Maybe We Should Eliminate Polls

I got to thinking a lot about polls yesterday and found myself wondering if we should add to the ranks of the unemployed and get rid of political polls and pollsters when it comes to choosing our candidates. We could rid ourselves of consultants and strategists too.  Those pesky folks who come up with the never-to-be-varied talking points.

I see a couple of advantages.  Without polls to tell candidates what they must say in order to garner votes, they would have to campaign on what they believe.  No help from the peanut gallery.

It would help voters too.  They would actually have to listen to those candidates to find out what they really stand for.  No help from the peanut gallery.

Think of it.  No more staffs of hundreds plucking and preening appearance nor message.  The candidate looks like they look and speaks what they believe.  That would eliminate a lot of opportunists who don't believe anything.

It would force voters to figure out for themselves what's important rather than being informed by the polls.  They'd hear what the candidates think is important without benefit of polls and could decide for themselves if said candidate is on their wave length rather than blindly hoping.

How ingenious!  Everyone thinking without being beholden to any one or any idea other than their own and themselves.  Could we cope?  I doubt it, but I'd sure like to see it tried!

Hillary. Please Explain!

I have two questions.  Why does Hillary Clinton reap such high poll ratings?  And why do Democrats seem to be in lockstep behind her?

All the past Clinton shenanigans are coming to light once again with the emergence of her most recent faux pas.  Isn't that enough to give voters pause?  Especially Democrats.

Or does this allegiance tell us something about Democrats we'd rather not believe.  That a person with the character of a Hillary Clinton is their leader of choice?

I don't understand my country any more.  I do understand more every day what being a dinosaur is like and I'm continually looking for the tar pit lest I get swallowed up by it.  Even after the mid-terms when the voting public let it be know they were tired of smarmy politics it continues.  On both sides I might add considering the comment Lindsey Graham made about Nancy Pelosi's many surgeries.  But why?

What ever happened to good manners? Open mindedness? Compromise? They're already in that tar pit!

Frustration?  That's no excuse.  That's when self discipline is most important! But it all stems back to mind set.  I worry that the Democrats are so enthralled with Hillary.  A candidate who needs advisers to tell her what she is to think does not strike me as leadership material.  This is a time when we sorely need it and we have a disturbing visual what the world is like it without.

I don't know if a Martin Oralle or Jim Webb can wrest the nomination away from Hillary or if there is someone yet to appear, but I hope someone does.

What appears to be a game of wits, and I mean game, against all opposition with the Clintons is deadly serious business to the rest of the country.  Or at least it should be.

I don't know in whose camp I will land at this point but I do know it won't be Hillary's.  I hope that's true for a majority of Democrats too.

Republican Retards

The voters put the Republicans back in the drivers seat but it seems they've forgotten how to drive!  What does it take to make these politicians come to their senses?

I do not for the life of me understand their unwillingness to look at a situation and do what's right.  Like fund the Department of Homeland Security and save the President's fiat over reach for another day.

The Dems have been making the point all along.  With all the terror threats circulating around the world, would we not want Homeland Security up to snuff?  It makes no sense. Not only is it a dangerous gamble but for political purposes alone the optics are terrible.

You'd think they would recognize that part of what put them in the majority was the bad optics of the Democrats.  It goes to show that even though we voted Republicans back to leadership we didn't vote for the right ones.  Ones who understand when to grand stand and when to stop.  Now is the time to stop and get their act together and I mean together.

The argument that they're voting the way their constituents want them to doesn't wash.  It's insulting.  There are other ways of standing up to the President than putting the country at risk.  Don't for a minute think because those DHS employees are considered essential and have to show up for work with no more than a promise of delayed pay that they will do so with their hearts in their jobs.  That in of itself is dangerous.

What the party leaders need to do is sit down and come up with a strategy. On all issues. Why this wasn't done before they took over the reins is beyond me.  There was plenty of time.  Or as like the President, couldn't Mr. Boehner get off the golf course long enough to gather his leadership team and set some priorities?

Thus far I am extremely disappointed in how they are conducting the people's business. They seem to have heard nothing from the electorate other than what they falsely imagine in order to  advance their own personal agendas.  Otherwise business as usual.

As I watch the jockeying for position among the candidates I see some potential for solid leadership.  Should the Republicans be able to prevail over Hillary in the Presidential sweepstakes, what good will it be if the Democrats take back Congress?

Whose hands is it in?  The Republicans.  Mostly in the House. A good share in the Senate.  For the love of country, people, get your blasted act together!

Patriotism Isn't Dead Yet

It's Friday.  Time for something uplifting to take through the weekend.  A friend sent me this and my eyes were blurry with tears by the time it finished. It is both poignant and uplifting.

It gives me hope to know that at least some parents are instilling their kids with what it is to be an American.  This young boy gets it.  It's worth a few minutes viewing.

Obama The Contrarian

I can't help but wonder if Obama is enjoying his loneliness at the top.  He surely doesn't seem like a happy man.  His negativity is depressing.

I have never heard a President mock his opposition party with such regularity or disdain.  It is certainly no way to encourage cooperation but then I don't think he wants cooperation.

If he did he would have signed the Keystone Pipeline bill.  Anyone who has been following the story knows it has been studied to death so his argument that review has yet to be completed is just plain false.  He doesn't want it because the Republicans do. It doesn't matter that some Democrats do also.

So what happens now?  Oil will still move.  By rail.  And with it more accidents like the recent ones in Canada and West Virginia will happen putting lives, homes and his beloved environment in far more danger than would the pipeline.

According to The Wall Street Journal,  Oregon, one of the greenest of states, has approved 6.9 billion in subsidies to expand rail capacity to move oil from the Bakken to barges on the Columbia.  Kansas City Southern is building a rail terminal in Texas to accommodate two 120 car trains, a mile long each, a day.  Ten oil trains a day travel through Philadelphia every day.  And so it goes.  The oil will still move, putting everything in it's path at greater risk than need be.

Polls show people want the Pipeline, the Unions want the pipeline, we know the Canadians want the pipeline yet the President opts to please the Sierra Club. Or the people who make up such organizations hoping they will support his post Presidential quest whatever it may be.

An 8 billion dollar project which would strengthen our energy security, create jobs and increase prosperity is for now in the can. Because the President doesn't want it.  The rest of us be damned.

It is said the President doesn't much like people. Well, more and more people aren't liking him either. No man may be an island but this President has isolated himself from the world and it's all of his own making. I hope he's happy with himself because surely very few others are.