What's Next?

It's been nearly a week, and while some have been celebrating, others have been sulking, and I have been trying to figure out what to do with this blog. I have decided to let it die a natural death.

Really, what's the point of beating up on the old man? He lost, gave a gracious concession speech and now will be back in the senate. He will probably win re-election in 2010. It will be interesting to see how he acts in the senate. Will he become an elder statesman who works for the good of all, or a bitter old geezer who throws a monkey wrench in everything? To be honest, he seems to have been more suited to be a gadfly challenging his own party than his party's standard bearer, so I think we might be surprised in the next couple of years. I think it would be great if he wrote a book and was as straight talking as he claimed to be before this campaign. I doubt I would buy it, but I would check it out from the library. I'd like to hear his opinions on why he thinks he lost. I'd like to hear who he really wanted to be his VP. Again, he's challenged his party in the past, so this would be a good opportunity for him to throw it all out on the table.

So what's next for me then? I was having a conversation Friday night with a couple of people who had read the blog. They encouraged me to continue in some fashion. The prevailing thought seemed to be towards something about Palin. Maybe something like "The Keep Palin in Alaska Blog" or "The Just Say No To Palin in 2012 Blog." To be honest, a negative orientated blog (like this one admittedly was) takes a lot out of you. And by my nature, I tend to me more of a positive person.

But what do you all think? Those have read this far along know my "voice," know my take on things (facts served straight up with a bit of sarcasm), know that I do care about the country even though I may stand on the fringes of its political system. What would you like to see me write about? Should I chronicle the missteps of the new president? Is there something else that seems suited for me? Leave me comments or email me at straighttalkonmccain@yahoo.com.

Anyways, aside from a post here or there directing people to one of my new projects, this will probably be it. Unless McCain throws his hat in the ring in 2012, then we'll start all over again. I would encourage you all to stay involved in the political process, and to keep fighting for what you believe in. Sometimes you'll lose (trust me on that as my record for never having casted a vote for a presidential winner remains intact) , and sometimes you'll win, and when you do, you'll know that it's all worth it. So I leave you all with a quote from the Romanticist Percy Shelley which has been my personal motto and guided me for over two decades:

"the good times will come"

Congrats

Congrats to president-elect Obama. He fought a good fight, mostly clean, and was able to inspire many people. Now the hard part comes. Actually governing is much different than campaigning. Hopefully he will be up to the task.

And I would like to give McCain some credit. I was really impressed with his concession speech. If that McCain had ran for president, he might have won. We'll never know. I was disappointed in his supporters who booed their new president-elect. If only they could have been as gracious and humble as their candidate, perhaps the tone of the campaign could have been different.

I would like to add that the 2008 elections are not over yet. There are Senate seats still being contested. It appears that the Minnesota race will go to a mandatory recount, and there could be a run-off in Georgia. So we haven't see the end of it all yet.

The Last Post Before The Election

Well, this will be my last post before election day, probably until Wednesday. To those who have read a post here and there, thank you. To those who have been faithful readers, thank you as well. To those who have made comments or sent emails, whether we agreed or not, thank you as well for the dialogue.

Obviously, if McCain loses tomorrow, I am essentially out of a job. If he wins, I guess there will be a lot more posts to a blog I hoped would only last a few months. Either way, check back, and I'll let you all know more about my future plans.

And I won't tell you all who to vote for, just that it's important that you do. For myself, there is a certain peace in knowing that my candidate will not win tomorrow since I still have no intentions of voting for either McCain or Obama. I do hope that each of you have the opportunity to vote for the candidate that you truly believe in, and are not just voting for them because of fear of the other. And in that spirit, I'll leave you with a quote from one of our early presidents.

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” -- John Quincy Adams

No Candy For Kids of Obama Supporters

Seriously, this lady asked people who they were supporting and if they said Obama, she wouldn't give the kids candy. Now that's the good old values of traditional America that should make conservatives proud.

Election Protection Wiki Portal

If you are concerned about clean elections and ensuring that everybody get to vote, and more importantly, gets their vote count, then this site may be of interest to you. This is something that strikes home with me because one year I went at it with the local registrar of voters because they didn't register my vote with the state. It basically came down to them saying that indeed they were legally bound to register my vote with the state but that they weren't going to do it. So then I was on the phone with someone from the secretary of state's office for my state and they said they couldn't register my vote because the county wouldn't send it to be registered. So dang it, my vote never got counted. So much for democracy.

Shhhh, Don't No One Tell McCain

"I cannot foresee a scenario that John McCain is elected president of the United States."

Republican strategist Frank Luntz in an interview today. Guess he's out of a White House job if McCain pulls this out somehow.

Where's The Voter Fraud?

You may remember when McCain said that ACORN “is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.” It really was a great scare tactic, but as a new article suggests. that's about all it was. Even Ronald Michaelson who was on McCain's Honest and Open Election Committee said :

“Do we have a documented instance of voting fraud that resulted from a phony registration form? No, I can’t cite one, chapter and verse."

That's pretty noteworthy as Michaelson served 27 years as the executive director of the Illinois Board of Elections. If anyone would have know about massive voter fraud, surely he would have heard about it somewhere along the line in that long career of his.

However, this is the funniest line in the article:

"Another member of McCain’s Honest and Open Election Committee, Harvard law professor and former U.S. solicitor general Charles Fried, stepped down last week after voting absentee for Obama-Biden."

That's gotta hurt.

State Health Director Verifies Obama's Birth Certificate

Drats, said McCain campaign supporters, as some of them seemed to really be betting on this plan of attack. It appears that Obama really was born in the United States according to the Honolulu Star Bulletin.

Republicans try to use Oxford don to smear Barack Obama

That's the actual newspaper headline from the Sunday Times from London. Apparently some Republicans wanted to pay a college professor to run a computer program to try to prove that one of Obama's books was ghost written by Ayers. The professor said initial findings found the charge "very implausible." But hey, at least they tried.

A Second Holocaust?

This is the flier a Jewish Republican group is mailing out in support of McCain. Apparently, if Obama is elected, bad things will happen to the Jewish people. In case you don't get the connection, they are kind enough to make it explicit for you. They point out that the picture on the card is from when Obama spoke in Germany. Hmnn, why use that photo and point it out that it is the one you are using? What meaning could they be trying to get across? And how how low will McCain supporters continue to go to base this election on fear?

So Who's Number Two?

McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb claims that Obama hangs around with anti-Semites. But when asked to name one, other than Khalidi who is being discussed, he can't. It looked pretty bad, and it was, because it shows that the McCain campaign is willing to throw anything out, and when questioned on it, can't defend their comments.

Cheney Endorses McCain

The question is, what do you do when you get an endorsement from someone whose endorsement has the potential to hurt you more than it helps you?

Reagan's Son Endorses Obama

Not really all that surprising, but Ronald Reagan's son has officially endorsed Obama. You can listen to it here. But combined with Goldwater and Buckley, it makes you start to wonder if any of the offspring of the great leaders of the conservative movement support McCain.