Obama Should Meet Russia's Putin First

Foreign policy is going to be a very big deal in the new Obama administration and one of the lingering problems from the post Cold War period is our relationship to Russia. So you thought the Cold War ended back in the early '90's with the fall of the Soviet Union? So did I.

But something happened in Russia on the path to freedom as the world's other superpower was going through a meltdown with the collapse of Communism. Along came the USA promising all kinds of help if only Russia would become a democratic nation with free elections and free press.

This is a country whose people had lived under the protective dominance of Communists or Tzars for over 1000 years. A nation that stood by helplessly as over 62 million of their own people vanished at the hands of their leader Joseph Stalin. People dependent on a system that provided for them from cradle to grave.

With our encouragement they held elections, privatized much of their society and commerce, and started to charge through taxes for all the services people had grown to expect. The result, it took ten years to nearly destroy the once proud people, to reinvigorate the shell of the Communist party, to discover much of the privatization only put ownership of their industry and resources in the hands of professional thieves and to pretty much demonstrate that democracy was a long ways away.

So all the reforms started to be undone and the county put back together and suddenly a new Russia emerged under the firm guidance of President Vladimir Putin. What is our response to the revitalization of a major player in world affairs? The Bush administration decides to infuriate the new Russia by encouraging the former East European members of the Soviet Union to join NATO, a defense alliance of countries bribed by America through foreign aid.

Didn't Bush people know the Cold War was over? About 20 years ago, when his dad was president, the Soviet Union dissolved and the Cold War ended. Why did the kid treat Russia 20 years later as an adversary rather than a friend? Then we complained about the loss of rights in Russia, suppression of the media and the control of huge oil reserves.

When oil producing nations aided in driving the price of oil through the roof Russia helped keep the price from destroying the world by increasing production and ignoring OPEC efforts to control the world oil supply thus maintaining record prices. How do we reward our old friends? Over strenuous objections from Russia Bush decides we need a missile defense shield built in Chekoslavakia aimed at the Russians. Our current satellites can read cigarette packs from outer space, what is the point of a defense shield in Eastern Europe except to upset Putin.

Well we certainly did upset Putin and he invaded Georgia, a move we also attacked. Somewhere along the line our leaders forgot that the people of Russia are our friends, not enemies. We forgot that Russia once saved the USA from extinction in the Civil War without ever asking anything in return. A desperate plea for help from President Lincoln resulted in Russia stopping England and France from attacking the seriously weakened Union Army as it was being driven far north by Lee's Army.

Now we have a new president. He has also ignored our fractured relations with Russia and kissed up to the traditional allies of the USA. Let us hope he has the insight and wisdom to stop what Bush began, chest-thumping in the face of the Russians, and will sit down for meaningful discussions with a friend and ally from long before the days England and France decided to be our friend.

A Day For The Ages - Obama & Lincoln

THE DREAM FULFILLED

Abraham Lincoln - 16th President

Barack Obama - 44th President

Just 23 days after he takes office as the 44th President,

on February 12, 2009, Barack Obama will celebrate the

200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, a fellow

president from Illinois whose dream that all people are free

was fulfilled with the historic election of Obama. Lincoln sacrificed

his life so that Obama could serve. Here they are both sitting before

the Illinois Statehouse where both began historic political careers.

Image created by The Coltons Point Times.

Barack Obama - Abraham Lincoln - The Dream Fulfilled

On February 15, 2008 while analyzing the results of the Super Tuesday primaries, the Coltons Point Times became the first newspaper on the internet or in print to officially declare Barack Obama the next president of the United States, nine months before the vote that would confirm him on November 4. Click on the following link to see the full story.

Friday, February 15, 2008
IT'S OVER - OBAMA 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE USA

One month later, long before the end of the primary season and before Obama had won the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton a second story detailed how Obama would win the general election.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008
WHY BARACK OBAMA WILL BE THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE USA!

Tonight history was made and tomorrow Barack Obama begins a difficult quest as the 44th President of the United States fulfilling the dream of the 16th President also from Illinois who dreamed all people would be free and all Americans would have equal opportunity.

Now Obama carries the hopes of a nation and the hopes of a world on his shoulders. May the hand of God guide him and may the wind be at his back as he becomes president of all the people and leader of the greatest nation on Earth.

Choose or Lose November 4

Campaign 2008 - May the Last Person Standing Win

As the campaign winds down and America is finally close to being free of political advertising I hope you have enjoyed the efforts of the Coltons Point Times to keep you up to date with the many aspects of the campaign that are not in the papers. After being involved in 32 campaigns over the years at various local, state and national levels I can say this one stands alone.

For those addicted to poll watching just remember that the media is famous for blowing it with the polls from the 2000 Gore win to the 2004 Kerry win along with disastrous exit polls both years, so don't take them too seriously. If Obama wins there will be support for the notion that major campaigns can be bought regardless of the merits of the campaign and I hope Congress will adopt campaign reform finally that eliminates once and for all the chance that America is for sale.

I was saddened to see that fear and hatred became much more dominant than previous campaigns and that is unfortunate for our future. Both sides were generous in their efforts to smear, unfairly characterize and trash their opponent and both took great liberties with the truth. Some can be blamed on over-zealous staff and some on idiotic supporters and a lot can be blamed on a media that seemed to have lost its sense of purpose and decided reporting the truth is no longer required of such an honorable profession.

If you followed my articles throughout the campaign you will note I was hard on both candidates at varying times and tried to remain somewhat balanced. I never took sides nor endorsed anyone but I did take exception when I felt the media did not give the candidates the respect they deserved for having the guts and commitment to sacrifice in running for office. Like them or not we all should appreciate what they did and give credit where credit is due.

As for the results, I said way back on March 5 that Obama would win and I spelled out the reasons. That was when he still trailed Hillary Clinton in the primaries. That was also before the oil price crisis, the home mortgage disaster, the economic collapse, and the fact Obama would raise three times as much money as McCain. By all rights Obama should be 15-20% ahead in the polls by now but he failed to break through the 50% barrier like he should have done. I expect his final result to be closer to 54-46% which represents a heroic effort by McCain and Palin.

I could be wrong, the McCain Palin ticket may do better in spite of the avalanche of Obama money that was thrown into the campaign. Still the sitting president and his lackadaisical approach to the economy, war and foreign relations made it almost impossible for any Republican to win. You might say McCain was bushwhacked along the way.

Of course the winner may very well be the loser in the end as I have written many articles detailing how I believe we are only in the beginning of the recession and there are forces at work to destroy our economy. It is entirely possible the new president will be like Jimmy Carter and be totally unable to steer the ship of state through the perilous times ahead.

Compounding the problem for Obama will be the demands from his various constituencies who will all claim credit for getting him elected and demand his time and attention to their needs first. His loyalties will be stretched thin between the unions and Goldman Sachs on Wall Street, between the Buffets and the uninsured Americans, between the Hollywood celebrities and the silent majority that will elect him.

Beyond that there is the far greater threat to his success which is the very result he worked to achieve, a solid Democratic control of the House and Senate, meaning a super majority that will deny the minority party any chance of influencing power. People will read an Obama victory as an overwhelming rejection of McCain when in truth it will mean a very slight win in terms of the American people.

Change we want, but returning the vast majority of Congressional incumbents to office will make it impossible for Obama to bring about much change when the very people who got us into this mess are still here. Bush may be gone, but he never had a veto proof majority in Congress which means the democrats, when they were a minority and majority power, still share the blame for everything that happened. By 2010 Obama will have to run against his own Congress to have any chance of bringing about all the changes he wants.

Regardless of who wins, all Americans owe their support to the new president and the efforts he will have to make to restore our world image, manage our battered economy and heal our many wounds from a government that lost sight of the very people it was meant to serve. That is the American way. We can disagree amongst ourselves but we must stand united in order to face the challenges that will try and prevent us from being the most powerful yet generous and compassionate people on earth.

For those of you who don't think Coltons Point gets much notice in the world you should know that we have about 370 residents of the Point but the readership of the Coltons Point Times has now passed 18,500. If only the new president would read the CPT he would have a much easier time solving our nation's problems.

Obama Campaign Politburo Silences ABC and CBS Journalists - Shades of Soviet Censorship

Obama New World Order Shows True Colors in Blacklisting Media

Is this a sign of things to come in the New World Order of Obama? For the second time recently journalists for major television network affiliates were interviewing Joe Biden asking about direct quotes of Obama concerning spreading the wealth and the relationship to socialism or Marxism.

The response of the vice president in waiting was to scorn the journalists and order the Obama campaign to smear the character and reputation of these local news stations, ban all future interviews with any representatives of the campaign, and quite possibly block any political ads from running locally thus denying them access to the 3/4 billion dollar media slush fund of the Obama campaign.

Barbara West, a 16 year veteran health and news anchor for WFTV ABC 9 in Orlando became the second victim of the Bulldog Biden censorship of the television media after a recent tantrum by Biden with KYW TV CBS 3 in Philadelphia over the same line of questions.

Biden has adopted a page out of the Lenin and Stalin Communist Manifesto to respond to a question about the Marxist leanings of the Democratic ticket and Democratic Congressional leadership that has pledged to take veto proof control of the White House and US Congress. Biden blacklisted the television affiliates and denied them access to our political leadership just because he doesn't like the questions they asked. The Obama campaign immediately moved to enforce the censorship.

Is this the kind of change they intend to jam down the throats of Americans that dare to question the oftentimes whimsical policies and programs to be pursued by the Obama New World Order? Well they should be honest and state that censorship of the media and persecution of dissenters will be part of their New World Order.

It is no wonder that recent polls in socialist leaning European countries show Obama to be favored over McCain 5-1 as the Obama campaign has already demonstrated an attitude toward the freedom of the press more in line with the old Soviet regime that silenced critics without remorse. We bet the tens of millions of dollar media blitz by the Obama campaign this last week will say nothing of the real agenda for the Obama - Pelosi - Reid New World Order about to take over the last outpost of pure democracy left in the world.

Maybe we should all move to Alaska and join Todd Palin in fighting the socialist stampede about to overrun the continental USA. Ironically it seems the only nation on earth aware of the dangers of the new push toward world socialism is Russia where the socialist communist experiment was implemented for about 75 years with devastating results including the loss of individual freedom, destruction of the free press and the liquidation of over 60 million citizens in the interest of the state. Russia learned the lesson the hard way, perhaps we should listen to them more and condemn them a little less?

The worldwide financial meltdown. Are the players, analysts and media guilty as well?

Why does Obama surround himself with them?

If there is anything we have learned this election cycle it is that the experts in the fields of economics, banking, housing, defense, automobiles and a host of other industries have been dead wrong for years and as a result there may be nothing left of the economy for the next president to inherit. Make no mistake, they have been wrong over and over again and yet the media gave them credibility so like just like the Pied Piper, we have followed them down the path to self-destruction.

Now we are faced with a choice for president between well meaning but relatively inexperienced people and we are about to entrust them with our future in perhaps the most difficult period of our history so what lessons have we learned? Ironically, many in America continue to blindly follow the Pied Pipers, the very same people who taught us the meaning of greed.

Thanks to the overwhelming lack of humility of the media I feel a little uncomfortable saying it but wasn't it Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount who said; "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). What a shame when quoting Jesus can result in condemnation from the very media who is supposed to be telling us the truth.

Well this very media has been engaged in a financial conspiracy dedicated to establishing greed, desire and possession as the virtues of American society as they have bombarded us for decades with all the things we had to own to keep up with the Jones's or to be a leader. Fancy cars, clothes, country club memberships, spas, lattes, you name it, there is not enough money on earth to acquire everything they want you to buy and the more expensive the better.

Oh yes, the media had to attract the billions in advertising dollars from the greed mongers in order to brainwash an unsuspecting public into following a path of economic moral bankruptcy. But the day would come when the excesses of corporations and the lies and deceits of the experts would finally bleed the last drops of blood money from the public and that day has now come not just here but around the entire world.

The American public could see this coming and the experts didn't. Public opinion poll after public opinion poll showed the people no longer trusted politicians, Congress, financial experts and the media as their credibility ratings dropped to the lowest levels ever recorded. What was the difference? Well the experts relied on the philosophy of the products of the best businesses schools in the world while the meek relied on the Bible and the teachings of a humble man named Jesus.

What is the result, economic chaos. What is the conclusion, the experts were wrong. So if they were wrong, why does the media continue to embrace them, give us their latest version of what is going to happen, and expect the public (the fools in the world according to the media) to still follow?

Barach Obama, the least experienced of the candidates, did the only thing he could and used an enormous war chest of money to surround himself with the best, most experienced experts in the world, a Whose Who of Policy experts. These are the very same experts who caused the economic destruction of the world we now face and make no mistake, we are only feeling the beginnings of the fruits of deception and greed.

Look at the record. My last article detailed how the executives of Goldman Sachs recruited Obama to run for president and have helped finance the most expensive campaign in history. To give himself the benefit of others experience Obama surrounded himself with former Goldman executives as his key advisors and endorsers including Robert Rubin (former Goldman CEO), New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine (former Goldman CEO) and a host of fund raisers from Goldman's that gave over $800,000 and raised millions more.

Obama was seduced into supporting the Wall Street bailout, in fact was a leader in bringing it about according to the Democratic party press releases, a bailout designed by yet another former Goldman CEO Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen. Finally, Obama says billionaire Warren Buffet is his close friend and closest advisor on the economy. Buffet also is now one of the largest stockholders in Goldman Sachs with over $5 billion in the company. There is an old Chicago motto that comes in to play as Buffet not only propped up Goldman but went public to tell Congress to get the bailout done! That motto, "Ubi Est Mea" means "Where's mine?"

To establish his foreign policy credentials Obama got the endorsement of Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State. This was another beneficiary of Goldman largess and was the one who personally took the case to the United Nations to justify the invasion of Iraq, a war Obama says he opposed from the beginning though he was only a young state senator with no involvement in world wars at the time. In housing, there are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac people throughout his campaign.

So does surrounding oneself with the very people who have led the nation down the path of destruction give one the experience necessary to lead us through the worst period of our history? Judgment is a very interesting thing when selecting people to prove you have credentials as having experience is not nearly as important as learning from experience. If the very people that brought on these deceptions and mistakes are the people you rely on, then not only do you rely on the wrong experience but you demonstrate bad judgment as well.

It would seem the Obama cabinet might as well meet in the Goldman Sachs boardroom as the faces of his team already line the walls of former executives, benefactors and stockholders of the company whose corporate motto is proudly proclaimed as, "Long Term Greed!" Now maybe it is time to update the motto and add, "Take the Money and Run!".

Obama versus McCain or Goldman Sachs versus The Rothschilds

A Clash of the Titans for Control of the Presidency

News the media won't report!

Did it ever occur to you that perhaps your vote really doesn't matter because whatever happens in America is being orchestrated by more powerful sources? Few people understand the power and financial influence of two of the most powerful international financial houses in world history and it may very well be they are heavily involved in cutthroat competition for control of our next president. Yet the media has not even begun to question the relationship between these international bankers and our candidates for president.

Well they should before it is too late. Some would argue it may already be too late as the Congress, the White House, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and the two candidates have already joined forces to adopt the most comprehensive bail out of Wall Street and the banking community every seen in American history and followed it with similar action in every major nation throughout the world.

While Congress and the candidates talk about a $700 billion bailout that was necessary to save the economy, the Federal Reserve and Treasury were quietly adopting new programs and regulations to provide direct assistance to the financial markets bringing the total bailout to nearly $3 trillion. As if that is not enough, the Democratic leadership in Congress also intends to offer a future bribe to the taxpayer of another $300 billion stimulation program if Obama gets elected.

How in the world did the Democrats and Republicans, the liberals and conservatives and the media of this nation all agree to such a massive commitment to save the very institutions that cheated, committed fraud, bent regulations and out-smarted the best minds in government and finance? How did people with opposing philosophies who were bitter political rivals bury the hatchet in the midst of one of the most contentious presidential campaigns in history, just a few weeks before the dramatic climax?

Well perhaps the quiet involvement of Goldman Sachs and the Rothschilds may explain as these global powerhouses have been getting their way with governments since long before most modern governments even existed.

In 1750, 26 years before the American Declaration of Independence the Rothschild family began their journey to become the most powerful financial family in world history and though to this day the vast majority of their holdings are privately held, estimates of their family holdings are as much as $167 trillion dollars. Strategic actions over the 258 year continuous evolvement of the Rothschilds has led to control of much of the world supply of gold, oil, diamonds and many other assets.

As for Goldman Sachs, they were founded in 1869, shortly after the end of the US Civil War and at the dawning of the industrial revolution in America joining yet another family firm still around today, J.P. Morgan whose work to save the Union during the Civil War earned it many privileges during the explosion of growth in America including the opportunity to finance the Rockefeller Standard Oil empire with Rothschild money.

In time the three factions would appear to undertake the most intense competition between them for control of the global financial system ever seen but in the end, though all three groups remain the sole survivors today in terms of American influence, it became known that Morgan was serving as a front for the Rothschilds in order for the Rothschilds to maintain a low profile in America. But low profile or not they dominated what happened and how it happened.

As for the involvement in this election cycle, Goldman Sachs and the Rothschilds have again taken on each other with the Rothschilds jumping onto the McCain bandwagon late in the campaign while Goldman Sachs has been imbedded in the Obama campaign since the beginning. While the Rothschilds have seemingly played a much smaller role in McCain's efforts much remains to be disclosed of the Goldman role with Obama.

This much can be reported. Back when Obama was a freshman candidate for Senator he was selected to be keynote speaker for the Democratic national convention in 2004. A nobody from Chicago was plucked from midair and cast into the most important slot in the convention. How he would up there remains to be revealed.

Just a little over one year after being elected as a junior senator, in 2006 Obama was the featured guest before a private gathering of the Goldman Sachs executives in Chicago, an honor unheard of for someone that politically insignificant, speaking before the most powerful financial firm on Wall Street and one of the most powerful in the world. This was quietly reported in Bloomberg News.

It was the launch of his presidential campaign and Goldman executives soon gave over $800,000 to jump start the Obama presidential bid along with collecting millions of dollars from their fellow Wall Street firms and clients. Oh yes, Robert Rubin became the Obama economic expert, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs. Billionaire Warren Buffet became his most trusted economic advisor, a man who was to invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs in the height of the economic meltdown. Yet Buffet was also a personal guest of Lord Rothschild at a private conference at his English estate.

The story only gets better. On May 3, 2007, Barack Obama attended an event at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan that was not on his public schedule and is only now surfacing. The exclusive private dinner was for Goldman Sachs traders and featured a discussion on issues by Obama moderated for the Wall Street firm by NBC's Tom Brokaw. Once again the circumstances are strange as a year later Brokaw would be moderating the second presidential debate between Obama and McCain and the economy and Wall Street were the main points of discussion. Of course the debate commission and McCain were unaware that Obama and Brokaw had already held a practice session the year earlier.

Then comes the financial meltdown which can be traced back to a couple of major events. The first major change to the regulatory framework that opened the door to Enron and the sub-prime crisis occurred in 1991, when Goldman Sachs, through a subsidiary called J. Aron, argued that even though it was an investment bank it should be granted the same exemption given to commercial traders in the commodity markets because it was in the business of buying commodities as a middleman. It was granted by the CFTC.

A second turning point came when Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, that formally allowed investors to trade energy commodities on private electronic platforms outside the purview of regulators. Critics have called this piece of legislation the "Enron loophole," saying Enron played a role in crafting it. In the months after the act was passed, private electronic trading platforms sprang up across the country, challenging the dominance of NYMEX.

Investment banks like Goldman's had been frustrated with the established exchange because they really were never able to get control of it according to Michael Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland and a former staff member at the CFTC. The new law allowed them to create a private trading platform. The most successful of the private platforms was InterContinental Exchange, or ICE, founded by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and a few other big brokerages in 2000. ICE soon opened a trading platform in London, allowing its founders to trade vast quantities of U.S. oil overseas without being subject to regulation. This opened the floodgates to oil price speculation.



Suddenly comes the current economic chaos and the president calls a meeting of Congressional leaders, Treasury, Federal Reserve staff and the presidential candidates. Obama, who was staying away from Washington during the crisis got the call and at the meeting he spoke about economic issues that reportedly had been prepared by the Republicans and was being reviewed by Treasury yet wound up in the Obama campaign. Of course the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulsen was a former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs as is the new head of the $700 billion Treasury bailout program.

Do we really know anything about the long term relationship between Obama and Goldman Sachs other than their massive fund raising for him? Since he has been secretly guided and financed by Goldman people from the very beginning of his presidential campaign were they influential in his economic platform? Obama never questioned the role of Goldman in the sub-prime fiasco nor in manipulating the oil futures prices. When Goldman specialists tried to drive the price of oil up to $200 a barrel this year Obama never said a word.

Long before this time the Goldman Sachs Foundation had quietly channeled funds to Colin Powell's new group, America's Promise and Powell himself was collecting honorariums from $50,000 to $100,000 for speaking to various groups including Goldman sponsored events. At some point between the time he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then left government, only to come back as Bush Secretary of State, Powell acquired between $1 million and $5 million of stock in giant defense contractor General Dynamics, a firm in which the Roshschilds have extensive ownership. Powell eventually would be converted from a McCain financial contributor and friend to endorser of Obama in less than a year.

As for the Rothschilds and McCain, it was not until this year that they held a fund raiser for him in London hosted by Lord Jacob Rothschild and his son, Nathaniel Rothschild in the posh London Spencer House on March 28, 2008. As I said at the beginning, the Rothschilds are the oldest, biggest and most powerful of all financial houses and have long chosen to remain in the background while other firms fronted their interests.

Although they compete with firms like Goldman they also cooperate often on international mergers and acquisitions, have been partners in the oil futures exchange, and recently both sought to expand their influence in Asia with the Rothschilds selling a 20% interest in one of their companies to the Bank of China. The Shanghai and Hong Kong-listed commercial bank will pay $341 million for the stake in the French arm of the La Compagnie Financière. It is the first strategic investment by a leading Chinese bank in the eurozone.

In spite of being foreign based the Rothschilds have been one of the chief beneficiaries of the economic crisis in America as J.P. Morgan and Barclays, firms with significant equity held by the Rothschilds, were able to gobble up Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual in sweetheart deals for a fraction of their asset values in the midst of the crisis.

So what control do we really have over the election, over the president and over the Congress? We know control has been lost of the economy, of world trade and of international finance. Most government institutions seem to be operating at the whim and call of the financial giants. Can we expect more after this election? Is America for sale to the highest bidder and is Obama's $500 million campaign the highest bid? All this bodes ill for the liberal, left wing groups and unions rallying around Obama as they may very well be discarded when they have served the purpose of winning the elections.

Obama President - Palin Vice President - What if the electoral vote is tied?

In this one of the most bizarre presidential campaigns in history with either the first African American or the first woman elected to the highest offices in our land, why not see both of them elected? Don't say "no way" until you check the facts. Twice in our history a president failed to get enough electoral votes and the House made the final decision, in 1801 and 1825. Once in our history the vice president failed to get the required electoral votes and the Senate selected the vice president. Amendment 12 was passed to fix the ambiguities of the Constitution after the 1801 election. A full text of Article II and Amendment 12 follow later in this story.

Right now the election is too close to call. There are 538 total electoral votes and 270, a simple majority, are needed to get someone elected. It is technically possible for the election to end in a tie, with Obama and McCain each getting 269 electoral votes, one shy of the majority needed to be president. If that happens, then the election of the president is up to the House and the vice president up to the Senate.

Each state delegation is expected to vote according to their party affiliation but each state only has one vote in the total votes cast. Thus the House would vote for Obama since there is a clear House majority of Democrats. In the Senate there is a tie between Democrats and Republicans, each with 59 members, while two other Senators are independents. Joe Lieberman, a very close friend and endorser of McCain, is an independent who joined the Democrats to give the Democrats control of the Senate.

Because of Lieberman's support of McCain the Senate democratic leadership have threatened to strip him of any party rank in the new Senate. So if the vice president is to be decided by the Senate, Lieberman could easily change his vote, thus eliminating the Democratic majority. If he cast his vote for Palin it would decide the election.

The result would mean Obama would be president and Palin would be vice president for the next four years and given an electoral tie there would be no other probable conclusion. With the polls closing as expected in these last days such a scenario becomes more and more possible. There are so many firsts in this election, not to mention worldwide economic catastrophes and other strange circumstances, that a result as I outlined may not be so far fetched.

Here is what the Constitution says about the election of the president and vice president in Article II and the procedure is quite clear.

Article II

Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:

Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.

The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each state having one vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President.

Amendment XII

The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;--The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

Obama and McCain back on Track - The Election is on Again

For the first time since the political conventions in August today the two candidates for president acted presidential and maybe there is hope that the people will finally get the choice they need, a choice between two visions for the future of America.

I suspect the candidates finally got control of the campaigns back from the staff as there is no way these two people were performing to the best of their abilities the past few weeks. I have said repeatedly that we need to hear ideas, a vision and a future of hope for America and the campaigns were bogged down in blame, accusation and hostility that served no good purpose.

Today that seemed to change. Both gave speeches directed to the future, not pointing fingers to the past. It was refreshing to hear so many good ideas being offered and if the candidates were honest then they demonstrated that either one is not beholden to the forces in Washington, DC or Wall Street and were in a position to really go after the people standing in the way of change.

There are many people who represent the old way and will resist any reforms that take away their power and control over the nation and only a president free of dependence on them can offer such hope to the public. Our president is elected to serve all the people, not just the liberals or conservatives, and both candidates could do that.

If the biased media would just shut up and report the news rather than work so hard to manufacture the news, if they would stop the efforts to discredit candidates and recognize that the people running for office have given up a lot to run and will give up a lot more to serve, then we will all be better served.

There are a lot of similarities in the agendas of the candidates but a lot of difference in how they will go about changing things. That is the decision the voters must make. Because of the economy and Bush John McCain has an uphill battle to win but he is not a Bush clone and the people know it.

Barach Obama has to resist being labeled as the liberal candidate in order to reach across party and philosophical lines and his worst enemy are the leftist media supporting him but he too can effectively distance himself from the enemy.

It is time for a populist president and both can be standard bearers for the populist movement. Liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, and Wall Street and Congress have all demonstrated that their narrow agenda is not what America needs at this moment in time. What we need is to hear more of the candidates vision and implementation strategy these last 30 days. If they keep from attacks and focus on the future America will be well served.

What we need is a president with "No strings attached." If the candidates will stay focused America will get such a leader and a new wave of hope and promise will flow over the land.

The Great Debate - Obama and McCain - Enough is Enough

Buried in the middle of an economic meltdown was the first great debate in which every Democratic and Republican pundit and news media person said it would be the debate of the century drawing 80-100 million viewers according to the gospel of MSNBC. It wasn't. Fact is in terms of people watching it didn't even make the top 10 as just 52.4 million people tuned in. It finished 28.2 million people behind the Reagan-Carter debate of 1980. If you adjust the 1980 debate for today's population over 109 million people would have been watching, more than double our present day warriors.

So here are the facts. In terms of convention speeches McCain, Obama and Palin each drew about 40 million viewers. The debate drew 52.4 million. There will be about 121.5 million people actually voting this election so 43% of the likely voters watched, while 57% did not watch. That is not a particularly good sign that the campaigns have energized the voters.

During these last few weeks of the campaign we are going to be hit with an avalanche of campaign ads, emails, television bytes and other forms of slander, distortion and nasty stuff. We have already faced 18 months of the same stuff. Obama will outspend McCain 2-1 nationally and 4-1 in the swing states. If you had access to an honest poll you would see Obama has a slight lead but nearly 16% of the voters are undecided so no matter what the experts say, the race is still up in the air.

By now we expected Obama to have a solid double digit lead but he doesn't in spite of the huge spending advantage. Neither candidate demonstrated much leadership in our economic crisis so don't count on any surge from that. Palin has been mauled by the leftist media, ridiculed by the Hollywood elite and outright slandered by Democratic special interest groups but she is still here.


This weeks vice presidential debate will have to be her coming out party or the election will probably be over but to those hate mongering liberals don't be surprised if she doesn't knock that smug smile off your faces. The McCain campaign staff has done a terrible job of over managing her and it has cost them. If they learned their lesson and they cut her loose things might be a lot different.

Both candidates, their many surrogates and in particular the elitist media need to stop with the criticism, charges and political nonsense and get on with telling us how they will govern. Who cares if Sarah Palin doesn't know the name of regulation reforms offered by McCain over the years, we need to know that she understands our needs and interests and they sure aren't old regulatory bills from the past. All the candidates need to focus on their vision of the future.

With the election leaning toward Obama but still up in the air there are four factors that could swing the final tally either way, the Catholic vote, the pro and anti abortion vote, the women's vote as opposed to the feminist vote and the racial issue. Each of these will be examined in detail during the next few days.

Is Obama Really The One? The $440 Million People's Person

Everyone in America knows we are in the midst of a serious economic crisis. First came the Bear Stearns collapse and Barack Obama refused to take a position saying we should wait and see what happens. Then came the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bail out by the government and the Lehmann collapse not bailed out. That was followed immediately by the AIG collapse that was saved at the last minute by the Federal Reserve. Each time Obama said we should wait and see what happens though our economy was a mess because of Bush.

Now that sounds like a Harvard educated response to the series of events. Is that leadership? Is that how he intends to govern through these tough times? He did promise us tax breaks and tax increases, a whole lot of them. And Biden did attempt to clarify how they would create new jobs, through public works projects. Yet another form of federal welfare destined to create dead end jobs with no career path at a cost to the taxpayer of billions of more dollars.

Some say the twin mortgage companies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the root cause of what has happened. Well they were created by a Democratic administration and run by former Clinton insiders so I think that might be a Democratic problem that triggered the catastrophe. Some say a bill sponsored by Republicans that was passed in 2005 and impacted on the investment and commercial banks was the cause but that same bill was approved by 90 of the 100 Senators including the Democratic leadership.

For the past two years Nancy Pelosi has controlled the House and Harry Reid has controlled the Senate, presiding over Democratic majorities. If they control the Congress why didn't they fix the problems? In fact since they did control both the House and Senate why didn't they do anything the past two years after making all kinds of wonderful promises? Empty promises - broken leadership.

Now they want you to give them control of the White House as well. So how fiscally responsible is the candidate for president for the Democrats? Well, he is spending more than twice as much in the 2008 presidential campaign then anyone else in history, having already raised over $440 million. McCain has raised $190 million. And while he claims the largest donor base in history, the million plus donors don't get access to him.

No, the only contributors that get personal pictures with Obama and get to sip wine and get served by waiters in tuxedos are the Hollywood elite who pay $30,000 to have dinner with him. Now the price of the evening ticket to be with Obama is equal to 60% of the median annual family income in America, meaning the average family would have to work from January until July 15 to pay for a single ticket. If you want to take your spouse you will have to work 14 months for the tickets! The savior of the common people only dines with the richest of the rich, how Ivy League, how elitist and how disconnected with the common people he claims to champion.

While he sips wine in Beverly Hills we patiently wait for Obama to tell us how he will really help the people. While he dines for dollars, very big dollars, with Barbra Streisand and Bon Jovi at million dollar private parties people are suffering. While he waits to see how things work out before he takes a position Wall Street continues to crumble under the weight of its own corruption and greed. While he throws hundreds of millions of dollars at us to convince us he is THE ONE, people are fighting wars and digging out from hurricanes so there is an America left for someone to govern, but I am not certain what he has demonstrated is a convincing argument he is REALLY THE ONE.

ABC News Continues Media Efforts to Distort Palin Message

ABC News Charles Gibson introduced the first comprehensive news interview of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin to the world with clips of how he was able to cause her to stumble in questioning over the "Bush Doctrine."

Perhaps this was his effort to appease the criticism he received from the liberal left of being too soft in interviews with the McCain ticket and reacquire "macho" liberal approval but the result was a blatant attempt to trick Palin.

Gibson, out of the blue, asked Palin about the Bush Doctrine. She immediately asked him to be more specific. As she attempted to explain he asked the same question several more times, never bothering to explain what part of the Bush doctrine he intended to address. Finally after she gave increasingly more detail about the Bush doctrine he finally asked specifically for her position on preemptive strikes against terrorist targets.

ABC promptly sent out the edited questions and the liberal media jumped on the exchange as more evidence of her lack of knowledge of foreign affairs. Well shame on you Charles Gibson, until now ABC had not joined the stampede of news outlets leaning to the left but you have reestablished your news credentials as a master of media manipulation and should get a standing ovation at the next socialist convention in America.

The truth, in case anyone cares, is the Bush Doctrine is a four pillar approach to terrorism in the world, exactly as Palin described. Preemptive strikes are one of the four pillars thus her request to him to clarify his ambiguous question demonstrated far more understanding of the Doctrine than ABC News. His repeated response of refusing to clarify it was clearly intended to make her look bad.

According to the book, yes books have been published about the Bush Doctrine, World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism, Norman Podhoretz identifies the four pillars of the Bush Doctrine: (1) rejection of moral relativism and commitment to fostering the spread of democracy in the Middle East, (2) treating terrorism proactively, on a global basis, and not as law enforcement issue, (3) willingness to engage in preemptive attacks against terrorists and terrorist supporting states, and (4) unwillingness to support a Palestinian state until Palestinian leaders "engage in a sustained fight against terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure."

Palin was right in asking for him to be specific. Her answer was right about the Bush Doctrine being the worldview on terrorism. And once again Gibson demonstrated how the mainstream media in America is hell bent on distorting the record, words and experience of Sarah Palin. Oh yeah, when he finally asked the real question she nailed it like she did on all the rest.

ABC has already issued misinformation on the exchange trying to limit the Bush Doctrine to the issue of preemptive strikes but the Bush Doctrine was detailed in the National Security Strategy of 2002 for all the world to see and its odd ABC missed such an important document.

Finally, when the same ABC (ABC News Rick Klein Reports) asked Obama about the Bush Doctrine back on July 26, 2007 during a conference call to reporters, according to ABC Obama "said Clinton would continue the "Bush doctrine" of only speaking to leaders of rogue nations if they first meet conditions laid out by the United States." Clearly Obama didn't know what the Bush Doctrine was so in terms of truth, Palin 1, ABC News 0.

Perhaps when Sarah Palin gets to Washington her first mess to clean up should be the media as they are more tied to the lobbyists and special interests than the politicians.

Sarah Palin New Media Star

Well the elite media may hate her but America has come to her defense as Plain Sarah Palin stunned the elitists by capturing over 37 million viewers on television last night at her coming out party according to the latest Nielsen overnight ratings.

Obama's cornation at the Democratic convention broke all the old records for viewers as Joe Biden drew 24 million viewers, Hillary Clinton drew almost 26 million viewers and Barack's rock concert at the 80,000 seat stadium drew 38 million viewers.

So how in the world did the hockey mom from moose country who emerged from the Alaska frontier just five days ago have just 1 million fewer viewers than the most promoted, visible and exposed (over $150 million has been spent on the Obama campaign) candidate in Democratic party history?

Guess what? The elite media put the Obama lovefest on ten national networks while the country girl was only put on six networks, yet another example of media manipulation and still she nearly toppled the reigning king of political media.

If you believed the media Obama should be running away with the election. Based on spending and exposure he really should be. But what is the truth behind the numbers?

Annie Oakly from moose country nearly equals his record for the largest political television audience in history on four less networks. A week ago no one even knew her.

Obama has captured about 18 million votes while spending hundreds of millions of dollars over 18 months while Sarah has spent a week in the public eye being mauled by the media.

Obama is the darling of the liberal media, yet just 21% of American voters are liberal, 45% are moderate and 34% are conservative.

While Obama captured 18 million primary votes, so did Hillary Clinton. There will be about 125 million votes cast for president this year which means 107 million have not voted for Obama this year.

Registered voters are split about 37% Democrat, 37% Republican and 26% Independent.

In spite of the best efforts of some media to discredit Sarah Palin the country girl managed to become a media star matching the star power of the mighty Obama in her first week of exposure to the American public.

Well now we have a real election. No matter who wins history will be made. For once the media elite will be on the ballot through surrogate Obama. And once again the American voters, Joe Six Pack and Soccer/Hockey Mom, will determine the future of the world.

Vice President Picks by CPT

The Coltons Point Times has already offered the best running mate for Barack Obama, Sam Nunn from Georgia. We stand by our choice and are confident he would greatly enhance the Democratic ticket because of experience, leadership, knowledge of foreign and economic affairs and ability to step in as President if necessary.

As for the Republican ticket, we believe McCain should pick Mitt Romney of Massachusett, a successful buinessmen and governor and expert on the economy whose youth and energy will complement McCain.

Both candidates will greatly aid their respective tickets and the US will be assured of a strong, responsible, moral ticket to lead our nation. In the next few days we shall see.

THE CPT ILLUSTRATED PRESIDENTIAL POLL OF 2008 - YOU DECIDE!

I am sick of reading and hearing about the polling nonsense every day concerning the presidential election. How many times do the political pundits have to prove how stupid they can be? Political polls in the media have about the same degree of accuracy as the weather man and we all know a single digit IQ qualifies you to be a meterologist.

So we are having our own poll and we are declaring the accuracy to be within 1 to 3% of the accuracy of all those political polls in our face every morning. While they claim statistical accuracy because they use voting age, eligible voters, registered voters and likely voters or whatever might be the fad that morning, we claim statistical accuracy because we simply don't care.

They have a poll sample of between 300 and 2000. Now how in the world can 300-2000 interviews tell you what 300 million people think? So we are conducting a single interview assuming our single citizen does indeed represent a cross section of America. We are going to interview Hillbilly Joe from Coltons Point.

Now some Coltons Pointers are not big on reading, Hillbilly being among them so we are going to use pictures to ask questions in hopes of getting coherent responses. Here is our first Illustrated Presidential Poll of 2008.

CPT: Who do you like for president between these two characters?

Hillbilly: That's it? Those are my only choices? What ever happened to the great American heroes like Ronald Reagan or John Wayne. What happened to America?

CPT: These are the choices the people decided on during the primaries.

Hillbilly: Must be more idiots in America than I thought. Daddy is right, we are being overrun.

CPT: So I guess you are undecided. Which one of these two has the image you want for your president?

Hillbilly: That ain't right man. Somthing just ain't right. Where is my old bomb shelter? We are in deep shit!

CPT: That's okay Hillbilly. How about their position on war, which one is closer to your stand on war of these two?

Hillbilly: Good Lord, are we being punished by Divine Providence or what? One wants to fight and one wants to run. One wants to fight forever and one wants to stop in 16 months. Ain't there no happy medium? Can't we just kick some ass and get it over with like the good old days?

CPT: So you must disagree. How about on the economy?

Hillbilly: What the hell do they know about the economy? They're both on federal welfare aren't they? Both US Senators. And both live off their rich women. McCain should retire to Bora Bora while he can still enjoy his wife and Obama should retire to Hollywood where he can really make some big bucks in movies about presidents.

CPT: So who do you want for president?

Hillbilly: Good thing I ain't got no kids. They'd be cursed by the choices we make this generation. The people didn't nominate these dudes, the media did! So I say pass a law and make the network media stars liable for the next president. Whatever happens they are to blame, not us!

CPT: So who are you going to vote for?

Hillbilly: Are you crazy? I'd lose my lifetime Redneck membership if I backed either one. Ole McCain changes position every day and I ain't got a clue what Obama's position is to begin with. It's like Clinton and Bush. They all came from the same place, speak the same double talk, and think the American public has been taking stupid pills for life!

CPT: What place is that Hillbilly?

Hillbilly: You know, Yale, Harvard, those uppity, uppity Ivy League schools where they are brainwashed from birth. I ain't registered to vote and I ain't voting and that's all there is to it! Now leave me alone dude, I'm going to see Rambo 5 at the movies.

Obama Conquers Europe - Is America Next?

Over 200,000 Germans watch as Obama walks along the podium on his way to address the world. It was the highlight of his whirlwind trip from Afganistan to Iraq, Israel to Germany to France and England.

Memo to John McCain: Stop whining and start giving us a reason to take you more seriously than Obama. Ever since Obama left for the war zones and Europe McCain has been complaining about the press coverage, complaining about the policies Obama has announced, complaining about being assigned the junior varsity of the news corps since all the media stars were with Obama in Europe and complaining about every word uttered by Obama on the trip.

His "good old boy" approach to the campaign does nothing to tell us why he should be elected as the most powerful person in the world, how he will improve the image of America around the world, or how he will end the wars and stop all the special interests who are running and funding his campaign. We need solutions to problems. We need a leader who can motivate us to do good. We need a president who will go after the crooks in our financial, oil, medical, pharmaceutical, entertainment and media industries.

I thought it was pretty amazing to see an American speaking to over 200,000 Germans in Berlin and being applauded. When I see polls that say two-thirds of Europeans want Obama to be the next president I think the fact the rest of the world is taking such an interest in our election is an indication of the power of the United States and the role they hope to see for America in leading the world.

Think about it, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and England have been around about a thousand years longer than the USA. Yet in all their amazing history they have never had a minority leader, whether president, prime minister, king or queen. Only the USA, the newest kid on the block, has taken such a quantum leap forward to be seriously considering electing the first minority president in world history in a Western democratic or capitalistic society.

The people of the world stand in awe of our political system that practices what it preaches, that all people are free and everyone has an equal opportunity to be president. I happen to think that is quite extraordinary and our founding fathers should be smiling down on the land of freedom and opportunity they helped create.

There are one hundred days until the election. Both candidates have plenty of time and money to make their case to be the next leader of our nation. Let us hope they use that time and money to give us positive reasons to elect them, not negative reasons to not elect their opponent.

The United States is the sole world super power because we can stand united behind a cause for good, be more creative and innovative than any other nation when we set our mind to it, and we are the most compassionate and caring people on Earth. As long as the world is watching with such interest, let us give them an election they will never forget.



Not to be outdone by Obama, McCain is shown here meeting with the Dali Lama while Obama was meeting with the Germans, French and English. He used the occasion with this man of peace to blast Obama for his trip and to challenge the images of the wonderful reception he received in Europe.

OBAMA BEGINS MAGICAL QUEST

Barack Obama has secured the Democratic nomination and now begins his magical quest to become the first Black president in the history of the United States. On March 6 The Coltons Point Times declared Obama would be the Democratic candidate and would become the 44th President of the United States. As we said in the earlier story:

WHY BARACK OBAMA WILL BE THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE USA!

The Lincoln Connection

In his Second Inaugural Address March 4, 1865 President Abraham Lincoln said the following:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Such words of Abraham Lincoln seem as valid today as they did 143 years ago so perhaps the hand of destiny may play a part in this election. Whoever wins will become president in time to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth on February 12, 1809. The fact Lincoln lived in Illinois throughout his career is another interesting parallel with Barack Obama.

The artwork preceding this article depict Lincoln and Obama in Springfield, Illinois and in time may depict them in our nation's capitol. His success in the general election and as president will be dependent on whether he grows into the role of leader of the strongest nation in the world. Many such as Lincoln and John Kennedy have done so and there is no reason to expect otherwise.

Obama has already done what no Bush has ever accomplished, defeated the powerful Clinton machine and he started as an unknown while the senior Bush was the incumbent president. So do not underestimate the maturity of our young presidential candidate. He understands the need to break from the past and the need to embrace the future.

His first test will be selecting a vice president and Hillary supporters aside, as she more than anyone represents the link to the past, he needs to make a mature, reasoned selection that will complement his portfolio and strengthen his administration. We believe the best choice for Obama will be former Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia.

Not only was Sam Nunn one of the most respected members of the US Senate but he has fought his entire political career for the elimination of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons throughout the world and is responsible for eliminating over 5,600 nuclear warheads from the American war machine. His age, 70, and experience make him most complimentary to the Obama ticket and his early retirement from the Senate because he felt he was not accomplishing anything demonstrated his commitment to his beliefs.

Stay tuned as history is made in America.