Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Would an All-Chicago World Series Spell Doom for Big Mac and Sarah?

by Garret A. Hobart

In the celestial relationship between our national pastime and national elections, the 1936 election is the one that stands out.  In 1936, the contestants in the World Series both hailed from the same state, New York.  The winning presidential candidate that year - FDR - also came from New York.  As the post-season begins, both the White Sox and the Cubs are in the hunt for the World Series.  Could their fate be linked to their Southside compadre, Barack Hussein Obama?

Baseball fans tend to be superstitious.  Baseball fans who are involved in politics are probably doubly superstitious.  In politics we are always looking for signs as to how our candidate or party is doing.  There are many who believe that there is a celestial relationship between baseball and politics.  An astute observer has to look hard to find the patterns.  After communing with the baseball gods, it appears that the year 1936 may be the one that speaks to the outcome of our current election.

The White Sox have now qualified for the playoffs.  As such, they are now one of four American League teams who have a chance to earn a spot in the fall classic.  The Cubs have already qualified by winning the National League Central Division.  They are the best team in the National League, and are probably the odds-on favorite to earn a spot in the fall classic.  If the Cubs and the White Sox face off in the World Series it will be the fith time that two teams from the same state have faced each other in the World Series in a presidential election year.  In one of those four years, a presidential candidate came from the same state as the World Series contestants.

The year was 1936.  The nation was in the midst of tough economic times.  The summer olympics were hosted by a fascist nation.  In October, the New York Giants behind Hall of Fame hurler Carl Hubbell took on the dynastic New York Yankees.  The Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig, and a rookie, Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio led the Yankees against Hubbell and the Giants.  Not only were all six games of the 1936 World Series played within the boundaries of the same state, but the stadiums were within site of each other.  The Yankees power won in the end.  The Yankees won four games to the Giants two.

Shortly after the Yankees won, incumbent President FDR won in a landslide against Republican Alf Landon, taking all but two states.  FDR won the electoral college by a margin of 523 to 8.  FDR won the popular vote by a margin of 60 per cent to 36.5 per cent.  OK, so landslide is an understatement.  History might have been different.  Lousiana Governor and Senator Huey Long had planned to run as a third party candidate in 1936.  The popular Long would likely have split the Democrat vote and perhaps delivered the election to the Republicans.  Perhaps coincidentally, Long was assassinated in 1935.  After his re-election FDR continued to build his New Deal and the largest expansion of federal power to date.

Should both Chicago teams win their respective pennants, would that be an omen that the junior senator from Illinois will win a landslide victory and foist another huge government expansion on the republic?  Stay tuned.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Reform the Hill:  Banish the Lameduck Speaker of the House

by Charles W. Fairbanks

The Democrats are right:  You shouldn’t vote for a woman just because she is a woman.  Case in point:  Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  Her ultra-liberal stances and her shrill anti-GOP rhetoric cost her today.  She was unable to reach across the aisle to get enough votes to pass the bailout bill.  She has failed as Speaker of the House, and needs to be replaced.

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is the first female speaker of the House of Representatives in the history of the republic.  That accomplishment was important not only for her, for her liberal special interest buddies, but also for women.  However, her failure today as Speaker demonstrates one of the very important points that Big Mac made about Obama:  That it is impossible to reach across the aisle and to achieve bi-partisan results when your own voting record is on the extreme left.

Speaker Pelosi racked up some intereting numbers for her voting record in 2007.  She was rated in some very key areas as follows:

American Conservative Union:  0 per cent
Americans for Prosperity:  0 per cent
Eagle Forum:  0 per cent
National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL):  100 per cent
Gun Owners of America:  F-
Business and Indutry PAC:  11 per cent
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU):  100 per cent
Arab-American Institute:  100 per cent

In other words, she is the best friend of any liberal interest group and the enemy of any group that espouses free enterprise, freedom to bear firearms or the right to life.  There is no moderation for the Speaker.  No halfway.  She is at the extreme.  From that position, it is quite difficult to reach out for members who are right of center.  After all, it is a stretch for her to reach out to the political center.

Never more was her extremism on display when today she delivered a very untimely punk-slapping to President Bush and to Republicans in general.  Prior to the vote on the bailout bill in the House, she delivered a very intemperate and very partisan speech in which she blamed Republicans for the whole mess.  What a lapse in judgment!  And her intemperance was rewarded with the failure that it deserved.  The only problem is that the short term health of the world economy is in the balance.

Speaker Pelosi didn’t just fail to hold her tongue.  She failed to hold key members of her own party.  Several House Democrats who chair committees voted against the Speaker’s position.  She didn’t lose a few back-benchers.  She lost members of her own leadership team. 

The bottom line is that in American you can not lead an effective governing coalition when you govern from the left.  America needs to keep that in mind because Senator Obama is no closer to the center than Speaker Pelosi.  Thank you, Speaker Pelosi, for proving Big Mac to be correct.

Friday, September 26, 2008

BIG MAC WINS THE FIRST DEBATE!  BRING ON JOE BIDEN!

by TheTruthSquad

Bill Buckner was a great player who will be remembered in part for letting a ground ball go through his legs in game six of the 1986 World Series.  Obama leads in the polls, but let the debate slip away.  Big Mac held his own on domestic policy over the first 38 minutes, then wiped the floor with Obama over the last hour as foreign policy dominated.  Obama suffered from Al-Gore-like facial ticks while Big Mac scored points on foreign policy.

Barack Obama looked naive.  John McCain looked presidential.  Barack Obama tried to blame everything on George Bush.  John McCain displayed detailed knowledge and experience in foreign policy.

This was scheduled and billed as the foreign policy debate, but the first 38 minutes were spent on the financial crisis.  Obama is supposed to enjoy an advantage on the economy, but Big Mac really held his own on domestic issues.  Thank you Senator McCain for pointing out what Obama’s corporate tax increase will run good working class jobs out of the country.  The United States has the second highest business tax rate in the world, which is compounded by high business taxes in many states.  Obama claims to be for the working class, but wants to tax their employers out of the country.

Big Mac demonstrated that Obama has flip-flopped on two several domestic items.  Thank you Senator McCain for pointing out that Obama is a Barry-Come-Lately on earmarks.  Sen. Obama was for earmarks when it was time to ask for Christmas Tree Items for his cronies in Illinois, then changed his tune this year.  He has also changed his tune on domestic drilling.  He demonizes the oil industry to appease his leftist buddies, then pays lip service to drilling.  Only a liberal like Obama can have it both ways.

Obama struggled through domestic policy as badly as his White Sox are struggling through the last week of the AL season.  He was reeling at the end of domestic policy, and Big Mac beat him like a rented mule during the foreign policy hour.  The higlight of the foreign policy hour was when Big Mac mopped up the stage with Obama on the question of the threat posed by Iran.  Big Mac enunciated the sobering truth that a nuclear Iran poses an existential threat to the nation of Israel.  Incredibly, Obama defended by stating that we need to negotiate, which opened him up to the Big Mac attack that you just don’t meet with the head of a terrorist state without pre-conditions.  Obama wouldn’t quit, and McCain just kept punk-slapping him on the issue.

Big Mac shined.  He showed knowledge.  He showed experience.  He succeeded in portraying Obama as naive on foreign policy.  Big Mac was ready for everything that Obama had to say on foreign policy.  Big Mac looked great.  He looked energetic.  While Obama cuts a great figure on camera, he seems to have picked up Al Gore disease.  He suffered from those facial tics when Big Mac was talking.  He just couldn’t control his facial expressions when in disagreement with Big Mac.

On the Drudge Report online poll, Big Mac held steady at 70%-plus.  During the debate and for the half hour thereafter he outpolled Obama 3-1 on who won the debate.  That number will change as the Obama people realize what happened, then start astroturfing.  It was a great victory for the McCain-Palin ticket.  Bring on Joe Biden!