I've noticed that almost every topic and subject matter now has an "Awareness Month". So, I thought , why not have an "Obama" awareness month?  Therefore, I am declaring that this month is "National Obama Is An Empty Suit Awareness Month". If you are someone who wears a suit regularly please be sure to carry an extra "empty" suit around with you this month in order to focus awareness on this important subject matter. Communities are encouraged to organize "Empty" rallies where you can donate an empty suit to your local ACORN chapter manager to be distributed to all the empty spaces occupied by the voters they have registered who don't exist. A spokesperson for the New York City branch of ACORN which is called the "Volunteer Organization for Mobilizing Indigent Turnout" (VOMIT) said today they have registered 500 homeless street vagrants as Democrats and urged them to the polls for Obama. ACORN executive Ahma Lyre, the Senior Manager in charge of hiding Obama's connections with ACORN said they would be happy to donate any empty "Obama suits" they receive to VOMIT as an incentive for thier indigent voter drive. In a statement released this morning, Lyre said the following;

"We need to work together as fraud inciters and scheming liars to insure that Barack Obama has a massive support network of stupefied homeless drunks,burned out drug addicts, corpses, convicts, cartoon characters and unverifiable polling data to prop him up all the way to the White House. He promised us that we would be setting the agenda for his administration and we intend to carry him there no matter how much fraud we need to commit. We will work with "President" Obama on reshaping this country into a social playground for our liberal indoctrination agenda."

So let's make sure everyone is "aware" this month that Obama's real record is one of radical social activism, alliance with fraud-manipulating community organizations and terror sympathizers, with a real congressional track of vote avoidance and lack of leadership.

By the way... Where oh where has Senator Biden gone? We've been hearing a lot lately from the media about Sarah and the allegedly hate-filled rallies full of rabble rousing peasants with torches and pitchforks..., but an ominous emptiness from the Biden front. Could he have been proving to be a bit of a liability to THE ONE? Have Obama's poll numbers been rattled by the nonsense from Biden's mouth? McCain should have asked him about that at the Debate.  I suspect Obama daily regrets having selected Biden as his running mate.
 
- Mike Silverman

Given his past mediocre performances in debates with Obama, I think Senator McCain needs a little help in coming up with a kicker of a sound bite that will echo all the way through to election day. Here are my 5 kicker comments which I'd like to hear Senator McCain say to Senator Obama at tonight's debate...,
 
5.-  Denying your connections to radical community organizations? Oh come now Senator Obama, we all know the ACORN doesn't fall far from the tree...
 
4. - It must be a bumpy ride for your campaign Senator Obama considering all the people you've thrown under the bus.
 
3. - When it comes to negotiating with leaders who sponsor terror, it seems Senator Obama practices what he preaches, he has already sat down with William Ayers face to face without preconditions.
 
2. - Senator Obama, we've heard about your plan to raise the taxes of our nation's plumbers, you should be giving them a break Senator since your tax plan will cause more citizens to watch more of thier money going down the drain.
 
1. - You can call your plans for the country whatever you like Senator, but there's no hiding the truth , you can't put lipstick on a socialist.
 
- Mike Silverman

How much of a gambler are you?  A gambler who knows what he's doing never sits down at a table unless he knows the game inside and out, understands the odds, and is willing to lose his wager. A presidential election is like gambling at the blackjack table in Vegas. Except the odds on drawing a winning hand are a lot longer, and the stakes are the future of the country, not just the cash you happen to have at hand. The presidential campaigns are the owners of the casinos trying to lure you in. At the end of the day, one casino will close up for good, the other will stay in business.  You can go in and play thier games, but unlike the possibilities in a real casino, even if you win... you still lose. If you win by keeping your chosen casino in business, the casino still takes money from you.., it may take more than before, or it may take less, but you will always give up something in the form of tax. You can pull out of a blackjack game, if you find yourself losing. There's no pulling out of the game after an election. You are in it for at least 4 years, unless you move to another country. Ultimately, your only choices come down to, what percentage of your money will these casinos take from you, and what will they do with that money. These are both questions that tie directly into the moral compass of the individuals running the casinos. Considering that the stakes are so much higher, Would you use at least the same level of caution..., that you would approach a game of poker or any game of chance..., with how you approach electing a Presidential candidate? To some people ,shockingly, that answer is no. They're star-struck by the flashy neon sign, they're distracted by the floor show, they get thier free drinks, and that's all it takes. They don't care about the past performance of their casino. They don't care what shady characters are behind the scenes or what is done with the money the casino takes from them. They're not interested in how lax the security system is, not concerned about what dangerous people in the world might be plotting an attack on them. They're having a good time, and that's all that matters. This is the Obama/Biden campaign.  It's all about distraction. It's all about the floor show, and the drunken revelry of feel-good empty rhetoric.  So, what about the McCain/Palin campaign? What are they doing in thier casino? is there any difference? Yes. This casino has a record that it doesn't try to hide. The owners are not shady people with questionable connections, and have offered to take far less from you than that other casino wants to take, and have your personal safety as one of thier primary concerns. I wanted to make this analogy to point out that knowing the track record and the character of the people behind the scenes is important. Questioning Obama's links with Rezko, Ayers, Wright, and ACORN, is key to determining trust in leadership. The attempt is being made right now to try to drain the topic of morality out of the election. Almost all the pundits now are trying to convince the electorate that past associations are not important, only the ideas of the moment are important, that a person's moral choices in thier personal life is not a reflection of thier ability to make the right choices for an entire nation of people.  But the examination of all the candidate's past associations is in fact highly relevant when selecting a leader on this scale. It's vital to be clear on what motivates the candidate to make a decision.  The attempt to steer the discussion away from Obama's past connections is part of the campaign of deflection and deceit. Nobody should be buying the media line that it's only a distraction from the issues. Character and morality is itself an issue, and the attempt to sweep it under the rug is the distraction.

- Mike Silverman

The poll with the widest spread, Newsweek's Poll , shows Obama with an 11 point lead over McCain.  I just looked at that poll's details.  Here's what Newsweek's polling data actually shows.  They play around with a lot of demographic data , alot of what if's, trends, etc..., but if you look at the bottom line in this poll,  if the election were held today , Newsweek's poll breaks down like this among registered voters;
 
Republicans for McCain/Palin - 89
Democrats for McCain/Pailn - 5
Independents for McCain/Palin - 45

Total registered among these voters for McCain/Palin - 139

Republicans for Obama/Biden - 7
Democrats for Obama/Biden - 91
Independents for Obama/Biden - 43

Total registered among these voters for McCain/Palin - 141

Newsweek Poll ( http://www.newsweek.com/id/163337)

A difference of TWO points, Not eleven points.  This is why people should not jump to conclusions and simply accept the end number that comes out of these polls.  Polling data conclusions mix in demographics and questions that go beyond the bottom line.

As of today,  10/11/2008  the Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll shows only a 4 point difference between Obama and McCain. ( http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE49911I20081011)

Poll numbers are used by media and pundits to deflate voters, and drive down expectations for one or the other candidate.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again now, forget all the polls. Polls and polling agencies and spin doctors play games with polling numbers all day long in order to achieve an effect.  Polling data doesn't actually mean anything unless it's the polling data coming out of the official tally on election day this Novemeber.  Even now the Obama camp is figuring in polling data as a depressant on Republican voters but if every Republican/Conservative gets to the polling booth and votes McCain/Pailn,  it virtually guarantees this election goes to McCain.

- Mike Silverman

Senator McCain had a great opportunity to teach a large segment of the public a lesson in the real causes of the housing market slump. He had the opportunity to point out that the Democrats were trying to obfuscate thier own culpability by playing the traditional class warfare game and redirecting the blame to a vaguely defined "greed on Wall Street" as the boogeyman. He had the chance to point out that it was not de-regulation of financial markets that caused this problem, but it was precisely "bad regulation" of quasi public entities called FreddieMac and FannieMae in concert with bad legislation forcing loan eligibility to be determined by impossibly low standards, and all of it protected by Barney Frank who declared "''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''. McCain had the chance to point out that House Republicans introduced a bill in 2005 that would have reigned in the sick practices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but it was dead on arrival in the Senate because it lacked enough votes in the closely divided party line Senate to prevent Democrats from filibustering it. He had the opportunity to point out that top recipients of campaign contributions from these horribly mismanaged lending agencies included Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. There was a lot that I wished he had said, that he didn't. I wasn't overly impressed with the debate.  There was little excitement, very little new from the candidates. Obama delivered his usual set of half truths and innuendo about McCain while deflecting discussion of critical problems with his proposed tax hikes, playing the same old tried worn out class warfare card declaring people who have succeeded financially as villains and everyone else as victims. McCain had a great line when he said he wanted a spending freeze across the board in all federally funded programs, God bless him for that.., and Obama naturally criticized that..., saying he would use a scalpel to stop spending in certain areas, which of course means he wants to increase spending in many places, which of course is fodder for his desire to raise taxes. Obama with a scalpel, that's a frightening image. He's the last person I'd ever trust to perform surgery. I would like to have seen McCain force Obama to talk about Richard Ayers, and his connections with ACORN, and his choice not to wear a US flag lapel pin, and his comment about bitter people clinging to guns and religion, how Biden questioned Obama's judgment when he said that Hillary might have been a better pick than himself for VP and how unfortunate it was that Obama passed up the opportunity to help women break that final glass ceiling, and how Obama supported a bill to educate kindergartners about sexually transmitted diseases, and how it could be that he had no knowledge of the hateful anti-American rhetoric spewed by his own pastor for 20 years while he attended that church. But, he didn't bring those topics up, unfortunately. Overall, McCain had the edge on experience and knowledge. I think that came through clearly.  McCain was good. But I also feel he could have done better.
 
- Mike Silverman

One of the typical problems with McCain's stump speeches is thier tendancy to become flaccid. Actually, today he was rather lively. He had some of that energy and tenacity showing through , like those images we all saw of him carrying his bags by himself through the airport during the primaries as he pressed forward with his campaign even when he couldn't afford to maintain a campaign staff. Look, the one thing McCain has in great abundance is personal courage... ( though it would have been nice to see some of that come through by defying the bailout bill)..., and if I had to choose who I wanted on my side in a fight, I'd choose McCain at his 72 years of age over the much younger Obama any day. Can you picture a boxing match between those two?  Obama would be down in the first round.  John McCain is an enigma.  As Conservatives, we are perpetually flabbergasted at the times when he leans left and becomes essentially a Democrat, yet we love his patriotism and his reverence of the military , his sacrifices for the country, his pro life stance, his distaste for overspending..., and then we scratch our heads at his desire to consult Al Gore on how to approach global warming. Maverick isn't quite the right word for it. He doesn't see himself as owing loyalty to a political party, and often bristles at the notion that he might be on the wrong side of an issue.  He's stubborn, independent, and loyal to what he feels is the best interest of the country.  Not a Conservative, not a Liberal, but he's not in the middle either.  When he goes in one direction or the other, he goes all the way.  That's actually a comforting thought in one respect. McCain is not wishy-washy, he is confident in his ability to choose the best course of action even if all the rest of us might have a problem with the choice he made. A leader must have confidence in his ( or her) ability to lead.  I know McCain has that. He's always had that. I've seen nothing of that in Obama. The other thing we can say without fear of contradiction is that McCain is honest about his position , regardless of who disagrees with him. He has fair reasons to back up his positions, even if there might be better reasons he should "not"be taking that position, such as the McCain Feingold bill..., McCain-Kennedy bill...etc.  So, McCain has self confidence, a proven ability to lead, and honesty. He also has the experience in world affairs.  Obama strikes out on all four of those.  John McCain was never my first choice as Republican candidate for President, but he's a far better runner up than Barack Obama.  McCain doesn't have to do a lot to sell himself, most people have heard of him and know more about him than the other sitting Senators.  But he does have to sell something tonight at the debate.  He needs to strip the varnish off Obama and lay bare the real product underneath. He needs to expose the real danger of an Obama presidency and sell that danger to the public. He needs to do it by sharply contrasting what he would do to protect the country, the economy, and our social values with how Obama would destroy those things.  McCain is capable of making the sale, if  he simply gets past his desire to have liberals love him.  I think he's getting to that point. All during his campaign he's been trying hard to prove he does not have a temper, to prove his critics wrong about his quick fuse.  Well, tonight he needs to let a little of that temper lose, in a positive way, to show his passion for leading this country in the right direction and for driving home the point that Obama will lead us into a train wreck.

 - Mike Silverman