Election Thoughts

I was talking with a friend of mine over the weekend and we were discussing the possibilities for McCain's VP choice. We really couldn't think of anyone that could run with him that wouldn't hurt his campaign. Then a name popped in to my head and it seems to make sense. Joe Lieberman.

In the interest of full disclosure, the previous prediction for VP didn't exactly turn out the way it should have. In all fairness though, I never expected that McCain would end up with the GOP nomination. Giuliani was the presumptive nominee back at that time and even Romney seemed more viable.

Back to Lieberman. A cross party ticket with a very moderate Democrat could be a great step for McCain who is basically a liberal. It would make sense from a strategic standpoint. He'd siphon a lot of votes away from Hillary/Obama (But I still think Hillary will pull out a victory). As my friend pointed out though, you can't exactly rely on people like McCain to do what makes sense. He's just another Bob Dole and unlikely to end up actually being the President so it may not matter who is VP is. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if he chooses a VP specifically to torpedo his campaign so Hillary wins.

In other news, former Republican Bob Barr is now running running for President on the Libertarian ticket. So, I will dare to make another prediction! I expect that after the Rethuglican nomination officially goes to the aforementioned liberal Republican, Ron Paul will publicly endorse Bob Barr.

I think the best thing to do is just to forget about all of this nonsense and make me dictator for 4 years. Give me the power to make a new Constitution and wipe out all existing laws and legal precedents and we'll be in good shape after that! Kelo? Gone! Roe v. Wade? A bad memory. Dept. of Education? Well, it never served its purpose anyway. You get the drift.

Maybe you should all just contact Bob Barr, I'll settle for being his VP.

This Proves It

Lee Eisenberg, the man who took hostages at the campaign headquarters of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire made a call to CNN during the hostage 'crisis' and complained to them that he had tried to get mental health care but it would cost thousands of dollars. The private mental health clinics wouldn't help and Health & Human Services wouldn't help either so he resorted to storming Hillary's campaign headquarters and demanded to speak with her (which he never got to do).

To me, this just proves that anyone who expects the government to be there for them and take care of them truly is a lunatic.

An Unlikely Scenario

Barak Osama Obama is in a statistical dead heat with Hillary Clinton in a recent Iowa poll.

For the sake of clarity, I don't believe the poll numbers for Obama right now anymore than I do the number for Ron Paul polling at very low numbers. I believe the media is overstating the Obama threat for the sake of excitement and so it doesn't look like Hillary has already been crowned the nominee.

That being said, I want to explore the idea of a contest between Barak Obama and Ron Paul if both should win their respective nominations.

This would be a landslide election for Ron Paul for a number of reasons:

1. America is barely ready for a female President, a black President is highly unlikely at this point. You'd have a lot of Southern Democrats in particular voting for Ron Paul. A lot of white moderates would also turn on the DNC in favor Ron Paul. The Hispanic vote for a black President would be nearly non-existent insofar as the Hispanic voting block is fairly weak anyway.
2. There are trust issues. Barak Obama is an unknown quantity. He has no record to back him up, no notable achievements, no great political legacy. Ron Paul on the other hand has a consistent track record of espousing the same views for 30 years.
3. Low voter turnout would be another issue. Let's face it, the Democrat base isn't going to get really excited about Obama and the typical die hard Republican who thought Giuliani was just fine isn't going to get real excited about a contest with a loser Democrat. Ron Paul supporters will be the heaviest turnout there is. They'll be knocking on doors and working the phones, etc.

A Ron Paul/Barak Obama contest is unlikely. Hillary has already been crowned by her party and Obama is just along for the ride. Don't forget to Register Republican and vote for Ron Paul in the Primary.

Hillary Helped Ron Paul

This is 2nd hand information but I was told that Rusty Humphries said on his show today that Ron Paul's record setting fund raising day had help from Hillary Clinton's campaign. The person who told me agreed that it's probably true because he thinks that if Ron Paul can raise enough money and then doesn't get the Republican nomination that he'll run as 3rd party candidate.

If I've erred in my misrepresentation of what Humphries said, I'm open to correction but I want to quash this notion before it catches any traction. This has to be an absolutely false notion for several reasons:

• Ron Paul raised $4.2 million by 37,000 donors. That's an average of $113.51 per donor. I'm sure that some donated more and some donated less. It would take a "vast conspiracy" to get Hillary supporters to donate that much to the Ron Paul campaign. Word would get out. The person who told me about this said, "Well, maybe a lot of people only gave a little but someone with a lot of money like George Soros came in with a big check for the rest." BZZZZZ try again. There are contribution limits and in order for someone to write a big check, it would have had to be to the Republican party not directly to the campaign. Those funds surely wouldn't go to Ron Paul.
• Hillary is too arrogant to think she can lose. She would never resort to helping the one man that she knows could defeat her if he got the nomination. Of course the Republicans that blindly follow the non-conservative candidates think Ron Paul doesn't stand a chance but there's no convincing them. If he gets the nomination, they'll have a lot of back-peddling to do.
• I can't speak for the good doctor, but I don't think that he'd turn around and run as an independent. He'd never make it on the ballot in time in most states. He's more realistic than that and wouldn't run just to be vindictive.
  

The Poll You Didn't Hear About

You're not likely to see the results of this poll on a Fox News Special Report.

It looks like the polling data shows that Ron Paul could beat Hillary Clinton in an election.

The data provided is still very much open to interpretation and more research needs to be done but go take a look for yourself.

There is hope my friends, there is hope.

POLLING DATA HERE

An Acceptable Compromise

I made a deal with my boss this morning.

I've been hammering on him about Ron Paul. He's the "anyone but Hillary" type of person. He doesn't think Ron Paul has a glimmer of hope. I told him that there is no way I could ever support Giulliani if he get the Republican nomination. He's been hammering on me saying that if I don't vote for whatever Republican gets the nomination, that I'm voting for Hillary. The math just doesn't work out that way but whatever, we're not going to agree on that.

So I told him to at least vote for Ron Paul in the Republican Primary. He agreed. But he made a deal with me. He said that he and his wife would vote for Ron Paul in the Primary if voted for who ever got the GOP nomination in the general election.

I agreed to that without a moments hesitation. Why? Because no one but Ron Paul will be able to beat Shillary anyway so it won't matter who I actually cast my vote for. That is especially true here in California. Traditionally, all of the electoral votes for California go to the Democrats, it's just a given. I think Ron Paul could take California if he gets the nomination but who can say. There are a lot of Democrats who support him simply because of his stance on the war.

All in all, I think it's an acceptable compromise to get two votes for Ron Paul in the Primary.