The only way for John McCain to win this election is to propose an economic recovery plan that will bring us out of this economic tsunami we are currently in. We are told the current economic situation is due to a squeeze in the credit markets, but that does not “register” with most people. They see the stock market falling, they hear about unemployment increasing, gas prices (although they have come down a little lately) are still way too high, they are just getting bombarded with one bad economic story after another.

In the debate last night, McCain unveiled a “new” program to stop the slide in home prices. The problem is, nobody listening to the debate heard or understood that this was a new program and that it may fix a serious problem.

Come on John, get with the program. If you are going to announce something, announce it. Don’t just mention it in passing.

The only way McCain can win:

1. Tie the economic recovery and the oil/gas crisis together. Announce a major X billion dollar program to fix the economy and get energy independence all in one, long term plan.
2. Announce that the moratorium for off shore drilling off both the east and west coasts is permanent. He will appoint an energy “Czar” that will have the power to fast track all the drilling permits so the oil companies don’t get locked up in the courts with law suits filed by the environmental kooks.
3. Nationalize all the off shore drilling past the 10 or 20 mile limit. In other words, once you are 10 miles off shore, the states have no jurisdiction. All environment suits must be filed in one federal court. State courts will not have the right to hold up drilling permits any longer.
4. Give the states an economic incentive to drill for oil off their shores. Make it financially lucrative for them. In California, they are currently having a major budget shortfall. The Governor just came to Washington begging for a bailout. McCain should announce that California’s budget shortfall could easily be overcome with his offshore drilling plan.
5. Announce that shale oil recovery programs will start again and give companies incentives to extract the oil out of the shale. There have been some new advances in the techniques over the past few years, but because you cannot mine this in most states anymore, large scale testing has not been done. Remove all the restrictions.
6. Announce that Sarah Palen will head a new “Energy to Jobs” program. With her experience with this in Alaska, she is well qualified in this area to do so… one of the things she is actually qualified to do. All this new oil drilling will need thousands (maybe a million) new jobs. They will be needed off shore, but also on shore support jobs. Not to mention the economic stimulation in the areas where drilling will happen. Homes, restaurants, hotels… This will bring new jobs to new areas.
7. Use the T Boon Pickens concept to develop wind power over as an alternative to oil to generate electricity throughout the midwest. Put some teeth into the idea. It will take 8-10 years to develop and build, but this will also create jobs and get us off the oil fix.
8. Propose that the US becomes an oil exporter  within 10 years. Over that time we will wean our country off the dependency of oil, but other less developed countries will still have a tremendous need for oil. Once we no longer need so much oil, we can be the largest oil exporter in the world and compete one on one with the mid east exporters.
9. To get to this point we must bridge the next 10-20 years with alternative energy sources, until we develop the “green” sources like wind, geo-thermal, tide, solar, etc. To do that  he should announce:
   • Clean coal plants to generate electricity in the areas of the country that have the bulk of the coal, mostly the eastern half. We have a hundred years worth of coal underground. There is no reason to import oil to make electricity when we have all this coal.
   • Build nuclear plants throughout the country. The rest of the world uses nuclear, we are in the dark ages by refusing to use it. Outline the cost benefits along with the ecological benefits.
10. Announce that ANWAR is no longer off limits. Explain to the people just how little land is involved in ANWAR. Have Sara Palen take the credit for changing your mind on why we should drill in this area and how it will not hurt the environment.
11. Announce that you will have incentives for people to buy and convert automobiles that run on natural gas. Explain just how much natural gas we have and that it is available to drill. Explain how many other countries are using natural gas to power it’s vehicles and the conversion would not be a major event.

I have no idea what the above will cost, or if every idea is viable, but that doesn’t matter. It’s an election season, politicians promise the world and very seldom deliver. John McCain must sell  a plan like this to the people if he wants to be President. He cannot compete with Obama on most issues unless he gets specific.

T Boon Pickens is gaining real headway with the public with his plan and his ads every day about one aspect of his plan or another. I think McCain should do exactly the same thing. Every day outline his 10 (or 12 or15) point plan on how to fix the economy and the energy crisis  all at the same time.

Visionary… John. Do it.

Please. Go ahead. The media keeps trashing her and they have no idea how it helps McCain and Palin secure the base of the Republican party.

This morning, I saw Joan Walsh (editor of Salon Magazine) on Morning Joe and she mentioned something about “Sara Palin’s horrible interview with Charlie Gibson last week”. Even Mika Brzezinski had issue with that one.  Joan… the only people that had an issue with Sarah Palin in that interview were the people who would never vote for a Republican no matter what they say or do.

The more you trash her, the more the base loves her. The liberal press just keeps beating up on Palin and it’s obvious that they have given Barack Obama a free pass on the very same things. You never looked at his “record” like you look at her record. You never looked at his “background” like you are delving into hers.

Go to Alaska and dig up whatever trash you can. The more the better! No matter what you say about her, you do it in the condescending pompous attitude that makes the heartland love her.

Great job.

Come on Link! Calling Sarah Palin a “cocky wacko”. You are the cocky one, not to mention the most self centered non-republican in Rhode Island.

I mentioned in a previous post, John McCain was the only sitting senator to come to Rhode Island when Chaffee was running for re-election. Not only is it total ungrateful to McCain, he now is dissing his choice for VP.

He is really clueless though. He also said naming Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate is energising the Obama supporters. Has he noticed what it’s done to the Republican base? Oh yeah. I forgot. Lincoln Chaffee never gave a damn about the Republican base.

Note to John McCain:

The next time you are asked about how many houses or cars or boats you own, just say “who cares”.

Let’s face it, at this point in the campaign, any journalist is going to attempt to catch you in some sort of “awkward” position. The 5 million income remark at Saddleback the other day, admitting you don’t know how many houses you own, these are all things that are absolute gifts for your opposition. You should know by now that your “friends” who were riding with you on the “Straight Talk Express” last year are not your friends any longer.  I know it hurts but the sooner you learn this, the better off you will be.

Now, let’s get to the facts:

• Why did no journalist ever ask John Kerry how many houses he owned?
• Ted Kennedy Owens homes in Boston, Hyannis Palm Beach, and Washington DC among others. Why isn’t this an issue.
• What about Hillary, John Edwards, and all the other former candidates?

So, it’s not that he owns several houses, it’s the fact is he could not come up with a number. That’s the real issue.  But for the question to be legit, you would have to ask, how many homes do you have in your name, how many are in your wife’s name, how many in both names, and are their any in your trust, that you technically don’t own.

He should have just said, “the number of homes my wife and I own is not a factor in this race”.

John, don’t trust those media guys.

Can you believe it!

The first thing is, who really cares? Chaffee lost his last attempt to be re-elected to the Senate and promptly announced that he left the Republican party (who’s he kidding, he was never in the republican party, but that is another story :-)

The thing is, during is re-election campaign, John McCain was the ONLYsenator that came to Rhode Island and campaigned for him. Is there no loyalty with these politicians? If he didn’t want to come out and endorse McCain, then just keep your mouth shut. Endorsing Obama is a real slap in the face and shows the world just what Chaffee was made of.

BTW: His father was a great senator.

Barak Obama is currently on his overseas trip to the Middle East and to Europe. I think it is strange that all three network anchors are following him around over there like little puppy dogs. Don’t they see the bias here?

We have two people currently running for President of the US. McCain had a trip a few weeks ago and not one anchor went with him to the Middle East. If you watch the evening network newscasts, you may not even be aware that McCain is still in the race. There have been several polls recently that have indicated that even Democrats see a bias

What is amazing to me is the outward blatantly that the networks have in their bias towards Obama.

McCain, it appears, has finally realized that he is no longer the media darling that he once was. The networks were all for him early in the primary because he was so open with access to him and his “straight talk” message. Yesterday, when he landed at a campaign stop, McCain’s press people handed out press passes to the reporters that said something like “The News B Team, The A team is in Europe”.

At least they can keep some humor about it.