Okay I stole some of this idea, but has anyone else noticed that the John McCain, Sarah Palin 'Joe-the-Plumber' or 'Tito-the-Builder' shout-out does not include Fred the Architect or Sally the Software engineer or Najib the Chemist or Phil the Physician or Arturo the College Professor or John the Aerospace Engineer.
This is another case where the Republicans are counting on class warfare to save themselves. Others, including many conservatives, have written that the GOP is painting itself into a corner courting middle-state, under-educated, small-town white voters at the expense of folks on the coasts and people who have more than just your basic education.
Yep, John McCain is following the Karl Rove class warfare scenario and hoping no one will catch on. He's hoping that one one will catch on John McCain's old fashioned conservatism is much harder on lower-middle class folks than Bush's. At it's core Bush had a bit of a populist streak which is missing in McCain's perspective.
Some have also written that the Republican party is rapidly becoming the party of the under-educated and knuckleheads. But that would be class warfare too.

Few people remember waaaay back when George Bush ran for President as a 'compassionate conservative,' with a center-right message of political conciliation. But after he was sworn in, it became pretty obvious, President Bush was going to be conservative and would freeze out Democrats and any other kind of opposition. Either he was faking or he was captured by conservative Republicans.
Anyway, we know that his plan to govern from the edge of the political spectrum just resulted in one of the most unpopular presidents in history.
Now it looks as if Democrats are going to win the presidency and gain substantial advantages in Congress, it will be interesting to see if liberal Democrats will repeat the Bush legacy, only from the liberal side of the political spectrum.

Okay knuckleheads. Despite the recent polls, en masse the American voting public is just to the right of center. It's one of those facts of politics politicians such as Bill Clinton and George Bush in 2000, hung their presidential hopes on.
Don't be surprised if in the last days of the Presidential campaign, the polls will squeeze closer. Occassional, low-information votes are projected to break that direction. And the John McCain campaign is setting the whole scene up with message of the day -- the Democrats and Barack Obama are coming to take your money.
And if Democrats sweep the map, they will have to realize that Americans aren't giving them a blank check for liberal economic causes.

Alan Greenspan, formerly America's most powerful economist and header of the Fed, to Congress yesterday: D'oh!!
As a note of background, our whole world economy is based on the concept of risk. Economists, such as Greenspan, have devised theories and written papers-- and even won Nobel Prize -- about how risk is incorporated into the financial system. When pressed on the fact Greenspan reached for a pink glazed donut and told the House Oversight Committee, 'Hey, we had one thing wrong.'
Turns out it was a pretty big thing. All those theorists missed something.
Here it is in a netshell: As Greenspan explained in one sentence, he and other economists have always worked under the assumption that banks and other financial institutions would always act in favor of the long-term health of the institution and their investors.
Greenspan, academics and government regulators never thought that banks and investment houses would act like plumbers with a $30,000 credit limit on their VISA bills and go our and buy a new car and a flat screen TV. Then when they couldn't pay that back, refinance their mortgage to the max on low-wage incomes. Someone please get Alan another donut!

Ok, I usually don't do goofy video but here is one from Ron Howard on the election.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/cc65ed650d

Arrrrggghhhh!! Back in the day. Like the 1800's when the United States was starting to assert itself as world power through trade, the biggest threat to the country around the world was pirates. We built up the US Navy and sent them our through the sea-lanes of the world to make sure the world was safe for commerce. At the time the biggest nest of pirates was off the coast of North Africa.
Now that we have been distracted by imaginary nuclear weapons in Iraq, guess what's making a comeback. Pirates. Now, off the east coast of Africa. The Europeans are scrambling to come up with naval forces to keep the seaborn theives from stealing their oil tankers. Funny, you don't hear George Bush talking about pirates. Maybe that's a good thing.

I am learning that egg-head economists are saying that 70% of the American economy is driven by consumer spending. I have also learned that consumer spending in September dropped 1.2% from the previous month, and that if those numbers keep over time that could mean we are in a fairly serious recession. (Of course this drop in spending is caused by people either maxing out their charge cards or some are getting smart about debt, you pick)
I blame my dear wife for this recession. She wouldn't let me go out and buy new socks. These numbers prove I should sneak out and pick up some new ones. Let the good times roll!

A new flurry of public opinion polls have been released, and it looks like John McCain and Sarah Palin's new agressive campaign style has had an effect. Unfortunately, it looks like that effect is the opposite from what they had hoped.
As the GOP pair caved in to hard-core party followers that they take on Obama personally with harsher, more personal attacks, polls results have showed that Obama's margin is widening. It appears that middle-of-the-road American voters are turned off by the increasing nastiness.
McCain may have activated the Republican base, but in turn that may have cost him the election.

Now I am ready for the Presidential campaign to be over. It's getting ridiculous. Both Barack Obama and John McCain are now trying to best themselves about who will cut taxes this most. I hate paying income tax as much as anyone else, but, HELLO, has anyone noticed that George Bush has left a monster budget deficit. Oh, that conservative George Bush who believed in low taxes and strong military and allowed the GOP congress a free rein to run up the debt, in part to pay for his war in Iraq.
Sooner or later all this red ink has to be paid off, and in the face of a monster recession.
Promising more tax cuts now is like buying a huge wide screen plasma TV and putting it all on a credit card . . . when you don't even have a job. Pass me another beer, Dude.

Stung by the economy, bit by bit over the past week, McCain has been slipping behind in the polls. Today begins the last phase of the campaign, the phase in which Republicans excel. When things get tough, conservative Republicans just make stuff up. Today's claims that Obama pals around with terrorists would be laughable, except a lot of people believe this kind of stuff. Sure the media is knocking the story down, but they will repeat it over and over and over.