I’m Not Dead.

Last week was busy - it was my last week at my old job, so there was a fair amount of unfinished business to take care of.  Sadly, this cut deeply into my blogging time.  That said, it wasn’t a complete black hole of creativity.  Observe:

I posted a Car Lust article on the Yugo GV.  It was good enough to be Instalanched.  On the quantity vs. quality scale, I’m doing pretty well.

Excellent Timing

Last night, Obama gave his convention speech, where he outlined his vision for his candidacy and what he hoped to accomplish.  Slate has the entire text here, including some background information on key points; it’s definitely worth a read.  Since Obama has historically been an excellent prepared-speech presenter, this was supposed to be a moment that would earn him an abundance of press, bump his poll numbers up, and help him finally put McCain away once and for all.

So, what are we talking about today?  Let’s see here…

On Slate, we have… McCain’s VP pick!

CNN?  Why, that’s… not Obama on the front!  That’s McCain again!

Okay, what about MSNBC, home of Olbermann and Matthews?  Surely they think Obama’s speech was headline news, right?  Right?

Okay, okay - what about overseas?  Surely BBC thinks Obama’s speech is more important than anything else going on in this race…

All right, I know one place that will almost certainly have Obama as front-page headline news:  NPR!

That’s right - instead of talking about Obama’s great speech, everybody’s talking about McCain’s choice for Vice-President, one Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska.  By not only choosing Palin, but by announcing her as his VP pick when he did, McCain has done an absolutely outstanding job of shifting the focus away from Obama’s presumed moment of glory and towards his campaign, and, no matter who you’re rooting for, that’s a pretty clever feat of politicking right there.

UPDATE:  While we’re at it, let’s also go over how Palin’s pick benefits McCain - she gets Obama talking about experience.  In order for McCain to win, he needs to fight on ground of his choosing, not Obama’s.  This is why McCain has wanted to debate Obama for months - Obama’s a great preparatory speaker, but not as solid in a debate.  Hillary proved that nicely.  By throwing Palin out there, he reveals a “weakness” in his campaign - an inexperienced Vice-Presidential candidate that’s just as inexperienced as Obama is.  There’s just one catch:  There’s no on-the-job training for being President.  Being a Vice-President, on the other hand, is nothing but on-the-job training.  Yeah, she would also become the President of the Senate, but what are the chances that there are going to be deadlocks that she would need to settle in a predominately Democratic Senate?  Nil?  Slightly less than nil?  So, her job, at least as long as McCain is capable of being President, would involve sitting in meetings, soaking up information from McCain and whatever advisors he chooses to pick, and learning every bit of Washington arcana she will need in order to succeed should she ever need to, well, succeed McCain.

In short, she’s the bait, and Obama is already starting to bite, hook, line, and sinker.  Come to think of it, I seem to remember there being another old man in history that had a knack for getting his opponent to fight on ground of his own choosing, too.

ANOTHER UPDATE:  Welcome, Instapunditeers!  Feel free to look around and enjoy your stay.

‘Tis the season

Ah - Christmas. It came and went, and for that, I am thankful. I won’t gush into what Christmas means to me; I’m an atheist, so there’s no deep religious undertones for me anyways. I will, however, cover what Christmas means to retail - money. The story is somewhat mixed, too. BusinessWeek reports that numbers are up slightly, though people are being much more cost-conscious this year. Instapundit, meanwhile, has a host of links to various reports on the Christmas shopping season, some of them more positive than others. The biggest problem is that sales aren’t keeping up with inflation anymore, which is understandable - inflation is currently being driven by higher commodity prices, and, since the housing market is finally correcting itself, we’re beginning to see some effects from them.

Then again, there are some anecdotal reports that much of what’s hurting the retail numbers this year is that women’s fashion was just way off. That’s alluded to here and is also expounded on quite eloquently by Rachel Lucas here. My girlfriend feels the same way, and she actually IS a “starving” 5′10″ woman. Heck, we actually laughed at some of the offerings in JC Penney a few weeks back, marveling at the bright fake satin vests. The lady there claimed they were “very popular”. To this day, I’ve yet to see anyone wearing one.

Either way, if you’re looking for some good bargains, now is the time… heck, I have a couple of people I didn’t get presents for that I might try to scrounge something up for now. *grin*

EDIT: Welcome, Instalanchers! Feel free to visit, look around, and maybe stop by and leave a comment or two. I’m relatively new at this, so I’m always open to suggestions. Also, on the off and rare chance that you’re a University of Nevada football fan (Go Wolf Pack!), feel free to check out my other blog at FireChrisAult.com. Thanks again!