Sunday, October 19, 2008

Weekend Update:  Sarah and Todd Light Up the Campaign Trail

by John Philoponus

Sarah Palin and husband Todd have been lighting up the campaign trail over the weekend.  Sarah drew huge crowds in important swing states, and went right in to the lion’s den by appearing on Saturday Night Live with Tina Fey and - of all people - Alec Baldwin.  (See photo of her supporters outside SNL, left).  While Sarah was busy on the big stage, Todd was busy talking to core supporters around the country.

Sarah Palin continues to electrify the nation.  She has had a big weekend and looks forward to an even bigger final seventeen days.  The “First Dude”, Todd Palin has been doing his part too.  Here is where they have been over the weekend, and how they have helped the campaign.

On Friday, Sarah appeared at two huge rallies, one in Ohio and one in Indiana.  In West Chester, Ohio, Sarah rallied 15,000 supporters to the Republican cause.  The crowd received her warnings about ACORN and voter fraud enthusiastically.  As always, she connected with the crowd.  She discovered also that the message of Joe the Plumber has resonated in the heartland.  Sarah drew an even bigger crowd at the Verizon Wireless Music Center in Indianapolis.  The crowd of approximately 24,000 was 3,000 larger than Jimmy Buffett drew, and significantly larger than that drawn by Barack H. Obama.

Saturday was an even bigger day for Sarah.  Early in the day she made her second trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which is near historic Gettysburg.  She spoke to an overflow crowd of 10,000-plus at a minor league baseball stadium there.  According to local GOP leaders, Sarah’s message resonates with voters there, and the down-to-earth Southern Pennsylvania residents love her. 

From the friendly confines of the packed baseball stadium, Sarah traveled to New York City, the heart of liberal darkness.  Despite the fact that New York is hostile ground, Sarah was greeted by enthusiastic, sign-waving supporters when she arrived at Rockefeller Plaza for her Saturday Night Live appearance.  SNL and SNL’s own Tina Fey have been very, very critical of Sarah, and have played to the millions of city dwellers who suffer from Palin Derangement Syndrome (PDS).  It would have been easy for Sarah to stay away.  It would have been easy to schedule Sarah for a friendly arena filled with cheering crowds. But that is just not how Sarah operates!

Sarah is willing to go toe-to-toe political opponents at home and enemy leaders abroad.  Her vaunted wit and humor were on display when she stood side-by-side with Alec Baldwin.  Alec Baldwin!  This is the same actor who, while suffering from Bush Derangement Sydrome, promised that he would move out of the country if George Bush were to win the election.  Eight years later and he is still here.  Way to keep your promises, Alec.

While Sarah was appearing before tens of thousands on the ground and millions in the air, Todd was doing his part.  Todd is the ultimate sportsman.  He has won Arctic snow machine races.  He has hunted big game all of his life.  The sportsmen of America will prove to be the great unsung heroes of this election.  They have an opportunity to elect one of their own as Vice President.  Todd connected with sportsmen in Minnesota and Western Pennsylvania on Friday and Saturday, making several appearances in both areas.

This is a team effort.  Sarah, Todd and the entire Palin family will continue to criss-cross the country for the next seventeen days.  The Palin family has a strong appeal to the average American.  Their story is a success story, the story of two people from middle class backgrounds who have succeeded in sports, as parents, in business and in politics.  They are unabashed in their support of the unborn and their support of the Second Amendment freedoms.  Their tireless campaigning will help bring home victory on November 4.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

The Baseball Tea Leaves are Starting to Look Republican

by Charles W. Fairbanks

We here at MFP understand the celestial relationship between baseball and politics.  We have been looking at the baseball tea leaves as the post-season has progressed.  We have avoided the Curse of 1936.  (See our 9/30 post) Things were murky, but started to clear up when Gov. Palin dropped the ceremonial puck at the opening Philadelphia Flyers game.  Then came the Phillies victory in the National League Championship Series. (pictured left) Now the tea leaves are starting to take on a decidedly Republican shape.

Yes, yes, I know, there was a debate last night.  Big Mac mopped up the floor with BHO, but that will get lost in the constant media drone.  Almost simultaneously, however, something more significant happened:  The Phillies won the National League Championship Series.  With the Fightin’ Phils victory, the Baseball Gods seem to be pointing to a McCain-Palin victory.

It is indisputable that our national pastime and our national elections are mystically related.  (See our previous post of 9/30/08 The Curse of 1936) The Curse of 1936, in which a series matchup between two teams from one state teams ushered in the election of a candidate from their state, fell prey to a much older curse as both the Cubs and the White Sox were eliminated. 

Developments in Philadelphia have brought this election into line with the 1980 election.  First, Governor Palin dropped the ceremonial first puck at the opening Flyers game.  Then, the Phillies won the NLCS.

The Phillies have struggled to get to the World Series in their long history.  One of baseball’s oldest franchises, they hold the Major League Record for losses by one franchise, surpassing the 10,000 mark in 2007.  This marks their fifth trip to the Fall Classic.  They have won once in their history.  The year was 1980.  The Phillies were led by Mike Schmidt, the greatest third baseman of the modern era, Hall of Fame lefty Steve Carlton and the Bull of Broad Street, Greg Luzinski.

1980 was of course one of the most important presidential elections in the history of the Republic.  The misery index was high, with both inflation and interest rates running rampant.  President Carter had made two major blunders, allowing Iran to fall into the hands of extremists and giving away control of the Panama Canal Zone.  Indeed, the extremists in Tehran had taken and were holding American hostages.  Despite all those factors, Reagan trailed Carter throughout the campaign.  He surged at the end, and the rest is history.  American prestige was restored and 21,000,000 new jobs were created in the largest peacetime economic expansion in history.

As a former elite athlete herself, Governor Palin may well understand the celestial relationship between sport and politics:  She dropped the puck for the ceremonial beginning of the season of the Philadelphia Flyers.

The American League is harder to read because there are still two teams in contention.  There are the Red Sox, who won in a presidential year, 2004.  In that year, President Bush won re-election after Red Sox Pitcher shocked the nation by endorsing him spontaneously on the Today show the day after the series.  Then there the Rays.  Because of their short history, the Rays are more difficult.  The tea leaves seems to be coalescing around 1969.  Why 1969?  After all, that was not a presidential election year.  But like the Blue Jays, the Mets went from zeroes to heroes when they won the World Series.  When they won, they carried Republican NYC Mayor John Lindsey to re-election, as he hitched his campaign to their star.

So fear not.  The tea leaves are mightier than even BHO>

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Unpopular Northeastern Liberal Corzine to Stump for Obama

by Charles W. Fairbanks

Senator Obama has chosen discredited New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine to shill for him today on the Sunday morning shows.  Corzine, pictured with his former belle, public employees union leader, Karla Katz, is another political ally that sheds light on Obama’s mindset.

Senator Barack H. Obama has rightfully taken heat for his strategic assocations with unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, race-baiting pastor Rev. Jerremiah Wright and ACORN, the election fraud conspiracy.  Today, he unveils another key political ally, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine.  The choice of Corzine says as much about Obama’s judgment as his associations with Ayers, Wright and ACORN.

Governor Corzine is one of the shining examples of Wall Street greed of the 1980s and 1990s.  Corzine was Chairman of Goldman Sachs, one of the venerated Wall Street firms.  During his tenure, Goldman developed the elegant financial vehicle that made Enron possible.  As chairman, Corzine pumped up the apparent value of Goldman, then forced the firm to go public.  For his conduct during the drive to take Goldman public, Corzine was run from office.  Corzine left like many discredited Wall Street moguls:  With a huge net worth.

Corzine’s wealth, estimated at approximately 500 million dollars in 1999, enabled him to purchase a United States Senate seat.  In the 2000 election, Corzine spent over 60 million dollars of his own money in a race against moderate Republican Congressman Bob Franks (R-NJ).  He outspent Franks by approximately 7.5 to 1 and beat Franks by a margin of 52-48 in New Jersey, a state that hasn’t elected a Republican US Senator since yours truly was playing Little League.

As Senator, Corzine was exceedingly liberal, and he wheeled his money into local Democrat machines.  He also became fast friends with Carla Katz, leader of one of New Jersey’s largest public employees union.  After divorcing his wife, Corzine dated Katz, and gave her a cool half million to purchase a home.  In 2005, Corzine was elected governor of the Garden State.  His relationship with Katz provoked a crisis because, after all, the state’s governor was literally in bed with the public employees union.  It became a crisis for Katz who was ousted from her job.  It became a crisis for both of them because they had to defend a legal action seeking to reveal that the pair had effectively negotiated the union contract in their private emails.

The email controversy helped Corzine earn upside down approval ratings.  He also earned his unpopularity with a reckless plan to increase the tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike by 800 per cent.  The toll increase was dead on arrival, despite a full-court press to earn voter approval.  Corzine tried to hold town hall meetings in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties.  At one of them, taxpayer hero Steve Lonegan appeared to protest.  Lonegan and one of his co-workers was arrested!

Gov. Corzine has been consistently out of touch with the voters.  He has done a shoddy job of governing New Jersey.  The nation needs to understand Obama’s alliance with John Corzine and other northeastern liberals in order to understand Obama himself.  These associations speak volumes as to how he will conduct himself as president:  Tax, spend, tax, spend, tax, spend . . . .