This is a great look at all of the fun things going on in Asbury Park. Not only are there people back on the boardwalk, but businesses are back, too! Plus, they are operating year-round in some classic locations. The video is posted below for your review.

Looks like there is a lot going on over in Asbury Park, huh? Here’s hoping that more good things come to this city, which has waited a long time for rejuvenation.

DO tell me why you are different that your opponent. One of Barack Obama’s biggest hurdles that he needs to overcome is the impression that he’ll have no idea what to do if he wins the election. Well…break that idea into little pieces by saying what you’ll do! And don’t give us the Kindergarten variety of “yes we can” and “change” and all of that horse shit. Tell us what your policies will be in clear, concise words. So far, the only thing that I’ve been able to decipher from Barack Obama’s speeches is that he’ll raise taxes for anyone making more than $200,000 per year.

At this point in the campaign, I should know more about your policies. From Barack Obama’s website:

Lower People’s Interest Payments by Creating a New Mortgage Interest Tax Credit: Many middle class Americans do not receive the existing mortgage interest tax deduction because they do not itemize their taxes. Obama will ensure that middle-class Americans get the financial assistance they need to purchase or keep their own home by creating a 10 percent universal mortgage credit that gives tax relief to 10 million Americans who have a home mortgage.

What does that mean? Why doesn’t Obama tell us how he’s going to pay for this plan? Why don’t these “new politicians” come out and say, “Many middle class Americans do not receive the existing mortgage interest tax deduction because they don’t care to learn how they can receive it. So, to make sure that those irresponsible Americans essentially get this free money, we’re going to create another gigantic government bureaucracy that will cost YOU more in taxes. That’s right. You get your mortgage deduction and you follow the rules, but we need you to pay more in taxes to pay for a program to help people who do not follow the rules. Sucks to be you!”

I thought the new politics were supposed to cut through the bullshit? And don’t you all get excited thinking that McCain is in the clear on all of this. Let’s not forget that McCain called Obama Jimmy Carter’s second term. Old politics at their worst on everyone’s account. Shameful.

Funny, everyone will say Romney is done for coming in second, but Hillary is fine with third? I’ll make this short, because Iowa only proved one thing – the Republicans are in big trouble.

The energy and participation is off the charts on the Dem side. It went up on the Republican side due to the Evangelical vote. That’s great, but it isn’t enough to win a general election.

The fact is, as things stand, the Republicans don’t have a candidate that can win nationally in 2008.

This is dead on target. Obama is going to turn a lot of the established Democratic heads with the amount of younger support and independent excitement that he brings to the table in this Presidential race. And as a guy who generally does not vote for the Democrats, I’m even excited about something new coming from Barack Obama – though I’m not quite sure what his exact policies are and how they would have a direct effect (if any) on me.

It seems that the Riehl World View post is correct and that Republicans are lacking both excitement and new participation. There really is no, “Oh my God, I have to go vote for this person,” candidate on the Republican side. The only one that comes close is Ron Paul and he’s more of an old school, late 1800’s/early 1900’s conservative (we call them Libertarians today) than he is a modern-day Republican.

While on this topic, I also want to comment that if you’re paying attention and watching the Republican race you can see that the voters WANT someone to be excited about and someone to be jumping up and down over. The majority of voters were disenfranchised with Rudy Giuliani going into the race and then they discovered Mitt Romney and you saw some excitement. Then the voters learned more about Romney and how he’s more of a return to politics as usual and you saw the excitement transfer to Mike Huckabee. Now you’re seeing some of that excitement transfer to John McCain in New Hampshire, but the fact still remains that Obama is bringing new and younger voters out to voice their opinions. No one else is doing that in either party, period.