Politics at its worst........

I'm going to dive into a political post here. Feel free to bypass it if you aren't interested.

I generally am not a huge fan of what's going on in politics lately. There are some people absolutely abusing situations for their own personal gain. The latest two of note are Kansas governor Sebelius and Barack Obama.

Governor Sebelius capitalized on the terrible tornado that flattened a town of 1,800 people and killed 10 people in the process. She decided to make a speech on a podium placed right in the middle of the devastated town. I can't tell you how goofy that looks to see a perfectly good podium standing in the midst of ruin. She spoke briefly about the current situation and then went out of her way to go on a political rant about the total lack of trucks and equipment available to the Kansas National Guard because all of the equipment 'is over in Iraq'.

Evidently, someone forgot to let Governor Sebelius know about the stacks of trucks parked at the National Guard Armories in Kansas City and Topeka that are going unused while she complained that no trucks were available. Thankfully, the local news crews went out of their way to go down and film all the inactive trucks that were supposedly unavailable and in Iraq. It amazes me how a politician can think they can get away with these kinds of statements without someone actually verifying that there truly are no trucks and equipment available. Worse yet, they sometimes actually DO get away with it.

Barack Obama decided to cash out on the tornado situation as well. First, he mistakenly said in a speech yesterday that there were 10,000 people killed in Kansas. The number was actually 10 dead, not 10,000. Given that Kansas is a deeply Republican state, my guess is that Mr. Obama just wishes that there was 10,000 dead Republicans rather than only 10.

Mr. Obama went on to regurgitate the information that Governor Sebelius stated. He just had to drag out the statements about how woefully equipped the National Guard was to handle the situation due to the war in Iraq. He also stated, "It turns out that they had to slow down the recovery process because of the lack of National Guard assets in the state."

Sure, Mr. Obama. You know us Midwesterners far too well. We just sit around on our tails and wait for the government to save us from ourselves. You've got to be kidding me! Those people in Kansas are not going to wait around for some National Guard trucks to show up. They're going to drag their tractors and trucks out (which most families already have in that part of the state) and get to work cleaning up. President Bush has already authorized emergency funds for PRIVATE clean-up and they're going to rebuild. Mr. Obama just doesn't get it, but it fit his platform. His campaign platform is not to propose solutions. It's meant to show all of the screw-ups of the current administration. Just to be clear, that's not the platform of a leader.

No one is immune to the problems of the current administration. I voted for Dubya and I'll be the first to state that he made some bad decisions along the way. As a result, I think we'll see a much more moderate candidate like Rudy or McCain come out of the Republican primaries this year, which will likely be a good move.

With that said, someone needs to inform the Democrats just how badly they're screwing up right now. Their total lack of forward-thinking in their ideas shows just how bad their choice of leaders is at this point. They're attacking an administration that will not be running for re-election. If the Republicans were putting forward a similar candidate, that might be a good tactic. As it is, they're attacking a candidate who the vast majority of Republicans agree is not the best choice for a future candidate. The Republican base is showing that they aren't interested in a candidate like Dubya because Rudy and McCain are the leaders in the polls. The Democrats are basically beating a dead horse which everyone acknowledges is a dead horse. It's not going to be any more dead than it already is right now.

Worse yet, the Democrats appear to have not learned from the Republican mistakes over the past few years. Republicans are very aware that the voting population is not interested in another extreme candidate like Dubya who is considered to be very right-wing. So what does the Democratic party do? They go out and put out Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as their candidates. Hillary Clinton does one thing. She plays off her husband's popularity (despite the fact that he publicly cheated on her in the Oval Office) to draw big funding from the Democratic base. She is a polarizing figure who may draw Democrats, but will turn off independent and Republican voters. Dubya may be the only candidate that she could beat in an election, but he's not running.

Similarly, Barack Obama is not exactly a 'people' candidate. He regularly blows his horn, trumpeting how he opposed the war from the beginning. He comes off as a 'know-it-all' who is more worried about being right rather than dealing with the current situation. I personally don't care how right or wrong he was in the past. He also smokes, which I see as a weakness in a candidate. Nicotine is a powerful drug, but it's an addiction that the leader of the free world should be able to beat. Also, through no fault of his own, he's also being touted by the Democrats as the first minority to be a legitimate candidate. I don't care what the color of his skin is. He's got to be a leader and Barack Obama is anything but a leader.

I really hope we are able to pull in a moderate candidate like Rudy or McCain that holds some beliefs that some Republicans and some Democrats can both agree on. I'm really tired of the political posturing that plays only to one base or the other. Is it too much to ask for a candidate to make a stance based on their beliefs rather than what will raise the most money????