Fluff, Puff and Stuff

Okay, I missed last night's selectmen's meeting. So, If you are aware of anything earth shattering, or just plain entertaining, that went on let me know.  On to other things now.

The DNC started yesterday.  Did I watch every single minute?  No. Seems at least last night you could though on C-SPAN.  It is going to be interesting to watch how this show plays out compared to last week's show from the GOP.

I often wonder if you could somehow do a "blind taste test" on political candidates how that would turn out.  Get a sampling of say 150 people.  Split the group up between party affiliations and unenrolled.  Remove the (R) and the (D).  It would be interesting to see the outcome of the sampling.

Just a thought.

Anyway, unless there is a significant shift in the way the electoral votes are presently predicted to go.  It is going top be an uphill battle for Romney.  A very steep uphill battle.  

You need 270 of those thingies.  I have seen projections ranging from: Obama with 247 either in the strong, likely or leans toward category vs. 191 for Romney; and, showing Obama with 221 vs. the same 191 for Romney.

Now votes in the likely or leans toward are not guarantied.  That being said, when you are handicapping anything, you need to use the information you have at your disposal.  What is there right now indicates that Romney is going to need a big assist via some major screw up from the Democrats, or something significant happening between now and election day.  

Again just a thought.

I ran across a piece on the Boston Globe web site that was interesting.  It was under the "Political Intelligence" blog.  Something the Mass. Democratic Party Chair might need a bit more of.  The fact that the democratic candidate might find it embarrassing to run ads about her personal life, is not a reason for attacking Senator Brown for having the foresight to utilize a well worn and proven tactic in political campaigns.

Believe it or not, people like to see the person behind candidate.  They like to get to know them.

I don't know about you, but criticizing a candidate for showing himself doing a household chore like folding towels isn't going to win you too many points.  In fact the criticism went so far as to say Brown was trying to prove he was an "honorary girl".

Kind of a wow moment that was just a blip on the radar.  Not to worry.  All is okay.  The Dem. party chair was just being fresh.

What is more disturbing is a paragraph from the article:

While Brown touts bipartisanship with the occasional Democratic vote, Walsh said, “we need someone who’s going to be with us every day, on every vote, and that’s Elizabeth Warren.”

While we can leave it up to ourselves to determine whether Brown's bi-partisanship is in fact a reality or not, there seems no doubt that the Dems. have no intent that it exist if he is defeated.

But this is exactly why we have what we have right now in this country, from both parties.  Does anyone seriously want someone who is going to be in lockstep with their party, every day, on every vote?

You can chalk the statement up to political rhetoric if you like, but I don't. 

What keeps this country so divided politically is that both parties tend to cater not to the middle, but to the extremes.  

If you listen, and I mean really listen, to what the middle class thinks of everything going on, you will find a mix of contradictory believes and desires, when placed against the two major parties stances.  Listen to a conversation long enough and you will hear statements tending to agree for the need of tax reform and the fact "the rich" get too many tax breaks.  If you stick around long enough, you will also hear a whole lot about the need to curtail entitlement programs.

In the presidential election, I really and truly have not made up my mind.  While I am not a supporter of the Obama administration, I am a long way from being convinced that Romney holds the answers.  I definitely don't aspire to the "anything has to be better" philosophy.

In the senate race, I am pretty certain I am going with Brown.  Everything from the Warren camp indicates that she indeed is going to be a lockstep Democrat if elected.  In fact, the recent polls indicate her best shot at defeating Brown is taking that specific stance and hoping the "blue" voters turn out in droves in the election and vote the party line.

When you start to see some big time Democrats defecting (and no I don't mean the ones in the ads, I mean some big time, behind the scenes people.  The type you will never see in the ads.  The type that actually coughs up the money to pay for the ads), when you see the Mayor of Boston playing more than just coy with his potential endorsement, when you hear and read the things that are out there at this point, it causes you to do more than just wonder.

The best article I have run across on this particular contest, so far anyway, can be found on The Tampa Bay Times web site, although the piece by David Catanese can be found on a number of other sites.  Read it.  It is worth your time I think.

In our own paper, you will find some interesting pieces related to Fairhaven.  One deals with the money generated to date from the turbines, and the other is an opinion piece on tax credits for turbines.  There will probably be more on these at some point, but since my battery is about to run out, I will end it with that.

Have a safe day.