If the election was held today

In no way am I claiming that this information is mine or that I know the original sender. My mother forewarded this to me earlier today and I believe that it provides a simple explanation on each candidates views. Of coarse you have to dig deeper into each issue to get a full understaning of why each candidate supports or opposes a certain issue. Some issues are not as simple as yes or no answers, but this email makes is seem like there are.

Angry, are you kidding with this stuff?

Drilling isn't a yes or no proposition. And for record, Obama is for drilling -- which he always has been -- but not as the primary and sole solution to our energy dependence. His first and foremost concern with drilling is that we first explore the land leases that have been granted but haven't been tapped.

I guess I could go down the list and tick off each one, but what's the point? Then is becomes just another talking point.

Statistically a Dem pres is always best for the economy. I just threw that out ther so that you guys know what to do during the elections 2 years from now, (Put some Reps. in Congress!) But you are correct in your thinking. You want a Dem Congress if you have a Rep President.

I take MAJOR umbrage with this kind of reasoning - that a democratic president is better for the economy. This kind of pathetic, rudimentary analysis makes me feel ashamed of my fellow financial and economic analysts who put that crap out.

These morons simply take a look at GDP growth by year and line that up against the president who was in office at the time.

Well guess what, economic policies put in place by the president (but moreso the chairman of the Federal Reserve) take time to generate growth. You have certain policies/decisions that can act as an immediate shot in the arm, like an economic stimulus check. But then there are policies that take much longer to spur real wage and job growth because the policies are centered around encouraging investment. For example, lower income tax rates, lower corporate tax rates, expanded free trade agreements, flexible monetary policy, etcetera. All of these things take time to take hold.

Reagan's policies contributed to the growth we saw in the early 90's just as Clinton was taking office. Clinton's NAFTA policy had a positive impact on our economy from 2003-2006 while dumbass was in office.

Managing the economy is not a short term endeavor by any means, and trying to attribute economic growth to the president in office at the time is laughable and fundamentally wrong.

The latest smear ad from the fish

McCain Paints Obama as Disrespectful | The Trail | washingtonpost.com (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/12/mccain_paints_obama_as_disresp.html)

Who cares? Why even post this?

Everyone here should be smart enough to look past the inevitable smearing that both parties engage in, and mature enough to cut through this crap to get at the issues.

So they're going to smear each other, why do you care? Why post it when you know Obama's camp is going to do very similar things?

Don't be a sheep, lead the way and show people how to reach an educated decision on who to vote for. Talk about the issues and leave this garbage out of it. I might as well be paying attention to what Paris recently said about Nicole Richie.

Angry, are you kidding with this stuff?

Drilling isn't a yes or no proposition. And for record, Obama is for drilling -- which he always has been -- but not as the primary and sole solution to our energy dependence. His first and foremost concern with drilling is that we first explore the land leases that have been granted but haven't been tapped.

I guess I could go down the list and tick off each one, but what's the point? Then is becomes just another talking point.

I need some education on that. I keep hearing that there are land leases in place which oil companies are not taking advantage of.

Knowing what I know about business and how a finance department of a major company would allocate its investment dollars, I'd imagine the CFO of ConocoPhillips has a list of all his existing land leases and an expected financial return calculated by his analysts for each one of them. That financial return, I'd imagine, is largely based on how much oil they think they could get from that space, and how efficiently they could deliver it from the oil field to the refinery to the market. He knows he has X number of dollars to invest in exploring all of his leases, so he goes down the list and picks the ones that offer the greatest potential for financial return. Inevitably he's going to run out of budgeted investment dollars before he explores every land lease, and naturally some will go unexplored for a period of time.

I'm guessing this is essentially how the process works, but I'm not sure. Do you know why companies are not exploring their existing land leases?

The potential financial return on exploring them is an important piece of the puzzle. If the land lease won't yield enough oil to offset the cost of setting up drilling operations, or if the land lease won't yield enough oil to offset the cost of needing to build an oil pipeline or build more refinery capacity, then Obama's position insisting that companies explore these existing leases will only serve to drive gas prices higher, not lower them.

If Obama forces oil companies to drill on land leases that cost more than the revenue they generate, then the oil companies will pass along those costs to the consumer.

I'm admitting up front that I don't know if this is the reason or not, but Obama needs to give this some serious thought.

I need some education on that. I keep hearing that there are land leases in place which oil companies are not taking advantage of.

Knowing what I know about business and how a finance department of a major company would allocate its investment dollars, I'd imagine the CFO of ConocoPhillips has a list of all his existing land leases and an expected financial return calculated by his analysts for each one of them. That financial return, I'd imagine, is largely based on how much oil they think they could get from that space, and how efficiently they could deliver it from the oil field to the refinery to the market. He knows he has X number of dollars to invest in exploring all of his leases, so he goes down the list and picks the ones that offer the greatest potential for financial return. Inevitably he's going to run out of budgeted investment dollars before he explores every land lease, and naturally some will go unexplored for a period of time.

I'm guessing this is essentially how the process works, but I'm not sure. Do you know why companies are not exploring their existing land leases?

The potential financial return on exploring them is an important piece of the puzzle. If the land lease won't yield enough oil to offset the cost of setting up drilling operations, or if the land lease won't yield enough oil to offset the cost of needing to build an oil pipeline or build more refinery capacity, then Obama's position insisting that companies explore these existing leases will only serve to drive gas prices higher, not lower them.

If Obama forces oil companies to drill on land leases that cost more than the revenue they generate, then the oil companies will pass along those costs to the consumer.

I'm admitting up front that I don't know if this is the reason or not, but Obama needs to give this some serious thought.

you're essentially right with how the leases work. the research the leases most likely to provided oil first, and they have a (flexible) budget for doing x leases per year, but some of those leases would cost more to research and drill than the potential oil needed to cover costs and meet their revenue targets.

the offshore stuff is appealing to them because they know with good certainty that the oil is there, and that there's enough of it to be worth setting rigs up immediately.

that said, the amount of oil there isn't amazing, but the intention to drill drives down the rampant oil speculation (see colbert for a GREAT piece on how that worked).

the race is too close to call.i just hope there is'nt a two month wait that requires a supreme court vote that will determine the winner.

Who cares? Why even post this?

Everyone here should be smart enough to look past the inevitable smearing that both parties engage in, and mature enough to cut through this crap to get at the issues.

So they're going to smear each other, why do you care? Why post it when you know Obama's camp is going to do very similar things?

Don't be a sheep, lead the way and show people how to reach an educated decision on who to vote for. Talk about the issues and leave this garbage out of it. I might as well be paying attention to what Paris recently said about Nicole Richie.

I just thought this latest smear was particularly troubling as McCain seems to be kicking up the smear ads to new levels. Or as factcheck.org (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/belittling_palin.html) states it:

The new McCain-Palin ad "Disrespectful" begins like an earlier ad we criticized (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_celebrity_cred.html), with its reference to Barack Obama's celebrity, but then goes down new paths of deception.

Are most people intelligent enough to look past this garbage from both sides? I hope so. But if it wasn't having an impact on someone, why are they doing it?

Here's some Obama mistruths too if it makes you feel better:

FactCheck.org: School Funding Misleads (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/school_funding_misleads.html)

i was always convinced the American people are way smarter then anyone in government gives them credit for. but after seeing the McCain camp skirt around the issues, and basically switch their campaign strategy in mid season. they have taken mud slinging to a new level. can anyone on this board show me why the senator is known as a maverick? what exactly has he done to earn this title? and now his partner is also a maverick?

can anyone on this board show me why the senator is known as a maverick? what exactly has he done to earn this title? and now his partner is also a maverick?

McCain has been willing to depart from the party line on numerous occasions. That's why so many conservatives were so upset about McCain securing the nomination. He's shifted to the right since 2000, but he's still fairly independent minded as far as most politicians go. For her part, Palin repeatedly publicized the "wrongdoings" of fellow republicans in powerful positions. You can disagree with their politics and they are not totally independent minded by any means, but, as far as Washington goes, they are mavericks.

Voting with Bush, 90% makes you a maverick? A governor with more earmark requests per person than any other state makes you a maverick? Ummm ok.