The fundamentals of our economy are strong

Making A Choice

I’ve heard from many people commenting on how nasty and negative the Shaheen-Sununu race has become, and I concur that it's really despicable. You'd think both of these candidates are evil incarnate. Allow me to offer my opinion.

John Sununu is a decent man who simply is on the wrong side of the issues. He favors big business, has a long record of opposing corporate and financial regulation, and has consistently voted against legislation that would benefit working families, from an increase in minimum wage to an expansion of health care coverage. He's been unwavering in his support of George Bush, including Bush's horrific foreign policy and his devastating fiscal irresponsibility that has buried us in an oppressive $10 trillion debt. John simply does not reflect New Hampshire's values.

Jeanne Shaheen performed admirably as governor for three terms, working with Democrats and Republicans alike. She's a moderate voice in a nation and a state where too often the extremists are most vocal. I disagree with Jeanne on capital punishment, and I believe she missed an opportunity to change New Hampshire's unfair system of taxation that places an extreme burden on working families. But I also know that she embraces New Hampshire's values, from protecting the environment to expanding access to affordable healthcare, and from improving our children's educational opportunities to strengthening the Granite State's economy. She brings an incredible amount of common sense to the table, and offers a breadth of experience that will prove invaluable to New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that all of our major candidates are decent people and do not deserve the abuse being heaped upon them. This even includes John McCain, for whom I’ve lost nearly all respect since he launched his campaign of lies and distortions, and abandoned all principles of integrity. While today he is but a hollow shell of the John McCain who earned the admiration of millions, one cannot discount his past contributions to his country, nor question his patriotism no matter how misguided he may be today.

I truly hope that voters will not be swayed by the extreme messages with which they’re incessantly being bombarded and will instead choose a candidate based upon his or her positions on the issues.

We are today confronted by serious challenges, from a crumbling financial system and a plunging economy, to global terrorism and two mismanaged wars. We’re being held hostage by our reliance upon foreign oil, and we’re despoiling our environment by neglecting the need for serious investment in alternative sources of energy.

Our infrastructure is crumbling, our health care system is in crisis, and our system of public education is in peril. Gratefully, New Hampshire and the nation are equipped to confront these challenges, possessing the resiliency and the creativity needed as we move forward.

What is clear is that we cannot afford to continue along the course we’ve been following for the past eight years. We cannot endure another decade of war and neglect or of allowing unbridled greed to sap the underlying strength of our economy and put at risk our savings, investments, pensions, and even the value of our homes.

Our state and our nation are at a precipice. How we vote this year will determine whether we plunge into an abyss of despair or leap to new heights of achievement. A vote for Republicans is a vote to “stay the course” - to continue on the path we’ve been following.

By contrast, a vote for Democrats will ensure a change of course. That doesn’t mean it will be an easy ride, nor that every trail embarked upon will lead to success. But what it does mean is that we’ll be free to explore new avenues, to navigate the future with confidence in our potential rather than retreating into the paralysis of fear.

When choosing a candidate this year the first question you should ask yourself is that posed by Ronald Reagan in 1980 - “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” The second question you should ask is “Is the country better off than it was eight years ago?”

If you can answer yes to both of those questions, you should vote Republican. Otherwise, the decision is clear.

Media Announces Bailout Of McCain Campaign

WASHINGTON, DC -- Acting to avert a possible crisis in the U.S. presidential election, the media today announced a bailout of Sen John McCain's (R-AZ) campaign. Cable news commentators scrambled to prop up the Senator's sagging poll numbers Friday as the fast-disappearing dream of a nail-biting horse-race threatened to bring down America's entire punditry system.

A senior CNN political analyst speaking on condition of anonymity said that the collapse of McCain's campaign could prove disastrous to the pundit industry. "A horse-race is vital to our bottom line," he said. "Without neck-and-neck poll numbers we can't maintain an air of suspense right up to election day, and our ratings will suffer. I could be out of a job by this time next week."

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Do We Want An Actual, Ordinary American In The White House?

By Joanne Rosenfeld

Last Friday, Senator McCain picked Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate in the presidential election. Though I like to avoid voicing political or even moderately serious thoughts of mine, I simply can't help but react to this latest McCain blunder. About a month ago, Palin said she wasn't ready to discuss being VP because she didn't know what the VP did; moreover, she wanted to stay in her more "busy" and "active" job as Governor of Alaska. It's certainly saying something that she thinks being second in line to become Commander in Chief is a smaller, less-productive role than being governor of less than 700,000 constituents.

Governor Sarah Palin's resume includes two terms on City Council and two terms as Mayor of Wasilla, a town with a population of 8,500. This means that anyone who's been president of a mid-sized university for that length of time has as much experience as she does. She's currently only two years into her first term as Governor of Alaska, which by the way has a population of 670,000, or just over half the population of that sprawling land mass, Rhode Island. But thanks to the erudite leadership of John McCain, a person who's never been voted for by more than 120,000 people and has never worked in national politics, is now a potential leader of the free world.

Governor Palin is married to her high school sweetheart, who happens to be a competitive snowmobiler. I don't know what that is, but apparently it is in line with the activities of "ordinary" Americans. She has five children, the youngest of which is named Trig, like trigger, as in gun (!!). Sarah is applauded for having had Trig even though she and her husband were well aware he had Down Syndrome a few months into the pregnancy. That is not only a sacred and personal decision, it is one that takes both courage and resilience as a parent, and I do applaud her conviction in her beliefs. You see, when you have the freedom to choose, you get to display conviction to your own beliefs, not just the ones McCain/Palin would like to legislate.

A small part of me rejoices in this, the latest in a series of misguided campaign decisions, because now, I am certain, McCain will not be elected. No one can say in seriousness that Sarah Palin is ready to lead a nation (some are saying it out of a habit of making hypocritical statements, but that's a whole 'nother issue). Despite a strengthened belief in an Obama/Biden victory this November, however, I am still plagued by the worry of what-if.

What if McCain wins? Sure the idea of a woman in the White House is exciting on face value alone, but this particular woman will likely prove to be an incapable vice president for a number of reasons, chief among which is her startling lack of experience. When she does so, which she will, she risks hurting the cause of so many other aspiring female candidates in the years to come. If Kennedy hadn't been such a salient and capable president, no one would point to him as a shining example of religious difference in the Oval Office, thus encouraging the political careers of the many well-qualified Catholic, Jewish, etc. men and women who followed his groundbreaking presidency. And if Sarah Palin flops as she surely will do, she will become an all-too-visible and simply unrepresentative example of the kind of bumbling misdirection a woman will bring to the White House. I can just hear it now: "Don't bring any more in. Remember that Sarah Palin chick? What a mistake that was."

Considering the average life expectancy of an American male is 77 years old, it would simply be imprudent to ignore the possibility that 72-year-old will not make it thorough 4 years in the White House. What then? One would think McCain would make an extra effort to assuage such fears and concerns related to his age and health with his VP pick. I certainly assumed he would choose a person with a resume that rivals his own; someone whose years of experience on the national and even international level could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he/she was ready to lead the second "VP" turned to "P". Instead, he picked Sarah Palin. We want a president who is in touch with ordinary Americans, sure, but do we really want an actual, ordinary American in the White House? We seriously, seriously do not.

The greatest problem that I have with McCain's VP pick is that, once again, his decision has proven how misguided and illogical he is as a leader. Every move he has made in this campaign has been motivated by a follower's mentality: What do the voters want to hear? How do I get them to like me? What will make them like me more? A true leader works to change minds, inspire others, and move forward with an agenda he or she believes in and remains loyal to. Instead, McCain has become almost cartoonishly desperate for approval and support, lowering his standards, which should be presidential to the level of TMZ and perezhilton.com. This time, instead of carefully selecting a viable vice presidential candidate, he jumped a bandwagon that wasn't wound up with a soccer mom.

No one doubts this was a political decision; this is, after all, politics. But if McCain is after the women's vote, or more particularly, the vote of hardheaded Clinton supporters, he would have done better to align himself with someone who is not her ideological opposite. Women are not going to go after anything with boobs that moves like a drunk in a dive bar, and it is frankly both disturbing and insulting that McCain thinks otherwise.

We Deserve A George W. Bush Holiday

By Steven Borne

I propose creating a George W. Bush Day — a national holiday, the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend to be the new national election day, instead of the first Tuesday in November.

This day will become a day of remembrance — a chance to avoid repeating the historic national mistakes of the past eight years. Our past generations have enabled our great nation to be divided, the balance of governmental power distorted, our national identity betrayed and our economy crushed by debt and irrational economic policies. We are now obligated to right our nation and help make America, America again.

The economy can certainly absorb the influx of holiday shopping and more people will be home to vote or know sufficiently in advance to request absentee ballots. Holiday-focused shows, events, classroom content, sales promotions, etc., can all help drive educated participation and motivate the population to be more informed of the candidates and positions. We can build a national message that leverages our past mistakes (from both parties) to enforce the importance of education, participation and the role of the populace to mandate responsible, effective government.

This new holiday will encourage our schools and media to educate and emphasize the responsibilities of the electorate to maintain the health of our democracy. With all due respect to exceptional educators, the national evidence of the past eight years proves that our educational and media system has failed our democracy. There is no better learning example of what can go wrong than the George W. Bush administration and how we failed to prevent its actions. As we re-educate our nation, imagine the potential quiz questions.

n Of these six acts by the Bush administration, which one is actually permissible under the Constitution?

n True or false, Vice President Dick Cheney controlled and determined more executive and policy decisions than President Bush?

n What is the estimated level of global competitiveness America forfeited that is directly attributed to the No Child Left Behind program?

n Extra credit essay: Defend either statement using at least five reference points — "In presenting the justification for invading Iraq, the Bush administration was a) incompetent or b) intentionally lied to the nation?

We face a long, hard uphill climb. Only by acknowledging our collective failure and recognizing how national apathy enables single-minded individuals to manipulate a nation, can we begin to heal our nation and to rebuild our economic and national strength. George W. Bush Day, will stress the patriotic duty of every American to fight through the propaganda, misinformation, irrational logic, bias news sources and then to question everything by participating in the debate and discussion required for a healthy and evolving democracy.

Communism taught in school shows how intelligent and educated people accepted the misguided logic and rational of a communist government and how most chose to follow, rather than question or fight back. We learned how the mass majority in these countries were driven into a rut by the ruling powers and were incapable of climbing out. We had always assumed that America was immune to this type of behavior. Well, America has proven that we too, can be led into a national rut. America needs to acknowledge and constantly remind ourselves what happened during the George W. Bush administration. The many manipulative acts of this administration must never be forgotten. We can never ignore how the conservative faction took a large lever labeled "faith" and drove it deep into the nation where it touched enough of the populace so too many of us aligned behind the calculated power grab. Then the national outrage from the 9/11 attacks was leveraged to accelerate our democratic demise as more citizens were driven into a deeper national rut, executive power expanded, and the conservative agenda enacted.

Sarah Palin's Leadership Promise

Not enough attention has been paid to John McCain's rationale behind the choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate. Clearly he envisions an important leadership role for the athletic young frontierswoman whose vivacious energy adds spark and vigor to his lethargic leadership.