Right On The Right

Republicans and Conservatives are leading the way on the Energy Crisis with a simple policy called "Drill Here, Drill Now." We acknowledge that alternative energy is important, and that we need to invest in clean green technologies, but we also acknowledge that prices are high and a higher supply would drive the prices down. Stop the ACLU has some info on Newt Gingrich's petition to drill. As of my signing, nearly 800,000 Americans have united to say DRILL! CNBC's money madman Jim Cramer agrees, having a mini melt-down on MSNBC's Morning Joe:

Shoebox from No Runny Eggs posted a great video about Democrats and gas prices, though his commentary on our nominee is a bit off. I'm not a big fan of using this ad for McCain, as I detest the way Democrats are trying to make this about President Bush instead of the real candidate. I don't think we should run a shadow campaign against Pelosi. House Republicans however should be touting this ad from here until November:

I've had an interesting day today. This morning, I spent about five minutes on the phone with Carly Fiorina, the new RNC Victory Chairman, and we had a chance to talk about economic issues. Mrs. Fiorina is an accomplished executive and she well articulated that our nominee will be pushing innovative technologies but also small government, and that he's going to fight on economics and not make this election only about national security. She stressed green technology and how retraining workers will lead to strong American businesses. Also, tax cuts. Carly was very impressive, and my short chance to talk to her set the stage for the rest of my day.

As a member of the Press, I had the opportunity to attend a McCain town hall not far from me at Youngstown State University, where our nominee addressed economic issues, education, and all sorts of other things that area voters wanted to know about. I found myself impressed by the scope of economic knowledge that our nominee had, and how comfortable he was speaking about an issue that most people, including myself, had come to believe he was weak in. He talked about how the jobs in the steel mills might not come back, but he said that retrained workers can make money elsewhere, and the United States can still dominate in the global economy.

I took quite a few notes at the event, and ROTR Photographer Steven Striewski took the pictures that you'll see in this post and others. It's really too much content for one post, so I'll get to some of the finer details later on tonight. I want to talk about some of the things that our nominee said that stood out. First off, his humor, as he opened up the session with a joke about how the Democrats are voting in Pennsylvania today and he is in the "unfamiliar position of facing no opposition within his own party." As a pretty active Conservative blogger, I can attest to the Senator's statement. Later on, the Senator jokingly corrected a man who said that NAFTA was an "evil four-letter word" in our area by pointing out that there are indeed five letters in NAFTA. Those two things got applause, but the biggest applause line came when McCain said that "We now have a pro-US President of France, which shows that if you live long enough, anything can happen."

The actual town hall event and the press conference that followed were pretty substantive. The Senator touted alternative energy, including green energy, but drew contrast with the Democrats by pushing nuclear power. He pointed out that the United States Navy has used nuclear generators for 60 years and have never had an accident. He pushed electric car technology, but he made it clear that this isn't all about government. He bashed ethanol subsidies and said that it's not the government's role to tamper with the markets. Innovation creates jobs, government doesn't.

A questioner asked about China, and Chinese steel. It was time for straight talk. Our nominee supports free trade, but he said it's time that we step up and hold China to their end of the fair trade bargain, and push through the WTO and other outlets that China play by the rules. When the conversation turned to dangerous products, Maverick got real tough and said that the "next toy to come into this country to endanger the lives of children would be the last."

The theme was innovation, tax cuts, and education. A girl studying Education as her major asked what we can do to fix the system, and John McCain flatly said that education is not a federal matter but a traditionally local and state matter. He made an exception for autism and special education, which in my mind is a matter of equal rights, more than general education funding. Placing the authority on the states is a prudent Constitutional stand and I'm proud that our nominee chose to make it.

McCain was straight-forward, interesting, engaging, and was very blunt about the problems facing our nation. The only downside of the entire event was listening to some of the press around me complain about McCain and quietly make jokes about him to each other. I guess that's why I prefer bloggers to old media. In going to this event today, a lot of my worries were alleviated, and now can I not only support John McCain, but I can say that I've heard the man inspire.

I've seen this video a few times before, and it's been out for quite a while, but with all the economic doom and gloom, I thought now would be an opportune time to post it. Ladies and Gentlemen, Drew Carey: