After a 6 year hiatus I'm going to give this another try. Over the last 4 to 6 years I've been spending a lot of time being a LeBron James fan and over the last 4 years in particular I've been following the Miami Heat very closely.
    James and the Miami Heat have once again found themselves deep in the Playoffs. They start the first game of the Easter Conference Playoffs on Sunday in Indiana. This is a series many have been wanting to see for the last 9 months.

This blog entry is a little time late, considering that Barack Obama was elected over two weeks ago. But boy am I happy with the outcome of this election! I've been glued to the news channels watching everything about the transition. I am very disappointed that Hillary Clinton is going to be Secretary of State instead of Bill Richardson. Don't get me wrong, I thought that there was a place for her in the Obama administration, but I was really hoping Richardson would get State. For Clinton I was thinking maybe...Health and Human Services. Obama is said to be announcing his Treasury Secretary soon. It's going to be Timothy Geithner (currently the head of the New York Federal Reserve). At news of the upcoming announcement the market surged nearly 500 points.

McCain accuses most Americans of Treason

Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) in recent comments said about democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), "He would rather lose a war and win a political campaign." In saying this he accuses Obama of the worst kind of treason, basically sacrificing the safety of Americans for his own greedy political ambitions.

In making this comment, however, he doesn't just accuse Obama of treason, but, in fact, accuses a majority of Americans. The reason for his comment was the fact that Obama refuses to admit that the surge has worked. He also opposed the surge and has said recently that if he had it all to do over again, he'd still oppose the surge. Obama also has proposed a 16 month withdrawal timeline for troops in Iraq, with many of those being redeployed to Afghanistan. Not only are these ideas part of Obama's campaign, but according to polls, many Americans share these same ideas.

In recent polls, nearly 60% of Americans support setting a timeline for withdrawal. Nearly one third of Americans support removing troops immediately. So if McCain is accusing Obama of treason with his comment, then he is accusing a majority of Americans who agree with Barack Obama of treason as well.

This election is now in the "general" stage. The candidates naturally move towards the middle in order to get the independent vote. This accusation from John McCain himself will not play well among these independents, and will only work to mobilize the left.

The bottom line is that any person who really believes that anyone who doesn't hold the same political ideas that he does is a traitor should not be president.

The "Energizer" democrat

What happened to democratic politics? Clinton is seen as the "tough" candidate? She's seen as tough because she just won't give up. No matter what the odds or circumstances, she refuses to quit. When did making up anything just to stay alive become "tough"? When did saying anything to make your opponent seem unelectable become "tough"? She's now actually counting Michigan! No one is counting Michigan. She's making an argument to the superdelegates that she has the lead in "popular vote". Does she think they're super-delegates, or super-stupid-delegates? She clearly has no path to the nomination without the super-gullible-delegates, and she's trying every argument possible to bring them over to her side. The amazing thing is that the people are buying it. They actually think she's tougher than Obama.

Am I the only one left in America that sees that Obama is going to be the nominee? Wether he is left with something to take on McBush with or left bloodied and battered is up to Clinton. Please, please, Senator Clinton....DROP OUT NOW, before it's too late for a democrat to beat McCan't in November.

Change you can XEROX

In last night's debate in Texas, Mrs. Clinton said the following about Mr. Obama's message of change.




"That's not change you can believe in. That's change you can XEROX."

Referring to recent news out of the Clinton camp that he was using words borrowed from ally Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts.

Mrs. Clinton, shame on you. I wasn't at the debate last night, but had I been I'd most certainly have stood up and boo'd at this comment. Obama's message of hope and change resonates with millions of Americans. This is the first really honest candidate I've seen in quite some time. Mrs. Clinton, take you're negativity and you Obama bashing aides and quietly fade into the sunset. There is no way you can catch up to the Obama freight train. And sticking around is just hurting the party. I know you want to see how you do in your firewall states of Texas and Ohio, so I'll deal with you for another week or so. But please, after March 4th will you please go away? Lines like, "Change you can XEROX", will just give more lines of attack to McCain and the republicans. Just watch and see. Before you know it, we'll all be hearing it from McCain, "Change you can ZEROX." And he'll probably even give credit for the phrase to it's rightful owner: Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Senator Clinton, if you'd like I'll fax over to your headquarters a XEROX copy of my delegate count for Senator Obama's last 10 primary victories.

Obama Wins Wisconsin; 9 in a Row

Tonights decisive win in Wisconsin for Obama solidifies his status as democratic front-runner. Along with a most certain win in Hawaii making this a 10-0 run for the freshman Senator from Illinois. Exit polls in the Wisconsin primary show Obama leading or nearly tied in every demographic.

Clearly the momentum from previous wins in recent weeks has played into the Obama campaign. After tonight, Obama will own the news cycle for the two weeks leading up to the March 4th primaries. Even John McCain can see the writing on the wall. He clearly refers to Obama several times in his speech tonight, although not by name.

Speaking of speeches. Obama's move tonight to interrupt the Clinton speech was clearly calculated and one of the most aggressive moves by the Obama campaign to date. Once it was obvious that Clinton was not going to congratulate her opponent again, the Obama camp jumped in, mid-speech. They essentially marginalized her. The moment Obama began to speak, all the major networks left the Clinton speech. Want to see the Clinton speech? Forget the media networks. You're going to have to search YouTube, or the Clinton webpage. What a strong move by the Obama camp. That is the way Obama says, "Oops, I didn't see you there. Did I interrupt something here?"

Obama has put McCain squarely in his sights. The Obama focus for the next two weeks is twofold: win Texas and get a national strategy to beat McCain. We'll keep our eyes on everything.

Obama Gets It

In the Las Vegas debate with Obama, Clinton, and Edwards, there was a question that really sticks out in my mind as a turning point in the campaign.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jan...ranscript/

Russert asked, "...quickly, your greatest strength, your greatest weakness." Obama went first with, "...my greatest weakness, I think, is when it comes to — I’ll give you a very good example. I ask my staff members not to hand me paper until two seconds before I need it because I will lose it.…And my desk and my office doesn’t look good. I’ve got to have somebody around me who is keeping track of that stuff." This is basically a "I'm not very organized" response.

Edwards goes next with, "I think weakness, I sometimes have a very powerful emotional response to pain that I see around me...And I feel that in a really personal way and in a very emotional way. And I think sometimes that can undermine what you need to do." Are you kidding me? My weakness is that I have an emotional response to pain I see around me? I WANT a President that has an emotional response to pain they see around them!

Clinton goes last with, "I get impatient. I get, you know, really frustrated when people don’t seem to understand that we can do so much more to help each other. Sometimes I come across that way. I admit that. I get very concerned about, you know, pushing further and faster than perhaps people are ready to go." Okay, this is the "I get frustrated when people around me don't want to work as hard as I do" response. Again...are you kidding me? Go....get frustrated...get mad...tell people around you to work harder....yell at them to help each other more. Go for it! get some!

Okay, the point of all this. After this brief exchange I thought to myself, "Okay, I get it. Obama is the honest candidate. He gave a really honest answer. His 'weakness' was actually a real weakness. He's not organized. Clinton just played the game.

After the debate I heard comments like, "It showed Obama's inexperience and that he's naive." Or things like, "This is Interviewing 101. Hasn't Obama ever been in a job interview? They always ask you your greatest weakness and you are supposed to turn it into a positive." Well, the way I saw it was he was being honest. I mean, it's that simple. He didn't play any games. He didn't try to spin it. He simply told the public about a weakness he has, honestly, just like he was asked to do. The other candidates? Business as usual. Washington as usual. We get it...say one thing while meaning another.

Obama is the straight shooter. He's the honest candidate. He's the future President that will listen to the People and give back honest answers, the facts as they are....the truth. That's what I took away from the Las Vegas debate.