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Service Records
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Aug. 27th, 2008 @ 11:24 am
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From National Review Online last night:
Factoid on Military Service on the Ticket [Pete Hegseth]
For the first time in 44 years, the Democratic ticket for President will not include a veteran of America's Armed Services. Neither Senator Obama nor Senator Biden have spent one day in military uniform. And by my calculations, it's been 76 years (Hoover-Curtis ticket in 1932) since the Republicans nominated a duo without any military experience. This year, that streak continues... While military service is not a presidential prerequisite, one should not under-estimate the value combat boots bring to understanding leadership, service, and courage...especially in the dangerous world we live in today. 08/26 07:31 PM
Actually, I believe these calculations are wrong. In fact, it is the first time since 1940 (FDR/Henry Wallace) that the Dems do not have a veteran on the ticket. Since that time, they have always had at least one: Truman (44 and 48), Stevenson (52 and 56), JFK (60), LBJ (64), Muskie (68), McGovern(72), Carter (76,80), Mondale (84), Dukakis (88), Gore (92,96,2000), and, of course, John Kerry (2004). While LBJ's naval career was cut short by a rule change that kept sitting congressmen out of uniform, he nonetheless was in WWII long enough to be awarded a silver star by Gen. MacArthur. I should also point out that Hubert Humphrey tried twice to enlist during WWII but was rejected on medical grounds.
Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!
And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.
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Conventions Past
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Aug. 25th, 2008 @ 10:00 pm
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The first Democratic Convention I remember was in 1956. My Massachusetts grandparents were visiting us in Westmere, outside of Albany, and staying at the Country Squire Motor Lodge at the intersection of US 20 and Carmen Road. Grampa Nelsi Brunelli flipped on the tv and on came the convention. The only VHF channel at the time was WRGB out of General Electric in Schenectady, an NBC station, so we watched Huntley and Brinkley for a while as Estes Kefauver fought Adlai Stevenson for the top spot. When Adlai won, he threw open the convention for VP, and young Jack Kennedy received his first national exposure. After all, it was the only thing on television.
Things sure were different then. As I recall, there were only about sixteen or eighteen primaries and Kefauver had won all of them. Didn't mean a damn thing, and no one argued that it did. [Update: My recollection was faulty. In 1952 he won twelve of fifteen, including knocking out incumbent Harry Truman in New Hampshire; in 1956 he won New Hampshire, Minnesota and Wisconsin before starting to slide and Stevenson actually had more primary votes in the end, though, again, those things didn't decide conventions.]
Did I mention I was five years old?
Four years later and we were in our last summer in Westmere before moving to Amsterdam and big brother Jay and I were trying out our new Montgomery Wards pup tent (purchased at the big store/warehouse in Menands, a place that reminded me of the department store in A Christmas Story). We were pitched in the back yard near the maple tree with the wooden swing, probably all of about six steps from the kitchen door.
Those were the days before air conditioning, of course, so every window in the house had been thrown open all the way. Though occasionally distracted by the chirping crickets and flashing fireflies, we both got a great kick out of the roll call of the states, already an art form, booming from our 19 inch black and white Motorola table-top television.
"Mr. Chairman, the great state of Alabama, the land of grits and catfish and bo-weevils, where the beauty of our women can not be exceeded anywhere and our rich soil produces the finest cotton in the world, where we have a candidate for State Attorney General, Rufus Beauregard Robert E. Lee Johnston, whose character, commitment and breeding make him an outstanding choice to replace the late and beloved Stentennius Bixby, whose tragic death in an agriculture accident has left the whole state and in particular our great Democratic Party, the party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson and Curtis Alphonso Pickering, our great State Purchasing Agent, now seeking re-election to a fifth term, in mourning; the state of Honeysuckle Roses, mulberry bushes and good old-fashioned Southern Hospitality, PASSES."
We nodded off to sleep long before Wisconsin and Wyoming and the next morning read the headlines in the Albany Times Union:
IT'S KENNEDY!
Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!
And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.
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Joe Biden Says . . .
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Aug. 23rd, 2008 @ 10:48 am
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The dangers of picking a former opponent as a running mate:
Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!
And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.
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Is Hillary the New Number 2?
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Aug. 22nd, 2008 @ 09:32 am
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If so, WHO IS NUMBER ONE?
Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!
And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.
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A Summer Night
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Aug. 3rd, 2008 @ 10:13 am
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We're in the post-season now for the Amsterdam Mohawks of the New York College League, a high-quality baseball league that keeps the college players in shape and shows off their talents to professional baseball scouts.
This has been a wonderful thing for our city over the last several years, and has been the catalyst for the transformation of the old and run-down Shuttleworth Park into a dynamic sports venue reminiscent of its hey-day back when we hosted the Rugmakers, a Yankee farm team in the old Canadian-American League. Field box seats came from the demolished Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The "temporary" aluminum bleachers in place since the 70's have been moved down the first base line and replaced with restored wooden bleachers under the 1920's grandstand behind home plate. A large party deck looms over the field, and even a luxury box.
The program has been building every year and the turnout for this season has been fantastic. The other night I took Uncle Sy to the regular season finale, and there must have been three to four thousand people there for a fine game won by the home team.
The crowd is into the game, adopting these kids from all over the country as their own, even though the team changes nearly 100% from season to season. One section is devoted to the "host families" who give these barely-more-than-teenagers a home from a couple of months every summer.
Games, food, silliness, mascot, prizes, color, lights, cheers, jeers. It's everything that home town baseball should be, and it doesn't hurt that the team has been winning.
In the seventh inning everyone stood and sang along with Kate Smith and God Bless America, sights aimed at the flagpole behind center field, 408 feet from home plate, following that with a rousing Take Me out to the Ball Game, now celebrating its 100th year.
After that game came a spectacular fireworks display, perfectly aimed for the baseball crowd. In the background, between the booms of the rockets, we could hear a steady stream of Sousa Marches and a medley of patriotic tunes. Even with the distractions of the glittering sky and fizzles and crashes, enough of the melodies came through that people began to sing along spontaneously: America the Beautiful, God Bless America (again), even Over There!
It was at that moment that it occurred to me that those people meeting soon in Denver don't understand any of this: the chill that runs up our spines at the playing of the National Anthem, the pride we feel when the Junior ROTC presents the American Flag, the unutterable joy of a summer night of baseball and family and fireworks and friends.
It was then that I realized for the first time that in the end there is no way in hell that Barack Obama will be elected President of the United States.
Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!
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Photo Op
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Jul. 25th, 2008 @ 09:48 am
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There was some puzzlement about the abrupt canceling of President-Designate Obama's trip to visit wounded American soldiers in a hospital in Germany.
At first there were dark rumors, excitedly reported by Andrea Mitchell, that possibly John McCain had used his evil influence in the Pentagon to kabash the deal.
But, no, it turns out the answer is much simpler: the Obama campaign was informed of the long-standing rules about using military facilities as campaign stops. Senator Obama was welcome to come with his Senate aides, but no media. Only military photographers allowed.
What! No media? No photo ops supporting the troops? FORGET IT.
I'm rather sure our wounded aren't weeping over the loss, but still . . .
Compare and contrast the much-maligned President Bush who shut out the media and spent hours talking to the families of the 9/11 victims, or two months later when he waited until the cameras were off to greet the workers at Ground Zero. We were told that the president would take as much time as necessary to speak to any and all who wished to speak to him. He made it about us, not about him.
They used to call that class. And character.
Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!
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Today's Joke
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Jul. 16th, 2008 @ 04:34 pm
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Jesse Jackson dies and goes to heaven and his greeted by St. Peter himself.
"Welcome to heaven, Reverend Jackson! You'll be happy to know that you have finally reached a society where everyone is equal in every respect and treated with absolute dignity."
"That's wonderful," says Jackson sincerely.
So St. Peter gives him the tour, showing him all the houses, all wonderful and all equal if not identical. They see the golf course where black and white, yellow and red and brown are all playing together pleasantly. There are basketball courts and seashores and mountain tops and parks with every kind of flower and color. It is paradise.
By and by they reach a cafeteria with every kind of food imaginable, all perfectly prepared and beautiful, and a line of patient heaven residents each waiting his turn cheerfully.
Suddenly a moderately black man with big ears comes in and pushes and shoves his way to the front of the line, grabs a tray, fills up and leaves.
"I thought you said everyone's equal?" asks the Reverend Jackson quizzically.
"Oh, pay no attention," says St. Peter. "That's just God. He thinks he's Barack Obama."
Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!
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DRILL!
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Jun. 21st, 2008 @ 09:33 am
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Looks like McCain latched onto a winning issue this time. While the Democrats are muttering about nationalization of oil company refineries, meanwhile doing everything they can to make sure new refineries aren't built, John McCain abruptly announced his approval of lifting the ban on off-shore drilling.
Pooh-pooh, say the Democrats, who actually favor the elimination of petroleum products.
BANG-ZOOM TRIP TO THE MOON says the latest Zogby poll.
74% of likely voters FAVOR off-shore oil drilling, including 90% of Republicans, 58% of Democrats and 75% of independents.
Says Zogby:
One in four likely voters (25%) said they would be more likely to vote for McCain if they knew that as president he would support off-shore drilling in U.S. coastal waters just 4% said McCains support for off-shore drilling would make him less likely to win their vote, while 57% said it made no difference and 15% were unsure. When undecided likely voters were asked about how likely they would be to support McCain if he favored drilling in ANWR, 23% would be more likely, while nearly as many (21%) said it would make them less likely to vote for McCain. Another 43% of likely voters said it would make no difference if McCain supported drilling in ANWR while 14% were undecided. McCain recently restated his opposition to drilling in ANWR, but has dropped his opposition to lifting the moratorium on off-shore drilling along Americas coasts. Among undecided likely voters, 78% support off-shore drilling and 58% support drilling in ANWR. The vast majority of those likely voters who intend to vote for Republican John McCain in November support both drilling off-shore for oil in U.S. coastal waters (91%) and drilling for oil in ANWR (82%). While just over a third (37%) of those who plan to vote for Democrat Barack Obama support drilling in ANWR, more than half (58%) of likely voters who favor Obama said they support off-shore drilling.
Thanks to my people at Zogby for passing this along.
Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed
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Hitlery!
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May. 20th, 2008 @ 01:37 pm
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Language alert!
But otherwise please enjoy this artistic view of the presidential campaign.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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This is a VP Contender?
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 05:30 pm
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Is there a bigger horse's ass in the political world today than Mike Huckabee?
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McCain the Warm Monger
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May. 12th, 2008 @ 07:57 pm
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Much as I would like to take credit, once again the great Mark Steyn has created a memorable phrase: "warm monger".
Now that John McCain has bought into this global warming baloney hook, line and sinker (just when scientists are saying uh, well, you see, it turns out that the world hasn't gotten any warmer in the last decade) and now has a plan to bankrupt the world economy in order to be stylish, he'd better hope that he can come up with some reason for folks like me to vote for him just before November. Personally I'm getting a little tired of his constant reminders of why he shouldn't be president.
Because of his personal history, and good positions on some things that matter to me, I am willing to forgive much. But the pile of much is getting higher and higher.
Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed
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Jindal
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May. 5th, 2008 @ 03:24 pm
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The boomlet for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal for Vice President obviously got a big boost from his National Press Club appearance last week, where he came off as serious (though not without wit), thoughtful and fully in command of his subject matter, and evinced a maturity way beyond his 36 years. Roughly half the age of McCain, he would provide the GOP presidential candidate with not only youth, but a thoroughly acceptable conservative for his running mate.
But much as I would like to see such talent rewarded and placed on the fast track for greatness, I am opposed.
Look, in general we don't do too badly electing conservatives, at least for most of the last forty years. It's getting them to GOVERN as conservatives that is the problem. We have conservative think tanks, conservative scholars, conservative columnists and talk show hosts espousing conservative positions and conservative ideology, and yet finding actual conservative policies implemented without having been compromised beyond all recognition is rare indeed.
Bobby Jindal has been handed the most exciting laboratory for conservative governance that we are likely to see in our lifetimes. The opportunity to rebuild a state, and particularly the city of New Orleans, will give him a chance to do everything right with essentially a clean slate and a political mandate that will help handcuff many of the special interests. The people are demanding action, and he has the strength, the wisdom, the brains, the character and the philosophy to make it happen.
Give that man eight years and I predict that he will go all the way, the first transforming politician of this century.
Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed
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The Derby
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May. 4th, 2008 @ 07:50 am
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I guess Hillary's advice to bet the filly now has some ominous foreshadowing overtones.
Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed
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The New Jedi
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Apr. 12th, 2008 @ 07:55 am
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Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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New York, New York!
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Mar. 30th, 2008 @ 12:49 am
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I've been busy reading books like crazy, and during my neglect of The Judge Report a number of interesting things have happened relating to New York State politics, or what's left of it, with some national implications.
Now that the self-flagellation has stopped from interim Governor David Paterson, we are suddenly confronted with the news that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani might be interested in being the Republican candidate for governor if there should be a special election in November. Huh?
Following quickly on that revelation is a Newsweek article theorizing that after she loses the Pennsylvania primary or otherwise drops out of the presidential race, Hillary Clinton might run for Governor if there is a special election in November. Huh?
(Meanwhile Dr. Dean, national chairman of the Democrats, is telling the party to get their act together with a presidential candidate by June).
Now, only a couple of weeks ago we were told that when the Lt. Governor is elevated to the Governor's office, he holds the title for the remainder of the term. The office of Lt. Governor remains vacant and the Senate Majority Leader is next in line of succession and here's where the OOPS comes in: supposedly if Paterson resigns or is removed from office there would be a SPECIAL ELECTION for governor (I haven't looked this up recently, but it sounds like that may be true as that is the way most every other office vacancy in the state is decided; the governor and lt. governor, comptroller and attorney general being excepted because they were elected state wide).
The Hillary! campaign of course laughed hysterically about all this, but who the heck has been feeding the press with all these Paterson stories while the politicos in Albany remain strangely silent? Have reporters suddenly found out how to look things up themselves or is something else going on? Or several somethings?
Now we have reports of a possible problem with improper use of official vehicles involving Paterson (recall we lost a Comptroller not too long ago similarly), the business about his former girlfriend going on campaign trips with him, the hotel rentals in downtown Albany for "early morning meetings" (some of which took place in the afternoon) when his residence is only about an easy twenty minute ride from the capitol (with a state driver and police escort available if necessary) and now his having funneled member items in the hundreds of thousands to a hospital where his wife happened to be on the payroll as a lobbyist.
The Albany Times Union is a house organ for the Democrats:
From a T-U blog:
Asked at a press conference this morning, Gov. David Paterson said he never provided cars to transport people while he was lieutenant governor or Senate minority leader.
“People rode in the car with me from time to time,” he quickly added before leaving the podium. Some reporters have been looking into the possibility of a chauffeurgate involving Paterson.
If Paterson leaves that means that three of the four state-wide elected officials who took office just over a year ago will have left office due to one form of corruption or another, leaving only Attorney General Andy Cuomo who now will be boxed out of his gubernatorial hopes by Hillary Clinton.
Wow.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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Obama/Wright
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Mar. 21st, 2008 @ 07:26 am
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Much has been written about Mr. Obama's reply to his critics the other day about the incendiary words of his minister. It has been practically the only topic in the presidential campaign this week. Peggy Noonan has an interesting take on it in today's WSJ.
I suppose it's a good thing that quite a few of the commentators rushed to the conclusion that Rev. Wright, having been raised in the North, could not have experienced personally the evils of segregation, and that therefore his hyperbole has a tint of cynicism to it.
I say it's probably a good thing, because it at least recognizes that the old ways were bad, which is a start. But to say that the sin of racial prejudice was limited to the Old South is historically ridiculous.
Sure, we didn't have overt, state-sponsored racial separation, such as "colored only" drinking fountains and bathrooms, but until the public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Law of 1964, businesses were free to discriminate against blacks, and did so freely, everywhere. There were motels and restaurants and bars in this town that would not serve Negroes and the only debate consisted of, "It's too bad, but what can they do? They'd lose all their business otherwise. You can't force people to love one another."
Somewhere on this blog I told the story of my mother taking us to a shoe store in downtown Albany in the summer of 1956, getting ready to go back to school, or, in my case, enter school for the first time. I can still smell the leather and see in my mind's eye the lady who waited on us, probably in her forties with her hair in a bun and wearing a gray print dress. While I sat in the chair a young black lad, maybe twelve or so, examined a pair of shoes.
"How much are these?" he asked the gray lady.
She flustered and sputtered and finally said nervously, "Oh, those aren't available to the public."
Public. That's a new word. I figured out what it meant.
Public means Negroes.
A few weeks later they taught me the Pledge of Allegiance. I puzzled over "to the Republic for which it stands" for a long time.
*******
Things changed, of course, and we forget.
Then one day in the 1990's I was sitting on the City Court bench on a busy Tuesday when a small young black woman came before me charged with disorderly conduct. She had allegedly thrown an ashtray across the room in a local diner. She promptly pled guilty.
"Tell me what happened in your own words," I muttered pro forma.
She hesitated. "The guy behind the counter laughed at me and said, 'We don't serve niggers here.' So I picked up the ashtray and threw it. That's all."
She burst into tears.
"When is it gonna stop, Judge Going? When is it gonna stop?"
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Interesting Poll Figures
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Mar. 7th, 2008 @ 02:17 pm
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My people at Zogby have sent me their latest polling results on different nuances of the presidential election, and the perceptions expressed look pretty good for McCain, a pretty much known quantity at this stage of his career, and pretty bad for Hillary on many counts. Obama holds his own for now. Not sure if he'll still be holding as much eight months from now when the bloom is off the rose. Here's Zogby's release:
As concerns grow that the U.S. may be facing a recession, likely voters view Hillary Clinton (26%) and John McCain (25%) as the presidential candidates who could best handle the economy, just edging out Barack Obama ( 21%), a recent Zogby International telephone poll shows. Among Democrats, nearly half (48%) believe Clinton would best handle the economy, compared with 35% who believe Obama would do a better job. On the issue of leadership, McCain and Obama receive near equal support - 34% believe McCain would be best at providing meaningful leadership to the country, while 33% said the same of Obama. Just 16% said Clinton would be best at leading the country. Among Democrats, more than half believe Obama would be the best leader (55%), while half as many (27%) said the same of Clinton. Republicans overwhelmingly view McCain as the candidate best positioned to lead the country (63%), while independents give a slight edge to Obama (33%) over McCain (30%) - half as many independents (16%) view Clinton as the best leader. Obama comes out far ahead when respondents were asked which candidate would be best at unifying the country - 42% chose Obama, while 25% picked McCain and 13% said Clinton would best at bringing the country together. Democrats overwhelmingly chose Obama (61%) over Clinton (23%) as the candidate they identify with unity. While 44% of Republicans said McCain would be best at unifying the county, nearly half as many 19% believe Obama would be best - just 3% of Republicans believe Clinton would be the best candidate to unify the country. The Zogby International telephone poll of 1,026 likely voters nationwide was conducted Feb. 22-23, 2008, and carries a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points. The survey was conducted before Republican Mike Huckabee exited the race following the March 4 primaries, and included candidate choices of Huckabee, Democrat Mike Gravel and Republican Ron Paul, as well as Clinton, Obama and McCain. A Zogby International poll in May, 2007 found 82% of likely voters believe American needs a president who is a competent manager. But even as the field of potential candidates has narrowed, likely voters are divided on which of the leading candidates would do the best job competently managing the federal government - McCain was seen as the most competent manager by 30%, while 25% chose Clinton and 22% picked Obama. Nearly half of Americans - 46% - believe the Iraq war would be best handled under a McCain presidency, while fewer than half as many would prefer Obama's (23%) or Clinton's (18%) leadership when it comes to the war. McCain is an even stronger favorite on the issue of combating terrorism - 49% believe McCain could best combat terrorism, while 21% said the same for Obama and just 14% believe Clinton would do the best job. John McCain also bests his potential Democratic opponents when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration - nearly one in three Americans (32%) believe McCain would best handle this issue, though 22% favor Obama and 16% Clinton. | Which presidential candidate you think would best handle... | | | | | | | | | The economy | | | | | | | | | The Iraq war | | | | | | | | | Combating terrorism | | | | | | | | | Improving education | | | | | | | | | Improving access to affordable, quality health care | | | | | | | | | Solving problems with illegal immigration | | | | | | | | | Providing meaningful leadership to the country | | | | | | | | | Unifying the country | | | | | | | | | Competently managing the federal government | | | | | | | | Both Clinton and Obama have highlighted health care reform in their campaigns, but more Americans believe Clinton (37%) would be the best candidate to improve access to affordable, quality health care than Obama (27%) or McCain (13%). The leading Democratic candidates are nearly neck-and-neck when it comes to improving education - 32% of likely voters believe the best job would be done by Obama, but nearly as many - 31% - say Clinton would best handle education. Just 12% believe McCain would do the most to improve education. As likely voters mull their candidate choices and eye the election in November, the vast majority said selecting a candidate who represents their values and issues (92%) trumps selecting a person they believe can win the office (6%). Democrats (9%) are more likely than Republicans (4%) and political independents (5%) to believe more strongly in choosing a candidate who can win. For a complete methodological statement on this survey, please visit: http://www.zogby.com/methodology/readmeth.dbm?ID=1284 Please click the link below to view the full news release:
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1462
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Wait -- - Brokered Convention After All?
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Feb. 9th, 2008 @ 09:40 pm
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Mike Huckabee clobbered John McCain in the Kansas caucuses today, a rather startling event considering all the major players in the Republican party coalesced this week around McCain. Inasmuch as there is no possible rational explanation for anyone voting FOR Huckabee, I think we must view this as an incredible denunciation of the McCain inevitibility.
If this keeps up, maybe McCain WON'T have a majority going into the convention in September after all. If Huckabee drops out I can see Ron Paul suddenly start to win some primaries.
So, what if we have a brokered convention after all?
If that happens, my friends, I will be available.
Oh, sure, there might be some negatives attached to my nomination, but let's look at the positives first.
Being a virtual unknown, the other side will only have two months to dig up dirt on me. They would be wasting valuable time while I'd be busy capitalizing on the enormous favorable bounce I would get from my nomination. It would almost force the campaigns to be waged on the issues, and on the issues I win.
But to do that, we still have to cobble together a winning coalition of states and interest groups (I'm sorry, Jonah, but we still need to think that way once in a while even if we ARE the party of ideas).
Let's start with New England. The Democrats need New England, can't win without it. But look, my mother came from Massachusetts. I still have relatives there and in New Hampshire. I've actually been to all of the New England states. I might be related to the Kennedys. Most important of all, however, is that I am a lifelong fan of the Boston Red Sox. I've even had my picture taken with Bobby Doerr on two separate occasions. I mean, this is as close to a lock as you can get.
Aside from living in a Middle Atlantic State, I also have the advantage of having toured the rest of them on my honeymoon in 1978, and have visited several of them since. We have relatives in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and I should be able to count on my blogger buddy The Nightfly to deliver New Jersey. The Maryland connection is a little thin, perhaps, but my wife's great-grandfather was captured by the Confederates the day before the Battle of Antietem, though technically I think he was across the river in Harpers Ferry at the time. Still.
Head across the Potomac (I'm conceding DC, by the way) and I'm golden. All I have to do is mention my g-g-grandfather Frank Goodison and his incredible gallantry at the far right flank of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg on behalf of the Glorious Cause, fighting in the Second Florida Infantry, no less, in case you were worrying about Florida being somewhat un-southern. Speaking of Florida, I was against Fidel back when the New York Times was still calling him "Dr. Castro".
And while we're on the subject of the Hispanic vote as we start to head West, now would be a good time to bring up that ancient family rumor that the Family Going might have come to Ireland by way of Spain where they were purported to have been known as "Gonzales". Can you dig it? The first Hispanic President!
So that takes care of most of the Southwest. I'll also have some residual good will in Arizona, having been one of only two people in my eighth grade class to have supported Barry Goldwater in 1964. People don't forget that stuff.
A lot of the Rocky Mountain states have pockets of Mormons, and I have a twelfth cousin twice removed who was a Mormon, so that should be enough along with the normal Republican leaning of the region.
California. The Big Kahuna. Lately the Republicans have been writing it off, but not me. Not when I have personally met the First Lady of California, Maria Shriver! Now granted, there were certain aspects of that meeting that were somewhat unfortunate, but frankly, she owes me. That, and all those motor-voter registered Gonzaleses should help me squeek through.
I'm a little uncomfortable about Oregon and Washington, but maybe I could win them on the issues. In Alsaka we're gonna DRILL DRILL DRILL. Remember, pipe-fitters vote. Caribou don't.
Another Democrat stronghold is Hawaii, but my Aunt Polli Brunelli (that would be Laura Ann's great-great Aunt Polli, btw) went to college and married my Uncle John there, and don't think I won't bring that up. Besides, he's a retired Admiral and if there's one place they remember Pearl Harbor, it's Hawaii.
Going back across the High Plains, that's pretty solid Republican country. While I once spent a couple of hours at the Hot Springs, South Dakota jail, I was JUST VISITING. I've never been to North Dakota, but I imagine it's pretty much like South Dakota. In Kansas I have a secret weapon, my friend here in Amsterdam Attorney Doug Landon, who is a second cousin or something removed from the great Alf Landon, who may have only carried two states running against FDR in 1936, but is still a beloved memory there.
Oklahoma? Please! I can sing the entire score of Oklahoma!, and frequently do. Laura Ann thinks grampa's gonna take her out in a Surrey with a Fringe on Top real soon.
Iowa. Once in high school I knew the chemical formula for ethanol, which I'll bet is more than Huckabee ever did.
Those big industrial mid-west states could be a problem, but I think the residual good will I have in Indiana from the time I helped Notre Dame beat LSU could carry across the entire region. We have several relatives in Michigan and I drive American-made cars, and when I get to Ohio don't think I won't drag out that photograph I found in Mary's aunt's closet of Mr. Conservative Bob Taft back when he was a high school student in the Philippines and his father (later PRESIDENT William Howard Taft) was Governor-General.
So, in a short election cycle, I could conceivably carry all fifty states and leave the District of Columbia to the loser.
You're all invited to the Inauguration.
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What Next?
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Feb. 7th, 2008 @ 01:33 pm
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Now that there are no conservatives left in the race for president, there may be only one remaining option. I'm a bit reluctant, but . . .
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A Big Event
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Feb. 6th, 2008 @ 09:42 pm
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My baby girl Louisa cast her first vote on Tuesday and we are so proud!
Louisa with election inspector Ziggy Piurek
Of course, when I found out which primary she voted in I was forced to disinherit her and throw her out on the street with only the clothes on her back.
But I'm sure she understands.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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