After watching three debates and many speeches, we all know John McCain is not an eloquent speaker. His mannerisms sometimes appear strained, partly due to torture-related injuries received decades ago as a prisoner of war, and partly because he is not as refined as his opponent. However, in this election we’re choosing a leader, not a celebrity spokesman, and so those cosmetic factors should be of little concern given the grave issues we face as a nation.

With that in mind, there are at least 10 things I’d like to see John McCain address everyday on the campaign stump.  If he will fully embrace and show energy and emotion on these ten populist issues, I feel the election will be his to lose. However, if he won’t actively campaign on them, then he will be defined by his opponent and will miss the chance to paint Barack Obama as the extreme liberal he really is. Apart from a strong stance on these issues, the race will degenerate into a popularity contest for which McCain cannot win.

Here are 10 things I’d like to see McCain embrace in his campaign:

1.  Fighting pork and cutting government spending.

Obama likes to accuse McCain of using a hatchet instead of a scalpel when McCain proposes a broad spending freeze. If I were McCain I’d welcome that accusation and say “Just a hatchet? Give me a chain saw.” The simple truth is you cannot cut much with a scalpel but you can cut vast quantities more with a larger tool. Government has so much pork and excessive spending that we need a chainsaw to cut it all out.

2. Support for the War and the need to kill terrorists.

National security is still the President’s number one task.  McCain should talk daily about his successes in this area and drive home the need for a competent Commander in Chief who supports winning the War and not just withdrawing. The same should be said about Iran and their support of terrorism. Iran must also be stopped in their efforts to enrich uranium and make nuclear weapons. This is a serious international problem that the next President will have to deal with.

3. The Supreme Court.

The next President is likely to appoint at least two Supreme Court Justices as well as scores of federal judges. These are lifetime appointments. McCain says he will nominate strict constructionists. Obama supports those who will legislate from the bench. Need I say more?

4. Abortion and the right to life.

Embracing a culture of life is critical to the survival of our nation. Forty million abortions since Roe v. Wade is equivalent to exterminating more than the entire population of California. To kill that many Americans today would mean that more than 13 out of every 100 of us would have to die.  Protecting life should be talked about everyday by a candidate who believes a baby’s human rights begin at conception.

5. Support for traditional marriage.

A huge majority of Americans are in favor of protecting marriage as a sacred institution between one man and one woman. Obama wants to redefine and distort the definition of marriage to include same gender arrangements. Americans need to know about this massive difference between the candidates.

6. Obama’s radical friends and associations.

Obama has a history of incredibly poor judgment in the area of his friends and associations. There are so many long-term radical associations in his past that it is hard to believe him when he claims that he is not a radical himself. Americans deserve to know the full story about William Ayers, Reverend Wright, Father Pfleger, Tony Rezko and ACORN to name just a few examples.

7. Oil and energy.

Drill here, drill now. Build more nuclear power plants. Develop more energy sources. We need to treat our lack of a viable energy policy as a national emergency and work to become energy independent ASAP.

8. Taxes and the economy.

With his “spread the wealth around” Marxist philosophy, Obama must be stopped before he transforms the American tax code into one that resembles a communist system.  Obama’s promise to give 95% of Americans a tax cut when only about 65% pay any income taxes amounts to such a system. Americans must be told the truth until it hits home.

9. Dangers posed by Russia and China.

Russia and China have been flexing their military muscles in more aggressive patterns over the past few years. We need a President who is willing to confront them, stare them down, and put them in their place when they bully other nations.

10. Name names and push a reform agenda now.

John McCain needs to live up to his nickname as The Sheriff and aggressively take on corrupt interests — especially Democrats in Washington — and those who led Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac down the path of corruption. McCain called for reforms of Fannie and Freddie years ago but few know that.  During that time, Obama, on the other hand, was taking huge sums in campaign contributions from these corrupt organizations. McCain needs to name names and push a strong reform agenda now.

I think if McCain aggressively addressed these ten areas he would win a landslide victory. Most voters are looking for a leader who will leave them alone to pursue the American dream, will take on the bad guys, and will protect our national interests and traditional values. John McCain needs to hurry up, step up to the plate and build the case that he is just that leader.

What follows is kind of a “stream of consciousness” rant based on my reactions from Barack Obama’s Acceptance Speech last night during the Democratic National Convention.

After Obama’s speech last night I was very disappointed in him. Honestly, I saw the night as historic and wanted to enjoy the moment 45 years after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I expected to hear an uplifting speech that talked about the greatness of America. In spite of my reservations regarding Obama’s vision and viewpoints on many issues, I was prepared to take pride in the process and a nation that could overcome slavery and racial prejudice to consider a minority for the highest office in the land. However, in spite of my best intentions, Obama turned me off and actually made me angry.

For starters, you can’t give 95% of families a tax cut when a huge percentage of them pay nothing in taxes. He simply lied since it’s impossible. How can you cut somebody’s taxes who doesn’t pay taxes? Obama likes to criticize George W. Bush but at least Bush told the truth when he said everybody who paid taxes would get a tax cut. If elected, Obama will have to cut taxes on “the rich” to even partially keep that 95% pledge. (See here for a chart breaking down who pays taxes — note the bottom 50% of income earners pay less than 3% of federal income taxes and the top 1% pay almost 40%!)

You can’t tax the rich enough to pay for and simultaneously grow the economy enough to do everything Obama promised last night. What I heard was old-fashioned, liberalism politics as usual and I hated it.  He painted a very dark and exaggerated picture of my country and then promised to fix it.  Remember all the “I will” statements?  It’s not his money to spend as he sees fit. And then there was that crazy political promise to end our dependency on foreign oil in 10 years while only hinting at the possibility of drilling. That’s impossible unless we rapidly increase supply or remove about half the cars in the country.

As a small business owner I shuddered to think of what he’s planning to do to people who produce goods and services and hire others.  He can paint a sad picture of people losing their jobs from being sick, etc. but it’s not business’ responsibility to hire people. That’s a by-product. It’s business’ responsibility to fulfill their responsibilities and obligations to their customers. We all don’t like delays. Take an airline, for example. A pilot or mechanic or whatever cannot continually not show up for work, whatever the good reasons may be, and expect to keep his or her job.  It’s not the airline’s responsibility to protect his or her job. It’s their responsibility to fly people safely.

How is Obama going to fix all those human problems he mentioned and promised to address without taking away my freedoms to spend my money, hire as I wish, and live life as I choose?  He was talking lies and socialism. I was so disappointed. For most of this election cycle I actually wanted him to win over Hilary but I found my respect for her grow (very little I might add but in comparison to Obama it was growth) as his speech went on. I kept thinking “how are you going to do that?” — especially in a free society. I don’t want to be Sweden or even Canada. It’s not the federal government’s job to be everybody’s safety net — let the states and local governments (or faith groups) do that if they choose but don’t make me pay for another botched bureaucracy.

We already have universal healthcare — have you ever seen somebody turned away from a hospital?  I’ve never been asked for money up front and still get good treatment. Why should I ask the government to get involved and further mess that arrangement up?  What has the federal government done, really, to improve anything on a national level like education or healthcare that couldn’t have been done better on the local level if the resources were available? Instead, the federal government takes local resources in the form of huge taxes and then politically spends them with lots of waste and bumbling. The local level is left to fight for the scraps with the hope that our “guys in Washington” bring some largess back to us.  It’s madness. Let’s skip the middleman and avoid the federal feeding frenzy.

Let the federal government do their Constitutional requirements and leave the state/local governments to the rest.  Why don’t the liberals complain about the abuse of the Constitution by the trampling of states rights?  I’m really angry about this and very frustrated at Obama’s squandering of his Convention. I had hope for the Democratic Party and was excited about the prospects of post-racial politics but instead I saw politics as usual. I’m willing to trust a maverick McCain and a non-Washington insider hockey mom who has shown success on the state and local level and who knows what it is like to have a son deployed to Iraq, to have 5 kids, to have owned/operated a business, to have a child with special needs, and to succeed in spite of all those things. I’m ready for change but it’s not coming from Obama/Biden (who in spite of what they say vote about 90% of the time with McCain since most Senate votes are nearly unanimous for naming post offices and other almost meaningless things).

This brings me to my final rant. When will the Democratic Party stop emphasizing the single mom without healthcare and talk about “normal people” like me?  When will they highlight somebody who actually has a traditional family and works and achieves something?  When will the Democrats care about those who take risks and succeed and pay taxes and produce and hire other people and then stay up at night figuring out how to make payroll and quarterly taxes and workman’s comp, etc. and hope there is enough after all the bills to pay themselves? I’m tired of hearing about victims all the time and not at least occasionally about people who make the country work. Even those rare Democratic examples of success are somehow made into victims. Our troops are mentioned and then simultaneously matched in the same sentence with some kind of combat stress disorder. The truck driver is lauded for owning his own truck finally but yet he has no health insurance.  What about the truck driver who is successful because he lives in America? What about the military hero who beat the enemy and adjusted well to society and is now a successful airline pilot or football coach?  What about what’s good with America?  Why can’t we be proud of success and wealth instead of lowering the bar and taking from the rich to give to the poor?

I want everyone to succeed and be rich. Remove the barriers and let people innovate and succeed. When they do they hire others and pay taxes and lift their communities, states and ultimately the nation. Let’s be excited about our opportunities and aim for the stars!

Somebody sent this bumper sticker to me via email today, and while it exagerates a bit, I found it humorously close to the truth — especially when one listens to the rhetoric of many national Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  It is purportedly sponsored by the Tennessee Republican Party and reads “Your Wallet – The only place Democrats want to drill.” Come on, Democrats, it’s a matter of simple supply and demand. Right now we have more demand than supply and so prices are high. Let’s meet the demand with more oil supplies.

And why should we stop there? Let’s explore other energy options and develop them. I don’t want our economy to be held hostage by foreign governments and the oil cartel. It’s time we became energy independent and less dependent on our own government.

Looking over headline events of late, it is easy to become pessimistic over the course of world affairs. From one end to the other there seems to be problems. Over the past five years I have moved from cautiously optimistic to down-right concerned at times. Here are some of the reasons why I am concerned over the storm clouds that I see gathering.

• Iran — I don’t see much efforts to stop the next Hitler. We killed off one Hitler in Saddam Hussein and that was reason for optimism. I am concerned, however, over the lack of seriousness taken by most nations to the grave dangers posed by a nuclear Iran.
• Russia — The reports I hear is that it’s looking more like the Soviet Union there of late. Putin’s political enemies are mysteriously dying while he appears to be amassing power.
• The Democrats — I don’t see a single leading Democrat among the Presidential contenders who has a backbone strong enough to take on the terrorists in Iraq let alone deal with preventing a nuclear Iran. There is lots of talk but no assurance of any serious action to stop terrorists and emerging threats.
• The Republicans — I don’t see what I would call a truly good national leader in the whole party. There are pockets of strength and some promising individuals but I’m afraid the glaring problems are more evident right now.
• Erosion of Human Rights — There are massive human rights problems in dictatorial parts of the world like Myanmar and Darfur. Other nations like Russia are experiencing a regression into a totalitarian-styled regime. Even many western nations are limiting freedoms in the name of hate-crimes legislation and anti-terrorism laws.
• Energy Policy — It seems that most of the world’s supply of energy is concentrated within political hot spots — dangerous places that are politically unstable and undesirable trading partners. And to make matters worse, most Democrats continue to oppose enhancing our domestic capabilities to produce energy. That’s simply wrong and very short-sighted. It makes us and our economy extremely vulnerable.

So with these things in mind, there is a lot to be concerned about. I offer them as a warning of pending danger given the current direction and trends. However, even though storm clouds are gathering, that does not guarantee a storm is coming. A strong wind of change could sweep through and blow these problems away. It’s also comforting to know that even within a storm there are reasons for hope and places of shelter. It’s also true that most of the time things are not as bad as they appear.