Thinkin’bout Stuff

Reposted from September 29…  now that the election is over and the Dems have full control of our government, there really is no reason to keep ineffective attack dogs like Pelosi in positions of power.  Now would be a great time for the more conservative Democrat voices in the House to join with the Republicans to elect a  Speaker who will actually lead –

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Speaker of the House.

Second in the line of succession to the presidency behind the Vice President.

Most powerful person in the House of Representatives.

A person who needs political instincts, diplomatic skills, and an understanding of when to push a political agenda and when to put our country first.

Nancy Pelosi has none of these qualities.  Oh sure, she is a master of partisan politics, but she only has one trick.  Wind her up, point her at a camera and watch her spin.  A politician with good political instincts knows how to share enough credit to get things done; Pelosi can only share credit up to a point and then she must assign blame; she just can’t help herself.  It’s her nature.

The House needs a new Speaker.  On the first day of the new session, House Republicans need to be prepared to reach across the aisle to conservative and moderate Democrats to replace Pelosi with a member, obviously a Democrat, who is more inclined to work in cooperation with opponents to serve the best interest of this country.

From AP - Reid looking to remove Lieberman as committee head:

Reid, in a sternly worded statement after the 45-minute meeting, said no official decisions have been made. But an aide to the Nevada Democrat said Reid was leaning toward removing Lieberman as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

“While I understand that Sen. Lieberman has voted with Democrats a majority of the time, his comments and actions have raised serious concerns among many in our caucus,” Reid said.

<snip>

Democrats in the past had tolerated Lieberman’s political straddling because he held their slim 51-49 majority in his hands. Now that Democrats have strengthened their hold in the Senate to at least 55 seats as a result of Tuesday’s election, Lieberman no longer is vital to their majority control.

So there you have it.  While Reid needed Lieberman to have a majority and hold his position of power, he was willing to let Lieberman have independent thoughts.  Now that they don’t need Lieberman anymore, off to the gallows dear friend.

If they are willing to dismiss Joe Lieberman, a man who has caucused with them and supported them on nearly everything, what makes us think they will even listen to those on the other side of the aisle.

Welcome to one party government.

Please, please do not let Al Franken win a senate seat. That would be the final embarrassment for our country. He is a total, complete, far, far, far left nut case and yet somehow there are over a million people voting for this idiot.

Just the fact that it is this close is embarrassing enough. Might as well elect Rosie O’Donnell next. Maybe then we will finally learn the truth about 9/11…

Unbelievable.

These charts will be refreshed frequently to provide some indication of how well things are going under an Obama, Pelosi, Reid controlled government. (Now if I can only figure out an easy way to keep this at the top)

Have a suggestion for another index we can chart and track? Let us know…

Click chart to open in new window.

Some folks have been looking for updated charts, (popular vote, popular vote %, electoral vote), so here ya go…

Obama had the 2nd highest percent of total votes cast for a Democrat since Johnson, number seven on our list going back to Truman.

Included McCain for reference because the turnout was key in this election.  Obama is the top vote getter.  although hard to judge because registered voters and actual voters varies year over year, McCain got more votes than every winner except Obama and GW Bush.

2008 popular vote numbers not final/official yet.

As far as electoral votes, Obama ranks 10th since Truman and is the 4th highest among Dems.

Forget what I said back on September 3rd by the way:

Between now and election day, there will be a significant shift of support away from Barack Obama as concerns mount over his inexperience and inadequate handling of his guilt-by-association problems

In my defense, events of the day somewhat overshadowed EVERYTHING after that little prediction.

Instead, I’ll point to what I said on February 12, 2007 since I was closer to right that time:

But what makes Barack Obama a legitimate contender for the Democrat nomination for president? That’s right, you know it and I know it, it’s because he’s … a celebrity. (You thought I was going to say “African-American” didn’t you?)

You see, we like celebrities in this country; heck, some of us worship them. And yes, his celebrity status is due in no small part to the color of his skin (although that still amazes me that anyone cares what color skin we have…   it’s skin, get over it.) But it is much more than the color of his skin, otherwise we might be discussing Al Sharpton as a serious candidate.

Barack Obama is a communicator; and whether you agree with his positions or not, he is just the kind of candidate who could get elected in this popularity contest we call the Presidential Election. I continue to hope that we will be able to find a president who is qualified to lead and who is prepared to make the tough decisions to ensure the security of our nation; leave the popularity contests to class president and state senator.

Wonder how many other folks can point back almost two years ago to a belief that Barack Obama had a good chance to be president… I’ll bet there weren’t too many.

So… keep checking in here and join the discussion when you feel inclined… we both might learn something.

Here we go….

Medvedev: Russia to deploy missiles near Poland - Russia will deploy missiles near NATO member Poland in response to U.S. missile defense plans, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday in his first state of the nation speech.

Medvedev also singled out the United States for criticism, casting Russia’s war with Georgia in August and the global financial turmoil as consequences of aggressive, selfish U.S. policies.

He said he hoped the next U.S. administration would act to improve relations. In a separate telegram, he congratulated Barack Obama on his election victory and said he was hoping for “constructive dialogue” with the incoming U.S. president.

<snip>

Speaking just hours after Obama was declared the victor in the U.S. presidential election, Medvedev said he hoped the incoming administration will take steps to improve badly damaged U.S. ties with Russia. He suggested it is up to the U.S. - not the Kremlin - to seek to improve relations.

Deja Vu…  echoes of the Cuban Missile Crises

So what’s the plan?  Back down on our plans to deploy a missile defense system? Tell Medvedev to pound salt? Deploy troops in Poland and demand Russia back down? Send Russia a nice fat check if they promise to let us deploy our missile system? Turn over all of our research and technology so they can build their own system?

Or vote “present”…

Looks like Joe knew that of which he spoke…