Reading the now removed post of Julietta Appleton on Obamatravel.org, I was really struck by her devotion to Barack Obama. I used to run a private practice in counseling as she apparently does, and I had a hard time getting away for a week’s vacation. The business suffers and your clients are put on hold (6 weeks!?). Here is what she posted:
Note that she says she has no money but she needs to get her man elected. I like McCain-Palin but I am not going to wreck my career over the election.
And then there is this young woman who is clearly emotional, but believes that Obama will end her financial worries.
When expectations that high are dashed, it can be very painful. I am sad when I hear people who are banking their personal well being on a political solution. I don’t know either of these women so I am willing to assume that their situations are more complex and that after the campaign, they may come back to a more realistic perspective. Hope so…
Month: November 2008
You know what to do, now go do it.
It is probably no secret who I support. We have a clear choice between moderate-conservative and far left ideologies and policies. I choose the moderate-conservative.
McCain-Palin ’08
New sport: Cross country voting
Via Redstate and Palestra.net, we have the chronicles of a cross-country voter, Farah Minwalla.
According to these sources, she is registered in three states and apparently voted in 2.
(h/t: Charles Martin)
John Fund on voter fraud
John Fund, who has been bird-dogging ACORN, reports on more instances of fraud and provides an interview with Anita MonCrief, former ACORN worker.
Anita MonCrief, an ACORN whistle-blower who worked for both it and its Project Vote registration affiliate from 2005 until early this year, agrees. “It’s ludicrous to say that fake registrations can’t become fraudulent votes,” she told me. “I assure you that if you can get them on the rolls you can get them to vote, especially using absentee ballots.” MonCrief, a 29-year old University of Alabama graduate who wanted to become part of the civil rights movement, worked as a strategic consultant for ACORN as well as a development associate with Project Vote and sat in on meetings with the national staffs of both groups. She has given me documents that back up many of her statements, including one that indicates that the goal of ACORN’s New Mexico affiliate was that only 40 percent of its submitted registrations had to be valid.
Fund reports on one of the Ohio scandals
Franklin County prosecutor Ron O’Brien also cracked down in the case of 13 out-of-state registrants who came to Ohio to register voters in Columbus for the group Vote From Home. The group all lived out of the same rented 1,175-square-foot house in Ohio, registered to vote and then most of them either cast early voting ballots or submitted applications for absentee ballots before leaving the state. They have agreed to have all of their ballots canceled in exchange for the prosecutor’s decision not to file charges.
The Columbus Dispatch reported last month that “none of them seems to have ties to Ohio” — and apparently had no intention of staying there. One has even moved back to England, where he is a student. It is illegal in almost all states to vote somewhere that is not your permanent residence.
The owner of the house the fraudulent voters stayed at is also under investigation. He has voted in Ohio even though he has lived and worked in New York for the past four years.
Here is a factoid I did not know but provides an “aha” moment.
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner admits that some 200,000 newly registered Ohio voters have been flagged by her office because their names, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and/or Social Security numbers don’t match other state or federal records. She is refusing to release the information on those registrants to county election boards that have requested them for the purpose of running further checks. Ms. Brunner was elected in 2006 with the support of ACORN, and indeed her campaign consultant that year was Karyn Gillette, who happened to be MonCrief’s immediate superior at ACORN’s Project Vote.
“I’d be very suspicious of what is going on in Ohio,” MonCrief told me.
Speaking of Ohio, here is one more example of someone out of state voting in Ohio, this time in Cincinnati.
(h/t Charles Martin on the Cinci voter)
Coal emerges as last minute campaign issue
Some things just take awhile to sink in or get packaged in a way that people hear them. Here is the video with the sound clip of Obama talking about coal in San Francisco.
I think the difference between candidates is that Obama wants to impose more stringent regulations sooner (immediately). I think McCain’s view is that in view of the security needs of the nation, we cannot move so quickly and remove another source of energy based solely on environmental concerns. For an industry making a transition, the pace of change is important.
This is a very sensitive issue here in PA, OH and to the south in WV. My guess is that this will move some voters McCain’s direction. Speaking to Californians about economic issues in PA, and WV brings back Obama’s comments, also to a San Francisco audience, about rural Pennsylvanians clinging to guns and religion because they are bitter.