Measure twice, cut once

And other life lessons I should have learned by now. I hear that the web link I put in my last post, well lets just say it didn't work so well! Along the same lines on Monday I went to the Luxor Casino and repaired the wrong truck! Note to self: Always match serial numbers!!! Aside from that work is going well. I still like it a great deal.

Roger and Deanna left on Tuesday. Nancy is here until Thursday or Friday. We had a great time with them. I'll soon have some more pics up from their visit.

I have to also discuss the primaries. The Democrats are in a bit of a dilemma at this point in my opinion. Obama cannot beat McCain. Clinton cannot beat Obama, unless she is handed the nomination by the super delegates. If she is indeed handed the nomination I suspect that she will lose to McCain because of the outrage from Obama Democrats. It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out.

In other news, as back in Michigan where there has been sightings of the ever elusive "Panther" in south east Michigan, in Las Vegas there have been sightings of a lioness on the prowl. I was lucky enough to capture two photographs of the lioness as you can see below:

Get The Fork!

First of all I must admit I was wrong. I never thought that Obama would actually win the nomination for a whole host of reasonsIt's time for us to unite and get ready for the fall campaign.
~George McGovern~
I think after Clinton's stinging win in
Indiana and Obama's even better than expected win in North Carolina that Clinton is done! You can put a fork in Clinton, she is done.

Gas tax holiday?

It is nothing but a gimmick. As if we, as consumers, would even see any of the price reduction. This is pandering at its worst. There are no short term fixes for the price of gas with maybe the exception of changing our driving behaviour, which in all honesty is not very likely to happen anytime soon. Sure the sales of larger truck and SUVs are down and the sale of gas sipping cars are up, but this would take years to to actually change the price of gas. Our only solutions are long term. They include:

1. Drilling at home
2. Conservation
3. Nuclear energy
4. Alternative Energy

There is no silver bullet. Small contributions in each of the areas above can, eventually, lead to lower prices....maybe..... But to hear all of the candidates talking about how they are going to end our dependence on foreign oil is laughable at best. It will take decads to do it, if its even possible.

Well at least

Clinton was not lying about landing in Bosnia
under fire.....
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1808560

What we need is

a reluctant President.

Washington was a reluctant President.

Ford was also considered to be one.

We could do worse.

Actually we will do worse given the choices available.

Who is weaker?

Obama or Clinton....Clinton or Obama. Perception is reality....or so the saying goes.....

Clinton is hounding Obama about holding debates. Now in the few years I have payed attention to national elections(about 27 years), asking for a debate, demanding to have a debate has always been the province of those who perceive themselves as on the way to losing the election. As such they have little to lose and much to gain by a debate. Another opportunity to take their adversary down another notch or two.

A the leader in an election, as expected, has a lot to lose and little to gain in a debate. The risk of saying something stupid, not having a good answer, or sometimes, just being on the debate stage with the weaker candidate which can be seen as "elevating" them to your level, is not worth what little a candidate can get out of a debate.

I would say that, if nothing else, the Clinton campaign perceives itself to be in a weaker position than Obama.

Clinton has a built a high wall to climb to win the primary. As I see her campaign, her problems are:
1. Her baggage. She has more baggage than pack rat on her way to a pack rat convention. Fair or not, it is still there.

2. She and Bill could have starred in the movie "Liar, Liar!" I do realize that all politicians lie, but she is PERCEIVED as a liar whereas the other two are not perceived that way to any great degree.

Obama also has some problems that will hurt him, albeit more in the general than the primary. Those are:

1. He is an eletist. His remarks in San Francisco leave little to the imagination on that issue. It may have played well in the primary, but it WILL be used to clobber him in the general election.

2. I think his lack of experience will also hurt him in the general election.

McCain also has issues. Mainly that he is seen as, instead of a "compasionate conservative", he is seen as a "part-time conservative".

The primaries

A couple of things I want to blog about, well maybe only one thing anyway. Clinton has been trying to make it look like Obama does not want a re vote in Michigan and Florida. I'm not qualified to comment on Florida, but having lived in Michigna for over 30 years before moving to Vegas, I feel somewhat qualified to comment on it.
Clinton has tried to get the vote in Michigan to count, yet Obama was not even on the ticket. That hardly seems fair or democratic. She has also held the position that there should be a re-vote in Michigan. Obama has, in theory, agreed to this, if it could be done in a manner that was agreeable to both of them. Ofcourse Clinton's idea of a fair vote would be to prohibit anyone who voted in the Republican primary, namely Democrats or Indepenants who refused to vote for Clinton and instead voted for McCain from participating. This ofcourse would stack the vote for Clinton. Again this seems neither fair nor democratic. The only fair way to do it, as I see it, is to not seat the delegates. Michigan knew well the price for moving its primary dates. They should now be willing to take their lumps. As it looks now, no re vote will take place and the delegates will not be seated. That is as it should be.

Spring has sprung

here in Las Vegas. Our lowes are quickly raising and its nice. Today we will likely hit 70F as my friends and family back in Michigan are, well lets just say its COLD there. Thier low last night was about -1F and I think it is about 3F there right now.

My My how the primaries have changed since I last wrote about them. Romney is out but I didn't like him anyways, Huckabee and Paul are going no where. That leaves McCain. I guess out of all of them I dislike him the least. Thats something I guess.

Obama and Clinton are fighting on. I saw parts of Obama and Clintons speaches the other night. I must say that Obama is or has turned into quite the good speaker. Very powerful. I don't agree with 95% of what says, but compared to Clinton he is much, much better.