Welcome to my place on the web. I'd love to hear from you, and if you visit here often, you'll be hearing quite a bit from me. Shoot me an email at Raymond@RaymondOwens.com Also, sign up to follow me at www.twitter.com/raymondonline
On Saturday, I predicted (http://raymondblogs.blogspot.com/2008/11/obama-and-mccain.html) that Obama would offer McCain some sort of position working on the immigration issue. Today, (http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed7/idUSN17514919) the meeting took place and we are now hearing from "sources" that immigration was one of the topics discussed. It looks like my prediction is still alive:) Let's see if anything official happens.
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I don't make lots of predictions, but I'd like to take a chance on this one. Sen. John McCain is expected to meet with the President-Elect on Monday. I believe President-Elect Obama will put Sen. John McCain in some sort of leadership position with regard to Immigration. I believe he wants to move quickly to find ways to work with his former opponents where possible. Sen. McCain is obviously his biggest opponent, but also a man he can work with. Sen. Hillary Clinton would be his 2nd biggest opponent. She has already been mentioned as a potential Secretary of State. If you think about it, if he brings the logical opponents into his administration, it makes arguments against whatever he proposes harder to make. Working with McCain will help Obama get things passed that he otherwise might have a tough time on. Immigration would be a logical place for Obama to work with McCain. The two men see pretty much eye-to-eye on that issue. Quite frankly, if anyone was voting for or against either candidate in the general election due to immigration, I have no idea who that vote would have been cast for. The 2 candidates have very similar positions on immigration. This would be a way for Obama to score a quick victory. It would also almost surely solidify the hispanic vote for Democrats in the near future. If the plan led to eventual citizenship for illegal aliens, then the plan could also bring on voters who can't even legally be in the country under current laws. That would be a win-win for Obama. That's my prediction. As far as domestic policy, Obama pointed out McCain's shortcomings during the campaign. When it comes to foreign policy, the 2 also seem to have major differences. However, immigration is the logical issue with which the 2 men could work together. Considering the fact that the President-Elect has fewer than 70 days left before taking the oath, he wouldn't be meeting with McCain if he didn't have a specific plan in mind ahead of time. I doubt a cabinet position would be part of this. It seems more logical that he might tap McCain as the head or co-head with a Democrat of an immigration "task force." That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
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Ok, it looks like President-Elect Obama will soon be running the country. With Pelosi and Reid running congress, one thing is sure... It looks like we will see how things go when they are run from the left. I hope Obama does a fantastic job. Maybe some of the theories about how taxing the rich means they have less money to hire employees and expand business will turn out not to be true. We're soon gonna find out. I'm praying for Obama and his family. They are certainly getting ready to begin an exciting part of their lives. I wish them the best! As Americans, we'll all be watching to see how things go. I think there are a couple of things that would not hurt him, but would both give him even more political capital with which to work... He could announce a task-force that will work out a solution to the immigration issue. That task force could be co-chaired by a Democrat and a Republican.. If he announced John McCain will be co-chairing with a Democrat, that would be a coup. McCain's immigration policy is not far removed from what Obama wants as well (remember, Ted Kennedy worked with McCain on the immigration bill that never made it.) Then, he could announce a similar arrangement with Healthcare and Hillary Clinton. He also has many similar idea to Hillary when it comes to Healthcare. Announcing these 2 task-forces/committees will give him time to deal with economic/foreign issues he will surely be spending a great deal of time working on. They would also prove that he is serious about bringing people together to fix these problems. Since he has congress on his side, it should be fairly easy to get whatever he finally proposes passed. Obama can then work on the economic stimulus and tax hikes/cuts he has promoted during the campaign. He can focus on that during his first 100 days, and the Healthcare and immigration plans could be submitted several months after these task forces begin their work. This will allow him to deal with these issues within 6 months or more. We'll see what happens:)
Raymond Let me know what you think! Post a comment now... and sign up for my twitter at www.twitter.com/raymondonline
We are just 2 days away from the election, and there are still many polls showing Obama leading nationally. However, a poll showing just a 2 point lead by Obama just came out. This is after about 4 or 5 polls showed a 3 point lead. Most of those would be within the margins of error. Even so, plenty show bigger leads for Obama. One interesting thing about this new 2 point poll is it is the Investor Business Daily poll. This was the most accurate poll in 2004. If you look at battleground state polling, several of those are getting interesting as well. Take Ohio as an example... the latest Mason/Dixon poll there now has McCain up by 2 points. There have been several polls of Ohio showing a McCain win there. In Florida, while Obama is leading by a few points in many polls, the latest Reuters poll shows a tie. From October 16-22nd, 4 polls showed McCain winning there. I know it has been said several times on the networks that Obama polled better than he performed in several primaries. If this is true for the general election, Tuesday night could be interesting. By the way, most of the polls I'm referring to I found at realclearpolitics.com. You could spend hours there researching polls, if you are bored! Anyone who says this race is over is fooling themselves. For McCain to win on Tuesday night, a lot of things have to go his way. However, if he can just get many of the states to fall the way they did in 2004 for GWBush, he could still pull off a win. We'll see what happens...
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There aren't many people I can think of who hold the position that Billy Graham does. I was flipping through the TV tonight, and I ran across a tribute to Rev. Billy Graham. He is turning 90. Billy Graham has always been held to extremely high esteem in my family. While I understand he is not perfect, he is an example of the power of allowing the Lord to use your life. If there is someone alive today on earth who will have a better welcome to heaven than Billy Graham, I can't think of who that could be. A month or two ago, his son Franklin Graham was in town to do a Franklin Graham Festival. Franklin is taking up his father's cross to bring others to the Lord through crusades. One of the things I love about my job in TV is that I get the chance to meet newsmakers, and often I get a chance to have a short conversation with people in the news. I had the chance to talk to Franklin Graham just before he kicked off his Festival. I was impressed with what he was doing in Charleston, and I told him so, but when I was talking to him, I couldn't help but think that this was Billy Graham's son. Billy is a living example of what it means to be a man of God. I wish I had had the chance to go to a Billy Graham Crusade. I look forward to talking to him in heaven. They just showed a clip of Billy Graham getting a star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It points out what kind of man he is. He said that years prior to that ceremony, he was asked if he would be willing to have a star put on the walk named after him. He said he couldn't think of a reason God would want a star with his name on it. He said years later, he recalled meeting people from Hollywood who were Christians. He said it dawned on him that one day a child might walk by his star and ask his parents "which rock star was this Billy Graham?" He said that might be an opportunity to explain that he was a preacher, and perhaps someone would have the message of Christ explained to him, and someone may come to Christ because of that. He's a great man, and he keeps his message simple. If you aren't really familiar with him, I'd invite you to take a look at the 2 minute clip of his sermon from decades ago below. It is as relevant today as it was the day he preached it. Thanks Billy! Happy Birthday.
Raymond
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We're 4 days away from a major election. No matter which side of the political fence you stand on, it is clear there are two very different directions this country could end up taking. It appears Obama may win this race, but several recent polls show it could be almost a dead heat. I'm looking forward to finding out on Tuesday.
PS: Saw a funny bumper sticker on a car tonight.... "Intelligent people for McCain/Palin 2008." That's a good one.
Raymond Let me know what you think! Post a comment now... and sign up for my twitter at www.twitter.com/raymondonline
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