The Maverick

John McCain did it again. His well known reputation as a maverick came to the fore again when he chose Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Top notch. The Democrats and the media have been critical of McCain's choice mostly citing Gov Palin's lack of experience. What I think really has the Democrats scared is that Gov Palin is a straight-talking 'doer' who believes in transparency.

What do I mean that she's a 'doer?' Well, Gov Palin served as an elected city councilwoman, mayor, lieutenant governor and governor in the state of Alaska. She's held four executive positions in government and in several of them she beat the 'good ole boys' convincingly.

So what's the big difference between being in the executive vice the legislative branch of government. In the legislature they develop and pass bills which, when signed as laws, are turned over to the executive branch for execution. The governor is responsible for running the state and taking care of the day-to-day business like fixing the roads, paying the bills, and making decisions.

So why is it harder to be a governor than a legislator? Legislators only have to come up with an idea and generate support for an idea to become a law. It doesn't have to be a good idea or one that will work best for the majority of the people. What do they care, they don't have to make their idea work, that's the governor's job. And if the governor fails to make a bad idea work, it wasn't the legislator's fault, the governor must've botched it right?

Now we get to the heart of what scares the Democrats. Gov Sarah Palin gets the job done and done right. It may not be pretty (it hardly ever is), but the everyday Joe wants someone to do the dirty jobs. This is where Obama and Biden (and even McCain) don't measure up.

In my book, Gov Palin beats the pants off Obama when it comes to having the right experience. I'll take a hockey mom with honest dirty under her finger nails over a smooth talker who's ideas are about an inch deep any day.

Stay tuned because this election is going to be interesting.

The candidate for change, really?

So Obama picks Biden to be his Veep running mate.

I thought Obama was about change? Change in the sense that he's a new man bringing new ideas to the table to change the country and make it a better place. he's going to fix global warming and solve the energy issue. And he chose an old white guy, part of the Democratic establishment having spent over 40 years in the Senate. Change, huh?

I thought Obama's campaign was pinging McCain for being an "old white guy." And now the Democrats lassoed an old white guy from the Democratic collar and put a Vice Presidential saddle on him.

I think this election is going to be won by the guy who can blow it the least. Did McCain forget to take his ginseng this week? What do you mean he doesn't know how many houses he owns? At least give a non-answer rather than admit senility. Any grizzled political veteran like McCain should be able to give a non-answer in his sleep.

By the way, did you get the text? Me neither. I guess the gimick fizzled. I think the candidate for change may fizzle, too. I guess the oldest trick in the book (the insider leak) beat the newest technology to the punch. The only way to keep a secret is to NOT tell anyone.

Does Obama really know how to send a text message?

The big question before the Democrat and Republican National Conventions is who will Senators McCain and Obama pick as their VP candidates. Yesterday Sen. Obama announced that he will declare his running mate in a text message to Obama supporters.

What's up with this? Is he trying to portray that he's hip and in touch? By using text messages, is he trying to show that McCain is old and not in touch with most of America? I wonder how many additional hits Obama's web page got today just from people signing up to receive text messages. Being registered to receive Obama's text messages are the the last thing I need. Its one more way for the fund raisers to reach out and bug me. I thought that political advertisements made by autonomous phone services to my house phone were rude enough. Why do I need to receive political solicitations over the phone. If I wanted to give, I'd give to your campaign.

The real question I want to know is "if I handed Obama my cell phone, would he really know how to send a text message or would one of his aides have to show him?"

AJ

What does 'Beyond Seven Seconds' mean?

Everywhere we turn, we're bombarded by seven second sound bytes. More times than not, these sound bytes are intentionally inaccurate, shallow and intended to hook your emotions rather than your brain. Here, I want to have a discussion that goes beyond seven seconds and takes place between discerning individuals who pride themselves on not getting 'hooked' by mainstream media. Welcome to the place where smarter Americans can talk.

AJ