McCain’s speech

I guess I am odd and weird, but I thought McCain’s speech was much better than any other speech at the Republican convention. I felt he tried to be himself again, which was a nice change. He mentioned that he and Barack agrees on much more than they disagree on and I believe him. John Mcain would probably be a very good President just as good as or better than Barack Obama, if it was not for the people he surrounds himself with. With Sarah Palin on the VP slot it looks like they will go the same road as GW (unless she is only on the ticket to increase the conservative vote and then will be stuck in a basement somewhere without any power). But, it is not just Palin, the advisors are the same and the negative advertisements are the same. I wish I could trust McCain as I did in the primaries, but right now I don’t feel like I can. With Barack it is almost the opposite. He has run a much better campaign than he has been a good Senator, I do not necessarily know if that is a good thing either. Maybe his short record in the Senate is a good thing... well, maybe not?

The RNC in general

After listening to many speeches during the Republican National Convention I must say that they did a pretty good job of turning me off from the GOP. I must say I am very happy that John McCain won the nomination and because of that I approached this convention as open minded as I could. Unfortunately from the start it has been nothing, but false and empty attacks on the Democrats and little news of what the Republicans would do if they were to govern four more years. The thing is that on Economic issues I often agree with Republicans, but when they describe Barack Obama and the Democratic Party as Socialist, which is what they do without saying the word, then I doubt their judgment and their knowledge since there is a BIG difference, trust me I am from Sweden I know. To me all speeches then feel so empty, but I am not voting and scare tactics might work for them yet again

What turned me off even more was how everyone in the line up on Wednesday and Rudy and Sarah in particularly made fun of Obama’s experience as a community organizer. I am not sure that it is the perfect springboard to the presidency of the U.S., but why look down on something as honorable as community service? Especially a day after the slogan of the convention was Service, as John Stewart pointed out?

Oh well we are now down with this empty party rhetoric (and I mean that about both parties) and we can look forward to the debates where flawed as they are at least Biden can ask Palin “If you are so against the Bridge to nowhere, why did you campaign for it two years ago?”

Other rumors about Sarah Palin

I think Ms. Palin and Mr. McCain might be lucky that the media is focused on the Baby story and not some of the other stories about Ms. Palin which are much more alarming. Please read the article in the Huffingtonpost for more details, but that is not even the entire story.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-silvers/the-real-sarah-palin-scan_b_123113.html

If this tactic is successful and the only story focused on is the baby issue what has in fact happened orchestrated or not is that Ms. Palin has given up her 17 year old daughter for the press to feast on while they overlook real scandals in Ms. Palin’s record. Those are some good family politics right there. In the words of a good friend of mine “it looks like Ms. Palin has a little too much on her plate right now to be running for VP.”

My Sigg

I have started to use a Sigg water bottle and I must say they are great. The water taste much better than from a plastic bottle and it is also better for the environment.

The water in it is tap water cleaned by my britta filter.

Saving the planet one drop at a time. And it is not much of a sacrifice.

A little more Bristol, but this is it…

Ok, I really do not want to Blogg about this Bristol thing because it has nothing to do with politics really, but since the main purpose of this Blogg really is to explain, in a fun way, U.S. politict for Swedish people I feel like I have to address it one more time. So two more points:

1. I do not think this will reflect poorly on Palin or McCain alone. On the contrary it will raise the abortion issue and show that the family is really pro-life not just say they are. It also brings the abortion question front and center which is always good for conservatives since 12% of the country will not vote for a pro-choice candidate and only 8% will not vote for a pro-life candidate (and yes I hate those terms that might be a later blogg post)
   
   The problem with the pregnancy is that it looks like McCain vetted Palin poorly and that it was a last minute panic decision. That raises at least two questions: One, are there more skeletons in her closet and more importantly two, what it McCain’s judgment when it comes to filling his future cabinet and appointing people to the courts? If anything this could be an issue. The McCain Campaign has of course said they vetted Sarah Palin extensively by giving her a 70 question questionnaire. I am not sure a multiple choice test is the best way to get to know the person who is a heartbeat away from the Presidency?
   
2. My other main point is how classy Obama was when he made sure right away that this would not be an issue in the campaign by saying it would not be talked about and even compared it to his own mother’s situation. This could lead to immense popularity among people who do not think this should be an issue, but chances are they would vote for him anyways. It is of course also a smart political move from the issue about abortion already addressed.

Now we are done with Bristol lets focus on the issues.

McCain staying put this time

It looks like John McCain will not go down to New Orleans and pretend to help with the hurricane this time which is great. One thing I think is important in a President is that they can learn from their mistakes and as the Federal Government prepares to do a better job with Gustav than Katrina, so is John McCain doing a better job with not creating a media circus in New Orleans as he did in Iowa when he created a media circus which the Governor begged Obama and McCain not to come to score cheap political points. Obama did as asked McCain didn't. Very disrespectful. Who said you can't teach an old dog to sit.

Bristol is pregnant

So Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter is pregnant. What will this mean for her rallying the conservative base to McCain? I do not necessarily think it has to be awful news for McCain. It is not like they will have to convince social conservatives very hard to vote McCain instead of Obama. And they can tilt it to that she did not go the easy way out and have an abortion. The question is why wait to now to start planing the wedding? That makes it look like they react to the news coming out.

It also raises the question whether the McCain camp new about this if they didn't is this just the first of many skeletons in a big closet of Sarah Palin?

In Response to Angela and some more thoughts...

I agree with you Angela, I really do, but only in the short term. Yes they look great together and yes she will inspire some Obama voters who want to vote for a historic candidate, but do not want to vote for Barack. However, two months from now I do believe much about what is new and fresh about her in Hillary voters eyes will have been replaced by looking at her record. Yes, I know only 8% of women will absolutely not vote for a candidate who is pro life, but the more people get used to Obama the more Hillary voters will come over. I might be wrong and all Hillary voters might come over to the McCain Palin camp and come November the election wont be close, but I have more fth in the women in this country that they will vote somewhat on what issues are important to them instead of just voting for a woman. But, I might be wrong and being from Europe I am spoiled with voters caring about issues not candidates. At least I think it is being spoiled, but that is of course debatable.

What is exciting is that if by appointing a republican outsider, maybe McCain wants to go back to his Maverick times of the past, times I for one admired. Of Course Lieberman would have been a choice that would have done this as well. A choice McCain said he would have preferred, so who convinced him someone he did not know was better? Karl Rove?

I will agree with you that it is kind of cool he announced it in your hometown of Dayton, OH.

Why not Mitt Romney

Many reasons to why Mitt Rmney was not chosen to be the VP pick I am sure, but one of the things that made it impossible is the advertisements the McCain campaign have been airing where they show what Biden or Hillary said about Obama in the campaign and used it to show that the Democratic Party is today not in unity. Romney said some much worse things about McCain and vice versa than what Hillary and Biden said about Obama.

Palin? Really, Palin?

Ok, So Mcain picked Sarah Palin for the VP spot and all hopes I had this morning that McCain was going back to the centrist maverick he once was in the Senate went away with her. Reports started trickling out this morning saying that it would neither be Romney nor Pawlenty. This opened a small hope for Lieberman I thought, but no he picked Palin. Still I am pretty excited over this since I believe it almost guarantees a Democratic victory on November 4th.

Seriously if McCain picked a woman in the thought that he would win over Hillary women he is seriously mistaking and he has a pretty degrading view on women. They supported Hillary because she was a woman yes, but also for what she stood for. Palin is first of all pro-life something most Hillary backers do not support.

It will also be fun to watch Palin with her 1.5 years of Alaska politics experience debate Joe Biden on foreign policy. I know who I will have my money on in that debate. Palin is compared to Obama very inexperienced and considering McCain’s age I think that might be an issue.

Palin was also very supportive of fellow Alaskan politician Ted Stevens something that might put attention to Senator McCain old corruption scandal with Senator Stevens.

I am sure McCain had some thought about this appointment at least I hope so. Palin might be effective talking about energy, which will be an important issue. I do not agree with her on her views, but at least she has worked with that issue.

More thoughts to follow….

Clark County Fair

So I have to admit I have never been to a real county fair before. I never even knew Springfield had a fairground before and I wonder what this huge area is used to the other 51 weeks of the year. While walking around the fair though I got a familiar feeling that I had been here before, which I of course hadn’t. Finally it was the shriek from a child on one of the rides that took me back to Skanninge Marknad back home in Sweden this is pretty much the same thing. There are some exceptions though.

First of all there is not as much crap sold at a county fair. The stuff that is sold is from local people who have done their own purses or quilts and they are really quite nice. The second major difference is the food. Don’t get me wrong I love the cocotops that you get in Sweden. But I got a piece of boneless pork chop on a bun that was the best pork I have ever had. Having rows and rows of pigs 10 feet away added to the experience. Of course all these animals and live stock auctions is something else you don’t see at a Swedish market.

American fairs are funny they deep-fry absolutely everything. There were deep-fried veggies (which actually were really good), potatoes, candy bars, oreo and frozen cheese cake. There were of course also funnel cake, which is just deep-fried batter.

All and all it was a pretty nice experience. Actually a lot nicer than the Swedish markets and I will probably go back next year.

Design Studio Page

Scott, the instructor of the Westcott House Design studio summer camp, was nice enough to send me this link to the design studio webpage

http://www.thenowdevice.com/WestcottHouse/studio08/

Speaking from first hand experience it is really cool to see the kids learning and growing over just the last two weeks. On the webpage there are lots of videos of what they have been doing and the kids also have bloggs, which is kinda cool. There are some good pictures of what the kids have done as well.

They will present their final project on Friday at the opening reception of the Rozell glass art exhibit and I can’t wait to then it is going to be a fun time.

Yes I do realize that I have referred to 15 year old high school students as kids four times now, but I am sure they’ll forgive me when they see the Chipotle they get for lunch today.

Don’t you think?

The Westcott House Movie – Centennial Edition

Last night the staff invited all the volunteers to a movie showing of the new Centennial Edition of the Westcott House DVD. The Centennial Edition is a two disc DVD. The first disc is the 27 minute PBS documentary that has been out for a while and the second disc is over 90 minutes of bonus material. The 27 minute first disc is truly great, but I think I enjoyed the second disc even more. It was great to be able to listen to the entire interview with Eric Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright’s grandson. I thought he had some great insights about his grandfather’s work, not only the Westcott HouHouse. There were also other interviews of interest. My favorite part though was all the 2001 footage of the house. The house looks amazing today, and I know how bad it looked before, but I had not seen it in this way with the camera just flowing through the house from one room to another.

I think this is a DVD that all Frank Lloyd Wright fans would love, but also people interested in heritage and preservation. Actually I think everyone should see this DVD.

What do you think?

Michael Scott Rozell, "Overlay" – Glass Art Exhibition

I love that the Westcott House is really more than a House Museum. Right now there is a exhibit of photographs taken by children. The photographs are from three different Frank Lloyd Wright sites: Chicago, Falling Water and the Westcott House here in Springfield. Some of the photographs are truly amazing and I can’t believe some kids are that talented.

Next Friday there will be a new exhibit. This time it is a local glass artist who will take over the house. From what I hear about him it promises to be a great evening and a great exhibit. http://www.westcotthouse.org/programs-events/rozell-exhibit.html

If you are in the area you should truly check it out.

Witt-Nation and Jealousy

I know jealousy is a sin, but I have to admit that I am a little jealous at my girl friend and some of my other friend who right now are doing the Witt-Nation trip. They are pretty much going a cross the entire nation to raise awareness about Wittenberg University. More information can be found on their websites and some of them even blogg http://www9.wittenberg.edu/wittnation/.

Right now they are in my favorite city DC and I think they actually just finish a tour of the Capitol building set up by yours truly. Tonight I hear they are going to have crab feast (that doesn’t make me any less jealous).

Volksmarching South of Springfield

I spent Saturday south of Springfield. The day began with a 10K volksmarch in Cedarville. This was very entertaining and I have to thank Dawn and her brother and husband for inviting me and Melissa. It was fun to walk and talk to people and comment on peoples front lawns. So many good porches! After the 10K was over and the cake had been eaten (great cake by the way) it was of to spend some graduation gift cards in the Jeffersonville Outlet mall.

At banana Republic I found a very nice button down and a pair of linen pants, which I needed, so thank you Aunt Irith. At Brooks Brothers I bought a great pair of pants that can be seen in the picture bellow. I love them so thank you Grandma. Me and Melissa also stopped by JCrew, Polo and Tommy so it got to be a pretty expensive afternoon.

After the shopping we went to see Hancock, which I thought was a very entertaining movie, but I am also a big Will Smith fan. Hilarious comment about McDonalds in it that I thought made the movie. I am sure Fat Ron’s were not happy about it.

Now it is time to start this work week!

Delicious Ice Cream

I am a big fan of Ice-Cream – BIG FAN. Something that I know is pretty new to Sweden is Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, which is delicious. I am not sure if you guys have all the flavors in Sweden, I would highly doubt it, we do not have all in Ohio. But, I tried one that I have not tried the other day that I have not tried before and it was scrumptious. It was Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream, Very good. It inspired me to do a top five list of Ben and Jerry’s flavors which can be seen to the left. I have to admit I have not had all so please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Enjoy!

IKEA = Genius

My goal was to not make this blogg very personal, but I do have to tell you some parts about my job and about myself. I work for the Westcott House Foundation http://www.westcotthouse.org/. It is a non-profit foundation that centers around the Westcott House, a Frank Lloyd Wright designed prairie style home. But, this is not only a house museum and that makes it truly great to work here. An example, is the Design Studio, which will start tomorrow. Here kids will learn how to use audio and visual media and through it express themselves artistically. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Westcott House will serve as the source of inspiration. This brings me to the heading of this post: IKEA.

Since the foundation does not have any room to teach a class for three weeks room needed to be made in the basement. With the help of some IKEA furniture most of it from the line SNILLE (which means genius in Swedish) the basement now looks great. I put the tables and chairs together last night and it is so easy. I am very glad that they opened an IKEA in Cincinnati, just 80 minutes from my home.

Where have I been

Alright, have not been doing this for a while now. Don't really know why, but I am guessing a main reason is that I came back from DC and lost a little interest in politics. Plus it got boring. I mean one of the first things I said and warned for is to not look too far in advance. To prove my point Barack and McCain are the candidates. Where were they a year ago? Nowhere. Then it looked like Rudy and Hillary had it wrapped up, but you never know. Because of this I think it is a little early to start blogging about this as a horse race and instead I am going to talk about issues. Not about candidates. I think that will be more interesting for you and for me. I will say however that I do have a lot of respect for both these men and think we are going to have a much better campaign than the 2000 one and especially the 2004 one. So I guess I set myself up for disappointment.

As you can see from the post I think I will also change the language of this blog to English, but maybe not. Keep on commenting in Swedish though if you are more comfortable with that.

Thanks

Varför är Iowa bra för Obama

Obama har med sin vinst i Iowa visat ett antal viktiga saker. För det första så har han visat att han kan vinna över Clinton och för det andra så har han visat folk i de närmaste staterna att han kan få ut folk att rösta och han har visat sig själv detta också. Detta kommer säkert att hjälp honom i nästa veckas primary i New Hampshire.

Men det viktigaste som caucuset i Iowa för med sig är att jag tror nu många svarta ser att vita människor kan stödja en svart presidentkandidat. Detta tror jag kommer att hjälpa honom att ta dessa röster från Clinton. Detta kommer bli mycket viktigt i South Carolina vars svarta befolkning är betydligt större än Iowas och New Hampshires.

Obama Svart vs. Huckabee Religiös

Jag satt själv och funderade på hur världen kommer att se resultatet från Iowa, där Obama och Huckabee hade stora segrar, och kom på att i Europa måste ju de två partierna se mycket olika ut. Ett parti har accepterat en svartkandidat (i en stat med bara 2.3% svarta), i det andra partiet har man efter att ha röstat på George W. Bush två gånger nu gått till någon ännu religiösare i en Baptistpastor från södern som inte ens tror på evolutionen utan av vad som står i bibeln. Det finns ju faktiskt vettiga republikaner här i landet. De som tror på en liten nationell statsmakt och som tror på den fria marknaden, men de glöms nog lätt bort i Europa just nu. Stackars den amerikan som åker till Europa och säger att han är republikan.