080914 Last Word on this Election - I Promise

I could not do it, dear Reader. I had planned to do a blog comparing the energy policies of John McCain and Barrack Obama and then one each on the Democratic and Republican conventions. There is just too much political talk out there for me to follow through and subject you to that much more. Instead, this week, I will give a summary of everything as I await a train in NYC’s Penn Station and hopefully skip over all entries political until November.

Rather than an attempt to present the energy policies in a full and impartial manner, here is the crux of them:

John McCain has long been a proponent of alternative energy sources. However, has been opposed to using federal funds to boost ethanol production. This blog has already gone into detail on why ethanol production from current sources is bad for the environment and how it causes inflated food prices in the U.S. and food shortages abroad. Senator McCain held firm to his beliefs during primaries in the farm belt refusing to play to the audience by betraying the truth. He has quietly advocated for allowing more nuclear power as the Europeans (who the Democratic Party generally emulate) do. As for offshore drilling, he is a Johnny-come-lately, only coming out in favor of it when the run up in oil prices began to cause Americans pain. He remains opposed to drilling in the Arctic.

Senator Obama has given lip service to the need to develop alternative sources of energy. He has steadfastly opposed drilling until congress adjourned for summer then, when he could safely avoid voting on it, he gave a speech favoring drilling in certain locations, under certain instances, at certain times. He did not specify the locations, instances or times. When campaigning in the Midwest, he favored using federal funds to develop ethanol, then shied away. He opposes nuclear energy. The core of his policy is forcing conservation by implementing federal gasoline taxes to maintain a price above $6.50 per gallon. Oddly, he does not bring this up in his speeches to the general public but he has written about it.

The only event at the Democratic convention worth mentioning here is selection of Senator Biden as vice presidential candidate. Senator Biden has long sought the office of president and has the distinction of coming out of the primaries as the least offensive candidate from his party and little to no public support. He was also one of Senator Obama’s harshest critics.

The Republican convention gave more entertaining speeches highlighted by the two men I favored for the vice presidential slot: Rudy Giuliani and Joe Liebermann. Senator Liebermann who was once the darling of the Democratic Party is now in the process of being formally thrown out of the Democratic caucus. Absent from the festivities was Ron Paul, a man Ronald Reagan singled out as one of the few true honest men in Washington. The Republican faithful is about as happy with him as they were with John MacCain eight years ago when they wanted to coronate W.

I have to admit that, months ago, I searched through the national figures looking for a woman who would balance out the Republican ticket and could not find anyone who I really believed in. I did not look at governors and Sarah Palin was only in my distant periphery. She brings a lot to the ticket but I do not know as I would want to see a President Palin any more than I would want a President Huckabee (God’s favorite candidate), a President Romney (used car salesman) or a President Obama (disingenuous). After Rudy did not set things on fire in the primaries, it was too late for him to win back the favor of the party damaged by his “liberal New York” ways. Liebermann, besides never being able to pass the social conservatives litmus test, has the disadvantage of being in the Democratic Caucus.

Here in New York State, our governor by accident has had a long honeymoon which ended suddenly last week. After a long reign by George Pataki whose main virtue was that he had no serious competition and a short reign by Spitzer who led because he said he was better than the rest of us slobs, Mr. Patterson awoke one day to find himself governor. After accidently landing in the governor’s mansion he seemed better suited for the job than the men we sent there on purpose. Last week, he broke the peace by angering Republicans by lying about Pataki’s tax stand, flubbing comments to anger his friends and then briefly hitting the national spotlight by accusing Sarah Palin of being racist when she said being governor had more executive branch experience than being “a community leader”. I do not understand how “community leader” is racist code, as Patterson insists, but then I still don’t believe that “state’s rights” automatically means disenfranchising blacks.

Lastly, here are two statements fresh from the Obama camp. First we are reminded that Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilot was a governor. Secondly, it was made clear that the Senator has never called himself a messiah.