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I don’t claim to be a political expert, and I will be glad this will probably my last post about politics for a while, but I wanted to share my thoughts about why Obama won and McCain lost.

Obama stayed  on message for his whole campaign.  I watched his speech 21 months ago in Springfield, and his message in Grant Park was more or less the same.  His ideas are strait forward and laid out on his website.  He ran a brilliant campaign and choose a solid running mate.  His coffers were deep, but for a good reason, people really want change.  Put it all together, and he is a hard man to beat.

McCain led a disjointed, almost bipolar campaign.  It was very negative in tone, which I think turned off a lot of voters.  He spoke of how liberal Obama’s record is, but he states he is a ‘Maverick.’  Last time I checked, mavericks are not too conservative.  He criticized Obama’s lack of experience, but then chooses Palin as his running mate.  He called Obama a socialist, but then proposes a massive health care program and bailing out mortgages.  He gave us a lot of reasons to not vote for Obama, but no solid reasons to vote for him. With a very disliked President sitting in office of his own party, he didn’t have that much chance.   The tumultuous economy did not help as well.  He offered the classic Republican solution, cut taxes, mostly on the rich.  Guess what, after 28 years of trying, trickle down economics does not work. At all.  The crumbs of the super wealthy don’t make anyone rich.  Time to try something new, which McCain did not offer.

In the end, I think the man better suited to the challenges ahead won and America was able to put aside its petty prejudices to elect a black man with good ideas.

Well, that’s enough politics for a few years.  There are more pleasant things to think about, like how Glenn is growing up and challenging is with the terrible two’s.

Hey eveyone, be sure to get out and vote today.  I went out this morning and voted alreay.  I am glad I choose the paper balot, it was much faster than the touch screen.  (At least there was no line for the paper voting, there was one about 10 deep for the touchscreen.)  Ahhh, technology.

So, I don’t care if you a Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, or some other party, do your part and vote.

I am really tired of hearing the presidential candidates saying how the housing market is ‘broken’.  It is not broken, in fact, it is now working exactly like it should.  It HAS been broken since about 96 or so, with many years of divergence between incomes and prices.  Housing going up 20 to 50% a year with incomes going up 3% is broken.  We don’t want and can’t afford a return to the old housing market.  If you bought a home you can’t afford, I am sorry.  Home ownership went from a 100 year historic 60% to 65%.  Those extra 5% are what is the problem.  Many people own homes now who shouldn’t.  Let them be foreclosed and let market prices return to where they should be.  It is a hard lesson to learn, but necessary.

Another thing, with all the credit markets, yeah it’s screwed up.  You know why?  Due to all the deregulation of the last 30 years, we lost the checks against leveraging, so we returned to the problem of the 1920’s.  Borrowing money to invest it.  Too much lending, not enough making things to create real weath, not the funny money that is our economy now.

So, now we are just entering a phase where market forces come back into play and the weak loose and the strong survive.   Hey, I’m a liberal, but I believe in the free market with regulation.

Warning, More Politics Below!

With McCain, I keep hearing how he is ‘ready to lead’ and ‘tested.”

His arguments have no logical flow to me.  Some examples:

Standing on a deck of an aircraft carrier waiting for someone else to make a decision makes you ready to make a decision right out of the gate.  Hugh?  What?  So, since other people make decisions around me, I am more capable?

Getting shot down and captured and tortured in a POW camp makes you understand world politcs better.  How?  If you were a more competent pilot, you would of not gotten shot down.  Yeah, it sucks you were a prisoner, but how does that make you a more competent leader? It means you are a survivor, with lots of will, not a leader.

McCain blindly supported and continues to support the war in Iraq.  He never questioned or has admitted we invaded that country illegally and have no clear reason for being there or exit strategy.  He says we can win with honor here.  How?  I don’t know what victory looks like.  Our basis for invading was a pack of lies, so we can never achieve those goals.  Remember Weapons of Mass Destruction.  They were imaginary.  So, what is our goal there?  Saddam is dead.  The country is in ruins.  I’m sorry, the surge had nothing to do with less violence.  There reason violence is down is the country is now segregated and we literally paid off a lot of insurgents.  Many independent analysts argee these are the reasons why.

Put it all together, and I don’t know how McCain can claim he is better able to lead.  I just don’t understand the logic.

I added a gallery of Heston Steam Meseum photos http://blog.cyberphreak.com/photographs/heston-steam-museum/

Enjoy!