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Posts Tagged ‘Senator John Mccain’
Saturday, April 11th, 2009
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich recently suggested that 2012 might be the year that a third party takes a big bite of the Republican Party. More specifically, Gingrich states:
“If the Republicans can’t break out of being the right wing party of big government, then I think you would see a third party movement in 2012,” Gingrich said Wednesday during a speech at the College of the Ozarks in Missouri, the local television station KY3 reported.
That’s no joke, folks. If it’s coming from Speaker Gingrich then you know this discussion is taking place at the highest levels of the conservative base. Conservative voters in America want something to vote for and everyone knows that what they want does not look like Senator John McCain (for better of for worse).
Speaker Gingrich makes an excellent point here and it follows something that I’ve been thinking for a while, namely that the two major political parties in America are too big and trying to serve too many masters. Americans like options. Right now, we don’t have any substantial options between our big political parties.
By the way, some third parties are already chomping at the bit to become the new political party of choice for conservative Americans. Some of you may remember after the election when I spent some time analyzing the voting results in my hometown. I mentioned at that time that the Constitution Party did relatively well (one or two votes, can’t remember) in one of the smaller districts that I was reviewing. Anyway, I received an e-mail from the Constitution Party talking about how they want to be that third party. They cite how they are the fastest growing political party in the country and after reading what Gingrich had to say and watching the flow of American politics on my own, I can’t say that I’m surprised.
Posted in United States Politics | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
A few weeks ago (right after the election) I wrote an entry talking about how voter turnout for the Presidential election was actually lower in 2008 than it was back in 2004. Well, there are some updated numbers out from RealClearPolitics.com and Wikipedia that show a much higher voter turnout in 2008. Here are some updated statistics regarding the 2008 Presidential election:
- Senator Barack Obama received 52.92% of the popular vote while Senator John McCain received 45.67% of the popular vote. This compares to 2004 when President George Bush received 50.74% of the popular vote while Senator John Kerry received 48.27% of the popular vote.
- In terms of the total vote count, Obama received 69,456,884 votes while McCain received 59,934,813 votes. This is remarkable because Obama won this election by about 9 and a half million votes. For comparison’s sake, Bush received 62,040,610 votes in 2004 while Kerry received 59,028,444 votes.
- In total, there were 131,237,589 votes cast in 2008 versus 122,267,553 votes cast in 2004. This represents an increase of 8,970,036 votes in 2008 than in 2004.
- The total voter turnout as a percentage of eligible voters was approximately 63%. This percentage is the highest voter turnout since 1960, when 64.8% of eligible voters turned out.
- The increased “youth” vote only represented one additional percentage point in the overall voter turnout. In other words, the youth vote increased by only 1,312,376 votes – certainly not the huge bump that everyone expected
So there is an updated look at the 2008 voter turnout in comparison to the 2004 voter turnout. The 2008 was still an historic election and there was a giant leap in voter turnout, but it is worth mentioning that the youth turnout was not as big as was expected – further proving that just because far-left, anti-war, anti-Bush college students received increased coverage during this election season by a liberal national media, their groundswell of activism does not adequately represent the feelings of their peers. That might be the most interesting piece of information coming out of the 2008 election…
Posted in United States Politics | 8 Comments »
Saturday, December 13th, 2008
How many times have we heard that the 2008 Presidential election was a historic contest? Probably enough to make you sick, I bet. Well, whether you voted for President-Elect Barack Obama, Senator John McCain, or a third party candidate I urge you to keep the winds of “change” blowing in this country.
This country is being confronted with a severe crisis and we are losing the battle, miserably. No, it’s not the economy and no, it’s not our place in international affairs. Americans are losing a battle in their own homes!
We are losing the battle for food.
New York Times op-ed columnist Nick Kristof wrote an interesting piece the other day on the topic of the next Secretary of Agriculture. In the op-ed, he cites Michael Pollan – author of In Defense of Food -:
“We’re subsidizing the least healthy calories in the supermarket — high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soy oil, and we’re doing very little for farmers trying to grow real food,” notes Michael Pollan, author of such books as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food.”
The Agriculture Department — and the agriculture committees in Congress — have traditionally been handed over to industrial farming interests by Democrats and Republicans alike. The farm lobby uses that perch to inflict unhealthy food on American children in school-lunch programs, exacerbating our national crisis with diabetes and obesity.
But let’s be clear. The problem isn’t farmers. It’s the farm lobby — hijacked by industrial operators — and a bipartisan tradition of kowtowing to it.
Kristof suggests that Obama rename the Secretary of Agriculture to the Secretary of Food, since it encompasses more Americans. Further, he suggests that we take a second look at what is really being accomplished for the agribusinesses that are bringing in these government subsidies.
I’ve read Pollan’s book and it’s eye-opening. I knew that there was a strong food lobby in Washington, but I had no idea of the extent of their successes. Did you know that at one point, the food companies could not name individually wrapped pieces of cheese “individually wrapped pieces of cheese?” Instead, they had to call them an imitation. There used to be a law against putting out imitation products and calling them anything other than imitations.
It’s shocking to think about how many things are no longer pure food and if this really is a time of change in American government, then why not change America from the bottom up – literally? Head over to FoodDemocracyNow.org to sign an online petition urging President-Elect Obama to choose the next Secretary of Agriculture wisely!
Posted in Sustainable Living, United States Politics | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
Senator Barack Obama has won the 2008 Presidential election! Congratulations go to both Senator Obama and his running mate Senator Joe Biden. The Obama/Biden ticket absolutely dominated the Electoral College map as you can see by CNN.com’s great interactive tool at this link.
Senator John McCain gave one of the noblest, most honorable concession speeches that I’ve ever heard and congratulations go to him for running a tough campaign. The awesome nature of Obama’s win will overshadow the rest of the 2008 results, but it is worth mentioning that while Obama/Biden dominated in the Electoral College, McCain/Palin received approximately 48% of the vote. That’s no small potatoes. In previous years, liberal extremists would have been picketing all over the country calling for recounts. I guess we’ll see if conservative extremists push the same buttons, though I doubt it.
I’m glad that the Presidential contest is now over and I’m glad that the candidates both addressed the nation tonight was in nonpartisan tones. President-Elect Obama has a huge job ahead of him (as all Presidents-Elect do) and I agree with Senator McCain when he says that all Americans should be ready to help.
Posted in United States Politics | No Comments »
Thursday, September 4th, 2008
Thursday night was the final night of the Republican National Convention and Senator John McCain gave his acceptance speech. While his speech was not as thrilling or electric as any of the other main players in this election, I thought he performed well. Senator Barack Obama’s speech was more emotional and Senator Joe Biden’s gave a great attack speech. Governor Sarah Palin gave a more exciting, electrifying, and attacking speech than McCain, but I think McCain telling the story of his Vietnam experience made his speech much more personal than the rest.
Still, his speech would rank fourth of the speeches listed above. But not a generic fourth, more like an Olympic fourth – you know, where everyone finishes the event within the same half-second.
Both the RNC and the DNC were good events. However, aside from the tradition of holding these events every four years, I think we’d all agree that there isn’t anything really “big” decided at Conventions any more. In fact, one of the biggest highlights of these events is that they signal the impending end of the Presidential campaigns!
America is tired from a far too long Presidential campaign. We had people putting themselves into the exploratory committee process as far as two years ago. Yuck! Whether we get McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden, I do not think we are getting the best that America has to offer. That said, let’s hope that we get the best this campaign has to offer and that this campaign is out of our heads soon!
Posted in United States Politics | No Comments »
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
A few days ago I posted a review for former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s new book, Real Change. Somewhere in this book Speaker Gingrich talks about the need for large monetary prizes from the government which will spur an innovation revolution. It would appear that Senator John McCain read that chapter as he is proposing a $300 million prize for the first person who develops, “an automobile battery that far surpasses existing technology.” From the article:
The bounty would equate to $1 for every man, woman and child in the country, “a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency,” McCain said in remarks prepared for delivery Monday at Fresno State University in California.
McCain said such a device should deliver power at 30 percent of current costs and have “the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.”
I think everyone in America would be willing to pay $1 for such technology to be created. But why stop there? Why not make the contest aspire to even greater heights and look for a battery that can be mega-mass produced not just in America, but around the world? This type of engine could breathe life back into Detroit and make GM the number one name in automobiles once again. In fact, if every American is willing to pay $1 for McCain’s competition, then wouldn’t we all be willing to pay $3.33 so we can create a $1 billion prize? I’d be down for it.
This is the type of innovation that will put America back on top of the leading edge of science and technology. We will, however, have to rely on foreign scientists and immigrant scientists to make these discoveries, but that’s another topic for another time. Hey, maybe if we can figure out this type of automobile technology we can figure out how to make math and science interesting in our schools again!
Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances, United States Politics | No Comments »
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