McCain has squandered an opportunity to win.

He may yet come back, but I doubt it.

The ultimate mistake is that he is not giving voters a reason to vote for him. He gives all the reasons to NOT vote for Obama, but that is not enough. I need a reason to vote for McCain. What is he going to do? What is his vision for America? He gets close with his Maverick talk, but then he gets off track.

Unfortunately for McCain the economy made it so much harder to snatch victory from the Democrats without a very good campaign and vision.

With that opening, I miss posting on this blog. I am not sure that I will post very often, but I wish that I could.

If you are looking for someone to vote for consider Bob Barr (http://www.bobbarr2008.com/splash/?s0820).

Kerry

I know this is old news but I need to catch up.

Why did John Kerry win the Democratic nomination?
Let's get this clear because this is important to my thinking on the election. John Kerry did NOT win because of Howard Dean's screaming fest. The polls were already trending for Kerry and he won the Iowa caucus BEFORE the Dean scream fest. Essentially the establishment chose Kerry because he was the safe candidate. He had the intersection of all the right things to be the Anti-Bush. He had a war service/hero record (sure we see weaknesses to it, but he was as John McCain as the Democrats could find). He had a moderate view on the war (while Democrate hated this they knew the middle of the road voter would never accept Dean's view on the war). He has a long record of public service (John Edwards is just an infant). And finally he had no embarassing failures (Gephardt while loved, has yet to prove he can win anything big). Kerry was the logical choice of big Democrat money and organization. The party bosses may no longer make decisions at party conventions but do not fool yourself into thinking that they are not involved in the primaries in a definitive way. Kerry was the best Anti-Bush. And here comes the heretical comment by me: Kerry was clever enough to market himself as just that. He has enough of a liberal record to keep the base happy, and meanwhile he can be "nuanced" for the moderate swing voter. One of the mistakes that people make is discounting the power of organization and planning in elections.

For instance, I contend that the election process is a natural selection process that ensures that the best manager rises to the general election in open contest years. Let's look at 2000. There were stories for it seems like two years about Bush having meetings with important Republicans. What was that all about? He ensured that by time the election got going he had all the best people behind him in terms of money and organization. He didn't beat McCain on issues or in the press, he beat him by good old organization and money. Now, I would also contend that 2000 was NOT an open year for the Democrats. Gore was defaulted into the nomination because he was the VP. He lost in November because he was not really as good a manager as Bush. Sure, he may have a higher IQ, but do you really want a Rocket Scientist with his pocket protector as CEO of any of the companies you have your retirement invested in? The point is simply that the ability to manage naturally gets rewarded in an open primary. This year the Democrats had an open primary and Dean was clever and smart, but not as well managed.

I Must Return

Okay, I have been away too long. I can't stand it anymore. I must return.

While the news is slow, there are things to talk about and I need to be heard. So here is a short list:

• Election
• Election
• Election
• and the straw that broke the camel's back? McGreevey resigns.

So I am reading this article about McGreevey. He sets up this news conference to make it sound so sad that he is gay and has to resign because it is a distraction to his ability to govern. What a saint. He is saving the people of New Jersey from distractions. But wait there is more. Turns out his team was under scrutiny for some illegal practices like hiring call girls to embarrass a political opponent. And wait. His resignation is not effective until November 15th so that a special election does not need to be held which might open the door to a Republican victory out of a political backlash--now who is worrying about the people of New Jersey first? And wait, it gets even better. He is doing this because his gay lover is blackmailing him with the threat of revealing the secret affair. Not out of duty, but to trump incredible demands! And wait, there is more. His wife, HIS SECOND wife, is standing next to him being supportive. He has a 2 year old daughter with his SECOND wife. How long have him and his SECOND wife been married? How did it so happen that he has a SECOND wife when he is gay? This man isn't gay or a saint. He is a just a liar and probably a sex addict.

Now do you understand why I need to come back? This is a crazy world and I just need to talk about it.

Thank You

I am finally getting accustomed to my school schedule and I decided to make a routine inspection of my website. This included the customary inspection of the hit report and email inbox. I am honored that there are still people hitting my site. If that is not a vote of something for my return I don't know what is.

That being said, I am still fairly busy. The biggest challenge is staying abreast of headlines. Actually, bigger than that is staying abreast of all the pundits. I haven't read a Krugman piece for a month--to be honest I don't miss the stuff.

I suppose I should comment on Arnold "The Harasser". I am willing to be equal opportunity on all of this behavior stuff. Before election, I want to forgive. After election, I have no patience. It was this logic that would have made me most likely to let Clinton slide back in 1992 (I was out of country and never had time to read the newspaper back then). George W got a slide for youthful indiscretion as well. Where it is easier to let W go is that he was not a "public" figure yet. Slick Willy and Arnold were. Granted Arnold was not elected, but so what? Just as I said on William Bennet and Kobe Bryant--a public figure should know better, and if not they should suffer. I make no excuses for bad behavior.

When it comes to damage control I advise the W, Bennet, and Arnold approach--admit, admit, admit, and then apologize. That being said the public must make a judgement about whether or not to believe an individual will change. In the case of Arnold I am not convinced.

Republicans should never have fallen for the glitz and should have backed McClintock from the beginning. It is all over, whether Davis or Bustamante, there will be a Democrat in the California Governors mansion at the end of the week.

*My disclaimer is that I may be full of it on my prediction because I have not looked at a poll in a month:)

More Slacking

I really hate to do this, but I think I am going to have to take a temporary hiatus. When I don't even have time to spend a few minutes last night listening to and analyzing the President's speech then I am sure that I don't have any chance of maintaining this site. I am sure I will return. This site will still be here as a resource, but it might be a while before I am back in the saddle of making timely commentary. To the few faithful I am trully sorry.

Slacking

I am sorry, I have been slacking. I realize that I need to update the readers of this site. I am about 2 weeks out of date and slipping fast.

The problem is that I have just begun an MBA program. Right On Everything is really more of a hobby--especially since I actually pay to have the privilege to post my opinions. I do hope that at some point Right On Everything might actually cause some editor somewhere to say: 'my goodness, we need this guy to write something for our Op-Ed section!' But reality forces me to realize that I might actually benefit more from serious attention to my studies. My attention to my studies not only cuts into my time to write, but makes it near to impossible to track the writing of others, not to mention read a newspaper. The hard thing is that I REALLY enjoy writing this stuff and I know that I do have a few people who actually keep coming to read my stuff.

What I have decided to do is to keep this site going, but in a scaled down fashion. Right On Everything will become a weekend site--Saturday to be specific. I will give that a try. Come here once a week and see what I have to say. Because of this my writing may turn out to be somewhat more philosophical in nature. Or I may make a general roundup of things that have transpired in the week. I may even finally put my thoughts on conservatism into writing. There is the possibility that as I become accustomed to being a student again I may actually post more frequently. I do have a laptop that I take to class and it is theoretically possible for me to write while ignoring professors. My real goal is to become accustomed to the school routine soon enough to make practical commentary on the Democratic primaries. I will keep you posted on my progress.

I apologize if this is disappointing. If you want to be reminded when I post, or you just want to complain please feel free to drop me a line at james at right on everything dot com.

Otherwise, see you back here on Monday!

Geoghan

How exactly does the New York Times figure that Geoghan being killed in prison equates to a need for better run prisons? Because it panders to the homosexual movement? Please don't tell me that Geoghan is to Gays what Mandela was to Black South Africans. Did we forget what Geoghan was in for? Hasn't it always been an unspoken expectation that child molesters tend to get wacked in prison? And isn't it sort of accepted that they deserve it? Okay, you may say he wasn't a molester, he was a pedophile. SO WHAT?!?!?! Why give it a scientific name? This guy was a monster. I don't care if you are gay or not, pedophilia is SICK! Which by the way reminds me of a question that I have never seen a good answer on. If a male adult has sex with a male kid, regardless of the fact that this is pedophilia, why is that Male not Gay? Last time I checked, Gay was male on male. Even if the adult male is married to a woman, the moment he has sex with a teenage boy, in my humble opinion, he is GAY! Not to take this on a further tangent, but therefore ALL scout masters who commit pedophilia ARE GAY. Sure it might be argued that the pedophilia came first, not the homosexuality. But don't tell me that pedophiles are not Gay. You might rightly argue that not all homosexuals are pedophiles--fine. But please don't tell me I am hateful for stating the obvious fact that pedophiles are Gay. I am in no way condoning the issue of pedophilia as an excuse for hating Gays. Next unanswered question. If Catholic priests are sworn to celibacy, where the heck is there any room for discussion about pedophilia? As far as I am concerned sex, straight or gay, violates celibacy requirements. This is the real story. When did the Catholic church go all soft on issues of sex?

Affirmative Diversity

I am beginning an MBA program. This week is orientation week. Before arriving I was not sure why we needed seven days of orientation on where the bathrooms were. It turns out that, amongst other things, we needed two days of orientation on why diversity is a GOOD thing. There is the argument that recruiters want to recruit at programs that provide diverse job candidates, there is the argument that recruiters want diverse managers who can understand how to target minority markets, and then there is the argument that since we (yeah the dumb white males) will be working with women and minority managers we need to practice how to not act like racist bigots! Weak. Really weak. This is a private university so I guess I have no place to criticize them since they are not doing it with tax dollars. But it still irritates me because what it shows is that the liberal group think on diversity has taken control of the marketplace. Even in an historically conservative institution, in a department known mostly for teaching how to calculate the bottom line, the liberal BS about diversity is there. And they have me sit there for two days on it because obviously they know that we won't buy it unless they brainwash us with it. It just makes me sick.

Homosexuality and Pedophilia

All I want to say is here is some interesting reading. The debate goes on.