You heard it here first: Obama to choose Bloomberg as his running mate!!!

Maybe.

Today in midtown Manhattan the two met in some dinner a few blocks from my work for an unannounced top secret omelet. This has started a buzz that Bloomberg, who has no love for Hillary, may endorse Barack.

Well, I'm taking it a step further. I'm calling it. Bloomberg will join Obama on the ballot and the announcement will come before the primaries. This will rock Hillary and save the universe! [picture Ewoks dancing to Caribbean music]

The Palmetto Poll was conducted by Clemson University on November 14th - 27th. Sample was 450 Democrats. Notice Hillary's 10 point lead has been cut to a statistical dead heat. Edwards is still a distant third. The most important number form the poll was that 49% of those contacted were undecided compared to 35% in August. That 14 point jump has to have come in large part from the 10% who left Hillary.

I ran across some information about a bill proposed by Senator John Boccieri. The idea is to encrypt emergency contact information onto your drivers license so that officers can quickly notify family members. While I think that it's a creative idea and could be very useful, the paranoid in me can shake the feeling that it's creepy.

Full story at WYTV

Watching the Republican YouTube debate was like watching creepy-drunk hit on Chili's waitress, or watching your Dad do the Electric Slide, or an exceptionally bad episode of Last Comic Standing.

The front runners were lame, clumsy and rambling. The ugliest moments were all Romney's. I literally had to look away. When pressed on whether or not he believed everything in the Bible, I'm pretty sure at one point I heard him say "sure." And when pressed by Anderson on his 1994 'hope for a world where gays roam free' he nearly burst into flames.

Giuliani didn't do much better. McCain had one shining moment about torture, but could never seem to deliver the knock out punch in any exchange. Paul couldn't remember who the Kurds were. And Thompson, who stunk significantly less than the rest, was still his regular boring self. When he talks I hear Charlie Brown's parents talking. Wah Wah, Wah Wah.

Not only did Huckabee survive this clam-up-fest, he landed a spinning roundhouse to the chin of every question that came his way. He was trustworthy. He was confident. He was funny. He was decisive. He was human. The other candidates had better take note, cause God damn that's how you win a debate.

You are sitting at a restaurant, sipping a glass of wine, having a nice conversation with the person sitting across from you; the next thing you know a snotty nosed kid with ketchupy fingers and a chocolate milk moustache starts climbing over the booth, running around the restaurant, and throwing pickles at the server. You overhear mom say,

"Johnny, I'm going to count to three: One.... Two.... Johnny. Come on; we're trying to have a nice dinner. You don't want to go to time-out, do you?"

AGHHH!!!

No, I clearly don't have children of my own. But I was raised to know better, and damnit, my kids will know better, too. Know why? Because I was afraid of getting spanked.

There were a handful of times in my childhood that I remember getting swatted by my parents-- not beaten, not abused-- spanked. I deserved it. And I learned my lesson, and didn't act-up in the same way again.

The Massachusetts legislature is considering a bill that would charge parents with abuse and/or neglect for hitting any child under the age of 18; if passed, Massachusetts would become the first U.S. state to ban corporal punishment by parents. The proposal even goes so far as to include pinching, washing a child's mouth out with soap, and using undilluted Tobasco sauce.

Talk about a slippery slope! What's next? Giving your child a bad haircut?

We all know that different behaviors deserve different types of discipline-- I just think (reasonable) spanking should be an option for parents.

Many things would frustrate me about my party if I were a Republican (including these book covers), but today it would be the resignations of Senator Trent Lott and former Speaker Denny Hastert. Both men unexpectedly submitted their resignations this past Monday. Paul Kane of the Washington Post called it "a bit of historical coincidence" that both men resigned on the same day. Coincidence? It is no coincidence that Hastert and Lott resigned on the same day. They are looking for political cover from each other's resignation. Hastert said he resigned Monday to give Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich time to schedule a special election to fill the vacancy. Lott didn't really give a reason other than to say he wanted to stagger terms with now junior Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran to ensure that the state has long serving Senators. Both men will be out of their offices by December 31st. Why the rush? Ethics reform passed by Democrats requires law makers to wait two years after leaving office before becoming a lobbyist. These new rules go into effect January 1st.

Lott and Hastert have decided that K Street salaries are more important than serving their constituents and the Republican Party. They have decided that schmoozing for the agenda of high paying clients is more important than fighting for the principals of the political party that has invested so much in each of them. Denny Hastert's resignation means the Republicans have to fight for his Congressional seat in Illinois instead of having him parade around the country raising money for other candidates. The same is true, but to a lesser extent in Mississippi. Governor Hayley Barbour will appoint a replacement for Lott, but there will undoubtedly be a contested primary whenever that seat is up for election.

As a Democrat, I think this is awesome. For all those who say this has been a do nothing Congress, look at these ethics reforms as one of many accomplishments. These reforms are so comprehensive that they forced at least these two resignations. Maybe these announcements are the beginning of a mass exodus? I hope so.

I have been complaining that people just accept that Hillary has all this supposed experience. She is a 6 year Senator, and was married to the President. And once, the President let her run a program.....which failed (see: failed health care plan). The rest of the time, she held "forums" on issues (see the picture), which is no different than what Laura Bush does. Is there any human alive that thinks Laura Bush has gained experience to hold an important political office?

Well, Obama finally hit Hillary on this myth:

Thank you Barack - now just keep up the heat on Hillary!

I cannot find the full text of the speech, but I just heard Obama talking about illegal immigration. He has an approach that shows why Obama is the best candidate. Here is what his response to a question on immigration (paraphrased from my memory):

Here's a little story about rushing a bill through without thinking through the consequences. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 was enacted in an attempt to slow the pace of spending on Medicare and Medicaid. The law, in part, altered how drug manufacturers calculate Medicaid-related rebates paid to states. An unintended side effect of this bill was that it included end dates on discount drug pricing that had previously been available to healthcare providers for low-income populations. Among the hardest hit have been campus clinics and institutions such as Planned Parenthood that had relied on the deep discounts on birth control. As a result, birth control previously available for $3.00 a pack is now $30.00 per pack. Since 98% of women utilize birth control during their reproductive years and oral contraceptives of 97.9% effective this clearly has an impact on preventing unintended pregnancy. The recently introduced Prevention Through Affordable Access Act has been co-sponsored by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. It's a win-win-win situation. The Republicans can show that they care about family planning, women get the birth control that they need in order to prevent unplanned pregnancy and it doesn't cost the taxpayers a single penny! Let's just hope that everyone can get on board and fix this costly mistake.

Please join Chuck, Bob and I in officially welcoming Annie and Chandra as bloggers for The Chief Source. I have been friends with both of these women for years and am thrilled that they have joined our team. This site needed some new players and we went out and got the best on the market. These professional women both reside in Akron and will add their unique perspectives to our online forum. I know that Chandra and Annie will help our site to continue to grow as this critical election year kicks off in just over a month. Please check out their profiles and look for their posts very soon.

We're just 16 days from the December 11th special election in Ohio's Fifth Congressional District, and candidates Robin Weirauch (D) and Bob Latta (R) are the final challengers in the race. Representative Paul Gillmor passed away on September 5, 2007, making a special election necessary to fill his seat in Congress.

District 5 covers roughly 16 counties surrounding Toledo, but does not cross over into the city limits. A traditionally conservative region of Ohio, District 5's boundaries were redrawn after the 2000 Census in a way that some may claim were to secure the success of GOP candidates, even though the district boasts Republican representation since 1938.

This race leaves me scratching my head for several reasons.

While Latta and Steve Buehrer duked it out during the primary fighting over who was more conservative and less fond of Taft's tax hikes, the Democratic primary was eerily calm; so much so that prior to the last filing deadline, Ms. Weirauch had raised significantly less than even the late Rep. Gillmor. With total receipts around $50K, Weirauch's finance report is a laugh compared to the reports of Latta and Buehrer which equal about ten times that much combined. Sure, she may have had some success since October 17th-especially with the help of her $5,000 fundraiser... ?

Weirauch's name recognition is decent, as this is her third run for Ohio 5 (she lost in 2006 to Rep. Gillmor by nearly 14 percent of the vote) and her list of endorsements is respectable.

Yet still, she is running an amateur's campaign at best. Here is an example of a Weirauch primary ad that makes me cringe with embarrassment.

Some say this is Latta's race to lose-I would whole-heartedly disagree. Democrats seem to have forfeited. Voters, donors, activists, *the Party*-where are you? I know you're not busy helping other candidates on a typically busy Election Day. Please come to the rescue of Robin Weirauch.