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.

Palin Not Ready to be President, Just Ask Her State Newspaper

The Anchorage Daily News, Alaska's largest newspaper, endorses Obama and say that Palin is not ready to be President. Read The Anchorage Daily News, Obama for president.

Show Link(s)

As discussed on the show today:

Regarding judicial retention in Florida, read this.

Polly Vote, which uses four forecasting methods to predict election outcomes: polls, expert surveys, quantitative models and the Iowa Electronic Market.

NPR, Post-Election Fears In York, Pa.

Why No Bull?

Class Today at No Bull U on WEBY

Listen to the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- No political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- Just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

NoBullU will be on air today, Friday, from 4:05 to 6 p.m. at 1330 AM WEBY and on line, courtesy of Cyber Smart Computers.

Tune in, call in, but only if you can handle the truth!

SNL Does It Again, on Thursday

Political satire goes where the press won't.

Bush endorses McCain, with Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond and Tina Fey as Bush, McCain, and Palin. SNL does it again, absolutely hilarious!!

Obama Won't Raise Taxes for Joe the So-Called Plumber, But Amy the Palin Hairdresser Better Watch Out

What is the average annual wage for a plumber? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean annual wage for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters in the United States in 2007 was $44,090. And for hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists it was $22,210.

But Amy the Palin Hairdresser was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone. That's equates to $592,800 annually. That's more than George W. (The Worst) Bush makes!! Of course, Amy hasn't screwed things up as much as Bush.

Ask the Parrot, Part Deux

You may remember that I blogged about PollyVote.com several weeks ago. I didn't realize that Alfred Cuzan, a professor of political science at the University of West Florida, helped develop the forecasting model and website.

Polly's latest prediction, Obama 53.0% vs. McCain 47.0%, with a forecast that Obama will win 354 Electoral Votes compared to McCain’s 183.

UPDATE: Professor Cuzan will be a guest on today's show at 5:05 PM on 1330 AM WEBY and on line.

Doomacrats And Republigrins

Who is happiest? Read Washington Post, A Happiness Gap: Doomacrats And Republigrins, to find out why "[s]elf-certainty is like a happy pill."

Is The Unholy Alliance Coming Apart

The modern Republi-con Party is nothing more than an unholy alliance between corporate interest and social conservatives, the former using the latter to gain power to promote corporate interest. You need look no further than the economic bailout.

So is the unholy alliance falling apart. Read Washington Post, Civil War on the Right, which says:

"For years, many of the elite conservatives were happy to harvest the votes of devout Christians and gun owners by waging a phony class war against "liberal elitists" and "leftist intellectuals." Suddenly, the conservative writers are discovering that the very anti-intellectualism their side courted and encouraged has begun to consume their movement.

The cause of Edmund Burke, Leo Strauss, Robert Nisbet and William F. Buckley Jr. is now in the hands of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity -- and Sarah Palin. Reason has been overwhelmed by propaganda, ideas by slogans, learned manifestoes by direct-mail hit pieces."