10/23 Morning Report

The media seems to be really convinced that Governor Sarah Palin is not qualified to be Vice-President. It is a common theme when the elections are being discussed—by the media. It wasn’t an issue among people. Just the media. Well, I have a question for the media. If the Governor of Alaska is not qualified to be Vice-president, what made the Governor of Arkansas qualified to be President? Or the Governor of Georgia? Apparently, it only matters when it involves conservatives.

(…but…there is certainly no bias in the media…no favoritism at all…)


Speaking of the media nitpicking Palin, there’s the story from Politico about her wardrobe. But, then again, there is this story in USA Today that picks apart Politico’s arguments.

(…sorry…forgot…no such thing as media bias…)


Meanwhile, the candidates have been spewing lots of new plans and ideas for saving the American economy. The Economist had some interesting thoughts on that. It seems that, for all his talk about McCain’s plans only benefitting the wealthy and those that don’t need it, Obama has slipped into the same pattern:

on October 13th the Democrat upped the ante. The priciest part of Mr Obama’s new two-year plan would be a $3,000 tax credit for each new employee a business hires, which presumably is likely to benefit a lot of companies that would be hiring anyway. Mr Obama also wants to allow everyone to withdraw up to $10,000 from their retirement accounts tax-free (as with the McCain version, not a good way to encourage saving), and he wants a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures. Such indiscriminate intervention in the mortgage market may be very nice for homeowners whose prospects are looking up, but it would do little in itself for those who can’t afford their mortgages in the first place.

Benefitting those that don’t need it…not helping those who have already been hurt and only assisting those who might later…sounds like the things McCain is being accused of by Obama. And, Obama’s plan to finance everything with taxes on the oil companies seem to be going into the toilet with the drop in crude prices.

(…I wonder where he will make up the money now…)


Meanwhile, India launched a moon mission!

The unmanned Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft blasted off smoothly from a launch pad in southern Andhra Pradesh to embark on a two-year mission of exploration.
The robotic probe will orbit the Moon, compiling a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and mapping the distribution of elements and minerals.

The launch, clearly a step into the long expected commercialization of space, will leave whoever “wins” the White House in a difficult position. The US is India’s 3rd largest trading partner. But, what that means and how it will be handled remains to be seen. Will Obama, who hasn’t ever seem to have made a decision on his own without changing his mind actually make a decision and act on it? I bet the media portrays McCain as laying down the law that “we were there first”? One thing is certain: it will make for interesting politics.