Pennsylvnia Federation of College Republicans

As we all know, recent polls have concluded that Senator McCain is trailing Senator Obama even by double digits in some surveys.   McCain has denied the presumption that his campaign is a loosing cause, and for good reason. With 8 days to go before this election comes to a halt, political experts such as Karl Rove have also disavowed this recent gloomy poll numbers and given McCain a fighting, albeit up hill battle to gain the White House.  Are these pundits and even McCain himself simply delaying the inevitable?  Absolutely not.  McCain’s refusal to give in not only fits into his legendary character, but is reinforced by history.  Perhaps the most famous example, though not exactly recent history was Harry Truman’s victory over Thomas Dewey.  After weeks of polls declaring Dewey the leader by as much at 15 points, newspapers while publishing for the morning after election day, mistakenly published the headline “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.”  The newspaper that committed this famous act and is forever enshrined in a picture is none other than the Chicago Daily Tribune. Just remember, this election isn’t over until it’s over. Never assume you know the outcome, because you may end up looking like the Chicago Daily Tribune.

*Note: The following is a collection of live debate reactions from the Friday, September 26th, 2008 debate from Megan Ritter. Megan’s reactions from the beginning of the debate are found at the end of this post, with reactions from the end of the debate at the beginning of the post.*

• Barack Obama: “I’ve got a bracelet tooooooooo!” What could’ve been a moving discussion between the two men, Obama turned into a cheap moment of oneupmanship. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have brought up his paralell story, but is there any coarser, less respectful way in which he could’ve brought it up?

• Something Obama seems to forget when he tries to paint McCain as a warmonger: Both nominees on the Republican ticket have children currently serving in Iraq. It’s difficult to imagine either of them lightly committing troops.

• I’ve lost track of the number of times Obama has interrupted McCain. It’s somewhere north of six. Still waiting for McCain’s first interruption of Obama.

• McCain’s comment about the consequences of defeat is interesting in that historically it is something that the various peace movements have never honestly considered. We didn’t consider it in Vietnam - we left behind what Peggy Noonan describes as “an untold increase in horror for people on that part of the planet.”

• And “we took our eye off the ball” is a very, very juvenile metaphor for Obama to use when discussing such a fundamentally serious issue.

• A Republican who understands that effective defense spending doesn’t mean funding every goofy boondoggle project possible…I like this guy more all the time.

• Obama interrupting McCain count, so far: three times. McCain interrupting Obama count, so far: zero times.

• For all the animus that they’ve earned from the left it would seem that Reagan and then Bush the Younger have changed the nature of the debate so fundamentally that even liberal Democrats have to run on promises to cut taxes. We’re a looooooong way from Walter Mondale promising - promising in no uncertain terms! - that he was going to raise taxes on as many people as possible. Democrats promising to cut taxes is a political problem for Republican campaigns, but a really nice problem to have!

• Obama points out that high gas prices are killing the middle class. Too bad he didn’t realize this earlier in the summer, when he noted that he would’ve preferred that gas prices not rise quite so fast.

• “Earmarking as a gateway drug.” Obama’s asked for a million dollars worth of earmarks per day he’s been in the Senate?!?

• McCain takes a moment for Ted Kennedy. The left keeps calling McCain a right-wing fanatic, and this is why the label never quite sticks.

• Halfway through Obama’s first answer, I still don’t know what he thinks of the bailout.

• The consensus of the Fox News panel starting this thing: the winner is the one who proves himself likable. Since statistically Obama has run 75% negative ads to McCain’s 55%…

As the world turns its head towards Beijing, Russia has seized the opportunity of an occupied limelight and invaded Georgia. I cannot say I’m surprised. Just the hour or so of research I’ve done on the Ossetia-Georgia conflict shows that something was eventually to happen. With no ceasefire in sight and the quick advance of Russian troops beyond South Ossetia, things may escalate further.

(more…)

I found this relevant to previous comments to one of my posts. I find it to no surprise that McCain made this jump in the polls. He’s been doing the right things - being honest with the people. Is the American public realizing who Senator Barack Obama really is?

I hope so. Only time will tell.

read more | digg story

In an article on CNN.com yesterday, Chris Lawrence sought to paint a dreary picture for young conservatives and John McCain. He contested that the youth “are worried about McCain’s appeal”. He infers that young Republicans just are not excited about John McCain. He based most of his article off of a quote from what came to be known as a false source (see both here,  and here). Surprise, surprise, yet another media outlet bends information to fit their perspective.
 
Yes, there seems to be, at the time, a bigger crowd for Obama. But are young Republicans “worried” about John McCain? I don’t think so. On cyber space, he has less presence, but we have yet to find out how much that will amount to. The College Republicans have always been the superior grassroots organization. Second to none. And they plan on continuing to do so this year as well. Not only that, but the GOP knows that, McCain knows that, and the rest of our candidates know that. Instead of going on facebook, or posting youtube videos, we are going door to door, making phone calls, and organizing rallies on campus.

(more…)

Direct quotes taken from Douglass K. Daniel of the Associated Press. I feel this is an extremely important article to read and I have made comments throughout. Please leave any thoughts or feedback. Click here to read the full article: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iM20OuwwEfNzceNo1cYLrLxYc_DQD91QC0N84

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that Iran’s missile tests highlight the need for direct diplomacy as well as tougher threats of economic sanctions and strong incentives to persuade Tehran to change its behavior.

John McCain, the Republican seeking the presidency, said the tests demonstrate a need for effective missile defense, including missile defense in Europe and the defense system the U.S. plans with the Czech Republic and Poland.

(more…)

Yesterday President Bush dropped the executive branch’s moratorium on offshore drilling. Today crude oil futures dropped by more than $9 a barrel. Coincidence? Economist and syndicated columnist Larry Kudlow doesn’t think so.

One of the Democrat Congress’ more oft-repeated excuses for not allowing off-shore drilling is the notion that it will take at least ten years to begin producing oil from offshore sources and at least that long for oil prices to come down as a result.

Instead, oil companies haven’t even fired up their drills and oil futures for next month have dropped 6.3%. President Bush, Senator McCain and the responsible members of Congress have come out in favor of offshore drilling and the price of oil is dropping - that price drop can only continue when the rest of Congress finally feels the heat, sees the light, and lifts their ban on offshore drilling. Once that happens, Wall Street researchers predict it’ll take less than a year to start pumping oil from beneath the shallow oceans off the coast of California.

We have to get a jump on domestic oil production to see a sustained drop in oil prices - but as President Bush proved today, simply showing that we are serious about domestic production is enough to get the prices headed downward.