It's called the American Dream, kids...

Are you kidding me?

I understand all about negative campaign advertising strategy. I wrote a book on it. Well, maybe not a book, but definitely at 40 page senior research project. Which means that I get all of the ads about celebrity, and the 3 a.m. ad Hillary ran. I guess I even get Barack Obama's latest ad, but COME ON.

The Messiah has began running an ad called "Seven." It's an ad all about the housing crisis, that really targets emotions rather than intellect, as no statistics are mentioned. In that respect it's pretty much following the formula. However, the commercial then veers to McCain's own housing as it's subject. Turns out that in an interview with Politico.com, McCain stated that he was unsure as to the number of homes that he and his wife, Cindy, owned. His staff came back with the number four. Obama's ads claim that the number is seven. And then the ad closes with a shot of the White House and the comment, "Here's one house Americans can't afford to let John McCain own."

Um, sorry, but since when did owning a home (or homes) become looked down upon? Last I checked this was still America, and we still value hard work and achievement. It seems like everything we do is in a quest to own a home. Think about it. You work in high school to get into college to get a degree (or three) to get a good job to make good money to buy a home. And then you work harder so that you can start a family and move into a nicer home, or get a vacation home. That's the logic behind the first half of our lives, guys.

I understand that some people are having problems keeping their homes, and that foreclosures are up more than ever before. This is sad, but it's more of an individual problem, not necessarily a problem that all of society is experiencing or should help with. I know that it's good to be compassionate and all of that jazz, but here's the thing: We're in the USA. We're NOT socialist. It seems to me that Obama is saying that McCain, with 7 houses, should feel guilty for owning so much when others own so little, and that he should do something about it. Yes, if this was a socialist or communist state, then his homes and wealth would be redistributed. but we're capitalists, baby, God bless us.

Let's hope we can keep it that way.

Just a side note - McCain and his wife file taxes separately. The houses probably belong to her and her family - one of the wealthiest in Arizona. So it shouldn't really matter at all. Hers, not his.

xoxo

I won the VP elections...in 6th grade.

So here we are...the home stretch before the big conventions. One thing that is of course on everybody's minds is the date by which we know what names will be on the bumper stickers...oh, not the presidential nominees, of course, but the VP picks.

The latest news coming out of the campaigns is that we're close...very close. Barack Obama's people have been closing ranks around him and the vice presidential vetting team in order to ensure that the news doesn't leak before Obama's notification via text message to his loyal supporters. Talk about trying to make the election a spectacle. A text message notification?!

Sources say that Obama has (of course) already made the selection -- that the choice was, in fact, made as he was wrapping up his sun & fun in Hawaii -- but that he hasn't even alerted the potential candidates as to the outcome in order to keep it a surprise. His plan is to announce it this week (possibly as early as Wednesday morning) at which point his VP pick will board a plane and begin actively campaigning with him 24/7 until the convention in Denver next week.

If it was me, I'd need a little bit more notice to be able to make sure that all my outfits matched and that I had enough underwear. But maybe that's just me. But really, what do they do, have their bags all packed just in case? How much of an idiot would you feel like if you had a bag all packed to board the giant "O" plane and then found out via text message you lost? I say lost because this whole thing has turned into more of a contest than a job interview...

But I digress.

I think Obama decided that we're going to be getting the wonderful news sooner rather than later because John McCain just announced that he will be alerting everyone as to his running mate on August 29th at a mall in Ohio (really? I've been to malls in Ohio. Probably a bad choice, he can't afford to contract hepatitis right now). For a while there, though, it was like a game of chicken...everyone was waiting to see who would get the upper hand. If Obama had cracked and just decided to announce in what would have been a genuine surprise attack, McCain would have been able to stomp on his bump by announcing shortly thereafter. And vice versa.

However, it seems like the game just got a little too intense for everyone (haha) and McCain made what I think is a very shrewd and strategic move by choosing to announce so shortly after the DNC and so shortly before the RNC. While VP picks don't matter very much in the outcome of the election, they do help a little in the popularity ratings, and the marginal bumps that each candidate receives could just be enough for McCain to tread on the toes of the DNC, especially if Obama picks someone who doesn't appease everyone...which at this point is pretty much impossible.

And by pretty much, I mean ABSOLUTELY.

The VP picks are typically referred to as the "Do No Harm" picks. You're not really looking for someone to necessarily help you win, but more for someone who won't keep you from winning. Even selecting a VP candidate from a state that you think you need doesn't necessarily mean anything, as John Kerry found out in 2004.

All of this combined means that Barack Obama is in a little bit of a pickle. There's no way in hell he'll pick Hillary (that would be a nightmare), but if he picks another woman Hillary fans everywhere will be more up in arms than they are now! He's got two weak spots - lack of experience in foreign policy,and the need to drive home the message of change and hope. I put this as a weak spot because there are some states that just don't necessarily buy this message yet, and if he has a candidate that would be able to drive that home that might tip the scales in his favor; but there is no candidate that has a great background in foreign policy and a ton of experience that can get anywhere close to promoting the "change" that has become the ever more feeble battle cry of the left.

It's pretty clear that there are three possible choice for Obama: Bayh, a senator from Indiana; Biden, a senator from Delaware, and Kaine, the governor of Virginia. Biden has the experience and Bayh is charismatic, so we have a draw. Kaine is a relative newcomer to the national political scene, and as such can really mold his image to fit whatever is necessary on the change and hope front, but he doesn't have a lot of experience himself, which could just compound that problem for Obama. The other factor that could tip the scales in Kaine's favor, however, is his ties to Virginia, a state needed desperately by both camps to secure the presidency in the electoral count.

As for McCain, there are definitely a few names that are being mentioned more than once. Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota, is one, and Mitt Romney is another. Tom Ridge, the former Secretary of Homeland Security and Governor of Pennsylvania, is often discussed as well. Joe Leiberman, a close friend of McCain's, seems to keep getting thrown in there, though for what reason I'm not sure. I know how hard it can be to leave one of your friends out of the mix, but my God, promise to make him the next Secretary of Homeland Security and get him away from you (in a political sense). The last thing that McCain needs is to reach across party lines on this issue! Most conservatives (in the true sense of the word, not just in the party affiliation) are already having huge problems seeing themselves voting for someone as moderate as McCain, so we REALLY don't need a pro-choice Democrat in the VP seat.

I LOVE Mitt Romney. You know how Scarlett has a crush on Barack? I have a crush on Mitt. I think that he could really do great things in the White House, and I think we need a conservative like him there. But how likely is it that McCain will pick him? I'm not sure. They pretty much split the party when they ran against each other, and things seemed pretty acrimonious at times, although now they seem to have kissed and made up. I hope that it is Mitt Romney on that bumper sticker with McCain. But in all honesty, I'm predicting Pawlenty.

I win $20 off of this guy I know if Romney is the choice though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Along the same lines, the same guy bet me that if Obama won I had to drink a beer for each electoral vote he won by, and if McCain came within ten votes or won outright I get "anything [my] little heart desires."

This could get really interesting really quickly.

xoxo

My dad said I had to be 16 to date...

"Joanne, why do you have to be so nasty?"

"It's not called gym-nice-tics."

Stick It is a fabulous movie, cinema snobs be damned. It fostered my love for Nastia Liukin and helped me prepare for the sheer delight that is the Women's Gymnastics at the Beijing Olympic Games. And while I'm not a gymnast per say (texting while walking and drinking a coffee can become a beam routine gone bad very quickly) I realize that it's not called gym-nice-tics for a reason. You're there to win, not to make friends. Period.

The Chinese are there to win, too. And really, who is going to let a few insignificant details like age requirements and government records stand in between them and the wonder of hearing "March of the Volunteers" from the highest podium in Olympic Stadium? 

When I settled in with my kettle corn and sangria to watch the team competition, I was a little startled by the size of a few of the girls on the Chinese team. I mean, I'm way older than most of the gymnasts at the Olympics -- except for Oksana Chusovitina, who is, quite frankly, an awesome role model and amazing gymnast, but a freak of nature -- but some of those girls looked positively infantile. I swear to God, I saw one missing a baby tooth, and could definitely see the rumple lines of the tissue that a few of them used to stuff their built-in bras (who wasn't eleven and underdeveloped once upon a time?). I thought to myself, "NO WAY are these girls 16."

Turns out, I was right.

The Associated Press felt the same way I did about the baby tooth missing, bra stuffing tweens that were being passed off as 16 year old Olympians, and after doing some digging around they discovered official documents showing that at least two of the gymnasts are on record as being under the age of 15 less than 9 months ago (I hate to give The Huffington Post any sort of shout out, but here's the proof), which makes them ineligible for the Olympics. The official age requirement was changed in 1997 for the Sydney Olympics from 14 years old to 16 years old, meaning that any gymnast wishing to compete in the Olympics must be 16 or older by the end of the year of the games.

When confronted with this particular bit of information, the international powers that be released a statement saying that the passports presented by the Chinese gymnasts all indicated that the age requirements were met; no other form of verification is necessary.

Right. So for the commies in charge who mandate political control of the court system, implement a one-child policy that contributes to gender-specific abortions and forced sterilization, and who want to make sure you're not secretly praying to Jesus, falsifying a passport is just stepping over the line. This is the same country that, in the same Olympics, made an "ugly" child sing from backstage so that a cuter child could take the credit and make the nation look more appealing.

It's not like this is the first time, either. After the 2000 Olympics, the Chinese gymnast who won the bronze medal in the uneven bars individual event acknowledged that she was actually only 14 at the time of the Olympics, and that she and her coaches had lied about her age so that she would qualify. Her passport showed her age to be 16...wonder who fixed that up for her?

It really shouldn't surprise us that this is what the Communist government of China is stooping to. Their way of life and governmental systems are collapsing around them, and the best way to soldier on is to make sure that we -- the outsiders watching the proceedings on our flat screens from the safety of our homes in our capitalistic society -- are intimidated by their might and impressed by their show. 

An interesting thought to close: In 1936 the Olympics were held in Berlin. 9 years later (in 1945) Nazi Germany surrendered WWII and ended the Holocaust. In 1980 the Olympics were held in Moscow; the Soviet Union began to actively disintegrate in 1989, 9 years after the end of the summer games. Where will China be 9 years from now?

xoxo

What it do, baby boo?

Okay -

Since this is my first post I should probably explain myself and my blog to you. I think both can best be summed up by the following statement: Winston Churchill once said that if you're a young Conservative you have no heart, but if you're an old Liberal you have no brains...well, my brain just seems to be a little more developed than a lot of people my age. 

That's right, I am a twenty-something conservative. I know, I know, cue the tomatoes, right?

I don't necessarily believe that just because Winston Churchill thinks I should be BFFs with the Tin Man that makes it true. He was a great man, a great leader, and a great Conservative, but things have changed since Winston's day. It's my personal belief that I'm just a little more farsighted than a lot of my generation. Instead of the culture of instant gratification that abounds today I look to the future, and my political views are formed because of my hope and vision of the long term.

So that's what this blog is going to be -- a vision for the future for people my age. Let's face it... a lot of 18 to 24 year olds don't give a shit about politics or current events. If I said "Hey, what are your opinions on Georgia's sovereignty being compromised by Russia?" most people my age would be thinking along the lines of the ATL, not the Eastern European country (this disgusts me, btw). Obviously 18 to 24 year olds grow up. What happens when we become 40 year olds? How will people who haven't cared about politics until the middle of their lives feel when they realize they could have been safe-guarding their future rather than creating mindless Facebook groups in a quest to be "1,000,000 strong" for something stupid?

Hopefully this blog will be a platform for more people to become more educated about more issues. There are so many dangerous and scary things happening in the world of politics that are being glamorized and glossed over because not a lot of youth understand what lies under the surface, so maybe (just maybe) this blog can help shed some light on some issues that a lot of people around my age have trouble getting into.