• Kerry and Bush stayed on message. No big mistakes, and I don’t see any shocking sound bites coming out of this.
• I still don’t know what Kerry would do differently in Iraq other than “bring in more allies” which as we all know ain’t gonna happen. I wish Bush had mentioned our allies more, and not just in Iraq but also the work done in Pakistan and the work the Europeans have done in arresting Al Qaeda.
• Kerry seems convinced that if we had carried Osama’s body out of Tora Bora back in December 2001 the war on terror would be over. Most people don’t believe that, and Bush should have pointed out that Kerry is wrong on this.
• Bush looked a bit bored by the whole thing. An hour and a half is too long.
• Kerry knew this could have been his swan song if he blew it, so he was more on edge.
• This probably soothed the Kerry supporters, but I doubt if he convinced any Bush voters to switch.
• Kerry was more “inside the beltway” than Bush. I don’t think voters decide based on those kinds of discussions of the issues. I’ve always felt voters make decisions based more on emotions, and I think Bush is better at emotional appeals.
• The two minute limit probably helped Kerry. A ten minute discussion about Kyoto would have doomed him.

So, Kerry did well enough that he’ll live to fight another day. He could have imploded and doomed his campaign a month before the election, but he didn’t. On the DynamoBuzz scale (see below) he gets a Healthy Color rating with maybe a touch of bronze.

One hour to the first Kerry-Bush debate, and I designed a rating system you can use to rate John Kerry’s performance tonight (see below). To the left is the pale faced Kerry which is equivalent to a Dukakis-type debate disaster. All the way to the right is the fiery “Opened up a can of whoop ass and kicked that cowboy’s butt back to Texas”. My guess is he’ll be somewhere in the middle.

Don Hewitt, the creator of “60 Minutes” who retired in June after 36 years with the show, has spoken out concerning Rathergate. The verdict: it would never have gotten on the air if he was still executive producer. Hewitt chided Dan Rather for injecting himself into the presidential debate, and said the story was an old story that had been dealt with in previous Bush campaigns. Hewitt had harsh words for John Kerry, saying it was a mistake to make Vietnam a centerpiece of his campaign. Hewitt noted that previous presidential candidates downplayed their military experience. And then Hewitt rubbed a rotten tomato into Kerry’s face: “You can’t play war hero if it’s about a war where you threw your medals away,” Hewitt said. Well said, Don!!

I was watching some of the “E Entertainment” network and saw they are currently running a special, “101 Most Unforgettable Saturday Night Live Moments”. I saw some of the moments numbered 47 through 60. My observation: Saturday Night Live really went down hill after the first few years. I think most of the SNL cast after the mid 1980’s were awful. Who was more talented?? John Belushi or Chris Farley?? Dan Akroyd or Kevin Nealon?? Gilda Radner or Molly Shanon?? Laraine Newman or Nora Dunn?? Bill Murray or Will Ferrell?? Not even close in my opinion.

A few weeks back, I wondered if Vegas was taking bets on whether McGreevey would actually resign on November 15th. I did find an 0n-line betting site, mybookie.com, which is taking bets on whether he will leave early or wait until November 15th. The question is “Will NJ Governor McGreevey Step Down Before Nov 15″ and the latest line is Yes +325 No -450. I’m not a gambler, but I think this means that the bookies think he’s not resigning early. The bookies are usually right.

Fairleigh Dickinson University, through it’s Public Mind polling center, will be doing a daily tracking poll of New Jersey voters. The first installment is a poll of 489 likely voters from September 23 through September 28, and it shows Kerry up by 1% over Bush, 45% to 44% with Ralph Nader at 2%. They asked a bunch of other questions, and 59% of democrats wished they had another candidate, and 49% of the democrats thought Bush was going to win. Doesn’t sound like NJ democrats are too enthused about the election, a factor that could help Bush on November 2nd.

The Kerry campaign is definitely nervous about the prospects in New Jersey. On Tuesday, democrat VP candidate John Edwards came to Newark for a campaign rally and then off to East Bruswick for a fund raiser. The fund raiser was planned, but the Newark stop was a last minute addition to the campaign schedule. The Home News has a paragraph or two about the Newark rally, but Steve Kornaki at PoliticsNJ was there and has the real dirt on the appearance [link]. Edwards was over two and a half hours late, forcing Newark Mayor Sharpe James to entertain the restless crowd with jokes and stories. Other democrats took turns keeping the crowd involved out of fear that they’d break for the exits. They were probably union workers, and after 5PM they were probably getting time and a half. 9-11 widow and “Jersey girl” Kristen Breitweiser spoke at the political rally, accussing the president of politicizing the war on terror. When Edwards arrived at 6:15 PM, a lot of the crowd had already left. Edwards spent about 20 minutes reciting his standard stump speech, taking time to put his arm around Breitweiser and asking her to speak to the crowd, not realizing that she already had.

Kornacki was not impressed by the rally, and he had harsh words for the democrat ticket.

I was talking to someone about how this past summer was wierd, that it never got really hot here in New Jersey. I think it only got above 90 degrees for three or four days. Usually we have one or two hot stretches where the temperature will get above 95 degrees and even hit 100 degrees. But it seemed like it was always in the low to mid 80’s this summer.

Well, I was right. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the US Dept of Commerce, published a study of the summer of 2004. The verdict: it was the 7th coolest summer on record. Thirty states had significantly cooler summers than average, and Minnesota had the coolest August ever.

Where’s the global warming?? Certainly not here in the US.

Liberal media outpost The Village Voice has a piece about the Bush-Kerry race in New Jersey, “Down in Jersey“. The author lists three reasons Bush is doing so well in a state that Kerry should be winning big (1) 9-11 and terrorism fears (2) Jim McGreevey’s problems (3) Kerry has been AWOL in Jersey. No ads, no public appearances. The author also notes that the democrat base, particularly black voters, are totally not excited by the Kerry candidacy. This may not only cause Kerry to lose NJ, but also neighboring Pennsylvania.

Washington DC transit cop arrests a lady for talking loud on a cell phone [link]. The arresting officer also claims the perp was cursing out loud for all to hear before slapping the cuffs on her.

Transit police say that “..cell phones have become just another instrument of loutish behavior in the public space”. It’s a quality of life crime. Derelicts standing at intersections with squeegies is legal, too, but it causes a severe disruption to the public. They say alcohol elevates your personality, that aggresive people become more aggresive after drinking. I say the same thing about cell phone. Rude people become totally obnoxious thugs when given a cell phone.

And while I don’t always agree with the writers at the Star-Ledger editorial page, Fran Wood has a great column, “Shut Up and Drive“. Fran is very upset the recently passed NJ ban using a hand held cell phone while driving is not a primary offense, meaning that being witnessed using the cell phone cannot be the primary reason a police officer can use to pull you over. The offender has to commit another, worse offense and only then can get nailed for abusing the cell phone. Fran also quotes from numerous studies showing that talking on a cell phone while driving is the cause of thousands of accidents every year.

That’s the headline from Charles Webster’s article over at the Trentonian. It’s a great article, perhaps because anytime you use the words “bogus” and “McGreevey” in the same sentence, you’re probably on the same page as me. Webster feels that all the democrat honchos in Trenton were in on the McGreevey pay-to-play ban, that’s why they were all supportive. Like I said a few days back, the fact that democrats, republicans and the party bosses all said good things about the ban lead me to believe the executive order was toothless.

Webster says this attempt for the lame duck governor to build a legacy for himself is phony, a legacy built of of Lego blocks. His true legacy is listed in the article, “… Taffet, Levinsohn, D’Amiano, Kushner, Chugh, Santiago, Watley, the FastTrack bill, Puerto Rico, Ireland, helicopter rides, and, of course, Golan Cipel”. Right on, Mr. Webster! And Fausta at the Bad Hair Blog also gives you her seal of approval [link].

After John Kerry called Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Illawi a liar and his evil spokesman, the vile Joe Lockhart, called him a puppet, the democrats sent out Delaware Senator Joe Biden to tell Illawi that they didn’t mean it, that Illawi would have US support if Kerry is elected president [link]. How do you say “Go f*ck yourself” in Arabic?

Actually, Illawi should have told Biden, “Hey, I’ve seen the poll numbers, I don’t have to worry about a President Kerry come January”.

If anyone is looking for something to do on Sunday, head on over to Basking Ridge for the 25th annual Fungus Fest, a New Jersey celebration of everything mushroom [link]. Unfortuntately, I already have plans for Sunday.

CBS News has a good analysis of the presidential race in New Jersey. The verdict: Kerry is blowing it. The article even brings up the “D” word, Dukakis. Bush and Dukakis were tied in a September 1988 New Jersey poll, only to see Bush the elder beat Dukakis, getting 56% of the NJ vote. Clinton and Gore won the state the next three elections, but this year it’s a dead heat with less than 6 weeks to go. The article quotes a panicked democrat strategist, saying Kerry hasn’t even convinced democrats to vote for him and forget about the independant voters who make up over half the electorate in New Jersey. The article quotes a few others who say the war on terrorism is winning votes for Bush, and the Jersey economy has rebounded so much more than the rest of the country that it is not a big a factor. Let’s hope the Bush campaign can make a few stops in Jersey while he’s sewing up Pennsylvania, and maybe we can go to bed early on election night.

John Shabe over the the Jersey Side has a post concerning a poll being done at the Spanish Tavern Restaurant in Mountainside NJ. The restaurant, long a Union County favorite, is using a weekly drawing for a lobster dinner to poll their customers on the George Bush - John Kerry race for president, and they’re posting the poll results on a board in front of the restaurant on heavily traveled route 22. The lastest poll results show Bush beating Kerry by nearly 2 to 1. Of course, it’s a totally unscientific poll, but it’s got to be shocking that it’s not even close. The restaurant owner has been getting nasty comments from Kerry supporters, but he says shifts in his poll have matched the shifts seen in other polls, just that the absolute numbers are a bit off.

And Jersey blogger Joe Territo, a Kerry supporter, is starting to question his support for the Boston aristocrat [link]. Territo accussed Kerry of having a “muddled” message on national security. You can put Bush’s policy on the back of a paper napkin, but you’d need a piece of paper the size of a parachute to explain all of Kerry’s positions. Come on over, Joe, I’m sure Bush would welcome your vote.

As I said yesterday, I was very suspicious of the executiver order signed into effect by lame duck governor Jim McGreevey banning contractors who do business with the state of New Jersey from contributing to political campaigns. I was skeptical because everyone was saying good things about it. Any law or regulation envolving political contributions that doesn’t tick off somebody must be totally meaningless.

“Phillies Fan” commented on yesterday’s post and pointed me to this article over at the Courier Post, “Codey seeks exemption from ban on pay-to-play“. Seems like governor-to-be Richard Codey has gotten a legal opinion that says the ban doesn’t apply to him because even though he’s acting governor, he’s still Senate president and the order signed by McGreevey specifically states that the ban applies “.. only (to) gubernatorial candidates or incumbents and state or county political parties”. NJ state senators and assemblyman aren’t covered. Leadership PAC’s which are controlled by the senators and assemblyman are also not covered. No wonder Lezniak, Sires and Norcross were in favor of this.

And the Trentonian reports that the order becomes null and void on January 1, 2006, because that is when the recently enacted NJ pay to play ban becomes law. That law, passed by the legislature in June, is much weaker than McGreevey’s executive order.

Yes, it seems like this was too good to be true. Trenton pulls another fast one on the voters.

After a several weeks long struggle to get our house clean for Liliana’s first birthday party last weekend, I’m happy to report that the house has not deteriorated into a cluttered mess. Amazing. It hasn’t been easy. My wife and I have spent a lot of time telling the kids to pick up socks and shirts, but so far they seem to be getting the hint, that things are changing.

We tied their allowance to the cleanliness of their rooms. On Sunday, I inspect their bedrooms, and if the rooms are clean, they get their $5 allowance. If the rooms look like they been ransacked by burglars, I keep the money until it has been cleaned up to my satisfaction. Most children’s behavior specialists would be against this, saying it’s bribery. My feeling is all these children’s psychologists don’t have kids.

My wife is into this FlyLady.Net site. The site bills itself as “Your personal online coach to help you gain control of your house and home”. My wife is all gung-ho about the Fly Lady, so it must be good. At this point, I’ll try anything if it works.

Feminist author Naomi Wolf is most famous for being an early advisor to the Gore campaign in 2000 and trying to turn “Tree Man” Gore into an alpha male by dressing him in earth tones and turtlenecks. Wolf has an article at New York Metro called “Female Trouble” where using very blunt language she explains how George Bush and the republicans have done a masterful job courting the woman’s vote while Kerry and the democrats have done everything wrong. Wolf credits Bush advisor Karen Hughes the most, though she says Bush and Cheney are effectively using their spouses to appeal both to men and women. Wolf is sincerely and genuinely impressed by the republican effort, and she is totally disgusted by the democrats.

Wolf really rips into Theresa Heinz Kerry. She says by retaining the name of her first husband, Theresa is publicly “cuckolding” Kerry. She also notes that Theresa wears black a lot, an awful color to appeal to house wives in the midwest and south. Plus Theresa has given some awful speeches so far and has done nothing to change her image as a cold, elite rich widow. Wolf even mentions that time when she was on stage with John Edwards family, and Edward’s young son was probably scared silly up on stage, and Theresa tried to get him to stop sucking his thumb. Wolf calls this “unmaternal”.

I think she’s onto something here. Kerry is barely winning the women’s vote based on the current polls, and I don’t see how the debates will help him there. My guess is undecided women in the swing states will be turned off by the pompous Kerry.

Former UPI reporter Helen Thomas rode her broom into New Jersey earlier this week, stopping at Monmouth University to speak at a session on women and journalism [link]. Thomas is most famous for making a horse’s ass of herself at White House press conferences. Thomas defended Dan Rather at the Monmouth University conference, saying “..To me, the real issue is why doesn’t the president tell us the truth?”

Another woman reporter, AP’s Linda Deutsch, also defended Rather. She was upset that people were gloating over Rather’s demise. Linda, if it makes you feel any worse, I’m gloating right now!!

On Monday, the vile Michael Moore gave a show at Rutgers-Camden and I believe today he’s at Stockton College. And now we have Helen Thomas in West Long Branch. Is New Jersey being punished for something??

With a stroke of his pen, lame duck NJ governor Jim McGreevey banned pay-to-play practices in New Jersey [link]. The executive order blocks the state from awarding contracts of $17,500 or more to businesses that made contributions in the prior 18 months to candidates for governor or state or county political committees. There are apparently a few loopholes, for example there are still city political organizations and PACs affilitiated with candidates. Also, individuals can donate money as long as they own less than 10% of a company doing business with the state, so that frees up lawyers to give money and not effect the ability of their firm to get government contracts. But it appears to be a big step forward into cleaning up corruption.

This is an executive order issued by the governor. Any future governor can change it or even just get rid of it. The key thing is for the legislature to enact the pay to play ban into law.

I’m a bit suspicious because democrats, republicans and even big power brokers like George Norcross are all saying nice things about the ban.

I didn’t see the press conference, but it sounds like McGreevey was in full confessional mode, admitting that he was one of the worst pay to play violators around. He used the “A” word, addiction, which is a means to get sympathy. Who’s angry at addicts, they’re just sick. The article says he was near tears.

So what now?? Is this it?? Or now that he can claim that he’s cleaned up the system, does he ask the voters to allow him to stay in office until the end of his term?? He still says he’s leaving on November 15th. Soothe our worries, Jim, and hand in the letter of resignation to make it official.