Yes.

Regardless of Blago being a greedy scumbag, he is still the elected governor of Illinois, and according to the law, he has the right to appoint the replacement for Obama’s senate seat.

Yes, under the stinky cloud of self interest he raised, he should have resigned and let another make the choice.  Burris will always face a bit of cynicism due to the whole situation, but the law is clear:  Blago has the authority.

Harry Reid and the Senate are meddling in state politics and they need to stand back and let the states conduct their business.

So far there is no indication that Burris bribed Blago for the appointment, so I do not see the point of Reid’s interference.

I do find it ironic that Reid will stoop to interfering in a clearly legal selection, and at the same time tell Coleman to not utilize his legal option to contest the recount in Minnesota.

While Reid did agree not to seat Franken (something that was a pointless gesture anyway, as Franken cannot be declared the winner and seated until the legal challenge is answered in court), the fact is that Reid has no business in either race, until the laws of the states in question have determined the respective winners.

With the loss to Obama a reality, the Republicans have moved on from disappointment and despondency to blame.

The despondency was incredible, I heard accounts on the radio of people in tears over the loss.  Understandable, this was an emotional campaign.

(I am not at all despondent.  I am energized.  This is a fantastic time to be a blogger.  The next 4 years, or even 8 will be filled with an incredible opportunity to use the power of blogging to hold Obama accountable to his promises.  He promised the world, we must make him either deliever or admit to being a fraud. )

But whereas some of that grief is natural, and will fade in time, the blaming that has begun is pretty sick in its intensity and growing venom.  All along, the champion of the campaign was Sarah Palin with her charm, her genuineness, and her bright idealism. 

Now she is gradually becoming the official scapegoat.  We start at Michelle Malkin:

The McCain campaign’s classless cowards

The anonymous trashing of Sarah Palin by blabbermouth McCain aides who are leaking to Fox News is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.

First, congratulations to President Elect Barack Obama, who may not have gotten a landslide victory his sycophants wanted, but won decisively none the less. 

His election is historic in that we have finally proven image is more important than truth and charisma trumps ability.

Oh and we elected our first minority president.

Yes, I remain convinced that we have been classically hoodwinked.  We allowed the left to convince us that one of the most ineffective and inexperienced legislatures in our country was qualified to lead us.  This was based on every factor imaginable except his race, which was saved to deflect any criticism.

Admit it people:  He was elected in large part for that reason, and just move on. 

So there it is.  They won and we have to learn to deal with the consequences.  On the bright side, he cannot be worse than Carter (please, God).

In a more important aspect of this election, the Senate does not look like it will move to a 60+ seat super majority, ensuring that at least in that legislative body the conservatives will still be a force to be reckoned with.

Note:  Watch Florida.  Just like in 2000, I get the feeling that whoever wins Florida, takes home the prize.

Greetings readers,

I took a week off for health and sanity.  Health related to my previous posts and a few side issues, and sanity simply because the frenzy of stupidity in the last two weeks of the campaign made me nutso.

But here we are, and tomorrow is election day.

We have run this immensely long electoral season to a close and tomorrow we find out the answers to the question of who will lead us for the next four years.

We also answer a few other questions.  We will discover if:

Style beats substance.

Facts beat innuendo.

Whether character and judgment are necessary.

And, is charisma more important that experience.

I am not being at all sarcastic.  Those seem to be the only real questions that matter.

Promises have been made.  Some believe them, as this video shows:

embedded by Embedded Video

Many do not, being more cynical.

Speaking frankly, if Obama is elected, I fully expect to be very busy next year blogging about his exploits, and the gradual conversion to socialism.  If he is not, I expect riots and more complaints akin to the 2000 election, both of which I will also be happy to debate.

The name of ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is familiar here in Washington.   While Nevada and other states are getting to know them and their fraudulent voter registration activities, we here in Washington already got our primer over a year ago¹:

King and Pierce County prosecutors filed felony charges today against seven people who allegedly committed the biggest voter-registration fraud in state history.

…

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the worst case of voter-registration fraud in the history of the state of Washington. There has been nothing comparable to this,” state Secretary of State Sam Reed said at a news conference with Satterberg, King County Executive Ron Sims and Acting U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan.

ACORN President Maude Hurd said in a statement, “It appears that a handful of temporary workers were trying to get paid for work they hadn’t actually done. While we don’t think the intent or the result of their actions was to allow any ineligible person to vote, these employees defrauded ACORN and imposed a burden on the time and resources of registrars and law enforcement.”

I am sure this will be followed with more claims of Foxes bias, but this is classic.

Megyn Kelly of Fox News was interviewing the editor of US weekly, and she owned him.  Pure and simple.

The story revolves around the US weekly cover of Sarah Palin, below:

As you can see, the picture has a pretty clear message.

The problems came when people compared it to the cover below from June:

The contrast is obvious.  The Obama’s get a fluff piece on how wonderful they are, whereas Sarah is portrayed alone, and her article is a rundown of any juicy rumor then can find.  Perhaps the fact that US Weekly is owned by the people who own Rolling Stone, who love Obama almost to the point of deification had some impact:

What a noble halo you have, Mr Obama.  Can there be any doubt these two magazines are in the tank for Obama?

Well, Megyn called the editor on it.  After you enjoy this clip, see below for the magazine cover US weekly should have run…

Obama and his flock of acolytes have consistently portrayed him as the younger, hipper candidate.  The candidate of change.  The fresh wind in the sour air of politics, the new voice.  Someone not a part of politics as usual.

They have charged that John McCain is the old man, the voice of stagnation.  An old hide bound white guy in a sea of politics ruled by old white men.  A guy who has made a career out of politics as usual, and partisan bickering.

So it comes as no shock to learn that Obama has taken the fresh, bold and utterly hipper step of choosing a running mate who is an old white man, who has made a career out of politics as usual and partisan bickering.

Finally:  Change we can believe in. 

Why?  Frankly, because he wants to win.  Now, granted that Hillary has more support, and a ticket with her might be the golden ticket for a sure win, but imagine being president and constantly having to watch your back, waiting for the chance for her and Bill to stick a (figuratively speaking only here) knife into it.  Hillary is just too ambitious.

All along the Obama-maniacs have used racism as their trump card.  Any criticism of him was racist, pure as simple. 

So according to this piece at the NY Daily News, that is also why Hillary won’t quit:  Racism and bigotry.  So be happy all you non Obama-maniacs, according to this, the secret is out and the only reason you do not like him is because you are a racist bigot.

 Ugly truth why Hillary Clinton won’t quit (emphasis mine)

While the case for Hillary Clinton to stay in the race is shakier than ever, one ugly reason for staying in could be found Tuesday amid the ruddy, sun-kissed Hoosiers who cheered her on to victory at the Indianapolis Speedway.

With Clinton posing alongside pioneering Indy speedster Sarah Fisher,

…a young white girl…

there were almost no African-Americans to be seen. Many in the white, working-class crowd were simply not ready to back Barack Obama - for reasons that are disturbing.

“I’m kind of still up in the air between McCain and Hillary,” said Jason Jenkins, 32, who cited information from a hoax e-mail as a reason to spurn Obama.