“McCain is Bush 3″ is a political catch phrase and nothing more.

Both sides lie. I didn’t like Palin’s comments that you mention, and I also didn’t like what Rudy Giuliani had to say. I agree that both sides exploit the public ignorance or lack of education to its own benefit. The Republicans do it through fearmongering on terrorism and false moral rhetoric they’ll never act on. The Democrats do it with class warfare. If you watched the Democratic national convention the big lie told there is the “failed Bush economic policy”. Everyone that spoke said that phrase. You hear it all the time out of Nancy Pelosi’s mouth. And it’s a bald faced lie. It is used solely to manipulate voters. The facts and statistics show that we’d be worse off economically if Bush didn’t cut taxes. The middle class has shrunk because people have moved up, not down (the lower class hasn’t grown and the upper class has). This is a testament to economic prosperity not failure.

I don’t love Bush. In fact I think he screwed up on a whole list of issues, but his economic policy is not one of them.

In short, there’s a lot of lying and misleading going on.

If the best Democrats can do is say McCain is Bush 3, then McCain must be a pretty strong candidate.

I agree that Palin’s jesting remarks about Obama’s time as a community organizer in Chicago is below the belt, but on the other hand, I beleive that Obama’s lack of experience in comparison to McCain is a valid issue. Why do both parties have to be so over the top?

There’s still the essential paradox in McCain’s campaign where he wants smaller/less intrusive government, but continues to advocate a paternal government that regulates the private lives of its citizens. The Daily Show had an interesting bit where they asked several people to define the “small town values” they advocate — most responded with something along the lines of “real values” or something equally generic. Why is it the government’s job to impose moral values on me when it doesn’t affect my neighbor?

As far as what type of government we should have, it seems that over the last several years, government has caused lots of problems. Perhaps it should try to solve some now? I don’t see either major party reducing government any time, so it’s not much of a consideration for me. [though the Daily Show did get one congressman saying he'd cut the department of education first... ahem]

Overall, I really wish that each nominee would be able to run on his own virtues, point out the flaws of the other’s policies, but not lie, demean, or belittle the opponent. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Palin’s comments about community organizers upset me, in particular.

“Country first” doesn’t sound communist if it was said in the same spirit as JFK’s famous line, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. Taken in other contexts, I think it could be construed as communist, but looking at McCain and his wife and what they’ve done, I think it’s more along the lines of the part of his speech where he was asking each American to serve their communities.

As far as the protestor, he didn’t need to acknowledge it. Both conventions have rules about protestors on the floor and it’s business as usual to have a couple of them ushered out. I am surprised he paid it any attention at all. Is there something we should glean from it?

As far as the supreme court goes, legislating from the bench is different than ruling current legislation unconstitutional. Legislating from the bench is a court attempting to make new law. It can be construed by some that more “liberal” judges attempt this, where conservative ones do not. I disagree on that, I think conservative judges, depending on who they are, could and would legislate from the bench. Constitutionally sound judges is what we need, and the perception, rightly or wrongly, is that conservative judges are more constitutionally aligned. That is probably not as true as Republicans paint it. I think that making these comments in the speech was throwing the bone to evangelicals who disagreed with a certain decision in California months back. It can be argued that that particular instance was legislating from the bench rather than protecting the constitutionality of the law. On that particular issue, I tend to think that equal rights should win in the end, because that’s the constitutional spirit of the decision. But I agree with McCain in that our courts should stick to judging the law, not creating it. Again, that can be said for both sides, and should be a non-partisan opinion.

One scary thing about Republicans is whether they’ll really (this time) try to reduce the size of government and its power. Are we just going to get another load of expensive imperialism abroad and no cuts in government pork? Is the McCain era really going to initiate a bi-partisan effort to reduce spending? I think it was a possibility 8 years ago had McCain won, but now, I’m not so sure. Both sides are so opposed and so shrill right now. Republicans also cannot distance themselves from moral issues that should be advocated and supported in the private sector. My stance on many of those issues are that it isn’t the government’s job to decide. A lot of pro-lifers are in your bitching and moaning crowd. They’d no more try to support a young pregnant woman in their community than skip communion.

The scary thing about Democrats to me continues to be the class warfare, socialist overtones, and the promise of an increase in government power to solve problems. Is the government the answer? Will the govenrment deliver the solutions we need at a cost to our society that doesn’t squelch economic upward mobility and job creation?

The good thing about both parties is that I think we’re going to see a mixture of solutions to energy independence thanks to the voice of voters. I’m a little miffed at congress not holding votes on the issue until after elections are over, but the voters are the ones clarifying the correct position, and that’s refreshing to see. I like what I’m hearing from both presidential candidates on the issue. I wish Obama could fully support Nuclear power because it is clean and a lot safer than it was 50 years ago.

Suffice it to say, this is an exciting election with the best candidates we’ve seen in our lifetimes. (I don’t care what Republicans say, I’d take McCain over Reagan any day). Keep posting!