Barack Obama – 346
John McCain – 192

United States Senate:

Democrats – 57
Republicans – 41
Independents – 2

House of Representatives:

Democrats – 267
Republicans – 168

In the next four weeks, you will not hear Senator McCain’s plan to help Americans pay their bills, go to college or progress our agenda internationally. Instead, you will hear about what a terrible person Barack Obama is, how he is closely associated with radicals and terrorists and can’t be trusted to lead this nation.

This is how you know the Republicans are desperate. They can’t win on the issues because the public strongly disagrees with them. And they definitely can not claim to be the agents of change this country so desperately seeks after McCain has spent over twenty-six years in Congress. So they go for the typical Swift Boat, Karl Rove low road, which might help to rile up the base (that never really liked McCain to begin with) but will certainly drive independents towards Obama. Do not forget that Democratic registrations are up in huge numbers all over the country. The final result is that this election won’t even be close.

Americans could care less about who Obama met a couple times in 1995. If McCain really wants to go that route, it should be open season on his past associations which includes his membership in the Keating Five and a potential Treasury Secretary that called us “a nation of whiners” in the middle of a “mental recession.” I guess the stock market plummeting to its lowest level in four years was all in our heads.

Obama in a landslide.

I’m hip to the Clinton tactics; I’d hope most sensible Americans are as well.  Hillary pulls all the stops – and she does so with eloquence and tactility.  While I’d love to believe that she is genuinely in love with Lady Liberty, her tears are more than convenient.  She came in third in Iowa and her numbers are down in preliminary New Hampshire estimates.  Clearly, she’s looking for some last minute compassion.

Ironically, she claims she is not exploiting her gender, yet her appeal to instill pathos in New Hampshire voters is completely accepted – and this is so only because she is a woman.  If a male contender were in Hillary’s place, shedding tears and getting choked up, he would be saturated with negativity for his lack of masculinity.  Clearly, she’s playing the gender card as best she can as she utilizes her feminine reactionary skills to draw voters in. 

Now, I’m aware of the fact that many Democrats are so enthralled by Mrs. Clinton that they’d venture to claim she was actually genuine in her emotionally-driven response.  If in fact this is the case, she is a sore loser at best.  Appealing via tears is a sign of weakness.  Hold then in and forge on; it’s not the end of the world, Hillary.  She claims she cares so much that she simply couldn’t restrain herself.  As can be expected, she’s playing it cool: 

One-time presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton scoffed at suggestions that she had an “Ed Muskie moment� on the campaign trail Monday, when she was driven to the verge of tears at a campaign event during the final hours before New Hampshire voters go to the polls Tuesday. 

Muskie buried his 1972 Democratic presidential race when he broke down after the Manchester Union Leader hurled insults at his wife in an article. He later claimed he was wiping snowflakes from his face, but the damage to his campaign was done.

 And in Hillary’s own words: 

“But (I) also want them to know I’m a real person, I have feelings, I care about what I do, I don’t do this because I want to live in the White House again. I do this because I’m worried about our country and what is going to happen in the next generation. And if I get emotional about that or if I’m passionate about defending myself, well than I’ll (let) people draw their own conclusion,� she said.

Now, for my continued diatribe: While I believe a woman deserves to become president (this is to say that I am not opposed to the idea of a female holding office), Hillary Clinton is not the woman for the job.  Consider – and by consider I mean actually ponder the irony associated with the fact that we live in a global climate that does anything but foster female leadership roles – the Middle East (or as I like to call it the “Cauldron of the World’s Demise�).   

If Hillary were to be elected, what would Middle Eastern leaders have to say about America?  I mean, they love us so much as it is; I simply cannot imagine the enamored state Islamist leaders would find themselves in if a woman were to be elected the leader of the free world.  Not only is Hillary a female (and we know how well women are treated in many Islamic nations), but she’s also a sore loser (which probably makes her an even bigger joke in the eyes of insane Islamists).  

And I’m not attacking women.  I’m simply stating the obvious: Our relations are less than adequate with the Middle East.  I believe wholeheartedly that this is the worst possible time to elect a female.  And while we shouldn’t have to yield progress to please radical Islamic wing nuts, it’s more than sensible that we hold off on a female president.  Yet, most liberals haven’t even considered this; they’re still trying to get over the fact that we’ve had a cowboy in the White House for the past eight years (and don’t get me wrong; I’m not a Bush hater.  I’d take a cowboy over Hillary any day).  But gender is the least of Hillary’s problems.  She needs a reality check and a moral compass that works; there’s more to being president than simply adhering to the idea that we must help our fellow man.  Like Kerry, she’s an idealist – one who will never fulfill all she’s touted. 

In sum: We need a strong leader who is ready for the challenge that leading this great nation poses.  I wonder if we’ll see more tears when the results role in tomorrow evening?

John McCain – 36%
Mitt Romney – 32%
Mike Huckabee – 17%
Ron Paul – 11%

Democrats:

Barack Obama – 33%
Hillary Clinton – 30%
John Edwards – 23%
Bill Richardson – 8%

Barack Obama – 30%
Hillary Clinton – 28%
John Edwards – 25%
Joe Biden – 12%

Republicans:

Mike Huckabee – 31%
Mitt Romney – 29%
John McCain – 24%
Rudy Giuliani – 9%