The Trail: A Daily Diary of Campaign 2008

"I want to make real sure that he (Romney) understands something. This old Arkansas boy is not for sale. He doesnâ??t have enough money to buy me. Iâ??m not some troubled company that he can buy, sell off the assets and send us home. Thereâ??s a whole lot of people like me in this country who are tired of people waving their checkbooks at us and making us think they own us and they can buy us. Well you canâ??t buy us. You canâ??t even rent us. Weâ??re not for sale. Weâ??re going to the polls Tuesday and weâ??re going to show America this country is about ordinary people who believe in the extraordinary power of the American dream and weâ??re going to prove it at the ballot box Tuesday." - Governor Mike Huckabee on Monday Feb 4th

It's NOT THE PUNDITS, the pollsters, the Radio hosts, or establishment POLITICIANS, it's the PEOPLE WHO DECIDE! Way to shut their FAT mouths Governor Huckabee!!!!

I predict Huckabee will be in play in Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Mississipi, Texas, Louisiana, Kansas, Nebraska, & Ohio & even Wisconsin....but go ahead and continue to underestimate him and you will get shocked once again!

Good call Iceman219. AFSCME, the public employee union,has already said they will invest $60 million and 40,000 "volunteers" in the time after the primaries to support Clinton and 60 days before the national election.

McCain-Feingold seems not to go far enough. Putting that aside, though, we have seen a lot more of the candidates in this long primary process. It has been a good exposure of the candidates this year.

One thing that helps is when we have Senators who have a record and statements you can look at and compare in the Congressional Record. Of course, if the ones that listen to the media and pundits are making judgment without actually looking at the bills. I think McCain took an unfair bashing on the illegal alien issues.

Also, in my opinion, the House and Senate make the laws and appropriate the money. Having a veto is not much control over that. Just being a good executive is not enough. You have to know the politics and procedures of both the House and Senate to control spending.

I used to think being conservative meant doing nothing too fast before making a decision. It seems that it really means making wide spread changes in how we tax, spend, and borrow money without looking hard at the unintended consequences.

Personally I would rather spend $20 billion on a triple barrier fence to increase our national security at the border than even $40 billion on rebates.

I would rather spend $100 billion on more health care resources than having that money chase the same resources. Make test equipment cheap. Pay for hospital buildings. Do what it takes do decrease costs rather than spending more to get the same services.

Wow, I did not realize we were flashing back to the 1980s...

If you have read anything beyond the 3 paragraphs on Wikipedia, the normal political practices during that time frame, not to excuse anyone, did involve such 'under the table' activities. After a full and thorough Senate investigation, McCain came out in the end clear of wrong-doing.

I think it is very honorable and noble of McCain to view the weaknesses in the political system and address them by becoming THE champion of campaign finance reform, culminating in the McCain-Feingold Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipartisan_Campaign_Reform_Act).

I have never understood why people view the act so critically. I am, generally speaking, a libertarian and think free speech/lack of regulation is a BIG thing.

However, all the McCain-Feingold legislation does is level the free-speech playing field. Why should a person with more dollars have more of a say in the political process than I can? The legislation brings us back more closely to the true ideal of free speech of each individual and lessens the impact of corporate dollars as well on the political process.

Thankfully, "soft" versus "hard" money has been eliminated from fundraising discussions.

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I AM UTTERLY STUNNED AT THE VOTING FOR MCCAIN !!!! HOW COULD ANYONE EVER VOTE FOR MCCAIN WHEN HE WAS PART OF THE "KEATING 5" ?????

READ IT FOR YOURSELF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

DISGUSTED WITH MCCAIN = I VOTE OBAMA! (and I thought I was republican...go figure)

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