If It's Not The Economy, It's Stupid!

There is no denying the Obama campaign had a dismal week last week. It’s not looking any better this week as McCain’s polling numbers continue to climb. McCain has all but sewn a lock on Ohio and Florida and in polls released just this morning, Obama is now in a world of hurt in New York and Minnesota – states which have been solidly democrat in the past but now appear to be in play.

Yet with all of Obama’s problems, the right is still screaming media bias when it comes to Sarah Palin. Me, I don’t buy it. If anything, the media is helping the Palin effect seize the Obama glitter out of the campaign. The media loves Palin and it’s obvious.

How so? If those in the main stream news and my fellow bloggers really hated the Republican nominee for Vice President, they would leave her alone. They wouldn’t even mention her. In politics, even bad press is good press because it gets your name out there and people will remember your name even when they can’t remember the other guy. Three weeks ago, this country had no idea who Sarah Palin was or even how to pronounce her last name. She has had hard media attention since her introduction and now everyone in America knows who she is, even if they don’t like her. Now, I am not out conducting polls, but I am willing to bet all the money in my pockets against all the money in Cindy McCain’s pockets that in a nation wide sample conducted right now, more people would be able to tell you who Governor Sarah Palin is in regards to her role in the presidential race than they could of Joe Biden. Why? When do you hear Biden’s name? How often do you see Joe Biden on television? How often do you hear pundits and commentators and analysts and left wing bloggers and right wigned bloggers talk about Joe Biden? In comparison to Sara Palin – almost never. It’s all Palin all the time. Sounds like a new 24 hour network by Rupert Murdock.

The media is who jumped all over Troopergate. It was the media who ran with the lipstick/pig fiasco and it’s the media who are now jumping up and down over a stupid tanning bed. The media is not hurting her, they are helping her and the Charlie Gibsons and Keith Olbermanns and Lou Dobbs of the world either know this and continue with it, which I am more inclined to believe – or they are completely stupid and need to get their heads out of their asses.

The best way to hurt her is to ignore her. Nothing can kill a political career like apathy. Just ask Jimmy Carter and Bob Dole. But they – the media – won’t leaver her alone. And the more they cover her, the better it is for the McCain campain. The more she’s smeared, the worse it is for Obama.

What does the McCain camp need to do to win? At this point, do what you are doing and hope that team Obama doesn’t change tactics. You are doing what you are supposed to do, playing hard ball with a heavy bat – even if she does wear lipstick.

What does the Obama team need to do? This one is easy: Stop running against Governor Palin. You’re running against John McCain. Make this about him. Make this about his failures. About his record in the senate. Make this about him not being up to the challenge to lead. Make this about his misstatements. Make this about him saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong – make this about him making that particular statement on the very day the stock market tumbled in its hardest and fastest free fall since 9/11. Make this about McCain being out of touch.

Senator Obama, ignore Sarah Palin. And if the media doesn’t – make them. How? Give a speech similar to the one you gave on race, but make it about sexism. Make it about Palin – in a positive light. Tell the American people that you support a woman running for president. Tell them you want equal pay for women. Tell them you want reproductive rights for women. Tell them you want women playing in the NFL. Give a speech on women and how you respect them and how you feel they are the true backbones of this country and how you have more respect for single, working mothers because they have to juggle a work schedule with the hardest job in the world. Praise Governor Palin for all her personal accomplishments. Praise her for her great work she has done with her family. Tell the American people that she deserves to be where she is because she worked hard. Then instruct – order – the media to lay off of her. Once you leave that podium – never bring her up again. If someone asks you about her, turn it on John McCain and the economy.

Senator Obama, you are losing this race and you need to do something about it. You have underestimated John McCain and if you want to make this a good fight, do not let the media paint Palin as another Agnew or Quayle.

Governor Palin may be out of touch and she may not have the experience – but let Biden hit her on that.

Everyone needs to stay on message. Obama, McCain, Biden the media – and yes, even the voters.

Devil Children...

...and the parents who hate them enough to let them get away with everything!

I am so sick of parents who want to be friends to their kids before being parents. I work with the public day in and out so I have had many an experience in the heathen child destroying everything he comes into contact with and the mother looking at me saying how cute and wonderful he is.

Lady, beat the little bastard!

I also attend that same maternal one (or lack of) spouting how we should never spank children because it promotes violence and will do more harm to that child than good. Children learn to be violent from their parents. Children need to be loved when they do something wrong.

Bullshit.

For the record, this new-found idea of not spanking your kids because it turns them into the next Ted Bundy or Hannibal Lecture is, by far, the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Kids have been getting spanked since Cain and Abel - okay, bad example there - and the violence ratio has been probably better than it was, say during the Grecco-Roman empire.

Let me put it another way. My dad got spanked. So did my grandfather, and his father and his father....

I got spanked, too. And I deserved 90% of what I got. The other ten percent of the spanking that I received that I don't feel I deserved my mother to this day has a perfect response for: "Just think of it as you getting punished for all the things you DID deserved getting spanked for and just didn't get caught" Believe me, there were many. Far more than that 10% would cover.

Kids need to know boundaries. They need to know consequences. They need to know if they come over to Uncle Mateo's house and play with his very expensive stereo and it breaks, the belts come out. And thusly, so do the tears.

I am not a father. I will concede that right out. But I do believe I would be a good one as I someday hope to be. And I will spank my child when need be, because, out of love, I want him/her to grow up to be a gentleman/lady and have people just be in awe of their respectfulness. Parents who don't punish severely when need be simply don't care about their children to do it, or don't care enough about them to learn how.

Kids don't know consequences because they are taught by example not to take responsibility for their actions. Spanking simply teaches responsibility through consequences. The pro-switch people understand this. And there are FAR more people who are pro-corporal punishment than anti - it's just that the Anti are screaming at the top of their lungs.

Maybe THEY should be spanked, too - along with the little bastards they are raising.