A musical explaining the politics behind California’s proposition eight.

Noticing a pattern yet? In fact, you have to go all the way back to President Eisenhower to find a Yankee World Series title during a Republican administration. On the other hand, since the 1920’s, Lyndon Johnson has been the lone Democrat President not to witness a Yankee World Series title in office. All in all, of the 26 New York Yankee World Series titles, 19 have occurred with a Democrat in office, while only 7 have occurred under Republican leadership.

We know that he didn't do any good for the Yankees

I think it’s pretty obvious as to why the Yankees failed to win the World Series during the Bush Administration. President Bush is a former co-owner of the Texas Rangers, an American League rival of the Yankees. It is clear that President Bush struck a secret deal with Bud Selig and Major League Baseball to keep the Yankees from winning. It is unsure whether John McCain will keep that agreement alive, but it is pretty reasonable Obama won’t.

Vote Obama, and the return of Yankee glory will usher in the return of American glory and economic good times. Is it just a coincidence that the last Yankee dynasty occurred smack dab in the middle of one of the greatest economic periods in history? It has been noted that Yankee ace Chien Ming Wang influences the stock market in Taiwan through his successes and failures. The New York Times Freakonomics blog has also noted this phenomenon as well as recognizing the influences that national soccer teams have on the respective economies of their home countries. A Yankee World Series win in 2009 will excite Wall Street and America and jump start this economy.

He may be a die hard fan, but what has he ever done for the Yankees?

If Democrat administrations favor the Yankees, they downright love the Green Bay Packers. The lone Super Bowl of the Brett Favre era occurred during the Clinton Administration, while the Bart Starr era Packers won two Super Bowls, and six NFL Championships during the administrations of FDR, JFK and LBJ. Green Bay saw their first three NFL Championships during the Herbert Hoover and Calvin Coolidge administrations. That’s nine total Packer championships for Democrats, and three for Republicans. If Obama wins today, you might as well go to Vegas and bet on the Packers for this upcoming Super Bowl.

The Chicago Bears may have won their only Super Bowl in 1985 when Reaganomics was in full swing, but they won six prior NFL Championships all during Democratic Administrations, from JFK, through FDR, all the way back to Woodrow Wilson, plus another two for the Republican Herbert Hoover. Likewise the St. Louis Rams won a Super Bowl for Bill Clinton and an NFL Championship for both Truman and FDR.

Now if you are a fan of the Oakland A’s, vote for John McCain. The A’s last saw a World Series for Bush the Elder, had a dynasty going for Richard Nixon, and another Dynasty for William Taft. Then throw in two World Series for Herbert Hoover, and an Obama victory does not bode well for the Athletics.

The San Francisco Giants haven’t won a World Series since back when they were the New York Giants and Ike was in the White House. They won once for FDR, but their other three championships were for Harding and Teddy Roosevelt. To finish off New York, the Mets may have only two World Series titles, but both occurred for Republicans, Nixon and Reagan.

Republican administrations also happen to favor a couple of NFL franchises. The Indianapolis Colts have won Super Bowls for Bush the Junior and Richard Nixon, and NFL Championships for Nixon again and Ike twice. The New England Patriots may not be favored so much by Republicans as they are by President Bush who has seen all three of their Super Bowls. This makes a simple sort of sense, the only organization that likes to spy more than the Bush White House is the Bill Belichick Patriots.

So, does you’re vote complement who you root for?

Historian Doug Wead started his speech with an open invitation, Republicans across the river, come back, come home. Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson recited his many accomplishment as a Republican Governor, though he did admit he vetoed just as many Republican bills as Democratic ones from his state congress. In contrast, speakers such as Jessie Ventura and Bill Kaufman denounced the two major parties, and Lew Rockwell went further, condemning not just the GOP but conservatism itself, finding both corrupt at their core.

Ron Paul's rEVOLution

Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform a bipartisan organization, noted that the GOP has been half successful, no new taxes have been introduced since Bill Clinton in 1993. However he criticized the Republican Party for runaway spending and a growing National Debt.

Across the river in St. Paul, speaker after speaker at the Republican National Convention heralded John McCain’s stance to either lower or maintain tax rates. However, a balanced budget, paying down the debt and controlling government spending were mentioned rarely. The most often example of controlled spending was limiting earmarks. That is a start, but in the grand scheme of a budget of trillions, earmarks barely make a dent.

At the RNC there was unanimous support for the Iraq War and the War on Terror. Mitt Romney complained about the “liberal” government and declared, Is a Supreme Court decision liberal or conservative that awards Guantanamo terrorists with constitutional rights? It’s liberal. This was in sharp contrast to the Rally for the Republic where the Iraq War as well as the War on Terror were both condemned. Key features of Bruce Fein’s American Renaissance included civil trials for suspected terrorists and recognizing that America has no moral or legal obligation to spread democracy. Ron Paul admitted that he found the greatest moral crisis of our time is the acceptance of preemptive war.

When I interviewed some delegates at the RNC, I found a few who actually approved some of Ron Paul’s constitutional views on the role of government, yet they disagreed on his position to end the Iraq War immediately. One particular delegate from Texas felt that Congress needed someone like Ron Paul, but he could never support him in a leadership position. This same delegate also believed that Ron Paul was a bit hypocritical when Paul would add earmarks to bills for his district and then vote against those bills, knowing that the bills were sure to pass anyway.

The Republican Party was not friendly to Ron Paul at the convention since he would not support John McCain for President. The Party required a chaperon accompany Dr. Paul at the convention. During the delegate roll call, delegate votes for Ron Paul were continuously ignored. Some of his delegates did decide to support John McCain at the last minute in a show of state and party unity.

Back at the Rally for the Republic, when I questioned Ron Paul supporters on whether the Revolution would come from within the GOP or from outside I received mixed answers. However, the responses did relate to how close they were previously associated with the Republican Party prior to Ron Paul’s campaign. Long time Republicans felt the Revolution was more likely to emerge from within the GOP, or at least they hoped. One supporter felt that for the revolution to truly spread across America, it would have to come from everywhere, the Republican Party, the Democrat Party as well as from independents.

I also questioned the supporters on their current preference for President since Ron Paul’s campaign ended a while ago. I could not find a single Obama supporter. When I questioned the Rally-goers on their feelings towards Obama, I was surprised to find that their problems did not come from his liberal views of domestic government, but instead they felt he was just another politician who could not be trusted. This did echo many of the speakers at the Rally who saw little real difference between Obama and McCain, both were just more of the same. One person I talked to was from Chicago and had been aware of Obama for some time now leading to his distrust.

I was also able to find only a single McCain supporter, though she did admit to being a loyal member of the GOP who preferred Ron Paul, but supported any Republican nominee. The rest of the Ron Paul supporters were split between Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, with one person planning to leave the Presidential vote blank on his ballot.

In the end it seems that while there is a great deal of support for Ron Paul’s Revolution, many of the Revolutionaries just don’t feel attached enough to the Republican Party to spend all that much effort calling the GOP back to its roots. The GOP itself just doesn’t seem to want a Revolution, and is happy running out candidates like Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain. If the Revolution is to grow, it will have to shed the Republican Party. Perhaps the new champion will be Jesse Ventura in 2012?

Unlike the other conventions, the speakers at the Rally for the Republic were short on political hacks and long on published authors, scholars and economists with CVs miles long. Issues were the key of the rally, from Austrian economic theory, to the morality of preemptive war, to the constitutionality of the Federal Reserve.

While your standard Republican loves to be compared to Ronald Reagan, the Reagan references were few and far in between at the Rally. Only one Reagan anecdote stood out. Instead Ron Paul was compared to Robert Taft by at least three different speakers. George Washington was also a popular reference.

While harsh words were not spared for both the Democrats and Republicans, not to mention John McCain and Barack Obama, the general theme was less about politics for politics sake, and more about spreading freedom and liberty.

Howard Phillips

Howard Phillips is the Chairman of the Conservative Caucus. The brunt of his message was focused on the numerous bills that Ron Paul had introduced to Congress that defended freedom and liberty. The crowd reacted strongest to pulling the United States out of the United Nations, ending the Federal Reserve and fighting against the formation of the North American Union.

Doug Wead

Doug Wead is a historian and author. His speech was the most GOP friendly speech of the night, as he called out, Republicans across the river, come back, come home. He started with lively anecdotes and jokes including a recount of the first time he met President, but then Governor, Reagan. A common line throughout his speech was I’m here to support Ron Paul, because he stood up for me in the national debates when…

Wead received big applause from the crowd when he mentioned that Ron Paul was against the War in Iraq from the start. The crowd also reacted strongly when he used the the phrase “give me the refuse from foreign shores” from the Statue of Liberty to remind the crowd that America is the land of liberty and hope. He dedicated a large portion of his time to the role of Big Government in supporting Big Business while harming small business and the common American. Government regulations are running small businesses out of business by making it complicated and nearly impossible to comply with all of the laws and regulations.

Tom Woods

Tom Woods is a professor, author and senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. His speech was the most energetic and passionate, and he held no punches attacking both John McCain and the Republicans, You are not a fiscal conservative if it is okay to stay in Iraq for 100 years and Barak Obama and the Democrats, Barak Obama’s foreign policy is more of the same. The crowd reacted particularly strongly when Woods stated that, Americans are faced with the choice between the stupid party and the evil party, and sometimes they get together and that is bipartisanship.

When Woods was not attacking the major political parties, or their candidates, he concentrated on attacking the Federal Reserve. He supported the Austrian School of economics, including their theory of the business cycle and added, And by the way, free markets do not cause housing bubbles and mortgage crises in reference to the failings of the Fed, and it’s artificial adjustment of interest rates that leads to unsound investments and eventual busts.

Grover Norquist

The theme of Grover Norquist’s speech was the unity of the Americans for Tax Reform, and Americans for liberty in general. A particular salient line from his speech in reference to liberty-loving Americans, it is not necessary to agree on everything, it is necessary to agree that everyone should be free. Norquist contrasted that to the Hillary Clinton coalition, temporarily requisitioned by Barack Obama, which could only get along as long as Americans continue to feed their tax addiction. Once America limits the tax money that they can spend, the infighting is sure to occur as each special interest vies for a limited amount of money.

Grover Norquist also cautioned the crowd that limiting taxes is only half of the fight. There have been no new taxes in the past fifteen years since Bill Clinton and the Democratic Congress raised them in 1993, yet government spending has been outrageous, and must be contained as well.

Lew Rockwell

Lew Rockwell is an author, editor and founder of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. His speech was mater-of-fact and he let his words and ideas convey his message rather than passion and excitement. His message was incredibly anti-Bush, and he also called for the rejection of the Republican Party and even conservatism itself, which has become corrupted.

Bill Kauffman

Bill Kauffman is an author of eight books. His speech was another attack on Democrats and Republicans, including both McCain and Obama. He spoke against the utter uselessness of political categories. The strongest reaction he elicited from the crowd was when he stated that Ron Paul is from 1776, and they [the GOP] are from 1984.

Bruce Fein

Bruce Fein is an author, speaker and a regular guest on various news channels and shows. He concentrated on the need for a new foreign policy direction, which he called the American Renaissance. Key features of the Renaissance will include:

• Bringing all military personal home, and stationing the military in America only
• Trying suspected terrorists in civilian courts with full due process and an end to torture and secret prisons
• Understanding that the United States has no moral or legal obligation to other nations or to spread democracy
• The United States Citizen is the highest office in the land, and that sovereignty lies in “We the People” and not at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Jesse Ventura (Photo by Agent Cody Banks)

Governor Jesse Ventura

Governor Jesse Ventura’s speech was easily the most popular and passionate at the Rally, second only to Ron Paul’s itself. Ventura’s main theme was third parties and how the Democrats and Republicans are ruing America. He faulted both parties equally in creating the national debt. Ventura urged the crowd to recognize that voting is not a horse race, don’t vote for who you think you will win, but instead vote your heart and conscience, otherwise you get what you voted for. Ventura went on to push Rock the Debate, a group whose goal is to open up the presidential debates to third party and independent candidates.

Governor Ventura eventually started talking about individual issues. He was met with a mixed reaction from the crowed when he mentioned immigration, as he favors a more open border policy comparing the border wall to East Berlin, while Ron Paul supports a closed border policy. However, Ventura was able to almost immediately recapture the crowd by expressing his support for the Second Amendment, even though he wasn’t a gun guy. The audience reacted especially strong when he stated that the Second Amendment was not meant to protect hunters, but instead was meant to ensure an armed citizenry that would be willing to fight back against a potential tyrannical government.

The Governor posed two questions regarding 9/11, (1) Why has Ossama bin Laden yet to be charged or indited in regards to 9/11 and (2) On the FBI’s website, when the Top Ten most wanted criminals are listed including Ossama, why is 9/11 not listed amongst his crimes?

Ventura ended his speech by mentioning his recent book, Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me and stated that if the revolution continues, not just in shouts but in actions, he would be there in 2012, perhaps implying a potential bid for the presidency.

John Tate

John Tate is the executive director for the Campaign for Liberty, and spoke only briefly to introduce the Campaign for Liberty video.

Governor Gary Johnson

Governor Johnson is the former two-term governor of New Mexico. His speech varied greatly from the rest of the rally. Where most of the other speakers concentrated on issues, political philosophy and calls to action, Johnson concentrated on what he already accomplished as governor. This was fine, except it led to a speech lacking in energy and excitement, and was more or less little more than a listing of his accomplishments, which included being a self made man, being very contentious with his state legislature, vetoing a total of 750 bills, more than all the other 49 governors combined and supporting Ron Paul. Johnson’s speech had the least effect on the crowd, though when he commented on his fight against the War on Drugs the audience did react with enthusiastic applause.

Aimee Allen

Aimee Allen

Aimee Allen is a musician who entertained at the Rally. She performed a few covers, and a few originals including The Ron Paul Revolution Theme Song, not once, but twice. She ended her encore with a Ron Paul request, “Universal Soldier.”

Barry Goldwater Jr.

Barry Goldwater Jr. is a former Congressman and son of Barry Goldwater, often cited as one of the fathers of the modern American conservative movement, and GOP candidate for president from 1964. Barry Goldwater Jr. spoke only briefly as his task was to introduce Ron Paul, but the crowd was excited nonetheless and cheered practically every line of his introduction. A particular notable part, was when he mentioned how Ron Paul had previous supported his father, Barry Goldwater in his Presidential candidacy in 1964, and how he was happy to have returned the favor and supported the Ron Paul candidacy this year.

Ron Paul

Ron Paul was obviously the highlight of the night. The crowd erupted in excitement almost too many times to mention. Ron Paul first recognized the crowd noting that freedom brings people together. Ron Paul shared with the crowd the reason for his Presidential aspirations, he wanted to be President not to do things, but to not do things. He next applauded the Rally and noted that not a single tax payer cent went into the Rally unlike the two Party Conventions, which received 16.8 million tax dollars dollars each.

Ron Paul (Photo by Agent Cody Banks)

Ron Paul then dug into the issues, starting first with taxes, Even a 1% income tax is wrong because it sows the seeds of destruction. He next admonished the public education system, noting that in history classes students are taught that the greatest presidents were the presidents who ran wars, Paul asked why not celebrate the peace presidents?

Ron Paul next moved onto patriotism, noting that patriotism isn’t agreeing with what the government want, but defending liberty and freedom. Speaking to the idea that socialists and welfarists often claim the high ground on humanitarianism, Ron Paul stated that humanitarianism is about liberty, not socialism or welfare or corporatism.

Moving onto foreign policy, Paul shares that he believes the greatest moral crisis of our time is our acceptance of the validity of preemptive war.

During his speech, the crowd prematurely broke out in chants of “end the Fed” not once, but twice before Ron Paul finally appeased the crowd and spoke out against the Federal Reserve. Paul declared that the modern government plunders from the people through taxation and inflation.

The crowd broke out once more in chant, this time “No ID” in reference to the National ID act that Ron Paul opposed.

Interestingly Ron Paul spent a few minutes on the topic of hemp, using it as an example of the government run amok. He noted that the first marijuana laws were enacted as recently as 1937. He also clarified that even though he does not support the war on drugs, as a physician he understood the dangers of drugs, especially prescription drugs. Turning back to the topic of hemp, Ron Paul stated that during World War II, the federal government actually encouraged its production since it was such a useful material, but then made it’s cultivation illegal thanks to the drug war. However, hemp still has its uses today, including as a source far more efficient for ethanol production that corn. However, thanks to the agricultural lobby, government continues irresponsible energy policies to placate big farmers.

Sara Evans

Sara Evans

After Ron Paul’s speech, platinum country artist Sara Evans performed for the crowd, there much of it dispersed.

Unlike the headlining speeches from Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin, Michael Steele’s was far more positive. His message echoed the theme of the night, Country First, and he built up John McCain, not by tearing down Barack Obama, but by showing that John McCain would do just that, put country first.

It was actually quite a challenge to be one of these opening speakers. They were not given a captive audience. The delegates, media and other guests were more than happy to go about their own conversations rather than listen to some of these relative unknowns. This makes Michael Steele’s performance all the more impressive as he was able to captivate every single member of the audience. It did help that Steele was not so quite an unknown, as the crowd recognized him right away and even started chanting “Michael Steele” before he began his speech.

Steele’s speech was not the only impressive moment of the evening. I was quite taken by California State Senator Abel Maldonado who used common sense life lessons he learned from his share-cropping immigrant father to promote free trade over high taxation. Maldonado first captured the attention of the crowd by refusing to continue until they recognized his buenos noches and return it in kind. At one point he invited Barack Obama to come work on his farm, Come get your hands dirty with real work. And on your break, sitting in the shade of my father’s pickup truck, he’ll teach you a little about economics. I think you’ll be a quick learner. Maldonado’s enthusiasm and genuineness was refreshing in a sea of speakers the crowd easily ignored.

Another notable speaker was Christy Swanson, a Democrat voting for McCain thanks to his small business-friendly tax policy. Swanson’s small business filters vegetable oil for restaurants while using the leftovers to produce B100 bio-diesel for use as fuel. She later remarked, Quite frankly higher taxes scare the bio-diesel out of me.

Back to “drill baby, drill,” A running theme throughout the night was energy independence. Practically every single speaker touched on the topic at least once. Despite its popularity, drilling was not the only option offered. Nuclear power was quite popular, as was so called “clean” coal. A few of the scenic backdrops on the stage included pictures of electric-generating windmills, not to mention a McCain advertisement or two. Alternative energy, renewables and conservation surfaced in a few speeches, particularly from Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuno who briefly broke down John McCain’s Lexington Project, a proposal for America to be completely energy independent by 2025.

Thanks to YouTube, you can now view all of these speeches yourself. However, it should be noted that they do not fully capture the atmosphere or the crowd reactions. But you can at least judge each speaker and their message for yourself:

Michael Steele: Country First

Carly Fiorina: President McCain’s First Term

Meg Whitman: President McCain’s First 100 Days

Luis Fortuno: Environment

Michael Williams: Energy Security

Christy Swanson: Prosperity over Partisanship

Ruth Novodor: Small Business

Elena Rios: Healthcare

Carolyn Dunn: Rural America

State Sen. Abel Maldonado: Growth via Trade

Renee Amoore: Overcoming Challenges

U.S. Senator Norm Coleman: Values

Anne Beiler: Prosperity of Spirit

Conversations with Delegates

I was able to talk to a few delegates prior to the events at night. John McCain was not necessarily the first choice for all of them, but every single delegate I spoke to fully support McCain right now, which is not all surprising considering they were selected as delegates to nominate McCain. I was unable to interview a Ron Paul delegate.

The delegates I spoke to are all very excited and happy with McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. The crowd confirmed this excitement with their reaction to her entrance on stage before she even started her speech. There were various calls of “We love Sarah Palin” from the crowd throughout her speech. The delegates see her as someone who will clean up Washington and be the future of the party. From their body language and other subtle nuances, I actually think that many of the delegates are more excited with Palin than with McCain, though I have no spoken evidence of this.

The delegates did not view Sarah Palin’s family problems as a negative, or at least as a political negative and thought these problems connected her with the average family, which is not perfect.

I brought up Ron Paul to a few of the delegates, and while some of them liked his constitutional views on some domestic issues, they rejected his foreign policy completely. They were also not so happy about his competing convention, the Rally for the Republic that occurred earlier in the week in Minneapolis. A Texan delegate I talked to thought that Ron Paul’s alternative views were needed in Congress, but he couldn’t support him as a leader or President.

Morning and Protests

After a disappointing lunch, Calvin and I headed into St. Paul to the MySpace Cafe to borrow some WiFi and wait for the convention to start. On the way to St. Paul we were forced to take a bit of a detour when an entire highway exit, the very exist we needed to take, was blocked off by a group of protesters who had chained themselves across the street in an apparent attempt to block traffic. Well, mission accomplished. I guess they were protesting cars? I’m a fan of public transportation, but that’s not the way to go about it.

Minneapolis/St. Paul

I am really impressed with these two twin cities. It is a bit weird to have two cities so close. I guess it’s not so different from New York City and Newark or Philadelphia and Camden, except these two cities are much closer in proportion, while my examples are major cities and their children offshoots.

But anyway, both of the cities were of impeccable cleanliness. The traffic was minimal, except directly around the convention. Despite an insane highway naming convention (seriously what the hell is with a highway called 35E North?), these cities seem like great places to live … in August. I just have to remember that damn snow for eight months out of the year.

MySpace

Once we made our way into St. Paul proper, we headed over to the MySpace Cafe to meet up with some MySpace folks, including their citizen journalism winner, Sara Pat. Apparently the MySpace folks were instrumental in helping Killfile, Viki and Miss Dev at the DNC access events and coverage their standard NBC-issued credentials were just not good for. So far they’ve been just as helpful to us as well.

More Protests

While we were hanging around in at the MySpace convention waiting for The OttO Show to meet us, the protest reached our area. Police lined the streets, we heard rumors that gas was used at one point, and the protesters eventually passed us by. Calvin was able to snap some photos. On our way to the convention center, we noticed a few smashed windows here and there, but otherwise the damage was minimal, and it seemed the except for a rash few, the protesters were peaceful and pleasant.

Mitt Romney

Getting into the convention was surprisingly hassle free, at least compared to the airport security I had to deal with the day before. On my way in I stopped to regroup with Calvin and OttO , when the crowd started cheering and an older gentleman walked briskly by shaking a few hands. A few moment later and I was pretty sure that was Mitt Romney. Calvin was able to snap a quick picture and we confirmed that it was Romney.

We initially went into the media area, where we met with a local citizen journalist of various projects who performed a quick interview of OttO for his podcast I believe.

The Convention

After wandering around the media area some more, we eventually made our way to the arena where the actual convention was being held. We came in at the end of Laura Bush and Cindy McCain speaking. As we took our seats a prayer was said, and the days activities were quickly ended. As some of the crowed dispersed we made our way on the convention floor to rejoin the MySpace group.

Miss Texas

Always on the lookout for Republican women to include in a potential, “The Women of the RNC” article/photo gallery, I noticed Miss Texas amongst the Texan delegation. Since Calvin was being delinquent in his photographer duties, it was left to OttO and myself to get a picture of Miss Texas. Unfortunately OttO’s camera was already filled, and we had to resort to a camera phone. Not the best quality at all, but I include the picture anyway. Perhaps at a later time I can find an opportunity to conduct a proper interview.

Looking to Day Two

Since most of the day one activities were canceled, the day was called early and I headed back to the hotel to write and prepare for tomorrow. Tomorrow’s activities include Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic. I’m exciting about this event and I hope to cover it in great detail. I’m especially interested in Minnesota’s former governor, Jesse Ventura who is scheduled to speak at the rally, and of course Ron Paul himself.

Part of experience is making mistakes, and then learning from those mistakes. The biggest failure of President Bush’s second term was Hurricane Katrina. Yes, government at all levels failed, but the buck stops with the President, and his administration took most of the blame. Contrast the events of Katrina to now. Government was ready at all levels, the warning was timely, New Orleans was evacuated properly and FEMA and the National Guard are providing the assistance that is needed. If anything the reaction was almost overkill, but it’s better to be extra cautious than not prepared at all. Mistakes were made in the past, but the same mistakes are not being made today.

John McCain doesn’t gain from the cancellation of President Bush’s speech at the Republican National Convention. John McCain gains by President Bush acting as a President and leader while visiting the Gulf region of Texas in preparation for the storm. John McCain gains from President Bush learning from past mistakes.

John McCain was given the opportunity to visit the Gulf region in Mississippi at the behest of Governor Haley Barbour. While Obama sat on a temporarily suspended campaign trail worrying about getting in the way, John McCain was on the ground boosting moral, taking in the situation, showing leadership and acting Presidential. It is questionable that his involvement helped, but the impression was made, John McCain was there, he cared, he was ready to lead.

The GOP may have lost a day of their convention, a day of speeches and words, but they gained a day of action and resolve. While the Democratic Convention was four days of extravagance and partisanship, the Republican Convention quickly and quietly went about the necessary proceedings and showed an outward message of unity, giving aid and standing strong in the face of potential disaster. They lost a day of attacking Obama, but gained a day of showing that when emergency strikes, the Republicans are ready and willing.

Laura Bush addressed the delegates at the convention asking for aid and help in the relief efforts. Partisanship was put aside, at least temporarily. Cindy McCain joined the First Lady on the stage and spoke, This is a time when we take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats.

Hurricane Gustav may have dampened the festivities of the Convention, but it provided the opportunity for John McCain and his fellow Republicans to show America that they have learned from the mistakes of that past and that they are ready to lead America now and in the future. That opportunity was worth more than a thousand speeches or a month of conventions.

What are the consequences of the lack of a competitive third party in national US politics?

We get to vote for the lesser of two evils.

Remember though, that we have chosen these two parties. There is nothing in the Constitution that calls for only two political parties or even the existence of any political party at all. George Washing was very much against the creation of political parties fearing the very problems that we have today would result from such partisanship.

It was only a little less than a decade and a half ago when we had a strong third party candidate in Ross Perot who was actually leading in the polls for a time. It was only a paranoid breakdown that led to his fall.

We are allowed to vote for whomever we want, in whatever party we want. All we have to do is actually vote for them.

Should the United States eliminate the Electoral College system and instead elect its President by popular vote? Why or why not? (Submitted by: dvcguam)

No.

The Electoral College gives a strong incentive for each candidate to concentrate on the political center, as the winner is often determined by the “battleground states” that are almost always “purple.”

If the Electoral College was removed, election strategies would change from trying to convert the moderates, independents and the undecided, to attempting to energize the bases to rally more voters than the opposition. Instead of candidates campaigning to the center in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, candidates would campaign to the extremes in Massachusetts and Texas.

The Electoral College is also a protection against election fraud since the outcomes of polls in states like Texas and Massachusetts are almost certain, and thus fraud would be of no use or very overt. The Electoral College allows us to narrow our monitoring to the battleground states where the outcome is far from certain and fraud far more effective.

Does the United States (and any other large country), as a member of the international community, have an obligation to help poverty-stricken nations in Sub-Saharan Africa? (submitted by Dom Pody)

The United States government has an obligation only to the people and the Constitution of the United States.

As United States Senator Davy Crockett once said,

We have the right as individuals to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.

Our government may not have an obligation for foreign aid, but we as individuals certainly have an obligation to help our fellow human beings who are in need, whether they live next door or in sub-Saharan Africa.

How does Hillary Clinton’s entrance into the 2008 presidential race most impact both the overall shape, as well as the final outcome of the race?

Hillary’s entrance is no surprise, and does not impact the race all that much, since everyone already assumed that she was running.

Even though she will lose the Democratic nomination, she will still impact the final race through her primary campaign. He loyalties lie far more in herself and her own campaign than to the Democratic party and she will not hesitate to play dirty against the other candidates, which could come back to hurt the eventual Democratic nominee in the main race.