Griffin House at Station

After sitting through a long and grueling orientation session at OSU all day, where the only highlight was that I got to know a Finish Olympic hockey player, I had a nice evening in Springfield. Conor, Criste (his gf), and I went down to Station to hear Griffin House play , which was awesome. Too bad Melissa was in Granville and couldn’t go with us. She likes hearing him play as well.

McCain’s speech

I guess I am odd and weird, but I thought McCain’s speech was much better than any other speech at the Republican convention. I felt he tried to be himself again, which was a nice change. He mentioned that he and Barack agrees on much more than they disagree on and I believe him. John Mcain would probably be a very good President just as good as or better than Barack Obama, if it was not for the people he surrounds himself with. With Sarah Palin on the VP slot it looks like they will go the same road as GW (unless she is only on the ticket to increase the conservative vote and then will be stuck in a basement somewhere without any power). But, it is not just Palin, the advisors are the same and the negative advertisements are the same. I wish I could trust McCain as I did in the primaries, but right now I don’t feel like I can. With Barack it is almost the opposite. He has run a much better campaign than he has been a good Senator, I do not necessarily know if that is a good thing either. Maybe his short record in the Senate is a good thing... well, maybe not?

The RNC in general

After listening to many speeches during the Republican National Convention I must say that they did a pretty good job of turning me off from the GOP. I must say I am very happy that John McCain won the nomination and because of that I approached this convention as open minded as I could. Unfortunately from the start it has been nothing, but false and empty attacks on the Democrats and little news of what the Republicans would do if they were to govern four more years. The thing is that on Economic issues I often agree with Republicans, but when they describe Barack Obama and the Democratic Party as Socialist, which is what they do without saying the word, then I doubt their judgment and their knowledge since there is a BIG difference, trust me I am from Sweden I know. To me all speeches then feel so empty, but I am not voting and scare tactics might work for them yet again

What turned me off even more was how everyone in the line up on Wednesday and Rudy and Sarah in particularly made fun of Obama’s experience as a community organizer. I am not sure that it is the perfect springboard to the presidency of the U.S., but why look down on something as honorable as community service? Especially a day after the slogan of the convention was Service, as John Stewart pointed out?

Oh well we are now down with this empty party rhetoric (and I mean that about both parties) and we can look forward to the debates where flawed as they are at least Biden can ask Palin “If you are so against the Bridge to nowhere, why did you campaign for it two years ago?”

Other rumors about Sarah Palin

I think Ms. Palin and Mr. McCain might be lucky that the media is focused on the Baby story and not some of the other stories about Ms. Palin which are much more alarming. Please read the article in the Huffingtonpost for more details, but that is not even the entire story.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-silvers/the-real-sarah-palin-scan_b_123113.html

If this tactic is successful and the only story focused on is the baby issue what has in fact happened orchestrated or not is that Ms. Palin has given up her 17 year old daughter for the press to feast on while they overlook real scandals in Ms. Palin’s record. Those are some good family politics right there. In the words of a good friend of mine “it looks like Ms. Palin has a little too much on her plate right now to be running for VP.”

My Sigg

I have started to use a Sigg water bottle and I must say they are great. The water taste much better than from a plastic bottle and it is also better for the environment.

The water in it is tap water cleaned by my britta filter.

Saving the planet one drop at a time. And it is not much of a sacrifice.

A little more Bristol, but this is it…

Ok, I really do not want to Blogg about this Bristol thing because it has nothing to do with politics really, but since the main purpose of this Blogg really is to explain, in a fun way, U.S. politict for Swedish people I feel like I have to address it one more time. So two more points:

1. I do not think this will reflect poorly on Palin or McCain alone. On the contrary it will raise the abortion issue and show that the family is really pro-life not just say they are. It also brings the abortion question front and center which is always good for conservatives since 12% of the country will not vote for a pro-choice candidate and only 8% will not vote for a pro-life candidate (and yes I hate those terms that might be a later blogg post)
   
   The problem with the pregnancy is that it looks like McCain vetted Palin poorly and that it was a last minute panic decision. That raises at least two questions: One, are there more skeletons in her closet and more importantly two, what it McCain’s judgment when it comes to filling his future cabinet and appointing people to the courts? If anything this could be an issue. The McCain Campaign has of course said they vetted Sarah Palin extensively by giving her a 70 question questionnaire. I am not sure a multiple choice test is the best way to get to know the person who is a heartbeat away from the Presidency?
   
2. My other main point is how classy Obama was when he made sure right away that this would not be an issue in the campaign by saying it would not be talked about and even compared it to his own mother’s situation. This could lead to immense popularity among people who do not think this should be an issue, but chances are they would vote for him anyways. It is of course also a smart political move from the issue about abortion already addressed.

Now we are done with Bristol lets focus on the issues.

McCain staying put this time

It looks like John McCain will not go down to New Orleans and pretend to help with the hurricane this time which is great. One thing I think is important in a President is that they can learn from their mistakes and as the Federal Government prepares to do a better job with Gustav than Katrina, so is John McCain doing a better job with not creating a media circus in New Orleans as he did in Iowa when he created a media circus which the Governor begged Obama and McCain not to come to score cheap political points. Obama did as asked McCain didn't. Very disrespectful. Who said you can't teach an old dog to sit.