential future VP/President. Check out this one.

Most kids are fussy eaters.  At least that’s what I have found. Here is an interesting article which gives a few simple tips on how to handle the situation.

Check out this comprehensive summary about Sarah Palin (I first saw it here). It is amazing how much data can be gathered in such a short time. In this age of youtube its virtually impossible to get away with false claims. As the Presidential race reaches its home stretch there should be more details coming through for sure on her. At the moment the Republicans are attempting to control Sarah Palin’s exposure to the media. This has resulted in a virtual fact finding frenzy. It remains to be seen if the Palin pick was a master stroke or a disastrous move. For the moment it is surely a game changer of sorts.

The selection of Sarah Palin as the VP pick by John McCain came as a huge surprise to all and sundry. Here is a cross section of reaction from across the web.

Check out Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (this link might not work once youtube gets rid of it)

Stephen Colbert says “women have reached the highest levels of being used as a cheap political ploy”.

Here is some positive spin from the right. There is no mention of her lack of qualifications. David Brooks biggest coneern is that Palin is a lot like McCain ( a reformer). Its amazing how he can dig out positives despite her sparse record and completely overlook blatant weaknesses.

More right wing spin. Governor Palin will make gas prices plummet!

For attacks from the Left, go here.

For now, it appears as though Ms. Palin has a fairly thin resume to take on the VP job (and god forbid the job of President). John McCain barely knew her before he signed her up though he claims now that she is his soul mate! The right wing spin machine is in full swing to counter the attacks from the left.

Obama showed that he has class by stating that kids of the candidates must be off-limits and that its not relevant. And last but not the least, women have started to argue over weather she can balance the VP job with thedaily demands of being a Mom.