Combines Can we play Politics

No mean to offend but how about publicly held oil companies have been gouging us. It is a supplky and demand economy after all. Alaska doesn't have a state run oil company to my knowledge. She has some executive experience, maybe not tons but at least some experience managing something, successfully. Biden is smooth, but full of gaffs and Obama tries all he can to be smooth, but is far from a superb orator, if you take out the "uh, hum, ahh, etc. there isn't much for substance other than "Change, hope". I have hopes for change too, to get a president that has some economic sense as well as a clue how to keep us safe from those that wish to destroy us. Obama Biden does not give me a confident feeling, Mc Cain Palin is a tad closer to that for me but not alot. All in all it's sad that this is the best we can do for a potential leader. Hope I haven't ticked anyone off too much but that's where I am in my thoughts on politics today.....

I agree with what you have said here, I think in a few weeks when the money gets moving in the right places the stock market will stop floundering so much, aside from that I have not been a huge supporter of the bailout pork bill. My thoughts are that she had to not contradict McCain, despite her personal beliefs. I like her ideas when she isn't held back by McCain(he's obviously not conservative).

Bit late for comments but here goes from an non American outsider's perspective. I haven't followed the Pres campaign very closely but I have sometimes thought of Harry Truman, the small time shop keeper VP and ultimately excellent President who had to make some earth changing decisions and clean up after Roosevelt had sunk too much political capital into trusting Stalin and who had to make the decision on whether to use the atomic bomb on Japanese. You don't ever know the calibre of a Presidential nominee until he _ she has control of the immense power that the American system gives one person for the following four years and by then it is too late to back out. My take from a very limited back ground knowledge. Obama is the archetypal politician who has the sweet talk and the real opportunity to lead and be innovative but whose senatorial record is certainly not anything to even bother talking about nor has he apparently demonstrated a capacity to lead in innovative thinking and action which is most certainly needed right now. Joe Biden; WHOIJ McCain trades on his Vietnam record which has given him a life experience which has carried over to the rest of his life but at his age he may be stuck in the past too much to make the changes that are now so absolutely neccessary. It may also be the case that McCain because of his life experiences, cannot be bought very easily by political forces which is something I would question Obama on. Palin; who knowsIJ If she has shown the ability to hire very good people to advise her, just maybe she has what it takes. Nor does anybody seem to own her as she appears to be a maverick. If she is a very quick learner and not from the political machines but open to other sources of info then maybe she could be a real opener for the big changes that are now so evidently needed in so many aspects of American life and culture but she is very risky. Maybe America and the world it influences needs a major political circuit breaker to rid the system of all the political and financial crud from the past so that a new sheet can be started. Shades of Roosevelt and the New Deal. Three candidates, Mc Cain, Obama and Biden are animals of the now seemingly increasingly corrupt American political machine. One is not and is therefore an unknown quantity politically but nevertheless has experience in running a political entity in a tough environment. I gather the Alaskans think she is doing a fair sort of job and that may be the best indicator you will get if McCain wins. The next president will rebuild America's place in the world order or he will help destroy it for generations to come and then it will be too late as new world powers rise up. As Rolf said above on our recent Australian Federal Government election, this election may be a good one to lose and it so happened to our liberal party which was thrown out in favour of our labour party. The merry go round of the financial markets had to come to a crashing halt sooner or later. When a heap of 23 year olds supervised by a cabal of grossly overpaid and greedy beyond imaneging old lags and thieves start trading bits of paper and skimming lots off the top every time the paper goes past and then telling everyone how they are increasing everyone's wealth, the connect between the creation of real wealth as in producing something that is actually useful to humanity and the mirage of Vapour wealth then a crash is coming regardless of governments or anybody else. The old saying is; You get the government you deserve! [ And that applies to us aussies just as much as it does any where else. ] Forget your party's and your political leanings and look at the personality, skills and integrity of the people you will put into power. One of them will help reshape the world and we will all suffer or benefit according to your choice!