McCain Blasts SEC Chairman

John McCain has called for the firing of Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). This is quite an aggressive move by McCain. He cites poor wall street oversight by the SEC. In doing so, McCain states that Cox has betrayed the public trust.

There is no question that the economy and stock market have been hit hard recently. Speculator have been selling stocks short. In other words, they have been betting that stock prices will go down. Not only that, some have been doing naked short sales. Investors often blame these short sellers when stock prices fall. Whether or not they are the direct cause is a point of debate.

We should return to some facts of the matter. The SEC did eliminate something called the uptick rule for short selling. Essentially you could not sell a stock short unless the price was increasing. Another fact is that even good companies are suffering due to the recent events in the stock market.

Now let’s discuss the fate of chairman Cox. The chairman of the SEC is appointed by the president of the United States. Bush has come out and said Cox has his full support. Cox also rebutted McCain’s call with a 10 point list of positive actions the SEC is taking to deal with the stock market.

So why would McCain make such an aggressive move against Cox? He previously had stated that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. Big mistake. His campaign is also losing some steam as the news of Sarah Palin wears off. I would hope that McCain would work on some real action to help the economy instead of some cheap methods like declaring the SEC chairman should be fired.

Sarah Palin's Daughter

The big news for a while was that Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant. Luckily the democrats are very gentle when dealing with Palin. They don't want to appear to be attacking women in general.

A funny thing about this story is that it generated all kinds of Internet rumors. I would be reading message boards about company stocks, and I would see stories about Palin, her children, and her future grandchildren. That was spooky.

Personally I don't care if Sarah Palin is pregnant. I don't care if her daughter is pregnant. And I do not care if her daughter is married or not and pregnant. All that matters is whether Palin can do the job of Vice President well. I suspect she can given her experience in Alaska. Her choice as Vice President may have been the move that pulled me to the McCain side.

Another Reason to Vote McCain

Here is another reason to vote for John McCain. Heidi Montag (of The Hills fame) has thrown her support behind McCain. This in and of itself is of no great consequence. However you normally hear about her so called real life relationship with Spencer. It is refreshing to hear something about her that has nothing to do with The Hills.

McCain Chooses VP

John McCain has announced his choice for Vice President. It is Alaska governor Sarah Palin. This was quite a bold move for McCain. It seems obvious that McCain is targeting women voters. But enough about McCain. Let's talk about Palin.

Sarah Palin is a 44 year old mother of five. She has a newborn baby less than a year old. Her son enlisted in the army just last year. She used to be a union member. Her husband still is. She is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. What a resume!

There are some challenges with McCain's choice. He is 72. She is almost 30 years younger than him. She does not have experience with foreign policy. However she does have a track record of fighting oil companies in Alaska.

The real question is whether Palin can lure Democratic supports of Hillary Clinton to vote for McCain-Palin.

Edwards Affair

John Edwards has finally come out and admitted that he had an affair with Rielle Hunter. He also confessed that he had lied about this relationship in the past. However Edwards continues to deny he is the father of Hunter's daughter Frances. The National Inquirer broke this story back in October 2007. They insist that Frances is the love child of Edwards and Hunter.

Hunter has professed her love for Edwards. But Edwards on the other hand denies being in love with Hunter. A staffer for Edwards has come forward stating that he instead is the father of the baby. Why am I having a tough time believing that one? Oh yeah. Edwards lied to the press repeatedly.

Apparently Hunter traveled with Edwards for about six months. That left plenty of time for extramarital activities between them. There are some additional sketchy details involving Hunter. Her company was paid $100k by Edwards' political action committee for 4 videos she produced. Nice touch.

The only real question is what impact will this have on Edwards. Bill Clinton lied and had an affair with minimal damage. Can Edwards pull this off as well? I do not think so. We already knew that Clinton was Slick Willie. However Edwards came across as a different kind of man sticking by his wife that had cancer. Now that the truth is revealed, coupled with the fact that he is not as good a liar as Clinton, might spell the end of his political career. I can say for sure that I am never going to vote for the man. What say you?

Terrible But Funny Ad

I have been seeing a certain commercial on TV a lot recently. It starts out by talking about the high gas prices. Then it asks who is responsible for the evil high gas prices. You see a picture of Obama on a podium. The crowd starts chanting the answer to who is responsible for high gas prices: Obama, Obama, Obama.

You have to give the McCain media people some credit. This commercial is absolutely hilarious. The commercial never comes out and says that Barack is to blame for high gas prices. And they do not point to any facts behind the commercial.

One good thing about the commercial is that, at the end, John McCain comes out and states that he approved the commercial. He does not behind some committee. McCain won some points from me with this ad. Now it is time for Obama to do something just as inventive. I am waiting.

Obama Ads

So Obama clinched the Democratic nomination for the presidential candidate. That was one tough fight. Hillary Clinton would not give up no matter how hard the Democratic Party pressured her. But in the end the primary votes were cast. And there was nothing else that Hillary could do to stop the Obama campaign from grabbing the ticket.

I recently saw an advertisement on TV for Obama. Although I tried hard to listen to it, there were people in the room making too much noise for me to concentrate on the message. The one thing I did notice was that it seemed like a clean commercial. There was no jabs at McCain. Just a positive message on why you should vote for Obama. This did not get my vote. But it made me respect Obama a bit. It is probably just his PR people trying to get some good will from the viewers. It looks like this is working.