Obama on Letterman

Barack Obama was on Letterman last night, attempting to take some press back from McCain/Palin and to commemorate the 7th Anniversary of 9/11 today in NYC. He addresses the "lipstick on a pig" remarks as well.



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Reaction to the RNC

The republican national convention is in full swing in St. Paul, Minnesota with Joe Lieberman and President Bush both giving speeches tonight. The convention was delayed by a day because of Hurricane Gustav hitting New Orleans, but it didn't seem to do too much to hamper the spirit of the Republican party. I must say that the choice of Sarah Palin is already blowing up in McCain's face. First of all to all of these females who are screaming in joy for a woman VP, you should be OFFENDED about this pick, not proud of it.

Palin was picked not because of her political background and qualifications, she was picked to sway disenfranchised Hillary fan's and McCain seems to believe that woman are morons who will vote for a uterus in the white house not because the woman deserves to be there but for girl power. It's sickening. This woman has a 17 year old daughter who is knocked up and is making her go through with the pregnancy and even forcing her to marry the baby's daddy because she's that crazy about pro-life. How can people be 100% opposed to abortion in the year 2008? The woman who is going to carry a baby for 9 months and deal with the emotional/physical stress that comes along with that should have the right to choose. It's plain and simple. We don't blink an eye when we put our own kids in the line of fire over in Iraq, why should we make a big stink about early term baby's being aborted? She is against stem cell research which I will never understand. Don't we want to cure the diseases that have plagued our civilization for generations? Wouldn't it be great to give a new limb to an amputee, a new heart to a person who had a quadruple bypass, a new kidney to someone who has a failing one? Is this rocket science? How can people support someone against this?

Palin is a huge step backwards for our country as a VP and so is McCain. He is 72 years old and has had FOUR..thats 4.. battles with skin cancer! If his health fails in office, this woman who's only experience is 2 years in office in Alaska and being mayor in front of a town of 9,000 people, will get the keys to the country. Are people going to be that dumb? Say what you want about Obama/Biden but the two of them will do far more for this country than a "hockey mom" who has 5 kids to worry about, a husband who himself isnt even a registered republican, and a new born with down syndrome! Obama is up to 50% approval for the very first time on Gallop and I think its a direct correlation of how bad this VP pick is. McCain has shot himself in the foot and thank god natural disaster struck during the RNC. Its time the country gets the change its been asking for, for the past 8 years. Say what you want about Obama's experience but the bottom line is that John McCain has been in congress for the past 26 years and has done NOTHING but vote down party lines in every decision and bring us to the position our country is in now. Let's get some fresh blood a chance to stir things up a bit.

Palin named VP pick for McCain

John McCain has selected the Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his running mate for the 2008 Elections. The official announcement is expected to come momentarily at a rally in Dayton, Ohio. This is coming off the heels of Obama's historic acceptance speech last night at the final night of the Democratic National Convention.

Personally, I feel that a woman VP is not a bad choice to help balance McCain's image as a conservative old man. Unfortunately, I don't think Palin is quite the right choice to be this woman. She is VERY inexperienced as she has only been governor for a year in Alaska. The democrats will have a field day ripping into her as they have already unearthed that she is under investigation for trying to get her ex brother-in-law fired from a committee position. When she is debating against Joe Biden, she will be slaughtered like a lamb as he literally has 35x the amount of experience as her. McCain is already looking weak coming off the DNC and this pick will not help him enough in the long run.

Ted Kennedy at the DNC

Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, kicked off the Democratic National Convention last night in Denver. It was believed that this would be the first convention that he would miss in 40 years as he recently went under surgery for a brain tumor but he still made it and gave an inspiring speech. If there is one person to bring the party together, it's probably Ted Kennedy. Tonight Hillary Clinton will be giving a speech, check back tomorrow for video of that.

Reaction to Biden

24 hours have passed since Delaware Senator Joe Biden (D) was announced as Barack Obama's running mate for the 2008 presidential election. The official announcement took place today in Springfield, Illinois the place where Obama kicked off his run for president about 2 years ago. Living in the world of instant news these days, the announcement wasn't a surprise at the 2 pm speech because CNN broke the story around 1 am last night, due to some leaks in Obama's camp. So where does that leave us heading into the ever so important 4 day democratic convention in Denver next week? McCain was quick to denounce Biden as a poor choice and said that it shows Obama is not as confident as he may appear. The left wing media seems to be behind the decision so far, even though Biden's past is certainly sketchy. So who is Joe Biden and will this turn out to be a smart move?

As far as the other candidates for VP goes, Biden is probably the most politically qualified. He became a senator at the young age of 29 and has had 2 presidential runs himself (1988,2008). Biden is an ivy league scholar and a pillar of the democratic party. Biden's main selling points are on 2 very important issues that Obama really needed to win on. Biden is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a chief expert on international policy. Biden is very respected in the Senate and is even a friend of McCain's. Biden will be bringing 35 years of experience to counteract criticism of Obama not being ready. Another major selling point is that Biden comes from working class roots in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The battleground states for this election will be Pennsylvania and Ohio and hopefully Biden can get PA in the bag for Obama.

Unfortunately for the good, there must be the bad. Leading up to the primaries it was Biden himself who was Obama's biggest critic. Biden has stated publically that he didn't feel Obama was ready to handle the presidency. He also made semi-racist comments about Indian's and said Obama was one of the "cleanest, well put together, african americans he's seen." Both of these comments got him major flack and are already coming back to haunt him. Then you have his infamous 1988 presidential run where he was in a position of coming very close to obtaining the democratic party nomination. That was until it was discovered he had been copying speeches from British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. He admitted to the plagiarism and was forced to drop out of the race. His bid earlier this year ended even quicker. Biden does bring the visual of an old well established white man to the ticket which will help go up against McCain's image, but he is known to be long winded in speeches and doesn't always know when to stop. Biden once told a reporter he "thinks he has a much higher IQ than him" after being asked about his ivy league education. He has also stated that he loves to hear himself talk, and has spent much of his interviews in the past going on tangents about his family and personal life.

I think Obama may have shown a little weakness with Biden but there aren't too many better candidates that he had to choose from. I think the positive part about Biden as VP is that he is a fighter and will stick his ground in debates and on important issues. He is a roman catholic but liberal enough to support abortion. He originally voted for the war in Iraq but since then has admitted his mistake and has constantly questioned President Bush's actions. Biden is a family man that experienced a very big tragedy in life when his wife and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed when a tractor-trailer broad-sided her station wagon. While this event happened decades ago and he has since remarried and had kids with another woman, it could still make a great personal interest story to pull the heart strings of voters.

Only time will tell how Joe Biden will fare on the campaign trail, but with a strong VP candidate in his corner Barack Obama has made himself a well rounded force to be reckoned with. I'll have some coverage throughout the Democratic National Convention this week. For more information on Obama's campaign click here.