The Flow of Consciousness

Senator McCain is pushing for a lift on the federal gas tax for the summer, says CNN. It would start on Memorial Day and end on Labor Day, and drop the price of gas by 18.4 cents. According to CNN, the average consumer would save approximately $2.35 per fill-up and approximately $30 during the course of the summer.

Senator Obama argues that that has limited impact on consumers. Drivers would “have a little money left over, maybe to buy a better meal, maybe to buy something for their kids,” McCain argued. Apparently, McCain hasn’t been out to eat in a while. $30 will barely buy a meal for a family of four at McDonalds, let alone a nicer place.

However, the lift on the tax snowballs: a moratorium on the gas tax for that duration would cost the government $10 billion in federal highway maintenance funds.

Personally, I’d save approximately $2.00 per fill-up. However, for 60 days following the receipt of my BP gas card, I’ll be saving 10% when I fuel at BP, and those stations are common in the Pittsburgh area. Plus, BP doesn’t buy middle-eastern oil.

Rather than advocating empty, if not detrimental gestures, McCain should start examining his foreign policy, monetary policy, and basic economic theories.

Additionally, the article reminds readers of McCain’s proposal for a $5,000 tax credit for families to purchase health insurance. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates the cost of such a thing to be $12,000 per year for the Mom, Dad, Sister, and Brother. Again, McCain is not sufficiently taking all things into account. What will replace the $5,000 each family could potentially receive? More business taxes? A higher tax rate for everyone? Couldn’t this technically be considered to be socialized healthcare?

Wow, McCain sounds like is a stereotypical Democrat.

I’ve been analyzing the results of the primary for the past few days in order to get a better idea of the meaning of the results. 99.51% of precincts in PA have reported as of this writing.

I did some canvassing at the Wilmington Township precinct, trying to get folks to vote for Carrie Duffield, the only Ron Paul-supporting delegate who got on the ballot for the 4th Congressional District. I’m pretty sure that most of the Republicans to whom I spoke voted for her—all 20 of them. However, Carrie didn’t get enough votes to get the delegate spot. It was a valiant try, though. Steven O’Conner from the 12th got fourth place, but there’s only three spots there. He missed it by 50 votes.

A few other Ron Paul delegates from western Pennsylvania did get enough votes: Robert Tamburo in the 14th and Chris Detar from the 18th.

On the presidential race, McCain got 576,333 votes, or 72.8%, Huckabee, who has been out of the race since March 4, got 90,035, or 11.4%, and Ron Paul got 125,843, or 15.9%. It’s appalling and nearly insulting that 90,000 Pennsylvanians voted so irresponsibly. Many of Huckabee’s policies were similar to Paul’s, so I’m sure that much of that 11.4% could have gone to Paul.

Locally, the Lawrence County numbers were disappointing. McCain had 74%, Huckabee 14%, and Paul 12%. Statewide, though, the numbers were better. Berks County had the best Ron Paul showing, scoring 26% of the vote. Crawford County had 23%, and Lancaster County had 22%. Allegheny County, home of Ron Paul’s native Pittsburgh, managed 16% to Huckabee’s 9% and McCain’s 75%.

I must remind my readers that the presidential race on the PA ballot doesn’t mean anything. It’s a glorified straw poll, really. PA Republicans directly elect their delegates. Unfortunately, the candidate whom a delegate supports is not listed on the ballot, so supporters of the candidate/delegate must inform voters for whom to vote as they are entering the precinct.

However, it is somewhat indictative of the public opinion of the candidate. Some may see that McCain had approximately 73 percent of the vote. However, I, and John Nichols of The Nation see it that McCain lost 27% of the PA vote. This is further proof that a large part of the Republican party does not support the gentleman—and I use the term only as an honorific—from Arizona.

Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times had another analysis of McCain’s less-than-commanding showing indicating “displeasure” with the party’s candidate, but his analysis was not as quote-worthy as some of the comments to the post. One user said, “130,000. Ron Paul got one hundred and thirty thousand votes, despite the media blackout. The revolution is real, people.” In response to the McCain campaign’s comment on the results, another user said, “So what the McCain Campaign is really saying, is that they would rather concentrate on trying to get votes from registered Democrats and Independants than fixing the issues that have fragmented and tarnished the Republican party. There’s some strait talk for ya.”

I agree. McCain is a RINO: Republican in name only. It is unfortunate and disappointing that the majority of the Republican party seems to be following him. Perhaps the complement of that contingent—the part that wants Real Change in Washington—will recognize this and remain steadfast, refusing to support someone who does not believe as they do.

Also, McCain has not yet released his medical records. I find such a release neither unconstitutional nor unreasonable, especially given McCain’s age. He’d be the oldest president at the time of his election, should that occur. I can’t help but shudder when I think of such a thing.

I haven’t heard the delegate counts yet for the Republicans. The Democrats overwhelmingly chose Clinton in the popular vote, but she only gained 10 delegates (83 to Obama’s 73, according to CNN’s PA results). She got 55% of the vote, winning all but a handful of counties.

I will continue to support liberty forever. Ron Paul is our current philosophical leader, and when he is no longer able to be the leader, someone will rise to take his place. Liberty cannot die.

Need I say more?

Graph courtesy of the National Taxpayers’ Union. Information courtesy of FortBendNow.com.

Saberwolf of the Pittco Forums pointed out an interesting table on the Presidential issues in a Hillary or Obama thread.

It lists several issues and is very understandable. I might do a more in-depth post on it later today or this week.

Perhaps I placed too much faith in the Internet community. Perhaps I placed too much faith in people, hoping that they would read a document that takes no longer than 15 minutes to read—time well-spent, considering most people probably posted ye olde “tl;dr” or some other remark, or simply deleted the post, as the folks on the xkcd forums did. I guess I have a little more clout at Notebook Forums and StrafeRight.

Maybe I’m simply losing faith in America. People would rather spend 15 minutes watching five stupid YouTube videos than read—perhaps for the first time—the document that gives them the rights they so enjoy. No, I didn’t come to this realization now. I’ve known this for years. Post the Constitution Day could pretty much be considered a test of that.

Maybe I didn’t reach the audience I thought would care. I managed 12 diggs, a purple rating on Slashdot Firehose, and a single vote on Newsvine (my vote).

The US election system has become a farce. The media picks the two people who vie for president, because the media is entangled in government.

The only candidate worthy of my vote is Ron Paul. He is the only candidate—from either party—who has repeatedly stated that he promises to follow the Constitution. No other candidate has made such a promise.

That is, unless one considers an oath of office for congress to be a promise. McCain violated that promise Feb. 12 when he voted in favor of S. 2248, the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 (I wrote a letter yesterday to Senators Specter and Casey regarding it). Neither Clinton nor Obama voted, and Huckabee is not a senator (nor is Ron Paul). I can guarantee that, if present, Paul will vote against it when it comes to the House.

I already pointed out that the Democrat candidates didn’t reference the Constitution at all during a debate. McCain regularly violates the Constitution (look at his voting record!). At least Huckabee wants to amend the Constitution in order to push his evangelical agenda.

Maybe I’ll just march on Washington.

I may be wrong, because I really started paying attention to the debate about 10 minutes into it, but…

The number of times Clinton, Obama, or Edwards mentioned the Constitution during tonight’s CNN/Congressional Black Caucus Democratic Party debate:

0

I’m certain the word “constitution” wasn’t uttered in the last hour of the broadcast, because it was at about one hour into it that I realized that none of the candidates had mentioned it. A video to the contrary will prove me wrong, but my unstated-until-now point still stands:

The top three Democratic candidates are avoiding referencing or citing the Constitution. How can someone be president if the Constitution isn’t the first thing on their mind?