Take for example this iconic portrait taken during the campaigns. When McCain was canceling due to inclement weather, Obama was sporting a leather jacket in the snow and rallying voters. Now he’s playing basketball in the whitehouse? C’mon, who’s cooler than Obama?

Thank goodness we finally have someone with a brain who can discuss and understand the issues at a macro level.

Most conservative (christian pro-lifers) are shaking their heads at this news. Not me. Does that make me an evil liberal baby killer? Eh no. Let me tell you why this is a good thing and why you need to open your minds and understand the issues before blindly following the pro-life rhetoric.

Most pro-lifers favoured the Republican party the last 8 years and even in the recent election because Bush and McCain are both pro-life.

When Bush took over from the democratic Clinton, abortion rates were at a 24 year low and on the decline. With a pro-lifer in office you’d think this would continue. Sadly abortion rates rose an average of 14% over Bush’s first term. Why is that? Bush thought that to reduce abortion you just needed to close abortion clinics. Bush didn’t understand that to reduce abortions you need to fund sex education, provide adequate health care options to the poor and build a strong economy (most women cite the lack of a dependable spouse as the reason for their abortion and folks don’t get married in a weak economy).

In the end Bush’s stance of being pro-life anti-abortion earned him lots of conservative votes but meant nothing.

Back to the stem cell issue. Bush banned stem cell research because he thought it was wrong to experiment on viable embryos. A very noble sentiment, one which I happen to share. BUT did you ever stop to think where these embryos COME from?

Eh, no? Well, funny you should ask. They are a by-product of In Vitro Fertilization. Huh? Yeah. If a couple come in to make a “test tube” baby, the clinic typically makes MANY MANY embryos in a dish, then they pick the best one and implant it in the woman. What happens the rest? Oh oh, bad question!

They get frozen for a few months and then thrown out!!! You mean like an abortion? That’s for you to decide.

Stem cell researchers can take these otherwise discarded embryos and use them to cure cancer, blindness, heart failure, Parkinsons, diabetes and on and on. Bush’s ban removed that possibility.

The point I’m making is that stem cell research does nothing to increase or decrease the number of viable embryos that get discarded. If you want to tackle the problem you should ban in vitro fertilization. That’s the cause, not stem cell research.

Instead old Dubbya attacked science, took the popular position and here we are 8 years later, with just as many embryos washed down the drain and nothing to show for it. Thank goodness we have someone who understands the issues.

John McCain graduated fifth from the bottom at Anapolis out of a class of 900 (that’s hard to do). He was a terrible pilot and has crashed many times. He was shot down in Vietnam as a result of ignoring his prescribed flight path. When his wife Carol was left crippled in December 1969 by an auto accident, he traded her in for a new model, Cindy.

McCain and Palin have no regard for science (how this isn’t a huge national security issue I’ll never know):
During the debates, McCain hammered Obama’s requested earmark of three million dollars for what McCain referred to as "an overhead projector". That turned out to be the Adler planetarium’s main attraction. This facility in Chicago, educates millions of folks a year on the wonders of our universe and is a huge draw for the museum. Well it turns out Obama never voted on this and the museum never got the money [LINK] so McCain is a liar.

Palin claims to have cleaned up the government in Alaska yet she was found guilty of an abuse of power in the Troopergate investigation. Amazingly she lies about this and claims it did NOT find her guilty.

She herself amended expense reports to bring her children along on $21,000 worth of flights to various places, all on the government’s dime. [LINK]. The kids were not invited and showed up to many events unannounced.

"The state is already reviewing nearly $17,000 in per diem payments to Palin for more than 300 nights she slept at her own home, 40 miles from her satellite office in Anchorage."

She backed the bridge to nowhere but gave up when it became an embarrassment [LINK].

Todd Palin, despite not being a politician of any kind has sat in on numerous government-only sessions and became known as "Alaska’s second governor". [LINK]

Sarah Palin has a child with down syndrome yet she opposes Fruit Fly research. She’s probably unaware that fruit flies are a basic tool used by genetic engineers, biologists and scientists the world over. 

Palin is a creationist and believes the world was created in six days. I could stop there. She probably dislikes the fact that science has since proved evolution is real and even demonstrated it in the lab [LINK] and yet wants creationism taught in schools.

Palin grew up as a Pentacostal christian. These people speak in tongues and believe in the End Times. In June 8th 2008 she had a witch doctor anoint her in Wasilla church [LINK] and here’s the video [LINK].

Palin can’t name a single newspaper that she reads but apparently reads "all of ‘em".

McCain/Palin both are pro-life yet both support the war. Currently costing $10 billion a month. Palin believes the war is a mission from God! (wait isn’t that what the Taliban believe too? )

In 2004 Bush offered a tax credit of $3,000 to americans to go out and purchase health-care. Avg cost at the time was $8,000 nationwide. McCain’s idea is $5,000 when the avg cost is $12,000 [LINK]. In the tri-state area $12,000 isn’t going to buy you a band-aid.

Lastly the abortion issue: McCain/Palin are pro-life, Obama/Biden pro-choice. The current president is pro-life and yet has presided over 152 executions as governor [LINK]. He’s even quoted as having openly mocked a women as she was about to be put to death:
"Please," Bush whimpered, his lips pursed in mock desperation, "please, don’t kill me." I guess he’s only pro-unborn-life?

But really, what has Bush’s pro-life stance done? Has he reversed Roe-v-Wade? He promised he would appoint a supreme court judge who’d do it but I guess in 8 years there wasn’t enough time. Let’s face it, NO politician is EVER going to bite on that as it’d constitute political suicide. Bush didn’t do it and I don’t expect McCain or Palin would do it either.

The worst thing Bush did, as countless babies were aborted over the last 8 years was prevent stem cell research. These babies were aborted and simply thrown out with the trash instead of at least allowing science to use them. As always science prevailed and have since found a way to convert adult stem cells into undifferentiated cells resembling embryonic cells [LINK].

The point is, preventing stem cell research did not REDUCE the number of abortions in ANY way. If anything it clouded the issue which should’ve been how do we reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies to begin with.  (Palin’s daughter is currently pregnant whilst mom’s flying all over the country).

UPDATE: A few more data points on abortion: In 2007 McCain wanted to change the GOP’s stance on abortion to increase the number of "acceptable cases" to include rape, incest and the life of the mother [LINK]. That was some Mavericky-ness.

If you’re still not sure, consider that the PRO-LIFE party (Republicans) have held the presidency aswell as the house of representatives AND the senate for 6 out of the last 8 years but nope, they didn’t reverse Roe v Wade.

Roe v Wade took place in 1973, since then you’ve had Republican pro-life presidents for 7 out of 10 terms, that’s 28 years. In 28 years and countless "Marches for Life" the pro-lifers didn’t overturn it. So if you’re hoping a vote for pro-life will actually reduce abortions, keep dreaming.  The best way to stop abortion is education and you should already know how the Republicans feel about that.

So all things being equal, the lesser evil looks to be Obama and it would do my heart good to see a black man in the white house.

1. "And as Ronald Reagan believed that being the beacon of light — they want freedom."
2. "Senator McCain also showed great appreciation for what America whether that is part of the solution or not — that’s more than a lot of other senators and representatives did for us."
3. "We’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as competitive, scary thing, but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today — we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity.”
4. "I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should"
5.  "Well, there is a danger in allowing there has got to be action at a crisis time like this."
6. “That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we’re ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out”.
7. "I’m ill about the position that America is in, and obsessive partisanship — that’s paramount."
8.  “What the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy."
9. "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, um, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps"
10. "Helping the — it’s got to be all about job creation too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. "
11. "Our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future."
12. "So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans and trade."

Answer Key:

1. generated
2. generated
3. real, sarah palin
4. real, miss teen south carolina
5. generated
6. real, sarah palin
7. generated
8. real, sarah palin
9. real, miss teen south carolina
10. real, sarah palin
11. real, miss teen south carolina
12. real, sarah palin

If she weren’t so full of herself I might almost feel bad for her. It’s not like Couric’s playing hardball and hitting her with tough questions. These are basic things which she should have no problem answering. I could parrot back the stock answers she’s giving. Shaping up to be an interesting October/Nov.