Plumber With A Sense Of Humor

Gotta love this guy!

Thanks to Aim Electrical and Plumbing Services Dartmouth, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (902) 497-8342, for providing clever advertising and a good laugh.

Anybody want to race this plumber?

Obama Camp Suspicious About McCain Preparedness

Seems as though John McCain’s impressive and well received performance in front of the Saddleback Church in California on August 16, 2008, is raising questions by Barack Obama’s followers.  Reverend Rick Warren, pastor of the church, referred to the “Cone of Silence” multiple times, indicating the guests could not hear and did not know how each was responding to a series of very similar questions.   Barack Obama was first to appear, while John McCain was riding in his motorcade to the church, and then in a holding room in another building.  He was not privy to the questions or any broadcast of Obama’s interview.  The Secret Service was with him though.  After McCain came on stage, Warren asked, “Was the cone of silence comfortable that you were just in?” McCain deadpanned, “I was trying to hear through the wall.”

McCain fared quite well during his interview.  However Obama, did not, generating speculation, particularly from Obama’s camp, as to McCain’s ease and smooth performance.    Nicolle Wallace, a spokeswoman for McCain, responded, “The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous.”

Image courtesy of http://www.weblo.com/domain/available/sekainohajimari.com/.

On NBC’s Meet The Press the following Sunday morning, August 17, 2008, Andrea Mitchell noted,  “The Obama people must feel that he didn’t do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because what they are putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well-prepared.”  This subsequently generated a formal protest to NBC News by Rick Davis, John McCain’s campaign manager, on signs NBC is ”abandoning non-partisan coverage of the Presidential race.”   Outcome of the protest remains to be seen.

But how about an easier explanation on the performance at the Saddleback Church.  Even though McCain was without benefit of any questions or broadcast feed before his interview,  he simply performed better than Barack Obama.  Is it that difficult to accept that one candidate may do better?  McCain’s preparedness is probably a reflection of his overall experience, and years in the Navy and Senate, a 30 plus year political career.  Barack Obama on the other hand, logged in 143 days in the Senate before announcing he was forming a Presidential exploratory commitee.  His political career is not even close to McCain’s.  Kudos to McCain for some straight answers we all can understand.

Image courtesy of http://openeyecommunications.typepad.com/openeyechat/police/.

Details at
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/us/politics/18mccain.html?ref=us,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12594.html, and
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/17/warren-mccain-did-not-violate-cone-of-silence/.

Obama Speeches Versus Ten Word Answers

According to the New York Times on August 16, 2008, Barack Obama’s message needs to be more specific.   

 
Image courtesy of http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/05/19/alg_senobama.jpg. 

Pretty words

“I particularly hope he strengthens his economic message — even Senator Obama can speak more clearly and specifically about the kitchen-table, bread-and-butter issues like high energy costs,” said Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio. “It’s fine to tell people about hope and change, but you have to have plenty of concrete, pragmatic ideas that bring hope and change to life.”

Blunter words

“Instead of giving big speeches at big stadiums, he needs to give straight-up 10-word answers to people at Wal-Mart about how he would improve their lives.”  Gov. Phil Bredesen, Democrat of Tennessee:

 

Image courtesy of http://biblicone.com/2005/ginger/walmart-uniform/. 

Image courtesy of http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n45/tracyyoungtv/walmart.jpg.

I’m Like Obama – I Want Change

 A panhandler and a presidential candidate have parallel desires.

Image courtesy of http://steelturman.typepad.com/thesteeldeal/2008/08/obama-panhandle.html.

One is looking for spare change, coins, cash to survive; and barely has any.

 

Image courtesy of http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/07/barack_obama_brought_in_52_mil.html. 

The other is looking for the same to become President of the United States, and is awash in cash.

Senator Barack Obama’s campaign announced today that he took in more than $51 million in July. His campaign had $65.8 million on hand, according to the press release, compared to Senator John McCain’s $21.4 million in the bank at the end of the month.

Though neither Mr. McCain’s intake ($27 million in July) nor his bank balance is as robust as Mr. Obama’s, the presumptive Republican nominee has greater flexibility to spend what he has now, because he can count on an infusion of $84 million in public funds after the Republican National Convention. Mr. Obama has chosen to forgo public financing, so he has greater spending flexibility, but he must collect every cent himself. The Republican National Committee is also likely to be substantially more helpful to Mr. McCain than its Democratic counterpart, which has struggled with fund-raising, can be to Mr. Obama.

It remains to be seen how the spare change brought in affects survival of either. 

Details courtesy of http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/obama-raises-51-million-in-july/.