The elections yesterday had some surprises, and some not too surprising results.

In the local election, the race for King County Executive was a hotly contested one between former newscaster Susan Hutchinson, and King County Council member Dow Constantine.

I found it ironic that after watching the 2008 election where Obama won by promising change from the day to day politics as usual, here in King County, the opposite held forth.  Hutchinson’s ran on a campaign of asking to end the business as usual attitude that has lead to King County’s financial messes.  Constantine on the other hand ran on a campaign of “she’s a Republican”.

Seriously, his closing comments at a debate as well as TV ads said pretty much nothing else, even trying to smear her by likening her to Sarah Palin.  It was one of the cheapest dirtiest campaign ads I have seen.

Well, that apparently is enough in Seattle; either that or a pretty woman need not apply.

The Mayor’s race is still up for grabs.  Hope and Change already  won there with incumbent Greg Nichols getting knocked off the top two primary ballot.

One thing stands for certain, how you feel about him and his legacy pretty much has a lot to do with which side of the aisle you stand on.

To many on the left, he was their lion, their champion, who fought tirelessly for what he believed in.  To many on the right, he was a callous killer and alcoholic who used his power and prestige to escape justice for himself and his family.

Maybe both are right.

I watched a documentary on the Kennedy dynasty not long ago, and I recall one aspect very vividly:  He was in a way portrayed as the runt of the litter, the hanger on who was in the shadows of his great brothers.  In a way, he was.  Joe was destined to greatness, but was heroically killed in WW2.  JFK was to be the great one, and was on his way as president, until an assassin ended his career.  Robert followed the same path as John, a little sooner.  Not to mention losing a sister to a plane crash, as well.

I have no love for Ted Kennedy, and frankly have a hard time feeling more then general sorrow at his passing.  

Yet, I have to remember that political convictions aside, he was still a person: a person with family, friends and beliefs. 

I don’t care who he was, how liberal he was or what past sins continue to haunt his memory.

He died a lousy death.  Brain tumors are not fun.  His family watched him decline and suffer, and suffered with him.  They deserve a little respect.

So I am forcing myself to stifle the monster inside and extend my sincere regrets to his family.

In this, maybe Sarah Palin summarized it best on her FaceBook page:

On the Passing of Senator Ted Kennedy:

I would like to extend our sympathies to the Kennedy family as we hear word about the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy. He believed in our country and fought passionately for his convictions. -Sarah Palin and family

Short, sweet and classy.  Even Michelle Malkin, who bears him far more vitriol than I do, was subdued and respectful.

The entire health care issue has gone bonkers. 

MSNBC runs an edited video of a guy packing guns at a protest and insinuates its a racial issue, conveniently ignoring that the unedited video shows this to be a black man wearing guns, not a white one.  Should they be called MSDNC?  Nice to see the race baiting continues.

And some mutter about the crazy conservatives also conveniently forgetting some of the gun toting demonstrators are FOR health care reform.

And then there is the whole notion of reform.   If you protest the health care takeover you are against reform completely, but no one on the left apparently wants to admit there is a huge area of other options between do nothing and Government takeover.

John Mackey the CEO of Whole Foods runs an editorial detailing many of those options and now faces a boycott by liberals because he dares to suggest we can fix it without socialism.

Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.

At Obama’s town hall meeting the there are so many plants now they should be called greenhouse meetings.

Here is the story:

Video: Astroturfing at Obama’s NH “town hall”

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit has the video evidence of the strategy used by Barack Obama to get a roomful of complacent supporters at his Portsmouth, New Hamsphire “town hall” yesterday. The group he launched, Organizing for America, had supporters bused into the event — and they went directly to the head of the line to get into the forum. It’s the quickest and most effective way to ensure that the President doesn’t have to answer any tougher questions than those about the “mean signs” of his opponents:

Andrew Malcolm says this shows a desperation in the administration, and that even with the White House organization, Obama’s losing on the ground:

While Obama’s poll popularity has slipped somewhat, the popularity of his keystone programs has slid dramatically. Now, we fully understand why the president set that early August deadline for a completed bill. His internal polls predicted the kind of coalescing opposition we’ve seen recently in congressional town halls around the country.

The utter stupidity of this request boggles the mind.  To deal with our mounting debt and deficit, Geithner wants to increase our debt limits so we don’t accidentally exceed them or something.

Geithner Asks Congress to Increase Federal Debt Limit

Washington — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asked Congress to increase the $12.1 trillion debt limit on Friday, saying it is “critically important” that they act in the next two months.

Mr. Geithner, in a letter to U.S. lawmakers, said that the Treasury projects that the current debt limit could be reached as early mid-October. Increasing the limit is important to instilling confidence in global investors, Mr. Geithner said.

Yes.  They will be so confident that we want to spend more.   That’s helpful.

The Treasury didn’t request a specific increase in the letter.

“It is critically important that Congress act before the limit is reached so that citizens and investors here and around the world can remain confident that the United States will always meet its obligations,” Mr. Geithner said in a letter to lawmakers.

Yes.  We will meet them by borrowing and spending even more.

Again, it is amazing that this kind of organized campaign to support the Democratic agenda is considered OK, while identical campaigns to oppose it are demonized and vilified.

All throughout August, our members of Congress are back in town. Insurance companies and partisan attack groups are stirring up fear with false rumors about the President’s plan, and it’s extremely important that folks like you speak up now.

So we’ve cooked up an easy, powerful way for you to make a big impression: Office Visits for Health Reform.

All this week, OFA members like you will be stopping by local congressional offices to show our support for insurance reform. You can have a quick conversation with the local staff, tell your personal story, or even just drop off a customized flyer and say that reform matters to you.

We’ll provide everything you need: the address, phone number, and open hours for the office, information about how the health care crisis affects your state for you to drop off (with the option of adding your personal story), and a step-by-step guide for your visit.

Free Colorado has a great series of videos, all of which interviewed people to ask how they feel about being called as a mob.

What is clear is that at the core of the protests are regular people.  Are organizations also trying to spur protest?  I would imagine so, the same way that I get 3 or 4 letters from democrats asking me to attend the rallies and speak out in favor of health care.   Like this one from Obama himself.  Apparently only the community organizer in chief is allowed to organize.

See more on that site.

Rather then name calling why not listen to what people are saying?

Maybe congress should take their input and incorporate it into law, you know, like a representative republic should do…

In St Louis, the ‘hits’ keep on coming.

And since the Democrats are now astroturfing and encouraging this, this will only get worse.

The title seems glib but sadly it is true.  According to some of the Democrats, having the audacity, the sheer gall to protest about Health Care means you are a political terrorist and are working out of the Nazi playbook:

Taking a page right out of Nancy Pelosi’s playbook of stating that town hall meeting protestors are sporting swastikas thus implying that they are Nazis, low rated radio host Bill Press is now accusing them of using Nazi tactics in a sanity-challenged column. This follows on the heels of Press’ attack on the protestors on Fox News as reported earlier this week by Seton Motley here in NewsBusters. Here is Press going completely over the edge on the subject of the protestors in his column:

…Taking a page right out of a Nazi playbook, organizers bus in professional protestors and arm them with instructions on how to take over meetings, shut down discussion, shout over any pro-health care reform speakers, and then post video of the resulting chaos on YouTube. It’s mob rule, pure and simple.