US auto makers are in Washington begging for a handout. I hate to say this, but they need to be allowed to fail. If we bail out the auto industry, is Coca Cola next? Who is too big to fail? What about American Airlines? What about IBM? What about General Electric?

The problem with the auto industry, similar to airlines, is an enormous legacy cost of pensions and healthcare. What upsets me is that nobody is talking about this. The industry needs to do three things:
1) Force future workers to move to 401K programs instead of entitlement-based pensions.
2) Require all workers and retirees to pay for part of their healthcare, just like the rest of the country. 
3) Wrestle control of their own companies back from the unions.

I was doing a little research this morning, and the three big auto makers pay more than $70 per employee hour while companies like Toyota and Honda are paying less than $50 per employee hour. This doesn’t seem sustainable to me. Why are they asking to spend my tax money on companies destined to fail?

I know that a lot of jobs are on the line, and allowing a company the size of GM to fail will be pure carnage. I just hope that the people making the decisions are smarter than me.

If this election has done anything, it’s engaged a whole generation of voters. That’s certainly a good thing. It’s also shifted the political landscape.

The US has historically been just slightly right of center. Recently, we’ve had very conservative presidents (Reagan, Bush), centrist presidents (Bush, Clinton), but not many very liberal presidents. I have a feeling that’s about to change tomorrow. 

I’m not a fan of Senator Obama. I think he’s too liberal for my taste, and I believe we don’t really know what we’re getting. That’s my opinion. Take it for what it’s worth.

I’ve been a fan of Senator McCain for a long time. But he lost me in this election. He made some mistakes, one of them fatal, and that was starting to play to the far-right base of the Republican party. John McCain has always been just right of center, like many Americans. Had he stuck to being the real John McCain, I believe tomorrow’s election would have a very different outcome. We didn’t need McCain to bring in the base—Senator Obama would have done that. Sure, conservatives may not like John McCain, but they certainly wouldn’t want someone as liberal as Senator Obama to become president. Obama’s “spread the wealth” comment would have energized the Republican base. By winning the right, Senator McCain lost the center. And if you remember bell curves from high school, there are a lot more people in the center than there are at the ends.

Another serious mistake came in the primaries when Senator McCain said that he voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time. That soundbite was used as a battle cry for the Democrats. First of all, President Bush doesn’t get to vote in congress, and that has been driving me nuts for months. And why the hell would he say that, knowing that every word you say may be used in an attack ad against you?

McCain’s third major mistake was his choice of running mate. Don’t get me wrong, there is something I really like about Sarah Palin.  I also don’t think she’s ready to be president. If McCain should win the election, she’ll be the presumptive GOP nominee in four or eight years, but I don’t see that happening. In retrospect, I think the best choice Senator McCain could have made would have been Pennsylvania’s Tom Ridge. He’s a solid conservative with great experience. But again, Senator McCain wasn’t asking for my opinion.

So the real question is who I’ll be voting for. I’m seriously considering writing in Hilary Clinton. I’m a Republican in Massachusetts. Does it really matter?

I got a message from a very dear friend today, asking me if I would still be supporting the republicans after they didn’t help pass the bailout today. She meant it in jest, but it got me thinking. My response, via Twitter was simple.

I’m okay with it. The market needs to learn a lesson, and we should push for real reform if we’re going to spend that much money.

Yes, the market is in turmoil. That’s what the market does. Does it need an infusion of cash? Absolutely. Does it need $700 billion from the taxpayers? Probably not.

First of all, polls are saying that most Americans are opposed to spending that much money to bail out private corporations, and I applaud any elected representative who did what their constituents wanted. That’s the way the system is supposed to work.  And if any elected representative went against the will of their constituents, then I hope they get voted out of office. As Josiah Bartlett (from the West Wing) reminded us, we do have term limits. They’re called elections.

And then Senator Obama wants to protect Main Street and not just Wall Street…

I could go on about people getting in over their own head, but I’ll spare you that. I didn’t apply for a mortgage a few years ago when I wasn’t sure I would be able to swing it. I still haven’t. I’m probably in the best financial shape I’ve ever been in, and in this market, there is no way I could get a mortgage. Is it fair for someone who can’t pay their mortgage to keep their house when that house could be mine? Keep in mind that I’m in a position to pay that mortgage. Yeah, that angers me. 

I did see something today that made me laugh…

Sarah Palin has given Americans something they haven’t had in a very long time: a reason to watch SNL.

Here is the bottom line… There are people much smarter than me trying to figure this out. I hope they get it right. The last time the Bush Administration got legislation pushed through at lightning speed, we got the Patriot Act. Do we really want to do that again?

I was chatting with a coworker today on Google talk. I was telling him how Rush Limbaugh was encouraging Texas Republicans to vote for Senator Clinton. He was aghast that I listen to Rush Limbaugh. I don’t actually listen to him anymore since he’s not on Sirius and I’m not willing to pay to listen to him live. I said how I love listening to commentators from the far right because they make the rest of us look sane. He pointed out that these are the same people who don’t approve of my being gay.
At that point, I became a bad conservative.

And this is the paradox of the far right.
They say that gays shouldn’t be allowed to be married, yet they also believe the government should stay out of our personal lives.
So the same people who say we should have minimal government involvement also say the government should prohibit gay marriage.

Incidentally, it looks like Rush got what he wanted. We just might see a floor fight at the Democrat convention.

Two words: President McCain.

Ralph Nader has announced that he’s throwing his hat into the ring as a third party candidate for President.

If you recall, some scholars think that if Nader had not been in the 2000 race, Gore would have beaten Bush.

This will be interesting.

I’m watching the results of the Iowa Caucuses on TV right now. The Democratic results aren’t all that surprising. The Republican numbers are suprising the hell out of me, though. Right now with about 41% of the results in, Huckabee has a really serious lead. Who would have seen that coming? I really thought his fifteen minutes were up already.

Ann Coulter has a new book coming out called If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans.  I heard her promoting it this morning when she was on Fox News. You know, I’ll probably buy a copy.

Don’t get me wrong. Ann Coulter is a nut case and I don’t agree with what she says. But I do find her to be funny because she’s so outrageous. That’s her schtik. She takes a perfectly valid conservative argument and pushes it to the Nth degree. You can’t take her entirely seriously.

Oh, this is beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUT-R9a0OXM

—Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has taken the first step in a 2008 presidential bid, filing papers to create an exploratory committee, Republican sources tell CNN.

Well, duh!

I said this six years ago. He’s the only man in the country, I believe, who can beat Senator Clinton.  Can he beat Mr. Obama? That, I’m not so sure of.

Amen, Captain!

http://captaincox.com/2006/10/31/make-the-grade-or-go-to-iraq/

I have to say that Captain Cox is one of my new favorite blogs.  There are about six gay conservatives out there in the blogosphere, and it’s good to read his comments.