Friday Night Lights

"Swing batter batter, SWING..."

Okay... As Paul Ryan said last night, "We can DO this." The most important election in my lifetime is in 68 days. We will blink and it will be here. We've got 68 days to convince these swing voters that our guys are the best for the job.
Sigh. That even SOUNDS silly when I read it back. The contrast between the candidates could NOT be stronger. On our side, we have two squeaky clean, smart, giving, church-going men who married their high school sweethearts and have what is known in today's terms as large families. They have signed up for this crazy gig to actually help people and restore America to greatness.
The other side? We have a president with secrets. Questionable birth, college record, family ties. A man with lots of rumors floating around but even the known factors are that he attended a black liberation "church" for many years that says "God D___n America," was (is?) friends with a known terrorist, and most recently lived in Chicago, friending those in Chicago's infamous thug politics.
Our side is for limited government, constitution, private healthcare, gun rights, pro-life, capitalism and traditional marriage.
Their side is for massive government, new laws, government-run healthcare, gun laws, pro "choice" and communism (but just called something different) and same-sex marriage.
All of those will be a moot point if the economy isn't turned around in a miraculous way.
My sister is a swing voter. She voted for Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama. Go figure. I always ask who she's voting for, because it's always who wins. But then, that's what swing voters do. They try to figure out who is more popular, and vote for them. They don't really have the strong principles telling them to vote their conscience. They take a poll, and whichever candidate they hear mentioned more,  they vote for them. She's also a teacher, and the teacher's union floods them with liberal propaganda about how much better life will be for them if they vote Democrat. And I think she also wanted to be on record that she voted for the first black president. We don't discuss politics - we CAN'T actually, because we will only have to agree to disagree. I'm not sure what will push her to either side. Her husband and grown son have been unemployed for over a year. She's probably vascillating that maybe the Republicans will have systems in place to create jobs, yet the Democrats keep promising all of these freebies. And healthcare is super important to her since she's a Baby Boomer. She, of course, is influenced by the Trifecta of the mainstream media, Hollywood and the liberals. I think she'll end up voting for Romney if I could guess.
Because like most of us, she's really, really worried...

"Preaching to the choir..."

Just a quick post since I've been burning the candles at both ends for the past week, and don't have time for much... I've had the Republican convention on tonight and have watched the important speeches and I must say that most seem so scripted and lackluster. Ann Romney was the only one I could really connect with, and thought she seems very honest, very sincere, and very real.
The Republicans need to stick with the economy only. It's what's on our mind. If they don't fix the economy, then all of the other issues are a moot point. Am I totally against abortion and think it's murder? Yes! But births are down since this mess started in 2008, and with children in their child-bearing years, both older kids are saying they cannot even afford to bring a child into this terrible mess. The Republicans don't seem to be taking this terrible disintegration of America as seriously as they should be. We are at the edge of the cliff. We can't keep saying platitudes and let everyone be rah-rah. We need to do like Reagan used to do, and get real people, saying real things about real situations. And maybe they will -- it's only the first night. But they better listen up. Because the liberals are pretty good at garnering emotion lately, and that's what Americans are responding to.
Everyone is suffering. Everyone is worried. Everyone (with a brain) knows these problems aren't going away any time soon, but at the very least want to see SOMEONE stop this freight train to hell, and then turn it around, and start it chugging in the right direction. Mitt Romney had better be the most sincere and relatable he has ever been when he speaks later this week. The mainstream media is not covering this, and the Fox News coverage is "preaching to the choir." All the MSM will do is pick 10 second snippets of THEIR choice, or we will see a short headline about their take on the speeches they've heard through their liberal filter.
Wake up Republicans. Most of us are only responding to economic solutions because it's at the fore-front of our minds. We're worried about the cost of NEEDS -- food, fuel, and cost of living. Because at the end of the day, those are our priorities. We are alarmed at the liberals taking us "forward" into their scary agenda. And we want America to return to how it was even five years ago. But the clock is ticking. And the deficit is growing by the minute.
Tick. Tick. Tick....

And the pendulum swings....

Today was the first day of school and evidently the teachers and coaches have decided to "get tough" and go on the offensive. I thought last year went pretty well, but there's a new military school feel at our small town Texas high school, and if ANYBODY does ANYTHING, they are zero tolerant.
Take for instance, cheerleading tonight. My daughter came home sobbing. My daughter who has never made a really bad choice in her life. My daughter who hasn't made anything but straight A's her whole life. The one that is a super achiever and tries to excel at all she does. As a matter of fact, ALL of the girls there tonight want to quit. The new sponsor acts like a Nazi and kept trying to intimidate all of the girls. Mission accomplished. They all hate you now and want to quit. Cheerleading is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be an organization where you promote school spirit. The only spirit they promoted tonight was depression. And anxiety. And loss of self esteem. Why do these types of jerks become teachers? So they can push around kids that have to do what they say? So they can feel powerful?
Losers....