Friday, August 29, 2008

It's on! McCain-Palin vs Obama-Biden!

I thought John McCain would play it safe with his VP pick by picking Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. Pawlenty would have been a fine choice. But John McCain, the Maverick, made the unconventional pick of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska.

Wow!

It's a gutsy choice. And a smart one. Ed Morrissey of Hot Air sums it up pretty well:

Palin spent her entire political career crusading against the political machine that rules Alaska — which exists in her own Republican party. She blew the whistle on the state GOP chair, who had abused his power on the same commission to conduct party business. Obama, in contrast, talked a great deal about reform in Chicago but never challenged the party machine, preferring to take an easy ride as a protegĂ© of Richard Daley instead.

Palin has no formal foreign-policy experience, which puts her at a disadvantage to Joe Biden. However, in nineteen months as governor, she certainly has had more practical experience in diplomacy than Biden or Obama have ever seen. She runs the only American state bordered only by two foreign countries, one of which has increasingly grown hostile to the US again, Russia.

And let’s face it — Team Obama can hardly attack Palin for a lack of foreign-policy experience. Obama has none at all, and neither Obama or Biden have any executive experience. Palin has almost over seven years of executive experience.

Politically, this puts Obama in a very tough position. The Democrats had prepared to launch a full assault on McCain’s running mate, but having Palin as a target creates one large headache. If they go after her like they went after Hillary Clinton, Obama risks alienating women all over again. If they don’t go after her like they went after Hillary, he risks alienating Hillary supporters, who will see this as a sign of disrespect for Hillary.

For McCain, this gives him a boost like no other in several different ways. First, the media will eat this up. That effectively buries Obama’s acceptance speech and steals the oxygen he needs for a long-term convention bump. A Romney or Pawlenty pick would not have accomplished that.

Second, Palin will re-energize the base. She’s not just a pro-life advocate, she’s lived the issue herself. That will attract the elements of the GOP that had held McCain at a distance since the primaries and provide positive motivation for Republicans, rather than just rely on anti-Democrat sentiment to get them to the polls.

Third, and I think maybe most importantly, Palin addresses the energy issue better and more attuned to the American electorate than maybe any of the other three principals in this election. Even beyond her efforts to reform the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, she has demonstrated her independence from so-called “Big Oil” while promoting domestic production. She brings instant credibility to the ticket on energy policy, and reminds independents and centrists that the Obama-Biden ticket offers nothing but the same excuses we’ve heard for 30 years.

Finally, based on all of the above, McCain can remind voters who has the real record of reform. Obama talks a lot about it but has no actual record of reform, and for a running mate, he chose a 35-year Washington insider with all sorts of connections to lobbyists and pork. McCain has fought pork, taken real political risks to fight undue influence of lobbyists, and he picked an outsider who took on her own party — and won.

This is change you can believe in, and not change that amounts to all talk. McCain changed the trajectory of the race today by stealing Obama’s strength and turning it against him. Obama provided that opening by picking Biden as his running mate, and McCain was smart enough to take advantage of the opening.

It's time to face facts, Democrats, you guys are going to lose yet another presidential election. That'll be eight out of the last eleven. Bye-bye.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Coolest characters in sci-fi/fantasy history (TV & movies only)

No James Kirk? No Neo? No Aragorn or Gandalf?
Damn straight, skippy. As cool as those guys may be, they can't touch the coolest sci-fi/fantasy characters of all-time:

5. Jack Burton (Big Trouble in Little China)
Famous line: "It's all in the reflexes."
Best line: "Okay. You people sit tight, hold the fort and keep the home fires burning. And if we're not back by dawn, call the president."
Best movie: Uh, Big Trouble in Little China. Still waiting for a sequel. More Trouble in Little China?



4. Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly TV series, Serenity movie)
Famous line: "I aim to misbehave."
Best line: (Over the ship's intercom) "This is the captain. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then explode."
Best episode/movie: Serenity. The movie is where he's at his best.
http://quizfarm.com/images/1127582513sqmal.jpg
Where's my big damn clip?

3. Han Solo (duh)
Famous line: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Best line: Had a slight weapons malfunction, but everything's perfectly alright now. We're fine, we're all fine, here, now, thank you. How are you?”
Best movie: It's kind of a tie. He's cool and sassy in Star Wars but in Empire, the sarcasm and wit are taken up a notch. In Jedi he's kinda lame.


2. Indiana Jones
Famous line: "Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?"
Best line: It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage."
Best movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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Oh s**t, no clip!

1. William Adama (Battlestar Galactica, new series)
Famous line: "Launch all fighters."
Best line: “When you stand on this deck, you be ready to fight, or you dishonor the reason why we're here. Now remember this: When you fight a man, he's not your friend. Same goes when you lead men. I forgot that once. I let you get too close. All of you. I dropped my guard. I gave some of you breaks, let some of you go, before the fight was really over. I let this crew and this family disband. And we paid the price in lives. That can't happen again.”
Best episode: "33"
http://neutron-x.com/imagesold/totallymisc/adama.jpg
No clip for you!