Diary Of A Mad Voter: Heath Haussamen

When Sen. Pete Domenici announced his retirement a year ago and triggered a domino effect that has made New Mexico one of the most hotly contested states in the 2008 election, who would have thought that Democrats might win the state's five electoral votes in the presidential race, Domenici's Senate seat and all three open seats in the U.S. House?

Not me. But it's become clear that New Mexico may not send a single Republican to Washington next year. New Mexico could be what Democrats like to call "true blue" in January. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

As posted here on New West last week, with their gubenatorial candidate lagging far behind and single digit lead for McCain in the state, Montana Republicans are throwing their own version of a hail Mary, taken right out of the Karl Rove playbook. Yup, they’re trying to take away the vote.

For the Montana Republican Party to argue that this is anything but a partisan effort to steal the vote is laughable--they are targeting the six counties that most reliably vote Democratic. Why not the whole state, if they’re so worried about the integrity of the vote?

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

The most ballyhooed, most anticipated, most fraught with jeopardy debate of the cyle is now behind us. And what is there to say but "meh"? The stakes for both candidates were negative. Sarah Palin could come out looking even less fit for the job than she was going in, and Joe Biden could have come across as obnoxiously condescending. Neither performed to those low expectations, which made the debate much easier to watch than I, for one, anticipated. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

A couple of weeks ago, one Mountain West scribe announced "A Western woman redefines the presidential race."

But it turns out that this breath of fresh air has turned out to be just another politician, and not a very polished one, at that. The McCain campaign has assiduously kept her away from the public spotlight, and the few national interviews she's done have been, well, painful. [more]

Diary Of A Mad Voter: Heath Haussamen

In a recent conversation, my dad summed up the current financial crisis better than I could have: We're trying to figure out how to engineer a controlled crash landing instead of allowing an all-out nosedive into the ground.

I believe he's right. The situation is that serious. Democrats and Republicans alike, in their words and actions, have indicated that the collapse of America's financial markets may be imminent if Washington doesn't step in and do something drastic. Such a collapse could send us into the next Great Depression. [more]

Diary Of A Mad Voter: Heath Haussamen

Contrary to what many on the left are saying, the Sarah Palin pick has the potential to positively and dramatically shift attitudes toward women in this country.

Those who say otherwise apparently don't understand how John McCain's selecting Palin to be the second female vice-presidential candidate in America's history challenges a huge number of Americans to think outside the box in which they live.

Many among the GOP base of religious, conservative voters attend churches in which women aren't allowed to preach or fill a number of other leadership roles. And yet, many of those same people have become the most excited supporters of the McCain/Palin campaign, and it isn't because of the social moderate at the top of the ticket. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

Republican incumbent Gordon Smith has been skating along this election season until now with one apparent goal in mind: to make independent Oregonians forget that he's a Republican. In ad after ad on the television, Smith has been telling Oregonians that he's worked hand-in-glove with Barack Obama and other Democratic colleagues, even that bogeyman of liberalism--John Kerry. Not one mention of George Bush or Smith's voting record--he's been with Bush 90 percent of the time. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

We're getting to weird time here in the good old US of A, that quadri-annual festival of banality in which anyone who has a soapbox steps up to bemoan the fact that we're not focusing on the real issues that face this country, and then promptly starts slinging lipstick.

And I'm going to be one of them. Lipstick? Really? How could any campaign operative in good faith turn a hackneyed political cliche about his opponents' policies into a personal attack? When the supposed victim wasn't even the subject of the statement? And then the traditional media spends an entire day parsing it? Really? [more]

Diary Of A Mad Voter: Heath Haussamen

I didn't originally think Barack Obama did much damage to his campaign when he said at an April fundraiser in San Francisco that many rural Pennsylvanians respond to their economic plight by becoming "bitter" and clinging to guns, religion, hostility toward people who are different from them and anti-immigrant and anti-trade sentiment.

All politicians make careless statements once in awhile, especially when they don't realize those words will become public. I figured it would blow over.

I now think I was wrong. I believe Obama's comment was the beginning of an avalanche that currently has the Democratic presidential nominee buried under the momentum Sarah Palin has brought to John McCain's campaign. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

I wended my way to Denver from Seattle last week my preferred way, by car. The vast empty of the high desert that comprises most of the geography between the two points always lends itself to some good thinking, and I needed to do some good thinking about this election, where it could lead for our future, and what it could mean for the West. [more]