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There are many great resources out there on Obama’s plan for tax increases that make a great case for McCain, here however, I would like to share a little more personal story.

I was recently talking to one of the Indian men that works with me on my project, we have gotten closer as we have been working longer hours lately and he brought up the Tinkerbell movie that is coming out soon.  He mentioned that his wife, who recently moved to the US, worked on the animation for it.  I asked if she was working on it here and he said she couldn’t because she was on a dependent visa but, it had been a “dream job”.  She wanted to be with him and knew there was even better opportunities here so she jumped at the opportunity to come to America.

The rest of the world is a great place, they have beautiful places to visit and some have almost every social service imaginable but, no other country provides the type of opportunity that America does. Especially in terms of upwards mobility. How do we do it?  We have low taxes and a great business environment.

The rest of the world loves Barack Obama (by margins as high as 80-20), that’s an argument I hear from many of my friends (and the polls).  They like him because he is more like them, more big government, higher taxes and supportive of more taxpayer funded social services.  We have a choice with this election, we can go down the path that Europe and much of the rest of the world is heading towards - bigger government that Barack supports through “redistributing income”, etc, - or we can continue to be what has made us great and made so many people from around the world pursue, the land of low taxes, free markets, independence and opportunity.

I can’t wait to vote McCain tomorrow in the hopes that we can straighten this country out in the direction of lower taxes, smaller government and more opportunity.

From the Drudge Report: “GALLUP’s ‘traditional’ likely voter model shows Obama with a two-point advantage over McCain on Thursday, 49% to 47%, this is within poll’s margin of error… Developing…”

Could Joe The Plumber, a blue collar man who spoke for most of America when he spoke out against Obama’s socialist redistribution of wealth, turn this race around? Let’s hope so!

Don’t forget, America has already shown it doesn’t like the brand of socialist redistribution Obama is peddling in this June Gallup poll question (as James points out):

“When given a choice about how government should address the numerous economic difficulties facing today’s consumer, Americans overwhelmingly—by 84% to 13%—prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.”

Here is McCain’s newly released web ad to highlight again how Obama wants to “spread the wealth”:

A friend of mine recently sent along an email on the candidates and their educational backgrounds, basically stating that Obama had an Ivy League education so, he is a far superior candidate. I completely disagree, I think it’s what you do with your degree (ie your experience). Here is the original email:

“Candidates’ Educational background

With America facing historic debt, multiple war fronts, stumbling health
care, a weakened dollar, all-time high prison population, skyrocketing
Federal spending, mortgage crises, bank foreclosures, etc. etc., this is
an unusually critical election year.

Let’s look at the educational background of the candidates and see what
they bring to the job:

Obama:
Occidental College - Two years.
Columbia University - B.A. political science with a specialization in
international relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

& Biden :
University of Delaware - B.A. in history and B.A. in political science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank 894 out of 899 (meaning that,
like George Bush, McCain was at the bottom of his class)

Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in journalism

Now, which team are you going to hire to lead the most influential
nation in the world? Regardless of what you believe in, FACTS are FACTS!”

And my response:
Would you hire a CEO just because they went to Harvard? I wouldn’t. A CEO needs experience and understanding. Even Palin (the bottom of the GOP ticket) has far more administrative experience than Barack Obama as she has actually run a state rather than just debating in the Senate for a few years and running for President. I don’t even need to mention the breadth of experience McCain has in foreign policy and fiscal reform, just look at his many years in the Senate and his repeated attempts to reign in Fannie and Freddie.

Just for posterity’s sake though, let’s look a few other great American Presidents and where they were educated (you will quickly see that experience, understanding and ideology trump an ivory tower Ivy League education).

Ronald Reagan
Eureka College

Abraham Lincoln
None

Thomas Jefferson
College of William and Mary

Dwight Eisenhower
United States Military Academy

All of these Presidents did great things for our country not because of where they got their Juris Doctorate but, because of their ideas and the their leadership.

Obama may have lots of experience running the Harvard Law Review but, I hardly see how that translates to running the country or bringing our economy back to free market success (especially after seeing his 1.3 trillion in new spending proposals and huge tax increases on small businesses).

McCain and Palin have the right ideas, they want to control spending and lower taxes in a pragmatic way that will reshape and improve the economy.

Updated: Jefferson founded University of Virginia, thank you John for the comment.

[poll id="25"]

If you have further thoughts not shared already, please post a comment.

Sarah Palin is a fine pick for VP. She is great on the issues closest to my heart - strongly pro-life and pro-marriage. Early indications are that she’s very good on judges. Her fifth child, Trig, was born in April - he was diagnosed with Down Syndrome in the womb - they took the pregnancy to term and she proclaimed him “perfect” upon birth. She has received universal praise from conservative Christian and evangelical leaders and interest groups.

Politically, she’s a calculated risk. I’m not worried about any Dan Quayle-style stuff coming out of her background. Obviously she’s not very experienced in terms of time in office - less than 2 years as Gov of Alaska, and before that mayor of a town of 5000. So it will tough to attack Obama as inexperienced - although 2 years running a state is much more valuable than 4 years as a US Senator, 3 of which were spent running for president. Moreover, in that time he has done nothing, whereas her time as governor and before that as mayor and ethics commissioner show a real record of leadership and reform. I assume the McCain Camp is thinking, Hillary staked her all on saying Obama was too inexperienced to be President, and voters still chose him. So McCain needed a “game-changer” who could reinforce a reform message (and Drill Drill Drill!).

Obviously Palin is meant to reach out to the Hillary voters and women while at the same time energizing the base and reinforcing a reform message. She’ll help with Hillary voters some, but not the same as a Kay Bailey Hutchinson or Meg Whitman. She will absolutely energize the base - reading my friends’ facebook statuses, it’s all excitement. I’m skeptical that McCain can out “reform” Obama, Mr. Change personified. I suppose the “reform” mantra is meant to offer a two-fer: with McCain, you get experience to keep us safe AND the reform we need.

Finally, I think she and her husband will provide a good story and be good communicators. She’s pretty, she hunts and fishes and likes moose burgers. He’s a champion snowmobile racer. “NASCAR dads” will eat that up. She drives a jetta to work and is a self-described “hockey mom.” She used to be a TV sports journalist, so she’s comfortable with the camera. She beat a sitting Republican governor in the primary and a former Democrat governor in the general in ‘06 to become governor, so clearly she’s a good campaigner. Looking at the electoral map, hopefully she can make a particular impact in Colorado as a fellow Westerner.

So on the whole, I’m quite pleased. They held the leak until an hour before the event, the event was packed, McCain was smiling, they stole the news cycle from Obama’s acceptance speech. Now we just have to hope that Hurricane Gustav does not through the GOP convention’s schedule down the drain and we’ll be okay … This race doesn’t really start until Sept. 10 - that’s the first poll I’ll take seriously.

After “Celeb” comes… “The One“!

I have to agree with the analysis over at Sound Politics (which I have kept up with since I spent 6 months in Seattle for work):

“Note there appears to a be a delineation between Republicans embracing McCain’s new ad, as discussed below, versus those opposed.

The old guard types like John Weaver and Mike Murphy are squeamish. The new guard like Rich Lowry, Patrick Ruffini, Matt Lewis, and Dean Barnett embrace it. Meanwhile, McCain stands behind it in full.

Perhaps its nothing, perhaps its a sign that a new day has dawned (or is dawning) for dominant voices in the conservative opinion leader community.”

I am more excited about this race after these ads then I have been in awhile. Why? They are ingenious and they drive home a point.  Now we just need a few in this vein that drive home all the positive things about McCain’s small government, low tax agenda and we’ll be much closer to a win in November.