Peoria Pundit

Merle Widmer writes:

Even though I disagree with a number of McCain and Palin’s beliefs and actions, this Republican combination, once elected and with our help, can slow down this countries slide into populism and socialism. The Republicans, independents and many border line Democrats must be convinced to lay aside their own personal slights, jealousies, disappointments and “large” egos, tone down the “Faustian bargain made with Dobson and his ilk (See Dobson’s choice, 2/9/08) embracing most of the fundamentals on which this great country was founded and elect McCain/Palin to office.

And I have to agree. McCain spent the primary (at least the early part) telling voters that he was a different sort of candidate. he wasn’t going to trash anyone. He quickly learned how to play the game. As soon as his campaign figured out that McCain’s choice of Palin changed the game from a likely Obama win to a dead heat in the polls, the knives came out: Palin is a secessionist. Palin faked her pregnancy. Palin is a bad mother for not stayi9ng home with her kids. Palin is a gun-toting lunatic. Palin hunts endangered species. Palin had an affair. Palin. All denied and either proven untrue or died on the vine for lack of evidence.

The only reason I was considering voting for Obama is because I thought he might be the game changer we need to move us away from the hateful partisanship we’ve been experiencing from the left and right. McCain — who is NOT a Bush-style Republican no matter how much they try to make him out to be — is probably the change agent Obama tells people he is.

I can’t think of one single accomplishment of Obama OTHER than to win elections he was originally predicted to lose. Although I do believe the nation does owe him an eternal debt of gratitude for knocking Hillary Clinton out of the race.

Obama wrote two autobiographies, and not one significant piece of legislation. McCain has his name on significant pieces of legislation, whether or not you like that legislation. And McCain has a record of reaching across the aisle, not just talking about it.

McCain’s politics regarding the economy, energy, national defense and foreign relations are far closer to my own that Obama. I think McCain is honorable. He certainly would not have managed the Iraq and Afghanistan in the same way as Bush.

I don’t see McCain putting right-wing zealots with little legal brilliance on the Supreme Court. He couldn’t do it with a Democratic controlled Congress, and I don’t see him wanting to do so. I shudder for the future of gun rights and property rights with Congress giving a rubber stamp to Obama’s picks.

And McCain is on the right side when it comes to limiting the powers of the Presidency that were allowed to expand under Bush.

Again, both Obama and McCain have their pluses and minuses. Obama simply had more minuses than pluses.

Sen. Joe Biden has received an “F” from a pro 2nd Amendment group. Good luck attracting those middle-of-the-road, blue-color voters, Joe. You know, the ones who are thinking of voting for pro-2nd Amendment John McCain.

Gee, what a shock. More evidence that Joe Biden is the opposite of libertarian:

Earlier this week, in an interview with the Washington Post, Tommy Chong was asked what the average citizen can do to further the cause of decriminalization. “Check out the people you’re voting for,” Chong replied. “For instance, Joseph Biden comes off as a liberal Democrat, but he’s the one who authored the bill that put me in jail. He wrote the law against shipping drug paraphernalia through the mail – which could be anything from a pipe to a clip or cigarette papers.”

Barack Obama’s V.P. selection Sen. Joe Biden also sponsored the Rave Act, which targets music events where drug use is allegedly prevalent.

About medical marijuana, Biden said iin 2007: “We have not devoted nearly enough science or time to deal with the pain management and chronic pain management that exists. There’s got to be a better answer than marijuana. There’s got to be a better answer than that. There’s got to be a better way for a humane society to figure out how to deal with that problem.”

Biden coined the term “drug czar” and has championed the Office for National Drug Control Policy.

Joe Biden might have some foreign-relations cred, but his domestic positions are lousy

Via CNET:

By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET’s Technology Voters’ Guide, and whose anti-privacy legislation was actually responsible for the creation of PGP.

And:

On Net neutrality, Biden has sounded skeptical. In 2006, he indicated that no preemptive laws were necessary because if violations do happen, such a public outcry will develop that “the chairman will be required to hold this meeting in this largest room in the Capitol, and there will be lines wandering all the way down to the White House.” Obama, on the other hand, has been a strong supporter of handing pre-emptive regulatory authority to the Federal Communications Commission.

Feh.

ABC News is reporting that a Secret Service is en route to assume protective duties for Joe Biden.

(I don’t know how to do the strike-through font, so I am just making changes.)

Here’s the Democratic ticket according to Drudge @ ~5:30pm Central …

Now MSNBC says Bayh has been informed he is definitely not the V.P. choice and neither is Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who had been actively playing up his appearance on the ’short list.’

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is also on that list, but I don’t think that will be the pick. My speculation has been Bayh all along, but it looks like it will be Joe Biden or Chet Edwards, after all.

Both Biden and Edwards voted to support the invasion of Iraq.

My bet has moved to Edwards. If it is Biden, I see him as a bit of a Lloyd Bensen kind of pick. Kind of strange to pick an insider guy like that when your theme is “Change.” Edwards, while serving almost 168 years in Congress, is younger and can pull-off the outsider label. In addition, he is from Texas and Texas key in the electoral totals.

Note to Bill: If the information is released AFTER the “Dead-Tree-Edition ™” of the newspapers have gone to press, I think it would be a signal that the Obama campaign does not see them a relevant. This would be one of those things you’d want people to read in the newspaper first thing in the morning.