How Reason Works

What if Obama had the strongest record of bipartisanship in the Senate, with major bills to his credit like the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign reform, the 2003 McCain-Lieberman climate stewardship and the 2007 McCain-Kennedy immigration reform acts.
What if McCain had the most extreme partisan voting record in the Senate?

What if Obama offered a broad, sensible energy policy that embraced both emerging and current resources, including building the greenest power plants possible with nukes?
What if McCain declared that the nuclear waste technology we've invested hundreds of billions in over the last three decades is unacceptable, and refused to build nukes until we invent something better than Yucca Mountain?

What if Obama offered sensible tax policies that have historically led to healthy business growth and financial freedom for more Americans?
What if McCain promised to cut taxes for 95% of us while proposing almost a trillion dollars in new spending?

What if Obama had called for reform and oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2006 that could have prevented the current financial collapse, only to have his efforts squashed by the opposition party?
What if McCain was the second highest recipient of political donations from Fannie and Freddie in his short Senate career, and had the former head of Freddie heading up his VP-vetting team, and the WaPo published the fact that the disgraced former head of Fannie was a financial advisor to his campaign?

What if Obama had been the leading supporter of the surge strategy that has won the war in Iraq?
What if McCain's primary claim to fame was his leading the charge to lose the war by withdrawing all our forces in Iraq where Al Qaeda declared their new caliphate?

What if Michelle Obama devoted her time and wealth to charitable organizations over the last couple of decades, and she adopted a Bangladeshi girl with a cleft palate on a visit to one of Mother Teresa's orphanages?
What if Cindy McCain got a $200,000 raise in her job as a Community Relations Director in a hospital when her husband became a Senator, and once in the Senate her husband put in a $1M earmark for her employer U of Chi Hospital, and she declared that when her husband won the nomination for Presidency was the first time she was really proud of her country?

What if Joe Biden had a proven record of opposing his own party and winning, and confronting Big Oil and winning, and sharing the revenues he levied on Big Oil with the citizens of his state?
What if Sarah Palin imagined we and the French "kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon" and said President Roosevelt "went on TV in 1929" (before TV existed) to talk to Americans about the Depression (before FDR became President in 1933)?

Well, if that were true, I'd vote for Obama.

(written by one Dr. Applebreath.)

While we're on letters to the editor:

This comes from a reader of the Wall Street Journal:

Could you please tell me what [Barack Obama's middle name] is? I know it isn't very important in the overall scheme of the universe, but I have looked twice on the Obama Web site, and I've found no mention of a middle name.

It seemed to me that the most effective way to get people to stop mentioning "Hussein" would be to promulgate his real middle name. At his Web site, Sen. Obama does not list his middle name, nor does he say specifically that he doesn't have one. If you have discovered what it is, you could do him, and the rest of us, a favor by saying so.

I think I've heard this one before

Yesterday's Chicago Tribune carries this "letter":

On my way to lunch recently, I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama; I need the money." I laughed. In a restaurant my server had on an "Obama 08" tie. Again I laughed. Just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came, I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Barack-Obama-redistribution-of-wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need—the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight. I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I've decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful. At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment, I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more. I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.