Friday, February 26, 2010

Score One for the Reasonable Guys

Ever since that useless health care summit a day or two ago I've been avoiding the news.  When I checked back in with my news reader again today I found hundreds of headlines that all said the exact same thing - summit was more show than substance.

At least the Republicans who were at the summit got a chance to speak out without being filtered.  McCain called the President out on the broken campaign promises and Paul Ryan, Republican Representative and Ranking Budget Committee member makes a very strong argument for decentralizing health care insurance and is set to blast the Democrats about before Obama steps in to silence him.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Health Care Pony Show

It's no small surprise that many people in this country believe that the health care summit being held today is going to amount to anything substantial or allow the Republican party to finally have a say in a process they have been largely shut out of.

No, instead it's a chance for Obama to show some toughness on the camera.  Consider this exchange between McCain and Obama:

Spirited debate unfolds at health care summit - CNN.com
McCain, who lost to the president in the 2008 race, said candidate Obama had pledged eight times that the health care debate would be conducted in the open and televised by C-SPAN.

Instead, McCain said, the legislation was "produced behind closed doors ... with unsavory deals."

Obama tried to break in, but McCain asked to be allowed to finish.

After McCain was done, Obama seemed to flash some anger when he said, "We're not campaigning. The election is over."
I don't think that McCain was trying to campaign for the presidency here - I think he was trying to hold Obama accountable for his promises, something that Obama is apparently not used to.  Overall Democrats are going about this the wrong way - they are ignoring the voters, operating behind closed doors and preventing the Republicans from participating and doing the jobs they were elected to do.

Obama also seemed to take a shot at Cantor, the House Republican whip, who stacked the voluminous House and Senate health care reform bills on the table in front of him.

The president called the display "props." "These are the kinds of political things we do that prevent us from having a conversation," Obama said.
I think that instead of our President taking shots at people who come prepared to the meetings he should be listening to and addressing their concerns.  I know that if I was a politician going to a meeting about health care reform I would want to bring both bills with me so I could reference them during the meeting.  It's not "props"; it's being prepared.

Finally, there is this gem of a paragraph from the article about Pelosi:

Spirited debate unfolds at health care summit - CNN.com
Pelosi on Wednesday declined to give any specifics about how Democrats will proceed on the health care overhaul. She also sidestepped questions about Democrats' plans to use a controversial parliamentary shortcut to bypass GOP opposition and pass a health care bill.
Why is it that the Democrats want to keep the American people in the dark about this stuff?  Why not televise the debates throughout the entire process?  Why not release summary statements of the effects and disadvantages of the bill?

If I was a politician, and I'm not... yet, I would want to be up-front and honest with the people I was elected to represent.  No hiding behind procedure, no bullying the opposition and generally trying to make real compromises with the opposition. 

Now not every single line in the health care bills are bad, in fact I find great convenience with the page numbering and the date references.  Seriously, there are some good things that may come of this:  we may finally be able to crack down on insurance fraud, we may be able to finally eliminate frivolous suits so that doctor's don't have to order so many tests and we may finally be able to allow insurance companies to more effectively compete with one another, driving down the cost of premiums and increasing the quality of coverage.

Heck... who am I kidding?  The Democrats are in charge...

Mielke Identifies Reason Why Sean Duffy Will Win The Primary

Mielke For Congress
Sean Duffy is an Attorney, his father is an attorney, his grandfather was an attorney and a judge, his brother is an attorney and a judge.

Dan believes that attorneys serve a valuable and necessary part of our society. But Dan
also realizes that 43% of congress is already made up of attorneys. "There is a danger in
having too many attorneys in Washington. Sean was raised to think and reason like an
attorney. To insure a fair and impartial balance of thinking in the legislature we need
representations from all walks of life . Presently we are seeing the danger in too many
attorneys in Washington. The bills being voted on are confusing and legalistic in nature,
often leaving way too many legal loopholes and hidden agendas which come out after the
bill has passed. Bills need to be simple and clean without so much legalese in them. This is
why our founding fathers were concerned about the harmful influence lawyers could have
if they became too powerful in congress."

It seems that Mr. Mielke believes that since 43% of Congressman are attorneys that we shouldn't send another attorney, even a successful and respected one like Duffy, to Washington.  I'm going to leave this statement alone for just one second while I touch on one that I think is important.

First, the job of Congress is to pass legislature (aka laws).  In order to be effective at writing new laws one must first understand the old ones, right?  I mean, how can we create something if we don't understand what that something is?  If Mielke got sent to Congress he could, unwittingly, introduce legislation that would be struck down by the courts as illegal - or worse yet, let the Democrats pull on over on him. 

He said that 43% of Congressmen are lawyers and the Democrats have the majority so I say let's fight fire with fire.  Now coming back to Mielke's comments here lawyers are paid to argue the facts, present their case and persuade others.  Extremely similar to the role of politicians in Congress. 

Politicians in Congress must also argue the facts, present their case and persuade others in other to get legislation to pass.  Now that Sean has been raised to think like a lawyer, someone who makes a living persuading others, I would think that he would have mountains of experience over Mielke. 

In fact, experience is very abundant.  Duffy has been in office for four terms as a DA - an elected position.  What experience does Mielke have serving in public office?  I will give you this - he certainly knows how to lose an election.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Mielke Has a Snowball's Chance

Time Magazine – Republican Surprise: 10 More Scott Browns « Sean Duffy for Congress
In a normal year, Wisconsin Democrat David Obey, the powerful head of the House appropriations committee, would not have to worry. But normal years do not bring challengers like Sean Duffy, a successful district attorney who also happens to be a former star of MTV’s The Real World (the Boston season), a champion lumberjack competitor and an ESPN commentator. Obama won Wisconsin’s 7th District in 2008 by a decent margin, but Bush managed to win 49% of the vote in the largely Democratic district in 2004. Obey does not seem ruffled by Duffy’s harping on his role in the stimulus or statements that Obey is helping to create a “greater crisis” in terms of deficit spending. In fact, the Congressman’s campaign website isn’t even up and running yet. With plenty of media attention, strong fundraising and a very fresh face — he wasn’t even born when Obey first took office, in 1970 — Duffy will likely win the Republican primary, barring a surprise showing by the self-proclaimed Tea Party candidate Dan Mielke. Of course, that would mean facing the third longest-serving member of the House in the general election, a man whose smallest margin of victory in 18 elections was seven points.
I think it is safe to say that Daniel Mielke has no chance at winning the primary.  I mean, how many people are going to be willing to send a farmer up against Obey - especially one who has already lost once against him? 

In 2008 I was a Republican volunteer manning my county's headquarters.  During that election cycle Mielke's campaign appeared from the outside to be in a state of disarray.  All the materials, in my opinion, looked like they were made at home on a cheap inkjet printer.

Mielke's message didn't resonate with voters either - he failed to carry a single county during the 2008 election against Obey.  Not one single county was willing to say "Yes, I want Dan Mielke to represent me in Congress".  Now let's fast forward to today's race.

Mielke and Duffy are squaring off in a primary - something that Mielke did not experience in 2008, at least not from my perspective.  Now Mielke has to face a successful attorney in a primary, and one who is extremely well funded.  Duffy is getting national recognition, not to mention being the first House challenger to be endorsed by Sarah Palin.

What has Mielke been up to?  Not much... a Google news search for Daniel Mielke's name does not turn up anything that is very interesting, most of his mentions are alongside of Sean Duffy's mentions.  Conclusion:  Duffy is making news while Mielke is trying to be in the news.

A lot of people are saying that this is going to be an interesting primary but I don't see it happening.  I'm going to say that Mielke has as much of a chance as winning this primary as Congressman Ron Paul had of winning the 2008 Presidential primary.

To the anonymous commenter from the other day... please, wake up and take a look at reality.

The Reality of Mielke's Campaign

National Review Online – Could Obey Be Coakley’d? « Sean Duffy for Congress
Q: What does Senator-elect Brown mean for your race?

A: If Scott Brown can win in a state that President Obama won by 26 points, I can win in a district that Obey won by just 20 points against an unknown, underfunded challenger in the Democratic landslide of 2008. It means there is not a single Democrat in the country who is safe. And, as the author of the failed stimulus bill, David Obey will be at the forefront of the debate about jobs, the economy, and wasteful government spending. If he continues to tax and spend our country into bankruptcy, he’s going to get Coakley’d.
I think the above statement - the first sentence of the A: text - sums up Mielke's campaign very nicely. "Unknown, underfunded" are not two adjectives that describe a successful campaign for Congress.  The sad part is that Mielke had to have known before filing his candidacy papers for this race that he was repeating the same mistakes he made in 2008.

Sorry Mr. Mielke, but a political career is not something that just anyone can have.  From one campaign loser to another, please just go home, lick your wounds and figure out what you did wrong.  You can try again when you learn your lesson from your mistakes.

Walker Campaign Spokeswoman Jill Bader Statement on Walker's Plan to Bring 250,000 Jobs to Wisconsin

The following is a press release on Walker's plan to bring 250,000 jobs.  You don't see proposals like these coming from Barret or anyone else.  In fact, the Democrats are so afraid of this proposal that they are going to do everything they can to discredit it. 
Wauwatosa – Walker Campaign Spokeswoman Jill Bader today released the following statement on Scott Walker’s plan to bring 250,000 jobs to Wisconsin

“Under Governor Doyle, Wisconsin has become a tax hell that’s bleeding jobs monthly – last year alone we lost 170,000 jobs and that number will continue to grow unless we fundamentally change the way government functions.

When you see that over 250,000 people are out of work in Wisconsin, and the approximately 20% of our citizens who are underemployed or have given up on finding family supporting jobs it’s not only clear we need to reverse the Doyle-Barrett job killing proposals like combined reporting, but we must also jumpstart an aggressive plan to bring these jobs back to Wisconsin like Scott Walker has laid out.

Beginning on Scott’s first day as governor and in every single day in office he will be working to lower the tax burden on families and employers, and ease regulations on businesses to get government out of the way the bring back 250,000 jobs to Wisconsin by the end of his first term.”

Click here for more information more information on Walker’s plan for job growth: http://www.scottwalker.org/press-release/2010/02/scott-walker-unveils-plan-bring-250000-jobs-and-10000-new-businesses-wisconsin


If you have a job, and want to keep it, vote for Scott Walker come November. If you like to be unemployed, vote for anyone else.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Prevent Doyle 2.0 from Being Elected

This morning when I checked my email I found a message in there that scared me.  Obama's political machine has arrived in Milwaukee to set up shop and get Tom Barret, aka Tom the Taxer, aka Doyle 2.0 elected.  Haven't we had enough of Obama's Chicago style politics by now?  Haven't we had enough of the broken promises, the empty speeches and the overall lack of results from his administration?

I know one thing is for certain - we don't need more Obama politics in Wisconsin.  If we are going to take back our state we cannot allow Doyle 2.0 to be elected.  The last thing we need is for our state to be run like the federal government - into the ground.  If Doyle 2.0 takes office we can expect more of the same that we had for the last 6 years.

I've had enough.  Enough of the increasing spending, enough of the increasing taxes and enough of fat cat liberal politicians mortgaging our grand children's futures, distorting the truth and taking us for granted.  It's time we teach Madison that we will not sit idly by.  We will fight.  We will demonstrate.  And we will elect Scott Walker as our new Governor come November.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Mielke's Poisoned Poll

Northwestern Wisconsin congressional race headed for Republican primary | FOX 21 Online
But if Duffy is getting the limelight, Dan Mielke says the GOP is trying to force him off the stage, despite being the party's candidate in the last election. Mielke says he’s been excluded attending, speaking at, or handing out literature at Lincoln Day dinners. Mielke says he’s been a lifelong Republican, and wonders if he’s ruffled the GOP’s “feathers a little bit."

The socially conservative Mielke commissioned a poll of 7th Congressional District voters, and the results show him leading both fellow Republican Duffy and Democrat Obey. Mielke says he's in the race to stay, and that means a contentious Republican primary before Obey faces the winner in the general election.

I'm sorry Mr. Mielke but I don't trust any polls commissioned by any candidates. I'm sure that if I polled 10 of my best friends that I would find that I am leading both Mielke, Duffy and Obey in the race for the 7th Congressional district and I'm not even a declared candidate.

Why should we trust a poll that was commissioned by a candidate?  The notion of truth in this country has become synonymous with who ever pays the bill.  Therefore, since Mr. Mielke paid the bill the pollsters have a responsibility not to the truth but to Dan Mielke.  This includes only polling Mielke supporters with a few non-supporters thrown in to make it look legit.

In fact, the title of the document that reports the results says "Polling Results of the 7th Congressional District Produced for the Dan Mielke Campaign".  Note the key phrase "Produced for the Dan Mielke Campaign". 

I also take issue with a paragraph in this document that is highly subjective, emotionally charged and overall not conducive of a scientific method.  The paragraph copied from the document verbatim follows.

It is doubtful that Duffy will be able to overcome this strong of a lead by Mielke.  But it is possible that an aggressive fight between Mielke and Duffy could hurt Mielke's run against Dave Obey, if Duffy's supporters choose to vote for Obey over Mielke.  We see this as unlikely, but it could happen if emotions run high during the primary race.
For run thing, Mielke is not going to have a run against Dave Obey despite what this "poisoned poll" says.  Second, it is still too early to say that Duffy is definitively going to lose the primary.  He's not - not with the qualifications he has over Dan Mielke.  I know I would rather have a successful DA in Congress than an organic farmer who's lost every election in the last 5 years that he has run in.

Finally, the last issue I have with this poll is that it polled 35% Democrats and only 37% Republicans.  I know that if I was being polled and the questions were asking me to compare two Democrat candidates against a Republican candidate that I would show strong support for the weaker Democrat candidate in hopes of making the general election easier for the Republican candidate.
 
Click here to read the results for yourself and you will see how one sided this poll really is.

 
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