I put my palm to the kitchen floor a few minutes ago, and it’s just as I expected. The tile temperature has dropped noticeably … hell must be freezing over.

It is very likely that, when the new rankings are released tomorrow, the Maryland and Vanderbilt football teams will both be in the Top 25. Never in our marriage did I think we would see such a phenomenon!

Maryland beat the 20th-ranked Clemson Tigers in South Carolina today to open their ACC schedule. We fought back from two double-digit deficits. At the end of the game, the radio announcer said that Maryland “is now a force to be reckoned with after this statement game.” Thank you very much!

I would like to take a moment to thank the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State University. I believe that the Terps’ pathetic loss to you is the kick in the pants needed to put the team on the right track.

Could both Moore teams be bowl-bound????

I just wanted to share some observations on last night’s debate before my girl and I head out to the Y for some morning treadmill action:

1. I think they both did poorly. For the first part of the debate, which focused on the financial crisis, they both threw together random strings of facts and quips hoping that something would stick. Neither one assured me that he had a strong grasp of the problem.

2. I wish McCain would have been more assertive. He needed to look at Obama more often and make direct statements like, “You don’t seem to understand …” or “You were wrong about …”

3. When Obama asserted that he “stood up and opposed the war when it was politically unpopular,” Nathan and I both wished McCain had responded with, “Stood up where? A park in Chicago?”

4. Obama was condescending to Jim Lehrer, with comments like, “Please go ahead” and “You said you had one more question. Please go ahead and ask it.” That was a big turnoff.

5. McCain should never refer to himself as a maverick. It sounds silly. And, the Miss Congeniality joke was used one too many times.

6. I guess McCain was warned to keep his temper in check. But, I wish he would have been stronger. It’s OK to get a little angry/aggressive when discussing our nation’s safety and the defense of our allies.

7. McCain needed to pull a few lines from Fred Thompson’s convention speech to explain why Obama’s tax plan would be disastrous. Instead, Obama got away with the idea that taxes would be lower for 95% of Americans.

I’m glad (I think) that there are two more debates so that these two men can review last night’s performance and give us a better discussion of the ideas next time.

I’m off to battle for a parking spot with the families who infiltrate the Y this time of year to watch their kids play soccer.

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What would the media coverage be if Sarah Palin had said the following:

“When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened’.”

For those who are asking themselves, “What’s wrong with that statement?” — First of all, shame on your history teacher (and your own lack of interest in minimal American lore)! Second, FDR wasn’t president when the stock market crashed. Finally, he WAS the first president to appear on TV … ten years after the crash.

So, back to my original query. What if Palin had said it? My guess is that the story would be a headline on every news program. Palin would be ridiculed as lacking basic knowledge concerning both American history and 20th century technological advancements.

But instead, the error-filled statement was made by Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden. So, what’s on CNN.com right now?

“New dad Clay Aiken Tells Magazine He’s Gay”

“Millions of Kids Have Untreated Tooth Decay”

Not a mention about Biden’s gaffe, even when I click on the “Politics” page. But, I sure am a better-informed citizen now that I know the newborn son of the same-sex loving Aiken (shocked, just shocked!) should get regular check-ups with the neighborhood dentist.

Similar omissions were found when I searched other news sites. Now, you may think this was just a silly, flip comment made by Biden and therefore it was not even worth mentioning. I believe the remarks make Biden sound a bit light in the intellectual gravitas and show him to be a fan of simply making stuff up. And … really … can you tell me that much more media attention would not have been made to this statement if made by Palin?

In his efforts to ensure he will clearly and convincingly say anything to get elected, Barack Obama dons the mantle of the fiscal conservative

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama moved to claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility in a roiling economy, vowing on Monday to slash federal spending on contractors by 10 percent and saving $40 billion.

Urging members of his own party to be just as fiscally tough as the most conservative Republicans, Obama said the $700 billion economic bailout plan proposed by the Bush administration and congressional leaders is forcing a renewed look at federal spending.

So, he will save $40 billion (a drop in the proverbial federal government), but when viewed with all of his proposed spending proposals, would still balloon the deficit twofold, which, I believe, is a conservative estimate, and the only conservative thing about Obama’s spending tendencies. In reality, cutting contractor spending means the bureaucracy will have to do the same work, and at a greater cost. As we have come to expect, the Democrats’ nominee readily demonstrates his abject cluelessness about running much of anything.

The best part of Obama’s proposal is not the ridulous substance, as we get that practically everyday, but the irony

As president, Obama said he would create a White House team headed by a chief performance officer to monitor the efficiency of government spending.

Nothing quite enhances government efficiency like expanding the bureaucracy.

Not that the Obama campaign seems to care

In Elko, Obama tried to anticipate his critics and called on the crowd of about 1,500 to sharpen their elbows, too.

“I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face,” he said.

Yeah, that will sway ‘em.

It’s nice to see Mr. Empty Suit toughen up a bit. The aura of wimpiness was getting to just be contemptible.

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Race is certainly a factor in this year’s election. Democrats just can’t stop bringing it up

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius publicly considered the possibility that Sen. Barack Obama’s race might be a factor in this year’s presidential election during an appearance here Tuesday.

“Have any of you noticed that Barack Obama is part African-American?” Sebelius asked in response to a question about why the election is so close. “That may be a factor. All the code language, all that doesn’t show up in the polls. And that may be a factor for some people.”

Funny how this sort of backwards thinking didn’t fit into the equation when he was up by 8 points. Does the enlightened Kansas governor think the American electorate had been watching the campaign on the radio until the last couple of weeks?

The obvious answers as to why the election is so close right now (McCain/Palin are sure to pull away at some point) are too painful for the average Democrat pol to confront. This was supposed to be their year. They were supposed to win the White House, pick up seats in the congress, and maybe pick off a state legislature or two. That the Obama campaign is rudderless, message-less, and in a state of general disarray hits a little too close to home. It HAS to be those ignorant, racist SOB’s on the other side of the aisle causing all of this closeness. It cannot possibly be that Obama is having trouble even riding his own coattails.

As is the usual, when things go awry, Democrats inject race. There are still real racial issues in this country to be dealt with for sure. Unfortunately, the real issues become difficult to see when the Democrat Party keeps burying them with minstrel straw men.

It has been proven that being a) fat or b) a vegetarian, is worse for your brain than imbibing beer (or any other concoction, for that matter).

Ben Franklin was right.

I hear it hangs next to one of Che and Uncle Joe.

Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari discloses Barack Obama’s attempts to delay any agreement on American troop withdrawal until, apparently, he is sworn in (a presumptuous cuss, isn’t he?)

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview.

Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops - and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its “state of weakness and political confusion.”

Shouldn’t this bother everybody? We have an inexperienced and overly ambitious United States senator roving into the middle of a theater of war, attempting to undermine the ongoing negotiations of a presently sitting presidential administration, going so far as representing to a foreign government that the current American government is “weak”.

Obama has no desire for a speedy withdrawal of United States’ troops from Iraq.  Unless an agreement is entered into now, under the Bush administration, it would be impossible to responsibly withdraw American forces by Barack Obama’s self-created 2010 deadline without sending the Iraqi government into disarray. He is trying to keep the withdrawal issue a political one for his own ambitions. Truly, he is indeed putting his own political ambitions above what even he represents to be the right course of action.

For all of you nuts out there who think George W. Bush should be impeached, I hope you just as adamantly call for prosecution of Barack Obama under the Logan Act.

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OK, maybe that title is a bit of an exaggeration. But, I am still very excited about our big win over the ranked team from Cal earlier today. I can’t believe this same Terps team actually lost to Middle Tennessee State University last week, but maybe that was the swift kick they needed to start playing well.

January bowl game … here we come!!!

The latest NWS bulletin on Hurricane Ike had this to say

ALL NEIGHBORHOODS… AND POSSIBLY ENTIRE COASTAL COMMUNITIES… WILL BE INUNDATED DURING THE PERIOD OF PEAK STORM TIDE. PERSONS NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY HOMES WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH.

Normally there is more of a hedge than that. Wow.

Proud
… of the firefighters who were walking in while others were running out. Tears streamed down my face this morning as I watched the footage of those brave men and women on that horrible morning.

… of the countless acts of courage and brotherhood that were exhibited around the country and the world. People helping disabled co-workers down flights of stairs, people waiting in line for hours to donate blood, people just offering a shoulder to cry on.

… of the unity with fellow Americans in the weeks that followed. I will never forget standing on a street corner in Arlington, VA for hours on the night of September 14 with dozens of complete strangers. We hugged, cheered for our country, thanked in advance the members of the military who joined us for what they would soon be doing (we were down the street from the Pentagon). We just wanted to be around our neighbors. We all had a common sense of pride and purpose.

… of our country and the ideals for which it stands. Catherine and I paused this morning in front of the YMCA, where the flag was flying at half mast. I talked to her about heroes and freedom and that when the flag looks like that we are remembering something sad. I talked to her about the importance of the American flag, and she pointed to every one she saw on our ride home. There were a lot more them hanging from front porches and storefronts seven years ago.

But, I am also

Angry
… that Osama bin Laden is not rotting in hell (as far as we know).

… that President Bush did not ask more of us and that he squandered an opportunity to bring every American together to fight for our freedoms and make this country even stronger.

… that President Clinton seems to get a free pass even though the attacks were planned unabated during his administration and if the terrorist asshole had parked his truck in the right place those towers would have come down in 1993 with no one having a chance to get out alive.

… that people sitting in the coffee area at the YMCA this morning did not stop their conversations when Taps came playing from the TV screen and a moment of remembrance was being observed.

Talking lipsticked pigs, from Barack Obama in Norfolk, Virginia

“See, it would be funny, but the news media decided that would be the lead story yesterday. This happens every election cycle. Every four years, this is what we do. This is what they want to spend two of the last 55 days talking about…Enough!” he said.

Obama called the attacks “lies, outrage and swift boat politics.”

“These are serious times and they call for a serious debate…spare me all the phony outrage. Spare me all the phony talk about change.”

Swift boat politics? So Obama ADMITS the McCain campaign is telling the truth. And you can’t talk about change, because I talked about change FIRST!

It seems the new minimum age for the presidency is about eight. Regardless of what you think of his politics, it is becoming abundantly clear that Barack Obama simply is just not tough enough to be President of the United States.

Change. It resonated for awhile, and then, like it an ad campaign that reached its saturation point, stopped being effective. Potential voters started asking “where’s the beef?”, and Obama has yet to stumble onto a new message that can carry his candidacy through November.

It is my estimation that Republicans are unpopular because we as a party failed to fulfill our promises to the American people. Mark Rogers makes a key distinction between “change” and “reform”. Change is an alternative to the stasis - reform is change with a purpose.  Regardless of your reasons for supporting Barack Obama, one of them cannot be considered his capacity for reform, as he has offered nothing that has not been offered before. He missed his time - his politics are more apt for the advent of the socialist state during the Great Society or the New Deal, not the center-right country that exists in 2008. On the other hand, John McCain does have the capacity to offer reform, both of the federal government and to that end, his own party. From RogersPost

I believe that a majority of Americans still want a government that leans to the Republican Ideas but run well rather than changing to another round of what we had from the 60s through the 90s. The fact that Senator Obama has not broken away in spite of his superior finances, his excellent campaign organization and the unpopularity of current Republican leaders and policy suggests that the American voters are waiting for Senator McCain to make the case that he can reform the party and improve the national condition.

It is not that the American people dislike Republicanism for what it was, but for what it currently is. Fiscally speaking, there has been very little difference between the parties on the Washington level, which has caused great consteration among the GOP base, while at the same time offering very little worthy of support from the independent voter. McCain has the credibility to change that (no pun intended…maybe), and can make the case for reform. At the time of this writing, Barack Obama cannot even effectively make the case for change anymore, spending most of his time nowadays explaining away things like pigs and lipstick. As Mark correctly noted, the case is McCain’s to make.

I have a one word response to that.

Good.

The “English only” charter amendment is bad, not because the Metropolitan government needs to be speaking in English (it already is), but because it is completely unnecessary. The primary advocates, many of whom I have known for years, are pursuing bad government policy with reckless abandon and it is shameful. The call for a special election, which would cost the taxpayers somewhere in the ballpark of $350,000 for an unnecessary, legally irresponsible amendment, is absurd. The money Metro would be spending could just as well go to more accessible English as a second language classes, which would go further toward solving the perceived linguistic problems of our city than this silly amendment.

As Davidson County Republican Party chairman Tom Lawless noted in The Tennessean today, “What is the great immediacy of this?”. He is certainly right - there is no immediacy, especially not in the case of this poorly contrived law.

I tend to look for the best in people, and will give most the benefit of many doubts, but I truly cannot figure out what positive is being accomplished with this amendment.  The state of the law will not change. The only outcome will be that costs to Metro will go up in the form of litigation from certain constitutional challenges.

There is no language crisis in our city. Immigrants are not “holding out” on us, refusing to speak in anything but their native tongues. No one comes to America (and more specifically, Nashville), not wanting to learn English. There is not some underground society on Nolensville Road that has pledged to speak Spanish or die.

But what does need to die is the English-Only charter amendment. It is giving conservatives in Metro an awful reputation, one that many of us do not deserve and strenuously resent. I strongly oppose the English-Only charter amendment and urge its backers to rethink their reasons for supporting it. Surely we can focus on something that would actually make Metro better, leaving the coarsely developed aura of this irrational xenophobia in the gutter where it truly belongs.

George W. Bush announced yesterday that 8,000 American troops will be withdrawn from Iraq, allowing for additional forces to effectuate change in the Afghan theater.

Just moments ago, Barack Obama attempted to spin his wrongheaded stance on Iraq by saying that even now, George W. Bush supports American troop withdrawal. You see, like, I said it first, now Bush is doing it. I’m smart - and look, I can even lead!

Now, first it is funny, given all the haranguing from Democrats en masse, that Barack Obama finds political favor in courting an action of President Bush. Second, it is plain that Obama is overestimating his powers in trying to pull a Jedi mind trick over on the American people.

Anyone with half a brain knows that, absent Bush’s implementation of the surge (a policy Obama now admits to being successful, but still opposes - eh, judgment), American troops could not withdraw in any numbers from Iraq peacefully.  Obama’s withdrawal plan was cover for an orderly retreat from the Middle East, and a complete surrender of American interests in the region. Bush’s withdrawal, planned for early next year, is done with American interests maintained, and a turbulent Iraq pacified. That Obama thinks for a second the American people will give him kudos for his exceptional foreign policy acumen demonstrates just how far from reality he currently resides, and how inept David Axelrod and company have ultimately become.

Folks, he is becoming his own punchline, and looking less presidential by the day. Governor Sarah Palin, the much ineffectively maligned running mate of John McCain, is drawing crowds as large as, and bigger than, Barack Obama.  Even Willie Brown, the Democrat sage and former mayor of San Francisco, is noting that the Democrats are now on defense, and in his words “we don’t do well on defense.”

It’s okay, Joe Biden is an attack dog. He will save the campaign.

Please, hold the laughter.

This just hit my Inbox, coming from an individual I know who runs a Christian school south of Nashville

Our son-in-law was shot in Afghanistan yesterday in a fire fight in the mountains. He took an AK47 hollow point round in the upper left arm at five feet. He will live but we are not sure if he will keep his arm. He is serious but stable.

Please pray and thank God with us that he is alive, ask that our dear Father will draw Marcus to Himself thru this event, that God would restore his arm, and for my daughter Catherine who is besides herself with stress (7 mos. pregnant) because she cannot yet be with her husband.

Pre-Palin — I don’t see how social conservatives are going to bring themselves to vote for McCain.

Post-Palin — I don’t see how those who are not social conservatives can bring themselves to vote for McCain.

My sister posed a query in the Comments of my previous post. Since I do not adhere to many of the social conservative opinions, how can I vote for a McCain/Palin ticket?

Although without enthusiasm, I was going to vote for McCain regardless of his VP selection (within reason … a Charles Manson groupie, for example, might pose a problem for me). My vote is against Obama. For the most part, it still is. I remain without overwhelming excitement for the McCain/Palin ticket, but I remind myself of the alternative and that is enough to keep me motivated.

When I make my selection among candidates, the first question I usually ask myself is, “Which person will have less of a negative impact on my life?” Just by being in charge of the federal government, the victor is likely to do some damage. Washington seems to have that effect on even those with the best of intentions.

McCain comes out ahead in my determining question. Why? Senator Obama necessarily will raise taxes on anything that moves or contains things that move in order to fund his new and/or expanded federal programs. He will (further) federalize education and early childhood intervention. He favors (nearly) universal health care. Chi-ching. He wants to pay for college educations in their entirety. Chi-ching. He won’t privatize social security … one of my biggest disappointments with President Bush is that he didn’t force this issue more strongly after the “mandate” of his second term. I could go on and on with the negative impact that Obama would have if elected.

Yes, Sarah Palin is a social conservative. She is entitled to those views. What impact would those opinions have on her role as vice-president? Very little. (I don’t see the next Senate deadlocked and in need of a tie-breaking vote very often.) What if she becomes president? As far as I can tell, her biggest influence concerning social issues would be to nominate federal judges who would work to overturn Roe v. Wade. That’s fine with me. Such a decision would not make abortion illegal … it would just return the issue to the states. I think abortion, gay marriage, school vouchers, and other social issues should be kept at the state and local levels. We have gotten so far away from the federalist intentions constructed by our Constitution. A presidential candidate is actually talking about hiring teachers? What??? “Please tell Prime Minister Brown that I’ll be with him in five minutes. I need to finish reviewing this application from Ms. Smith. She wants to teach math at P.S. 182!” Yes, I’m exaggerating, but the president of the United States should not be concerned with recruiting teachers. On a related note, can’t we please just dismantle the federal Department of Education already?

I don’t think Sarah Palin is overt in her social conservative stances. She doesn’t shove her positions on people in a way done by others who make such causes a priority. I realize that just the mention of a pro-life stance or God is enough to send off “crazy conservative” alarm bells in some liberals, but that’s just silly.

So, to my sister and anyone else who may be reading, I am voting for McCain because I don’t believe he (or Sarah Palin) would influence social change beyond what I would like to see anyway. And, more importantly, I must vote against Barack Obama and his intentions to guide our country further away from the Constitution and the fundamental foundations of this country.

What a week for Barack Obama.

He (accidentally) refers to his “Muslim faith” on George Stephanopolous’ show, waivers and quakes on every position he has hitherto held (abortion, taxes, Iraq, the surge), and now faces a 10 point deficit to McCain/Palin in the latest USA Today likely voter poll.

And as we all know, it is the likely voter polls, not the registered voter polls, that really count.

I can hear the Democrats now, wondering aloud in polite company how the rest of America could be so stupid. I would respectfully take that question and redirect it in the direction from whence it came.

Barack Obama’s entire primary campaign was a personality contest and a “change” event (which really just kept reminding me of this particular South Park episode, where his supporters were the homeless). Between he and Hillary, there was little difference on the issues, ergo the issues were not discussed. Except  maybe health care, though from a conservative point-of-view, government control is government control. A skunk is still a skunk, no matter how wide his (or her) stripe.

Now that the general election is upon him, and real questions, voter scrutiny and his own soaring oratory begin to descend, the plaster of Paris that is Barack Obama’s candidacy has begun to crack.

And it is not the “Republican attack machine” that is dismantling him, contrary to his echoes of Hillary Clinton’s mythical “vast right-wing conspiracy” from Democrat whines of yore. It is his own failure to stand for anything worth supporting, and like a Seinfeld episode that never ends, pinning his political future on a campaign about nothing. As he added substance to his campaign-speak, we learn what many of us already knew. He isn’t about “change” - he is just another tired old liberal, advocating policies that would balloon the federal government, destroy federalism, and transform this country in ways that would make her completely unrecognizable to her Founders. His proposals stem from a childish admiration of that pathetic 1960s hippy mindset of free love and free everything, except that you and I pay for it.

And why does it seem he is running against Sarah Palin? Is he really that afraid of John McCain?

I now feel free to offer a bit of advice for you Democrats who think that the debates will work in his favor. Barack Obama may be the most scripted presidential candidate in history. Though well produced, Ronald Reagan (as Bill Clinton) was great off-the-cuff, had their own ideas, and knew their subject matter. Obama, certainly unworthy of Reagan’s dirty sock, and not a sliver as tough as Bill Clinton, loses his unicorn-like luster when required to think on his feet.  John McCain does not.

This may be the beginning of the end for the Obama candidacy. If it is, the country will be better off for it.