Obama will Have to Play Dirty To Win. The Repubs Already Are.

The Republicans are already playing dirty---denouncing those who even dare ask questions about Palin and her background, while denouncing and lying about Obama. Obama will have to take off the nice guy persona and play just as dirty and ugly to win, I believe. Otherwise, the vicious Republican campaign machine will tear him up in just this manner, screaming about attacks on Palin and McCain as unfair, while delivering low blows themselves.

What would we end up with? More of the same, I believe. Palin's history in Alaska is noteworthy in that she rolled with whatever the voters wanted her to be. A true politician. She built a sports arena, still in the red in Wasilla, while she cut funding to the local library and also attempted to find ways to block books in same library that she felt were not in line with her religion. Sports over libraries. Attempts to curtail freedom by limiting reading material. These are signs of what she values and should be brought to play in the campaign.

What do I like about her? If she cut out waste and sent corrupt politicians packing, that's what I like about her. And that's where Obama needs to steal her thunder and do the same.

Obama promises change. But what change? What does America need? A government that works for the people. I really like one thing I have heard Obama say he'll try to get passed: heavily taxing corporations who outsource American jobs to other countries. I love that idea!

Obama needs to drop the war issue. It's a non issue now, virtually. The surge worked. Admit it, Obama. The Iraq war is virtually over, I believe. Iraq itself has demanded and gotten a timetable for US withdrawal. Now, let's go clean up in Afghanistan.

McCain is claiming Obama would rather lose a war and win voters, that he was wrong when he voted against the war in the first place. He wasn't wrong. The war was wrong. Let's not forget that. The war and the reasons we went, were wrong.

We're going to be in debt a very long time because of that war, and we lost plenty of fine young lives. Many others were severely wounded. But nobody wants to fail there. Fact is, we went and since we did, we need to mop up honorably and come home. The surge helped quell violence in that country. Good. There is no reason for anyone to pretend that isn't good.

I would like to see the US become less involved militarily speaking, in the world.

Energy independence is a pressing issue and should be the main issue of this election. It is also a number one issue in national security. We wouldn't have to involve ourselves in the middle east and other unstable regions if we were not dependent on their oil. Obama is meeting with that guy who wants natural gas powered cars to be the interim solution, to buy us time, while we develop alternative energy sources. This is a wise move. I'm all for that.

McCains' attitude towards health care reform is dangerous. He wants to give tax breaks, $5000, to Americans to buy their own and free up employers from providing health care. I agree that health care should not be a burden on employers. This makes it harder for American companies and businesses to compete and another reason companies outsource jobs to countries with universal health care.

However, McCain's plan would mean thousands more Americans would be without insurance. A lot of Americans have pre-existing conditions and would be unable to purchase health care privately. I would never be able to, due to my former mental diagnoses, which carry with a person for life, and because of my spinal cord issues.

A $5000 deduction would not help a lot of people, working low wage jobs, who may not pay that much to begin with in federal tax due to the low wages they receive. I talked to a man the other day who said his family's monthly premium has gone up astronomically in the past three years. They pay over $900 per month for health insurance. Fortunately his employer pays most of that. They have two kids. They must also pay copays, if they go to see a doctor.

The health care reform issue is a huge one for American families. When I went and got a ticket to see Obama in Albany, I was the second person in line for tickets. The first person in line was a bald woman. She was bald because she was going through breast cancer radiation treatment. She said she had worked at the dialysis center at Good Sam in Corvallis, as a nurse, but was fired or had to quit once she began cancer treatment, lost her insurance as a result, and she and her husband lost everything, in a desperate time when she was fighting for her life, due to medical treatment bills. She said it opened her eyes to the daily battles out there, for common people, to get basic treatment and to just live, when even suffering a broken leg can cause some families to loose everything.

Health care reform, energy policy, and jobs--keeping them in the US. Those are the issues of importance. Obama, take hold on them, offer plans to solve these issues and you're in, no matter how long McCain sat in a cell in Vietnam and no matter how many fricking sports arenas Sarah Palin built in Wasilla.

Alaska is a sparsely populated state. I loved it up there. But it's freezing winters with long months of almost total darkness and inaccessibility make it unappealing to many businesses. You can't expect Sarah Palin, as an Alaskan, to be against global warming and what that might do for her state, like opening up a Northwest passage, bringing people and businesses to the state. I would guess most Alaskans are all for even speeding up global warming.

Except, Alaskans, for the most part, want left alone. I heard somewhere Palin was part of this thought train and was interested in the movement in which Alaska secedes from the Union. It's big up there. I thought this would come up, but it hasn't so far. I wonder if it will.

I named a rescued kitten "Piper" once. I thought it was a cute little cuddley name. I don't think I'd name a kid "Piper" but you never know. I imagine Palin named a kid Piper after a Piper plane. Bush planes are very popular in Alaska, as are snowmobiles and guns and alcohol. "Bristol" was likely named after "Bristol Bay" in Alaska. But who was Bristol Bay named after? Maybe Bristol was conceived on a trip to Bristol Bay. I'll have to check the history on that name choice. Then there's the infamous "Trig" name choice. My guess is that is short for trigger or maybe trigger finger and I bet that isn't because someone has a fond memory of Roy Rogers' horse.

I think an effective campaign devising on Obama's part would challenge the notion that God goes with guns. It needs done by somebody out there. Common sense would concede that these two "g" words would not be found in the same friendly sentence. The notion that god likes guns is nonsense and the key to victory for Obama.

The nice thing about pet sitting for this woman is that she has massive numbers of channels available on her TV. I watched the Cobair report, for the first time ever today and couldn't stop laughing. He does take tiny bits and pieces of interviews from news reports and use them as he chooses. When talking about Palin's foreign affairs experience, he panned to clip in which Mrs. McCain said "well Alaska is really close to Russia" and used this as evidence Palin has foreign affairs experience.

It was my first glimpse of Mrs. McCain. Perhaps I'm sheltered, ignorant, and a tad apathetic.

I think she's a walking advertisement against cosmetic surgery. Stretched tight!

I'm only up at this hour of the morning (2:30 a.m.) because the phone rang, waking me. I thought "What the hell?" I didn't answer and then did last call return. I looked up the number on the internet--somebody on Main street in Albany. I called the number back. No answer.

Then, the phone rings again. I answer. It's some man asking why I'm calling him. I said "Because you called me, at 1:30 in the morning, no less."

He said, "Oh, that was my friend. He said he was just going to call for a ride. I didn't know who he called."

I said "Well, it was me and I don't know either of you."

"He was drunk," the guy said, "probably called the wrong number."

"Yeah," I said, "he probably did."