The Rats Are Abandoning Ship, Still

It might surprise you to know for whom American conservatives are voting. The American Conservative asked 18 conservatives, libertarians, and independent thinkers how they plan to vote and why. Read The American Conservative, The Right Choice?

By my count it was:

3 for McCain,
5 for Obama,
2 for Chuck Baldwin,
2 for Bob Barr,
1 write-in for Ron Paul,
1 write-in for someone I've never heard of, and
4 for none.

Not looking good for McCain.

Joe the So-Called Plumber's Plans Don't Include Plumbing

Sounds like Joe the so-called Plumber's future includes anything but plumbing. He also disses/snubs McCain in Ohio. Read FOXNews, Joe the Plumber Ponders His Future, but Dismisses Country Music Star Chatter.

Celebrity has gone to his head.

He and Palin would make a good couple, don't ya think.

If Obama Wins . . .

For some interesting pre-postmortem speculation about the future of our two great (NOT) political parties after an Obama win, read this blog, Boot's Blast, by "[t]he noted conservative, former Congressman John LeBoutillier - author of HARVARD HATES AMERICA - [he] writes strong - and unique commentary and analysis on all things political."

I hadn't heard about the alleged affair.

October Surprise Courtesy of Al-Qaeda?

Three suicide bombers mount a well-coordinated attack on an Afghan government building in the center of Kabul, a powerful car bomb explods at a university in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona wounding at least 15 people and setting a building on fire, and a series of coordinated blasts tear through India's volatile northeast killing at least 61 people and wounding more than 300 -- are these part of an October surprise courtesy of Al-Qaeda?

If so, who would Al-Qaeda favor in the presidential election?

Post Election Theme - Boundless Possibilities

And the pre-postmortems about the election continue. Read The New York Times, American Stories, that argues that "[i]n no other country could Barack Obama have risen so far and so fast. Such boundless possibility is what America once stood for and can stand for again."

Are You an Election Junkie?

Take this end-of-the-endless-election quiz, with questions mostly about who said what during the campaign, and post your score.

Bailout and Dividends

First it was reported that bailout money was being used to pay bonuses. Now read Washington Post, Banks to Continue Paying Dividends, which reports that "U.S. banks getting more than $163 billion from the Treasury Department for new lending are on pace to pay more than half of that sum to their shareholders, with government permission, over the next three years."

This is outrageous. Call your Congressman and demand that Congress rescind the bailout.

Throwing Good Money After Bad to Help Goldman Sachs

After a $123 billion bailout, will AIG collapse anyway. Read The New York Times, A Question for A.I.G.: Where Did the Cash Go? The article states that "tens of billions of dollars [from the bailout was used] to post collateral with other financial institutions, as required by A.I.G.’s many derivatives contracts." Goldman Sachs was one of those financial institutions. Wasn't Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. the former CEO of Goldman Sachs.

Me thinks that something smells fishy here.

What Goes Around Comes Around

Several weeks ago I asked whether it would be 40 years in the wilderness for the Republi-cons. Read this interesting article, Washington Post, Return to Grant Park, which speculates that after 40 years in the wilderness Democrats will have come home, ironically enough to Chicago's Grant Park, the scene of clashes between police and demonstrators during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The article says:

"In part, the GOP's decline is due to the Bush administration's penchant for headlong, unilateral military adventures. But fundamentally, the coming Republican calamity is a consequence of public anger at the economy that predominantly Republican perspectives and policies have shaped over the past four decades, in which the vast majority of Americans no longer share in the prosperity of good times and get clobbered when the economy turns bad.

Absent a governing New Deal coalition, the mixed economy the New Deal made, where unions balanced corporations and the government provided a safety net, has substantially eroded. Now, reenter, stage center-left, the Democrats."

It is almost karma for the Republi-cons, don't you think?

Bush's Twilight Zone

In the last post I asked what will we do without Bush. But more seriously, what will Bush do without accountability? From The Guardian:, Brace yourselves - George Bush will soon be free to do just what he wants:

"We are about to enter the twilight zone, that strange black hole in political time and space that appears no more than once every four years. It is known as the period of transition, and it starts a week from today, the time when the United States has not one president but two. One will be the president-elect, the other George Bush, in power for 12 more weeks in which he can do pretty much whatever he likes. Not only will he never again have to face voters, he won't even have to worry about damaging the prospects of his own party and its standard bearer (as if he has not damaged those enough already). From November 5 to January 20, he will exercise the freest, most unaccountable form of power the democratic world has to offer."

One thing Bush will do is exercise his power of pardon. An article in Roll Call found that Bush has issued only 157 pardons and six commutations of sentences during nearly eight years in office. The possibilities for the final round of pardons include: Scooter Libby, Senator Ted Stevens, Karl Rove and Harriet Miers who are still being investigated, two border control agents who were sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison for shooting an unarmed smuggler in the buttocks, Abu Ghraib soldiers, CIA agents who possibly engaged in torture while interrogating terrorism suspects, General Services Administration Chief of Staff David Safavian, and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Bush might even pardon himself.

What Will We Do Without Bush

One segment of the economy will crash in January, the business in anti-George W. (The Worst) Bush books. Read about some of the books in the genre, The New York Times, The Coming Anti-Bush-Book Bust.

The Pre-Postmortems Continue

Read, The New York Times, A Choice and an Echo, which argues that the Republi-cons failed to grasp 'the most significant new trend in American politics,' the end of fear, anger, and hatred as a winning election strategy.

Is The Presidential Campaign Like Milton's Paradise Regained

Read The New York Times, The Power of Passive Campaigning, which makes a comparison likely to anger the Republi-cons.

Republi-cons, Befuddled or Befuddlers

You may remember the post last week in which I asked how McCain came to select Palin as his running mate.

Well the first effort at the history of the Rogue Diva reveals that in 2007, Palin entertained top conservative pundits at the governor’s mansion and they were smitten. Read The New Yorker, How John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin and Washington Post, Palin's Love Boats.

But the question remains, did Republi-con pundits pick Palin because they understood that a pretty face can cause a man to 'discount the future,' or were they victims of 'nature's power to befuddle.'

And in 2012, will Republi-cons be befuddled or befuddlers?

Palin Has Gone Rovian, Now She is Going Rogue

Palin is a diva "going rogue" says a McCain aide. See CNN, Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says.

She is just getting ready for 2012 when she won't be held back by that old white haired dude, McWhat'sHisName. See Washington Post, Sarah the Diva, Looking Past John the Runner-Up.

Would you vote for Palin in 2012?

Election Countdown

If you are obsessed with the election, visit these websites:

• Polly Vote
• Real Clear Politics
• Pollster.com
• FiveThirtyEight
• Rasmussen Report
• Princeton Election Consortium

Let me know if you have a site to add to the list.

Palin Delivers Alaska's Three Electoral Votes

Even if the Anchorage Daily News endorsed Obama, Palin will delivers Alaska's three electoral votes. But would McCain be in a better position today had he not chosen Palin as his running mate? See The New York Times, Second-Guessing the Vice-Presidential Pick.

And take the new poll.

The Recriminations Begin

McCain hasn't even lost, and the postmortems have begun.

David Brooks is a conservative columnist for The New York Times and he is also a frequent guest commentator on PBS's The Newshour with Jim Lehrer. Earlier this month, in an interview with The Atlantic, Brooks was quoted as saying that Sarah Plain "represents a fatal cancer to the Republican party." In his column on Sunday, The New York Times, Ceding the Center, Brooks writes that John McCain would be an outstanding president, but he never escaped the straightjacket of a party that is ailing and a conservatism that is behind the times.

Another writer believes that McCain made a fatal error in turning his campaign over to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and that if the Republi-cons persist in the us-and-them, real vs. fake America tactics that dates to Newt Gingrich, "they are doomed to be the party of yesterday."

If the Republi-cons lose, will it be because they ceded the center?

And are they the party of yesterday?

Cheat Sheet for Key Swing States

If you like detail, visit Washington Post, Battleground Cheat Sheet, with information on nine key swing states, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Bailout and Bonuses

Unbelievable, Wall Street will use some of the taxpayer bailout to pay bonuses. Read Time, How Washington's Wall Street Bailout Will Boost Bonuses

Congress should rescind the bailout.